Blog Post Recap: Favorite 11 from 2011

I can’t believe that I’ve been blogging consistently since April (thank you for tagging along, blog followers!) and that 2011 is nearly over. This year was a phenomenal one. My son has advanced tremendously in school, which is proof positive that a wonderful teacher and the right kind of encouragement at home equal a more successful learning experience.

Before the year closes, I wanted to recap some of the activities near and dear to my heart (and faves of my son) that may have gone unnoticed.

#11

Nature Scavenger Hunt

Get outside and search high and low for the wonders that nature has waiting for you! This free download has been one of my most popular printables.

#10

Where is my money made?

Teach kids about where U.S. currency is minted; then grab some coins and have them graph where the coins are from. Will there be more minted in Philadelphia or Denver?

#9

DIY ‘African’ Mask & Printable Book

Art from other cultures can be so hard to relate to. This printable book draws comparisons between the masks of Africa and many western activities and traditions. Art projects don’t always hold my son’s attention for long periods; however, that wasn’t the case when he made a milk jug ‘African’ mask!

#8

Planets Winding Word Puzzle

Read about the planets and then practice right and left with a winding word puzzle. As kids follow the directions, moving around the word grid, the words they land on form clues. The answer to each clue is one of the planets in our solar system.

#7

Paper Airplane Competition

Make several paper airplanes and then see which flies the farthest. This activity is a fun way to practice measuring and ordering the planes to see which one got first, second, third, etc. place.

#6

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

Grab a can of mixed nuts; they are an amazing math manipulative – not to mention they taste so darn good too! Kids sort, tally and skip count each variety, then rank them yummiest to yuckiest after doing a taste test.

#5

Kente Cloth-Inspired Pattern Practice

Make a stunning art project by alternating rectangles made from strips of colored cardstock with yarn-block stamped rectangles. This Kente cloth-inspired paper project provides the perfect opportunity to practice AB, AAB, ABC, and ABB patterns!

#4

Secret Decoder Math

My son LOVES this. It’s quite possibly his favorite math activity. Doing a worksheet of math problems is a bore. Make the answers a code and WHAM!, your child feels like a secret agent on a math mission.

#3

Snappy the Syllable Turtle [Board Game]

A DIY castanet-style snapping turtle is perfect to click words’ syllables. We made a game of it! Kids draw a card, click the syllables with “Snappy,” and move their game piece the number of syllables in the word. The player to get Snappy back home to the lake first wins.

#2

Under Construction (a Greater-Than Less-Than Game)

Got LEGOs? Then simply print these downloads and get ready for some fun greater-than/less-than practice. Kids put the blocks in two piles, determine which is greater than the other, then use those to build with.

#1

Paint Your Organs Shirt and Printable Body Book

Months after making his organs shirt, my son can still identify many of the organs he painted and what they do!

My son is growing into a very curious boy. I hope to continue to encourage his inquisitiveness in 2012. Stay tuned for more fun activities that sneak in science, history, math, art, and language arts in the new year!

Build a Bug

Boys like bugs. This I know is true. When my oldest son was in preschool, I discovered the book Bugtown Boogie at our local library. After renewing it that first time, and checking it multiple times thereafter, I finally broke down and bought it. (I was starting to feel guilty that we were denying other kids the joy of reading this amazing book!)

The story is about a boy who stumbles on a bug’s dance club. It describes a myriad of insects and how they shake it to the buggy-wuggy beat. The book’s rhyming text is lyrical and after a few readings, we started to sing the “chorus.” The book starts:

I was strollin’ on home through the woods the other night,

When I saw something a-flashin’ – it was shinin’ mighty bright!

It was blinkin’ and a-winkin’ near the bottom of the tree,

So I scurried on over just to see what I could see.

To say that Warren Hanson’s masterpiece is one my most favorite children’s books is an understatement. It’s the kind of book you give as a gift, you are glad your child asks you to read over and over, and reminds you how magical the world seemed when you were young.

