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Developmental Activities for kids The activities shown below were sent to me by university students as an assignment in the Child Development class I teach. The students are a diverse group of parents, teachers, nannies, teachers-in-training, and students of many different majors. The beauty of the list, I believe, is in its diversity. Enjoy!
Baby dinosaur egg game. For younger kids. Everybody gets in a small circle, on their hands and knees in the big sand box, facing the center. The idea is to dig up a baby dinosaur egg. First, using the edge of your hands, scrape away the top layer of dry, sun-baked sand, to get at the damp sand below. Create a damp-sand area of about 18 inches x 18 inches wide. Then get someone to use one finger to draw the outline of a 6 inch by 8 inch oval in the sand (this will be the baby dinosaur egg). Next, ask everyone to use their little shovels to dig a trough outside of and right up against the egg line. Be sure to tell them to dig only on the outside of the egg line (not inside, cuz they might hurt the baby dinosaur!) This trough will be about 4-5 inches wide and about that deep. Then using their little hands, ask them to smooth the surface and outer edges of the baby dinosaur egg, causing the ‘egg’ to take shape (dome shaped at first). Then keep digging deeper down around the egg. Now, the lead person, while helping smooth and shape the egg with their hand, curls and digs their fingers in under the egg, to help dig out and shape it below. The egg is becoming less and less attached to the sand below it. At this point, the egg is definitely looking like an egg, about 6 inches x 8 inches long and wide, and about 3-4 inches deep. It is only attached to the ground by the very underside of the egg, where the lead person has been using their curled fingers to smooth/dig in under to prepare for when the egg is ready to be broken loose from the base. Now’s the big finale. Ask everyone to help by sliding their little hands/fingers under the egg, and then poke into the base attachment sand with their fingers (be sure to tell them to poke in, and not to lift up, because lifting up will cause the egg to break apart). The egg will pop loose from the bottom, hopefully in one piece (it usually comes up in one piece if the lead person pokes their hands/fingers in all the way under it to actually lift the egg while the other little hands help lift it), and then you have this big, heavy (to the kids) baby dinosaur egg that they are all holding and feeling the weight of. And of course there’s always some kid that wants to smash the egg, and so it doesn’t last long. But before it gets smashed, the kids see and feel it as one big baby dinosaur egg! It is Cognitive development because the lead person can talk it up while everyone is digging. What are we going to name the baby dinosaur? Should we take it to the museum… or maybe the zoo? What kind of dinosaur do you think it will be…a Stegosaurus…a Triceratops? It is Physical in that 1) they learn to dig sort of forcefully, but carefully, and 2) they use their hands to smooth it, gaining a sense of soft-touch. And the teamwork required makes it Socioemotional. Just off the top of my head I can suggest is to play Peek-A-Boo with a baby. Now you will get varying reactions depending on the actual age of the baby. If it is still an infant you may not get more than a smile, but between 12 -24 months the baby will cognitively understand the game. By the way this I believe is more of a cognitive development, because it teaches the baby to recognize that just because mommy is not in immediate view (due to the blanket being pulled over her head...or ducking behind a door way) that she will pop back up/out at any minute. The baby gets excited in anticipation of the surprise. After several sessions of this activity, the baby begins to do/mimic the game him/herself. (Of course not as well) but you can see the baby will take his/her little hands and try to cover his face (of course peeking) and or pull his/her own blanket up and then put in down real quick and giggle. At this point he is anticipating your reaction, to which you should be just as excited as he/her so that the baby then knows they did it right. ** On a second note though, because you are spending such quality time with the baby, and bonding this not only has a profound effect cognitively but it will also affect the social emotional basis as well. The baby will see you as a foundation for learning, but will trust and look up to you for help and fun fulfillment. For my kids, I have come up with a socioemotional activity. Once a day, the children will be asked to paint/draw/etc. a picture that best describes their mood. This seems like a simple task, which is the idea of it. A child's artwork can say a lot about how he/she is feeling emotionally. It is a great way to find out if a child is having any inner struggles or hardships at home without he/she having to say it out loud. This can also just be a time for the kids to have fun and be creative! An activity that children can play throughout their adolescent years, so from around 3-12, is a game called memory. You place cards face down and flip one over at a time to get pairs. The first person to get the most pairs wins. This activity will deal with the cognitive part of the brain and thinking because you have to remember where each of the cards is to find the pairs. I used to play this game a lot when I was younger and loved it. I feel that it gives you a good sense of memory and aids you in critical thinking processes. I would start my Child development center by focusing on toddlers (aged 2-3). In order to advance their cognitive development I would come up with specific shape matching tasks for them to complete, and maybe some simple puzzles for them to put together. I would also face them with such tasks as "you may not eat your snack until you match all of the shapes correctly" this way it gives them an understanding of cause and effect and also some positive reinforcement for their good actions. Physical development activity for children about 18 months to 3 years old. To help develop the children’s fine motor skills, one of their activities will be to make jewelry using beads and strings. Speech and Language Program/Cognitive and Language Function - The Letter game – Name a letter and go around and think of and say as many words as you can that begin with that letter Improving parent-Child relationships - Interdisciplinary interaction to promote independence/hands-on activities – Clear the dishes away and draw your own bath water Foster a Positive Self Image – understanding why we all differ from one another Song and instrument activities – maracas, recorders, harmonica, xylophone, banjo, bongo Fingerpaint the World Summer Program – Children gather in groups of 20-30 – Fairly chose a region of the world – Learn about the region and what it is known for – then fingerpaint the region and continents using information that they learned about Using roadmaps to their favorite places to go in the summer 4H club (agricultural