Favorite Finds: Great Christmas Gifts for Preschoolers

When I was a classroom teacher parents and grandparents often asked me about what toys I would recommend for their preschoolers.  I have always been very passionate about finding toys for children that give them opportunities to increase their language skills, motor skills, social skills, imaginative skills, and creativity.  This year I sat down at my computer and tracked down 10 of my favorite toys (from my favorite store Target) for preschoolers.  I don't like toys that take all the thinking out of play and include lots of lights and noises so you won't find them here!  Most of these toys can be played with for hours with no need for batteries!  I also looked for great deals so all these toys are under $25!  All of these recommendations are based on years of observing young children and what I know to be best practice in early childhood.  Hopefully you will find this to be a helpful resource.

When asked about my recommendations, often my first response was Play-Doh (one of my all time favorite toys).  Guess what their response was!  "Ugh, Play-Doh?  I HATE Play-Doh!  It gets in my carpet and makes such a mess!"  Of course I was ready with my response.  "Play-Doh is a wonderful toy that helps develop imagination and motor skills.  When given guidance and direction (such as staying at the table in the kitchen and an adult joining them in their play) the possibilities are limitless!"  :)  This fun Play-Doh Perfect Twist Ice Cream Playset has so many possibilities for imaginative play and developing fine motor, language, and social skills!  There are many other fun Play-Doh products available or you can even make your own dough at home!  Maybe you could give a child a package that includes some homemade dough as well as some additional recipes, rolling pins, and some cookie cutters!  One of my favorite ways to help children to learn to use scissors is by cutting Play-Doh! (I prefer plastic scissors)

 

 

I once read some research that said that children who play the most board games do the best in math and social skills later in life.  Therefore, I try to include board games on the Christmas List every year!  There are many great board games out there, but this is one that my own children as well as my preschoolers loved!  Zingo is similar to Bingo, but it is very easy to play and great for vocabulary development as children are recognizing and naming pictures in the game.  What is your favorite board game?  What games do you remember playing with your family and friends when you were growing up?  Many of the best games are still around!  Board games are timeless gifts when you make sure that they are not based on movies, TV shows, and other animated characters!

 

 

The next toy on our list is a timeless classic!  I remember playing with a doctor kit when I was a child and I see children use these tools over and over again today!  Each week I provide childcare for a group of preschoolers and this is by far their favorite toy!  They play doctor with the babies, on each other, stuffed animals, and ME!  It is amazing to watch as children replay their experiences with the real caregivers in their lives! 

 

I recently returned from the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) Conference in Washington DC where I attended several sessions about music and movement with young children.  I heard over and over again how important it is to get real music into the hands, ears, and hearts of young children!  This is the best technology you can give your child--a musical instrument in their hands!

 

 

Our next gift is a toy that children AND adults enjoy!  Do you remember Lincoln Logs?  We had a set when I was a child and my brother, sister, and I played with them over and over again!  In fact, we still have those blocks!  In my experience, Lincoln Logs are a little too technical for most 3-4 year olds.  They are more appropriate for children that are a little older.  Bristle Blocks, on the other hand, are the perfect block for preschool children.  They are also a winner with boys and girls alike!  This particular set is recommended because it includes some people and accessories that can be used as wheels all in a nice carrying case! 

 

 



Of course anything Lego makes is going to be a hit with kids (big and small)!  The set listed below is a great option for preschoolers because they are a bit more chunky for smaller hands.  It also comes in a great carrying case!  My sister and I used to dream up ways to organize all the Legos our kids had, but this has a built in storage case!  That is so helpful!  Now you can take them anywhere!  Instead of putting your kids in front of a screen while they ride in the car or wait at the doctor's office you have an opportunity for play!

 

Another favorite toy for preschoolers is anything involving dramatic play!  In my classroom the two favorite play areas were blocks and dramatic play!  Children love to pretend to do the things they see adults do!  My daughter loved having tea parties with all her favorite animals, dolls, and people when she was younger.  Who ever really outgrows tea parties?!?  This is a nice little tea set from Fisher Price that gives lots of opportunity for pretend play along with a fun little stand for the perfect tea party spread!

 

 

When my daughter was turning three years old we had a Teddy Bear Picnic for her birthday party.  All of the children loved getting their own little picnic spread and pretending with their teddy bears!  This Leap Frog Shape and Sort Picnic Set is super fun and educational!  It includes some shape and color sorting activities as well as several different foods children can play with in this adorable picnic basket!  Who wouldn't love those eyes!!!