When I pulled it out to read with this activity, my son was thrilled (he hasn't tired of this book even after two years)! We also read a great non-fiction book from The Cat in the Hat Learning Library – On Beyond Bugs by Tish Rabe. It’s cleverly written and filled with fun facts about all kinds of insects.

After we’d finished reading, I gave my son a die and two pages of bug body parts.

Download a 2-page PDF of bug bodies and parts here.

First I had him pick the bug body of his choice, cut it out, and glue it to another piece of paper. Then he rolled the die to determine what he’d add to the picture. If he rolled a three, he could add a leg. I left it up to him whether his creation was an insect or spider (i.e. 6 or 8 legs).

Every time he rolled a four, he added more spots, a two meant he had to keep building his bug’s habitat (first, he added clouds, then a tree – his bug was flying!). He used examples from the sheet I made to help him know what to draw and how many of each (the number of body parts is noted above the die on the ‘parts’ page).

My son’s buggy creation may be the very first winged spider! I love his creativity!

Baking Up Some Math Fun!

I love being in the kitchen with my two cookie monsters. My boys never hesitate to volunteer to help make a mess. My toddler loves to dump pre-measured ingredients into the bowl; my first-grader is a master at driving the Kitchen-aid mixer.

When grandma and grandpa were coming for lunch and we needed cookies to go with our ice cream dessert, I recruited my oldest son to help. We whipped up one of my favorite kinds – cowboy cookies. YUM. They have a zillion ingredients, everything delicious (with the exception of peanut butter and m&ms) in one cookie.

To sneak in some math practice I made some general ingredient cards. Each has a value; for instance, oats are worth six, sugar has a value of two, etc.

Download a 2-page PDF of these cards here.

While we waited for the cookies to bake, I told my son to pick three ingredient cards and add the values together.

It was so fun to see the combinations of ingredients he came up with (of course, he picked m&ms + chocolate chips + frosting as his first cookie problem; HA!).

His reward for a job well done? A cookie, of course!

Easy Reader Puzzle

When my son used to read aloud, he sort of sounded like a robot. It always left me wondering, “Does he really comprehend the story or is he just reading the words?” To satisfy my curiosity awhile back, I got him a new Level 1 easy reader Hot Wheels book called Volcano Blast!

Then I created a crossword puzzle whose hints and answers all related to the story. To do this, I used Discovery Education’s free online Criss Cross puzzlemaker. I kept the clues to a minimum (only 9), left the default settings for the number of squares as is (Width 50; Height 50), and made the puzzle squares large enough for his giant handwriting (square size = 50).

After he read the book, I gave him the puzzle and explained how the answers to the clues would either be written across or down with one letter in each box. I answered the first question as an example.

To my surprise, he did a great job remembering the story details! In order to spell the words correctly, though, he had to turn back to the pages of the book and locate the answer words.

Although the crossword squares were larger than what you’d find in the local newspaper, they still challenged my son’s fine motor skills. Not only that, but now he knows how to spell the word ‘lava.’

Exploring (and Making) a Coral Reef

My son can’t get enough of Amanda Lumry’s Adventures of Riley books. I love them, too. 

These books talk about wildlife preservation and conservation of natural resources in a way that kids can connect to. Nine-year-old Riley takes excursions all over the world with his Uncle Max and Aunt Martha, who are scientists, with their daughter Alice (Riley’s cousin) in tow.

When our local library had a new one of Lumry’s Adventures, I nearly got tennis elbow grabbing it off the shelf.

Riddle of the Reef provided an awesome lesson in the coral life cycle, how fragile their ecosystem is, and the dangers that threaten the Great Barrier Reef.

Once we’d read all about Riley’s adventure to the world’s largest reef, we made our own 3-D coral reef.

I cut some cardboard to build a standing frame. Then, my son painted a piece of cardstock ocean blue. Afterwards, I gave him a DIY rolling pin covered in a paper towel tube. (Once done with the project, I tore off the tube; now the rolling pin is ready for our next project!)

He used a Sharpie marker to draw undulating waves and bubbles on the cardboard tube. When done, I traced over his lines with a low-temp glue gun. Afterwards, we smeared some acrylic paint around on top of a piece of clingwrap and rolled the rolling pin through it. This became a giant rolling stamp that when rolled over the blue-painted paper, looked like the undulation of the water. We LOVED the effect it created!

