Jessica

Don’t Pass Up The Chance to Teach SOMEthing today…

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day y’all!  Today is packed with purpose, historical and monumental.

So many great discussions can take place in your house on Inauguration Day; AND, who could pass up the chance to celebrate the day that we remember such a powerful figure in the Civil Rights Movement…. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I had to pass along one example of a teachable moment from today to inspire you…. my friend Casey with Kidspired Creations…. writes on her personal blog… about her teaching moment.

It is a quick read, but I mean, if this doesn’t inspire you I don’t know what will!

I didn’t snap pictures from today, but with my two year old I mostly introduced vocabulary today while we watched the Inauguration…. like “President” and “Speech.”  etc.

I shared the following picture on my facebook page but I wanted to also share it here.  My kindergarteners made these simple books (from an idea on pinterest) and it is a beautiful depiction that we are in fact created equal.

(She wasn’t finished coloring but I think the way she colored the clothing too is adorable )

God Bless America!

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Here Is My Secret Math Weapon

Okay, so today I am going to reveal one of my GREATEST math resources for little ones…. it is an OLDSCHOOL book that is still relevant and always will be for teaching number concepts.

Developing Number Concepts Using Unifix Cubes

WHATEVER YOU DO…. DO NOT BUY A NEW COPY OF THIS BOOK!  Buy a used one….. it is an old book and there are TONS of afforable copies!

If you are a homeschooling mom then you do not want to pass this up, but whether you are, or aren’t, this is a great activity book.

It is informative, and extremely hands-on.  If you worked on one “game” a week from the book and did it every day by the time you get through the progression of the activities your child will truly understand the foundations of math, and I wouldn’t be surprised if your child embraced math from then on.

This book is outdated in appearance but NOT content.  There are more updated books broken up into Book 1, Book 2, and Book 3, but they are just visually more appealing.  If you get the cheaper old school book you wont regret it.

 Oh, and I guess you will need some of these:

Unifix Cubes; Assorted Colors; 100 Piece Set; no. DD-225

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A Couple Apps for the New Year

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!   I have been soooo busy soaking up time with my little ones as a working mom that I haven’t made time for posts.   But I assure you, I have TONS in the “Posts Drafts” Section of my website that I my new year’s resolution is to share 😉

Here is a quick share for you…

My sister showed me this Montessori Crosswords App that her TWO YEAR OLD was playing and I immediately wanted it on my phone for my little one.   It amazes me how many tools there are in the tech world these days and I love learning about them.

This App is a letter-sound matching tool that sounds out the first, middle, and ending sound of each word one letter-sound at a time.  A child matches the letter to its sound by dragging and dropping the letter in the correct space.   If a child isn’t sure what letter matches the sound, he/she can click on the question mark at the top to show the way the word should look.  Then, the skill changes to a letter recognition skill.

I was amazed that my niece was using deductive reasoning to figure out the right letter that makes the matching sound.   She was either trying different letters until she found the correct one or she was using the self-correct options to check the right letter.

See what I mean here:

This App is great for ages 2-7  in my opinion.  It is a great pre-requisite for phonetic spelling.

My two year old has known all of his upper case for almost a year, but this is a great tool to help him with lower case letter recognition by changing the letter case option to lower.

I don’t like to buy apps but this is one that I caved in and forked out the $2.99 because I know what a reading benefit this kind of tool can be.   Check it out and let me know what you think.

The Montessori Numbers App from the same group is pretty great too! It covers Numbers, Quantities, Numerals, Numerals from quantities, and tracing.  Awesome skills to build on!

Leave a comment with other Apps you like….I love to check them out and see what’s out there 🙂

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Words All Around Me Book

Children love to visualize themselves as readers and making books is so fun because kids take ownership and pride in their own creations.  I have a magazine tub where I save my grocery store newspaper clips, toy store magazines, Scholastic book fair newspaper clips, and other great visual collections.

My friend Joy shared this EASY template for a book, and my kindergarteners had a blast cutting out and glueing their favorite things into a book (that is meaningful AND that they can read).

 

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What I Have Been Up To lately…

I will probably be bombarding you with lots and lots of things I have been up to in the last month…

My first trimester had me bed-ridden after work, but I am 13 weeks now and feeling SO much better!

I used a lot of fun pinterest activities to gear up for Thanksgiving, so check out my Pinterest board “November Activities” to see a little of what I was up to.

We also made a classbook called “Save a Turkey” where each child drew a picture to brainstorm things that a turkey might say to get others to stay away: Eat more chicken, eat more beef, eat more fish, etc.

We did a lot of different activities about what we were thankful for.

We did math stories on a barn template to find out how many turkeys there were all together “4 on the barn, 1 on the ground….5 all together” re-stated “4 AND 1 IS 5.”

We played Gobble! Where we had words we know by site on turkeys that we flipped over to read and keep if we knew them, but if someone drew the word “Gobble” they had to put all their cards back.

We made Fall trees by painting with q-tips and fall colors.

And a lot of other little things here and there that I may add to this post (with pictures) soon….if I can gear up for it.

I will share my December activities soon 🙂

Glad to be back!

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