Playing Is Educational

Learning about human body parts can be fun and educational for children. 

There are many books, games, puzzle cards, skeletons and other plastic models (where the body parts can be removed, observed, and arranged back into their correct position) that can help your child to learn about his/her body.

There are also many educational body parts songs that they could sing.

Try these for example: 

“Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes”

(Touch Body Parts as You Sing)
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes,
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Eyes, Ears, Mouth and Nose
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

“Me Complete”

I have ten little fingers and ten little toes
Two little arms and one little nose,
One little mouth and two little ears,
Two little eyes for smiles and tears,
One little head and two little feet,
One little chin, that’s me complete

“Brush Your Teeth”

This is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth
This is the way we brush our teeth, so early in the morning.
Brush them up and brush them down, in little circles or round and round
Don’t brush them from side to side, for those sugar bugs will surely hide.

After a child is born, they are introduced to many new noises.  Just imagine all the sounds around your house, from the rhythm of the washing maching or dryer as you are doing laundry to the voices and sounds of their parents or siblings.  

At a young age, your child will start learning about rhythm and developing musical skills from their first rattle or scrunch toy. 

We all appreciate a good rhythm and good music. 

Help your child develop their musical skills.  Encourage them to play with different musical instruments like a horn, piano, drum, xylophone, or tambourine.  Who knows, your child might become a famous classical artist like Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, or a popular artist like Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, Bob Seger, or Celine Dion. 

Help your child choose a lifestyle of eating healthy and nutritious foods. 

Food nutrition and food portion size will play a large role in your child’s healthy life.  When they play with pretend foods, they will learn about the food groups and about healthy and nutritious foods.  Let them be creative with life-like plastic meat, vegetables, dairy food, and fruit.  Encourage them to make you dinner with a salad and fruit for dessert.  Help them to plan a dinner party for several guests or pretend guests.  This dinner could include a salad, an appetizer, an entree with a vegetable, and a dessert.  Food can be a fun thing for your child to play with, they could pretend to eat what they want. 

Children of all ages can learn from putting together puzzles. Completing a jigsaw puzzle demands several aspects of the thinking process and encourages cognitive development. Babies recognize objects by their shapes rather than their positions, so puzzles are a great developmental opportunity.

There are several ways that babies may learn from working on basic puzzle blocks. Eye and hand coordination are needed to put a puzzle together. A child must also learn by trail and error; sometimes when he or she tries to fit a piece in a hole it won’t fit. The child will soon learn that the shape of the hole and the shape of the puzzle piece need to be observed.

By definition: An educational toy is a toy designed to teach people, typically children, about a certain subject or help them learn a skill as they play.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational toy

Puzzles:

Puzzles can teach a child topics like ABC’s, colors, shapes, animals, and geography.  Puzzles can also help with hand-eye coordination, teach sizes & shapes, and problem solving. 

Board Games and Card Games:

Board games and card games can be used to teach things like counting, colors, and reading, to more complex things like communication skills,  logical thinking, and organizational skills.

Games & Toys:

Games and Toys can be very educational to children.  By playing with educational games and toys, children can learn physical skills, such ashand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and even texture.  They can also learn about things like animals, colors, and the human body.

Dramatic Play / Creative Play:

Let them dress-up or play puppet show theater with puppets and dolls.  This will stimulate them to role play and express themselves through character play.  They can learn about different foods and even money by playing with Pretend Playsets.

Wooden Play Structures:

Children love to play outdoors on wooden play structures.  Wooden play structures encourage children to be physically active and mentally active as they determine if and how they can perform specific skills.  Children are increasing their imagination as they soar through the sky on a swing and play around it.

It is important to keep our young children involved and playing – get them to play with educational toys.

Puppet show theater is very educational.  When playing with puppets, children will learn the art of story-telling.  They will also increase their imagination, build their language skills, and learn how to express themselves.

Puppets vary from finger puppets to hand puppets to hand-operated rod puppets.

Sing simple songs and nursery rhymes when you play or play out a simple skit. 

Puppets can be the perfect pretend pal! 

It can be a tricky endeavor, teaching kids how to tell time. Part of the problem is that the activity is often relegated by teachers. But it is such a basic, everyday skill. As such, every student should know how to read an analog clock.

So how do you make something like learning to tell time a fun and interactive activity? One solution is transforming the activity into a game of BINGO (complete with prizes, of course).

Make up basic BINGO cards for all the students. Place one time of day per box—12:00, 10:45, etc. Project a transparency of a clock with the numbers but no hands. With an erasable pen, fill in the hour hand and minute hand.

If anyone has the time you’ve written, that student can cover the square with a piece of paper. (Keep a running log of the times you’ve written for the end.)

As with any game of BINGO, the first person to make a straight line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally yells out “BINGO.”

Check the student’s card to ensure every time was given. If so, that student is the winner.

While there are many ways for kids to learn how to tell time, this is just one simple, interactive, and high energy example.