From Our Desk
The Importance of Puzzles in Early Childhood Education
Puzzles are a great way to create a fun learning opportunity for kids. Puzzles develop memory skills, as well as an ability to plan, test ideas and solve problems. While completing a puzzle, children need to remember shapes, colours , positions, and strategies to complete them. Simple jigsaw puzzles help children develop finger strength, perseverance, and problem-solving skills. Ask your child to turn, flip, slide and wriggle pieces into position. Picking up, moving, and twisting the pieces of a puzzle helps children to develop finger strength and hand-eye coordination. As your child picks up and positions pieces, they also develop small-muscle control in their fingers.
Playing with these puzzles encourages children to look at pictures more carefully, going over them from top to bottom and from left to right. Through doing this, children may begin to notice visual similarities and differences. Puzzles develop memory skills, as well as an ability to plan, test ideas and solve problems. While completing a puzzle, children need to remember shapes, colors, positions, and strategies to complete them.
The experience of completing a puzzle can also help your child to learn to accept challenges, overcome problems and deal with frustrations. Completing a puzzle takes time and that means you need to be able to concentrate on the task at hand as long as you can! According to child development experts, your little one can concentrate for about two to five minutes times their age. Puzzles can help children learn to recognize different shapes and where they fit in the puzzle. They can examine each puzzle piece and find the matching space in the puzzle. The muscles in your toddler's hands need a lot of practice to hold and move small objects like puzzle pieces! Pegged puzzles are recommended to help build the fine motor skills that they’ll use later at school like holding a pencil or paintbrush. Your child will need to use a pincer grip to pick up the puzzle pieces and put them in the right spot.
The puzzle also gives your child the opportunity to work on their language and social skills! As an added bonus, your preschooler will build their memory skills as they learn to recognize the simple shapes and colors that make up the easier toddler and preschool puzzles.
Swapnali Medhekar
Center Head.
Kanakia Kids, Mira Road
Classroom Connection
Effective communication skills are helping learners to expand their thinking and creativity. Learners are enjoying each day by developing a positive attitude toward their physical world. They are realizing that connections and collaboration are key to any successful social interaction. These interactions help learners to connect with the world around them and help them to understand one another in a better way. Teachers guidance encourages learners to achieve their goals in their education and social field.
Nursery
English
Recapitulation of sound Y through yarn activity was done in the scrapbook. Learners also wrote the letter X in the English notebook. The teacher introduced the letter Z through the flashcards and Zinnia flower activity in the scrapbook. Learners enjoyed the activity of circling the pictures that begin with the sound Z.
English
Math
Recapitulation of the numbers 1 to 20 through oral counting and by threading the beads was done during the session. The teacher did a recap of the semicircle shape with the associated pictures and the learners coloured the cap on the art sheet. Learners wrote numbers 1-9 in the math notebook. Also, a focus colouring balloons activity was done.
Math
Theme
Recapitulation of wild animals and their young ones through puzzles was done in the class. Solving a puzzle helps kids to build memory. It improves finger coordination and imagination, and sharpens the power of observation. Also, promotes hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and problem-solving skills.
Music
Introduction of musical instrument families like (string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments)
String instrument: The strings are tightly fixed to a large sound box. The air in the sound box increases the loudness of the produced sound through the vibration of the strings. Examples: Piano, Guitar, Tanpura, Veena, Ektara, Violin, etc.
Wind instrument: In wind musical instruments, we have to pump the air to produce the sound. Examples of wind instruments are clarinets, flutes, and saxophones.
Percussion instrument: Percussion instruments are the ones that can produce a sound when these instruments are struck upon. Examples of percussion instruments are Cymbals, Bass drums, Xylophones, etc.
Horticulture
A garden can be an interactive playground for kids that will engage all of their senses. It’s where they can touch and feel the fruits, bright color flowers and grow accustomed to natural scents, and the sound of rustling shrubs. In horticulture, learners were shown different types of flowers, leaves, and trees on the school premises.
Jr.Kg.
English
Language development and literacy is no doubt a critical part of any child’s overall development. It supports the ability of your child to communicate, express, and understand feelings. It also supports your child’s thinking ability and helps them in overall development. As a part of the curriculum, this week the learners were introduced to the ‘u’ family words. They tried to frame the words using the basic phonic sounds and blending them. Speaking the words orally and also writing in their notebook helps the learners to remember the words properly. Written practice is equally important as it helps the learners to grasp the words faster.
English
Math
Understanding language is important for a child to communicate successfully with others. For a child to use words and concepts in their vocabulary they first need to understand them. Understanding the concept of opposites is important as it helps a child to learn how to compare two different things and to develop a more concrete understanding of a specific concept (e.g. fat and thin). Learning opposites also improves a child’s ability to describe things. The introduction of the concept of fat and thin was done with the help of flash cards. Number names help identify numbers easily. While speaking the name of numbers, children develop their pronunciation skills. The introduction of number names 8, 9, and 10 was done in the class with the help of flash cards. Children wrote the number names 8, 9 and 10 in their notebook.
Math
Theme
Learning about polar animals is very exciting and fun for children as they imagine the animals and the place they live and explore their imagination skills with it. This week the learners learned about Polar animals, and their habitat as well and also came up with different & amazing facts about the polar animals that they knew and shared with everyone.
Theme
Sports
The need for sports is very important for mental and emotional development. If children grow up in a playful and cheerful environment from an early age, their minds will be high. To enhance the freshness and vitality of the mind sports play a vital role. Children can learn positive mental skills, including accountability, leadership, and dedication. Learners at Kanakia kids enjoy the outdoor play as that is what they crave for and they play the sports with lot of enthusiasm and also have a very competitive spirit while playing the sports.
Sr.Kg.
English
Teaching your learners English will help boost memory, problem-solving skills, and critical-thinking skills, and develop an ability to multitask. Feeding their brain right is equally important and it comes with the skill of learning a second language. The session started with the introduction of the months of the year, followed by practice in written form in their notebooks.
English
Math
Math helps learners to understand the world around them by helping them to figure out patterns. It assists them in building reasoning and problem-solving skills, and it even helps to make predictions about what will happen in the future. In the math session, the teacher explained the subtraction concept and asked the learners to do the sums in their notebooks and also she recapitulated the topic "time". The teacher also introduced skip counting by 2 and did some interesting activities for making the topic interesting, learners wrote number names and numerals 1-99 in their notebooks.
Math
Theme
The theme creates a context for children to see the world around them. When children learn about the real world, they will understand and retain the knowledge better. It aids in the development of our student’s understanding of their physical and living environment.
The teacher reviewed the summer season during this week's topic lesson, and the students used pipe cleaners to create objects they could eat or see in the summer. The learners found the lesson to be fun. The recap of the winter season was conducted in the following session, and the students engaged enthusiastically. A recap of the rainy season and the story "Poxcy the bear" were completed in class during the last session. The children enjoyed the story and participated actively.
Theme
Art
Art can make a substantial impact on learning outcomes. From a learning perspective, art influences cognition and creative thinking. Art encourages creativity and imaginative thinking. Children absorb incredible amounts of new information and hence reflectively displayed the same. The children enthusiastically created art masterpieces to be displayed in an upcoming Art exhibition.
Zumba
Zumba Increases flexibility and improves neuromuscular coordination. Boosts self-confidence and self-esteem. It's a perfect stress reliever. The teacher started the session with a warm-up dance and started the Zumba moves. The teacher also played a game related to Zumba and learners enjoyed the session and learned the Zumba moves.
