Skip to main content

When and Where

When



It is important to use your time wisely! Do not choose your Structured Play time when your little one is tired, fussy, hungry or otherwise. Saying that, you should know that the best time might not be the same time everyday or even everyday at all. This needs to be a fun, one-on-one time so make sure there are no distractions. (Phone off)

You should plan your Structured Play time for only 5 to 15 minutes at first. Then as things progress, adjust accordingly. Remember it is play time so as soon as your little one shows signs of loss of interest or frustration move on to something else. Do not push it!

Where



Ideally, you want to find a spot for Structured Play that is out of the normal path of traffic. It should be a spot that your little one does not solo play everyday. The rationale is that this spot should be 'special' for Structured Play. A time when little one gets to play one-on-one and receives full attention. Now that being said, I understand that this cannot always be the case. Depending on your living situation and other children. You want to try to set it up somewhere where there are not other toys, T.V., or people to distract from your goal. On the other hand, some activities will call for distracting situations. (Outings, group play, etc.) So use your best judgement.



After your Structured Play time do not leave the activity out for your child play with daily. This should be an item that is 'special' so that it does not turn into an old standby toy. You can put items into general rotation once your little one has mastered the desired skill or once you feel the activity has become routine. Remember repetition is very important so you want to play with the same items for a prolonged amount of days. Then once the skilled is mastered it is a good to put the item (if appropriate) into their play items so that they continue to use the skill on their own. For example, if you follow a monthly theme keep the items you use for Structured Play separate for the entire month then you can allow your little one to use them on his/her own. If a skill is not mastered within that month continue working on the skill but perhaps change the item used to practice the skill in accordance with the next month's theme. 

You want to see a smile on the face of your little one when you go to this space or when you pull out the activities. You want this to be a exciting, inspiring time of learning and exploration. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Play to Write- Week 3

We participating in a Wednesday Play Group called Play to Write over at Cherrios and Lattes . This is week 3- Write/Spell Your Name.  We started this week's practice with some name tracing. Cherrios and Lattes provides the printable for some dotted letters. She suggested doing rainbow writing with this sheet. I showed Jacob but he was more interested in writing all the Jacobs. I started by modeling on the first name. Then I held his hand and we did it together. Finally I let him do the last three on his own with only my verbal prompts.  He took this very seriously and was very proud of himself! I was surprised at how much he liked doing this activity. He has a long way to go but he did pretty well! One thing I had to repeat was not to go around the o and a more than once. He wanted to go around and around. This is an activity that I think he will want to do again! The next activity was Missing Letter Name Practice. We started by singing a little song I sing fo...
2 comments
Read more

December Project-Based Learning: Sharing Through the Season

Every classroom teacher knows how crazy the classroom can be from Halloween to winter break. There are fun community activities, holidays, and a lot of excitement! I learned instead of trying to fight against the hype, to channel the excitement into projects!    This time of year the necessary elementary classroom routines become dull and have a harder time keeping student interest. So what better time to introduce project-based learning! I feel strongly about learning about the culture and traditions of others. In my classroom, over the years I have learned traditions celebrated in holidays I was familiar with and traditions from holidays I was not aware of previously.  This project was created to provide a way for students to share their personal family traditions during this exciting time being all-inclusive and without making religious statements.  Project Objective: The students will each select and read a picture book to the class asking questio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Name Writing Practice

Jacob did a little name writing practice today. He was asked to trace the dotted lines to write letters for his name. This is good practice with spelling as well. I had him say each letter as he wrote the letter.  As you can see he is very choppy and not exactly on the dotted lines. His motor skills are not quite sharp enough yet to be able to hold the crayon and he especially loses control as he works on towards the end. We also did a Missing Letter Name Practice. Both of these ideas came from Cherrios and Lattes ' Play to Write, Write to Read. These are good ways to practice names and writing. He gets very angry if he thinks he made a mistake. See the scribbling. I have to reinforce that it is ok to make a mistake and that everyone makes mistakes but we just keep trying. Practice is the only way to get better. When this happens I cannot help but think of my former students that did the very same thing and proceeded to throw fits and give up. I hope to help Jacob ge...
1 comment
Read more