May 20, 2016

Gross Motor Skills

The term "gross motor" development refers to physical skills that use large body movements, normally involving the entire body.

Between ages 2 and 3 years, young children stop "toddling," or using the awkward, wide-legged robot-like stance that is the hallmark of new walkers. As they develop a smoother gait, they also develop the ability to run, jump, and hop. Children of this age can participate in throwing and catching games with larger balls. They can also push themselves around with their feet while sitting on a riding toy.

 At 3 to 4 years, children develop better upper body mobility. As a result, their catching and throwing abilities improve in speed and accuracy. In addition, they can typically hit a stationary ball from a tee with a bat. As whole body coordination improves, children of this age can now peddle and steer a tricycle. They can also kick a larger ball placed directly in front of their bodies.

By ages 4 to 5, children can go up and down the stairs alone in the adult fashion (i.e., taking one step at a time). Their running continues to smooth out and increase in speed. Children of this age can also skip and add spin to their throws. They also have more control when riding their tricycles (or bicycles), and can drive them faster.

During ages 5 to 6, young children continue to refine earlier skills. They're running even faster and can start to ride bicycles with training wheels for added stability. In addition, they can step sideways. Children of this age begin mastering new forms of physical play such as the jungle gym, and begin to use the see-saw, slide, and swing on their own. They often start jumping rope, skating, hitting balls with bats, and so on. Many children of this age enjoy learning to play organized sports such as soccer, basketball, t-ball or swimming. In addition, 5 to 6 year olds often like to participate in physical extracurricular activities such as karate, gymnastics, or dance. Children continue to refine and improve their gross motor skills through age 7 and beyond.

Physical Development: Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills are necessary to engage in smaller, more precise movements, normally using the hands and fingers. Fine motor skills are different than gross motor skills which require less precision to perform.

By ages 2 to 3 years, children can create things with their hands. They can build towers out of blocks, mold clay into rough shapes, and scribble with a crayon or pen. Children of this age can also insert objects into matching spaces, such as placing round pegs into round holes. 2 to 3 year-olds often begin showing a preference for using one hand more often than the other, which is the beginning of becoming left or right-handed.

Around ages 3 to 4 years, children start to manipulate clothing fasteners, like zippers and snaps, and continue to gain independence in dressing and undressing themselves. Before they enter school, most children will gain the ability to completely dress and undress themselves (even though they may take a long time to finish the task). At this age, children can also begin using scissors to cut paper. Caregivers should be sure to give children blunt, round-edged "kid" scissors for safety reasons!

3 to 4 year- old continue to refine their eating skills and can use utensils like forks and spoons. Young children at this age can also use larger writing instruments, like fat crayons, in a writing hold rather than just grasping them with their fist. They can also use a twisting motion with their hands, useful for opening door knobs or twisting lids off containers. Because children can now open containers with lids, caregivers should make certain that harmful substances such as cleaners and medications are stored out of reach in a locked area to prevent accidental poisonings.

During ages 4 to 5 years, children continue to refine fine motor skills and build upon earlier skills. For instance, they can now button and unbutton their clothes by themselves. Their artistic skills improve, and they can draw simple stick figures and copy shapes such as circles, squares, and large letters. Drawing more complex shapes, however, may take longer.

5-7 year-olds begin to show the skills necessary for starting or succeeding in school, such as printing letters and numbers and creating shapes such as triangles. They are able to use paints, pencils and crayons with better control. Children can also complete other self-care tasks beyond dressing and undressing, such as brushing their teeth and combing their hair. Children of this age can also independently feed themselves without an adult's immediate supervision or help.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

EC Assistant Principal

Discovery School

May 9, 2016

What Students Learn in First Grade

First grade marks an important milestone for young children who finally feel like part of a “big” school. They may eat in the cafeteria for the first time or play outside during recess without the direct supervision of their own teacher; experiences that help first graders feel more independent. First graders now have to use the social skills they developed in preschool and kindergarten in more mature ways. But the true magic of first grade happens as children develop the ability to understand what letters and numbers really mean. When they’re ready, they’ll be able to read words.