While that dried, I gave my son some cut-outs I’d created. 

Download a 2-page PDF of these shapes here.

The marine life were printed on sticker paper. The coral was printed on heavyweight cardstock. He set about the task of coloring three of each.

When done, I glued his ocean background to the cardboard structure and we cut out what he’d colored. After peeling off the backing from the fish and ray, they were added to the water backdrop.

Next, we folded the bottoms of the coral cut-outs and using the low-temp glue, attached them to our sea floor. This project was so much fun and the 3-D effect is truly magical!

Kindness: The Gift You Pay Forward

Photo by: thecomplexmedia.com

If you ask a random sampling of people what their best/favorite gift they ever received was, each will give you an answer unique to what is important to them. I love asking this question to kids, as the answers will make you smile and sometimes cry.

My best gift ever would be a toss up between two gifts- but if I had to pick just one, it would be one that was given about 15 years ago.

I was a single mom of two young sons, and had been laid off from my job, on my birthday, a few days after we returned from the Thanksgiving break.  Rent was due, Christmas was coming, I had no job and no one was hiring. No one as a parent wants to disappoint their kids, especially at this special time of year, and I felt overwhelmed and ill-equipped to handle Life as it was at that moment. Even though my sons did not believe in Santa anymore, they still enjoyed the holiday and getting gifts.  I struggled enough while I was working and had no idea how I was going to manage this while I was unemployed.

My neighbors, friends and even former co-workers were empathetic & helpful and would contact me about possible job openings and watch my sons if I needed while I went on interviews, but as each day went by, I felt myself become more and more stressed and discouraged.

One evening, about a week before Christmas, after a day of job hunting, the boys and I came home, carrying in a few groceries up the long stairway to the second floor, when I noticed a light on at the end of  the long hallway we called our apartment. I was very careful about turning off/unplugging lights and electronics, as I had to be frugal with electric use. I walked down the hall to investigate and into the living room fully expecting to see the floor lamp on.  I was stunned at what I saw instead.

There, in front of me was a live Christmas tree, set up, lit up, and fully decorated, complete with wrapped packages under it for the boys. Stockings were carefully hung (and filled) on the window sill and there was a card that read "Merry Christmas from Santa's Elves". Of course, I cried my eyes out. My boys re-discovered the magic of "Santa Clause" as they looked at each package to see who it was for. They assumed I has set this up for them and when I told them I did not, they were both very touched as I was.

I never did find out exactly who masterminded this or how although I do have an idea. No one had a key to my apartment, however, the door was not very secure and could easily be opened with a butter knife by anyone determined enough. Whoever it was, I can never thank them enough.

I hope that "Santa's Elves" realize how much their kindness affected me and my sons in a positive way that year and for years afterwards. To this day I can't re-tell this story without getting teary eyed and emotional. I did find new employment and moved forward, but that small act of kindness and thoughtfulness in the midst of transition and uncertainty helped me find my gratitude, and restored my temporary loss of faith in human nature as well as myself. It helped remind me that the best gifts really don't come in packages, and don't have a price tag. In the spirit of "Santa's Elves" and the kindness they showed us that year  I have paid this act forward many times, with the help of my sons as they grew up, and now my daughter, (who is the same age as my sons were  that year), gets to be a part of the tradition too.

Compassion and Kindness are  important Life Lessons to teach our children (and students) & is one way for us to keep perspective no matter what is thrown at us, what time of year it is, or which holiday we celebrate.

In the midst of all the adults stressing over holiday logistics, and family and what to buy and going into debt over gift-giving; and still others stressing over unemployment, heating bills, and putting food on the table, we can all be reminded that simple acts of thoughtfulness, kindness,compassion, empathy, friendship, togetherness, respect, tolerance & acceptance-(all are different forms of love) will never put you in debt because they don't cost a thing.

While its a beautiful thing to unwrap a gift box of something that has been carefully selected especially for us, those intangible gifts are also perfectly acceptable to give, and receive, at holidays or any other time. Kindness is always the right size & never goes out of style. It has a lifetime guarantee of a long-lasting positive effect on the recipient, (even if he/she is one of those people who can't/won't show it on the outside.)

Best of all, if you do decide to 're-gift', no one will ever fell slighted nor insulted; in fact re-giftinig is encouraged!

Wishing you and yours a Healthy, Happy & Abundant Holiday Season!

~Barbara



*Tell Us:  What is your most memorable gift ever and why? (Either from childhood or adulthood, material or otherwise.) Please tell us in the comments below!

Count, Stamp, and Graph Vehicle Wheels

When I used up all of my tan thread, I found it difficult to throw the little plastic spool away. The ends looked like a wheel. I tucked it away and figured I’d find a way to recycle it into an activity someday.

That day came when I read Margaret Mayo’s Dig Dig Diggingto my toddler. The book provides page-by-page descriptions and graphics of all different kinds of vehicles.

With the book, a big piece of paper, a few empty spools, a stamp pad, and some vehicle labels, I was ready for my son when he got home from school.

First we read Mayo’s book. Then he added the labels, which I'd made and printed on sticker paper, onto a big piece of lined paper. Now all that was left to do was have him count the tires.

Download the labels I made here.

Since most of the graphics on the labels and in the book only show one side of the vehicle, my son had to count or multiply (e.g. 4+4 or 4x2) to determine how many TOTAL wheels there were on each vehicle.

Once he’d done that, he pressed the spool into an ink pad and stamped the number of wheels onto the graph. When he was done stamping the wheels for each vehicle, he counted the wheels in each row of the chart, circled the vehicle with the largest number of wheels, and wrote "winner" beside it on his chart.

Then, all on his own he explained to me which vehicles had the same number of wheels and asked if he could keep using "these cool stamps."

Making a States Book

My son has a fascination with the state quarters. So when I saw The Paper Pony’s blog post about creating rubbings of the quarters, the idea stuck with me.

After finding the amazing printable state bird and state flower cards offered for free download on Step Into 2^ndGrade with Mrs. Lemons, a full-blown activity was born.

I printed and cut apart the state bird cards, mixing them all together. Then I made a States Book for my son, dividing up the states into four geographic regions: Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, and West. I listed all the states on the book’s cover in alphabetical order and printed a map of the United States with the states labeled. (Click on the links in this paragraph to download the cover and pages of the States Book I made.)

I punched holes in the pages, as well as a small manila envelope that holds the unused bird cards. The book and envelope are held together with brads.

When my son got home from school, I handed him the States Book, Loreen Leedy’s book Celebrate the 50 States!, colored pencils, a glue stick, and his piggy bank.

First we found some state quarters in his bank. Then we located those states in Leedy’s book, which told us the state birds for each. He found the bird card, glued it in his book, and made a rubbing of the state quarter.

The rubbings require light pressure and newly sharpened pencils. Practice first!

A line was drawn through the states he completed on the book’s cover and the next day, he was back at it hunting for more quarters so he could keep working on his book!

Reptiles: Book and Bookmark Craft

My son’s teacher is sending home books that are long enough for him to read sections of each night (yahoo!). Bookmarks are a must now. Funny thing, though, they keep disappearing!

I came up with a fun way to learn about reptiles and make some scaly long-tongued bookmarks too. To learn about cold-blooded creatures, we read Miles and Miles of Reptiles by Tish Rabe. Have I ever mentioned how much I love the books in The Cat in the Hat Learning Library? They combine information about non-fiction topics with lively cartoon-like characters and rhyming text (I have a weakness for books that rhyme). My son LOVES these and I do too.

After we finished reading, I gave him some lizard and snake templates I made and cut apart. 

Download this 1-page PDF here.

Then I cut apart a shower poof and placed a piece of 7 ¼-inch wide cardboard inside the netting tube I cut. My son picked the colors of acrylic paint to use on each snake.

