The daily password

The daily password

Here is a great idea for developing language skills and building vocabulary with young children. This activity is designed to help children transition smoothly between their home and daycare environment in the morning. You will need a small black chalkboard and chalk.

Hang the chalkboard on a wall or set it on a table near your daycare entrance. To enter the daycare at the start of the day, children must say the password that is represented on the chalkboard. The password may be a color, a shape, an animal, an object, a food, a letter, a number, etc. The activity can therefore be adapted per the age of the children in your group, the concepts you wish to introduce, or your current theme.

Variation to encourage parents to participate: You may also invite parents to say the password when they come get their child at the end of the day. Inform them that they may let their child play for a few minutes while you communicate with them, but that as soon as they say the password, their child must quickly get ready to leave. This can be helpful with children who are slow to get ready or reluctant to stop playing with their peers.

Variation to encourage children to participate even more: The “star of the day”could be the one to select the daily password. He could even represent it on the board.   

I am sure the children in your group will have fun playing detective to discover the daily passwords!

Naomi Hamel, early childhood educator and future teacher