Holiday - The Mommy Teacher

Building Oral Vocabulary – Giving Thanks

Some of my FAVORITE Thanksgiving memories include writing poems to share for the family before our Thanksgiving meal. Some were serious (poems that share how thankful we were) and some were silly – we still have a video of my crazy Uncle Chris reading his “poem” which was actually a really a ridiculous riddle.

Whether you make it a point to help your little ones come up with Thankful poems, a “Thankful Poster” or a “Thankful Words Book,” all of these open-ended activities are simple ways to celebrate the holiday while also building oral vocabulary and being intentional about helping to develop pre-reading and pre-writing skills.

I highly encourage checking out age-appropriate picture books at your local library about Thanksgiving to read as a primer for these activities. Here are a few that I recommend:

November 21, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

Pledge Your Allegiance With Your Kids

September 11th is a day that I want to recognize and commemorate by sharing the ways that I have always taught kids about our allegiance to our nation:

Even though I quoted the Pledge of Allegiance EVERY day in grade school verbatim, I still didn’t have a clue what the meaning of it was until about the 4th grade because of the higher order vocab like “allegiance, republic, indivisible, etc.” You can start introducing a wider vocabulary to kids at a younger age as long as you connect the meaning to those words in multiple ways. For the pledge (teaching about our allegiance to America), you can do this using:

Activities and Lessons

and by using the words in context more often.

The Pledge of Allegiance

Hubbard’s Cupboard has my favorite pictures for kids that are simple and that you can even incorporate into a book printable. The printables I use most are the “day 2” printables and hey, they are FREE 🙂

You can also put these pictures on cards, whole punch the corner of the cards, and put them on a binder ring to flip each card as you say the pledge.

Can I get a “God Bless America!!!” ???

September 11, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

Scrap-Book

My niece’s birthday is right around the corner so I am making her a book; I decided to share a sneak peek with my mommy teachers.

These are some of the materials I am using:

magazine tear-outs

ribbon

scrapbook paper

hole-punch (and a drill for the cardboard)

24″ x 12″ piece of cardboard

I cut a cardboard box that creased in the middle into a 24″ x 12″ foldable. Then I covered the outside and inside with cute scrapbook paper and a fun little title “Things To Do Just Me and You.”

I asked my husband to drill holes though the entire book (minus the pages) that I will use to bind the book with a ribbon. I am going to hole punch the pages for cleaner lines.

Next, I decorated the inside with pictures that I cut out from magazines. Each page will have a little date idea for us. This page is going to say: “We can pick out your birthday cake” and “We can go to the candy shop.”

This page is going to say something like: “We can make ice cream cones.”

Each page is going to begin with “we can” so that some of the text will be repetitive and the rest of the text will require her to use her reading strategies. I will share the final product when I get it done, but for now I hope this idea gives you a fun craft-book idea to make with/for your little one.

August 4, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

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

Father’s Day Ideas from Kidspired Creations

As I was brainstorming some fun and educational activity ideas for you Mommy Teachers for Father’s Day, I couldn’t get Casey’s ideas out of my head so I wanted to share them with you all.

Not only did she share her very own Father’s Day Craft idea HERE that I thought was so perfect, but she also has a project for Teachers that I thought is a perfect Father’s Day gift for the office as well…. Check it out HERE.

You can put your own personal touch on these projects, as far as the materials go, but these ideas are too great to pass up.

You need to read about these ideas but here is a sneak peak:

June 13, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments