Roll & Write (with a DIY Dry-Erase Die)

It’s happening – homework! Soon after my son began first grade, he started toting home a list of five words each week. I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure what to do with them. After all, my son could read them without any difficulty and so I just tossed the lists in our mail/bills/household paperwork pile (please tell me we’re not the only family with one of those).

Then a friend whose boy is my son’s best friend enlightened me. Just because my son could read those word-wall words, doesn’t mean he could spell them. Yikes! After mentally beating myself up for a few days, I came up with this little “reusable” activity so those weekly words could get practiced.

First, I made a dry-erase die. To do this, I created a template with squares the same width (2 inches) as Scotch brand packaging tape. I printed it on sticker paper. Then I used post-it notes to mask off the flaps where I’d be gluing the little box together (I didn't think the glue would stay adhered to the slick tape). I added the packaging tape and anywhere that the tape overlapped a sticky note, I carefully lifted the edge of the note and cut along the edge with an Exacto knife.

Afterwards, I peeled the sticker paper's backing off, and stuck the template to the brown side of an empty cereal box I used for sturdiness. Then I cut the whole template out with that same Exacto knife, using a ruler as a straight edge and a cutting board underneath to protect my work surface. 

Once it was cut out, I turned it over and used a ruler and the backside of a butter knife to score the cardboard wherever folding was necessary. Lastly I used my hot glue gun to glue the flaps one or two at a time and folded the box together until the template became a cube. Voila! The tape makes a perfect dry-erase surface!

Next, I used Microsoft Publisher to create a worksheet that has a grid where my son would record the words he rolled.

When my son got home from school, I wrote the words from the list plus one more (die have six sides and I only had 5 words) with a fine-tip dry-erase marker on the die. I also added the words across the top of the worksheet. 

Now all that was left to do was hand it over to my son.

Every time he rolled a word, he wrote it in the appropriate column. When any one column was completely full, he was done. Surprisingly the dry-erase words held up well, without much smearing.  

Download the die template and Roll & Write worksheet here.

My son had loads of fun with this and enjoyed predicting which word he would roll the most times. Whew! Now I can look his teacher in the eye!

Pretzel Rod "Log" Cabin

Have you ever noticed that those long pretzel rods kind of look like logs? I did and I couldn't let that little discovery be wasted. Knowing how my son loves building stuff out of LEGOs, Fisher-Price TRIO blocks, etc., I knew that this little construction project would be a big hit.

While he was at school I rescued a cardboard box from the recycling bin and cut it into a base, onto which we'd be gluing our logs (aka pretzel rods) to build a "log" cabin. Here are the dimensions I used (click on the picture to enlarge):

The only dimension that's truly important is the length of your log cabin's long sides. To save yourself the trouble of splitting your logs, it's easier to make this the same length of the pretzel rods.

You'll also want to cut another piece of cardboard the same length as your long walls (7 3/4 inches if you're using my measurements) or slightly longer by 4 or 5 inches wide for the roof. (You can cut this in two and tape back together or crease it heavily in half to make the roof.)

After school, I handed my son a book by Dana Meachen Rau about log cabins to read. Not only did he discover that log logs go on each side of the cabin with shorter logs used on the ends, but he also expanded his vocabulary learning words like "notches" and "shingles."

When we finished the book, I gave my son the cardboard and a small low-temp glue gun. After lecturing him that he needed to be careful, my son glued the small 2-inch flap to enclose the house. Then he peeled the backing off a green piece of felt and stuck it to a flat rectangle of cardboard I had leftover from the box I used. He glued around the bottom of the cardboard cabin and placed it on top of our "grass." Now it was time to get building.

While the traditional approach to log-cabin building requires that the logs be notched, we skipped that step and just got busy gluing the long pretzel rods up the side of our log cabin. When we did the short sides, he just broke the pieces to the approximate length. Be warned, there'll be LOADS of sawdust (aka crumbs) on the construction site.

If you like pretzels like we do, plan ahead and buy two bags of pretzel rods (we ate too many and ran out!). Get creative with what you shingle your roof with. I had plans to use Wheat Thins, but when I went to get them from the pantry, there were only five or six left in the box (apparently they make an even better snack than a roof). Instead we used rectangles cut from brown craft foam that we overlapped.

Since I knew the log cabin would get played with a lot, we didn't glue the roof down. Sure enough, as soon as we were done, my son was off to get some of his Imaginext figures and dinosaurs (which perplexed me) to play in and around the cabin.

As I tidied up, my son asked for some paper. Of course, I obliged. I nearly fell over when I saw what he did next: he wrote a story about the dinosaurs wanting to go in the cabin and the Imaginext dude hiding there!

That story made cleaning up all those crumbs and gluey strings worth it for sure!

Social Skills: Helping Friendships Grow (Creative Strategies)

 When I left my job in a NJ public school to move to PA  & start an adaptive yoga program for children with special needs, most people had no idea what to think and they couldn't imagine it. They questioned my sanity and if you could even teach children with autism or other challenges to move like that, sit still or understand any such concepts.

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect either. But in the last 4 years I have seen children learn how to move more fluidly, to self-calm, and to remember a story sequence. I've seen so many personal & therapy goals reached & so many more possibilities open up than me or anyone could have imagined.

When most of us who have never experienced it, hear the word 'yoga' it gives us images of moving our (somewhat imperfect) bodies into impossible postures, or sitting cross legged (and quietly) on a mat while we stress over having a million things to do at home or at the office. We question whether we can 'afford' that hour to ourselves. For children the experience is much different. They just do it. They don't question it and they are in the moment. They are not trying to learn and yet they do. Children's adaptive yoga is a very active & fun version of  this 'mind/body experience'.

While the main effect of yoga is the calming &  "bringing together" of one's mind & body, I've also observed the 'bringing together' of friendships, some unlikely on the surface at first, but then watching them growing spontaneously out of small groups with Lisa at KidsPlayWork, camp programs and studio classes. I have actively looked for ways to build opportunities for social growth & learning into yoga programming and so far, its been very effective & a good experience for everyone.

Friendships are so important to all humans, but especially for children with challenges. Social learning & building relationships is critical to a child's healthy development. Difficulty in making and keeping friends often leads to a number of emotional problems, such as low self-esteem and these problems usually continue into adulthood.  Once a group views a child as an outcast, this label is hard to overcome. Even if the child (or adult) changes the behaviors that originally caused this label, a reputation as a social outcast stays with him.


Children with poor social skills often do poorly in school and are at a high risk for delinquency, academic failure, and drop out. These are all the things we don't want for ourselves, our students or our own kids.

Social learning cannot be rushed, forced, nor dictated, but rather is taught by creating a number of real-life situations, scenarios, and teaching moments that the children are guided through properly. It is important to understand that until a child's body and senses are integrated, and until they have some basic self-control, cognitive & communications skills, (whether it be verbal or non-verbal) social skills cannot be taught effectively for the long term.

One of the ways that yoga can help introduce social learning is through partner poses. I will have a new group of  children play the "Mirror Game" in which Lisa, myself  or one child leads the others in a pose or movement, and the other follows. Play continues for a few minutes and then they switch roles. (This is a good activity to do with a peer mentor or buddy.) The movements are adapted to ability level and done slowly and deliberately. Both partners have to watch the other or adjust their body appropriately to do the movement together. Sometimes we use slow-tempo instrumental music to pace them and sometimes we let one child lead the group to vary it. In this way the activity begins build a non-verbal connection to others in a non-threatening way.  We make it structured yet fun to ensure the children laugh. (Laughter helps to break down social barriers & tension.)

After the children are familiar with one another we incorporate other Adapted Movement Games and sometimes modified versions of common Board Games to encourage focus, teamwork, self-control and of course fun! Two of my personal favorites are Yo-Jenga  and Yo-Spy. There are so many ways that common children's board & playground games can be adapted & incorporated in a traditional classroom to encourage friendships and social learning.

Some other ways to develop friendships in the classroom or studio:

Group Projects:
Collage murals, rice mosaics and interactive storytelling are three great activities that encourage social learning. You can use these activities to create situations where children must collaborate and work together. Consider individual interests and abilities and use dyads, triads or small groups to encourage interaction. Depending on ages and abilities, you can assign tasks such as writer, picture finder, paper cutter, glue person etc.  By helping children focus on a single task & using more or less structured instructions it will gradually help them interact with others more. To learn collaboration and compromise, older children, can select different tasks and problem solve how to complete the project together.

Story Sticks:
A Story Stick is a versatile tool that can be used in a classroom circle time, during yoga, or as a tool for story telling. Based on the idea of a Native American Talking stick, they can be created uniquely by children ages 5 and up with little or no help. (This activity is best suited for children ages 7 through teen.) When a person has the stick, he or she is the only one talking and the rest of the group practices listening. While in a circle, hold the community Story Stick and begin a story. Then pass it to the next child and they add to the story, (sometimes with prompting) and so on around the circle. Its a good exercise in spontaneous creativity, public speaking, listening, patience and working as a group.  To learn more about how to make a Story Stick click here .

Interactive Storytelling:
This is a great way to practice social learning and to teach strategies for overcoming challenges or adversity. This is also a great way to teach science concepts, culture, history and social studies. Select stories that are simple, age appropriate, entertaining, have a definite theme or a message, and that all children actively participate in. Adapt or shorten as necessary. (You can also use actual Social Stories in which specific skills are taught, discussed and reinforced through interactive role play. ) Use props, costumes, movement  and instruments to help the story come alive. Allow each child to tell a part of the story in their own words in sequence. Non verbal children can participate with props, PECS, instruments or flash cards.  A felt board, story board or mural can be made to go along with the activity. (It is important that every child have a role in this activity and is encouraged to participate to their own ability level.!)

Therapists, parents, teachers and other educators can and should be willing to work together to share information and brainstorm ideas and ways to promote an interest in social learning and growing friendships.

What are some of your creative strategies for growing friendships? Please leave a comment below!

For more interactive Games please visit our Sensory Game Page.

To learn how to develop your own classroom based yoga or storytelling program please contact Barbara@bodylogique.com



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Milk Chocolate Multiplication

Can a first-grader really do multiplication? I thought I’d find out. My son loves math, candy, and books so this activity was right up his alley.

If you recreate this activity with your child, you need three things:


#1 The Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Multiplication Book by Jerry Pallotta.

#2 A Hershey’s bar or two.

#3 The “Draw it, Count it, Multiply it” worksheet I made (download it here).

Pallotta’s book served as a great way to expose my son to an entirely new kind of math sentence, using rows of the candy bar’s sections to illustrate multiplication. After we’d finished the book, I opened our candy bar and asked my son what the multiplication problem would be: 3 (rows) x 4 (columns). Then he counted the sections for the answer: 12. I broke off some rows and we continued to identify the multiplication problem our now smaller candy bar provided us.

I’m not going to lie, we both ate a fair amount of chocolate doing this activity (MMMMmmmm).

After doing this for awhile, we flipped over the laminated worksheet I’d made. I used a fine-tip dry-erase marker to fill in the boxes at the top and asked him to make that number of squares across and down and complete all the boxes in between. When he’d done this I asked him to complete the multiplication sentence at the bottom of the page and reminded him about what he’d drawn (e.g. 3 rows of 5 squares equals how many squares altogether?). We did about 5 problems before quitting for the day.

TIP:  Avoid using a black dry-erase marker. Ours made it difficult to distinguish where the dots were and make the squares. After discovering this, we switched to a lighter color marker.

Even if it was a little advanced for a six-year-old, my son loved this introduction to multiplication (it wasn’t just the chocolate he enjoyed, I swear!). This is a skill we can easily build on and, by laminating the worksheet, we can just wipe it clean to practice over and over!

In the future, I think I'll use a die to help us decide which numbers to multiply. Since this is new to my son, keeping both numbers below six will work great.

Inside The Box: Are Our Schools Killing Creativity?

As I was reviewing materials from the workshops I attended last week, I came across this article with an excellent video talk by Sir Ken Robinson who makes some great points regarding our education systems.

He talks about the ADHD epidemic, and  urges us to collaborate more, encourage and build creative and science-based curriculums and to think of new and innovative ways to 'categorize' students in all  learning environments.

He points out that our systems are isolating & alienating our kids and serving them less because we have approached education from an industrialized 'production line' mentality. He calls for educational revolution rather than reform.

Sir Ken's knowledge, candidness and  humor not only offer simple solutions but also inspire new thinking. Well worth watching for all parents, educators and administrators (about 8 minutes-semi-animated format.)  Changing Education Paradigms

Original Post found here: The Frugal Teacher

More from Sir Ken Robinson:  Learning Revolution

To ask about our Yoga-based creative learning programs, contact Barbara at: barbara@bodylogique.com


*We welcome your comments, suggestions and insights. Please feel free to leave them below.

~Barbara

Wild Things

Lauren: My "Wildest Thing of All"

I have always loved reading and telling stories. One of my favorite Stories of all time is "Where the Wild Things Are".

Before I became a yoga teacher, I would read this story to my young sons, and they would feel inspired to become the wild monsters as I told the story using voices and animated expressions. Since then, this book has survived the love of many children, several relocations and even an apartment flood to become a permanent fixture  in my personal library and in my children's yoga programming.

My daughter (pictured at left) suggested it as our "Story Of The Month" because as a little girl, she did the same thing her brothers did, 15 years before she was even thought of. She would become a "Wild Thing" spontaneously and suddenly as the story was being told.

The "Wild Thing" Pose is what I like to call a 'freestyle' pose and allows a child to freely move as their bodies want to and are able to.

 Listen to the story here and practice the 'Wild Things' Poses with your child. As you tell & move with the story, it becomes a memory not only in their minds and imaginations, but also in their growing bodies.

Tell us what other stories you enjoy with your child! Leave a comment below and I will suggest various movements and poses to do that go with the story!

For more information on children's adaptive yoga contact: barbara@bodylogique.com


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United States BINGO Game

Just last week my son said to me, “Mom, I know all the news.” Before I could ask him what he was talking about, he rattled off, “New Hamster, New York, New Jersey, and New Mexico.” These kind of unsolicited comments make me smile. Why? 1) Because of his mispronunciation of New Hampshire. 2) Because he’s obviously interested in (and learning about) the states of our great country.

It’s been awhile since we pulled out our Scrambled States Memory Game and although I love it, I wanted to do something new with the states shapes I’d made. Since my son loves playing any BINGO game that I throw at him, I thought it was time to make a version with the states.

Before we got to playing, though, we read Loreen Leedy’s book, Celebrate the 50 States! I was lucky to snag this book at a yard sale and consider it one of the gems of our home library.

I let my son pick his BINGO card and cover the FREE space in the center. Then, one by one I selected a state from a pile of cut-up call cards. I called out the states, he searched his card, and, if he found it, covered it with a coin. Like typical BINGO games, when he had five in a row (across, down, or diagonal), he called out "BINGO!" rather excitedly. FUN! 

Until my son learns the states better, I’ll show him the call cards so he can see the color and shape of the state. Using coins as BINGO markers worked perfectly. Download a set of six game cards here and a PDF of all 50 states to cut up as call cards here. Enjoy!

5 Easy Ways to Improve Concentration Naturally

Has this ever happened to you at work: you spend a week in meetings, training  or out sick and then when you return to your desk you have tons of work to catch up on, and,  as you dive into the pile of work you quickly tire, feel distracted, fidgety and overwhelmed? Do you find yourself fighting to stay awake and remain focused? Losing your place? Wanting to just get up and run? (Or scream!?)

Kids feel this too although they may not be able to verbalize. (And sometimes they DO Just get up, run & scream...and if only we could too!)

I just spent the last 2 days in workshops and have spent all day today returning e-mails and doing a ton of 'catch up' work! Its 10pm and I have had a hard time maintaining concentration & working efficiently all day.  My daily work 'schedule' is definitely off. On a normal day I would have been finished long before dinner time, but today I feel like I am struggling to keep up & a bit off-balance.

Other than taking a yoga break, one trick I use is to stay hydrated! Water is a neuro-conductor and taking sips of water throughout the day will help you stay more alert & focused. This is true for students and toddlers as well. If you are a teacher, I encourage you to allow water bottles to be kept nearby.

Here are 3 other quick tips for Improving Concentration Naturally for both adults and students:
Environment: Take a minute and clean up your desk. Now!

Look around & see what the immediate environment looks like. The kids will pick up on the 'energy' of the room. We all 'read' and 'absorb' our immediate environments & kids-especially those who are sensitive, will absorb it much quicker. Is it cluttered? Too Dark? Too bright? The more "calm" & neat environments help the kids feel more calm. Cluttered, chaotic and unwelcoming environments can actually initiate a 'fight or flight' response in the brain, and shut it down. We are not capable of concentrating/learning when the brain is stressed, overwhelmed & goes into this survival mode.

Breathing: Take a deep breath...

Once the environment is 'calmed down' from visual 'static' use breathing techniques. It sounds way too simple, but I will tell you that about 80% of our stress and focus deficits can be managed with just breathing properly. The breath can be used to both calm and energize when needed and it can be done discreetly. Breathing through the Right nostril will alert, energize and improve concentration, breathing through the left will calm & relax. Alternating the breath between the two sides (by closing the opposite side with the fingertip) will integrate and 'balance', the brain hemispheres bringing more alertness, calm & focus for longer intervals. (Incidentally, our 'nostril dominace' changes every 30 minutes or so. Its best to go to sleep on your right side, so that the upper-( left)-nostril will be stimulated by breathing and relax the central nervous system.)

Pressure Points:  Give yourself a hand massage...

Reflexology is a technique that stimulates all the energy and electrical channels within the muscles in certain areas or 'zones' of the body. (Reflexology is similar to acupressure only with acupressure individual pressure points can be stimulated and in Reflexology all areas should be worked at one time.) Basic pressure points are easy for the kids to learn, apply and is non-disruptive. There are 5,000 pressure points in each hand & each foot, as well as the scalp, face and ears. Rubbing & applying pressure with fingers to entire earlobe, will help activate & integrate the opposite brain hemisphere. Rubbing both ears will help stimulate both sides & improve concentration. Other "Brain Buttons" are at the back of the skull (right where the neck meets the head,) the forehead, (between and over the eyebrows) the wrist, (pinkie side, just below the hand in the bend) and the middle fingers (at the distal fingertip, on the sides around the nail bed.) Don't worry if you can't remember these exact points. Just an overall deep pressure rub on the hands/wrists, feet ears and scalp will do wonders to help stimulate blood flow and improve focus!

And of course, it goes without saying that a yoga, stretching or movement break will do wonders to help re-focus the attention to the pile of tasks! (In a classroom, its very easy to put on some music and have a "2 Minute Dance Off" or "Freeze Dance" game. Kids especially need to release the muscle tension and move around as much as possible and laugh often !

You don't nedd any equipment or special permission to begin incorporating any of thes 5 tips as soon as you like! (You can begin now!)

*For a detailed photo diagram of  9 common pressure points (4 pages) please e-mail me at Barbara@bodylogique.com


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Making Bird & Butterfly Masks

Lately my 6-year-old son can’t get enough of the Kratt brothers’ animal adventures on the PBS show Wild Kratts. This animated show has taught my son a bounty of facts about animals such as the Draco Lizard, Kangaroo, and Large-Mouth Bass. His favorite episodes, though, have got to be the two that focused on the Monarch Butterfly and Peregrine Falcon.

To capitalize on my son’s interest in these two amazing creatures, I created some eye-mask templates for him to decorate. I printed these on white cardstock. To create holes for the eyes, I used my Martha Stewart Punch All Over the Page™ 1 ½-inch circle punch. If you don’t have a punch, the circles can simply be cut with scissors.

Download the following eye-mask templates here:

Bird

Generic Butterfly

Monarch Butterfly

I bought an assortment of feathers at our local craft store (I couldn’t resist buying some bright ones as well as the more typical brown/grey/white packages). My son applied white school glue all over the mask and placed feathers atop the glue, being careful not to cover the eye holes. Then we glued a 1 ¼-inch strip of cardstock to the middle of the back of the mask above the eye holes; about a two-inch long line of glue will do.

Once the glue was dry, I trimmed excess feathers around the eye holes and nose area (my son said it kept tickling him) and stapled another 1 ¼-inch strip of cardstock to the other strip, measuring the distance around my son’s forehead to make the headband fit properly.

Little brother was dying to get in on the action when he saw his brother’s falcon mask. I folded the printed butterfly template in half and taped it down. I gave my 2-year-old some fingerpaints and encouraged him to unleash his inner artist. 

When he was done, I removed the tape, and folded the paper back in on itself so the mirror image of his painting would appear on the other wing of the butterfly. Then we let it dry.

Both boys then used watered-down craft acrylics to paint the monarch butterfly templates I printed. 

When the paint was dry, I used the generic butterfly template to draw circles on the back so I knew where to punch the eye holes out at. Then we attached the butterfly bodies, which were either painted in alternate colors or cut from construction paper. The googly eyes, pipecleaner antennae, and smile are optional. Let your child decide!

Simply glue on a 1 ¼-inch cardstock strip, stapling another strip to it once dried for added length and fit to your child’s head.

And then let your bird and butterfly girls and boys fly free!

GO NUTS! (Mixed Nuts Sort, Tally, & Taste)

This activity is near and dear to my heart. My grandfather was a nut grower. I remember playing in the basement of his home with a variety of small metal nut-cracking devices of various sizes; I was in awe of their mechanical inner-workings.

There were alwaysnuts at my grandma and grandpa’s house. Now that I’m grown up, nuts are a pantry staple at my house too. Both my sons (and husband) love them. To make snack time into math time, I created an activity with a can of Planter’s mixed nuts.

1. Alphabetize names of nuts.

First, I gave my son six identification cards with photos and pictures of each variety of nut from the mix. I asked him to put the cards in order, alphabetizing them by the names of the nuts. (Download the nut ID cards I made here.)

2. Sort nuts.

Then I put a ½ cup of mixed nuts on a plate and told my son to sort the nuts, putting each nut in the little bowls I’d placed on top of the ID cards.

3. Tally each kind of nut. Skip count the tally marks.

Next, I poured each type of nut out and then dropped it back into its bowl, while my son made tally marks on his worksheet. To help him I counted, “I, 2, 3, 4, cross through on 5.” When done making tally marks, he skip counted by 5s to determine how many nuts of that kind there were and recorded the number on his worksheet, answering “how many?” for each type of nut.

4. Write the names of nuts in order from greatest to least number of nuts.

5. Taste each. Write the names of nuts in order from yummiest to yuckiest.

My son took his time tasting each and judged their flavor critically; I was shocked at how insistent he was in getting the order right (NOTE: at this point I was thinking, "oh goody, all the brazil nuts are mine, mine, mine!").

When he had completed the activity, he looked at me matter-of-factly and told me that when his little brother got old enough, I should do this activity with him; it was THAT cool!

Download the answer sheet I made here and watch your kid(s) GO NUTS!

