UDA Preschool Blog - Page 8 of 11 - Nurture, Create, Inspire

August 1, 2018

How to Keep Your Preschooler Engaged on a Hike

It’s hiking season, and there’s nothing better than getting up into the mountains with your family. Studies have shown that spending time in nature builds confidence, promotes creativity, teaches responsibility, improves attention, reduces stress, and so much more. And with more and more screens filling our homes (and our cars and purses and diaper bags), there has never been a more critical time for you to take your preschooler on a hike.

But hiking can be hard. And hot. Not to mention… the bugs.

So how can you keep your preschooler interested and engaged long enough to make it to your hiking destination? Read on for tips on keeping your preschooler engaged on a hike.

Get a Walking Stick

If your preschooler’s hands are occupied, that gives him less reason to beg to be carried. Plus, a walking stick is just cool. Your preschooler will feel powerful as he uses his walking stick to guide the way. And don’t be surprised if imagination is sparked — does the walking stick make your preschooler a wizard? An explorer? A witch? Whatever it is, if your child is busy imagining, it will be easier to put one foot in front of the other.

Give Jobs

Preschoolers love to feel important, and you can keep your child focused and engaged by giving her a role to fill while on the trail. Appoint her as the leader, the bird watcher, the photographer, or the animal poop spotter. Change roles as you go, especially if you have multiple children.

Go on a Scavenger Hunt

Preschoolers love a good scavenger hunt. Ask your child to find things that are different shapes, different colors, something wet, something dry, something alive, something sticky, something icky… you get the idea.

You can also have him find specific items, like a squirrel, a log, a waterfall, a rock bigger than his hand, etc. This can be done on the fly, with you suggesting each item out loud one by one. Or you can write up a scavenger hunt ahead of time and have your child check off each item as he goes. Don’t be surprised if he wants to make his own suggestions!

Engage the Senses

Experiencing environments through the senses is powerful. In fact, that’s why we take a multisensory learning approach at UDA Creative Arts Preschool. We know that the more senses involved, the more effective the learning will be. You can tap into this power on your hike.

Stop and listen to the rushing water of a nearby river, or challenge each other to count how many birds can be heard in a minute. Try and find every color of the rainbow on your hike. Feel the different textures of rocks, sticks, leaves, and trees. Inhale deeply to smell the forest and pause to take whiffs of wildflowers.

Be a Nature Artist

Let your child capture the experience through art. Bring a notebook and some coloring utensils, and pause somewhere out of the way to let your preschooler draw or paint what she sees. Bring a notebook for yourself too. Creating art is therapeutic, and will give you both a unique perspective to take home and remember your hike together.

Letter Play

How many things in nature can your preschooler find that start with the first letter of her name? If your preschooler can spell her whole name, go through each letter. If interest is still sticking around once you complete the name, start at the beginning of the alphabet or choose another family member’s name.

Pack Smart

Nobody can keep their spirits up when they’re hangry or dehydrated. Avoid the struggle and pack healthy, filling snacks like trail mix, granola bars, fruit leathers, and apples to keep everyone’s tummies satisfied. Bring enough water for everyone, and make sure everyone is taking sips throughout the hike.

Don’t forget insect repellent and sunscreen. If you’ll be on the trail for several hours, be sure to reapply. Bring a handkerchief that can be soaked in water and worn around the neck, and have everyone wear a hat.

Adjust Expectations

Be flexible and ready to adjust your expectations. Your preschooler may not have the same stamina as you, and you may not make it to the waterfall or the summit. That’s okay. Begin your hike with a flexible mindset, committing to enjoy the journey, and everyone will count the outing as a success.

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool, we believe strongly in letting children explore their world to make their own connections. If you’d like to see how your child can benefit from our preschool program, give us a call at (801) 523-5930, or contact us online for a tour.

August 1, 2018August 1, 2018

11 Fun Water Play Activities for Preschoolers

Heat can turn even the sweetest preschooler into a sweaty mess of anger and tantrums. If you’re frantically searching for ways to beat the heat this summer, use these 11 fun water play activities for preschoolers that help build developmental skills.

Before jumping into water fun, make sure you review water safety rules with your preschooler.

Never swim alone.
Never go to a swimming area (lake, pool, river) alone.
Always ask permission before playing in or with water.

Mom and Dad, remember it only takes a moment for your child to slip into a body of water. Be vigilant and watchful around all standing water — even kiddie pools.

1. Small-World Sensory Tubs

Water beads are fun sensory experiences for preschoolers who are past the stage of putting things in their mouths. They’re soothing and fun to handle, which keeps kids at the bin longer, allowing their imaginations to take off. Get a bin and set up small worlds by adding themed toys: ocean animals for an ocean theme, pirate ships and figures for a pirate theme, etc.

You can also make a sensory world with water and toys. This fun sensory tub from Danya Banya shows how to make a watery ocean world.

2. Kiddie Pool Add-ins

Preschoolers love jumping in and out of the kiddie pool, dunking their hair, and splashing around. Give them some add-ins, and they’ll stay in the kiddie pool even longer, having a great sensory, imaginative experience. Some fun ideas:

Water balloons
Pool noodles
Water balls
A kickboard
Plastic toy animals
Measuring cups, strainers, spoons, and small buckets
Colored ice cubes

3. Wash the Lawn Furniture or Yard Toys

Grab some sponges and a bucket of soapy water, and direct your preschooler to wash the lawn furniture or yard toys. It’s slippery and wet, which makes the process a fun sensory activity. Plus, preschoolers hone their scientific observation skills as they see what happens when they squeeze the soapy sponge. If the lawn furniture actually gets clean in the process? Bonus!

4. Splash Pad Play

Head to your local splash pad for some cool gross motor development. Running, skipping, jumping, and crawling through the spray structures helps your preschooler learn where her body is in space and gives her confidence in what her body can do. Plus, it’s incredibly refreshing on a hot day!

5. Ice Play

This science-based activity is so fun, and it helps to improve fine motor skills while learning cause and effect. Fill a plastic container with water and add small objects, like buttons and small toys. Place the container in the freezer.

