A Lesson About TV

I may get some hate mail for this, but if you read on and see what my views are on the matter maybe you won’t get hot and bothered…

There are kids who aren’t allowed to watch any TV and there are kids who are babysat by a TV all day.
I’m here to bring some insight on what I think is a balanced way to use television, in moderation, as a teaching tool , if you choose to use it.

Before I chat about it, I ask you to reflect! Ask yourself:
1. Which shows and how many shows do I allow my child to watch each day?
2. What lessons are the shows teaching?
3. Can I set aside time to talk about the shows (during and after) my child watches them?

When I was a student teacher at a phenomenal school, the guidance teacher showed a movie clip (with no commercials) of Franklin to the students. She opened up with some questions, showed the movie pausing it regularly to ask questions, and then had the children reflect, respond, and act out different aspects of her lesson (using props) at the close of the show. I thought that this was a great way to use the TV as a teaching tool because children can make connections, learn new strategies, and practice what they learned with someone guiding them in the process!
Some TV shows are also informative for the parent. You might learn new methods to teach your kids by watching educational shows and what kind of content to teach them.

When selecting and showing episodes keep some things in mind: 1) Moderate the use of TV (Use your judgment on what that would be, considering your child’s best interest), 2) Moderate the TV show choice (I recommend three educational shows below),  3) Pause the TV show, if you are able to, in order to ask questions or get them to interact with the show by pointing out letters they know or words they know, etc.,  4) Try to apply the lessons they learn throughout the rest of the day/week. 

So, TV can be a plus in education at home, but there are shows that are more contstructive than others…And here are some I recommend:

Super Why

             My Review: I like that this show can accommodate to different levels of readers because it teaches letters, letter-sound relationships, word recognition, word structure, and comprehension strategies in an interactive way.
Casey’s Review: James’ favorite – is all about reading comprehension, rhyming, letter recognition, phonemic awareness, and more. It’s really great. You should definitely catch an episode sometimes.

Word World
My Review: This is one of my favorites because kids follow a story line that causes them to interact by finding letters, sounding out words, and seeing words take shape. 
Casey’s Review: today specifically they talked about compound words (which tied into the compound word activity I did with him that day from The Mommy Teacher). It’s cute, but we just started watching it, so I’m not as familiar with this one. Everything on the show takes the shape of the object and the word is squeezed into that shape. For example, the word “frog” looks like a frog. They pull words apart and put them back together all of the time.

Sid the Science Kid
My Review: I love Sid the Science Kid. The teacher is so fun, making learning fun for the students, she is prepared with age-appropriate exploration, activities, music and play that teaches the children to investigate their world.  I love the teaching strategies and content from this show, and the way questions are raised to the kids.  Parents can learn a lot from it 🙂
Casey’s Review: my favorite! This show has led to some super great discussions between me and James. Sid wants to know about anything and everything so he asks his friends, parents and teacher to answer his questions. The kids investigate, ask questions, discover new things and journal about them. It has given us some great science activities to do too.

This is Casey’s little man dressed up as SuperWhy and really becoming the character! “We need to fix the word!” ~James

 

This PRECIOUS family dressed up as Princess Presto (mom), SuperWhy (big brother), AlphaPig (little brother), and my personal favorite -WonderRed (DAD!!!).

Super Why and Princess Presto have been labeling things around the living room. Super Why is in charge of sticking the letters on objects, and Princess Presto, with her Spelling Power, writes the words on the paper.

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Physical Activity Survey

A friend of mine has a request of the Mommy Teachers so this is from Lauren, studying physical therapy at the University of Southern Alabama:

“We are doing a research project on parent’s perceptions on young children’s (ages 1-12) physical activity. We have created a survey on surverymonkey.com and hopefully plan to distribute it to as many moms/dads as possible:)

I will attach the survey address below. Let me know what you think:) We will be collecting data all the way until February 28th… which leaves us about 1 week
Thanks so much!”

Depending on how many kids you have, it should only take 5-10 minutes.  Here it is:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2CXM2XM

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Phonics Fun!

Games, books, and songs that connect letters to their sounds are all GREAT ways to introduce phonics (the relationships between letters, letter patterns, and their sounds) and are GREAT for memory recall.  Okay, that’s the facts, here’s the fun:

One of my favorite songs for teaching this is Dr. Jean’s “Sing and Sign”

It is to the tune “Where is Thumbkin?”

The lyrics are

“Where is A? (repeat) – With your hands behind your back

Here I am. (repeat) – Show the sign language for the letter

What do you say A? (repeat) Hands up asking a question

/a/ /a/ /a/(repeat) – Show the sign language again

I am NOT a photographer so forgive me for the quality of this picture (Oh, and all my pictures for that matter).  Aside from that, this is a great song to teach children using movement, visual clues, and listening skills. 