First graders move slowly from a world of play into a world of symbols and concepts (with a lot of backtracking along the way). This doesn’t mean that play is not still important, but it does mean that learning in first grade becomes more organized and routine-based, with a lot of room for children’s explorations.

To get a handle on the way your first grader’s brain is developing, think back to her first baby steps. Your child was probably a master crawler before taking those initial wobbly steps. 

First graders take those same baby steps away from the familiar information that they are comfortable with into a bigger, abstract world that is more difficult to understand. During those early toddling days, your child probably reverted to crawling in order to get somewhere quickly. Similarly, your child will still be more comfortable gaining knowledge through exploration and play. A first grader’s brain is just beginning to grasp a few concepts at the same time, and then to make connections between those concepts.

You can see this in a first grader’s writing. Children use “invented spelling” by writing in ways that make sense to them. They use what they know about sound and spelling relationships to get their ideas onto the page. They haven’t mastered all the letter sounds or spelling rules that they need to be fluent writers, but they’re willing to use what they know to work out the puzzle of written language.

 Learning From Mistakes

First graders learn by doing and by making mistakes. These mistakes can be frustrating, so they need positive reminders of the many ways that they are powerful learners.

Until now, most of their learning and growth have been part of a natural progression that took place in the comfortable worlds of play and home. They may have worked hard to learn how to slide down the fire pole in the playground, but no one gave them a grade on how well they did, or how long it took them to accomplish the task.

In first grade, children begin to acquire skills in areas they may not be completely comfortable in — and they may be graded on them. 

First graders are asked to work with more difficult material and may feel like they are struggling for the first time in their lives. These new situations can sometimes lead normally confident children to feel unsure about their abilities. Previously, they have been “masters” at whatever they did. But now they may feel pressure to learn to read and to grasp more complicated math and science concepts. Therefore, first graders need to be surrounded with excitement and encouragement, and given examples of how we learn from mistakes.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

EC Assistant Principal

May 3, 2016

What Kids Learn in Kindergarten

Most kindergarteners want to learn all about the world and how it works. Kindergarten teachers often build on this enthusiasm by offering projects that encourage children to delve deeper into the areas that interest them. Children may make life-size tracings of themselves as they learn about the human body, or study animal habitats by researching information about the class pet.

Kindergarten is still intended to stimulate children’s curiosity to learn more about the world around them. It’s the job of the kindergarten teacher to help children become comfortable working in a classroom setting and to introduce some basic literacy and math-related skills in the midst of their important discoveries.

Kindergarteners have grown a lot since their preschool days. They’ve grown bigger and are becoming more graceful and coordinated. They’ve grown intellectually and can focus on tasks for longer periods of time. They’ve grown socially and have a better handle on the skills needed to make friends and work in a group. They’ve become complex thinkers and are better able to understand detailed answers to the many “why” questions they have about the world.

Kindergarteners learn best by active, hands-on exploration and discovery. They make sense of the world by experiencing it physically.

“Rachel Carson may have said it best,” says Nancy Roser, Ed. D., Professor of Education at the University of Texas at Austin. “Carson described children as learning from a ‘sense of wonder.’ This sense of wonder allows kindergarteners to become absorbed in the puzzles that surround them. They attempt to figure out those puzzles by exploring, constructing explanations, and asking more questions.”

Kindergarten children often wonder about complex abstract concepts that they may not be ready to fully comprehend. They may look at a globe and wonder why people don’t fall off the bottom of the Earth, because they aren’t able to really understand gravity. They may imagine that it’s possible to stand on a cloud, even though they know that it’s made up of water droplets.

