First Preschool Theme: School Supplies October 27, 2009

The first preschool them in Time4Learning’s Preschool On Line Curriculum: School Supplies

Story: “Big Enough,” written by Kelly Stone; illustrated by Kelly Kauffman.

Vocabulary: school supplies, backpack, box, circle, clay, colors, computer, crayons, cut, glue, glue stick, lessons, markers, mess, organize, paint, paper, pencil, scissors, special, storage place, story book, tools.

Stories You Write: Allows the child to create his/her own story, by choosing from various possibilities of pictures with linked audio descriptions. Reinforces the idea of a logical story,as well as, the vocabulary from this theme.

Find It: Asks the child to identify various school supplies. This helps to reinforce the vocabulary from this theme.

Puzzle: Reinforces vocabulary as child clicks and drags each school supply to its specially shaped opening.

Online preschool games October 25, 2009

Online Preschool Learning Games and Educational Activities

Online preschool games from Time4Learning are a great answer to the parents’ search for a safe and easy-to-use preschool curriculum.

Our online learning games are designed to enhance learning with age appropriate preschool curriculum delivered via multimedia lessons. Time4Learning provides preschool learning games in a system that guides the children from one activity to the next, keeping track of their progress.

Time4Learning is an easy-to-use online preschool curriculum for young learners, featuring animated activities with fun characters and sound effects. The characters in the learning games guide children through the steps of the learning activities, making it simple for pre-readers to follow and enjoy.  There’s also info on preschool activities online at Todays Learners and I’m hoping to get involved with the Parenting Bible project to add some preschool info.

A Learning Tool for Early Childhood Development October 21, 2009

The activities are interactive and engaging, with simple verbal directions. The interactions (verbal instructions, interface buttons, graphics, and format) are designed for pre-readers with an early learning level of attention, of fine muscle control, and of vocabulary. It is designed so that, after the first session, a child could use the program on his or her own with minimal adult supervision (as required for any child on the internet).

Time4Learnings Preschool Program October 18, 2009

Time4Learnings Preschool Curriculum is a developmentally appropriate curriculum for early learning. Time4Learning believes that the best learning methods for this age group are play-based and experiential. The activities build skills in a variety of areas notably: pre-reading literacy, math foundation, creative expression, music, art, and science. The lessons are interactive and engaging, with simple verbal directions, appealing graphics and some great music. The program is organized around themes (such as colors, shapes, tools, or foods) which are introduced with a story or song followed by activities tied to the theme. This summarizes the sequence of Time4Learning’s Preschool program, defines the skill set required for use, and reviews what the program covers and does not cover.

Dolch Words August 29, 2009

I’ve been trying to understand the collections of different words and what different ways we should learn them.

Dolch Words - The Dolch Word List is a list compiled by Edward William Dolch in 1936. The list contains 220 commonly used words that should be recognized by “sight” for fast or “fluent” reading. The compilation excludes nouns, which comprise a separate 95-word list.
High Frequency Words
Fry Words
Sight Words

Definitions:
Speaking Vocabulary
Writing Vocabulary
Verbal Comprehension Vocabulary
Reading Comprehension Vocabulary

Time4Learning’s new preschool activities online August 9, 2009

I’ve really been enjoying the updated Time4Learning preschool program online.  Here’s a quick description.

Online preschool games from Time4Learning are a great answer to the parents’ search for a safe and easy-to-use preschool curriculum.

Our online learning games are designed to enhance learning with age appropriate preschool curriculum delivered via multimedia lessons. Time4Learning provides preschool learning games in a system that guides the children from one activity to the next, keeping track of their progress.

Time4Learning is an easy-to-use online preschool curriculum for young learners, featuring animated activities with fun characters and sound effects. The characters in the learning games guide children through the steps of the learning activities, making it simple for pre-readers to follow and enjoy.

Wondering how extensive their curriculum is?
Take a look at our Preschool Curriculum and see!

Here’s a description of three of the  forty themes…

School Supplies

Story: “Big Enough,” written by Kelly Stone; illustrated by Kelly Kauffman.

Vocabulary: school supplies, backpack, box, circle, clay, colors, computer, crayons, cut, glue, glue stick, lessons, markers, mess, organize, paint, paper, pencil, scissors, special, storage place, story book, tools.

Stories You Write: Allows the child to create his/her own story, by choosing from various possibilities of pictures with linked audio descriptions. Reinforces the idea of a logical story,as well as, the vocabulary from this theme.

Find It: Asks the child to identify various school supplies. This helps to reinforce the vocabulary from this theme.

Puzzle: Reinforces vocabulary as child clicks and drags each school supply to its specially shaped opening.

Alphabet

Show Time: “ABC’s”. This introductory activity introduces each capital letter of the alphabet. An interactive activity follows which allows the child to click on a letter in the alphabet, and hear a word that starts with that letter. Each word has a corresponding picture.

Memory Match: This game uses the capital letters S-Z and matches them to a corresponding word on the other side.

Match It: This game reinforces letter recognition. The child must concentrate to find the matching pairs from letters I-R. Which: This activity reinforces letter recognition, as the child must click on the correct letters A-H.

Shapes

Introductory Show: “I See Shapes”. Child sees two scenes. In each scene, the narrator identifies several shapes. The third scene is an interactive classroom where the child is asked to identify objects by their shape.

Vocabulary: circle, diamond, rectangle, square, oval and triangle.

Shapes Puzzle: The child drags a jewel shape into its specially shaped opening. Reinforces shape recognition and shape vocabulary.