 

 

 

Do you have one of those kids who has "everything"?  My favorite solution for children like this is BATH TOYS!  Bath time is one of my favorite play times!  You can sing songs, explore, and get creative!  All while you get clean too!  :)  This little Seahorse Pump offers many opportunities for children to observe, explore, and ask questions!  There are many commercial products for bathtub play, but one of our favorites was a cup and a spoon!  Maybe you could personalize a set for your favorite child and set it aside for bathtub play!  Remember, bath time is about more than just getting clean, so play, explore, and HAVE FUN!

 

 

Christmas wouldn't be complete without at least one great children's book!  Last year my preschoolers and I absolutely LOVED the newly released Pete the Cat Saves Christmas book.  In fact, they wanted to read it all year long!  If you have been around my blog for very long you know that Pete the Cat is one of my very favorite characters!  His books are always full of fun rhythms, rhymes, and lessons to be learned!  The Christmas book is about giving and the fact that no matter how small you are there are lots of ways you can give and help others.  Why not pair the book with the Pete the Cat plush doll?  Snuggle up with your favorite little preschooler, Pete the Cat, and a cup of hot chocolate and make some memories!  Your time and presence while creating memories and reading with a child are the best gifts you can ever give!

 



 



 

As you may have noticed, most of the toys in this list are open-ended and don't require batteries!  They are an invitation to play, but the "batteries" are provided by the child.  Keep that in mind when you are purchasing toys for the children in your life this year!  You don't have to spend a lot of money or buy the "latest and greatest" in order for them to be truly happy.  The happiest memories I have from my childhood were the times that involved play with the people that I loved.  Whether it was reading stories with my mom, playing games with my dad, or building and pretending with my brother and sister, the lesson I learned was that the relationships I have are priceless!   You can't wrap the things that matter most...your relationship with your children.  This Christmas Season, take time to create memories, play, and be present with your child.  That's the best gift you can ever give! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Thanks-GIVING

 

(clipart by Kari Bolt)

 Our family created this fun little project that has turned out to be a HUGE blessing!  Back in the beginning of November we started what we called "Baskets of Blessings."  We wanted a way to express our gratitude to our neighbors for helping to create a great community!

 

Under the cover of darkness (sounds daring doesn't it!) we headed out armed with three baskets full of "blessings" for three different neighbors.  We said a little prayer that our neighbors would be embraced by the warmth of our gratitude for having such wonderful people to live near.  The best part was that this was a legitimate reason to ding dong doorbell ditch someone!  Ha!

 

 

We included some homemade apple pie filling, a note, and a poster in each basket.  You can find the note and poster here.  Below is a picture of the note.

 

 

It was such fun watching people throughout the neighborhood post on Facebook about how delighted and blessed they felt when they received the basket!  Even though we posted the sign in our window to let our neighbors know we had already been blessed we were TRIPLE blessed!!!  Here are some pictures of the blessings we received!

 

 Our first basket arrived in the early morning with fresh chewy brownies!  YUM!

 

Our second basket had all sorts of fun little toys and treats that you might find in the Dollar Store.  We had lots of FUN with this basket!

Our third blessing actually came in the form of a bag!  It was a bag full of blessings including homemade candy and Christmas treats!

You could adapt this activity to use in your classroom, school, or workplace.  It's not so much about what you put IN the basket as it is about showing your community that you care. 

This Thanksgiving we are counting our blessings.  We are a richly blessed family and living in a community that is safe and caring is just one of our many blessings!  It could be so different for our family and it is for so many.  Don't take for granted the blessings in your life.  How will you show others your gratitude this Thanksgiving and beyond?  

 



 



 



 

The Wonderful Woman Lived in a Shoe

I love Nursery Rhymes!  When I was teaching preschool I tried to include at least one nursery rhyme in our lessons each month.  As a child I loved it when my mom would sing or recite old rhymes and songs for me.  Nursery rhymes bring so many rich opportunities to teach and make learning connections with children.

I had quite a collection of nursery rhyme books, posters, songs, puppets, and activities that I used to help children gain phonemic awareness and enjoy playing with words and sounds.  I was super excited when I started using Conscious Discipline and discovered that Dr. Bailey has modified many of the old nursery rhymes into loving rituals for children and adults to enjoy together.  The whole collection is published in her book, I Love You Rituals.  

