lurking in the shadows

We were playing with Dinos the other day, when D. discovered that if he put an object under the lampshade, with the light on it would create a shadow/profile of what he was holding.  He ran and got me and asked me to play a game with him.  I jumped on the chance to talk to him about light, and a bit about  how shadows are caused.  Due to his love of the solar system, we were able to also delve into a discussion about eclipses just a little bit, too!

He was having so much fun "hiding" the figurine for me, and have me "guess" which dinosaur was being shy... 

It is a simple, quick little fun game that can really help a child learn about shadows, profiles, light and opacity vs. transparency.  Go on... guess and see if  YOU can guess what dinosaur is lurking in the shadows...

~Jenny

Octonaut Obsession- part 1

Well, I don't know about your little ones, but my little one is absolutely, head over heals for the Octonauts on Disney.  He has had obsessions before... dinosaurs, trains, cars, the solar system, well, now, it is all about the Ocean and all that dwells beneath!  I'm a science teacher at heart, so I love when his interests fall in line with mine!
  The Ocotnauts is a Disney UK program, and it has recently been picked up in the USA.  It comes on 11:30E.  I like this show because it really is educational.  My son can watch an episode and truly pick up facts, but better than that, it has really sparked his desire to learn more about the ocean.  So, we cannot seem to find the toys, and he really wants to "play" Octonauts, so we have created our own (pretty pathetic, i must warn) Octopod.

Here is a picture of "the" Octopod, as it is on the show (no source, sorry, I just googled "octopod") 

   We used tupperware, orange construction paper, paper towel rolls, and packing tape.  Seriously, I was not picky about the looks of this thing, and it was TOTALLY THROWN TOGETHER.  I had no real "planning" time, so, she's pretty shabby.  I might attempt to do something better if the prices don't come down on them.  I may work on it a bit more, so their might be a "part two" to this post, if I get a creative burst!

 I know... kinda lame.  Now that I see the pictures, I'm a bit ashamed of it, and might have to get working on it again.  :)

 He uses his "little people" and his sea animal figurines to play out the episodes he has seen.

  So, here is what he ended up with... its better than nothing, right?!
~ Have a good one!
Jenny

Leaping Letters!

Sorry for the lag in posts... AGAIN... my new little one is giving me quite the time, and i spend most of my days holding her, which makes most things nearly impossible.  We are kind of in a  dirty-laundry-dirty-dishes-house-and-mommy-are-a-wreck sort of state around here.  She has learned to spit out her reflux medication and has chronic GI issues.  We finally went to the GI specialist, who confirmed all we thought- one of those kids with a tough system...
ANYWAY... I got them both outside recently (its been in the high 60s, low 70s some days) and we used sidewalk chalk to mix up our ABCs.  My son is in the early reading stage and is doing great with 3 letter words, and is ready to step it up a bit.  For this game, I would say a word "log" and he would find each letter and hop on it, spelling the word.  After he landed on the third letter he would spell the whole word aloud.  Simple, Quick, Outside and EFFECTIVE.

adapt:  for those learning to recgonize ABCs, simply call out the letter
           for those learning letter sounds, simply make the sound
           for those learning sentence structure, you could write out certain punctuation marks, say a sentence and have them jump to the appropriate mark that fits.
         
Have fun!
~Jenny

beginner reading flash card game

D. has been quite interested in reading and writing lately, which I am thrilled about!  He is sounding out every word he sees and is excited to decipher text he finds around him throughout his day.  When a child shows the interest, it is time to jump!  I assure you there will be many, many mistakes, on the part of the child, and the parent during this learning phase.  The child should really feel comfortable to make mistakes, and to learn through trial and error.  English is very difficult!  Imagine how hard it must be for a child who learns that a letter makes a certain sound only to find out, well... it does... only if it doesn't fall after this letter, or at the end of a word, or by a vowel... there are so many "buts" and "ifs" that it is overwhelming to teach, much less to learn!  When learning to sound out words and taking those first steps into reading, tread lightly, and allow the child to set the tone.  It is best to use positive reinforcement, and to really clue into the child's signs of frustration.  If the child becomes the slightest bit frustrated, its time to go do something else.  

I decided to try to do something fun to support his interest with his very favorite subject... Cars, the movie.  I wanted him to be in charge of this pajama project, and rather than assign popper words, or site words, or a specific blend, I just let him work on words he is interested in, and wants to write, even if they are not quite "on level".  No pressure here to learn, just to have fun!

We began by printing out pictures we found on google images... for D. it was cars, but it could be all the princesses for a girl, or whatever the child is "into".  

Then we cut them out, and before moving into flash card mode, we played with the cars a bit, sorting them first by color, then by type, (fast, small, 4x4s...).  D. loved this!

 this is him examining all the cars

 color sorting

 fitting into categories

 Then, we glued each to a card.  He picked what color cards he wanted them mounted on, and it was always funny to hear his reasoning for picking a color.  "Oh, Francesco should be on black, because he is fast as the fastest tires, and tires are black, so he should be on black, mommy. "

Then I asked him what one word was that he wanted to represent that particular car.  He had some really great adjectives and logical words to go with each.  As I would write the word, I would pretend I couldn't figure out how to spell it, allowing him to do the work, without the pressure.  I also was modeling the difficulty encountered when reading and spelling, "f-l-i, fly!  wait, that isn't right, humm... what other letter makes the "i" sound, oh yeah, "Y"?  wow, this is crazy... why are there two letters that make the same sound?!? (We would both laugh). He thought it was so funny that I couldn't remember and needed his help.
He is actually playing with these cards, and is really making the associations between the words and the cars that he knows and loves.  It was easy to just mention the blends we encountered along the way, without drilling the concepts.  There is plenty of time for subtle exposure, which will solidify these skills over time.  So... when your child shows the interest in reading... JUMP, but not too high, and don't run too fast!  If you do, someone could get hurt!  :)

Advent- better late than never

So, I am slightly late in posting this.... but its better late than never.  You probably are already in full swing, but maybe you can still take some ideas from this.  This year we are adopting the popular "activity advent calendar" where you do daily activities rather than getting a present.

