Discussions with children at mat time

[shmollie_hollie]

Hi, im an assistant in a kindy room and was just after some help with some topics you can talk about with children/quiet activities you can do with children during our mat sessions (all children sitting down on the mat before a meal/outdoor play)
At the moment we do things such as:
-reading storys to the children
-news/show and tell time
-what did you do on the weekend
-singing songs etc

We do a few mat sessions a day just to bring the children together before a meal time or before we go outside so the room is less hecic and it gives us time to get organised (get the plates and food set up and send children 3 at a time to get hats etc) but im just wondering if anyone has any more ideas of what we could do at mat times to interest children and just for a change since i sometimes get a bit bored of reading stories over and over or doing the same things at mat time everyday so the children will most likely be getting bored too.
any ideas would be appreciated! thanks

[fchaudari76]

One thing I used to and still do with the children is simple music exercises, or do what I do type things.
Clapping in rhythm, tapping the floor in beats etc
Hands on your head, hands on your nose, point to your nose, hands in the air, wiggle your fingers etc.
The kids love it.
I also used to do lets count our friends and choose a child who walks around the circle and puts his hand on each child head while they all count. You can repeat this as "who can count how many girls/boys we have in class today" i used to even extend it to we counted X boys and Y girls which makes Z which is how many friends we have altogether today ... simple concept that things add up
I also used mat time (during the kind of transitions you mentioned) to go over recognition of letters...we did letters phonetically so I would make the sound of a letter and say "whose name starts with sssss ?" and they could go line up or raise their hand etc would also (at diff time) show them the letter, make the sound and say the same thing so it was visual as well. Used the same idea for colours "who is wearing something red/blue/black etc?" great way to revise colours learnt and introduce new ones.
Hope this gives u some ideas

[sue073]

using finger puppets are good. i do this with my toddlers they love to put them on their own fingers. so i get 5 chn to sit in a row in front of the other chn and have them make the sound of the animal puppet on their finger, this is good for old MacDonald. 5 speckle frogs is another good one. having the chn jump back onto the mat once their frog jumps into the pond. children love to pretend and act out.. hope this helps you.

[shmollie_hollie]

Thanks everyone! Im loving the ideas so far! I really appreciate it!

[An Educator]

Hi
I play " Simon says ..." at circle time ( mat time)
Eg - Simon says to stand up , .......( lots of actions or if you want to calm the kids down, say , Simon says to close your eyes, Simon says to lie down,.......)

We also play this very popular imaginary game .we pretend we are going to the moon, we discuss what we need to wear, the kids contributions are amazing. so we all pretend to wear the clothes, get in to a space shuttle and take off. The best part is when we land in the moon. We pretend to walk in air...this game helps the kids to think and also learn too.
The other imaginary places we visits are- diving under the sea, visiting the zoo, picnic....

I'm sure you'll enjoy these activities the way I do.
Good luck

[Twist]

These ideas are great, I have recently moved to Australia from New Zealand, and have just started as a Room Leader in a kindy room. Things are a little different here however I'm slowly getting there and thoroughly enjoying it I have a group of 20 3-4 year olds, which at times can become chaotic at mat times. I will definitely be implementing some of these ideas, does anyone else have anymore ideas for a group of 20 'lively' children???
Cheers

[justathought]

I used to do 10 grey elephants balancing, start with 1 who balaces across the sting when they get to the end they choose another person then when the two walk across the sting they sing two grey elephants balancing when they get to the end of the sting the second person chooses someone, walking back across the string its 3 grey elephants balancing.
The children loved this, you can use masking tape as your string and each day or week you could make it longer as a bit of a challenge.
I also used to do wombat stew and go around in a circle and ask each child at each verse what they would like to add to the stew, this is a great one for being extended outside with pots and pans clidren can make their own stew in the sand pit or mud pit or during quiet time or anytime really if you have the Cd children can listen to the story and look at the book.
Another good one for some wind down time is to get the children to lay down and listen to what they could hear and get them to tell everyone what they can hear, this is good for childrens recognision of sounds they can hear without seeing the objects and children seem to challenge themselves and listen carefully to the sounds they hear and the ones they recognise.
Hope this helps.

[An Educator]

Dear Twist,
You can go on you tube and get great circle time ideas.
Type" circle time activities"
Good luck!

[Lorina]

Hi All,

Just wanted to share what I do with my group of toddlers during mat time... I love having group time because I can really begin my teaching... Usually group time lasts around 30 minutes but sometimes it can last more or less... I have my main group time just before lunch... I find that this helps to settle the children before rest time... First I start of with music and movement... I play the same list of songs and every week I add on a new song for the group to learn. I start every group time with "Everybody Sing, Everybody Clap". I noticed that having the same song to begin group time really gets the children focused. Next is "Where Is Thumbkin", " Ram Sam Sam" (which is an absolute favorite). Followed by "Dingle Dangle Scarecrow" and a body movement action song (don't know the title). From here it's story time... I'm very keen to read a story that the children are interested in (this week we did Going on a Bear Hunt). Also I read the same story each group time for the week... The children love the repetition and once you start having discussions about the characters, the pictures etc. they gain a clearer idea and they even begin to memorize the words... Today my group of 15 were actually reading along the story with me... After this I use flash cards or group games around a centralized theme(colors, numbers, shapes, counting, friendship etc.)For e.g this week we are doing Fruits & Vegetables. During this time we look at the different pictures, talk about them and I also try to use a mind map to document what children are saying and adding their comments. For e.g. Yesterday I was telling my group that oranges, bananas and apples grow on trees. One of my little ones had a banana for morning tea and said " grow on tree" while holding it in his hand... It made me smile... children are so impressionable and soak up information like sponges.. I say, use group time/mat time to your advantage and teach them something!

Cheers ,
L.A

[cathiek]

LA - I had never heard of Ram Sam Sam before - it is now definitely being added to the song list (with the Kentucky fried version too!!
Thanks

[LindyT]

I finish my group time off with a relaxation exercise.

Having them lie quietly on the floor where they can't touch anyone else (Yes MUCH easier with 5 children than 20-30 lol) I get them to just listen to relaxation music. I make sure tho that none falls asleep.

It makes for lovely calm little people for lunch time.

[cathiek]

OK LA - you are in big trouble!!! I now cannot get the Ram Sam Sam song out of my head AAARGH!!!
The kids loved it though - especially doing silly actions with it too - I just have to try and get the lyrics out of my head

[Lorina]

A ram Sam Sam
A ram Sam Sam
Gooly Gooly Gooly Gooly
Ram Sam Sam

Another version my colleague taught me using the same ram Sam Sam rhythm...

A Kangaroo a kangaroo
A frilled neck lizard and a kangaroo
A cockatoo a cockatoo
A frilled neck lizard and a kangaroo

Lol... Now I won't be able to get this song outta my head tonight... Hahahaha...

[cathiek]

Hi LA - will use the kangaroo one when we are talking about animals. I bet the kids will be hopping allover the place

[NikkiC]

Yoga exercises for children are also fun for mat/group time.
Obviously you would have to have plenty of room but the children I've done it with love it!