experience) Performing arts/plays; water play; creative movement; activity center Build a swimming pool, and teach the stuff on that video. I believe it's good for children from 6 months to like 5 years. It would target all three. Physical because they're using their bodies. Cognitive because they are learning what to do. And socioemotional because it would be a group activity. I would focus on physical development for kids ages 10-15 because i feel as if kids these days don't really get enough of that on a regular basis. Now-a-days they have all these games and activities on the television and on the computer for kids to watch, learn and interact so I think it would be great to go outside for at least an hour a day. I'd build a sort of nature trail around the 1. Good old "Simon Says" Playing this game allows children to think deeply: thinking of how to imitate the other person involves balance & coordination, while also increasing muscle skill & strength. In addition to physical gain, to constantly be on alert for the word "simon" as to not loose the game requires children's constant attention which can sometimes be challenging for young kids. Age 0-9mos Story time combined with classical music playing softly in the background (cognitive and socioemotional) development. Age 10-17mos A game I made up called Lion Tigers and bears which consists on everyone crawling around and roaring and then lifting themselves up ( with assistance) while standing on knees progressing to stand and then getting back on their knees again.(physical, socioemotional, cognitive) Age 18mos-2years the parachute game, everyone holds the parachute together and lifts it up together and brings it back down again (repeated) then small toys are put into the parachute and then everyone shakes the parachute and watches the toys, ie. small foam balls, small teddy bears... bounce around on the shaky parachute. Age 3 to 4 the choo-choo train all the children put their hands on each others back and walk around in a big circle that is surrounded by circular colored mats while music is playing , when the music stops, the children must find their assigned color of the "week" and sit down ( repeated several times). (physical, socioemtional, cognitive) Age 5 to 6 the "I spy" game, the teacher will scope out particular objects that will be from the toy box and say "I spy something red and yummy"...and go around asking each student," what could it possibly be?" allowing each student to guess and then the instructor will show which object they were referring to. (cognitive, socioemotional because it teaches the children to be patient and how to await their turn) I would set up an area that allowed preschool aged children to engage in pretend play. It may be something as simple as a grocery store equipped with a cash register, money, plastic groceries, and a shopping cart to get the kids minds going. This would not only help the children learn how to share and build on their social but also help their cognitive growth. Set up a game for all ages where they ask trivia. There could be teams, and the teams would compete with each other. Whoever answers the most questions wins. This would help with the cognitive and socioemotional. Cognitive because they have to think for the answers, and socioemotional because they have to interact with each other. For children around the age of 3-4 I think that hand puppets could be good for their emotional development. For it could help them express how they feel and see how other children feel. It also helps with motor skills. I would also have a bunch of arts, crafts, and music so the kids could develop their cognitive and creative side. We'd do arts and crafts a few days a week and on the other days we'd do music activities. It wouldn't have to be extreme but it could be something as simple as listening to music as they do lunch or take a nap. For the older kids around 8 and up I'd like to have more books for them to read. I think that reading, especially at a younger age can open up your mind and make you more creative. I'd also have educational games they could play and you're never too old for arts and crafts so I'd also have a more difficult set of arts for the older kids. For them maybe they could play the music themselves and enhance their skills. A potential activity could be a variation of musical chairs using colored circles. You would tape different colored circles onto the floor and children would walk around the outside of the circle until the music stopped. When the music stops, they have to name the color they are standing on. this would probably be directed towards pre-schoolers. this helps them with, i think, all three areas of development. Interacting with other kids (socioemotional), learning colors (cognitive), and balance and coordination (physical). For a Cognitive activity that would stimulate growth in the children ages 3-4 yrs., I would give them block shapes and then each year as they get older I would make it more of a competitive game amongst each other of who can get do it the fastest. At year 8 I would do Spelling Bee contests to up the challenge. For a Physical activity for children ages 6 and up I would introduce Hop Scotch and Jump Rope to them to help move along their muscle growth and 4-Square with a medicine ball also. For a Socioemotional activity I would set up a Treasure hunt and put the children in groups. They would have to all work together to solve the clues to find the treasure. W hen the treasure is found they would have to divide it up evenly since everyone worked equally. This game would be intended for 6-12 yrs. of age. Children Ages 4-6 Mostly contributes to physical development but also some cognitive because of game strategy and some socioemotional because the children will also interact with one another. Activity: Fun Field Day Featuring Official Rounds of 1) Red Light Green Light 2) Red Rover Red Rover 3) Duck Duck Goose 4) Kid's Choice 15 minutes each Small prizes awarded to the winners If I had my own child development center, I would encourage children's cognitive development by offering the activity of a memory game. I used to play "memory" a lot when I was younger and really enjoyed it. Basically, there are a deck of cards. The cards have various pictures of animals or toys on them. (There are 2 of each picture). The cards are placed in rows and columns, face down on a table and the child overturns one at a time, trying to match the cards. If the child doesn't make a match, they turn the card face down again and try to memorize the positions of the cards so they can attempt to make a match during their next turn. This game will improve their cognitive skills by improving memory. I would use soccer to help the kids develop physically. It would help the kids really learn how to balance and use there feet, as well as run in different directions, backwards, forwards, and side to side. Plus the goalie would gain better dexterity in there hands. It would really help them just learn there bodies. Also they learn there right from left. The age group to start participating in this activity would probably be 4-5 years of