I’ll never forget the day when I was packing lots of monkey puppet printables and crayons on our way to Kennilworth park and my husband said “Jess, no kids are going to be coloring while they are at the park.” And as I recall I said something along the lines of “We’ll see.”
Mmm Hmm… I think you know where this is headed…
Every last printable was colored and taken home, of course.I set it up on a picnic table under a covered awning and the kids re-visited the craft bit by bit.
Now, don’t get me wrong… I FULLY believe that parks are a place to take advantage of the gross motor skills (balance, coordination, running, jumping, climbing skills, etc.) that naturally take place in that setting.And there are SO many great parks in Baton Rouge to wear out your kiddos ;).But, if you are like me, you might pack snacks and other carry-ons that can make your playdates vary and LAST!
Today, I am sharing a printable that could be a great way for kids to observe, record, and note the differences of their local parks.
This printable has different uses for different stage kiddos:
For Toddlers:
Introduce the vocabulary…. “Look!Swings.Where are the swings?Yay! We found the swings.Do you want to swing?”
For Pre-schoolers:
Observe the details…. “Does this playground have swings?What color are the swings?Lets color the swings green so we can remember that this park has green swings!”
For Pre-Kinders:
Record the details….Put an “x” on the line under the equipment that is not at the playground, try to write the beginning sound or all the sounds you hear on the line under the equipment that is at the playground.
For Kinders:
Write about the details…. “Can you write what you like about the {slide, swing, etc.} at this playground?”“I like to push my friends on the swings so I am going to write that under swings.”
For Kinder Grads:
Compare and Contrast the different playgrounds by making their own scavenger hunt specific to their own local parks/playgrounds.
My final bit of advice for using these:bring clipboards… kids feel so official when they are “recording information” on a clipboard.🙂
I hope you like this little freebie that you can tote along to the park OR have it out on a table at home after going to a park for some unwind time.
Last week, I had the extreme privilege of subbing for my son’s 1st grade classroom for the afternoon. This Mommy Teacher really misses the classroom so I was really excited to jump back in… if only for a little over 3 hours.
Well, it just so happened, that I had planned a Thanksgiving craft with my kids that evening, so I decided to bring some supplies and do it with James’ class, too… after all, this was one of my favorite activities to do in my own classroom each November…
I spoke to the kids about the month of November and it being a time to give thanks. I explained what thankfulness is and gave some reasons about why I was thankful. I then had each of the students say one thing that they were thankful for… guiding those who couldn’t think of something new. My favorite? “I am thankful for opportunities to be helpful,” referencing the different tasks the classroom helpers rotate each week. (And, of course, James being thankful for his mom ranks pretty high, too!)
I cut feathers out of construction paper and gave 3 to each student. The students had to come up with 3 things they were thankful for and write each on one of their feathers. At the end of our activity, we glued the feathers down and had a beautiful turkey! It gave James a great picture of what our own finished turkey would look like after 28 days…
That’s right, we are taking the whole month to make our turkey… two feathers at a time (one for each of my boys).
Day 1: James (6) is thankful for his little sister, and Leyson (4) is thankful for, well, Leyson! Since we are a few days into November, use your first day you do this activity to play catch up to get the kids used to talking about things they are thankful for.
One thing I am thankful for? All of our wonderful mommy teachers out there! Thank you for stopping by The Mommy Teacher! Please share your Thanksgiving crafts with us on Facebook!
UPDATE: This is Jessica (The not-artsy Mommy Teacher) wanting to share the printable I made tonight so that I could do this tomorrow. This is for the UN-artistic people who want to do this 😉 – (cough cough) namely for me and my kids !
Click here: Turkey Template Printable to get the simple turkey template for this activity OR click on the image above! 😉
Today, the start of a new month, we wanted to spotlight a mommy teacher who has made it her discipline to choose to look at life in a positive, truth-filled way…every day. She focuses on one goal, one month at a time. We are hoping that some of her disciplines will rub off on us!
