Course 1

Course 1

Dear Parents

Introducing the theme is very important for your child.

You start by showing your child pictures of themselves and family members. Gather physical supplies: your child’s shoes, his favorite toy, his clothing, reading book, etc. It is important to have your child see, touch and explore actual items and visually see before starting your discussion. Speak to them about whose it is? Does it belong to mommy? Or to daddy?

The following picture may be used for discussion and learning

Use the following questions to guide the discussion and learning:

  • What is your name? Are you a boy (male) or a girl (female)? How old are you? When is your birthday?
  • What is your favourite toy?
  • Can you show me your mommy? Do you have a sister or a brother? Etc.

Activity 1

Paper plate self- portrait

Duration: 10 – 15 minutes

What do we need?

  • Paper plate (small one would work best but a big one will do too)
  • 2 x button/ googly eyes
  • Wool strings/ cotton wool for hair 
  • Glue
  • crayons
  • Portable mirror/ close by mirror 

What to do:

  1. Caregiver is to explain to learner that he/she will be making of portrait of themselves
  2. Allow your child to look in the mirror. Ask questions such as where are your eyes? Where is your nose? Etc.
  3. Now explain that he/she should use the materials available to build a face on the paper plate.
  4. Encourage your child to have a look in the mirror each time as a reference. This a lovely self-awareness activity.

Activity 2

Mathematics: Big and little 

Duration: 5 – 10 minutes

What do you need? 

  • Provide an item in small and large sizes (balls, stuffed animals, cars, blocks)
  • Two boxes/ containers labeled small and big

What to do:

  1. Caregiver it to show the items to your child and ask child to point to the small and then the big object.
  2. Next, explain that he/she will be sorting the big and the small things by placing it in container according to size.
  3. Caregiver may demonstrate by putting a big item in the big box and a small item in the small box.
  4. Have your child continue to do this by him/herself. Repeat this activity by taking out other items as well to keep it interesting. Use words to describe the sizes in interesting ways (example: a huge/ enormous object or a tiny, little, minute, miniature…object)
  5. Once done allow your child to play freely with the items.

*Remember: If opportunities to talk about shape and size are used every day your child will begin to learn the language and be able to use it in the right concept.

Activity 3

Tightrope Walker

Duration: 5 – 10 minutes

What you need?

  • A rope or drawn line
  • Beanbag or a folded dish cloth
  • Any tall object to bend down and touch (example: plastic bottle)

What to do?

  1. Caregiver is to lay the rope out in a straight line across a floor space and position an object to touch along the length of the rope.
  2. Next, show your child how to walk along a rope while balancing a beanbag or folded dish cloth on the head.

3. Demonstrate bending down slowly to touch the object placed along the walking route and length of the rope, while still balancing object on the head.

3. Encourage walking heel to toe slowly along the rope

Make it fun by saying there may be alligators in the water so don’t step off the rope!

  • Make it harder by asking your child to stop, and bend over to touch the bottle mid path without letting the beanbag drop.
  • Walking heel-to-toe is harder and requires more core stability. Try this once your child can walk normally along a length of rope without falling off.

Very Important: Encourage your child to WALK SLOWLY! This will require more core muscle control from your child.

Having good core strength can help your child sit well at a desk, and helps provide a stable base for gross and fine motor tasks.