Children in kindergarten are becoming more mature in both their thoughts and actions. Your kindergartener can usually follow directions from his teacher and focus on tasks. While a preschool teacher may have let children play freely at the block center, a kindergarten teacher knows that she can ask children to complete a related assignment, such as recreating on paper a pattern that they’ve begun with blocks. Experiences like this help kindergarten children gain basic skills. They’ll use these basic skills later in their school life when they’re asked to solve a math problem, conduct a science experiment, read a book, or write a story.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

EC Assistant Principal

April 22,2016

What Kids Learn in Preschool

The Basics

In preschool, children learn about the world through play. Subject areas aren’t separate in their minds or in the classroom. The objects preschoolers find on a nature walk, like feathers, rocks and leaves, might help them figure out math concepts like “big, bigger, and biggest” or motivate them to visit the book corner to find out more about birds. Teachers may introduce children to basic concepts such as shapes, letters, and colors, but preschool is about learning much more than what a circle looks like. It’s where children first develop a relationship with learning.

Language & Literacy

Children spend most of the preschool day working together with classmates. Each conversation, whether talking about the class pet or deciding which color block to put on top of their tower, helps children develop their thoughts and language. Preschool teachers read aloud simple stories like “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault and “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle to show children that text runs from left to right, expose them to new vocabulary, point out letter sounds and rhyming words, and help children talk about what they read.

Writing often appears as scribbles in the preschool classroom, but letters or shapes that resemble letters soon pop up as children try to write their own names in creative ways. Teachers model writing for preschoolers throughout the day. Many children will not be able to write words conventionally. However, every scribble shows that a child understands that the printed word carries messages, and that she is excited to be able to create these messages.

Math

Preschoolers use numbers every day when they count milk cartons for lunch or figure out how many children are at a table. They work with geometric shapes such as triangles, rectangles, and squares in the block center, and through art projects. They measure at the water table when they compare the size of their hands and feet. Preschool teachers invite children to arrange items in a series or pattern when they make collages and other art projects. Teachers also use simple graphs to present concepts, for example, determining how many children wear mittens to school and how many wear gloves.

Science

Preschoolers are scientists. They learn about the world by observing and experimenting. Natural things fascinate them, from rocks, to animals, to their baby brothers and sisters. They also notice the many ways that they can influence the natural world. Preschoolers may plant seeds, or watch what happens to an ice cube in a warm room. They’ll test what sinks and what floats at the water table, and which blowers make the biggest bubbles. They’ll find non-fiction books about animals and nature in the classroom library.

Social Studies

Preschool social studies is where children learn about their place in the world. Understanding how to get along with others can often take up the biggest part of a preschooler’s day. Children learn how to resolve conflicts and practice skills like sharing, taking turns and cleaning up. They figure out how to express their feelings using words. The class may also explore its community and the people in it by taking short field trips around the neighborhood.

Enjoy,

Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Assistant Principal

April 11, 2016

Summer Reading for Prescholers

Although your littlest ones may not be reading chapter books yet, there’s no reason not to fill their summer with stories. These thirteen books will give sandy hands something to do after a day at the beach or distract them from the sounds of the ice cream truck. (Okay, who are we kidding? The ice cream truck always wins.) Throw one of these magical, colorful, and funny stories in your bag when you need a break from swimming or playing outside.

Every story needs a pig in a wig, or a horse, of course. Perfect for early readers, this simple story incorporates rhymes and repetition to capture your preschooler’s imagination.

If you aren’t in love with Kadir Nelson’s extraordinary artwork, you will be after reading this simple tale that shows us all how a single act of kindness can transform our world.

If you aren’t in love with Kadir Nelson’s extraordinary artwork, you will be after reading this simple tale that shows us all how a single act of kindness can transform our world.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

EC Assistant Principal

Discovery School

April 4, 2016

Helping Young Children Develop Strong Writing Skills

Writing is an important part of our daily lives. It is, however, a difficult skill to learn and master. By getting a head start with some simple activities, you can help your child begin to develop his or her writing skills at an early age. By doing so, you will be contributing to his or her future success as a student to express him or herself.

Writing is Practical

Every day, we need to write in order to complete our tasks, whether we are filling out a form at the doctor's office or writing an important letter. Writing is an important element of a student's education.

