Seasonal - The Mommy Teacher

Turkey Day Eve – 2010 Repeat

One of my favorite Thanksgiving memories is when my cousins and I would gather together to make crafts that my Aunt had prepared in advance. So, I couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to make a Thanksgiving-themed activity.

As I talked about in my post “Number Sense,” children need to learn that a number is a symbol that represents a quantity. Counting slowly, touching one object at a time, is one way to start. Drawing ojects one object at a time is the next step to practice representing a number. After your child is exposed to counting through hands-on activities over a period of time, they will start to be able to recognize a group of 3 objects as 3 objects without even needing to count. So, today’s activity is:

1) Print the turkeys Numbered Turkeys

2) Cut out the turkeys; let your child assist you, teaching him/her how to hold the scissors and take small “bites” carefully.

3) Encourage your child to identify the number on the turkey and draw that many tailfeathers on the tukey’s bottom, making it as colorful or simple as they like using crayons, markers, or even paint (with fingers or brush) if you want to make it more of a craft.

4) As always, have fun!

November 23, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

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

Tear-ific Artwork to Write About

One of my favorite art projects to do with kids, to develop the little muscles in their hands, is to have them tear apart little pieces of colorful construction paper and glue them onto a template to make a beautiful work of art that I usually help little ones write a sentence about. One example is a fall picture that all you need in order to make it is crayons and construction paper:

You can have little ones tear apart little pieces of their favorite color construction paper (or seasonal colors) until the shreds fill a paper plate.

Then, have your little one help you come up with a template; mine was simply made up of a tree trunk and a circle for the pumpkin.

On top of this template apply a thin layer of glue…..I use rubber cement (or spread regular glue with a small paintbrush).

Before the glue dries, let your little one assemble the paper pieces onto their picture.

Finally, ask your little one to help you write a sentence about your picture. For example, “I like the Fall” or “The leaves are falling.”

If you and your little one make your own Tear-Art please share on The Mommy Teacher Facebook Page:

October 25, 2011 by Jessica | 1 Comment

A Book about how “Jack” is feeling

Oh, so many uses for such a simple pumpkin template. Yes, I have yet another use for that simple pdf that I made by copying a pumpkin di-cut, and todays activity idea develops social-emotional skills and reading skills.

All you need to do is print the template, talk with your little ones about feelings that we have and brainstorm a list of them (sad, mad, silly, happy, etc.). Then, try to make a Jack-O-Lantern expression that matches that emotion.

After doing that, cut them out, have your little one try to help you write the word that sounds out that feeling “/s//a//d/” and put all the jack’s together to make a book. Give it a title and tah-dah, you have a Book about Jack.

Accomodate each page description with whatever your little one is capable of or interested in. Your little one might like a more creative description under each jack expression like “Jack-O-Silly” or your little one might want to make a repetitive book that says “Jack is…” on each page. Let your little one make it his/her own!

October 20, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

More Pumpkin Games

Today you can use the same pumpkin template that I made for you on Monday to play even more games focusing on skills that you are working on with your little one.

One great way to accommodate practicing new skills, depending on what your little one needs to work on, is by using two-sided cards. On one side you might write the word of problem you want your little one to practice “solving” and on the other you could write the answer. This is so that little ones can “self-correct” and check to see for themselves if he/she guessed correctly. This game is as simple as having your little one pick a pumpkin, read the number word (or solve the problem like counting the number of dots) and turn it over to see if the number matches the word or amount (or addition problem). If he/she is correct, he will place the pumpkin in the “pumpkin patch” (a shoebox, on a cutting board, or any defined space you choose). If he/she is incorrect, he will place the pumpkin in the bottom of the card stack, with the goal of eventually placing returning all of the pumpkins to the pumpkin patch.

Or, you can always have your little one order the pumpkins (letters, numbers, number words, from biggest to smallest number amounts, etc.) or otherwise allow your little one the chance to come up with a fun way to use and practice their new skills.

October 13, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments