Members of Kids’ Corner are teaching preschoolers about colors, numbers and shapes. According to Kim Lenzo, director of Kids’ Corner, the theme of the current week is Colors, Numbers & Shapes, and the student teachers have prepared activities based on the theme in order to engage the preschoolers in learning the material.

Rosa Alpizar, student teacher for Kids’ Corner and senior, said yesterday’s lessons were focused on colors, Wednesday’s lessons will focus on numbers, and Friday’s lessons will focus on shapes. Alpizar is one of the teachers who will teach the preschoolers about colors, numbers and shapes; Courtney Meek, student teacher for Kids’ Corner and senior, is the other teacher who will teach this week. As teachers, Alpizar and Meek planned lessons for the week, and for the lessons, they planned a variety of activities for the preschoolers.

In order to teach the preschoolers about colors, Alpizar said they prepared an activity that teaches preschoolers about mixing colors.

Meek said, “(The preschoolers) learn like colors, like ‘If you take yellow and blue together, what color does that make?’”

In order to demonstrate the process of mixing colors, Alpizar and Meek prepared an activity that involves paint.

Alpizar said, “We’re going to have a bag, and on one side, we’re going to put yellow (paint) and the other (blue) … We zip (the bag), and then, (the preschoolers) squish it, and then they see what color it makes.”

For Wednesday’s focus on numbers, Alpizar said the preschoolers will learn about coins.

“For numbers, we’re also going to make them have their own coins like pennies (and) nickels,” Alpizar said. “They’re going to learn that, and then, they’re going to create their own nickels and pennies; they’re going to draw themselves on them.”

Alpizar also said the preschoolers will play a game called Zingo 1-2-3 that requires the preschoolers to apply their counting skills. According to Alpizar, Zingo 1-2-3 includes a board that is shaped like a turtle along with cards that have specific patterns composed of different numbers of dots.  Essentially, the preschoolers match cards that have the same number of dots by counting and then place the matching cards onto the board.

In addition to providing activities for colors and numbers, Alpizar and Meek have also prepared activities about shapes.

According to Meek, the preschoolers will play with large, Lego-shaped, plastic blocks and stack the blocks to see how high they can stack the blocks before the pile falls.

Alpizar and Meek have also prepared another activity for shapes; they will hide miniature-sized blocks in a sandbox, and the preschoolers will try to find as many blocks as they can and count the number of blocks that they find.

“We’re going to have triangles; we’re going to have trapezoids,” Alpizar said. “We’re going to have squares, like circles, the more important (shapes).”