When teaching young learners about a holiday such as Presidents’ Day, it is necessary to rely on easy and relatable ideas and not on some complicated history of politics. In the case of a preschool-aged child, the day can serve the purpose of concrete learning about leadership, symbols, and other roles in the community. Such a developmentally appropriate framing can be related to the Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready philosophy since it focuses on relating new information to what a child already knows. The emphasis on concrete topics allows family members to supplement the systematic development of skills of Kinder Ready Tutoring during the holiday to assist with the comprehensive learning system of Kinder Ready Elizabeth Fraley.
The main explanation of President’s Day is through the aspect of a leader. A leader may be defined as a person who assists a group of individuals to make decisions and collaborate, just as a teacher helps a classroom or a parent allows a family. This analogy familiarises an abstract role. The positive qualities of leadership that are also kindergarten readiness skills that you can discuss include listening to others, being fair and helping to solve problems. The Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready approach to preparing children to be members of classroom communities is based on this emphasis on social-emotional skills such as cooperation and fairness.
Symbol recognition and vocabulary development are also good during the holiday. A matching or identification game may be introduced by launching pictures of typical American symbols, such as the American flag or a bald eagle, which usually come to mind when someone thinks of a president. Visual discrimination is improved when discussing the colours of the flag and the shapes of the flag (stripes, stars). Fine motor skills are developed with the assistance of an activity related to it, like painting a flag using torn paper or finger paint. This form of activity assists cognitive and physical growth, as outlined in the Kinder Ready Elizabeth Fraley approach, and is a kind of hands-on learning, as in Kinder Ready Tutoring.
Moreover, the President’s Day can be a starting point to discuss money and history in a very simplistic way. By looking at a penny and a quarter, recognising the faces on them, and observing that one is larger and one is bigger and of a different colour, the early concepts of math are presented: observation and comparison. This relates the holiday to a tangible thing that a child might relate to, and the learning is relevant. The habit of attentive observation and descriptive language is one of the main elements of the Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready model of developing the basic cognitive skills.
Lastly, the day can be used to underline the idea of giving back to the community, which can be directly-related to behaviour in the classroom. The argument about how the presidents serve the nation can be compared to how a child can serve at home or even at school- by cleaning, being nice or obeying rules. By addressing the wider idea of the holiday and the expanding responsibility of the child, by the values of leadership, national symbols, direct comparisons, and service to the community, Presidents’ Day can be both enlightening and reachable for the family.
For further details on Kinder Ready’s programs, visit their website: https://www.kinderready.com/.
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