 

Do you all remember the old Nursery Rhyme about the "Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe"?  Let's admit, there are times as teachers and parents that we just don't know what to do!  In Dr. Bailey's version of this rhyme which she calls "The Wonderful Woman", children and adults are wrapped in a sense of safety as are assured that the Wonderful Woman knows exactly what to do. 

A Wonderful Woman Lived in a shoe.

She had so many children,

She knew exactly what to do.

She held them,

And rocked them,

And tucked them into bed.

"I love you, I love you," is what she said.

(From:  I Love You Rituals by: Dr. Becky Bailey)

 

 

We did so many different activities in our classroom with this nursery rhyme.  I'd like to share a few of my favorites with you!

 

 

I have had this old "shoe house" for YEARS!  I use it over and over again for many different activities.  I even had to trace it with a black marker because the lines are so faded!  You know what they say about old shoes!  Nothing fits better!  :)

 

We used this to have the children practice fine motor skills by lacing the shoe string in and out of the holes.  We had the children look through magazines and find a picture of a woman to cut out and glue to the shoe.  Then we had them either cut out or draw pictures of many little children hanging out around the shoe. 

 

When I introduce the "Wonderful Woman" I like to use pictures of the students in my class to represent the children and pictures of the teachers in the class to represent the wonderful woman.  One classroom I visited used a large shoe that hung on the wall.  There were pictures of all the children and teachers that were attached with Velcro to the shoe.  Children could retell the rhyme and use the photos to help them act it out.  You could attach the written names as well and children could match the written name to the correct photo.

 

One of my favorite books to read that goes along with this nursery rhyme is If the Shoe Fits by: Alison Jackson.  This is a cute story about a mother that wants to find a new house for her children since things are so cramped in the shoe.  Throughout the story, the family learns through trial and error, that the best place to be is home.  There are so many fun activities you can do along with this story.  One thing we did was bring in different objects that the family could live in such as a shoe box or a teapot.  We used people from our dramatic play center to act out new versions of the rhyme.  An example might be, "There was an old woman who lived in a box...."  Then we would think of different words that rhyme with box and twisted the words of the rhyme to include new words.  I had the children imagine what it would be like to live somewhere else.  If they could live in a different house what would it be.  We drew pictures and wrote about our answers.

 

 

The discussion from this story lead us into more conversations about houses.  We looked at pictures of various types of houses such as apartments, trailers, condos, etc.  We did various activities related to house, but I will have to share those later!  ;)

 

One thing I always did with my nursery rhymes was to make a poster that we could hang at circle or in the literacy center.   The children love the opportunity to come up and use the pointer to read the rhyme.  They also like to highlight various letters or words they know.  I always have props available for them to use as they act out the rhyme with classmates.  You should check out the website for Dade County Schools from Miami Florida.  They have a lot of free resources available to use along with nursery rhymes and Conscious Discipline.  Loving Guidance has also just released a new set of "I Love You Ritual" posters this fall.  Each ritual has motions that you can do with the child or children can do with each other and include eye contact, touch, presence, and playfulness!  Building neural connections and wiring the brain for success!  It's like two for one! 

 

 

 

For an activity that helps connect home and school I sent home some construction paper and asked the children to trace the shoe for each member of their family.  When the children brought the shoe prints back to school we let them cut them out and put them in order from smallest to largest then we used a little ring to bind them in order.  We talked about what each person in the family does to help keep the family safe and I helped them write it on the shoes.

 

 

I hope this inspires you to continue the tradition of using nursery rhymes to enrich the lives of children!  What is your favorite activity to do with the "Old Woman Who Lives in a Shoe?"  Share your ideas in the comments below!

 



Family Night Activity: A Committment to be More Loving

Every once in a while our family needs a little reminder to be more loving toward one another.  We get busy and off track and then we start seeing a lot more hurtful behavior from EVERYONE.  This season of Thanksgiving is a good time to remember to focus on family and having hearts that cultivate love.

To help us out I created this fun little family night activity.  Here is a printable that you can use with your family too!  We want to create a home where love is able to grow and in order to get there we need to remember a few things.

 

At the base of our tree you see that it says "be thankful".  We believe that what you focus on you get more of.  Our family has a lot to be thankful for!  When we remember all that we have it helps our lives to feel so much more full and satisfying.  We also added the word "breathe" to one of the branches because we all have to work very hard to pause when we get upset and sometimes walk away from a situation until we have calmed down and are able to be more loving.  As you see, smiles, hugs, listening, waiting, and helpfulness are hanging out in the tippy tops of our tree.  These are all practices that create deeper connections among us and bring us closer together as a family.  The more time we take to listen to one another, notice the need for help, and give warm embraces, the less time we spend arguing and upset.  Of course, in order to be gentle, kind, and forgiving, you have to practice all these other disciplines mentioned above, but above all else, prayer is what will get you there.