We are trying to make the experience educational in many aspects... some character education (sharing, giving, selflessness) Christian education about Jesus' birth, some reading (trying to decode words on the activity cards), and some math (adding and subtracting to get to the number of the day, calendar math, counting up and down, using Christmas tree manipulatives to explore numbers).  I printed out Christmas tree clip art, and cut them apart.

 Each day we manipulate the trees to get the date for the day.  For example, if today is the 16th, and we are going to pocket 16 on our Advent calendar, then we count out 16 Christmas trees, and then play with them.  Take away 6 trees, how many are left?  Add back 6 trees, and how many are all together?
   I have seen many activities on pintrest, and loved getting fun activities from there, and from other blogs, such as www.teachmama.com, http://catholicmom.com and http://www.teachingmom.com .
We are also using a book called My First Countdown to Christmas, by Scholastic.

  For the Activities, I used Print Shop and used a blank business card template.  I used a Christmas border and then printed them out and filled in each card with felt pen.

I went through our community calendar of events and our playgroup calendar and used some of those activities to fill the calendar.  Then I used some of the ideas from sites listed above and some I came up with.  So, each day, my son opens the pocket and discovers the days activity.

  Then at dinner each night, we light our Advent wreath (attached are the Advent prayers) and listen to "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel".

 At night we read Christmas books, and our daily "Count down to Christmas" page.
 That's our little Christmas tradition around our house.  What do you do?
Enjoy this blessed season!
-Jenny

Book Binding

Well... juggling two kids is so much harder than I ever imagined.  My little girl has reflux, and I believe some other tummy issues going on.  I literally have to hold her most of the day.  It has been hard.  One would think pajama projects would be easier since I am in my pajamas pretty much all day, but I am doing good to brush my hair and do laundry.  It has gotten very "real" for me.  Anyway, when I get projects in with my poor neglected son, I usually have her in my arms, so grabbing the camera is difficult.  So, bear with me during this phase that will hopefully be over SOON!

About 4 weeks ago my son started getting very interested in the solar system... VERY interested. I found a YouTube video to teach him more about the planets...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ-qLUIj_A0
It is an awesome video, that has really taught him so much... more than I ever knew about the solar system!  He has the whole song memorized, sings it often around the house, and draws planets and talks about them to anyone that will listen.  Lately, he has also been into making books.  Well, he has since made about 4 solar system books.  One was based on the video above, using the words from the song created by "KIDsTV123".  (They have other great catchy songs too!)
So, we wrote down the words to the song, and found some planet printables online.  (you can just google images for "planet worksheets").  Then we just used glue, staples, construction paper, crayons, and so on to create the book.

We have since made 3 other solar system books, where he dictates to me what he knows about the planets, and I write.  One of the books, he colored the planets and then sounded out and wrote the names of the planets by himself.  I was super proud of this book, as was he.  All of his solar system books are a work in progress... he takes them to his desk and "works" on them, by adding things.  We have read them so many times that they are showing real wear.  I am so happy that he loves them so much and can take ownership of his work!
BTW...the picture at the top is his Halloween costume... a little obsessed, ya think?!

Counting by 10s using what they love

My boy is UBER OBSESSED with Cars (cars 1, not cars 2- which makes it really hard to find the toys he wants to play with, since its only cars 2 out in the stores- but I digress...).  I have noticed he is pretty interested in counting, and is pretty good with numbers, especially if they are on cars (there is no doubt he will recognize "95" every time it is shown to him, b/c it is Lightening McQueen's number).  His ability to recognize numbers that he identifies with toys got me to thinking about playing number games with his "race cars".  For a girl, this game could be done with cars as well, or with something they love, like barbies, even (see below for details).
I decided to work on counting by 10's to 100.  I asked him to pick out 10 of his favorite cars.  While he was doing that, I found small stickers (actually small price tags for a garage sale) and numbered each sticker 10-100 by 10s.  Then I took post it notes and did the same.  I made a circle out of the post its and told him to put his cars inside the circle where they would be on a "track".

 I put a sticker on each car.  I told him to take one car at a time, read the number out loud on the car, and drive it to its matching "pit stop" to get a tire change.

He loved it and we did this a few more times.  Then to mix it up, we put the numbers in a line and they would race to their corresponding number.  

 (I know... he's not in his pajamas... it took lots of caffeine this morning to get me going...)

Then I mixed them up and told him to "find the number 10" and so on, and place them in order in a line.

Then the cars each took a turn to race down the line from 10-100 and he said the number aloud as he passed it. 

He really had fun and continued playing with his numbered cars and their "pit crews" all day.
(For a girl, this could be done by numbering barbies, and having them find their house that matches their number).
Have fun racing!!!
- Jenny