When ready, take the ice block out and put it in a bin (or on the lawn if it’s a hot day!). Give your preschooler some tools that will help in freeing the toys:

A spoon
Salt shakers
Driveway salt (you can use food coloring to dye the salt for a fun effect)
A bowl of water
Syringes

Then sit back as you watch your preschooler work with determination to find a way to free the toys. If this can be done with a friend or sibling, it’s even better because the preschoolers learn cooperation as they problem solve together.

6. Water Potions

Let your child be a scientist for the day with this water activity for preschoolers. Gather a variety of utensils and containers from your home:

Spray bottles
Empty hand soap bottles
Ice cube trays
Dishes and bowls
Measuring spoons and cups
Whisks

Add a few drops of liquid watercolor to water in different containers, and then let your preschooler experiment with the water and utensils. They’ll get hands-on experience with how different colors change when mixed together, and they’ll also be fully immersed in fine motor development — scooping, carrying, squeezing, transferring, controlling how much they pour… it all combines for a colorful, wet, fun learning experience.

7. Toy Car Wash

Gather your plastic cars (make sure you don’t grab any with batteries) and set up a car wash in your backyard. Use buckets, bowls, tubs, cups, spray bottles — whatever you have on hand — for the wash. Fill some containers with soapy water and some with clear water. Give your preschooler some wash rags, a toothbrush, and/or sponge, and let her imagination finish the job.

8. Go Fishing… in Your Backyard… with Balloons

This fun idea from The Empowered Educator builds fine motor skills, gives you an opportunity to practice color recognition, build hand-eye coordination, and more. Add small balloons to a tub filled with water. Give your preschooler a strainer, cup, bowl, and/or spoon and challenge him to “fish” for the balloons.

9. Water Relay Race

If you have a few kids at your house one day, cool them off with some fun water relay race games.

The children can build balance as they walk with a bowl of water on their heads and empty it into a bucket at the end of the relay.
Increase hand-eye coordination as they carry a small water balloon on a serving spoon, trying not to let it drop and break.
Poke a few holes in the bottom of a disposable cup. At one end of your relay, have the children fill the cup with water from a full bucket. Challenge them to pass it overhead from person to person until it gets to a bucket at the end where the last person dumps the remaining water. This builds gross motor skills (and is refreshingly cool!).
Set up an obstacle course and give each relay runner two buckets full of water. Have the children run the obstacle course with the buckets, trying not to spill. Whoever has the most water at the end wins.

10. Water Limbo

Create a limbo “bar” with your water hose. Use your thumb to make the water shoot in a line. Have your preschooler try to go under the line (the traditional limbo move is fun, but you can also have them crawl, hop like a frog, go backwards, run under the line while spinning, etc.). Keep lowering the line for more fun. This builds gross motor skills and coordination.

11. Pool Noodle Race — A Pool Game

Your preschooler can play this game even if he needs to wear a Puddle Jumper or life vest in the pool. Have each player straddle a pool noodle and race from one point in the pool to another. This builds muscles, coordination, and gross motor skills, while also encouraging sportsmanship.

These fun water play activities for preschoolers will keep your child busy — and cool — all summer long!

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool in Draper, Utah, we believe children learn through play. Scientific observations are more meaningful, fine- and gross-motor skill activities are more impactful, and cause-and-effect hits home far stronger when children are having fun. Give us a call at (801) 523-5930, or contact us online for a tour of the preschool.

June 30, 2018

How to Take Your Preschooler to a Museum

Sure, you don’t have any reservations about taking your preschooler to a children’s museum. Those places are designed with kids in mind; every display screams “TOUCH ME! TOUCH ME WITH ALL OF YOUR BODY!”

But what about an art museum? Have you braved the quiet, still, cavernous rooms filled with priceless works of art, or are you telling yourself you’ll try an art museum visit when your kids are older?

You don’t need to wait until your child reaches a certain age or milestone to visit an art museum. In fact, your preschooler will get heaps of education and experience from the visual stimulation, interactions with you, and lessons in appropriate behavior in a museum right now.

Don’t put it off. Use these tips to make the experience at an art museum with your preschooler an enjoyable (and manner-filled) one for both of you.

Ahead of Time

A museum trip for anybody is made better by doing a little prep work, and when preschoolers are involved, the more you do ahead of time, the better your trip is likely to go.

Study up

Before you head to the museum, spend some time on its website so you can become familiar with the current exhibitions. This will help you know the highlights, and you’ll also see some pieces of art that might be of particular interest to your child.

Most importantly, you’ll know something about what you’re going to see. This will help you to point out interesting facts or images that relate to your child, keeping her engaged while at the museum.

Show Your Child

Show your child a little bit of what you’ve learned on the museum’s website. Print out a few images you know you’ll see and point out the shapes, colors, or other big ideas about the artwork. When your child sees the actual artwork in person, he’ll be thrilled he knows something about it.

Talk About Manners

The last thing you want is for your preschooler to run screaming through the museum, touching everything in her path. Have a brief conversation about museum manners. You can compare it to a library or church.

“When we go to the museum, we need to use our library voices and our quiet walking feet. This helps everyone to enjoy the art.”

At the Museum

So you’ve prepared. You know a thing or two about what you’re going to see, you’ve told your child about what to expect, and your child knows how to behave. How can you make sure all this works out to an enjoyable museum trip? You are attending the museum with an unpredictable preschooler, after all.

Play I Spy

Most children won’t give the paintings more than a cursory glance, unless someone shows them how to do it. Playing fun, interactive games with the paintings gets kids involved — and keeps them that way.

I Spy is a simple-enough way to get started. “I spy a yellow hat. I spy a gray animal.” Your child can point or quietly move to the painting once he spots the spied item. When he tells you what he spies, he’ll be examining the paintings even closer.

Copy the Poses

We can’t wait to try this great idea from My Kids’ Adventures. Have your child try to imitate a pose they see in a painting or sculpture. This not only helps kids wiggle in a place that is quite still, it keeps the kids looking at the paintings longer than they otherwise would. And they may notice quite a bit more than you expected.

Draw or Photograph the Art

If photography is allowed in the museum, your preschooler will be thrilled to take photos of her favorite pieces. You can even send her on a photo hunt, giving her specific items to look for in the paintings (an animal, a baby, something blue, something silly, someone sad, someone happy…)

If photography is not allowed, give your child a small sketchbook and a pencil. Ask him to sit on a bench in every other room and copy his favorite painting or sculpture.

