In this child care room, puppets are often used to encourage children to be involved in whole-group story time. Prior to reading a story, the child care provider describes each character in the story and asks the children to choose a puppet for that character (for example, for the story “Little Red Riding Hood,” the children choose puppets to be Little Red Riding Hood, the mother, the woodsman, the wolf, and the grandmother).
The child care provider then reads the story and, after each character’s part, asks the child holding the puppet of the particular character to say and do what the character does in the story. For example, when the mother gives the basket to Little Red Riding Hood and says, “Here, take this to your grandma,” the child care provider asks the child with the “mother” puppet to act out this scene using the puppet. Each child acts out different scenes as the child care provider reads the story.
Materials for the toddlers are provided in small buckets with handles so the toddlers can easily take the buckets off the shelf and carry them to a table or to a space on the floor. The toddlers often do the following:
This week the child care provider extends the activity by putting the objects from the buckets into containers with smaller openings. Then she waits to see what happens. When one child begins to play, the child care provider sits down and plays beside the child.
Wooden blocks of different sizes are set up on shelves at the children’s height. Usually the children can choose to play in the block centre during any of the playtimes throughout the day. This week, when the children play in the block centre, they are to do the following:
The child care providers join the children who are in the block centre and help them name and count the parts of their houses. Then they help the children figure out what other materials they need to add to their houses.