Learning is a lifelong journey that our kids may only just be beginning. Whether they’re at home, in childcare or at school, there is always something to learn.
Bringing fun into this process is a very important step that parents, family members and childcare professionals can all take to help children get the most out of every learning opportunity.
Learning by drill in school may help some students through rote memorisation, but it fails to reach a deeper level of learning that asks children to apply and process what they’ve learned.
Research has revealed that making learning fun improves memory and makes people want to engage in activities that are part of that process.
Games have a deeper role in a child’s life beyond entertainment. Games seek to give children experiences that they might never have, or experiences in a setting where they can take risks. This gives a child a scaffolding to experiment, to explore, to make mistakes and to learn and have fun.
One thing that all children will learn is the alphabet. Learning the alphabet is the first step to learn how to read.
You can use play dough to teach your children the alphabet. Play dough is such a fun learning tool to play with and explore new concepts. To make it more interesting, you can try making different sorts of play dough, for example glittery play dough, scented play dough, bumpy play dough, etc.
Click here for some homemade recipes and other ideas.
Age: Under 5's
Level: Medium
Materials
Method:
To teach the alphabet, first you can show your children the shape of letters. Try to choose certain a few letters first and move to another series of letters once your children are familiar with the first group.
Next, you can make things with play dough and associate that thing with alphabet play dough. For example, make ice cream and letter “ï”, because ice cream start with letter “i”.
Let your children lead the way. If they don't seem interested to learn alphabet yet, don't push them. Just playing with play dough also can help build your children's fine motor skills. It's also an open-ended play that can build your children imagination and creativity. Play with play dough is also therapeutic with a calm and soothing effect.
Lets start your children learning process with fun!
Categories
#Play Dough
#Under 5s
#Easy
#Alphabet
#Letters
#Fine Motor Skills