Bring Something to Touch

You know your preschooler may have trouble with the strict no-touch rule in the museum. Why not bring something your child can touch? If you’re going to an exhibition of ballerina paintings, bring some ballet shoes to hold. If you’re going to an exhibition of landscapes, perhaps a fake flower would be soothing to hold.

Time It Right

Head to the museum before the meltdowns of nap time and the hangry pangs of lunchtime. If you can get to the museum early, you’ll likely encounter fewer people, your child will be well-rested, and nobody will be screaming for a snack (yet). Plan on two hours as your maximum.

Be Flexible

Don’t expect to see everything. A preschooler’s attention won’t last all day. If you have a favorite painting you want to see, go there first. Be willing to take breaks when needed. Bring snacks (but head to the cafeteria or outside to eat them). It’s okay if you only see one exhibition or one floor. You don’t want to tire out and bore your child. You want to see just enough to keep your child interested and involved.

Bring It Home

Keep talking about what you saw at the museum. If you were solo parenting at the museum, encourage your child to tell the other parent about her favorite painting, the silliest thing she saw, or the happiest or saddest thing she saw.

Do an art project that relates to something you saw.

Check out children’s books about museums from the library and look through them together.

Don’t be surprised if your preschooler remembers very little. It’s hard for him at this stage to articulate everything he experienced.

And don’t worry if your preschooler had a meltdown, didn’t love the museum, or tired out sooner than you thought she would. Not everyone is destined to love museums, but everyone can find something to enjoy. As you continue to keep art in your life, and continue to visit museums, your child’s enjoyment will grow.

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool, we know that art is a valuable tool for your child’s emotional well-being. It also refines visual perception and fine motor skills, increases creativity and imagination, and helps your child develop an appreciation of his surroundings. That’s why our students engage in art projects every single day, along with our seven other areas of focus. Call us for more information about our preschool program at (801) 523-5930.

June 4, 2018June 4, 2018

These Sensory Activities for Preschoolers Help Your Child Develop in Countless Ways

Our senses are bombarded each and every day. Different sounds, sights, tastes, smells, and textures are everywhere. Most adults have learned how to handle this bombardment by tuning out the senses that aren’t necessary to what we’re doing. (But even still, we can experience sensory overload from time to time.)

Children, on the other hand, are still getting a handle on all the senses and experiences of their world. Remember how your preschooler put everything in her mouth as a baby? She no longer needs to explore every object in that way, but she’s still making sense (pun intended) of her world — and she’s using her senses to do that.

That’s why sensory play is so vital for a child’s development. Children need to have all senses engaged in play so they can come to understand how things work.

The Seven (Yes, Really!) Senses

You know about the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. But there are two more senses that a child needs to use and develop:

Body awareness (or proprioception), which refers to how we sense where our bodies are in space, and
Balance

When children engage in activities that put many of these seven senses to work, they are building on their problem-solving skills, social skills, language skills, and cognitive skills and growth.

What Is Sensory Play?

Sensory play is simply defined: It is an activity that stimulates some or all of the seven senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, body awareness, and balance.

But sensory play does so much more than just give your child the chance to experience the senses. As children stimulate their senses, they become familiar and comfortable with those senses. This helps them become more adaptable. For example, a small child may not be able to build with blocks while the window is open and cars are driving by. Over time, as the child engages in sensory play, he will learn to block out the noise so he can concentrate on his task.

Sensory play also helps children feel comfortable with things that may cause them anxiety. For example, a child may struggle with the feeling of a toothbrush inside her mouth. But as she plays with objects that have bristles, she can come to feel more comfortable with the texture of a toothbrush, and brushing teeth can become less scary over time.

The Many Benefits of Sensory Play

Sensory play benefits your child in a variety of ways, including:

The ability to complete complex learning tasks
Language development
Cognitive growth
Problem-solving skills
Fine motor development
Gross motor development
Social skills
Memory enhancement
Reduction in anxiety
Self-soothing skills

Sensory play is not just about touching play-dough and playing in rice bins (although, sensory play certainly is that!). It’s more than touch; it’s about involving all the senses.

Try these sensory activities for preschoolers at home.

Body Awareness Sensory Activity for Preschoolers

Body awareness helps us to do our every-day activities: feed ourselves, shower, get dressed, give somebody a hug. It helps us to avoid standing too closely to strangers, to be able to maneuver around obstacles in our path, and to do things like apply sunscreen on our face without applying too much pressure.

Give your child opportunities to move, move, move! Scooters, tricycles, balance bikes, roller skates, and more help your preschooler understand his body and where it is in space.

Some common household chores, like making the bed, carrying in groceries, and vacuuming, are perfect for building body awareness.

Fun body awareness sensory activities for preschoolers are:

hopscotch
jumping on the trampoline
making a snowman
pulling a wagon
playing clapping games
bouncing a ball against a wall
balloon volleyball
rolling down a hill

Think of ways you can add unique movement into ordinary activities. For example, you could have your child climb under the table for story time or to practice letters.

Balance Sensory Activities for Preschoolers

Surprisingly, balance is actually connected to your child’s learning process. If your child struggles to control his balance, things like sitting at the rug or in a chair become difficult. This makes focus more difficult to achieve, and learning becomes harder.

Give your child fun activities to learn balance:

Play leap frog
Do twist jumps and jumping jacks
Use chalk to draw shapes, and have your child jump from shape to shape
Hop or stand on one foot
Play Simon says
Walk on a “tight rope” (lay string or tape on the floor)
Play freeze tag

Sight Sensory Activities for Preschoolers

Teach your child to notice what she sees around her.

Put in ear plugs and go on a walk. After the walk, talk about what your child saw.
Make “binoculars” or a “spyglass” out of paper towel rolls, cups, and toilet paper rolls. Have your child act as a detective who is investigating or as a pirate who is searching for land. Talk about what your child sees through their devices.
Use a magnifying glass to get a closer look at insects, plants, and favorite toys.

Hearing Sensory Activities for Preschoolers

Help your child get a greater sense of hearing with these activities.

