I have been patiently waiting to write about these mats ever since I saw them 2 weeks ago on the pioneer woman’s site. I contacted Leslie who has a super cute blog and asked if I could help spread the word about these awesome placemats because well, they are awesome! I mean, what better way for your little one to practice writing their name, family members names, practice sounding out the names of the menu items, draw the shapes or other observations they see, etc.
If you are grossed out by chalk at the dinner table, SET a kid’s table and let the adults finish enjoying their food and the kids can retreat to the kid’s table to develop their fine motor skills and enjoy their creativity. I love the thought of turning the dinner table into a learning table. The possibilities are endless really. Order them HERE!!!
Today’s activity is a combination of kindergarten grade level expectations in social studies, math, writing, and reading! And it happens to be one your little one will love.
You are going to create a simple map of your child’s room with your little one (this is the social studies skill). And you are going to use shapes to draw items like the bed, rug, dresser, desk, lamp, etc. (math skill). Then you are going to ask your little one to help you sound out the words to write on each space (reading skill), and then have your little one write the letters as you name them (writing skill). You are going to bury a “treasure” like a candy or other treat in the room and write a small “x” in the place where you have hidden it. Then your little one will use the map to figure out where the hidden treasure is.
A very simple, yet educational, and extremely fun activity for your little one to do! Share about your experience on the Mommy Teacher Facebook Page!
My computer has had a virus for a week and a half and you would swear I am lost in my own home. We have got to get it fixed…even if it costs us. Speaking of costing us…. today we are gonna talk about MONEY, HONEY.
When I taught kindergarten one of the grade level expectations is that children can identify coins and their values. But coins can be difficult to teach unless you teach them ONE coin at a time. Kids always seem to recognize a quarter because they need quarters to buy candy haha, but the other coins all blend together in their minds. So, when I teach coins I will spend a week or more on each individual coin so that the children can really store and organize the information in their minds.
So, go on a penny hunt today and collect as many as you can and put them in a coin purse or a wallet. Then write various numbers with the cent sign on post-its and place them on toys in your child’s room or playroom. First, teach your little one about the penny. The penny is made of copper and it is worth one cent. President Lincoln is on the front and the Lincoln memorial is on the back (you can just say “a building.” In small handwriting you can read the words “one cent.” “When we use pennies we count by ones….let’s count some together.”
Explain to your little one that you put a pretend price on the toys in the playroom so lets go shopping. Tell them that you work in the store so if they want to buy anything they need to count out the right number of coins and pay you in exchange for the toy.
If your little one has already had plenty of practice with the penny, teach him/her about nickels and how to count them by fives, writing all of your value amounts on the post-its in multiples of fives.
Lauren Haddox Design has been so generous to make all my Mommy Teachers an activity page to work on with your little one between now and Easter! Lauren designs all my invitations, logos, everything…check out her etsy shop to see some of her designs. Thanks so much Lauren 🙂
Below is the Easter-themed template Lauren created and every time she contributes a design I am going to refer to it as a “Design for Development” because she is a professional creating a design to benefit your child’s development. The template is a black and white template for a reason: Your child is going to “color” it, but this isn’t just any old color sheet; this is an ACTIVITY sheet. Underneath the template link I left some tips on how you can guide your little one through the template to make it more purposeful and meaningful. I hope you have a great experience with this Easter activity!
I know you must have so many pictures on your computer that get stored over time into various files. Well today, I am going to ask you to open the files and print the pictures. I know I know, crazy thought that you might put your pictures to use, but hey, your kids will thank you later.
For the sake of this activity, print a handful of pictures, individually, into a word document. After you print each image out (one image per page), you are going to ask your little one to help you put the events in order.
Let’s say you choose your Easter Day File. You will ask your little one to remember Easter day. What did we do FIRST on Easter? And then? Etc. until all the events follow some kind of sequence. After sequencing the images, you will assemble the pages into a little “booklet” by stapling it on the left side a few times, or hole punch, fastening with ties (however you want to do it as long as it opens “like a book”).
Then, you will ask your little one to help you write a story about your Easter Day, a sentence for each picture. You will practically just write verbatim what he/she tells you, unless you would like to take the opportunity to “re-phrase” it to make it “sound more like a book,” but re-reading it later using your child’s words is a really special keepsake.
I am going to use my neice’s pictures from Easter from four years ago using my words to give you an example of what I mean:
Mmmm….The Easter Bunny filled my basket with candy.
I got ready for church in my new Easter dress!
When we got back from church, Mommy and Daddy let me dye Easter eggs!
Before I went to bed, I dressed up like the Easter bunny and ate my bunny snack.
*This activity of book-making is a great way to teach sequencing, model writing, and introduce print concepts. Book-making using your child’s pictures in place of illustrations also makes print more meaningful to your little reader.
