Month: May 2011

What To Do With A Clinger

I was at the park with some friends and I noticed one of my friend’s little girls clinging for dear life to her dad’s leg while the other children played across the park.  I know this little girl to be a VERY sweet little one, but she is just naturally shy when it comes to social settings.

So, I walked over to her, knelt down to her eye level, and asked her what her favorite area of the park was.  She hesitated as she pointed to the swings.  Right then, I held out my hand, and I said “Why don’t we go together to the swings and see if we can find one friend that we can play with by the swings?”  She didn’t hesitate at all!  She grabbed my hand and we headed over to the swings together.

Then, I called one of her well-known playmates over to the swings, and I asked my shy little friend to “use her words” and ask that friend if she would like to swing with us.  She hesitated and I said it again.  On the third try she asked that friend to play with her, and the other playmate gladly accepted.

After that, I stayed around for another 5-10 minutes to spark activity ideas and conversation between them, and then walked away to let her play independent of my guidance for a little while, but I kept my eyes on her in case it looked like she needed more prompting.

I wanted to share this with all my Mommy Teachers because I don’t want us to loose sight of the teaching opportunities we have in developing our little ones SOCIAL skills as well as cognitive skills.  I hope this inspires you 🙂

If you have any similar stories or questions PLEASE share them with me via email: jessica (at) themommyteacher [dot] com or on my facebook page.

I borrowed this picture of my friend Casey and her kids because she is such an awesome Mommy Teacher who plays with her kids and teaches them social skills as well.

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Make a Little Book

If your little one knows ALL of their letters, upper and lower, and has demonstrated a lot of the reading skills that shows you that he/she is ready for books, then you can actually start making books and teaching him/her “sight words.” Sight words are common words in books that you want your little ones to know at first sight. I called them “heart” words because I told the kids I wanted them to know the words by heart. Whatever you call them, you can start teaching your little ones words to memorize and then give your little one practice by reading the new word in a SIMPLE book.

Here is what I mean by a SIMPLE book:
The book will only have about two words per page. The first word will be the same on EVERY page, and the second will be the word for the picture on the page.
So your first page might say “The cat” with a picture of a cat, and then “The dog” on the next page with a picture of a dog.

This is so that you can teach your little one the word “the” before you read the book and then ask them to figure out what the next word on the page is using some clues:
What sound does the word start with? What word tells about the picture? Does the word make sense with the theme of the book? (animals, pets, etc)

Casey with Kidspired Creations shared the book that she made with her son called “The Pets.”
Her son is reading the word “the” and sounding out the second word, but not all children will be able to sound out the second word just yet. That skill is a product of practicing other reading skills.
Here is the book that Casey made:

And here is her description of the book:

“The Pets.
the dogs.
the cat.
the frog.
the pig.
the bug.
the duck.
the pets.

CVC words, sight word “the”, 2 plural words and one “ck”, /k/ sound.”

 

For More on Mini Book Reading Readiness, Read:
When Can I Start With Little Books

And Little Books For Your Little Ones to Read

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And the Winner of the Art Prints Giveaway is….

I used Random.org to pick my winner and then I just couldn’t help myself….i picked the number 2 winner too 🙂
SO, the winner(s) of the Alphabet Art Prints Giveaway Are….

Rachel B.
“I would love to put these in my son’s room. He’s in love with letters and would have a blast going over them…over and over again!”

AND

Lola G.
“I am going to use the prints for my daughter on her bedroom wall!”

Congrats 🙂
I’ll be getting your address shortly via email!

Thanks again Lauren Haddox Designs for making this giveaway possible!

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Snack Graph

My husband didn’t eat many “Sugar cereals” (as he calls them) when he was a kid. I, on the other hand, ate cinnamon toast crunch, reese’s puffs, fruit loops, and all the tasty stuff on the cereal aisle. So when I brought home “Fruity Cheerios” the other day my husband had a skeptical look on his face when he said “these taste like fruit loops.” So I respond, “Yeah, they’re great right?” And he responded with a comment about it being a sugar cereal, but I disagreed and I still claim that its Cheerios so it can’t be that bad for you.

Anyway, all that to say, in my Kindergarten class I LOVED to graph colorful snacks like fruit loops, gummy bears, colorful goldfish, etc.
So, I made a graph for you so that you can graph your colorful snack, whatever it may be, at home!

Colorful Snack Graph

All you will do is ask your child to take their serving of their snack and see if they can sort the colors into the right columns that line up above the color name. Then, when all the pieces are in place, you can ask your little one some of the following questions…. but some of them might be inappropriate for their level of understanding “number sense” – so dont push it:
– Which color of your snack did you have the most of? How many are there of that color?
– Which color of your snack did you have the least (or the smallest amount) of?
– Were there any colors that had the same/equal amount of that color snack?
– Which colors have more than 5? Less than 10?

The point is to teach your little one how to use and analyze a graph. This is a learning experience for YOU and your little one. You should feel proud of yourself for attempting this because you are introducing your little one to an activity that causes him/her to use higher order thinking skills to navigate his way around this visual data chart that he assembled….pretty advanced for such a young mind huh?

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Make a Phone Book

Alright, I know not many of us use hard copies of phone books anymore. Most of us use google, online white pages, etc. to find what we need. But, one element I LOVED in a classroom dramatic play center that would be GREAT in your home playroom is to put a homemade phone book by an old phone and allow your little one to role play calling their special friends.

Kids LOVE to roll play and this little activity gives them number recognition practice, familiarity with names starting with different letters of the alphabet, and research skills because they have to “look up” the names to call the characters.

My suggestion for how to make the phone book is to go online and find printable coloring pages of your children’s favorite TV or movie characters like Woody from Toy Story, or Dora the Explorer, etc. (try to find coloring pages WITH the character’s names on them), print them, and write made-up numbers on each page. Allow your child to color the pages and then place them in ABC order (you can even buy the alphabet dividers and make a binder of character’s numbers if you really want to be fancy). Another more simple option is to find an old coloring book and write the names and “numbers” of the characters and use that as a phone book.
Either way, jazz up the idea to your kids and get them excited about calling all their favorite “friends.”
Here is one example from PBS kids COLORING Pages:

After you print it you would add the number (I saved it as a screenshot, opened it in Paint, and added the text number just to show you what it might look like)

 

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