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Preschool Kids - “When I Grow Up, I Want To Be”
By Mary Robinson

For preschool kids, one of the biggest open-ended questions they can be asked is “what do you want to be when you grow up?” When asked this question, many preschool kids tend to shoot for the stars. However, this question can be an easy way to introduce a unit on occupations and community helpers, two subjects that can be explored though games, activities, crafts and even guest speakers.

The Helpers in the Community

It s important to teach preschool kids about the many tasks of community helpers, such as doctors, dentists, nurses, teachers, mail carriers, and police officers. Start by asking the children if they know any adults with these professions to see how much children know about the tasks associated with these various occupations.

When learning about doctors and nurses, try this fun craft called “Fix my Wound”. For this craft, trace the outline of the child s arm or leg on a piece of paper. The children are to color or paint their limb including a small wound. Once the paint has dried, distribute band-aids to the children for them to place over the wounds on their crafts. Then, have each child present a story to the class as to how they got hurt and who helped them fix it.

Here s a craft where children make police badges that s perfect for learning about safety and the police. To begin the craft, cut out a number of badges from cardboard, and cover each badge with aluminum foil. Use stickers to decorate the badges, or try etching patterns into the foil with the stubby end of a paintbrush.

There are also a number of fun games for preschool kids to learn about the objects and tasks associated with various community helpers. First, cut out a number of pictures from magazines that are associated with community helpers, such as letters, stethoscopes, toothbrushes, or fire hydrants. Next, place a picture of each community helper on the wall and have the children match the objects to the corresponding person from the community.

“Special Delivery!”

Here s another fun matching game that s perfect for practicing what it might be like to deliver mail. Cut out a large number of different colored shapes, like triangles, circles, stars, and squares. Gather an equal number of mailboxes to the number of shapes, and label each mailbox with a picture of one of the shapes. Give the shapes to the children to place in the corresponding mailboxes. After all the shapes have been delivered, try the exercises again by sorting the deliveries by color instead of by shape.

Finally, here s a matching game that teaches children good nutritional habits, which can be played in conjunction with learning about oral hygiene and dentists. Place two large teeth on the wall. One tooth should be white and sparkling clean while the other is covered with dirt and plaque.

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This last exercise in this preschool kids series can also be performed with real food, as long as there aren t too many examples of bad food!

Mary Robinson has been teaching preschool for well over a decade. You can get instant access to her preschool activities, crafts, and lesson plans by visiting her website:

http://www.preschoolwhiz.com

For a limited time, all visitors to Mary s site will also get a free copy of her special report: “The 7 Biggest Mistakes Preschool Teachers and Parents Make”. Go get your free copy today!

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The Advantages Of Interactive Books For Children
By Victor Epand

The mind of a child is like a sponge, which soaks in knowledge. When children are young, their ability to absorb whatever they observe is very high. It is great to help them learn this way, but at the same time they should also be encouraged to make their own decisions. Now, with Interactive books available in a variety of forms, there is a great opportunity for children to sharpen their decision making skills at a young age.

Normally, story books are fixed to a single plot, and they are read for enjoyment. Now there are also ebooks, where the stories can be altered as per the decision of the child. This is somewhat a combination of video games with stories, so that children feel that they are participating in the story.

Here the biggest advantage of these ebooks over a traditional book, is that the character actually has a voice and can speak directly to your child. There may also be background music, which changes along with the mood of the story. The child therefore feels that the characters are interacting with him or her. The child learns to make decisions, because when he or she approaches a fork in the story, it will be up to them to decide which route to take and thus observe the consequences of their decision.

For example, you could have a story in which some elder boys are cajoling a younger boy to smoke or drink. Then the story could give the reader a choice of what action he or she wants to take. Based on that decision, the child will find out the results of his or her decision. Thus, in the future, this could help him or her to similarly make real life decisions relating to similar issues. The important thing is that these books are fun, otherwise children would not be interested in reading them.

There are also many web sites on the internet, where your child can read stories and participate in the story telling process. By getting to be a part of the story, your child can also bond with the characters of that story. It can give them a lot of pleasure to help out their favorite characters as they make decisions.

Even if your child reads a lot of regular books, still sometimes reading these interactive books could be a welcome change for them. Either way, it is still beneficial for their minds. The advantages for young children are that but listening to interactive books, they can learn not only new words and sentences, but also know how to pronounce them correctly. Even if, they do make mistakes, the children can backtrack and start again, until they have gotten the correct answers. Interactive books also lay down the foundation knowledge for their future school subjects such as math, science and geography.

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Victor Epand is an expert consultant about books. When shopping for books, we recommend you shop only at the best bookstores for used interactive books, interactive autographed books, and vedic books.

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