2011 February

Rhyming Tree

What do you do when you have a friend who is an awesome mom, is super creative, and she shares her ideas with you, you share her ideas with everyone right?!?

Well, if you read my post “Read the Playroom” then you know how much I LOVED this: Look at the pictures and notice a few things…. 1) She has a print-rich room with a lot of the objects labeled and the room is a great place to be active and still function as a learning environment. Loving this! She has a rhyming tree and this is what she says about it:

“I saw the idea when I googled ‘playroom’ and someone had this as a bulletin board and I just made it specifically for rhyming. Anyway, this was super cheap to make! $15 for a roll of cork at Hobby Lobby (get it when it goes on sale for 50% or go online to print a 40% one item coupon and it’s even cheaper). Stuck it to the wall using double sided hanging tape, then at the Dollar Tree, bought a foam board for $1, cut it in half for the trunk. $0.99 for each bottle of paint at Hobby Lobby… I used 1 dark brown for the trunk, and 2 foliage green for the tree, printed off the words and used clip art from MS Word…. made this tree for under $12.
When I typed up the words on the computer, the first sound of the word I used a different color, and then all of the “at” rimes I used black so James can see that the ENDING sound is the same and the beginning is different.
I am working on putting a mailbox near the trunk of the tree that will hold letters of the alphabet so we can pull one letter out at a time and make a rhyming word, most will be nonsensical of course, but it will add to the fun of rhyming!”

Casey has a pre-k blog called http://prekplease.blogspot.com/ and her incredible kidspired creations are too cool to pass up!

If you get a chance to do a spin-off of the rhyming tree activity, please share it with all The Mommy Teachers!

Update from Casey: “The Dollar Tree had word strips (solid line at the top and bottom, dashed line in the middle) $1 for 30 so that I could label everything in the room.”

February 10, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

Reading a Chore Chart

How many of us like to organize to keep our lives sane? I am not necessarily a pro when it comes to organizing, but I have really become a learner of those of you who ARE gifted with those skills.

Being one of five children, my mom tried to delegate our chores through a “chore chart” to make sure that we were responsible for our own areas and some of the mundane household tasks that need to take place on a daily basis. My mom made a cool chart but it didn’t have pictures so I am sure she spent a lot of time explaining to us what the chart said.

The great thing about chore charts, academically, is that they can teach children how to read and understand a graph, to learn the days of the week, and to provide visual cues that add meaning to words like “Brush your teeth” or “Make your Bed”.

Incorporating a visual cue (a picture or image) is HUGE when you have expectations of a young child. This is one thing that might have made my mom’s life easier. So today I wanted to share some resources for chore charts that will hopefully be a beneficial tool in your house:

1. Customize a Chore Chart that your child can color: Customizable Chore Chart (with pictures)

Make sure it is BLACK AND WHITE so they can color it to practice fine motor skills and make it their own.
Choose days of the week (not abbreviated) because you want the days of the week to eventually become a sight word.
Give it a fun title like “Mommy’s Helper”
IF you choose a verse I suggest that you possibly just write it on the chore chart in “The Message” Version because it is slightly more age-appropriate.
Laminate it (contact paper or a sheet protector will work too) and use a wipe-off marker to check it off each week 🙂
Or here is one already done for you: Completed Chore Chart with Pictures

2. Chore Cards that you can make yourself for display: Chore Cards DIY (Take a shortcut by inserting your pictures into a word doc and printing them).

What chores should your little one be responsible for? Here is a great link to have a clue about what your child should be able to contribute to: Age-Appropriate Responsibilities. I hope this helps you make your very own easy to read and manage chore chart 🙂

If you have other ideas that work for you…always feel free to share 🙂

February 9, 2011 by Jessica | 1 Comment

Math Night

I don’t know about you but I am a board game enthusiast who loved game nights with my family. In my post “Games Galore,” I posted some game ideas for literacy. Today, I wanted you to have a good idea of which games are beneficial for young children to practice their counting, adding on, shape recognition and manipulation, and other great math skills.

If you have these games, use them! If not, borrow them or check out a local thrift store. If you want to add to your game library, click on the links below and find the cheapest used game. However you go about acquiring new games, PLAY THEM…don’t let them go to waste taking up space in your closet!

February 7, 2011 by Jessica | 1 Comment

Meaningful Chore Time!

The following message really inspired me to include some more meaningul chore time ideas and activities….Thanks Casey 🙂 The activity is a great way to practice reading, fine motor skills, and math skills including sorting and number identification through everyday household chores. Who knew including your kids in housework could be so fun?

Casey says:
“I thought of you and your blog today when James and I were doing chores. Chores are such a great time to incorporate learning while getting stuff done! I wrote the names Mom, Dad, Leyson and James on a sheet of paper and James read off each name as I wrote it. Then, I drew lines under each name and James cut the names out to make labels for our laundry baskets. James then went through all of the clothes and sorted them into each person’s basket. He and Leyson also have several matching pairs of pajamas and shirts and he had to look at the tag to decide whose they were. If the tag had a 2 or 3T on it, they were Leysons, if they had a 4 or 5T on it, they belonged to James.
Anyway… just thought I’d share this with you to possibly share with other mommies.”

February 6, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

Interactive Websites

I thought it would be helpful if I compiled a list of safe computer sites that I used to use in my classroom. The first four listed are interactive websites for your kids to practice their beginner academic skills. The fifth is a very informative kid’s health site that includes interactive games. And the sixth is a resource for you to make tracing practice sheets.

Note – Use these sites in moderation and as an activity extension. The computer is not a babysitter or a teacher.

Interactive Websites That I Recommend:

1. Letter Naming and Reading Games

http://www.starfall.com

2. Math Learning Games

http://www.mathsisfun.com/

3. PBS Kids

http://pbskids.org/

4. Learning Planet

http://www.learningplanet.com/stu/index.asp?tab=0

5. Kid’s Health

http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?section_id=3&lic=1&ps=312