Guest Post Featured

10 Fun Things to do with Mr. Potato Head

Hi Mommy Teachers! It’s Casey stopping over from Kidspired Creations! As a former Pre-K and Kindergarten teacher, and a current stay-at-home mommy, I always try to think of different ways I can approach play time to make it a great learning experience too!

Today, we invited Mr. Potato Head to join in on our fun. My boys and I were all sitting around MPH and adding different parts to his head. He looked like a monster with an arm sticking out of his eye socket, eyes where his feet should go and a nose in each ear. As I watched my boys, James (turning 4 next week), was holding MPH and bossing Leyson (20 months) about what he should do with the nose in his hand.

I then turned this into a learning opportunity about sharing. I took all of the parts off of MPH and then told the boys that they can only put one body part in at a time and then it was Brother’s turn. An eye in for James, a nose in for Leyson, then back to James. See what kind of a cool monster we can make together!

This reminded me of a time that I subbed for a 2nd grade classroom. I had the students all participate in creating a monster that I drew on the board based on their descriptions. They each told me one thing to describe what the monster looked like and I added that to our drawing. I then had each student write a paper describing in complete detail what the monster looked like so that anyone who had not seen the monster that I drew could draw the same monster on their own. (What? The teacher didn’t leave a lesson plan for me and I taught the wee little ones… no clue what to do with 2nd graders).

So I asked James to describe the monster to me: “MPH has a huge blue muscles on his arm that is sticking out where his nose should be.”

Then, I got to thinking… how else can we learn with Mr. Potato Head?
Here are my top 10 ways that you can join in on the fun!

1. SHARING

2. DESCRIBING / USING DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE

3. STORYTELLING

(We made up a story about Mr. Potato Head’s adventures as a Firefighter)

4. 5 SENSES

Mommy: “If MPH is a firefighter, what is he going to use to smell if there is smoke?”

Child: “Nose!”

Mommy: “Great! What is he going to use to hear if people need his help?”

5. HAND-EYE COORDINATION

(My little one was having trouble putting the parts into the little holes, but after a few tries, he became a pro!)

6. BODY PARTS

(Placement and Name Recognition)

Easy: “Where is the nose?” (baby points)

Harder: “Is this a nose?” (baby says “yes” or “no”…or nods or shakes)

Even Harder: “Is this a nose or mouth?” (baby says “nose”)

Hardest: “What is this body part?” (baby says “nose”)

7. RIDDLES

Mommy: “This part helps keep his head warm when it’s cold.”

Child: “A hat!”

8. RHYMING

Mommy: “This next body part rhymes with ‘south.'”

Child: “Mouth!”

9. SORTING

10. MYSTERY BODY PART

Place 1 pair of eyes, 1 nose, 2 ears, 2 arms, 1 mouth, 1 hat, 1 mustache and 1 pair of shoes in a bag. Have your child reach his/her hand in the bag without looking and grab one body part. They must then guess which part they have in their hand.

Now, if you don’t have a Mr. Potato Head, he’s everywhere… in fact, he pretty much has his own website where you can search for all of the different Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head kits available. ENJOY!!!

A special THANK YOU to the ultimate Mommy Teacher, Jessica, for allowing me to share my playtime experiences with every one!

July 13, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

Guest Post From Kidspired Creations!

Hi Mommy Teachers! It’s Casey, a fellow mommy teacher, stopping by from Kidspired Creations! I am a stay-at-home mommy and I run a kids room decor business on the side. Before I was a mommy, I was a Pre-K and Kindergarten teacher, so Jessica and I always love to chat about teaching tools and activities.

I texted Jessica earlier about this super AWESOME find that I got from Wal-Mart for $9.95 today! I could not WAIT to share it with her… and now you!

Crayola Dry Erase Poster Set

This poster sticks to the wall and is easily removable AND reusable! Trust me, I’ve already had to stick and restick it a few times because I didn’t like where I put it. Printed on it are 10 writing lines (two solid lines with the dashed line in the middle) which is how kids learn to write straight, even, upper and lowercase letters.

It comes with 3 dry erase Crayola crayons which are fat and easy for James’ little uncoordinated fingers to use. A wet wipe easily erases everything (I’m sure you can use a dry paper towel as well, but I was lazy and the wet wipes were right there). Though James hasn’t written on the wall YET, I still have my Magic Eraser on standby for when the time comes.

James is a beginning writer so it is really important for me to start off teaching him to write simple straight lines and diagonal lines. After he masters those, he will also work on circles, squiggly and zig zag lines, both from the top solid line to the bottom solid line, and then from the middle dashed line to the bottom solid line. It is also important for your child to get in the habit of starting at the top and working down, and starting on the left and working right… left to right, top to bottom… that’s how we read and write and now’s the age for them to have that knowledge!

James was having a hard time understanding the concept of writing between the lines, so we played connect the dots. I drew two dots and he had to connect them to make the diagonal line… always starting at the top dot, of course.

My goal is for my husband or me to write a letter on the poster for James to read each morning when he wakes up and then eventually, he can do a journal every day like Jessica talked about in her last post. James especially dislikes writing on paper, but really enjoys writing on his new board with crayons! Let’s hope it lasts! Mommy is at least having fun with it… Especially since the crayon even wipes off the wall using a wet wipe!

June 4, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments