Next week is NAEYC’s 2022 Week of the Young Child® celebration! HiMama is joining in on the celebrations for early learning, young children, their educators, and families.
The Week of the Young Child™ (WOYC) is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The purpose of the Week of the Young Child™ is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs. Visit the NAEYC WOYC website to learn more.
Celebrating The Week of the Young Child in your classroom
There are many ways to celebrate the Week of the Young Child in a childcare classroom. Take some time to appreciate each child for who they are and how far they have come. You can also set up some age-appropriate learning opportunities for the children in your room. Below are some activities to try that match the theme of each day of the week!
Have your children grab their favorite instrument and play it loud and proud! You could even start a parade around the center with each child making their own music.
Children can explore their sense of taste! Have them make a taco pie and then try it out and see if they like it!
Children can work together to build and then explore a sensory garden! Have them plant seeds, dig through soil and count rocks to build numeracy, fine motor, and sensory skills!
Time to bust out your favorite arts and crafts! Have the children get artsy and develop their fine motor and literacy skills by drawing, painting, cutting, and gluing with a variety of materials!
End the week developing social-emotional skills! Have each child share about a family member or two with the group!
Additional Week of the Young Child activities:
Children create self-portraits using oil pastels. This is a great way to grow their socio-emotional and fine motor skills!
Provide children with the opportunity to make pizza pinwheels as their snack. This will allow them to enjoy a tasty treat while developing their spatial awareness skills!
Children develop their gross motor skills by making a parking lot as a group using materials found in the classroom!
Provide children with opportunities to move and groove to a tempo played on the drums. They can choose to walk, run or jog depending on the speed of the beat!
Today, we know more than ever before about the importance of children’s early years and the effect on their learning and development. The Week of the Young Child™ is a time to recommit ourselves to ensuring that every child experiences the type of early learning environment—whether at home, at childcare, at school, or in the community—that will facilitate learning opportunities for growth and development.