Blindfold your child (an old tie works great) and guide her across the room with your voice.
Similarly, blindfold your child and make noises around the room. Ask him to point to where you are. If you want to get really challenging, ask him to tell you what is making the noise. (Some ideas: open and close a door, play a piano key, zip and unzip a coat.)
Fill plastic eggs or solid jars (not see-through) with different items like marbles, rice, coins, or jelly beans. Let your preschooler shake the eggs or jars and guess what is inside. Talk about why the rice made a lighter sound than the marbles; why the coins sounded metallic, etc.

Taste Sensory Activities for Preschoolers

There is so much fun to be had when working on the sense of taste!

Serve foods from a different culture.
Serve meals your child can “build” himself. A taco bar, baked potato bar, build-your-own pizza, and more gives your child the chance to make his own taste choices. Ambitious children can taste new combinations while cautious children can choose foods that are comfortable to them.
Teach the four main tastes with taste bottles.
Conduct fun taste tests.
Let your child help with cooking (and sampling as you go).

Smell Sensory Activities for Preschoolers

Smell is a crucial sense to develop. It can help your child smell danger (like smoke) or determine if something is too spoiled to eat. It can help with the sense of taste, and it can bring happiness — smell is closely connected to many of our memories.

Make scented play-dough. At UDA Creative Arts Preschool, the children have loved pumpkin spice play-dough. The delicious smell fills the entire room and inspires plenty of autumn-themed creations. You can find the recipe here. We have also enjoyed strawberry and chocolate play-dough recipes.

Cook and bake. Let your child sniff the spices before you add them. Talk about the new scents that develop as you mix ingredients together.
Make sensory smelling bottles.
Paint with homemade scented paint made from Kool-Aid and water.

Touch Sensory Activities for Preschoolers

Children don’t really need an invitation to touch; they want to touch everything! These activities will give your child new textures to experience.

Use shaving cream or whipped cream for letter and name practice.

Create a sensory bin filled with beans, rice, sand, fake grass, or beads. Add small toys to be played with.

Visit a farm or a friend with a pet, and teach your child to gently touch the animals .

Read touch-and-feel books.

Plant a garden. Let your child get her hands dirty.

Play with slime or play-dough.

Snuggle with a favorite stuffed animal

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No surprise here: cook or bake (again).

Every day, you can find ways for your child to build awareness of her senses in the way she plays. At UDA Creative Arts Preschool in Draper, Utah, we believe in developing the whole child, and we know that sensory activities give your child a chance to develop in countless ways. That’s why we build sensory activities into everything we do. Give your child the gift of an enriching preschool education. Give us a call at (801) 523-5930, or contact us online for a tour of the preschool.

May 23, 2018June 4, 2018

7 Ways to Teach Your Preschooler to Be Respectful

“R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to me!” Respect does not come naturally to most children. As Aretha says, they have to find out what it means.

But for harmony to exist, it’s critical that we all know, understand, and use respect. Your preschooler is in the process of learning about respect for herself, for friends, for teachers, for parents, for possessions, for property, for other opinions, and so much more. Use these seven tips to teach respect to your preschooler.

Model Respect

You tell your child he can have only one cookie because it’s important to not eat too much sugar. You then proceed to eat four cookies right in front of him, while he angrily counts each cookie that passes past your lips.

This isn’t fair, right? (And if you really did this, you wouldn’t be teaching a correct principle about sugar, either.) It’s the same with teaching respect. If you want your child to be respectful towards you, family members, pets, possessions, other people, and more, you also have to be respectful to your child and to those same people, animals, and possessions.

Make sure you use polite language when speaking to and about other people. Use polite language when speaking to your child. Take care of your possessions, and be gentle with your pets. And while it’s not reasonable to point out each respectful move you make, you can occasionally describe why you chose to use the words “please” and “thank you” at the store. Or why, even though you were in a hurry, you chose to let an elderly customer go ahead of you.

Expect Respect

Preschoolers are capable of being respectful, and when you expect it, they will learn to live up to that expectation. This doesn’t mean they’ll get it perfectly every time, and it doesn’t mean you should be unyielding in your expectations. It may take years for them to remember rules like saying “thank you” at a restaurant. Be patient, and keep expecting. Your gentle encouragement and praise (“I’m so impressed you remembered to say ‘please’ on your own!”) will help them learn to be respectful over time.

Identify

Is your child truly being disrespectful, or is she distracted? You may have asked her to tidy up the playroom, but she was busy trying to get batteries back into her favorite light-up toy as you gave your request. She didn’t hear you, so she continued fumbling with the batteries. To you, it may look like disrespectful ignoring. But before you get upset, look at her and identify why she isn’t being respectful to you.

It’s also possible that your child didn’t understand your instructions. When you asked him to go to his room, get his shoes and coat, and bring them back to you so you could help him put them on, he may not have understood the entire set of instructions. That’s a lot for a little one to retain. Make sure you’re giving simple, easy-to-follow instructions that aren’t hard to mess up.

Name Your Child’s Emotions

Small children don’t always know what to do with their big feelings, so those feelings come out in hurtful words or actions. They might scream that they hate you, or they might hit a sibling or the cat. This is, of course, disrespectful, but keep in mind that these are huge opportunities for you to teach respect.

Instead of reacting in anger, name your child’s emotions. When you name your child’s emotions, they feel understood and secure. They also understand themselves better. They are then in a better position to hear gentle corrections.

For example, if your child throws a toy across the room when you ask her to wash her hands for dinner, you could say, “You’re upset because you were enjoying playing with your toys, and you don’t want to be interrupted.”

Once she hears that you understand — and she understands her own reaction — you can say, “Throwing toys is not the correct way to show that we’re upset, though. The toy could break, or it could break something else in the room.”

Your calm reaction will demonstrate to your child that it’s possible to be respectful even when we’re angry. It will also help your child to come down from her big emotions.

Role Play

We all struggle with selfish feelings, and preschoolers are so new to the world that they definitely don’t have a handle on those feelings yet. That’s where role play comes in when you’re trying to teach respect. When you act out scenarios that require manners (not interrupting, saying “thank you,” being gentle with a friend’s toy), your child learns what it looks and feels like to be respectful. This makes it easier for her to rely on those learned skills when the time comes for her to be respectful “in the wild.”

