Schooling parents to support their children, one lesson at a time.
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).
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!
Hi, Mommy Teachers! It’s Casey, stopping by from Kidspired Creations! I am Mommy to James (5) who just started Kindergarten, Leyson (3) and Lena (6 months). I currently stay at home with the younger two but I taught Pre-K and Kindergarten before my Mommy days.
Leyson and I were playing (learning) today and were toying around with different Busy Bag Exchange ideas. We will be participating in a Busy Bag Exchange soon where all the moms participating bring gallon baggies filled with simple, hand-made activities for each of the kids who will be there. If 15 moms participate, your child has 15 new Busy Bags full of super fun (and educational) activities!
Leyson and I came up with 3 different ideas today and I thought they would all be fun to share with you Mommy Teachers!
PATTERNS:
We used word strips (found at the Dollar Tree for, you guessed it, $1 per package) to glue colored squares in AB, ABB and ABC patterns. I cut additional colored squares for Leyson to COPY the patterns on the strips by placing each of the colored squares below the square on the strip. This will get him used to making patterns. Saying the color out loud reinforces the pattern so he can also HEAR the pattern (helpful for an auditory learner – someone who learns better when hearing information).
After he was able to copy the pattern, I then taught him how to EXTEND the pattern. At the end of the strip, he must finish the pattern by placing the appropriate colored squares that would come NEXT in the pattern.
The next step is to create his own patterns without looking at the strip. From there you can create more complex patterns! The options are endless! Patterns are difficult to understand, so it might take a little time for your little one to be able to catch on.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?:
Kids are so funny when it comes to learning how to spell their own names. Most often kids learn how to spell their names before they completely understand the concept that letters make words when put together. Take my son Leyson, for example; anytime he sees a word that starts with an L, he says it spells Leyson. He thinks he owns the letter L. The same goes for the letters E, Y, S, O and N… he owns them all. You see, for young toddlers, they will not understand that the ORDER of letters actually makes a difference when spelling words.
Even in my kindergarten classroom, students who knew how to spell their names would sometimes slip into the idea of “owning” all the letters in their name and would write their names out of order. LUIS would spell his name UILS… still thinking that it spelled the same thing. Even more common would be for kids to write their names backwards (SIUL)… and several, get this, would write their names in mirror image! I can’t even do that! All of these are totally normal progressions when your child is learning how to spell his/her name, so here is an easy activity to help:
You need two word cards (or index cards). Write your child’s name evenly and legibly on each card. Leave the first card whole, and cut out each individual letter on the second card. First, have your child put each cut out letter on top of the letters on his/her name card, matching letter for letter. Then, have your child put his/her name together underneath the name card. Last, take away the name card and have your child put together the letters to spell his/her name from memory. Be sure to say the letters out loud in order so your child can hear how to spell his/her name in addition to seeing it. Jessica had a great post on singing a catchy song to learn how to spell a name.
HAMBURGER PLAY:
This game was Leyson’s idea. He picked up a circle I cut out and pretended to eat it, saying it was a hamburger bun. Bam! Instant Busy Bag idea!
I used construction paper to cut out a top and bottom bun, hamburger, tomato, cheese, ketchup, mustard, pickles, lettuce, and bacon and we made a hamburger! Not only is this a great pretend-play activity, but it was a great way to encourage language development and sequencing. I had Leyson explain to me exactly how we should make a hamburger. I encouraged him to use words such as “first,” “next,” “then,” and “last” in his explanation. You can also add an extra element by writing numbers on each of the pieces to teach your child number order (1: the bottom bun, 2: the hamburger, 3: cheese, etc.). For the beginning reader? Write the words “bun,” “pickle,” etc. on each of the pieces and then enjoy your nice, tasty treat!
I am still brainstorming different Busy Bag ideas! If you have a good one, please comment below and share! Hopefully after the Busy Bag Exchange I will have another post for you, so stay tuned!!!
—
Casey Dellinger Hilty
“One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.”
Teach For America
LA Corps 2005
My kids are having a blast with this SIMPLE and CHEAP number activity. They close their eyes and pick a number (this is a magnetic number from the walmart toy aisle where the playdoh is).
Then they pinch that number of dots (which is great for teaching one-to-0ne correspondence) and roll a chunk of playdoh into a “snake” before forming it into the numeral to match the number they selected. I actually let them do this on a laminated sorting mat in my classroom. My sorting mat is one piece of white construction paper and another piece glued together at the end and then laminated. That way they can place the quantity on one side and the formed number on the other.
EASY, CHEAP, DOABLE, and you probably have everything you need at home!
There has been so much going on in my life this week that I don’t know where to start!
Hurricane Isaac came and went but my household didn’t have power for four days so I couldn’t write a post. My family did, however, have plenty of time for board games, play dough, chalk board and dry erase board writing, reading, coloring, tracing, hide and seek, building towers, playing house, trains and trucks, indoor soccer, and several other rainy-day activities in our PJ’s. But, the fun really kicked in when we stayed at “Nonna”s on the third night. >>>>
But, the biggest news right now is that I accepted a teaching position to teach Kindergarten at the school across the street from my house. Some people have asked me if that means that I won’t be posting on TMT (the mommy teacher) anymore, but that is not the case! 😉 I will be trying to post at least once, if not up to three times a week so don’t stop visiting or spreading the word about TMT !
My first share is my BEfORE pic of my classroom that needs A LOT of love….
My first step was to cover those dreary blinds and the cheapest alternative (on my budget) was DIY curtains made from plastic table covers…
Other than being an affordable curtain solution, they are easily replaceable if they are damaged and they add plenty of color! I used colored paper clips to hang them on the top blind… (matching the color of the curtain to the clip to camouflage it and it worked. Just $12 and I don’t have to look at the wall of blinds anymore. If I had a smaller space, I would have bought table cloths from target and turned them into curtains…
But, covering 5 huge panels like that wouldn’t have achieved the affordable goal I was going for!
Anyway, I will be posting activities and learning experiences soon….this past week was just CRAZY! Hope yours was great 🙂