WARNING: Obviously, if you child has a nut allergy, this activity should be avoided.

Learning About Nouns with Noun Clown

My son brought home worksheets from his reading/writing summer camp on the parts of speech. I must admit, his grasp of nouns, verbs, and adjectives made this Mama-With-An-English-Degree cringe a bit. I quickly reminded myself that he’s only six and until someone TEACHES him the differences, he’s not libel to just figure it out. This activity is my attempt at making learning about nouns fun.

To start, we read Brian P. Cleary’s hilarious book, A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink: What is a Noun? If you’re exploring parts of speech with your child, I highly recommend putting his "Words are CATegorical" series in your library cue.

This book had me after its first three sentences: “Hill is a noun. Mill is a noun. Even Uncle Bill is a noun.” Not only does the cadence of the rhyming text beg to be read aloud, but the illustrations are whimsical and silly.

After reading, I wrote four words on a post-it note:

Person

Animal

Place

Thing

Then I gave my son the laminated Noun Clown. Covering all the polka dots and juggling balls were ¾-inch sticker dots with words on them. Six contained nouns; the rest were adjectives. The noun stickers covered circles with stars in them. The other circles (with adjectives written on the stickers covering them) were empty.

My son’s task was to read the words and determine if the word was a person, animal, place, or thing (i.e., a noun). If he thought it was, he peeled the sticker back. If a star was revealed, he’d guessed right and could place the sticker at the bottom of the page under the “Nouns I Found” heading.

My son had a few wrong guesses but overall did great and loved peeling back the stickers to look for stars. The more we work with Noun Clown, the better he'll get; I'm sure of it.

I made six templates, moving the stars around so we could practice this multiple times. Download the Noun Clowns here.

NOTE: This is notan activity to do just after you’ve trimmed your child’s fingernails. Avery Color Coding Labels (¾-inch diameter) pulled away much easier than Target’s UP & UP brand and the darker dots work best since the stars don’t show through.

Bees, Hexagons, and a Honeycomb

Cardboard rolls make an awesome art supply. You can do SO much with them, including making a honeycomb. Here’s how we did it. Oh, and just because I like to be sneaky (which you probably deduced from the name of this blog), I didn’t tell my son what we were making; the suspense nearly killed him [hee hee].

Make marks to divide two paper towel rolls in thirds and using a pencil and ruler, draw two straight lines down the length of each roll. Then measure down the rolls every 2 centimeters, drawing lines across the width of the rolls.

Cut the rolls on these lines. Now, you’ll have tons of flattened football shapes. Fold each strip on the lines. We folded one forward and other backward, so our strips resembled the letter z. Make sure each of the folds is creased well.

Open up the z-shapes and form into hexagons. (This is when my son guessed what we were making.) When finished, begin gluing these hexagons together, adding a paper clip to secure the glued sides until dry. You’ll need LOADS of paper clips.

When this was done, we read The Bumblebee Queen by April Pulley Sayre. It taught us all about the queen bee and her colony. I’m not sure who learned more – me or my son!

Of course, with our honeycomb complete, it was time to make a queen. We used a mini clothes pin, stiffened yellow felt, black ribbon for stripes, googly eyes and a black pom pom for the head. I shaped two wings from silver pipe cleaners in the shape of the capital letter B. We used LOADS of white glue to adhere the wings and gave our bee lots of drying time.

To finish up the activity, my son read Dana Meachen Rau’s book Guess Who Stings, which taught us that a honeybee actually has five eyes (oops, our queen only has two!).

What a fun way to learn about bees, repurpose a few empty cardboard rolls, and discover that a hexagon has six sides!

The Science of the Senses: 20 Ways Yoga Works

Sensory integration is an important part of human body & brain growth. Movement games, yoga & creative art activities not only help integrate the senses, but also help children strengthen the body, improve concentration, improve overall health, enhance cognitive learning & encourage positive social interaction!

There are dozens of ways that yoga can be used in the home, school, gym or therapy environment to help children learn to regulate & integrate the many complex aspects of the sensory system. 
*By the way, did you know there are actually 8 senses-not 5 as we were always taught ?

Learn the 8 senses & the 20 ways yoga integrates them here: BodyLogique®: Sensory Page

To schedule private yoga sessions  for your child or teen contact barbara@bodylogique.com  


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http://www.bodylogique.com/SensoryPage

Self Control: More Than Just a Good Idea

As my 11 year old daughter and I were out driving around last week we passed a construction site. She asked me: Mom, how come when a sign says "do not open" it just makes you want to open it even more?"

Well, besides the obvious that she is my daughter and I encourage her to not believe everything she hears/reads, I explained to her that in this case, a) she should definitely heed the warning, and b) its called 'self control'.

Self control is not just a good idea. Its an important life skill.

While I believe that children should never be deprived of new experiences, sensations, and opportunities to learn, I am also not an advocate of giving children everything they think they want. This is simply not healthy for them of for the familiy and becomes an extremely destructive habit in later years.

There needs to be a framework and a structure so that a child learns when its ok to break out of that & be spontaneous in a good/creative way.  This is also true for children with special needs. Once a suitable structure & expectations are in place, including reasonable adaptations based on the child's understanding and abilities, they should be adhered to. (Of course the exception here is a child that is cognitively or medically challenged to the point where their brain cannot control impulsive behaviors.)

We all know or work with people who have never mastered this skill. If you were not aware of  these types or "what their problem" was before, maybe you can identify it now. Signs & clues are: making excuses/justification as to why something is not finished (usually with a fantastic story of some sort); gossip/sour grapes about everyone & everything;  sense of entitlement; rules don't apply to them;  feeling of self-importance over others; poor time management skills; overwhelmed at too many projects/activities at once/never finishes a project; trying to be someone they are not.

How does it feel interacting with these people on a daily basis?  Now to put this in perspective of this post, imagine that this person is your own child someday down the road. How does Life look for them?

But listen-I'm not just an educator. I'm a parent too. I've been a parent for 28 years and I'm tired. I too get impatient sometimes and just feel the "whatever-do what you want!" ready to roll off my tongue also. But I have learned a few things after all these years of trial and error:

1) to pick my battles carefully
2) to make a few short & simple rules, and stick to them no matter what
3) to clearly define what happens if a rule is broken (do not be ambiguous such as "your're gonna get it!")
4) that teaching kids when young to recognize & control destructive impulsive behavior is always a good strategy

When a parent gives in to whim and impulse, they are  paving the road for greater more unreasonable demands ahead. We cannot just one day decide to put the brakes on it. It won't work. The child has already been taught that this is a world that is full of people that are here for their own instant gratification when in reality, our world does not work that way at all. We have to learn to get along with, communicate and cooperate with others to get what we want out of life. That starts with self-control.

My daughter and I  have had numerous talks about when we need to exercise self control and when its safe & appropriate to be spontaneous & give in to impulse. (in her case, this would be in reference to bickering with girlfriends & classmates.) We have also worked together on this important aspect of executive function with many students in social skills classes, yoga small groups & summer camps, using creative yoga-based movement games and art activities to help this skill develop & encourage its continued use.

What my daughter has not understood fully yet & what many people don't realize is just how important impulse/self-control is. It has a huge impact on a child's transitions & development into adulthood.  In fact researchers from the United States, Britain & New Zealand have found that, the extent to which a child uses self-control has more of an impact on their adult lives than intelligence or social status.


To learn more about the study, read this article originally published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

About Kids Health: Its all About Self Control

To find yoga-based games & activities to help children cultivate self-control visit our Sensory Games Page

To schedule private yoga based instruction for your child please e-mail  barbara@bodylogique.com


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Measuring with Paper Clips

WHOA! I just looked back in my archives and realized that my son hasn't practiced measuring since July. Shame on me! And after heeding the reading summer camp teacher's advice and making the nuts and bolts game, I wanted another fun way to exercise my son's fine motor skills too. This activity combines both fine motor and measuring.

All you need are paper clips ... lots and lots of paper clips of the same size. Did I mention you need paper clips? I think you get the point.

I gave my son a worksheet I'd cooked up to get him started. While I don't want to overwhelm my son with worksheets, I do like that they sneak in extra reading practice and help me gauge how well he does following directions. (Download the worksheet I made here.)

The purpose of this activity is simple - to string paper clips to measure various items, such as:

the worksheet,

the chair he was sitting in,

and his pencil.

After measuring these (plus his foot and a book) he needed to review the number of paper clips each required and put them in order from greatest to least.

Stringing paper clips was a bit of a struggle for my son at first but, with some serious concentration and a whole heap of determination, he caught on.

We'll be doing this activity again, I'm sure!

Children, Yoga & Executive Function

Today I came across an article that  drives home the point of why our kids are so overwhelmed & stressed and have trouble learning. It discussed the importance of teaching children to focus, which is controlled by a mental process in the brain called "Executive Function".

Executive function is a term used to describe a set of mental processes that help us connect past experiences with present actions. It is the part of our brain function that controls the planning, organizing, strategizing, paying attention to and remembering details, &  managing time & space.

Executive functions include organizing, prioritizing, focusing, sustaining and shifting focus to tasks, regulating alertness and processing speed, managing & regulating emotions, and self-monitoring and regulating action (often called inhibiting). All of these skills enable us to formulate a goal, plan for reaching that goal, then initiate, sequence, sustain or inhibit behaviors to work towards and finally attain that goal. It helps us override procrastination & emotions that would otherwise interfere with these other important activities.
 