Teach About Differences

A lot of the disrespect that exists in our world today stems from people who can’t handle different opinions, races, religions, and more. Start young, and teach your child about these differences. Teach respect by helping them see it’s okay to have differences, that everyone is special in their own way. Teach them to look for the similarities among the differences. This will help your child to avoid feeling threatened or angry about people who are different from her.

Be Kind When They Mess up

Everyone makes mistakes. As adults and parents, we all know that better than anyone else. Remember that your child is going to mess up — sometimes in big ways. If you fly off the handle, put your child down, or criticize him for being stupid, he will not learn from his mistakes; he’ll only learn to fear you. He also won’t learn respect.

If you can be understanding and speak respectfully to your child when they mess up, they will feel your love and will feel capable of doing better the next time. They’ll also feel respected, and will want to return that respect to others.

A note: Be kind to yourself when you mess up. You won’t do everything perfectly. Apologize to your child when you make mistakes, accept your child’s forgiveness, and forgive yourself.

You’re working hard to teach your child respect, and your efforts will pay off. At UDA Creative Arts Preschool, we support our parents’ tireless efforts by teaching the children to respect themselves, their friends, the items at preschool, people who are different, and so much more. For a tour of the preschool, give us a call at (801) 523-5930, or contact us online.

May 12, 2018May 12, 2018

4 Ways We’re Teaching Preschoolers Responsibility & 4 Ways You Can Teach it at Home

Sometimes teaching responsibility can feel a little overwhelming because it’s such a, well, responsible thing to do. Having a responsible child is a worthy pursuit and it doesn’t have to be hard. Here are four ways we’re teaching preschoolers responsibility at UDA Creative Arts Preschool, as well as some ideas to bring the lesson home.

1- Teaching Responsibility with Seeds

Gardeners and farmers are not the only ones who wonder at the magic of a seed. How incredible–you can just put that little guy into the the black soil, and with some water and sunshine, voila!

But these little plants are not the only things growing here! Our preschoolers are not only loving their turns to water the seeds, they are learning how to nurture and be responsible for the growth of their little baby seedlings, as well as protecting our natural resources by not overwatering.

As you can see by our successful sprouts, our preschoolers have enjoyed their watering responsibilities.

Parents Can:

Plant a garden! Bring this lesson home by providing plant seeds at home and helping your preschooler cultivate a vegetable or flower garden.

If that’s too much, just give your child a pot and a seed and let them grow their plant in the house or on the back porch. Giving your child the responsibility of watering (with your guidance, of course) will give your child a sense of pride as they watch the fruit of their labors blossom or become tonight’s salad.

2-Teaching Responsibility through Recycling

During Earth Week, we spent some time learning about our beautiful earth and how is is our responsibility to take care of it. We sang about how we can reduce, reuse and recycle.

While reusing magazines and wood chips, we created our own paper and used it for our art projects the following week.

One of our preschoolers was so excited he exclaimed, “Now that I know how to make paper, I can make it all the time!”

Parents Can:

Reduce, reuse and recycle starts at home. Have your child collect all those loud crinkly grocery sacks after shopping into a special bag or box and your “Royal Recycle Regent” can officially deposit the bags in your local grocery store bag drop. Don’t forget the fanfare!

Take it a step further and purchase reusable bags and let your preschooler help fold them and put them away after shopping, explaining how they are helping save the earth by reusing bags.

3-Teaching Responsibility with Animals

It took a lot of self control, but our kiddos mastered some responsibility by not touching our 4-day-old baby chicks because they were too little to be loved.

As the chicks got older, they cared for the chicks by making sure they had enough food and water and warmth from the heat lamp (and some gentle touches). We discussed how all babies need someone to be responsible for them. What would they do without a mommy or daddy to protect and provide for them?

We ventured further into the animal kingdom during zoo week. Zoo keepers need to be very responsible. What would happen to all those animals without a responsible zoo keeper?

Parents Can:

Not ready to teach life lessons with a dog? As wonderful as pets are for teaching responsibility, not everyone is ready for that step. That’s okay! Your child can learn some life lessons in responsibility by taking on a pet insect.

A clear plastic cup and some dirt can be a great habitat for some worms, pill bugs, ants, or even a spider. Help your child think of what your “pet” needs to survive and create a mini-habitat for them. But remember, part of being responsible means allowing wild animals to live in the wild, so the responsible thing is to keep this pet temporarily. (Bonus!)

4-Teaching Responsibility with Safety

Besides making conscious efforts to push in our chairs and clean up after ourselves to keep our classrooms safe for others, we trained and became certified cape-wearing “Super Safety Kids”!

We also discussed the importance of our community helpers who are responsible to keep our neighborhoods safe.

For little preschool bodies, the excitement was hard to contain as the firefighters drove up in their trucks to show us their gear and teach us about the importance of fire safety.

Seeing the real firetruck made our role-play fire fighting activities come to life.

We recognize fire safety is not all fun and games, and we hope preschool parents will do their part to prevent fires and teach safety. Be sure to see some of the tips below.

Police officers have gadgets too! We loved peeking into our officer’s car and learning about how we can be responsible for our own safety.

Role playing is such an important activity to help preschoolers learn empathy and caring. Our dramatic play station in full-swing caring and helping our fellow citizens.

Whether police officers, firefighters, first responders, or whomever the community helpers may be, we are grateful for so many wonderful people willing to assume the responsibility to keep our community a safe and happy place to be! What would our world be like without them?

Parents Can:

We all pray it won’t happen to us, but just in case, the American Red Cross offers this checklist to educate your child and prevent fires. Safety.com offers a few more ideas in this article. Take time to talk to your child about being responsible to prevent fires, and what to do in case one happens. Practice a fire drill so your child knows what the fire alarms sound like in your home.

Keeping our children safe is a responsibility we all share. This website offers some sound advice for caregivers teaching children safety. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom for some additional resources on what to do to prepare for an emergency or a missing child situation. A few of their tips include:

Teach children their full name, parent’s names, and phone number. Have this information written somewhere in case of a panic situation.
Even a preschooler can learn how to dial 911. Teach your child how to use a phone and when it is appropriate to use it.
Have a trusted adult your child can call in an emergency. Have your child memorize the number and have it available for babysitters.
Choose babysitters wisely and follow-up carefully after they’ve been with your child.
Set boundaries in your neighborhood with visible landmarks for your child.
Get to know your neighbors and make sure your child is informed on whom they may and may not visit.
Help your child understand that adults should not approach children, and if they do, to be careful because it could be a trick.
Never leave your child alone in a car.

