Since returning back to the desert, Gracen and I have taken up journaling together, and I’ve got to say – it’s pretty much my favourite thing EVER. And the best part? I’m fairly certain that she loves it just as much as I do.
Tag Archives: learning at home
Simple Apple Tree Addition Game
Throughout our days together, it’s not unusual for Gracen to come up to me and say something like, ‘Okay, Mama. There are 3 little ducks swimming in the pond at the park. 2 more ducks come to swim. How many ducks are there now?’ The girl comes prepared, too. More times than not, she has a pencil sketch on a huge piece of white paper in her arms to help illustrate the problem. She waits for my response eagerly, then pauses to calculate the total herself once she’s received my answer. I get a peppy ‘Yup! You are right!’ and then it’s my turn to create a story problem for her to solve. This goes on again and again.
‘S’ and ‘Sh’ Sound Sorting Game
While Gracen really enjoyed yesterday’s beginning sound sorting game, she played and finished it in less time than it took me to set it up. After the initial completion, we played several more times adapting it and adding new elements, but decided that we’d try some trickier sounds just for fun the following day.
Beginning Sounds Sorting Game
Miss G and I had all sorts of fun this morning! After an early morning coffee shop date and creating our family portrait embroidery hoop, we put together a little beginning sounds sorting game that was both fun and simple.
Number Bubbles: A Number Recognition and Counting Game on Mirrors
After seeing Jackie’s post about pairing mirrors with glass gems and dry erase markers on Happy Hooligans recently, I knew we had to try it. Mirror play is something I’ve wanted to explore with Miss G for a long while now, and seeing that post gave me the push I needed to go out and pick up a mirror dedicated solely to play.
Snowman Counting and Number Recognition Game
Now that Miss G’s a little older, we’ve started doing a few learning activities here and there… My requirements are that the activities are fun, hands-on, and more like play than old-fashioned sit down sort of learning. This little number game was just that.
Play Dough Name Practice {3 ways}
Even though Gracen has known how to spell her name for a long while now, we still enjoying doing fun name activities every now and then. I set up today’s activity while Miss G was resting, and kept it very simple. 3 trays, each with some play dough and some letter ‘manipulatives’ I collected from around the house. When Grae woke up, she spotted the play dough name practice trays waiting for her immediately and was eager to check them out.
SweeTART Sorting and Graphing
This week, Miss G and I are participating in a candy play series with several other mamas and munchkins from around the world… On Monday we created beautiful glossy paint using Skittles, and yesterday we created candy clay that is fun, mouldable, and edible.
After yesterday’s homemade candy clay recipe, I decided that today we’d get back to finding creative ways to put Grae’s soon-to-be Halloween candy stash to good use. One of the treats that always seems to be popular during the month of October is small coloured candies, whether they’re SweeTARTS, M&Ms, Smarties, or something else. The good thing about these types of goodies is they lend themselves perfectly to all sorts of fun math activities – sorting, counting, comparing, and graphing included. So that’s what we did – we used a few individual-sized bags of SweeTARTS to develop some basic math skills, all in a way that just seemed like regular fun and games.
Pumpkin Seed Counting Game
I’ve been a long time fan of No Time for Flashcards, so when Allison, the author, announced that her very first post was live on Adventures in Learning (the new PBS Parents blog), I headed on over to check it out. As usual, her learning activity was creatively set up, engaging as could be, and easy to put together. While we really haven’t started doing activities that have specific learning outcomes in mind (we’re more in the play and learn along the way stage), Gracen does love counting and all sorts of games, so I decided we’d give it a shot.
Simple {balloon-shaped} Homemade Matching Games
I’m absolutely thrilled to be sharing one of Miss G’s all-time favourite games over at I Can Teach My Child today {one of the very first blogs I ever followed!} We’ve made and played these super simple homemade matching games since Gracen was around 2, and they never get old. Over time, we’ve varied them according to the season and Gracen’s interests and abilities, which makes them perfect for all kinds of munchkins. Pop on over and see the full post here. ☺
Strengthening Scissor Skills with Play Dough
One of the things I’ve always loved doing with students who’ve found using scissors challenging is pairing them with play dough instead of paper. Let’s face it – learning to use scissors properly is tricky! First there’s figuring out which fingers go where, plus there’s finding the hand strength and coordination to open and close them, and then there’s also guiding them in the direction you want them to go… Certainly no easy task! The reason I love play dough is that although many kids come to Kindergarten not all that familiar with using ‘school tools’ like scissors, almost all kids come to school having played with play dough. And not only are they familiar with it, but they love it. And because it’s fun and non-intimidating, plus soft and easy to cut, it’s a perfect starting point, even for reluctant munchkins.
I’ve done this activity with Gracen many times, and although she’s already very comfortable using scissors with paper and cutting on pre-determined lines, she still loves cutting play dough. It’s an easy activity to put together and I’d rather smush together bits of play dough than pick up tiny shards of paper any day of the week. When I set it up, I usually create both play dough ‘pancakes’ and ‘worms’ and then let her go to town, but anything goes. Today after quickly preparing the play dough shapes, she used them to create a daisy and a stem. ☺
Then it was time to cut!
Two things I like to reinforce during the cutting process are one, being mindful of where your ‘holding fingers’ are and two, positioning your scissors so they’re pointing away from your body.
During the process Grae almost always asks for a bowl to put her ‘food’ in, which makes the activity that much more fun and adds in an element of pretend play.
Today’s food was for kitties only. ☺
♥
For extra fun, like us on Facebook here and find us on Instagram here.
Building Beaded Pattern Sticks
The other day while picking up a few craft supplies, Miss G absolutely fell in love with these heart-shaped pony beads. Next to them, we found tiny little wooden dowels that the beads fit onto perfectly. At the time, I really had no idea what we’d do with the pair, but I knew we’d figure something out.
Turns out, the answer was play with patterns! I was quite surprised by how early on Miss G grasped the concept of patterns… I remember being in the kitchen cooking dinner one night long ago and hearing Brad ask Grae about a pattern out in the living room. I thought to myself, ‘she’s way too young to know what he’s talking about’, but sure enough she proved me wrong on the spot. So since we really haven’t explored them all that much, I decided our beads and dowels would be perfect for it. While Miss G napped today, I spent a little bit of time catching up on my RSS feed while colouring pattern stripes on the dowels with markers. This time around, I chose to pattern the entire dowel, but next time around I’d probably just start the patterns in order to let her complete them on her own.
With my patterned sticks complete, I knew I wanted to stand them upright somehow. Out came some homemade lemony play dough and the little pots we used for our flower garden yogurt parfaits, and voila. Mission accomplished.
When Gracen woke up, she immediately saw the little station I’d set out and was thrilled. After a squeal and cheer, the first thing’Mama, I want you to tell me what to do’, but when I asked if she really wanted me to tell her what to do or if she wanted to just play, she decided she was happy to just play.
Of course she immediately realized that the colours on the dowels coordinated with the bead colours and began matching them up. (Just look at that little face… Makes me melt!)
Shortly after beginning the activity, I realized that the dough-filled pots allowed the dowels to sink down as she added beads, so I changed things up a little bit and just used a play dough pancake to hold the sticks up instead. She realized that the stripes in fact made patterns, and ‘read’ each one out to me.
Not only has this activity been fun and great for discussing colours and patterns, but it’s also great fine motor practice too! Fitting the tiny beads onto the tiny dowels requires some serious concentration.
This activity has been out for several days now, is still out currently (dried up play dough and all), and gets some decent attention each day… A hit in my books. ☺
♥
For extra fun not always found on the blog, like us on Facebook here and find us on Instagram here.
Fun Ways to Teach Kids to Spell and Write Their Names
It may sound sort of strange seeing as I spent 7 years teaching kindergarten and grade one before Miss G was born, but very rarely do I sit down with Gracen with the intention of teaching her something specific. At 2 and 3/4 years old, I truly believe that she does all of the learning she needs {for now} through playing, going on adventures, and reading books. The exception to this is when Grae takes the lead… In that case, I’m more than happy to follow along.
Recently, she’s become very interested in “drawing words”. It started off with random words like ‘swing’ and ‘tall’, and then it became focused solely on her name. There’s been a whole lot of ‘How do you draw my name again, Mama?’ and ‘Mama, can we play another name game today?’ this past week, so that’s just what we’ve been doing… Exploring her name in fun, hands-on ways. All of these simple activities are things I’ve done with my students in the past and Grae has thoroughly enjoyed each one.
Stamping – We are lucky to have alphabet stamps, but you can easily make your own by adhering foam letter stickers onto cork tops or bottle caps. Right now, I set out only the letters needed for her name {along with a piece of paper and stamp pad}, but to make the activity a little more challenging, you can include extra stamps too.
Magnetic Letters – I particularly like these wooden ones by Melissa & Doug, especially because the set includes both upper and lowercase letters, but any sort of alphabet magnets will do (you can even make some using scrabble tiles or foam letters). I simply set out the required letters in a bowl next to a magnetic board, and let Miss G play.
Computer Typing – This activity is extra special in our house since we really don’t let Gracen use our computers yet. I simply open up a blank word document, select a good clear font, make it nice and big, and let Miss G choose the colour. Then she goes ahead and searches out each letter on the keyboard. Today as she was about to hit the ‘G’, she asked, “But Mama, is this going to be a capital G? Because my name needs a capital G.’ After getting over my surprise, I taught her how to use the shift key and that was that.
