Month: October 2011

Your Library Read-Aloud Experience

I will be posting a reading activity tomorrow and will be having a giveaway SOON, but I wanted to ask a Mommy Teacher Question for Mommy (and daddy) teachers to share their read-aloud experiences:

Have you been to a read-aloud at the local library or something similar?  What was your child’s response?

All of our little ones are different….with different interests, behaviors, attention spans, personalities, activity levels, developmental skills, etc. and I QUICKLY learned that if I want my active little 17 month old to learn library manners it is going to take some familiarity and practice!

I have attempted to take Sean Patrick to the weekly library read-alouds, for children his age, TWICE now; although he was slightly more interested the second time, the first visit still cracks me up.

This little child LOVES to read.  Tonight, our power was out and he sat on my lap as I read him TONS of books (using a bright headlamp) for an hour.  He reads to himself in the back seat of the car, and asks me to “read pweease” all day.  And he loves music too.   HOWEVER, when the librarian was leading fingerplays and reading a big book, Sean Patrick wanted nothing to do with it.  He wanted to run around the library, pulling books from the shelves, and he stopped in front of each person to direct their attention to himself.  Don’t get me wrong, these are also typical behaviors of my 17 month old, BUT I found it comical that he didn’t ALSO focus his energy on the read-aloud for more than 1 minute.

So, out of sheer curiousity, and just for fun, I’d LOVE to hear about your read-aloud experiences either in a comment or on my facebook page:

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More Pumpkin Games

Today you can use the same pumpkin template that I made for you on Monday to play even more games focusing on skills that you are working on with your little one.

One great way to accommodate practicing new skills, depending on what your little one needs to work on, is by using two-sided cards.  On one side you might write the word of problem you want your little one to practice “solving” and on the other you could write the answer.  This is so that little ones can “self-correct” and check to see for themselves if he/she guessed correctly.  This game is as simple as having your little one pick a pumpkin, read the number word (or solve the problem like counting the number of dots) and turn it over to see if the number matches the word or amount (or addition problem).   If he/she is correct, he will place the pumpkin in the “pumpkin patch” (a shoebox, on a cutting board, or any defined space you choose).  If he/she is incorrect, he will place the pumpkin in the bottom of the card stack, with the goal of eventually placing returning all of the pumpkins to the pumpkin patch.

Or, you can always have your little one order the pumpkins (letters, numbers, number words, from biggest to smallest number amounts, etc.) or otherwise allow your little one the chance to come up with a fun way to use and practice their new skills.

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Simple Pumpkin Game

Today I thought I would introduce a “card game” that you could play with your kids using a  simple pumpkin template that I made.

For this game, print the pumpkin template onto orange paper (or cardstock) and cut them out either in squares or on the outside of the bold, black outline.  Then write a number, sight word, letter, shape, or any skill you are focusing on at the time on the back of most of the cards.  On about 1/5 of the cards write the word “boo” or some other fun seasonal word that is memorable for your child.  Place the cards down with the pumpkins facing up.  Your little one will pick up a pumpkin and tell you what is on the back of the pumpkin. If your little one names it right, he/she will keep the card and then you, or another player, will take a turn. But, if he/she cannot identify what is on the back of the card, he/she will have to put the card back (after you have re-taught him/her what that skill was). If your little one picks “Boo”, encourage your little one to put ALL of his/her cards back; making it very light-hearted and funny that he/she has to “start over” because of that silly “boo.”

Game Tip* Explain the rules FIRST, have a practice round second, and then play a real game third so that the rules are understood and applied by your little one before the game officially starts.

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October Calendar!

Are we already a week into the month of October? Believe it or not, I am just now making and printing my October Calendar to post in my kitchen. So, go back and read my September Post about Weather Tracking for some of my thoughts on teachable opportunities with Weather Tracking and try to start October’s tracking (a little late thanks to yours truly).

Here is your October Calendar

If you would like to buy the entire year of this theme, check them out HERE!

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ABC Hopscotch For Your Active Learner

It finally feels like Fall here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana! Although it will probably only feel like this for one more day before the weather decides to melt us again, it is the perfect day to get outside and get your little one moving. If you are like me, you like to get moving too so you might join your little one for this letter-naming activity.
I have noticed two mistakes on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to teaching letters: 1) we teach too many letters at one time 2) we stop reinforcing letters when our little ones “know” them all.
Today, I want you to do this activity with your little one EVEN if your little one already “knows” all their letters….this is a GREAT activity for active learners to practice their concentration on a few letters at a time, AND their fluency (how quickly they can identify the letters that they know).

 Draw a hopscotch court with chalk or tape one down on the concrete if you want it to last longer and fill it in with letters of the alphabet instead of numbers.  HOW you write the letters and WHICH letters you choose should cater to your little one’s knowledge of letter recognition.

*If your little one doesn’t know their ABC’s then write the letters in alphabetical order so that your little one can use the abc song to figure out which letters he/she lands on.

*If your little one knows 4 letters then write those 4 letters and 2 more letters that you can focus on teaching for that particular “court.”

*If your little one knows all the letters, pick upper and lower case letters AT RANDOM and place them out of order on the court and then erase (wet the letters with water) after playing a few rounds, and write new letters for them to practice naming them quickly.

For other ideas of how you might accommodate this activity for your little learner…contact me 🙂

 

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