age, but the kids above these ages could participate as well in there respective age groups. If I had to come up with one activity for child development I would build an awesome playhouse. Where it would be like a small town. The town would have a grocery store, post office, police office, fire station, bakery, and many different homes. Each location would have hands on activities for the children to do. For example children in the grocery store can pretend to be the cashier or a person buying groceries. And the children in the houses can pretend to have siblings and their own made up families. The age range for this activity would be pre-school to Kindergarten. And I believe this would combine all three aspects of child development. The child will be physically interacting with other children, will be participating in developing socio-emotional relationships with other children, and cognitively expanding their imaginations and thinking while they experience each different activity. I know if I had tons of money this would be a really neat idea and the building would be huge and inside it would look like a mini town replica, where the children will be able to develop socially, emotionally, cognitively, and physically. My first goal would be to bring in the top child personal trainers to include 10-12 in a very active day and lifestyle. All of the cognitive and socioemotional health stems from physical health. With these trainers, I would develop a physical fitness plan to have the kids start the day with one hour of exercise and in the middle of the day another hour. Also paying close attention to children with special needs. You could teach them the different shapes by giving them blocks to put in holes that have a certain shape on them. This would be for ages I would put special focus on cognitive development for the kids. One activity I remember playing in early elementary school was the telephone game. Now that I think about it this game is a great way to increase a child's thinking, remembering, and communication abilities. The game starts when one child comes up with a message that they then must pass to every other child sitting in a circle. This is a great way for a kid to listen to a message, understand it, and then pass it along by means of communication to the child sitting next to them. It is enjoyable for the kids too because the message that the very last child has to say out loud is never what the original massage said. My activity would be for 2 year olds. The activity would be for cognitive and Physical. I would spend one week talking about farmers and farm animals. A specific activity I would do is to have shapes cut out and let the 2 year olds glue squares, triangles, and circles on a piece of paper to build a tractor. This will make them have to think about what shape went where and help their hand coordination while they were gluing. If I got to run a child development center, an activity I would do choose would be something having to do with hands on experience for the children. I am a firm believer in learning through experience. So if I could I would have a petting zoo come to the day care for the children's amusement. I would have someone come to talk to the children about each of the animals and explain each of them. This activity would be fore 6-12 years old and it would be cognitive. The children would enjoy the animals and learn about them as well. If I could make my own child development center, I would include a time during which the children would follow a sort of treasure map, or follow a series of clues to find a "treasure" or toy. I think that that would be good for cognitive development, and kids love to solve fun puzzles! (Cognitive) -- It is important to creative activities that will stimulate a child’s brain and body. Children around the age of (Cognitive) – Children often do not understand the value of a dollar. For children between the ages of 8 and 12, a great way to improve their math skills would be to open a “bank” and allow the child to deposit and withdraw money they have earned. They can earn the money by doing chores, being kind, and helping out to name a few. Although they are still young and will not have a real bank account for many years, it is never to early to teach your child how to be responsible. Pre-School Age Kids: The kids that attend my pre-school will be encouraged to develop their important skills by using all of their senses including, taste, touch, smell, hear, and see in various ways. Cognitive Development: the kids would be involved in memory games to help develop good cognitive skills. Math skills will also be taught including counting and grouping numbers. Literacy is very important to be taught at a young age. Word recognition and reading will be a big part of the program, which will include classic children’s literature of the highest quality. Fine arts will also be a big part of the program. Putting on plays, learning to play instruments and being artistic will really help these kids to develop their imagination and be set apart from the rest of the kids going into elementary school. Independent learning is very important for pre-school age kids. They are encouraged to improve fine and gross motor skills in order to help themselves to take care of themselves and to promote independence. Physical Development: kids would be involved in creating collages and other challenging art projects which would incorporate creativeness and tactile development. These skills can be reinforced by practicing using scissors to cut things, writing, and drawing. The kids will be encouraged to run, jump, play, and do other physical things in order to help develop their coordination, motor skills, and team work capabilities. Socioemotional Development: there will be group time to ensure that the kids interact with each other to help to build better relationships and to make friends with each other. This ensures that the child learns to share, to cooperate, and to work together with other kids to problem solve. This is also included in the physical activities that involve teamwork such as team sports and other physical games. I believe that language development is essential especially when children are young. The video that was shown in class stated that it is crucial for parents to communicate with their children before the age of 2. I would set up a day care/learning center. In stead of baby sitting 6months - 3 yr olds they would be taught how to formulate words and sentences and also second languages such as Spanish and/or French (the basics). Everyday there would be sessions in which the words are being said and shown to them. This way they would know more vocabulary than they were expected to know for their age and learning other languages would become a less complex task later in life. this would be intended to assist parents who may not be able to dedicated as much time as they should to help develop their children language skills. The purpose of this activity is to further develop their cognitive ability. I used to work at a day camp with children ages 3-4, and one of the games that we played, which developed the children's cognitive as well as socio-emotional skills, was "Simon says". Having to quickly recall where on their body are the different parts, as well as following directions as to when to move and when not to move, depending on if the "Simon" said "Simon says..." before the command, pushes the children to really pay attention and develop their listening skills. "Simon says" also developed the children's socio-emotional skills, because if they lost, they would have to sit down, and deal with the fact that the other children were allowed to keep playing the game until there was only one winner. I think that this is a great game for this age group and would be an adequate activity for the new The developmental activity I chose focuses on the theme of the five senses. It is for children ages 3 to 5 and the area of development it is intended for is the cognitive domain. There are four parts to this activity. Part I. On a table, there will be a row of containers that have cotton balls soaked in flavors such as: lemon, orange. grape, banana, apple, peach, etc. Each child will be blind folded and asked to sniff each container to see if he or she can identify the fruits. Part II. On another table, there be a mixture of pictures in a basket. Each student will be asked to take the pictures of the fruits out and identify which fruits they sniffed. Part III. This is the yummy part! All of the students will be lined up at the sink to clean their hands and directed to the third table. On this table, there will be a basket filled with various fruits such as: grapes, apples, oranges, peaches, lemons, etc. Each child will be asked to select a fruit that they like. Then, the children will have the opportunity to sample a piece of the fruit he or she chose( in bite size portions, under the supervision of the teachers) Part V. After we are done sampling the fruits. The children will be directed to the last table where a chart will be made with the names of each child on it. There will be a basket filled with fruit cut outs. Each child will be asked to find the fruit they sampled and stick it on the chart by their name. After each child has had his or her turn, we will discuss the results on the big rug in front of the class and find a designated place to hang the poster in the classroom for easy access and view. My activity would be for children, approx. ages 4-5. The activity would involve children making a 'kindness tree.' This is a tree made out of construction paper, placed on a wall. Children will strive to perform random acts of kindness each day, thus, allowing the tree to bloom. They will write down their act of kindness on a flower (made out of construction paper) and pin it to the tree on the wall. The more acts of kindness, the more flowers on the tree. This is intended for the socio-emotional area of development. Children will strive to help others and will be rewarded for it. I would open a state of the art facility with enough trainers to have 1 for every 3 kids. I would also do all age groups from 6 months to 13 years. The children would work on their physical development as well as mental. While they work out and develop they will also learn how to develop and what the body parts are. Of course the difficulty would vary with the age groups. They would also learn how to eat healthy, self-control, respect, and discipline. Child Development Plan: 1 month to 12 yrs Swimming lessons every Monday Wednesday, & Friday (physical development) 1 month to 12 months Baby Pilates (emphasis on stretching, crawling, etc. physical development) Musical instruments (listening to different types of instruments (6 months to 2yrs) Playing instruments 3yrs to 12 (Cognitive) Exposure to Spanish lessons (Cognitive) 15 months 3 years Spanish lessons (Cognitive) 4yrs to 12 Recess (socioemotional & physical) For a child who is between the age of 2-4 I would use a wooden peg board that has cute outs of different shapes. The child would have to put the blocks that are the correct shape into the peg board. This would be cognitive development for the child. I really feel that physical activity is imperative for not only a child's healthy development, but all around well being. I believe starting physical activity early in life will encourage children to stay active, and keep them healthy. I would target my child development activity towards 5 and 6 year old kindergarten students. I would specifically target the physical aspect of development. My activity would be a fun obstacle course that involves running, crawling, and jumping. The children would form two teams. Each team would race against each other, also forming team work within each child. They first would race each other to a small opening full of rope. The only way to pass through this opening would be to crawl through it. Then, after making it through there they would have to race each other again to a jump rope and jump 10 times. After that, they race to their next teammate and tag them into the course. I believe this uses many different levels of physical development, along with giving the children a sense of teamwork and Competitiveness. The child developmental activity I would use is Jazzer-Time. It would be a combination of playtime/exercise and buddy time. This program would be a time for children in the ages of 2-10 although it could be used on children up to ages 12 or even older. They would have to follow instructions such as follow a gymnastics course that is simple and fun that requires tumbles and other physical activities. It would also be a time to add to the social development process in pairing or allowing the children to pair with partners for assistance when they have difficulty. This would be a good way to encourage them and help them with their self-esteem and it would be fun. On top of the course we would do activities that require the children to depend on their partner. This program would be good for socioemotional and physical development. When I was eleven years old, my teacher had us all use popsicle sticks to construct a birdhouse. In making the house, we weren't given proper instructions, instead we had to rely on our own schema of how we thought birdhouses actually looked like. It was a great way for me to learn valuable planning skills as well as perception skills too, in the amount of organization that went into the house. In personal experiences, constructing items from nothing feels great in its own, and for a young child of 11, the warm feeling of accomplishment is unavoidable. Physical: "Parachute Time" kids play games with the parachute and jump, move around in circles (ages 3-6) "Dance Party" kids will learn songs like the hokey pokey; the bones song...and learn the movements that go with it. (ages 4-7) Socioemotional: Activities that deal with sharing. Telephone to deal with communication. Playground time so the kids can get social interaction. Cognitive: Tales and Stories Time - kids who cannot read yet can have stories read to them.- children who can read can take turns reading aloud. Homework/Study Time: students in school can work on homework and will have a chance to ask questions about their assignments. Others: Learn songs in other languages "Siyahamba" (Zulu); Feliz Navidad (Spanish)... Arts and Crafts: make maracas, frames, beadings... Mommy and Me activities for infants or moms who are pregnant. I would focus on building activities to cater to those children 1-2 years of age in developing socioemotional capacities. I think it would be interesting to do this through building model housing in a community type setting. This would obviously be scaled to the children’s size, built in a miniature fashion. The houses would not be fully functional, for example a play stove wouldn’t actually turn on to the point of giving off heat-but still react to the children’s initiation of their power function, etc so that they could actually learn from their activities and interactions. The children could develop social skills, responsibility, and emotion through interacting with the other kids through roll play and basic interaction. I think it is very important especially today that a socioemotional activity be developed so that children become aware and accepting of people that are different than they are. There are so many cultures in our country - I believe it is VERY important that we incorporate activities so that we can gain an understanding to different cultures. I think learning or studying a few different languages other than English around ages 2-5 is important. I also think incorporating the different culture's music and getting the kids to do arts and crafts to replicate the culture is a good way to open their minds as well. This country needs more understanding of the different cultures our nation was founded on. I think it would be great to have people of different nationalities speak or come in a typical dress or fashion of their culture and explain the purpose behind the garment or the ritual or ceremony it is used in connection with. My activity is for age 12. It promotes physical development. I would build an indoor heated swimming center. Swimming is excellent low impact exercise. Create a kitchen for 8 and 9 year olds to cook and bake assisting with cognitive development. Also for children 3-5 years of age, I would create a puppet theatre which assists in cognitive development as well. Lastly for children between the ages of 7-10, I would create an obstacle course which can be adjusted to meet the different physical abilities of the various ages, and this would assist in physical development. The activities I would bring to my Child Development center would focus on physical development. I am a firm believer in exercise and i believe are school are phasing out physical activities because of liability purposes as well as lack of academic achievement. The physical activities i would focus on are would be basic physical fitness and coordination activities such as jumping jacks, stretching, running, games of tag, tug of war, kick ball, dodge ball, and bombardment. Through these activities children would learn how to properly vent there physical energy so they can focus in the classroom. This early learning of the importance of physical activity would also teach children how they need to exercise to fight child obesity. And lastly the development of the children's physical development through team sports will also instill important values such as social interaction and team work. My child development activity focuses on cognitive development and is intended for pre-school age children (3-4 yrs). This activity is a matching game with pictures of key words on them. This child will pick up a card from a set lying face down on the floor and try to find its matching partner. Once the child finds the cards mate, the child and the instructor say the word that is depicted on the card and then discuss what it is and how it is used and such. This kind of activity helps the child develop a vocabulary and fosters his or her knowledge of the world around them. I would build a career center that the kids would go to once a month. They could explore different careers and pretend to work a certain job of their choice. This would help them develop both cognitively and socioemotionally. The development center would incorporate a "hands-on" learning approach that would allow us (the developers) to examine children's cognitive, physical, and socio-emotional characteristics, while also benefiting their individual growth and development. I did gymnastics all throughout my childhood and I can recall a climbing exercise that taught me much more than obvious physical endurance. I would include a climbing rope activity, similar to the one in my gymnastics center, targeted towards children aged 6-9 years old. I believe that the obstacle of getting to the top of the 10 + foot rope forces one to think about how they are going to reach the top and how much work they have already put towards the goal. Exercise is very important for children, with its obvious physical and health benefits, I also believe exercise is cognitively beneficial and can reduce and aid stress and help with anxiety. Children need exercise in their everyday lives and the climbing rope developmental activity could provide both cognitive and physical benefits. Goal: The goal of this activity is to present the concept to school-agers that oil (wax) and water do not mix by creating an art piece that demonstrates the “wax resist technique”. This activity is works very well when teaching lessons about space and astronomy. Materials needed: Pencils, crayons, white construction paper, black water-color paints, newspaper, books with pictures of things to do with space such as the planets, constellations, astronauts, the space shuttle, satellites, ect. that the students can refer to get ideas about their sketches. Instructions: First have your students create a sketch of anything that has to do with space using the pencils and construction paper. Then have them color in the drawings using a very heavy coverage of bright-colored crayons that will contrast well with black paint. Instruct them not to color in the backgrounds (leave them white). They are then to write their name at the bottom of the design with crayon. Next, have them put newspaper under their drawing and using black watercolor paint, cover entire paper using long broad strokes. Also be sure to have them prepare a little cup of water to wet the watercolor paint. Finally, designate an area in the room for the paintings to dry. Source: Ms. Julie; Fourth and Fifth grade teacher at the School of Arts and Sciences. For Cognitive and Socioemotional development. Ages 4-6: The Germ Game. Two children, designated as our "special helpers" will hold up a velcro board with two columns. One side of the velcro board will say bad with a picture of a "germ" with a sad face and the other side will say good with a picture of a "germ" with a happy face. The rest of the Children will be handed index cards with a picture on one side and velcro on the other side. One by one, each child will go up to the board and place their cards under either the sad or happy face "germ", depending on whether they think the picture on the card is a bad germ or if its a good clean habit. For Example: the "bad" pictures on the cards can consist of trash cans, people sneezing or coughing without covering their mouths, toilets, etc., while the "good" pictures can be a sink, bar of soap, or box of tissues, etc. The children may also ask their peers for help by having them either give a thumbs up if it's good or a thumbs down if it's bad. Once they have gotten recognition from their peers they can place it on the board. age 3-5 years have different size objects from small to large. have them pick them up and match them in cups with the same objects. helps to develop both cognitive and fine motor skills. my child development center would have the following activities:1. for physical development, I would set up a yoga class for kids. it would be for kids five and up, they would do simple exercises like stretching, and balancing to develop their muscles and strengthen their bones. 2. for cognitive development i would set up games that involve memory, like the ones you turn up one card and have to find the partner, or drawing classes, I think these would help them improve their memory and cognitive skills. 3. socioemotional development, I would set up group activities that would involve all the members of a group to work together, like building or creating something new. this would improve their social skills and would teach them to work with others and help each other. A good activity for physical development in children going through middle childhood (7-11) is having a playground outside. There, they develop physically by playing outside with each other and on swings, sand, tunnels, and slides. I'm doing a developmental activity for a group of 10 year olds. This activity will be for physical development. The activity is going to consist of an obstacle course. In the obstacle course is going to be a rope to climb up to a swaying bridge, then bouncing from one end of a trampoline to the other. Next will be monkey bars leading to a slide to slide down. Followed by a row of 10 tires they will have to run through and race to the finish line. At my child development center I would have a language lab/game center. In the language lab/game center the children would play all the child hood games kids play but they must be done in a different language. For example simon says, or duck duck goose in spanish. These games would obviously be aimed towards younger children ages 3-6. After 6 the center can be used for team sports, for example soccer or basketball but all conversing is in another language. The center would help with cognitive, physical and socioemotional development, because they are getting exercise, learning another language and playing with others all in one shot. Cognitive: Various games that are not only fun but give the kids the initiative to play. An example would be jeopardy the categories possibly being: school subjects, short word problems, etc Physical: Would not be "required" but I would encourage all the children to participate in various sports: hockey, football, basketball, etc.. I would also give the kids an opportunity to make up their own games and I would implement them into the program Socio-emotional: I would simply do team-building activities. These would be activities where the children would have to achieve a common goal that would not be attainable unless they worked together. A Child Development activity I would include in my daycare center would be a cognitive activity intended for children ages 3-5. Each child would be assigned one letter of the alphabet and would be given a blank sheet of paper and coloring utensils to write their single letter on. Along with writing a letter, each child would be asked to draw an object beginning with that letter. Afterwards the kids would interact with their peers by lining up outside and try to figure out the correct order of the alphabet. One successfully accomplished, the kids would recite their letter and drawing aloud in alphabetical order. Since the ages for reciting the alphabet vary, this activity may be altered to accommodate the majority of the children in the program. For example: having pre-made letters/drawings done by the teacher or using purchased flash cards. My child development activity would focus on cognitive development specifically through interactive reading and primarily for ages I would create a sort of virtual reality system that would be paired with specific children's books. The kids would read the book and as they do there would be specific instructions that would prompt them to interact with a touch computer screen. The computer screen would allow them to make direct connections between physical actions and written text. It could be very basic for the younger kids, associating colors, shapes, etc. and could grow more advanced for the older kids, reading books with plots and characters. The older children could manipulate characters on the screen, mirroring the actions in the book, and placing them at the center of the book. I would focus on the 4 -5 year olds with an activity like finger painting in groups. This would teach them to socialize and work together. This would help them with their cognitive development because they would be assigned to draw images that I assigned them. I would also teach them to play duck duck goose. This would be a fun way to increase physical development. An activity for children 0-12 to do: -have all the children sit in a circle -give out one object (ball, stuffed animal etc.) - have the children pass it around, instruct them to reveal something to the other children every time you receive the object - it will help the child’s ability to grab and handle all sorts of object, the interaction with others, and maybe even help them learn about themselves I decided that I would design several science experiments for the children, ranging from very simple to more challenging. This way various age groups (probably from age 5-12) could be included and kids of all different ability levels would be able to participate at their own pace. The experiments would include: mixing paint to learn about colors, using a prism to show the spectrum of light, basic static electricity demonstrations, and other fun and educational activities to get the children involved and excited to learn. This would be great for cognitive development, but putting the children in groups would help their socioemotional development and any assembly they do would be good for their physical development as well. My sister is a special education teacher for young kids (around grade 5) and I remember her mentioning that her kids love science experiments, so that is what gave me this idea. The first thing I would do is have building blocks for the kids. Ages 1-4… I think building blocks not only develop the thought process but it also helps out imagination. Obviously I would have a fairly large playground for the kids. Swing set, monkey bars, sand box, slides and a play fort. I loved play forts when I was a kid. The playground would be for all ages. I would also have a library full of kids books and up. There would be a mandatory one hour of reading for the appropriate ages. I would also have a music section. That would include music cds and instruments. I believe music is in the forefront of creativity. I would defiantly make sure my kids get enough exercise there would be no TV except maybe a movie on Friday. The kids are going to have to play outside or play games inside to entertain. If I was to begin a daycare, one of my big ideas would be to have children come in the mornings to a "sing-a-long and storytime". I would utilize songs to teach them the letters in the alphabet and numbers. And I will read them books to help broaden their imaginations because I think little children should have a very extravagant imagination. Even so, by reading them a new book at least every two days, I think that would tremendously enhance their vocabulary, even at a very young age. A great developmental activity for the kids is to have recess. Recess allows the children to interact with the other kids and become sociable and work on those skills. Recess also allows for the kids to burn up all their energy outside. The recess aspect would be a physical developmental area, since they are working their muscles and gaining strength in order to play on the equipment. So I would first make sure that the developmental center has a playground established. My developmental activity would be geared toward the younger children in the 1-2 year old range. I would have them be building blocks and making a log cabin out of Lincoln Logs or other materials like this. This would enhance their cognitive thinking abilities by having them grab pieces in order to make a solid base structure for the house and then work their way up to the roof. As for the socioemotional area of development, the only activity that I can really think of at the moment would be through story-telling time. This could be for children of age 1 through 5. Having the kids being read to helps them interpret the words they are hearing and expressing their emotions when certain parts in the story make them sad, happy, or upset. If I had the money and the space I think I would go all out for a day of some sort of annual "Baby Olympics". Nothing big, but big enough for babies to enjoy themselves. The "olympics" would only be one obstacle course that should take about 40 seconds to do. First I would divide the babies into teams designated by color. I would ask the teachers to ask the kids to collaborate in the choosing of a mascot. This process will allow them socio-emotionally to deal with other classmates and get them excited about the obstacle course. The course itself will separate each team's track with 2ft panelings. The panels should be tall enough to guide the kids in the race and short enough for them to know the are racing against someone else. Each track will be decorated with the colors of the respective team, however, depending on the age and abilities of the babies, they may or may not be put in front of their track. The purpose of this is that they realize that they need to get to the corresponding track before even thinking about starting the track. Those who begin standing in front of the corresponding track, will just find it helpful to be in their color track. Once the race has started. The obstacles will allow them to develop physically with some cognitive value by using logic. The first obstacle will be a balance beam with the appropriate padding in case they fall. The second obstacle will be finding a key (large size) in a bucket full of confetti to put in a door(that doesn't really need the key to open) to get through. Third obstacle will be getting through a trampoline (the kids may jump, run, or skip through it). By the fourth obstacle the panelings are gone and now the kids face each other. Farther up should be paper walls with the teams colors; once again each team player needs to realize they must break through their teams paper wall (what’s funnier than breaking through things anyway? hahaha!). Finally after the kids have done this, they will find themselves facing some sort of tall box with the numbers that go with place in which they arrive. The box will be a color non of the teams have chosen and the numbers will go from top to bottom starting with the first place a go to possibly the fourth place, assuming there are only four teams. A bell will be the corresponding level in the box, which the kids must ring when they are finished with the race giving the kids a sense of accomplishment. They will all finish the race. At the end, all the kids will get to take part in the competition, they will all get to keep the bell as sort of a trophy, and only those kids with enough cognitive development will know that it indicates the place in which they arrived, otherwise it will avoid conflict within the children. Refreshments will be served at the end to allow them to celebrate and interact with other children in their own way. I would have this as an activity where the kids can have fun and interact with all of the kids in the daycare. In addition, it would allow them to get out of the scheme they may have about school allowing it expand the fun beyond their classroom. Ages: 30 to 36 months Materials that will be needed:: - Stickers - Playroom area (or some other enclosed area of play) What will be done:: 1. An adult will place the stickers on various places within the one room. They should be fairly visible 2. The child would then be told to go and find the stickers 3. The adult should use hinting words like “hot” when they are close and “cold” when they are far away from a sticker. 4. As the child finds the stickers, they can be placed on their shirt or on something they can take home with them and share with others. 5. Make sure to tell them “great job” and reinforce good behavior and good decisions. Different Variations of this Activity:: 1. If it is an older group, you could try using a treasure map and hiding things in several rooms around the area. 2. You could also place children in groups to find things together (this encourages social interaction) 3. The item doesn’t have to be stickers; it could be small toys or other various things. Learning Skills:: 1. Gross Motor Development 2. Fine Motor Development 3. Problem Solving 4. Cognitive Development (Thinking Skills) 5. Social Interaction 6. Visual Tracking and Acuity A good child development activity for 4-5 year olds would be playing a game where they learn how to count, add and subtract. A good example could be baking cookies. For example, Timmy gives Ashley his cookie, now he only has 3 cookies but then he eats one so he is left with two cookies. This game is aimed to built a child's cognitive development. Over the summer I Worked with the Weed and Seed program in I'd probably go with the game "memory" where you have the cards in front of you and you have to flip them over... remembering their image and spot of placement. It's a good game for developing the cognitive aspect in my opinion. If I weren't to pick that, I'd probably choose for the physical development, or a game for both physical and cognitive. Perhaps a game like "Simon says" would work in everything. You have to pay attention to direction, sometimes using physical activities, and you are being around others who are doing the same thing which would associate with the socioemotional. first: i will separate then by 0-1, 2-5, 5-8, 9-12. First (0-1) I will make a separate room where the babies are not distract from the older kids. It will be mandatory that mom have to come out of the 5 days 2 times to play and interact with the babies. and of course feed then. The room with be always with soft classic music and pastel colors in the walls. the babies that are before 1 will focused on the following: breast feeding, visual perception, and trust between parents. babies that are older around 9 months to a year will focused in : motor development like reflexes, we will help babies work on the reflexes by doing activities like the posture , head up and maintaining balance .we will focused on small exersizes babies could do. In addition every other day babies will be train to learn how to swim. In addition we will work with the movement of muscles and read to then to help then with their vocabulary. in addition also intermodal perception age 2-5 we start the toilet training before this each by we will reinforce this area. we will take then to a play ground to work on the strength and work with the development of muscles. We will use symbols to represent object to help children’s related thing and use develop their language skills. also we will have interaction between children’s to develop social interaction and follow our swimming classes and focused the children’s in a sport they like/ in addition , develop a study group that teach then the color, letters, and basic knowledge. Also teach then to be organized and clean after then. (5-8) will be more focused in social interaction and develop and strong ethics and moral values. Teach then how to be more independence and start setting goals . More basic knowledge and more subjects added to their curriculum. Safety classes and the differences of a girls and boys. Swimming lessons, games, competitions, drawings. music to release stress and games to be focused and use difference sizes of the brain. (9-12) social interaction language acceleration physical like games , sports, mystery games, investigator, critical thinking team work with a group of children’s independences, trusts, games that make children’s use cognitive , physical and socioemotional relation together to develop until a adult or teenager. I would create a game for children around the ages of 1-3yrs of age. This game would encourage the children to sing along with me when I do simple things such as counting from 1-10 or singing the ABC's. At certain points I would stop singing and wait for them to say the next letter/number. My 18month old niece plays this with me and it has helped her cognitively develop much fast than most children her age. :-) Foot/hand tracing: for this activity all you need is drawing paper and crayons/markers or paints. put the drawing paper on the floor and let the toddler stand and trace around the child's feet with the crayons. Then trace your own feet and compare sizes. then, let the child color the feet with different colors. you can do the same thing with their hands. an adult can start this activity first, by showing them how to do it. then the kids can do it themselves, helping each other. anybody can do this activity starting with toddlers 1 1/2 years old-3 years old. this activity helps in the development of socioemotional, physical and cognitive. socioemotional: it's more like a group activity, finding a partner, helping each other. physical: the kids have to move around getting the crayons, tracing their feet or hands, painting etc. it does not focus as much on physical development as it does on social and cognitive development. cognitive development: the toddler learns how to use a crayons, how to follow their feet's shape, how to paint, and how to compare the sizes. by looking at different feet he/she can recognize that there is a difference in his feet with his friends feet. they can also learn different colors, and making decisions which ones to use each time. this activity is entertaining and easy to do, not too overwhelming on the toddlers. You cut out different shapes (triangle, square, circle, ect..) and you make them very colorful so that the child also see's a color. You let that child put the shape onto the shape that it fits into on the posterboard. While the child is learning the different shapes, he or she will also be able to learn the colors of each. This activity i think suites children between the ages of 2-4. The area i believe it affects and is intended for is both physical and cognitive. If I were to have my own child care center with money, my one activity would include having a sandbox. I would have the kids sit in the sand boxes and help them build sandcastles. Each week, I would have them build a bigger sandcastle than the one the week before. This would identify with kids' interests because kids like to play in sandboxes and I would have a sandbox and block molds ready for them as well as having them move foward each week by building onto the castle. Cognitively, this would help because the kids have to remember what they built the previous week in order to have their sandcastle bigger than the week before. This would help socioemotionally because I would have the kids work together in the sandbox to build one castle between all of them. I would build a Puzzles : Of various sizes and complexity, to be completed by children 3+ years old. To work with the child's ability for mental rotation and cognitive skills. Blocks : for children 0-5 years old.(Mental rotation) Balls : for children 2+ years old. (Physical development, dexterity and social skills) Beads and strings : for children 4+ years old. (Eye hand coordination) Rattles : 0-12 months (sensory development, especially grasp and hearing) Hopscotch activities for 3+ years old. (Balance, and coordination along with lower extremity strength) Games involving matching and classifying objects by shape, size and function. (Cognitive development) Hide and seek (Socioemotional development, creating trust among peers and caregiver) Story Books (Memory and imagination, also to develop social and emotional reactions to stories, encourage reading) Tag games (Physical and social development) Sand Box, and appropriate materials Letters (Cognitive development, encourage reading and writing) Coloring (with color pencils, crayons or brushes) Cut and paste activities. (Eye and hand coordination, increase creativity) Rhyming games (Develop language) Music activities (Develop memory and language skills) Creative writing (increase creativity, and grammar skills) Sports (basketball, volleyball) engage in teamwork, while developing muscle groups and keeping up with coordination, and endurance. Monkey bars (Physical development) The center would be complete with trained professionals and a wide open space for children to interact with one another. 1-2 walls covered in mirrors for children 0-6 months to see themselves while they move. |