Children who have executive functioning weakness often have trouble with focus, attention, organizing, memory, time management, transitions, regulating emotions & dealing with frustration.

In a well planned children's yoga program, all of these important skills can be reinforced through targeted movement, guided imagery, interactive movement games, storytelling and deep relaxation.

As you read the list of executive functions above, it should be clear that these are all skills necessary for children to succeed in school, understand social interactions at home and in the community, and manage daily schedules and routines. Children with good executive functioning take all of these tasks in stride, but those with deficits in executive skills struggle with school and homework demands, social interactions, and changes in schedule. These ever fluctuating dynamics feel overwhelming & confusing.

Executive functioning weaknesses can be managed with a plan & consistent support. There are some simple strategies that can assist the child with weak executive skills. These include:

• Maintaining a regular routine at home and school, as much as possible
• Posting a daily schedule so the child can refer to it throughout the day
• Informing children of changes in schedule, ahead of time (such as a doctor's appointment )
• Create a short set of rules. Be clear on expectations & consistent with following through on consequences for breaking the rules.
• Use Reminders to prepare for a transition: "Jay, 10 minutes until we leave the playground. 3 Minutes ...1  ..... time to go.

The other intervention that is being widely studied by scientists is movement.

We know that daily and varied movement is what helps our brains develop and we know that executive function can be significantly improved, especially if interventions are consistent & begin at an early age. In the current issue of   The Wall Street Journal,  author, journalist & neuroscientist  Jonah Lehrer talks about why executive function is so important. He points out that the very activities that will help our kids develop  are the ones being cut out of school budgets. I like Jonah's candidness. Among other things, he cites studies tracking how this relates to an increase in rates of crime and drug addiction to ways to overcome information overload.

In his article, Learning How to Focus on Focus , he talks about why our kids are so overwhelmed and what can be done by parents & schools to help our children succeed in this age of information. Martial arts, yoga and  board games are mentioned as other interventions to this growing problem.

As I always stress to parents: you are your child's first teacher! If the school doesn't offer what your child needs, get it for him! Don't wait for someone to give you permission to help your child. There is a wealth of information out there all at your fingertips. I hope you find Jonah's insights a welcome addition to your resources.

Find Jonah's Blog here: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/frontal-cortex/

How to Make a Thunderstorm

When a follower e-mailed and told me that her son was fearful during thunderstorms, I was inspired to help. Most of my fears as a child stemmed from the unknown. And with all the mystery surrounding the weather, it’s no wonder so many kids are scared. These activities, as well as the others featured this week on clouds and the water cycle, are meant to demystify the weather. The following are three ways my son and I tried to replicate what goes on in a thunderstorm.

LIGHTNING

Our experiment started with a clay monster. A house made out of modeling clay would probably have made more sense. (But that’s what I get for giving a 6-year-old choices.) We attached several 'lightning rods' (paper clips or safety pins) as hair. Then, I blew up a balloon, grabbed a wool coat, and we headed into a windowless room.

After vigorously rubbing the balloon against the wool (roughly 30 seconds), I held the balloon near the monster’s hair and, after several tries, we not only heard the crackle of our lightning, but saw it jump from the balloon to the metal. It was SO cool!!

I found the directions for homemade lightning on the Disney Family Fun site. TIP: Don’t blow the balloon up too full; a smaller balloon is easier to hold.

THUNDER

While I typically like to make popcorn the way my grandparents did on the stovetop crankin’ a handle until the pops have stopped, a microwave is a quicker way to ‘make thunder.’ Before I nuked a bag of unpopped popcorn, I explained to my son what happens during a storm. The following is an excerpt from Darice Bailer’s book Why Does it Thunder and Lightning? It seemed like a perfectly simple explanation for thunder:

The electric current that flows through the sky heats the air so fast that the air explodes. Theexplosion causes a rumbling or a loud BOOM in the sky.

I told my son that the microwave was going to make an electric current, similar to the one flowing through the sky during a storm. Then we listened for the noise created when the air inside the microwave was heated up quickly.

It wasn’t long before we heard our ‘thunder’ (the popcorn popping). What a yummy lesson!

RAIN

Making rain inside of a jar was a simple extension of the condensation experiment we did during our water cycle lesson. I first read about this experiment on I Can Teach My Child, one of my favorite blogs. It's pretty simple. 

Heat water until it's almost boiling. Pour some of the water into a clear glass jar. Put a plate on top of the jar and add ice cubes to the plate. Wait a few minutes and then watch inside as the condensation builds and streaks of water pour down the sides of the jar. It’s raining in there!