Megan writes “I can’t tell you how excited I am to be a guest blogger on the Mommy Teacher! I just entered the blogging world myself a few months ago with Just30Days.org.
I was honestly tired of thinking the grass was greener on the other side. Have you been there? I wished I could cook like her, get up early every day like him, workout like them or encourage my husband like that. I wasn’t even close to doing one of those consistently, let alone all of the things on my list (and I promise you, my list is crazy long!). So instead of wallowing in my discontent, I decided to water my side of the grass! Now every 30 Days I’m taking on a new project to try out and sharing my experience on my blog. Last month I got up early every day. This month I’m praying specific virtues and qualities over my kids. This month I’m finding ways to be thankful. Let me just say, there is power in a focused life!
So, this month as I’ve focused on praying scripture over my kids, I have realized how much my husband and I rely on God’s Word in our parenting. Now, my husband is a pastor; so, some would assume that this comes naturally in our home…think again! We do not sit around having beautiful family devotions (our kids are 5, 3 and 1 so I don’t even know if that’s possible!), we forget to pray at meals way too often, we say mean things that we wish we could take back…we are just normal people. Can’t you just see the love between these two…
We are not even close to having it all together. And I’m finally ok with that because I’ve realized that it’s in those times that I rely on God even more!
Now what does it look like to use scripture in your everyday parenting? I don’t mean running to the bathroom, closing the door and crying out to God, “I know your Word says that even the hairs on my head are numbered by You. But I am pulling them out, one by one in frustration!” Now sometimes that is necessary, but I really mean that we use it in our normal conversation throughout our day with the kids. Here are some of our favorite verses we use daily…
God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)
Encourage one another daily. (Hebrews 3:13)
Be kind and loving to one another. (Ephesians 4:32)
Fear not, I am with you always. (Isaiah 41:10)
Children, obey your parents in everything for this pleases The Lord. (Colossians 3:20)
Let me give you some examples of how we use them…
When the kids are eating snacks and my daughter grabs one of her crackers and gives it to her brother without him asking, I will say, “God loves…” and she will say, “…a cheerful giver.” It’s that easy!
When the kids are in the back of the car fighting, I will say, “I don’t hear kind words coming out of your mouths to each other. What does God tell us? Be kind…” and they will finish, “…and loving to one another.”
When my youngest begins to throw things in anger, I will say, “In your anger do not sin.” This is a new one that we are starting to use with him. Does he understand that at all as a one year old? No. But he will eventually and I am just speaking truth into his little life.
If I hear one of them saying something mean to the other, I will say, “God’s Word tells us to encourage…” and they finish, “…one another daily.” Then I have them apologize for the discouraging thing they said and then they have to say something encouraging to each other. This is probably one of my favorite things we do with the kids!
We are just taking verses that apply to how we want our children to act, what we want their hearts to believe and what we want their mouths to speak. And do you notice that in none of those examples am I even asking where the verse is in the Bible? At their ages, I am not concerned that they know the exact verse, but instead that they know the truth! And the point is not to beat it into the kids but to encourage them with it. As a parent, you are called to “…guard what has been entrusted to your care.” (1 Timothy 6:20). What better way to do this than with God’s Word. It really is changing your mind frame to use scripture as a parenting tool…it’s the best we’ve found!
So give it a try.
Pick a few short verses that you want your kids to know. Then memorize it yourself first. Write it on the wall in your kitchen or on your kid’s bathroom mirror. Even if they can’t read, you can! It will be a good reminder for you to use it when you see it. And then teach it to your kids…use it for correction, use it for encouragement, use it to remind them of truth. The key is to use it! And then maybe by the end of our hard days of parenting, our kids will look more like this (makes my heart melt!)…
I would love for you to follow me on one of my 30 Day projects! This month, I will begin 30 Days of Being Thankful….a month of finding our everyday blessings. You can read more about it and sign up here!”