Felt Board Name Game – Since my days in elementary school, I’ve always loved felt boards and felt board games. Though you can purchase pre-made felt boards and felt alphabet pieces online, you can very easily and inexpensively make your own. Here is my felt board tutorial and my felt name game tutorial {along with a collection of my very favourite fonts}.
Duplo / Lego Stacking – Depending on the size of your collection, you may want to write the letters of your child’s name straight onto your Lego or Duplo to create a permanent and lasting game. Or, if you’re like us, you can print the letters on sticker dots or labels and then attach them to the pieces. This activity is always a huge hit and I especially like it because it can be done both horizontally and vertically.
Salt Printing – This one is one of my absolute favourite ways to have kids practice their printing. In the classroom, I always keep a stack of colourful plastic plates filled with a layer of salt for practicing printing. The students use their finger as a pencil, then simply give the plate a little shake to erase the letter and practice again. In this case, I used a rectangular serving tray and provided Gracen with an example of her name on card stock in front of her. (P.S. How amazing is that bed head?!)
Chalkboard Water Painting – If asked, I have a feeling that Gracen may say this is her favourite name game to date. To set it up, simply print the name on a chalkboard (using chalk of course), and give your wee one a paintbrush and some water to paint on top of the lines. As he or she paints the letters, they will ‘disappear’, which is always fun!
Highlighter Tracing – This is probably the simplest of the bunch. I print Gracen’s name and she traces over it using a darker marker or pencil. We pretend the highlighter lines are the road (or racetrack) and the marker is the car, and of course you want to keep your car on the road!
Letter boxes – While I prefer to teach beginners how to print their names on plain, unlined paper, some munchkins, Miss G included, enjoy having a little more structure than that. Creating two sets of boxes, your sample letters on top and blank ones directly below, gives many the ability to focus on one letter at a time with the goal of filling up all of the boxes by the end.
So that’s that! Gracen’s been enjoying these name activities so much that we’ve done almost all of them multiple times. I know I’ll be asked for new ones in the very near future, so as of now, I’ve got ideas that use spaghetti, clothespins, rocks, cookie cutters, beads, blocks, and bean bags ready to go, but beyond that, I may have to get Googling. ☺
♥
For extra fun, like us on Facebook here and find us on Instagram here.
Fruit & Veggie Sorting {Using Flyer Clippings}
Every few days, a newspaper bound in a long rubber band makes its way onto our porch. If it’s not already soaked through with early morning rain, I half-heartedly flip through the stories and flyers {that make up the majority of the paper} so I feel a tiny bit less guilty about recycling it almost immediately. This morning, however, when we found a bone dry paper on our porch, we decided to put it to use.
Gracen’s been helping me wash our produce and sort it into the different refrigerator sections for a long while now and often asks if things are fruits or vegetables, so I decided we’d use our grocery store flyers to play a little fruit and veggie sorting game.
We gathered up a small piece of poster board, a ruler, some glue, and some scissors to start. I drew a quick T chart while explaining that one ‘box’ would be for all the fruit pictures we found and the other would be for the veggies. Grae shared with me one thing that she was certain was a fruit (an apple) and one thing she was certain was a vegetable (a potato) and we added little picture clues at the top next to the column headings.
Next we had a little chat about how we know if something is a fruit or vegetable… While it’s kind of a complex subject filled with talk of flowers, ovaries, and plant accessory parts, I subscribe to the fruits have seeds theory when teaching kids (true story – avocados, peppers, and cucumbers are all fruits!) It’s not a perfect rule because wee ones often don’t realize that things like bananas and blueberries have seeds, but it works for most things.
After adding a few little seeds next to our fruit heading, I began cutting pictures out of the flyers. I’d pass one to Grae, ask her what it was, whether or not it had seeds, and if she thought it was a fruit or veggie, and she’d paste it in the correct box.
After a couple of times, she took things into her own hands… I’d pass her a picture and she’d say, “Dis is lettuce. It no have seeds, so it’s a vegetable!”
When we’d used up all of the flyer photos, she took a minute to admire her project. She was a very proud girl and immediately went to hang her poster on the fridge.
Later on in the day, after a big produce shop, Grae was helping me lay all of the freshly washed produce on the butcher block to dry. Right away, I could see that she was putting all of the fruits on one side and the veggies on the other, so I grabbed a wooden spoon to act as a divider {and she grabbed her poster to add to the display}. Instantly we had a real life sorting game.
These are her piles when she decided she was done playing. The Chinese eggplant on the right is what she chose this time for our weekly fruit/veggie investigation, and though she’s not sure, her prediction is that it is a vegetable. We’ll have to see when we open it up! ☺
♥
For extra fun, like us on Facebook here and find us on Instagram here.
For Mama’s Valentine
Here’s a little peek at what I’ve been up to late tonight… A new little photo book for my littlest Valentine.
♥