AHOY THERE! Did you know that Wednesday, September 19, 2012 is International Talk Like A Pirate Day?

Better get in the swashbuckling spirit! Batten down the hatches and set sail in the sea of imaginative play with this activity from Making Make-Believe by MaryAnn F. Kohl.

Let's Play Pirate!

Before you begin...

Collect and assemble items as the pretend treasure (one or two items to start):

• Beads and hobby jewels
• Plastic beads on strings
• Play money
• Small figurines or statues
• Small rocks
• Small wood scraps

Next, gather the following items:

• Gold, silver, other metallic spray or brush-on paints
• Glitter, glitter paint, glitter glue, sequins
• Box for treasure chest
• Newspaper to protect table during painting
• Paint and brushes
• Paper and pens for drawing map
• Used wet tea bag

Prepare your treasure...

1. Paint the rocks gold and silver, paint the small statues gold, cover the wood scraps with glitter, or cover large buttons with glitter paint. Once you're done, proceed to Step 2.
2. Dry the painted items. Spread out the other items and decide what will be buried in the treasure chest.
3. Select a wooden or cardboard box for the treasure chest. The treasures can be hidden or buried in the chest, or the chest can be used to collect the treasure pieces once they are found.
4. Find a place to bury the treasures like a sandbox, soft dirt in a garden, or behind a couch.
   
5. Draw a treasure map that leads the seekers to the buried treasure. Try wiping the map with a wet, used tea bag to make it look like old parchment.

It's time to play pirate!

Take turns burying and finding the buried treasure! Once the treasure has been found, bury it again someplace new, and start all over again!

Bring out your pirate gear (eye patches, skull caps, rolled-up pants, temporary tattoos and earrings) and get into the piratical spirit! Be sure to talk like a pirate too! Some popular pirate turns of phrase, include:

• Avast me hearties!
• Ahoy there!
• Surrender ye swabs!
• Scupper that ship!
• Land ho!
• 'Ello, matey!
  

By the end of the day, your children will be singing "Yo ho, yo ho, it's the pirate's life for me!"

At recess, between lessons, or on the way to school, these seriously funny games from Good Clean Fun are sure to exercise children's minds and even their abdominal muscles (from all the laughing, of course!).

Fortunately...

For ages 7+

2 or more players needed

This game has no winners or losers and no formal ending. The first player begins by stating an unfortunate circumstance in one sentence. For example, "The dog ate my homework Monday night." The second player chimes in with, "Fortunately..." For example, "Fortunately, it was early and I had time to do it again." The next player follows up with, "Unfortunately.." For example, "Unfortunately, my pen ran out of ink."

The game continues, with players rotating "fortunately" and "unfortunately." For example, the next player says, "Fortunately, I found my mom's lipstick and wrote with that." The next player says, "Unfortunately, the teacher wouldn't accept homework written in lipstick."

It goes on and on until the story comes to a dead end, a logical conclusion, or everyone wants to start a new story!

Don't Laugh At My Problems!

For ages 7+

2 or more players needed

Can you keep a smile off your face when someone's trying to make you laugh? That's the challenge in this game!

Pick one person to be the "emcee." The goal of the emcee is to make one of the players laugh (or at least grin). The emcee poses a problem to each player in turn, such as, "My ostrich is molting," or "My uncle died and left me ten million dollars – provided I give a good home to his 467 ferrets." The other players have to keep a straight face while listening to the emcee's problems and giving ostensibly serious solutions.

Solutions to the two sample problems above might be: "You should go into the feather pillow business," and "Maybe you could breed the ferrets, sell the baby ferrets, and make another million dollars."

Play continues until a player cracks a grin. That player becomes the emcee and another round is started!

Mystery Guest

For ages 8+

2 or more players needed

One player plays the part of a TV talk show host while another person plays the mystery guest: a famous person who can be alive, dead, or even fictional, and whose identity is not revealed until another player guesses it.

The host introduces the mystery guest with the usual flourish, and then begins to ask questions designed to elicit his identity. The guest may answer evasively if he wishes, but never dishonestly. For example, if the "mystery guest" is acting like the President and the host asks, "Do you live in a large house?" the guest must answer yes. However, he doesn't have to volunteer that he lives in the White House.

As the interview proceeds, the other players try to guess the identity of the mystery guest. When someone guesses correctly, the round is over.

To begin another round, two of the audience members can assume the roles of Host and Mystery Guest. If you have only two players, they can take turns being the host and mystery guest, and the host can try to guess the guest's identity.

~~~

For more simple, creative games to play with children ages 4 to 10, check out Good Clean Fun. The only materials needed for the games in Good Clean Fun are the creativity and imagination of your young ones!

Kaplan Early Learning Company has once again joined forces with DonorsChoose.org, an online charity connecting people to classrooms in need! 

DonorsChoose.org provides an avenue for public school teachers to submit project requests for the specific materials their students need to learn. As their name implies, donors choose which projects to support. Once a project is funded, DonorsChoose.org delivers the materials directly to the school.

As a partner of the DonorsChoose.org Double Your Impact Program, Kaplan Early Learning Company will match select projects that have been 50% funded by individual donors. For example, if Ms. Walker, a kindergarten teacher at Elm Elementary, raises $50 in individual donations towards a $100 art easel, we will match the remaining 50 percent and send Ms. Walker her new art easel. Sounds pretty great, doesn't it?

We invite you to join us in our support of DonorsChoose.org and help teachers activate our 50% match offer! For a look at some of the teachers looking for project funding, visit: http://ow.ly/dsGO4.

Do you know a classroom in need? We encourage you to create your own DonorsChoose.org project! Visit http://www.donorschoose.org/about for more information.

Thanks for your support!

Children are noisy by nature. There are times, however, when the clamor and commotion of a preschool classroom needs to be taken down a few notches.

The following “quieting down” techniques from Sharon MacDonald, author of Sanity Savers for Early Childhood Teachers: 200 Quick Fixes for Everything from Big Messes to Small Budgets, will work wonders on the noise level of any early childhood classroom.

Rain Stick

A rain stick makes the sound of rain falling gently when turned from end to end. Ask the noisiest child to be the rain stick girl or boy and walk around the classroom turning it on one end and then on the other. It is remarkable how two or three rounds through the classroom can soften the noise.

Pattern Clapping

Loudly clap out a pattern that children know well. Gradually soften the clap until everyone is clapping with you and then transition to a silent clap. Ask for them to return to work when they are clapping silently. An added benefit of pattern clapping is that it helps children develop patterning skills, which is essential in learning to read, do math, and develop skills across the curriculum.

Simon Says

Stop for a minute to play Simon Says. It refocuses the children’s attention, and afterward you can suggest they get back to work.

Measuring Tape

Purchase a retractable tape measure and do some pretend measurements with the class. Pretend, for instance, to “measure” the noise in the room. Tell the children that the noise is six feet tall! Challenge them to lower the noise to “two feet.” Measure horizontally and vertically. Sometimes, you get two feet vertically, but not horizontally (two children in the corner are still carrying on, for example). As the noise subsides, retract the tape.

Pretend Games

Give a noisy child a chance to “hold the quiet bug” and pass it on to someone who is quiet enough to hold it too. Or, use your finger to dispense “quiet gasoline.” “Fill up” a noisy child with quiet gas. Approach the child, point your finger to his ear and make a sound like he is being filled up with gasoline. If the noise continues, ask the child, “Do you need more quiet gas? Do you think you might have sprung a leak?”

Remote Control

Find an old TV remote control. When the noise gets high, walk around the room and tell the children you would like to lower the sound with the remote. As you press the buttons, tell the children you are lowering the volume, and they will make their voices softer. After they get the hang of it, let another child operate the remote voice control.

 ~~~

Remember, you don’t want your classroom to be too quiet! A noisy, humming classroom tells you that the children are learning. Take the noise up a couple of notches, however, and some may feel that things are out of control.

Keep in mind that these suggestions are most effective when used sparingly. If used too often, children begin to expect them and respond less appropriately.

For more suggestions, strategies, solutions, and ideas to improve daily life in your classroom, pick up a copy of Sanity Savers: 200 Quick Fixes for Everything from Big Messes to Small Budgets (ISBN 978-0-87659-236-6, 128 pages, $14.95) by Sharon MacDonald.

Young children are naturally curious. To a child, the world is full of infinite possibilities – pigs can talk, monsters can fit under their beds, and wolves are able to knock down a house with a simple huff and puff. Children's ideas are without limits, judgments, and bias.

Curiosity encourages exploration, questions, experimentation, and a sense of wonder. It solves problems, clarifies values, and strengthens relationships. The more we know, the more tools we have to understand our world and communicate with others.

So, what can you do to boost children's curiosity? Here are some fun and easy tips from Pam Schiller, author of Seven Skills for School Success:

• Use "I wonder" statements. Say things like, "I wonder what would happen if we put these two things together" or "I wonder why blocks don't bounce." Encourage your child to answer your "I wonder" statements. If he can't come up with a probable answer, then help him by asking questions that might lead him to an answer.
  
• Ask "what if" questions. What if the only colors we had were blue and green? What color would milk be? Would it taste different? What if elephants could fly? What if children were in charge of adults? Your child's answers to these questions are sure to endlessly amuse you!
  
• Be interested in what children find interesting. Talk with your child about what he is curious about and interested in. This will reinforce his interests. Sharing his interests also shows that you value his thinking.
• Read books about curiosity and discuss the role curiosity plays in the story. Check out these books about curiosity:
  
• Who Is the Beast? by Keith Baker
• Curious George by H.A. Ray
  
• Edward the Emu by Sheena Knowles
• If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff
• Allow children to explore and "fall in love" with their environment. Provide materials, such as gears, pulleys, feathers, rocks, and other items that are new to your child.
  

For more tips to encourage children's natural curiosity and develop their social and emotional intelligence, check out Seven Skills for School Success (available in both paperback and e-book formats).