Reading Suggestions for Teaching Responsibility:

As always, there are fabulous books out there to start the conversation about responsibility with your preschooler. Here are a few we read with our classes:

Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss
Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss
What if Everybody Did That? by Ellen Javernick
Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Chores by Jan & Mike Berenstain

Sometimes that lesson at home in responsibility takes a specific lesson on safety or practicing learning a phone number, but we hope that usually it’s just the extra little thing and the conversation that helps our preschoolers become responsible. We sure love teaching preschoolers responsibility as these important life lessons really come to life.

Looking for a preschool? Or even if you want to check out what our next learning adventures are, come visit us at an open house or schedule a tour of UDA Creative Arts Preschool by calling (801) 523-5930.

Written By: Elsje Denison

May 11, 2018

Transition Strategies for Preschoolers

Summer is almost here, and your preschooler is going to have to adjust to a new schedule without school. It seems like just yesterday you were figuring out how to make preschool goodbyes run more smoothly, and here you are, already preparing for the summer months. While you may be looking forward to longer days and sunshine, transitions aren’t always easy for children.

Your child will be leaving the weekly structure of preschool, and will have to say goodbye to teachers and friends. While the pool may be a fun replacement, it doesn’t mean difficult feelings won’t surface as you go through the transition of school to summer. Use these transition strategies for preschoolers to travel happily together from May into June.

Schedule, Schedule, Schedule

The school year was largely a success because you followed a predictable routine. Up at 7:00. Go potty. Eat breakfast. Get dressed. Gather school supplies. Out the door at 8:00. Heading into the summer, you may be tempted to abandon such a strict routine. It’s nice to live without a clock, after all.

But while you can loosen up your schedule a bit in the summer, don’t abandon all routine. Routines help your child feel emotionally safe and secure, and following one will help your child make the transition from a structured school year into summer fun a bit easier.

Structure a morning routine that is similar to the morning routine you’ve been keeping all school year, but you can ease up on the time crunch if you want. Keep breakfast, getting dressed, etc. in a similar order to keep things routine for your little one. Then, create a general structure you’ll follow from day to day — lunch at the same time, dinner at the same time, bedtime routine kept the same.

You can make this transition time easier for your preschooler by creating a simple daily checklist for her to follow. Post it in the kitchen or bathroom so she can clearly see what activity comes next.

Keep Learning

Summer learning loss is a real thing. Don’t stress about providing the same level of learning your child has been experiencing in preschool, but continue reading, practicing letters in fun ways, and learning about the world around you. Take trips to the library, museums, farms, zoo, and more to keep your preschooler’s mind engaged and learning. This is a great transition strategy for your preschooler because it keeps her mind occupied and helps her avoid boredom.

Maintain Friendships

Making friends in preschool is hard work. Little children have to learn to take turns, control impulses, acknowledge the needs of others, and so much more. By the end of the school year, their hard work has paid off handsomely in true friendships. If you live close enough to some of your child’s preschool friends, arrange for play dates over the summer. Your child and friends will love the comfort of familiar faces, and your child won’t feel anxious about losing those important friendships once school is out.

Listen to Your Child

Your child has just finished a year of preschool, and may be nervous about what’s coming up in the fall. If kindergarten is on the horizon, you may be excitedly talking about the big-kid steps your child is about to take. But for some children, this may make them anxious. The start of the new school year is still a long way off, and they may not be prepared to feel the weight of their next big step.

Listen to your child’s cues. Is he saying he’s nervous about school? Don’t brush him off. Let him know you understand. Is she telling you she doesn’t want to be a big kid? Let her know those feelings are natural and you’re there to help her through them.

You can also give positive examples of times your child was successful at doing a big-kid thing, or tell your child about a time you felt nervous too.

Make a Fun To-Do List

To create excitement about summer, ask your child what he would like to do over the break. If the requests are within reason, put them on the calendar and help him look forward to the fun activities. You can even find a cheap calendar for your child to keep in their room and keep track of the upcoming events. Simple drawings can be enough for a child who isn’t reading yet (a lion on the day you plan to go to the zoo, a beach ball on the day you plan to go to the lake or beach, etc.).

With just a little prep work, these transition strategies for preschoolers will help your child soak up the summer months.

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool in Draper, Utah, we believe your child’s emotional well-being is just as important as academic progress. Our curriculum focuses on developing the whole child. If you’d like to arrange for a tour of the preschool, give us a call at (801) 523-5930 or contact us online.

April 25, 2018

Why Should You Care About Fine Motor Skills for Your Preschooler?

You’ve been hearing about fine motor skills since your child was an infant. You know your child needs to develop them, but how can you know if you’re providing the right opportunities for that development? Read on to learn what fine motor skills are, and what can you do to help your child develop them appropriately.

What Are Fine Motor Skills?

Fine motor skills refers to skills that require a refined use of the smaller muscles in the fingers, hands, and forearms. Think buttoning coats, using scissors, holding pencils, opening sandwich bags, etc.

It’s important to develop fine motor skills so that these tasks can be done well — and at a reasonable pace.

Just like learning to walk took effort, trial and error, and gradual development of necessary muscles, fine motor skill development takes time too. Many independent skills have to come together to make the task happen.

Why Does Your Child Need to Develop These Skills?

Think of all the things your fingers do to get you through the day. You wash your hair, brush your teeth, get dressed, sign forms, eat food, and so much more. Your child needs these skills to get through life as well.

Fine motor skills affect academics (writing, using scissors), playing (dressing up dolls, building with blocks), and self care (getting dressed, eating). These skills help your child develop confidence, independence, and an enjoyment of life.

As fine motor skills develop, your child also learns more and more about how her body works and how to interact with the world.

Fine motor skills develop over time. A baby goes from batting at toys to grasping them. A toddler stacks rings and turns pages of a board book. By preschool, children are feeding themselves and beginning to put puzzles together. (This handy graphic outlines basic motor skills milestones.)

Don’t be worried if your child can’t do all of these things perfectly yet. The goal is progress and development over time.

Fun Ways to Improve Fine Motor Skills

The good news is you’ve likely been giving your child chances to develop fine motor skills all along. As early as infancy, tummy time gives babies the chance to push up and swipe at objects, strengthening those fine motor skills.

When your child was a baby and you let him feed himself finger foods? You were giving him a chance to develop his fine motor skills.

Stacking blocks and playing with play dough? Yep, and yep.

These activities, and countless others through the years of your child’s life, have been developing fine motor skills. So what can you do to keep encouraging development of fine motor skills?

These fine motor skills activities will help your child develop necessary skills — while having a blast!

Finger Painting

It’s messy, yes. But oh so fun! And finger painting helps build your child’s finger dexterity. To make it less stressful on you, Mom or Dad, take the finger painting outside where you don’t have to worry about a rainbow of colors “decorating” your furniture.

Sponge Squeezing

This is so easy, it’s almost crazy it could also be something that develops a skill. Give your child a few buckets of water, a few sponges, and let her soak and squeeze. You can challenge her to fill an empty bucket by squeezing a sponge into it, or just step back and let her explore.

Cut the Lawn

No, your preschooler isn’t old enough to operate the lawnmower (yet). But hand her a pair of child scissors and ask her to cut the lawn. (Stay close to supervise safety.) She’ll have so much fun using scissors outside.

Use a Hammer

Give your child a safe mallet or hammer, and let her break soft rocks into sand. You can come up with dozens of different things to hammer, and this will also build hand-eye coordination skills along with fine motor skills. Anna from The Imagination Tree put colored matchsticks into a foam block for a fun fine motor skills activity.

Colorful Eye Dropper Activity

What you’ll need:

Clean eyedroppers
An empty ice cube tray
Small containers
Water
Food coloring

Fill your small containers with water, and add different colors of food coloring to each one. Give your child one or two clean eyedroppers and show her how to use them to suck up the water. Let her put the different colors of water into the ice cube trays to see how colors mix together. She’ll have so much fun experimenting, she’ll have no idea she’s developing fine motor skills.

Play Doh — With a Twist

Playing with play doh is great for developing fine motor skills. But take it a step or two further and add other fine motor skill activities to play doh time. Give your child varieties of dried pasta to incorporate into his play doh creations. Hand him a pair of child-safe scissors too. He can use the scissors to cut the play doh and the dried pasta. And he can stick the pasta into the play doh in a variety of creative ways — developing imagination and fine motor skills at the same time!

Eat with Chopsticks

We can’t guarantee this will be a successful endeavor, but your child will sure have fun trying to manipulate the utensils.

Bake — and Decorate

Bring your preschooler into the kitchen with you when you bake and cook. Let her stir, measure, and place chocolate chips and raisins. These motions will build on her fine motor skills. Let her add decorations to your baked goods. You won’t end up with masterpieces, but your child’s works of edible art will be something she can take pride in. After all, tiny decorations aren’t easy with tiny fingers!

Pin the Clothespin

Manipulating clothespins is great for developing fine motor skills. Give your child a handful of clothespins and various pieces of cardboard and fabric. Have your child pin to her heart’s content.

The possibilities for fine motor skills activities are endless. As you look around your house and go about your day, see how many fine motor skills activities you can have your child do.

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool, we’re passionate about helping children be their best selves in all aspects, including motor skills. To schedule a tour of our preschool, give us a call at (801) 523-5930, or contact us online.

April 11, 2018

Why Do We Do Assessments in Preschool?

Assessments in preschool are always for the benefit of each child. They aren’t meant to be scary, dismal, or disheartening. Rather, they allow teachers to take a comprehensive look at what each child knows, how she is developing, and where she can continue to grow.

It’s important to note that, as teachers, we are not stressed about what each child can and can’t do. Rather, we are focused on seeing progress and development for each child. We don’t compare children to each other. At UDA Creative Arts Preschool, we believe we teach a child, not a class. This means that while we teach classrooms of children, we are focused on getting each child to their next step.

We know it’s easy to fall into comparison mode as parents, but we strongly encourage you to focus on your child’s progress. Does your child know more now than he did at the beginning of the year? Have her fine motor skills improved compared to what she was capable of five months ago? This is what’s important — that your child is progressing.

Preschool assessments are not standardized tests; there are no right or wrong answers.

Why Perform Assessments in Preschool?

Preschool assessments are a valuable tool to teachers, parents, and children in many ways:

Assessments in preschool provide the teacher with data and details. This data helps teachers to see each child’s strengths, as well as areas that need continued focus.
Preschool assessments help to inform future instruction. With the information collected from assessments, teachers can adjust their methods and techniques to benefit each child.
Assessments identify special needs. During assessments, teachers can identify areas in which a child isn’t progressing. This can be critical information at a young age, and parents can use it to obtain necessary interventions and help.
Assessments provide a way to communicate to parents about their child’s progress and development. This not only gives parents a good idea of how their children are doing, it also gives them a baseline for continuing learning at home. For example, if the assessment shows that your child knows most of his letters, but only a few numbers, you can continue encouraging what your child knows while boosting number knowledge through letter and number identification throughout your day. If your child is great at sharing at preschool, you can continue to encourage that at home.
Preschool assessments help teachers with group teaching. When we are done with assessments, we have the data to show us how many children are mastering certain concepts. If we need to adjust teaching as a group, we can do so. Likewise, if we need to give one or two children extra attention, we can plan for that.
Assessments help parents see their children’s strengths. We love this part of assessments. Each of our children are advancing in unique ways, and we love to point out those special qualities to parents.

What Do We Assess at UDA?

We aim to develop the whole child, so our preschool assessments focus on several areas of development:

Physical development
Motor skills
Identification of letters and their sounds, numbers, shapes, colors, etc.
Social development
Emotional development
Language development
General knowledge
And more

We don’t expect any child to be perfect in any area. Our goal is to always see progress.

How We Perform Assessments at UDA Creative Arts Preschool

The word assessment conjures up thoughts of sitting still at a desk, sweat dripping down cheeks, as the child frets about proving they know the “right answers.”

But assessment time at UDA is a fun time for your child (and our teachers!).

We conduct our assessments as games, not tests. This is important because our aim is to really see what your child knows. Putting pressure on a child by demanding answers won’t give us an accurate picture of your child’s development and knowledge.

Playing an enjoyable game in which the child is having fun and is encouraged to show their knowledge makes the experience exciting and special for your child. And when your child feels happy, he’s confident. We know we get a more accurate picture of your child’s knowledge in this way.

Each assessment period is individualized to the child. Some children may feel more comfortable jumping while they play a letter identifying game, and others may prefer to use a stuffed animal to “answer” for them. We all really put on our creativity hats when we assess to make the experience right for each child.

We’re very aware of short attention spans, and so we do our assessments in chunks of time over a month. That way, your child doesn’t get overly distracted or overtaxed. And we receive a better picture of what your child knows.

Ultimately, the children don’t ever realize they are being assessed. They simply know they get to have fun one-on-one time with their teacher, playing games. The teacher is able to glean important data to mark the child’s progress in this way.

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool, we love to see our children progress and develop in their own unique ways. If you know someone with a child who would benefit from our unique approach, have them give us a call at (801) 523-5930 or contact us online to schedule a tour.

April 6, 2018April 11, 2018

World Wide Wonder- Teaching Preschoolers Culture & Diversity

Wonder is inherent for all children, so it’s no wonder we wondered at our wide world wonder week. (Say that five times fast!) UDA Creative Arts Preschool believes in making connections and loves teaching preschoolers culture and diversity, and that certainly can’t stop at the edge of the classroom!

Children begin noticing differences in people around them as early as six months of age. Parents can begin the dialogue of why and how people are different long before their child is enrolled in preschool. We’d like to share some of the ways we are teaching preschoolers culture and diversity and encourage parents and caregivers to continue the conversation with your child.

Where Do I Fit?

As children make connections, it’s important for them to figure out their place in this big wide world. We do a patriotic theme week where children identify where they fit into their family and house, then on their street. Next, we have them move to their city and community, followed by their state, and then country. From our country, we move to the world, followed by the universe. Wow. That’s big!

Parents Can:

Help your child continue to see the connections. As you drive down the street, you can say, “Here is our street in our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is in our city.” (For safety reasons, it’s important for your child to know their city, state, address and phone number as soon as they can memorize it! Make sure they also know their last name and parent’s names.) “Look at that number on our house or apartment building, our address is…”. Having a visual reference to their world will help them find their place in it.

Try Cultural Foods

Pretty obvious answer for cultural exposure, but is there really a yummier way? We try a variety of foods, including…

noodles with chopsticks,

beans and rice, chips and salsa, and even seaweed and sushi.

Parents Can:

If you don’t already, eat cultural foods. Exposing your child to a variety of foods can encourage adventurous taste buds and even decrease picky eating. Modeling your willingness shows your child it’s okay to explore. And if you have to gag it down, well, it shows your kids you’re still willing to try! If you need some ideas, this article shares what kids all over the world are eating for breakfast.

Try cultural food nights! Pick a culture and try a new recipe. Spice it up for a holiday: Irish food for St. Patricks Day, Mexican food on Cinco de Mayo, Jewish food on Passover, Chinese food for New Year. The world’s the limit!

Listen to Diverse and Cultural Music

Besides the myriad of benefits that come from learning any kind of music, learning cultural music can increase concentration as children listen to new sounds and language they are not familiar with. Cultural music also further develops language skills.

Learning cultural dances increases physical development, emotional and social development, and love for diversity.

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool, for world week we are counting to ten in Spanish, learning Spanish songs, and making our own maracas.

Parents Can:

Music is the universal language. Every culture loves music! Cultural music has evolved into diverse instrumentation and genres. Try listening to different music stations in the car. If you live in Salt Lake County, you can also download and stream free music from the SLC Library, which has a large selection of diverse and cultural music.

Dance! Turn on diverse music and twist while you tidy up. Cha cha while you change clothes. Boogie while you brush your teeth. Help children feel free to sway, stomp, and twirl the way the different styles move them. Bonus: the groaning just may turn into giggles!

Explore Cultural Art

Art is defined as the conscious use of skill and creative imagination, and every culture through time has expressed themselves through art. Art is the perfect way to teach preschoolers culture and diversity!

Children naturally have creative imaginations, so art is their language. For world week we made Japanese fish kites.

Allowing children open ended art activities builds confidence and continues the development of their imagination and creativity. Adding the cultural element adds appreciation for other peoples and their expression.

Parents Can:

Inspiration for cultural art can be found in books, art museums, or for those of us on a time crunch, on Pinterest. But to help you out, here are a few ideas we found online. Help children pay attention to patterns, colors, and mediums other cultures like to use. How can they use those same elements to create their own imaginative expressions?

Bring the Culture to You!

As much as we’d love to, for most of us it’s not feasible to take our children around the world to experience cultures first hand. Next best option: bring the culture to you!

Miss Vicky shares keepsakes and the alphabet of her native Thailand.

We also had guest speakers come share about their native Mexico and Australia.

Parents Can:

Watch community calendars for cultural events and celebrations. Take your children to synagogues, mosques, temples, cathedrals and churches. Local libraries and community centers will often have exhibits, and of course museums are always a great cultural experience.

Find the visitor center for your area and pop in to see what they recommend. You never know what hidden gems you’ll find when it comes to small museums.

And even closer to home, read! There are so many books about culture and diversity. Ask your local librarian for his favorites. Here is a list from Scholastic to get you started.

Teaching Preschoolers Culture and Diversity by Keeping the Conversation Going

Keep your children wondering at the beauty of all the people and cultures in this world by pointing them out when you see them in your community. When you hear other languages spoken or music being played, when you see cultural dress, dance, or celebrations, talk about it.

Point out to your child how different people do things differently, but different is what keeps life interesting. Most of all, your child will learn respect as they see you respecting other races, ethnicities, religions, political groups, and ideas. If there is anything children know well, it’s the language of love.

Visit us at UDA Creative Arts Preschool in Draper, Utah, and see how we’re teaching preschoolers culture and diversity and integrating wonder of this wide world in our learning activities. Click here to register for a free open house or call us at (801) 523-5930.

Written By: Elsje Denison