During my early childhood teaching experiencing, I have noticed how important group time works as part of daily routine for kids. They are easily allured by and engaged in an attractive activity. In this post, I am going to share some of my ideas about group time activities and also want to know more ideas of other people. Please feel free to share your ideas with me. I am looking forward to collecting more creative and attractive mat time ideas.
What do you usually do at mat time in half hour with children 3-4 age group?
Individually, I normally have 3 steps in my mat time schedule:
(1). Singing songs/ a game of copycat
(2). Movement/ Action song/ felt board story/ puppet show
(3). Story time+ discuss with children
(1) Singing songs/ a game of copycat
The first thing I usually do is singing “hello song”, “greeting song”, simple action songs or doing copycat action to get children’s attention.
Some children’s favorite song examples:
…………
Songs of Copycat game:
“1, 2 you know what to do”
“ Head, shoulder, knee and toe”
“Everybody standing up”( the tune of London Bridge)
“Mrs bunny”
………….
(2) Movement/ Action song/ felt board story/ puppet show
On the second step, I often choose some CD books or action songs to do some exercise with children. Ask children to listen carefully to CD and do actions they heard.
Examples:
“Giant’s Breakfast” (recently super popular)
“The Gingerbread man”
Yoga exercise with kids
“Stretching”
…….
OR read some stories/puppet show with children engaged in to act the characters.
Examples:
Three Little Pigs (Little Golden Book)
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
………
OR felt board stories, or even let children to recognize alphabet, numbers, shapes, colors, animals, trucks and so on.
Examples:
“Five little monkeys”
“Brown bear”
“Hungry caterpillar”
“Jack and the bean stalk”
……….
(3) Story time+ discuss with children
Let children to choose the books they interested, and related to their current curriculum planning. And also discuss with children some issues that might happen in the stories.
For example:
In this week, we are talking about eating healthy food. So teachers can choose some books related to this topic. And then give some time for kids to talk about their eating behavior and favorite food. ask questions like what, why and how….
At the end of mat time, teachers can give children to do “washing hand songs”, such as “peanut, butter, marmite and Jam, children’s name go and wash your hands!”
Thanks for reading through my post, and I hope you can share your ideas about mat time with me. Much appreciated!
Keep going.. Good wrk, young lady!