Everyday Teachable Moments

Last Year’s Fourth of July….to Inspire :)

Every year my sister throws a Fourth of July party at her house, but last year was extra special. My sister and I, and our families, got to celebrate Independence Day with our two precious newborns….born just two days apart!

We enjoyed a lot of good food, swimming, and fireworks while my little man enjoyed his floatie:

My husband and I had some time to enjoy the fireworks that night with so many family members around to hold the baby:

And this year will be another special party at my sister’s house that I am looking forward to. We made the meal plan and being that I am four months pregnant I picked what I was going to bring based on my cravings.

But last year I made this:

It may not look this “neat” if you let your little ones help you make it, but I thought that a fruit pizza flag would be SUCH a great cooking activity….especially with all the teaching opportunities here. Put candles in it and sing Happy Birthday to our country, Explain the symbolism of the American flag, counting out the stars and stripes, measure the cake pan and try to fill the whole area, cut the strawberries in “half” making twice as many pieces, and measure out the amounts to make and stir the icing from scratch….I just used sugar cookie dough for the base 🙂

So, Happy Fourth of July Friends! Make memories and share them on the Mommy Teacher Facebook Page!!!!

July 1, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

Sorting Letters of the Alphabet

Two days ago I decided that my next post was going to be on sorting letters of the alphabet because every time I teach letters I make my own sorting mats. This is a great skill for children to practice, not only because it is a grade level expectation for children, but because it is a skill that teaches children how to organize data and focus on grouping based on similarities and differences. When children can do this with letters of the alphabet it gives them a stronger memory recall for the letter formation and the aspects that make up a letter.

Usually the mats I make have three columns and usually look something like this: Alphabet Sorting mat.

Other ways to sort include 1) upper and lower case, 2) tall letters, short letters, and letters “with a tail.” 3) letters in my name vs letters not in my name, etc.

Casey must have read my mind because she shared with me this AWESOME idea from a cool blog.

You can make your own game pieces the way she did, you can use magnetic letters, or other loose alphabet pieces you have around the house, or you can cheat all together and buy the following game from lakeshore:

Sort & Learn Alphabet Center

June 10, 2011 by Jessica | 3 Comments

Mommy’s Inside Scoop on Hopscotch

I know most of us grew up playing hopscotch and didnt think twice about what math skills we might be learning. But when your little one is playing hopscotch, he or she is interacting with a lifesize number line. And children learn so naturally through movement.

So, on this pretty day, I propose that you get outside with your little one, chalk up a hopscotch grid OR go to your local park or school that has a hopscotch painted on the concrete and keep these skills in mind:

1. Counting practice – draw the hopscotch with numbers up to twenty! I know that is a long hopscotch but children need more practice with numbers 10-20.

Start off just asking your little one to help you count the number spaces out in order.

2. Identifying numbers

Try to hop on one foot from 1 to 20 so that your little one has to identify the numbers in one- to- one correspondance. If you toss a rock to a number, have them call out the number they are hopping to and then call out the numbers they hop on to get there.

3. Identify the numbers coming before or after a given number

After playing the game regularly at first, tell your little one that it’s time to play a new version of the game. “This time we are going to play ‘hop to the number that comes BEFORE the number that the rock lands on.'” Play this again but then hopping to the number that comes AFTER the number the rock lands on.

4. Identifying a number coming between two numbers.

Play “Can You hop to the number that comes between _ and __.”

5. Count forward or backward from a given number.

Have your little one count out loud as he/she hops forward or backward from the number they land on. You want your little one to have the skill of knowing how to “count on” or “count back” from any given number because this will help your little one solve math problems in the future.

6. You can even use the hopscotch grid to practice simple addition and subtraction:

-examples of addition: if you hop one space and then two more what number will you land on? (three) or if you are on the number five and hop two spaces what number will you land on? (seven)

-examples of subtraction: if you are on the number 8 and you hop back three spaces what number will you land on? (five). Or, if you are on the number three and hop back two spaces which number would you land on? (one)

Did you have any idea there could be six plus versions of hopscotch teaching all those skills? Have fun!

June 3, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

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?

May 4, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

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)