Whether students are writing by hand or on the computer, many assignments and exams require students to write short answers or longer essays as a way of assessing what they have learned. As students get older, they will be expected to show more sophisticated writing skills, and to complete more sophisticated tasks through their writing. In addition, many colleges and universities require students to write essays as part of their admissions application.

Writing is an important form of communication. Writing letters and emails is a common way of keeping in touch with our friends, relatives, and professional colleagues. Writing is frequently the final stage in communication when we want to leave no room for doubt, which is why we write and sign contracts, leases, and treaties when we make important decisions.

What Can You Do?

It's important to remember that writing can be as difficult a subject to teach and assess as it is to learn. Many students have trouble writing with clarity, coherence, and organization, and this can discourage them from writing if they feel frustrated.

That's where parent involvement can make a big difference. Encouraging your child to develop strong writing skills at a young age, and to become a better writer as they get older, can have a lifelong positive impact on a person’s writing, and may make writing an easier and more enjoyable process.

Activities for young children

·       

    Encourage the child to draw and to discuss his or her drawings

·       Ask your child questions about his or her drawings

·       Show an interest in, and ask questions about, the things your child says, draws, and may try to write.

·       Ask your child to tell you simple stories as you write them down

·       Copy the story as your child tells it, without making changes. Ask her to clarify anything you don't understand.

·       Encourage your child to write her name

·       Practice writing her name with her, and point out the letters in her name when you see them in other places (on signs, in stores, etc.). She may start by only writing the first few letters of her name, but soon the rest will follow.

·       Use games

There are numerous games and puzzles that help children with spelling while increasing their vocabulary. Some of these may include crossword puzzles, word games, anagrams, and cryptograms designed especially for children. Flash cards are fun to use too, and they're easy to make at home.

·       Turn your child's writing into books. 

    Paste her drawings and writings on pieces of construction paper. For each book, make a cover out of heavier paper or cardboard, and add special art, a title, and her name as author. Punch holes in the pages and cover, and bind the book together with yarn or ribbon.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

EC Assistant Principal

March 30,2016

Discovery Learning

Teachers can’t give children “wonderful ideas”; children need to discover or construct their own ideas. Developing new concepts or ideas is an active process and usually begins with child-centered inquiry, which focuses on the asking of questions relevant to the child. While inquiry involves a number of science-related activities and skills, “the focus is on the active search for knowledge or understanding to satisfy students’ curiosity”. Knowing the right answer, then, is not one of the primary objectives of science in the early childhood curriculum. Duckworth (1987) refers to “knowing the right answer” as a passive virtue and discusses some of its limitations. “Knowing the right answer,” she says, “requires no decisions, carries no risks, and makes no demands. It is automatic and thoughtless.  A far more important objective is to help children realize that answers about the world can be discovered through their own investigations.  Sciencing, for example, involves coming up with ideas of one’s own. Developing these ideas and submitting them to someone else’s scrutiny is, according to Duckworth (1987), “a virtue in itself—unrelated to the rightness of the idea”.

Developing ideas of one’s own add breadth and depth to learning. This is so, even if the child’s initial ideas are inaccurate views of the world. Duckworth (1987) explains: “Any wrong idea that is corrected provides far more depth than if one never had a wrong idea to begin with. You master the idea much more thoroughly if you have considered alternatives, tried to work it out in areas where it didn’t work, and figured out why it was that it didn’t work, all of which takes time”.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

February 29, 2016

"OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

THERE IS FUN TO BE DONE! THERE ARE

POINTS TO BE SCORED. THERE ARE GAMES TO BE WON."

From: Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as the beloved Dr. Seuss, was born in 1904 on Howard Street in Springfield, Massachusetts. 

Ted's father, Theodor Robert, and grandfather were brew masters in the city. His mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, often soothed her children to sleep by "chanting" rhymes remembered from her youth. 

Ted credited his mother with both his ability and desire to create the rhymes for which he became so well known.

