March 21-30, 2016
Brain Games and Crossing the Midline Exercises
I'm combining two blog posts into one this week, as I wasn't able to complete it last week. My apologies! We've been so busy exercising our brains :)
We started out last week by challenging our brains with a variety of fun games and activities. I compiled a list of things that I thought would be fun and interesting to the children, yet beneficial to different areas of their brain development. Here is what we did:
1. Arrow Jumping Game (3 and 4-year-olds): I printed out a large arrow, and we jumped in the direction that the arrow was pointing (I simply turned the arrow in different directions; left, right, forward, backward). It required concentration and direction-following. This activity is good for providing proprioceptive input (proprioception is the awareness of where one's body is in space, and allows us to safely maneuver around objects in our environment- read more about it here).
2. Memory Basket (3 and 4-year-olds): I filled a basket with 6 or 7 random objects from the classroom. While the children closed their eyes, I removed an object or two, and they had to guess what was missing! Great activity for memory-building skills!
3. Paper Clip Chains (3 and 4-year-olds): I showed them how to connect medium-sized paper clips together to form a chain. This was quite challenging for their fine-motor skills and concentration!
4. Number-Matching Pom-Poms (3 and 4-year-olds): For the 3's, I numbered cupcake liners 1-5. They had to count out the pom-poms and place them in the corresponding liner using tongs. The 4's cupcake liners were numbered by 5's (5, 10, 15, 20). This activity was for practicing fine-motor skills and one-to-one correspondence (counting/matching 1 object to the corresponding number- 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.).
5. Straw/Cotton Ball Game (3 and 4-year-olds): Using a straw, the children had to blow a cotton ball from one end of the table to the other. It was very tricky, and required hand-eye coordination and tracking movement.
6. "Would You Rather..." Questions (2, 3, and 4-year-olds): The children were asked fun and quirky "Would you rather..." questions from this website. They had a ton of fun with these silly questions! It really got their brains thinking :).
7. Feed the Monster (2-year-olds and toddlers): I constructed monsters out of plastic lidded containers by gluing a pair of googly eyes and cutting a slot into the lid (for the mouth). The children had to feed him large coins (plastic poker chips)! They absolutely loved it! It was a great activity for hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
8. Color-Matching Pom-Poms (2-year-olds and toddlers): Using the same concept as the above pom-pom game, the younger children had to match up the blue, red, or yellow pom-poms with their corresponding cupcake liner color.
9. Hammers and Bubble Wrap (2-year-olds and toddlers): I gave each of the children a piece of bubble wrap and a plastic hammer, and they went to town! It was a fun sensory experience!
10. Ball Sorting (toddlers and infants): I brought in a large box of balls in a variety of sizes, along with muffin tins in varying sizes. The little ones loved not only sorting the balls into the muffin cups, but climbing in the box, as well! This was a great problem-solving and hand-eye coordination activity.
11. Spin-the-Ball-in-the-Bowl (Infants): Using a large metal bowl, I swirled a plastic ball around and around the inside of the bowl. The infants were fascinated by this, as it made a very interesting sound! This activity can be used for observing if they are able to track the movement of the ball with their eyes. They also enjoyed putting the bowl on their heads :o) .
13. Tunnel Crawl (infants): I set up a cloth, collapsible tunnel for them to crawl through. It was tricky trying to figure out how to get to the other side! A good problem-solving game!
Crossing the Midline Exercises:
A great way to activate and integrate both left- and right-hemispheric functions of the brain is to practice "crossing the midline". The "midline" is an imaginary line that runs down the center of our bodies. Crossing the midline refers to the ability to reach across the middle of our body with our arms and legs crossing over to the opposite side (i.e. drawing a horizontal line across paper without having to switch hands, etc.). This is an especially important developmental skill for children to learn for handwriting, reading, getting dressed, playing sports, etc. Read more from this excellent resource to find out how you can work with a child who has trouble with this skill, and why it is so important to their development.
Here are some of the exercises the older children (2-4-year-olds) performed to help strengthen their midline-crossing skills:
*Figure Eights- Using one hand, trace large figure-eights in the air (up, down, and back around). Now switch to the other hand. 
* Cross Crawls- Touch your right elbow to your left knee, while your left elbow swings behind you, as if marching in place. Switch sides. 
* Wall Crosses- Get into a lunge position against a wall, using controlled movements (not too fast). Start with one leg forward, other leg behind, then switch sides. 
* Scissors- Similar to jumping jacks, except you scissor your arms back and forth (front to back). It will appear almost as if you are cross-country skiing.*Bean Bag Strut- Walk forward swinging an arm and opposite leg (large, wide swinging movements) while holding bean bags. For an extra challenge, try it while walking backwards. 
*Backward Ball Pass- Have the children line up as a group. The first person in the line passes the ball behind them to the next person, and so on and so forth. When it reaches the last person, they send it back up the line.
As you can see, we had a very entertaining, energetic, and enlightening experience in Nutrition Expedition the last few weeks. Our brains feel strong and mighty! Check out even more pictures below:
