Category: Child Development

Infant Development: Reflexes

Reflex actions are part of Jean Piaget’s Sensorimotor period. Babies are born with these instinctive, automatic Infant.Reflexesresponses; some permanent and some temporary. Reflexes are a way that infants learn about and react to the world. This is a lesson that has students learning more about infant reflexes, their stimuli and response using a jigsaw style presentation approach. Sometimes circumstances prevent you from doing an assignment a certain way so I’ve also included an alternate web activity version to gather the information just in case you need a sub-plan or a way for students to make up work. Choose the option that works for you!

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Importance of Family TIME

Fact is life is super BUSY for most families!! A lot of families are trying to juggle their time between family and careerdreamstimefree_259444.family.time obligations, household responsibilities and personal needs. Sometimes, as parents, we find it challenging to find balance in this process in order to have precious quality time left over to spend with the important people in our lives. This lesson helps students understand the importance of quality time with little ones by using a variety of illustrations and activities.

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Birthday Party Project

There are times throughout the year that I need some “filler” activities due to testing schedules, the loss of seniors partybecause of graduation, etc. I don’t want to give my students free periods so I came up with a practical, creative project of planning a child’s birthday party. Originally this project was designed for my child development class as a team building activity but it could be used in a family unit as well. While this project is just about planning a party and the concepts that go with it, and fit into my time frame, you could easily adapt this project and make it relate to budgeting by giving students price limits or even make it a competition and incorporate a “cupcake wars” style approach. Either way students enjoy planning parties!

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#Hashtag Pregnancy Review

Are you looking for a way to learn or review the changes that take place during pregnancy in a creative, concise way? Hashtag.ReviewIf so, this #HashTag pregnancy review/activity is just for you! Tap into the power of social media (Twitter & Facebook) and use #hashtags. Students can summarize or review what they learn about the changes taking place during pregnancy in short, creative phrases. It’s fun to watch and listen as students create their #Hashtag phrases. They also love sharing their creations aloud and by writing them on the SMARTBOARD the next day. This activity will naturally get you coming up with fun, clever hashtag phrases to keep them on task (your students will think you are so COOL and current)!

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Trust & Bonding Lesson

Being there for babies and the importance of trust is what this lesson is all about. Bonding is a term that describes a parent’s tie to an infant and typically occurs early in the child’s life. Strong bonds of attachment helps develop…

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Literal Interpretations from a Child’s Mind

One day when my children were young and couldn’t sit still I commented on how they were acting like they had “ants in their pants”. I didn’t think literal.int.picmuch about the phrase until my then preschool aged daughter literally checked her pants for ants! This is when I realized that children don’t always interpret the true meaning behind some of the common phrases that have been around forever; they actually interpret them literally. This lesson has students illustrating common phrases based on how a preschooler might interpret or visualize the phrase literally.

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Literacy & Reading to Children Lessons

I read to my children ALL the time when they were young, and if nothing else, I wanted them to be readers! And, fortunately, they are! There Read.to.Childrenare so many benefits associated with reading to children at an early age from bonding to improved vocabulary (which helps now that the SATs are right around the corner). This lesson explores the amount of time students spend reading to other screen and electronic device activity and encourages them to research and explore why reading to children is so beneficial to their growth and development. I’ve also included a fun component for students to learn the do’s and don’ts of reading to children while encouraging them to enhance their own oral presentation skills by reading aloud a children’s book.

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The Power of Purple: Shaken Baby Syndrome & The Period of Purple Crying

While Shaken Baby Syndrome might be a familiar term associated with child abuse, the Period of Purple Crying may not be. The two terms are closely related as the constant crying associated with purple crying may lead one to violently shake their child. This lesson educates students about both to hopefully decrease the risks of both occurring in the future. This lesson also includes a fairly quick and easy community service project for students of all ages and abilities to complete to help spread information about the important cause.

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Ideas for Teaching Safety in Child Development

Child proofing is essential to a house or day care center when little ones are involved. It’s amazing what little ones can get into once they become keeping kids safemobile. You’ll want to make sure you’re taking every precaution to keep your little one’s environment safe. Trying to decide what to teach about the safety of children can be difficult as all of the topics are important.

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Navigating the Brain

The brain is fascinating to teach but simplifying it down to a level that high school students will grasp can be difficult as it can be a little overwhelming. I have been teaching this topic for years as I am the only teacher and department in my building to teach about the brain…Woo Hoo! The lessons and activities included are tried and true and have been tweaked and revised as I find new ways to teach this material. So if you’ve always wanted to teach about the brain in your child development class, challenge your dendrites to learn something new and give it a try!

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