Best,

Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Assistant Principal

Discovery School

Feb. 22, 2016

Critical thinking is a term that is given much discussion without much action.  K-12 educators and administrators are pushed to teach the necessities as dictated by the standardized assessments in order to catch up the students to students of other countries.  In this push for better test scores, many students are leaving the K-12 education system lacking the critical thinking skills that are necessary to succeed in higher education or in the workplace.

There are several reasons that critical thinking is not being focused on, and the need to have better scores on assessments is just one of them.  Issues such as how to define critical thinking, how to teach critical thinking, and whether critical thinking should be taught or learned through social interaction plague educators who think about enhancing the critical thinking skills of their students.

“In order to engage students in critical thinking, the educator needs to act as a facilitator to allow for discussion and encourage a freer thought process … “

Critical thinking can be infused in lessons throughout all disciplines by utilizing in depth questioning and evaluation of both data and sources.  Having students track patterns in information forces them to look at the information as a process instead of simply information to be memorized and helps them develop skills of recognition and prediction.  

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

EC Assistant Principal

Discovery School

Feb. 8, 2016

The term "cognitive style" refers to the way a person processes information in his/her head in a way that is distinctive to that individual. A person is set in a particular cognitive style from birth. In contrast, learning style is a manner in which a learner interacts with and responds to the learning material or environment. A person's cultural background may influence his learning style. The student may also use a different learning strategy depending on the task.

Teachers can tailor learning experiences to differentiate among the individual needs of students in the classroom. There are many learning styles, yet some of the most common are: visual, auditory and kinesthetic.

Cognitive Learning Styles of Children describes the characteristics of these learners as well as the types of activities in which they best thrive, with the caveat that it is only learning styles being described, to be distinguished from cognitive styles (holistic, analytic, field-dependent, etc.). Cognitive styles and learning styles are important concepts in the study of education. For a time, people used the two terms interchangeably, but experts today study both types of styles individually to determine the best methods for educating children in the classroom who may learn or process information differently from their peers.

Teachers can also differentiate by matching assignments to readiness levels, offering appropriate intervention or extension activities as required. Allowing children to select activities based on areas of interest is another great way to differentiate. Offering choices is an excellent motivator for kids.

Small-group work is one of the most effective ways to meet the needs of diverse learners in large class settings.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Assistant Principal

Discovery School

February 1, 2016

The Value of Art for the Preschool Child

Art is basic. Of course, every subject area is important, but no program for young children could succeed without emphasizing art. Through making, looking at, and talking about their own artwork and the art of others, three-, four-, and five-year-old children are doing the following:

1. Expressing their feelings and emotions in a safe way. They learn to control their emotions and recognize that they can express and handle negative as well as joyous feelings through positive action.
2. Practicing and gaining fine muscle control and strengthening eye-hand motor coordination. By holding paintbrushes and learning how to control paint, crayons, scissors, and other art tools, children gain the skills necessary for later writing activities as well as a feeling of control over themselves and their world.
3.  Developing perceptual abilities. Awareness of colors, shapes, forms, lines, and textures result as children observe these and try to replicate them through art.
4.  Being given the opportunity to make choices and solve problems. How do you get the legs to stick on a clay figure? What color should I use? Making art offers children a multitude of choices and many decisions to make.
5. Seeing that others have differing points of view and ways of expressing these than they do. Comparing children’s drawings, paintings, or models gives children concrete, dramatic examples of how different people express the same thing in different ways. While learning that their way is not the only way, they learn to value diversity.
6.  Becoming aware of the idea that, through art, culture is transmitted. Becoming acquainted with the art of the past, children are involved in learning something of their origins and themselves.
7.  Experiencing success. Because art leaves the end open to the creator, all children experience a measure of success. This is why art activities are appropriate for children with special needs. Regardless of the physical or mental need of the child, there is some art media and activity through which he or she can experience success.
8. Making connections between the visual arts and other disciplines. Art integrates the curriculum. Content from every subject matter can find form through art.