We placed the paper under the netting and over the cardboard. I taught my son to stencil, pouncing the brush until it was mostly dry and then pouncing again over netting. The netting created the perfect “stencil” to make scaly snake skin! Next, my son painted his lizards – one with spots, the other with stripes.

I used a hairdryer to speed up the dry time. Once dry, he added eyes with a black crayola marker. After I’d cut them out, we took them to the store to be laminated.

Once laminated, I cut around each bookmark, used a punch to add a hole in the mouth of each animal and my son threaded pink or red ribbon through for a tongue.

Of course, I added his name to the backs of each in the hope that his new super cool cold-blooded long-tongued bookmarks never slither away.

It’s All the Same (a Math Puzzle Game)

I wanted a fun way for my son to see how that the same math problem can be written in different ways. And I wanted him to be able check his work independently, similar to the Lock and Key Math game I made.

So I created a series of 12 puzzles for my son to play. 

Each puzzle has three pieces: 1) a multiplication problem, 2) an addition problem, and 3) groupings of dots.

Download 12 puzzles and the game board here.

To keep the pieces from slipping around, I spray glued sheets of felt to the back of the puzzles (printed on cardstock) before cutting them out and used another felt sheet as the game board. It worked perfectly!

I wish you could have heard the “YEESSSSSS” my son shouted after each puzzle was assembled. It was thrilling to see him catch on and enjoy this so much. 

These puzzles would be great for preschoolers and kindergarteners working on numbers. One piece could have the numeral, another with the number spelled out, and the last piece could display the equivalent number of dots. To make these, download the blank puzzles here.

Jumbo Stamp Art

My son really enjoyed our Postage Paid coin-counting activity. To capitalize on his interest in the stamps, I thought I'd help him design a jumbo one.

Before he started the craft, I reminded him what stamps were – that they are like receipts to prove we’ve paid to mail our letter or package. Then we read a fun fiction book about delivering the mail: Tortoise Brings the Mail by Dee Lillegard.

In this book, Tortoise loves delivering the mail but many other animals think they can do it just as well but faster. After several take a turn at it, they discover that there is no one better for the job than Tortoise. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is heartfelt. As usual when I check out books from the library that my son loves, he asked, “Do we have to return this to the library?”

After we finished the story, we read Mir Tamim Ansary’s book about collecting stamps. The book shows lots of real stamps from all over the world and gives suggestions for different types of stamp collections kids can start. My son was excited to see a stamp with a familiar face on it – Abraham Lincoln’s!

When we were done reading, I handed my son a piece of cardstock with a rectangle in the center. I told him it was time for him to design his own stamp and determine its value. He settled on 88 cents, and added the number and a Christmas scene depicting Ziggy, our Elf on the Shelf, inside the rectangle.

After his drawing was complete, he used my Martha Stewart Punch All Over the Page™ 1 ½-inch circle punch. I helped him line it up to punch half circles all around the sides to make the stamp’s perforated edges. I love the final result. Don’t you?

Replicating Monet’s Water Lilies (in 3-D)

My son’s art teacher exposed him to the mastery of Claude Monet. To piggyback on what he was learning at school, I thought we’d make our own impressionism replica of his gardens at Giverny, specifically the ponds with their spectacular water lilies.

First we read about Claude’s life, learned about what impressionism was, and discovered the artist’s infatuation with the way light reflected off of all the things in nature.

Then I gave my son some watered-down acrylic paints and a big sheet of art paper. He painted it blue with hints of lavender. He was discouraged that he didn’t get the whole paper covered. I reminded him that the lighter (or white) spots would just look like light reflecting on the water. Suddenly the very thing that he found frustrating was a source of pride!

I sped up the drying time with my hair dryer. Then he traced some lily pad shapes onto sticky-backed sheets of green foam. When they were cut out, he peeled off the paper backing and attached the pads to the water.

Next, I cut apart a cardboard egg carton. Then, with scissors he cut lots of V shapes out of their edges to look like the lily pad flowers.

All that was left to do was paint each, blow them dry, and glue them atop the lily pads.

This idea came from Judy Press’ book Around-the-World Art & Activities.