Using Building Brains Together Curriculum in the Preschool-Aged Classroom

Building Brains Together (BBT) has developed some specific activities to enhance executive function in three and four-year old children attending preschool-aged programs.  These were developed by Dr. Robbin Gibb and Dr. Claudia Gonsalez from the University of Lethbridge Neuroscience department.  Research conducted using these BBT activities in preschool-aged classrooms showed significant gains in executive function of the children involved.  Lynn Wytrykusz, Early Learning Educator from Westminster School’s Early Education Program, has embraced the BBT activities and embedded them throughout the day on a consistent, daily basis.  She indicates it is imperative that activities are implemented daily for children to benefit.  There are many fun and engaging ways in which the BBT activities can be included in daily activities.  Here are some of Lynn’s ideas…..

1.       Circle Time With Lips and Ears Visuals – children receive a visual of either “ears” or “lips”. The child with the visual of the “lips” is the speaker while the children with the visual of the “ears” are the listeners.  Each child should have multiple experiences using the “lips” as well as the “ears”.  This can be used during:

a.       Circle Time - allows for children to understand both speaking and listening turns.

b.       Show and Share – the leader holds the “lips” card while they tell about their item and then passes the “lips” to other children when it is their turn to ask a question.

c.       Transition Times – use the “ears” visual to cue listening.

d.       Speech and Language Center

e.       During games to cue turns

2.       Red Light, Green Light – using visuals (popsicle stick with a foam circle) of green and red, the traditional game of “Red Light, Green Light” can be played.  Ideas for daily use in a program include:

a.       Transition Times – to have children “stop” to listen to directions and “go” for proceeding.

b.       Gym or Outside Time – games can be adapted to use the visuals for “stop” and “go”.  Great for signalling clean up time at the end of gym or outside time.

c.       Musical Freeze games – children move when the “go” visual is shown and freeze when the “stop” visual is displayed.

d.       Can connect the visuals to emotional regulation (e.g. Zones of Regulation – feeling green means “go”/participate and feeling red means “stop”).

3.       Simon Says – playing the traditional game is fun but you can change “Simon” to your name or the child giving the directions.  Vary the game by starting slow giving commands and then gradually get faster with the children facing away from you so they need to work harder to process information.

a.       Warm-up activity at the beginning of programming

b.       Gym time

c.       During wait times such as waiting for others outside of the washroom

d.       Centre Time – can incorporate into block play playdough, speech/language centres, etc.

4.       Wait For It – children have a treat placed in front of them with explicit direction to wait.  The children are told they will get a “bonus” if they are able to wait.

a.       Snack Time – waiting for all the friends to have their snack in front of them before eating

b.       Finger Painting – give each child one colour of paint and indicate if they wait, they will get a second colour to mix with the first colour

c.       Ball Race – Children sit along a wall in the gym with a ball.  When they are given the signal “go” they push/roll their ball to the other side of the gym, but remain seated and see whose ball gets to the other side first. Children need to wait until they are given a signal to go and get their ball.

5.       Musical Freeze – when the music stops, children freeze in a pose like a card indicates.  It is helpful to use music that has natural pauses or breaks within the music.  Children can be exposed to a wide genre of music through this activity.  Pose cards can be made using the children’s favourite pose or photographs of children doing various poses.  Encourage a variety of poses – high, low, etc. incorporating various prepositional phrases.

6.       Stroop – children have two pictures that display opposites. Children are to respond to the picture with the “false” or opposite answer (e.g. Sun would be night and moon would be day).  Encourage them to answer as quickly as possible.

a.       Start off discussing or doing activities promoting the concept of opposites on a daily basis.  Emotions are a good way to teach this (e.g. happy/sad) and have children act out their emotions.

b.       Gym and Outside – move their bodies in opposites (e.g. slow/fast, high/low, etc.)

c.       Music with instruments – use opposites such as high/low, fast/slow, etc.

7.       Dramatic Play – children are given a variety of roles they can play.  In teams of two, children should be encouraged to assume “role” play and the play should proceed in an unstructured manner.  Some children may need support to understand a “role” so scaffolding may be necessary.

a.       Dramatic Play Centre is perfect for this activity as children can take on roles such as doctor/patient, cashier/customer, etc.

b.       Props can support the dramatic play although pretend play can work as well.

c.       Reading books about occupations/roles can support this activity.

8.       Shared Project – children work together in a team of two to make a picture or creative construction of some type.  Children divide up duties and negotiate how the project will proceed in an unstructured manner.  Teams must negotiate on who takes the creation home if it is something that can go home.

a.       Block Centre

b.       Craft Centre

c.       Recycle Centre

d.       Reading books as a provocation such as the “Three Little Pigs” and create one of the houses.

9.       Dimensional Change Card Sort – all children have a deck of cards that have a colour and a shape dimension.  They are asked to sort the deck. Once sorted, the child is challenged to sort the cards in a different way.

a.       Block Centre – sorting blocks

b.       Manipulatives/Loose Parts such as beads, pegs, etc. can be sorted.

c.       Attribute tiles of various shapes and colours

10.   Right is Right! – children are provided with all the blocks needed to build a set model.  Blocks are dispersed on both the right and left side of the table.  Children build the model and are encouraged to use their preferred hand to pick up the blocks.  Differences in the end model are observed and discussed.

a.       Use a wide variety of building materials

b.       Talk actively about what they are creating

c.       Compare the model and the structure. 

For more information on these activities and more, please see www.buildingbrains.ca/resources  and www.buildingbrains.ca/products