Enjoy,

Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Assistant Principal

Discovery School

(504)221-7790

(504)221-7791(fax)

(504)9500-1720(school cell)

(504)9985-0732(mobile)

nsierra@discoveryschool.edu.hn

Jan. 20, 2016

The Importance of Parent-Teacher  Communication

There’s plenty of evidence that shows positive communication between parents and teachers helps improve academic performance.

As your child’s greatest teacher and role model, it’s vital that you get involved in their schooling, rather than sitting back and letting the teacher handle it all. Your child need to see the importance that you, as their parent, put on their education, though make sure this doesn’t translate as an emphasis on always having to come first or being top of the class.

While teachers are experts in teaching, you’re the expert on your child. You know what stimulates, bores and interests them, what they’re good at and what they struggle with. You know your child’s learning style and you also know if there are any other issues going on that might be affecting their learning at school. So ongoing communication with your child’s teacher is essential to make sure they can tailor their approach to your child while in class.

Parent-teacher interviews are a great opportunity to communicate with your child’s teacher and hear how your child is tracking academically and socially relative to their classmates. However, they are also a great way to discuss any troubles or questions you may have regarding your child. With many parent-teacher interviews coming up, it is important that you take the time to think about the things you would like to discuss with your child’s teacher – to ensure you make the most of your allocated time.

In saying this, communicating with your child’s teacher isn’t just about attending parent-teacher interviews and conferences; there are lots of other ways to stay in touch and to create a positive two-way relationship, including email, volunteering in the classroom or by adding comments to a homework book. At drop off or pick up time, teachers are usually very busy so it might be best to schedule an appointment for when it’s more convenient.

Above all, remember that it’s a three-way relationship between you, your child and their teacher and that only by working together positively can you help your child achieve their full potential.

Best,

Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Assistant Principal

Discovery School

(504)221-7790

(504)221-7791(fax)

(504)9500-1720(school cell)

(504)9985-0732(mobile)

nsierra@discoveryschool.edu.hn

Teaching Children How to Think

Teaching Children How to Think

To function and create change in this modern world, individuals need critical thinking skills – the ability to think about ideas or situations in order to fully understand their implications so as to be able to make an informed judgment or decision.  Critical thinking includes skills such as questioning, predicting, investigating, hypothesizing, analyzing, reflecting, revising, comparing, evaluating and forming opinions.  It involves an inquiry process of exploring issues that may not be clearly defined and for which there are no clear-cut answers. Critical thinking also includes metacognition – the process of thinking that enables us to reflect on our own learning as we develop knowledge and skills.

According to Tony Wagner in his book, The Global Achievement Gap, mastery of the basic skills of reading, writing and math is no longer enough. Instead, work, learning and citizenship in the 21st century demand that we all know how to think – to reason, analyze, weigh evidence and problem solve. He goes on to say that children will need seven basic survival skills to succeed in the world that awaits them:

·         Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

·         Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence

·         Agility and Adaptability

·         Initiative and Entrepreneurialism

·         Effective Oral and Written Communication

·         Accessing and Analyzing Information

·         Curiosity and Imagination

Robert Fisher, a leading expert in developing children’s thinking skills, says that thinking is not a natural function like sleeping, walking and talking. Thinking, he stresses, is a skill that needs to be developed, and people do not necessarily become wiser as they become older. Children learn to think when adults take them seriously, engage them in meaningful conversations, inspire their imaginations and ask them questions that get them to think. This is exactly the approach that we need to incorporate into the classroom.

According to many experts, to develop these basic skills, we need to re-define the role of the teacher and the student. Teachers need to move from primarily being the information keeper and information dispenser to being an orchestrator of learning where knowledge is co-constructed with the student.  Teachers will become facilitators, guides, mentors, sources and resources who make use of spontaneous teachable moments to scaffold children’s learning.   The 21st century will require knowledge generation, not just information delivery, and schools will need to create a “culture of inquiry” that is shared equally by teachers and students.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra