April 10-16 is the Week of the Young Child, a nationwide, annual celebration that celebrates early learning, young children, their teachers and families. Today, we know more than ever before about the importance of children’s earliest years in shaping their learning and development. Yet, never before have the needs of young children and their families been more pressing. That’s why the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the world’s largest early childhood education association, established the Week of the Young Child (WOYC) – to focus awareness on early childhood education.
Day Early Learning will be celebrating the #WOYC21 all week in our centers and providing opportunities for families to continue learning objectives at home. Each child in a Day Early Learning classroom will be sent home with a box of Cheerios and the following list of activities for each day during the Week of the Young Child.
- Music Monday: Create a noise maker. Use household items like cups with lids or Tupperware, fill them with different amounts of Cheerios and use them as tambourines. Play the dance and freeze game by assigning someone to be a DJ. The DJ shakes the tambourine to any beat, and when they stop, everyone has to freeze and hold their position. If a player does not freeze immediately, they must do 10 jumping jacks (or something of your choosing). Check out our Day Early Learning Spotify Playlist for song inspiration: https://tinyurl.com/DELMusic
- Tasty Tuesday: Make a snack like No-Bake Peanut Butter Cheerio Bars (recipe found here: https://tinyurl.com/cheeriobars). Cooking together is a great way to teach children math and measuring skills.
- Work Together Wednesday: Grab a large cup and have one person toss Cheerios while the other catches them using the cup. See how many you can catch in 1 minute and then switch places!
- Artsy Thursday: Make Cheerio art! Glue cheerios to paper, and color them with markers. For older children, make animal shapes. For younger children, draw shapes and help them glue cheerios to create the shapes. You can also draw your child’s name and ask them to trace it with Cheerios. Another option is to make a Cheerio necklace. Find ribbon or string and have your child enhance their fine motor skills while they thread cereal onto the string. When they’re finished, they’ll get to wear their new jewelry.
- Family Friday: Make your own checkers board or tic-tac-toe board on a sheet of paper and play together. Color one set of Cheerios with a marker to make the playing pieces.
