Cheyenne-Kiowa-Lincoln Early Childhood Council

Arrive with Five

• Literacy and Language: helps young children express ideas, listen, read, and write.
• Math and Science: helps young children learn about numbers, patterns, and nature.
• Social Skills and Relationships: helps young children build self-confidence, self-control, and get along with others.
• Approaches to Learning: helps young children build enthusiasm, curiosity, and creativity.
• Health and Wellness: helps young children develop a healthy mind and body for a lifetime.

Literacy
and Language

Important Skills

• Engages in conversations and tells short stories.
• Listens and follows directions.
• Learns new sounds, letters, and words each day.
• Rhymes words and sings songs.
• Scribbles, draws pictures, and writes some letters.

How to Develop The Skills

• Read to your child every day and have books within easy reach.
• While reading, follow your child's lead and stop to discuss the story.
• Show your child how to read a book from front to back, left to right.
• Take your child to the local library and look for story times and other programs.
• Say a word to your child, have him/her think of rhymes. Be open to silly rhyming words.
• Draw pictures and talk about them.
• Find all the things around your house that begin with the same letter.
• Find animals that begin with the first letter of your child's name.
• Help your child to write his/her first name.
• Sing the alphabet with your child.

Social Skills
and Relationships

Important Skills

• Learns and uses feeling words such as happy, sad, mad, frustrated,
  disappointed, excited.
• Knows how to re-focus, calm down and bounce back.
• Makes friends and plays with other children.

How to Develop the Skills

• Talk with your child about friendship and family.
• Read books that describe different emotions and talk about them.
• Have your child make faces that show different feelings
  (sad, happy, angry, etc.).
• Have your child describe his/her own feelings.
• Create a play box with clothing, hats and inexpensive
  items to use for imaginative play.
• Talk with your child about traditions.
• Have your child invite a friend over to play.
• Find opportunities to problem solve, such as sharing a toy.
• Celebrate accomplishments even if they’re small.
• Model ways to handle frustration calmly.

Math and
Science

Important Skills

• Counts and uses number words such as same/different, more/less, all/none.
• Asks questions, guesses, finds answers about everyday things
  in his/her environment.
• Matches, sorts, and groups objects.
• Compares shapes and sizes.
• Learns to recognize numbers.
• Builds with toys and objects to make three dimensional structures.
• Learns to recognize and name coins.

How to Develop The Skills

• Count grapes, apple slices, orange slices, etc.
• Count objects like blocks, crayons, etc.
• Play games that include matching, sorting, and counting
• Put on music and dance or clap your hands to the beat
• Look for squares, circles, rectangles, and numbers inside and outside
• Draw a picture with your child and cut it up, making your own puzzle
• Do simple experiments such as sink/float, melt/freeze, and mixing colors
• Build towers, bridges, and ramps with blocks, cubes, and boxes
• Watch dance performances and learn steps to simple dances such as the Bunny Hop. Notice the patterns and rhythms.
• Use play money and pretend to shop
• Draw a simple map of the child's bedroom and talk about the placement of items

Approaches
to Learning

Important Skills

• Starts and finishes an activity.
• Tries new things.
• Willing to take a risk and make a mistake.
• Thinks of a solution to a problem.
• Desires to be independent.
• Maintains attention and listens to others.
• Works cooperatively in a group setting.

How to Develop The Skills

• Ask your child to set the table.
• Ask your child to help make a grocery list.
• Let your child choose what’s for dinner.
• Make music together using kitchen utensils.
• Ask your child to mist your houseplants with a plant sprayer.
• Perform a puppet show.
• Play follow the leader and hide and seek with your child.
• Ask your child specific questions about the day, such as
  “What did you have for lunch?” and “What do you want to do tomorrow?”
• Play with puzzles, art projects and games that encourage your child to sit for 5 to 8 minutes.
• Practice two-step directions, such as take off your shoes and put them in the closet.
• Look for community art, such as outdoor sculptures, paintings in the
  public library, and talk about how they were made and how it makes
  us feel.
• Count objects like blocks, crayons, and grapes.

Health and Wellness

Important Skills

• Cares for self (brush teeth, wash hands, dress).
• Has a regular bedtime and bedtime routine to promote 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night.
• Makes healthy choices by trying a variety of nutritious foods.
• Participates in daily active play with limited TV/ computer time.
• Makes safe choices, such as following safety rules (crossing streets), wears helmet, uses seat belt/car seat.
• Stays current with well-child checks, immunizations, and dental visits.

How to Develop the Skills

• Plan relaxing activities like a bath or story 45 minutes before bedtime.
• Involve children in shopping and meal preparation.
• Encourage fitness by doing some of these activities every day: jump, hop, run, yoga, hike, ride bikes, kick and throw balls.
• Have your child act out how different animals move.
• Make a nature collage with things found outside.
• Find healthy green (or other color) foods, set up taste tests with healthy foods and talk about which is a favorite.
• Play outside, take a walk, go to the park, and visit recreation centers.
• Plant a garden together.
• Have a picnic together, let your child serve him/herself.