Patterns: Shows the child a pair of shapes that form a repeating pattern. A blank space is shown in the pattern, and the child must choose which shape best completes the pattern. The names of each of the shapes are said aloud when they appear onscreen and also when the cursor goes over each of them. Reinforces shape recognition and shape vocabulary.

Match the Shapes: Allows the child to match a common object to its shape. Reinforces vocabulary from this theme.

I found out about it from the Parenting Bible blog which is new and promising.

Online Preschool Curriculum Design July 12, 2009

We’re developing an online interactice preschool curriculum. Questions that we need to deal with:

What to cover? What set of standards or benchmarks should our preschool curriculum attempt to cover? Also, since a preschool curriculum cannot possibly be covered 100% online (consider socialization and most of phys ed), what subset is realistic to attempt to do online?

Should the activities gradually get more challenging? Should we have two halves: easy and hard. Maybe split it into four quarters each one at a slighly different level?

We’re doing an integrated curriculum. What balance of preschool literacy, verbal skills, math skills, emotional skills (recognizing emotions, understanding what emotion a situation might create such as when the ice cream falls off the ice cream cone onto the ground), music, and art?

Creating the curriculum is as much fun as anything:  :- >

I was just reading some interesting posts on homeschool curriculum and homeschool software.

Reading & verbal comprehension July 8, 2009

I’m working on some learning activities and struggling to define what’s appropriate to teach to preschoolers.  One on hand, it’s clear they’re prereaders so the vocabulary that we are helping them build is about their verbal comprehension. We’re building the vocabulary that they understand. 

We also have them interact with the activities so in a sense, we are building a type of vocabulary that they deal with. It’s not just vocabulary that they comprehend but it’s also not words that they are using in written or verbal form either.  Does a category for this exist?

I’ve been looking at some reading skills books at the K-2nd grade level.  I find that there are more specific reading levels within this area such as the the A-M system created for the Fountas and Pinnell scales for the  Guided Reading levels and the 1-28 scale of the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) level. 

Should we be teaching preschoolers as much of the K-2 skills as we can or should we let them stay in the PreK skills area?

I’m also curious about how reading comprehension skills relates to verbal comprehension skills?

Children’s literature May 28, 2009

Lets assume that I was creating a preschool online interactive curriculum. Some literature and stories should definitely be included. Where would i find it? Quickly, cheaply, & honestly.

1. Public domain.  All the old fairy tales and nursery rhymes. They’re listed everywhere.  For example:

2.  License existing materials.  Find little publishing companies that have already licensed to other online companies (so they know the drill) and see what can be done.
Ex – Kaeden to Playbox.

3. Write or commission original materials. Again, find authors that have written such materials such as Nicole. And put them to work again. Start by finding websites with authors with books written that are looking for publishers. Maybe with illustrations.  Must exist, right?

Writing.com

http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/authors.html - list of other sites is best stuff.

Sources of standards May 23, 2009

World Book - A concise common sense summary of what kids should learn and know at each level, including preschool. Very easy to work with.

NAEYC Accreditation Criteria for Curriculum -
NAEYC Book for $25: Curriculum: A Guide to the NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standard and Related Accreditation Criteria

Teaching Strategies Creative Curriculum. This amazing organization has 75 people focused on preschool  curriculum. It was founded by Diane Trister Dodge in 1988. They’re focused on schools. The Creative Curriculum is the country’s leading scientifically based, research-validated, comprehensive curriculum with guidance on teaching literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies. [Their] materials show teachers not only what to teach, but how and why. The Curriculum is augmented by a series of supporting resources, including:

• Literacy: The Creative Curriculum^® Approach
• Mathematics: The Creative Curriculum^® Approach
• The Creative Curriculum^® Study Starters (vol. 1) (vol. 2)
• The Creative Curriculum^® for Preschool in Action DVD

Given my mission of providing computer-based useful resources, I’d better stay clear of them since they have all those little r’s in circles. lol. They’ve done a lot of work. Their allignments page provides one of the best guides to existing standards. And I quote:

NAEYC Alignments – Teaching Strategies aligned The Creative Curriculum^® for Preschool and The Creative Curriculum^® for Infants, Toddlers and Twos with the NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards and Accreditation Criteria. The Creative Curriculum^® for Infants, Toddlers & Twos (PDF)  The Creative Curriculum^® for Preschool (PDF).
Head Start – Alignment between The Creative Curriculum^® for Preschool and The Head Start Child Outcomes Framework (PDF) Alignment between The Creative Curriculum^®Developmental Continuum for Ages 3-5 and the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework (PDF) .  Alignment between the content of The Creative Curriculum^® System and the Head Start Program Performance Standards (Subpart B, 1304.21, Education and Early Childhood Development) (PDF)
Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) – Alignment Between The Creative Curriculum^® for Preschool and The DODEA Early Learning Standards (pdf)
Early Childhood Outcomes (ECO) Center – ECO/OSEP Crosswalk alignment (pdf)

Inside The Content: The Breadth and Depth of Early Learning Standards Full Report 2005   his report details results from a content analysis conducted on 38 sets of early learning standards available for review in November 2003. The report provides an in-depth look at the areas of children’s learning and development that have and have not been addressed in early learning standards developed by states to define expectations for preschool-age children.

Standards for Preschool Children’s Learning and Development: Who Has Standards, How Were They Developed, and How Are They Used? 2003  Efforts to guide early care and education programs have primarily outlined standards for program operations and curricula rather than specific skills expected from children. Without national consensus on what young children should know and be able to do, numerous state agencies and organizations have developed their own descriptions of what preschool children should learn. This study was prompted by the absence of a national report or comprehensive source of data delineating how individual states are responding to the need for early learning standards.