oh, the fun that we had: graphing goldfish

 

 

During our Dr. Seuss week we read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. We read it many, many times. One of our fishy activities was to graph goldfish crackers. I generally do not do worksheets in the classroom. These goldfish sheets were a take home project for the children to do at home. I wanted to familiarize the children with the process and so we set up an area for the graphing. It goes without saying the the mere presence of the bag of crackers was exciting. What was even more exciting was when I opened the bag and the children saw that the crackers were in different colors.

 

I used this graph printable and laminated it with clear contact paper so that it could be wiped down and used again. I placed a random handful in each child's cup and we discussed the graph and how it was the same yet different than our large masking tape graphs we use in the classroom for various searches and hunts.

 

It took a few tries for the children to get the hang of the graph. After they finished placing their crackers onto their graphs each child estimated which row/color of goldfish had the most. Each child counted their rows which spared conversations and estimations regarding who had the most/least, etc. After all the counting, estimating, and listing had happened the children got to eat their crackers.

 

After a round of hand washing the children got to count out ten crackers to take home for graphing at home. The parents were really keen on the activity and the children had a blast! Oh the fun!

one elephant went out to play...

For our week of Elmer we focused on colors, squares, and elephants. One of the songs we sang a lot was this one and since the children really enjoyed it, I set up this invitation to play.

We sang the song up to five elephants and then the children tried placing all ten elephants onto the web. The elephants were purchased from Amazon and I am very happy with them. They connect trunk to tail and the children loved connecting them and playing with them. I often found them in the dollhouse.

One child connected the grouping on the left and told me he made a big circle. He then connected the four on the right and told me he made a little circle. We were joined by another child who said "That's a square! That's a square of elephants".  She then leaned over and read out the numbers and told me that there were ten elephants. It was really awesome.

I often send the children home with their own mystery bag (more on mystery bags later). During our week of Elmer, they had their very own assortment of elephants and a small spider's web to play with. We had a lot of fun.

monday's round up

Happy April! Did you know that April is often celebrated as Poetry Month? In honor of it being April and all, this week's round-up is all things poetry. 

*fun poetry for children pinterest board

*games, printables, and downloads from the books of Shel Silverstein

*scrumdilly poetry from the archives

*a sweet video for I Haiku You

*a sweet little book to go with the video

change is approaching...

While I have focused on bringing you projects and experiences for you to do with your children these last five or six years, I have to admit that I really yearn to make connections in what and how your children are really learning. I've written about it before but I am an educator at heart with a deep empowered belief in the philosophies of Fredrich Froebel,  Magda Gerber, Rudolph Steiner, and the Reggio Emilia approach. Our world is changing quickly everyday with more and more pushing towards an accelerated approach to academic learning (eegads, the things they are throwing at our kindergarteners). Tearing the curtain down, I'm hoping that by visiting here and other lovely spaces and blogs, you will find a confidence in slowing down and allowing your child to grow and develop on their own. Trust in those little brains and enormous hearts.

I have had the heartache to learn that I will not be a mother to my own children but my entire adult life has been steeped in learning and observing children at work and in their developmental stages a la Piaget, Vygotsky, Erikson, Bronfenbrenner, and the like. It is my aim to add more content on a developmental level and so now I introduce to you links from the web world that you may find interesting, astounding, reassuring, or even appalling. Not everyone will agree with these points or beliefs but I do hope that you find something that interests you and your children. Thank you from my heart for continuing this journey with me!

To begin:

*my pinterest board for developmental goodies
*a favorite blog
*an introduction to Piaget video
*a favorite picture book
*a lovely post on slowing down

The Art Teacher's Closet: Drippy Monsters

You may have noticed that we like making art through straws. Lookie what Amanda from The Art Teacher's Closet did with her students. Totally cool!

*photo from The Art Teacher's Closet, go check out the rest!

Links for older kiddos

A friend just asked me if I had any ideas for her and her niece. I set her up with this happy list. I don't mean these projects verbatim but using these as a jumping off point. They may appear more girlie but I know that with the right colors, supplies, creativity and attitude your boy-os would have just as much fun...though maybe not the apron...or at least not one as lacy as a kitchen curtain offers. By picking a theme or different color palette you can tie these all together. The nephwe a-go-go LOVES aliens so I would tweak each thing to become some sort of alien something-or-other. He'll be spending much of his spring break with us and in between the building of our Death Star Globe I think we'll make a few of these. What will you do?

*straw & paper garlands
*friendship bracelet
*no sew apron
*mp3 pouch from a juice pouch
*sugar buns
* word garland
*no sew scrappy bunting
*cascarones
*gluten-free clay beads

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

fiesta2, originally uploaded by khushdude.

Here's a list of nifty links for you to peruse:

*The history of Cinco de Mayo

*A nifty book list to you from me

*kaboodle gets festive

*macaras fun

*Sombrero cookies

*kiddie approved sangria

*Fiesta part done Martha's way

*Mexican fried ice-cream

Check out khushdude's flickr page for more amazing photos!

Robots! Go-bots!

May 3 is Space Day. Since I have a thing for Robots I thought I would get y'all amped up to throw a robot party like this amazing mom did!
Birthday parties can easily get out of hand, especially if you live in a neighborhood where bigger is better. All you have to do is take a deep breath and let your wee one help in the planning. Bouncey house or not, you will have an excellent day full of fun and a wee bit o' chaos!

For a space or robot themed event there isn't much you can't do. All you really need is an awesome art activity, a couple of games, cake and a take home item. If you serve up cupcakes with a sprinkles bar that is even better! The birthday boy pictured above had a blast. There was robot making from recyclables, pin the nose on the robot and much running around. Plus, there was cake. For the giveaway/goodie bag, Mom Stacey ordered up a couple of custom t-shirts at a great deal from custom t-shirts. You could do this with an image drawn by your kidlet. You don't have to go all out, just pick a theme and run with it. Keeping the festivities outdoors is best. Kids need a lot of space as their energy levels grow in leaps and bounds as the group grows.

Check out these links for more space and robot themed fun:
Family Fun Space Themed Party Fun
Straight from the mouths of Moms, parties they planned
Kid's Party Fun
Amazing Moms
Build a Robot
Robot Rummy
Space themed party supplies

I'll try to get a kaboolde list togethre for you later today. Have fun!

Happy Pig Day!

March 1st is Pig Day! That's me dressed up as Olivia. What a wonderful Pig Day today could be this being the year of the pig and all...I put together two lists for you, one for books and the other for fun so check them out and see if they give you any nifty ideas, I sure hope they do!

A long time ago at a pig party I held for Pig Day, I gathered an oddball assortment of all pink craft materials and asked the kidlets to make their own pigs. Now, I know there is no defining rule that says all pigs need to be pink and I told the kids this but just for fun this it what we did. I had just finished taking a children's art class and was overhwelmed with the pyschobabble of it all and decided to revamp my stories and art program to ensure all creations were open ended. I never modeled what the art should look like and I always encouraged creativity. If a kidlet asked for a supply that wasn't out and I had it, I brought it out. This pig party was the first of its kind and I was excited! You should have seen the pigs these kids made! We had fingerpainted pigs, artful pigs, playdough pigs, tissue paper pigs...it was AWESOME! The kids were all having a blast except for a three year old named Joey. He was mighty stressed out and frustrated as he attempted to draw his very first pig. I sat with him and dialogued and offered questions and encouragment and did everything I could to NOT show him how to draw a pig. I was working on fostering his atonomy which for Joey was a big deal because he had an older brother who was just old enough to dazzle him. Through his tears Joey told me he couldn't draw and was not good and I had a sad sad boy on my hands. I brought out all the pig books I read and we talked about how they were alike and different. I brought out a book with photographs of pigs so Joey could see how the illustrations were inspired. After a while he sniffled and was ready to try again. I asked him how many heads does a pig have? Three? Four? Two? Through his giggles he hollered "One!" "Well, there ya go," I said, "What shape is a pigs head?" and slowly but surely he started to draw. You should have seen the twinkle in his eye when he added two dots in a cirlce for the snout and by golly that boy drew the proudest pig of them all and I of course cried like the weepy girl that I am. I was ecstatic. I did it! He did it! We did it! I rode that high for weeks! Joey was so so so proud and excited to show his mom his pig and after that, his little self blossomed. He stepped out of his brother's shadow and created his own little world of wonder. It was always there but he just needed a push. The even cooler part was when his brother got all excited with him! I tell ya, I needed an entire box o' tissues!

Yeah, yeah, nice story lady but what does it mean? It means that while it is super easy to model an object or picture for your child, especially when they are pestering you to "draw me a monkey! draw me a monkey!" it is so much more joyful to give them the tools to create their own monkeys, pigs, trains, etc. Take a moment when you have it and sit down with them and talk it out. One thing I do when a child insists I draw or make art with them is I use spots of color and just paint strokes or dots and talk about the colors and what they remind me of. When I play with clay, I roll little balls. I stack them, I count them. All the while I dialogue about the texture, the scent, the colors and how they play into the child's world. You talk enough and soon they will talk with you and start creating their own objects! It is a thrilling experience as I am sure you all know.

Check out this nifty dad and his daughter's amazing artwork and see what this mom does with her kids' creations!

A wee bit o' toothiness

February 28th is National Tooth fairy Day and February is Dental Health Month and I thought I'd touch on something I bet you didn't know could be related to loose teeth. Reading Readiness.

Years ago I took an excellent class on Children's Literature and Emergent Literacy. My student teacher in the class had just finished her PHD in some high falutin thing dealing with neurology and children and she spoke to us about this fabulous discovery. A discovery I thought was so cool I wanted to know more about and sadly I cannot locate anything on the web so please bear with me this is an idea, a correalation and it is pretty fascintaing.