Another way to introduce and sing this song is to buy a Sign Language chart from your local school supply store (Ours is called School Aids) or purchase one online and use the chart on display OR buy sign language cards put them in order, punch holes at the top, and use binder rings to hold it together.  It will make a great little flip book so that they can look at it in the car when they need some independent silent reading time.

*Because I know that you are more likely to do this activity if you have the materials on hand, I went ahead and made an Alphabet Sign Chart and Alphabet Sign Cards….You’re welcome 🙂

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“Writing” About Feelings

What do you do when you are overwhelmed with emotion?

 I tend to journal a prayer or call a close friend.

Kids definitely get overwhelmed with emotions at times.  In fact, your child could be kicking and screaming for your attention right now as you read this post!

The teacher that I am believes that every moment could be a teaching moment and maybe you can turn this lack of communication into a writing activity that enables your child to express their feelings in another way. Besides, writing doesn’t begin with formation and technique, it begins with scribbles and pictures!

So get out a notebook, a piece of paper, an easel, or a sketchbook and after appropriately dealing with behavior (I’m a fan of super-nanny’s technique myself), allow your little one to express his/her emotions in a constructive way.

Afterwards, write on the back what your little one said in verbatim and the date because it is like keeping a diary or keepsake book.

Use this activity when your child is overwhelmed with excitement as well; you want your little one to express the highs of his/her day too!

Before you do this activity, another fun incorporation is to read a book on feelings to them so they start to have a bird’s eye view of their emotions.  I love the book Yesterday I Had The Blues by Jeron Ashford Frame so maybe you can stop by the Library when your running errands today! Yesterday I Had the Blues

Here are some snapshots in action:

 One of my former students painting about her happy feelings.

A candid shot of me sharing the completed feelings book with all the friends who made it!

Another student reading her personalized page in the Feelings book to a classmate.

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Read A Songbook!

I love to sing.  More than that, I love to sing to kids.  Whether I am singing “This is the way we pick up our toys…”

Or “This is the day the Lord has made…”

Kids seem to be mesmerized by music, and shame on me, but they are so pleasant when they are in a trance. 

Today, I want to help you mesmerize your little one for academic purposes, and maybe even for a quiet car ride on an errand run.

 The cheap-o that I am will warn you that you may want to invest in a binder and sheet protectors for today’s activity, but you can technically do without it. 

This is a songbook that I made for my sweet little friend Carsyn.  I wanted it to be meaningful because I was filling it with a lot of educational songs too.  So I simply uploaded a picture of her into a word document and picked a fun font  (Kristin ITC).

Then I simply picked the songs that I targeted with the skills I wanted to teach her at the time.  The FREE printables for these songs can be found at Kelly’s Kindergarten, Kid’s Count under School Is Cool Big Books , New Jack Hartmann Big Books, and Dr. Jean Big Books, as well as  Dr. Jean.org.

Print them and put them together in sheet protectors back to back. 

The book will be unique depending on the songs you pick. 

If you are an over-achiever like me, you can download the songs you picked to print and make a CD that goes with the book.  Or find a friend who has a lot of children’s songs on their computer and borrow.

 **Sing-along books are great for SO many reasons**

Sing-along books:

  • Make it easy to follow along with the pictures and words.
  • Engage and maintain a child’s interest.
  • Help children follow along with print, one word at a time (one-to-one correspondence).
  • Teach children to read independently and with purpose.
  • Teach skills through rote memory (just from hearing a “Days of the Week” song over and over a child will memorize and learn the days of the week).
  • Help kids connect stories with pictures.

 “Carsyn loves her songbook! She reads it all the time. She loves to sing along and read it to her little sister.” ~Kasey of Baton Rouge, La

The Starter songbook I made for Carsyn were the following picks:

  1. Alphardy –sing to learn Album by dr jean  (Letter Naming and Sounds Awareness)
  2. Down by the bay – raffi singable songs (Rhyming)
  3. Color farm –sing to learn (Colors and Color Word Recognition)
  4. The Shape Song – Shape-A-Loo song fromTotally Math by dr jean (Shape Identification)
  5. Five Fish – Sing Silly Songs Album by dr jean (Adding On)
  6. Chant and write – totally math Album by dr jean (Number Identification and Formation)
  7. Today is Sunday –dr jean and friends Album (Days of the Week)
  8. The twelve days of school –keep on singing and dancing Album by dr Jean (Ordinal Numbers)
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