During Family Night we discussed all the words on our tree and how they help us cultivate love.  We gave lots of examples and even did some role playing to help use see how we can do things differently and be more loving.  To help use symbolize our family commitment to be more loving we put colorful fingerprints on the tree as leaves.  We used washable markers and colored the tips of our fingers to made fingerprint leaves around the top of the tree.

 



It was so easy to do and everyone in the family participated!  We had fun seeing all the different fingerprints and comparing the sizes of each person's fingerprint.



When we were finished, we put it in a nice picture frame and hung it in our dining room as a reminder of the love we want to grow in our family.

Once we were done decorating the tree, each family member chose one word or phrase that they were going to focus on in the coming week.  We wrote our commitments on a dry erase board that hangs on our refrigerator as a reminder for the week and so we could help hold each other accountable.  The following Sunday during Family Night we pulled it back out and reflected on how the week went.  We discussed what we could do in the coming week to make a new commitment to help love grow here.

Everyone had a ton of fun completing this Family Night activity.  We discussed how we could continue focusing on being a loving family throughout the year by pulling it back out with each season and making changes to our tree to represent winter, spring, and summer too!  We want to remember that love grows through all seasons in our family and this will help use focus and sometimes refocus our attention to our commitment to being more loving!

Creating a School Family: A Climate of Caring

Have you ever been in a group of children or adults where everyone wanted to talk at the same time?  Did you like the way it felt when you couldn't get in a word edgewise and you really wanted to be heard?  I remember a time when I was in a group of adults that were all very caring passionate people who wanted to be heard, but because everyone was talking at the same time no one could really speak.  In a situation like this, chaos usually ensues!  There have been many times when I have been in staff meetings where someone was leading a discussion and there were many little side conversations going on while the speaker had the floor.  I realized recently what a trigger it is for me when I feel like I have no voice.  Imagine how that feels for a five-year-old!

The more you understand about human behavior and child development, the better you will understand why people get chatty sometimes!  For young children, one reason they have difficulty waiting quietly is because they are still in the process of developing their impulse control.  Another reason is that when an idea comes to a young child (under age 8) they see it in pictures.  They don't think in words like adults do.  So, they see the picture and want to verbalize what they see!  That's why they often blurt out!  It takes a lot of self-control not to say what comes to your mind, especially if you forget what it was if you don't have the chance verbalize it right away!  Creating a School Family where everyone has a voice and feels safe and connected is the best solution for this problem! 

When I am coaching teachers in the classroom one of my favorite tools to add is what I call a Talking Stick.  The purpose of the Talking Stick is to give everyone a visual reminder of where to focus their attention during the group discussion.  When they are holding the stick it is their turn to talk.  When someone else is holding the stick then they focus on that person and use their listening ears.

Look how engaged the child is in the picture above!





When introducing the Talking Stick, we begin by discussing the problem that our School Family has been having with listening while other people are talking.  We can also be proactive and introduce the Talking Stick at the very beginning of the year to head off any problems before they begin.  (wink, wink)

I like to use a star wand as my Talking Stick, but you could use any object that you feel your class will connect with.  The reason I use a star wand is because it is a good visual reminder to be a S.T.A.R. (Smile, Take a deep breath, and Relax) while the group discussion is going on.  If someone begins to talk out of turn it will help them remember to take a deep breath and wait until later.  I know some teachers use a toy microphone, megaphone, or even a stick from outside..  Once you decide what object to use help the class decorate it to represent their School Family.  This brings a sense of unity among class members.  We used colored ribbon and the children choose a pony bead that they liked and tied it on the ribbon of their choosing. 

Now, back to those staff meetings and group discussions among adults!  Don't you think it would be helpful for adults to practice what they preach?  Conscious Discipline is an adult-first approach.  If you expect your students to sit and listen quietly while others are talking you need to do the same.  That means that when you go to that next staff meeting or someone walks into your classroom while you are having a group discussion you have a great opportunity to model the skills you are teaching to your children.  It will raise your own awareness of how difficult it is to wait your turn, especially when you have something that you believe is really important to say!  Heck, maybe we need Talking Sticks in staff meetings too!