Here in the U.S. we (not all of us, thankfully) put a lot of pressure into early literacy. Parents brag about their child reading at age 3, about their infant reading and so on. What they don't realize is that it doesn't matter how early your child reads, the earliness is no indication of intelligence let it go, it is whether or not your child is READY to learn and that isn't about intelligence either, THAT is about biology and physiology and it will all click into place and your child will be none for the worse. If you are a follower of the Waldorf philosophy you will know that a prime age for teaching reading is around age 7. Did you know what else happens around age 7 and even earlier in some children? Loose teeth. There is a series of nerves that run along our upper jaw that dance all over our faces and end somewhere in the part of our brain that likes to party with abstract thought and symbol recognition. The stronger this nerve grouping gets the more able your child is to understand the symbolism in a picture, number or letter. Around age 5 when this nerve grouping really starts to strengthen (and this can happen when a child is younger also) you may notice a difference in your child's artwork. They start with the traditional hammer grip and make marks on paper or sidewalk with large sweeping motions. This brash movement falls in line with large motor skills and slowly works its way over to small/fine motor skills as your child adapts to hold her or his crayon in the pencil grip which if you notice may mirror how you hold your own pencil. As the fine motor skills develop and the grip becomes more able you will notice that the scribbles and brush strokes become shapes. People will be drawn as large circles with wavy lines to emulate limbs. This is called a mandela and children all over the world will go through this phase. Cool, no? As your child grows older, the pencil grip more firm and the teeth get looser and looser. This all corresponds to those nerves that run across the jaw and into the part of the brain that recognizes abstract thought. Think about it, you may have more than 1 child and you will notice that each child learned in their own way at their own time, did their loose teeth come at anytime relating to their artwork? Once a child's drawing of a car actually looks like a car, they have acknowledged ABSTRACT THOUGHT. Once that begins they will start to recognize that those letters that they sing about actually have more meaning then just the shape. Yes, A is for Apple but that is just a child reciting, memorizing, once they can understand that the letter A is a symbol for a sound and that each letter makes a sound and that each sound strung along with another sound can make a word...BAM! They are ready for reading. I'm not saying don't try to teach your child to read, of course you should make your home as literary friendly as possible but don't push.

Children love nothing more than sharing with you and anyone who will watch whatever new talent they have mastered. Whether it is hopping on one foot, counting to 10, using scissors or discovering glue, it makes them feel good. It makes them feels secure! When a child is feeling good all the time with all this mastery, reading can prove to be a whole other piece of fruit. Reading isn't easy. A child may start hollering out letters and words he or she recognizes while you are driving down the street. He or she will pull out a favorite book and attempt to read it, jumping the gun only the slightest and they will realize that they don't know ALL the words. This can be intimidating. I remember this very same experience myself. I know of an amazingly talented and creative young man who could do just about anything but at age 8, reading wasn't easy and he lost a lot of confidence in himself. He also started losing his teeth a little later than his friends. He's 10 now and a book freak often reading well past bedtime with a flashlight aimed at the pages. People scoffed and were alarmed when I mentioned his not reading yet but really, why? There is a huge difference in learning to read, reading later and illiteracy. Force a child too soon they may just lie and pretend to read. I know of another friend who is one of the most avid readers I know and she told me she couldn't read until 2nd grade after she finally told her sister she needed some help. You are the person who best knows your child. You will guide the min the right direction I am sure. Remember, it isn't a contest, your children's skills are not trophies to show off. Each and every child is an amazing human being all by themselves, there comes a time when their amazing smiles are toothless and their noses are tucked into a book. Read Across America Day is coming up on Friday. What are you going to do to foster your child's love of reading? Me? I would get out those art supplies!


Now on to Tooth Day:
* a list of toothy reads for youto enjoy
*make a wee trinket box to keep baby teeth safe for the tooth fairy
*make an envelope book as a keepsake for babyteeth and those tooth fairy notes
*go modern and pick up a tooth fairy pillow or make your own
*a goofy online site for games and fun
*go toothbrush shopping!
*paint with old toothbrushes
*the facts about teeth
*sing a silly song
*get this singing toothbrush for picky toothbrushers (i got this for my nephew when he was 3 and he loved it! Though it is a little annoying.)

Storytime

I guess I need to write a kids book about oatmeal since I cannot think of any but what I did come up with was this book which I adore adore adore!



Toot and Puddle: The New Friend
Written and Illustrated by Holly Hobbie
Published by Little Brown

A delightful story of friends and lesson learning. Everyone is excited when Daphne comes to play but she soon looses her appeal as she is so good at everything and knows it. Second best doesn't play well with her and she can be quite the snooty pig. Can you find the oatmeal reference? Enjoy all the other Toot & Puddle books also!

More Toot and Puddle fun here and here