Squeeze top inspiration!

Last week Penelope was sick and couldn't go to school. Luckily, she has this fantastic preschool teacher who is not only super supportive but also incredibly creative and helpful. She emailed and let me know what they were working on in class that week (butterflies!) and even attached some of the activities. 

I took this opportunity to try something different with these "squeezie pouch" tops I have been collecting for awhile now. You know these things! These fun colorful tops are probably in every family recycling bin or at the bottom of any diaper bag! 

I gave her this caterpillar. I traced the tops to create the circles. As she colored them we talked about caterpillars and that great Eric Carle book, we love, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"! 

It was fun listening to her reasoning about the colors she was choosing. She would play with the idea of creating a pattern and then as any good 3 year old would, threw that idea out the window and went back to focusing on her favorite colors wherever it felt right. Great conversation- learning and not even knowing it! (Good time to give the kids a bunch of these tops and have them create a pattern in their caterpillar before coloring)

She then rolled the paper up to show a cocoon. (Kind of looks like it!) 

And then look what came out of the cocoon! A Penelope Elizabeth Haese butterfly!

She really enjoyed this activity so much that she wanted to try to make her own caterpillar for Cooper. 

If you can see, she even worked to write the letters of his name in the circles. Then she made one for Daddy and one for Mama.

I compiled all of these caterpillars and then butterflies into a book of butterflies. In the classroom this could become a published piece with a cover and even with different additions inside (labels, story line, captions, etc)- depending on the age or developmental levels you are working with. 

For us, it was a fun way to learn about caterpillars, cocoons, and butterflies. It was also a great use for those tops that I keep telling myself will be useful! 

Go Fish!

So, the big thing at our house right now is "Go Fish". It has become so popular, in fact, that Penelope thinks that a funny response to questions is "Go Fish" (ex. "Penelope, do you have your shoes on?" "GO FISH") 

I love playing these basic games with kids and realizing how many different skills they are strengthening while not even knowing it! Yes, while in the classroom I made many versions of Go Fish, all with the main focus of a different standard or skill. The students knew perfectly well that while they played "Sight Word Go Fish" they were working on their sight words or while they played "Numbers Go Fish" they would be working on connecting numbers and often times equations. When I say that they don't know they are strengthening skills, I mean the often times overlooked skills. For example, think about how many children need help talking to others. How many children have trouble interacting with other children? How many children need to find their voice? How many children need hands on learning? How many children need to be out of a seat and laying on the floor? How many children shut down to conventional learning and need to be exposed to games in order to be drawn in?

I started thinking about all of this because my own little Penelope has just shown a great interest in this fun game. I tried to introduce Go Fish while I was pregnant. I cut the deck down to only numbers 1-8 and tried to play with P. While she liked playing with the cards, looking back, it was too early to master this game for her. But not now! A friend gave us a bag of great art supplies and in it we found a deck of Go Fish cards. The game is not numbers or letters or shapes but it is different sea animals. She was quickly drawn to the cute cartoon like drawings on each card. The cards don't only have a drawing but they also have the name of the animal. Something so simple, but yet so helpful to young children. I learned not only through my courses in Graduate School but also through my experience in the classroom: Label EVERYTHING! So, while Penelope is only 3 1/2 and reading is years away, seeing words and connecting them with pictures and ideas is so fantastic!

I love playing this with her. I started teaching her the way I did with my First Graders. We place our cards face up in front of us. We are not playing to win but just to have fun. In the classroom our slogan for games was "This is not a winning game, it is a learning game". That always seemed to cool the competitive jets in the classroom and allow students to enjoy the game rather than feel like they weren't smart or fast or the best if they didn't win. 

When we finish the game, we both count out our pairs. Pair being an important concept to grasp and counting out the pairs is another important skill. Honestly, having to deal with the fact that Mama doesn't let her win, so she doesn't always have the most pairs has been another great lesson. :)

We are back! Color By Numbers

It has been so long since I have written on this blog! I saw a buddy yesterday (my former First Grade teammate!) and she asked me about this blog. I fanned through my list of excuses for why I haven't been keeping up with it and failed to come up with a good one. So, here I am, back at it!

                                                We are back and ready to roll! 
 
This activity I did some weeks ago with Penelope. But, I thought of it again the other day when I knew I would be seeing my friend. I wanted to share the idea with her for her math centers at school. After telling her about it and seeing her interest, I figured I should stop worrying about potential critics and start thinking about those who would find these ideas helpful!

Penelope is now very into coloring. She has always loved art, but shied away from coloring books and things of that nature. Perhaps it was her age, or my desire to have her explore her own ideas of what art is; maybe it is her personality, but all of that considered, there came a day recently when Penelope wanted to color in different pictures. She didn't want to draw her own pictures and then color them in, she became completely fascinated with coloring in pictures already created for her.

We had a few coloring books, but not many. So, we did what we could to make this fun! Penelope would give me sheets of paper or sometimes we would even use poster board, as she would tell me a scene she wanted me to draw in black marker. I would do my best to create her vision and then she would color them in. This got me thinking. Could this become a game that worked on even more skills? I certainly remember my students loving coloring and greatly enjoying it during reading or math centers. Color by numbers sheets were hard to find for me but they were a huge hit when I did find them! While the teacher in me started thinking math equations, the mom in me started thinking about colors and numbers and vocabulary. (I guess the teacher in me really took over this entire thought process!)

One morning, while Cooper napped and Penelope was wearing her patch, we took out the markers to color. I was making her pictures when I decided to put numbers in the different shapes or objects. I grabbed her big die (It is a block that I put painters tape on and drew my own dots with Sharpe) I could use the smaller dice, but with her age and especially while she is wearing her patch, this should be fun, not stressful!

Penelope rolled the die and whatever number she rolled she found and colored. I let her decide on her colors. I did not give her a color key, but probably would in the classroom. Although, now that I think about it, isn't it so interesting to see what kids come up with on their own?

                  (I helped with the blue planet!)


                     Classroom Connections
*Use two dice and have students add up the numbers on their dice, find the answer on the sheet and color it in. I would include an equations sheet so that students write down the math they are working on. For example: If a student rolls a 4 and 3 they would write the equation 4+3=7 (having space for the flip of that would be great too! 3+4=7)Then they would go to their picture, find the number 7 and color that shape or design in.
*Write equations in the pictures! No need for dice. Students can answer the equations in each picture and then color in the pictures using a special color key that you create ahead of time.
(Just a few standards you can approach with this activity- I know you could find others!)
CCSS.Math.Content.1.NBT.C.4
CCSS.Math.Content.K.OA.A.2
CCSS.Math.Content.K.OA.A.5
CCSS.Math.Content.K.OA.A.4
CCSS.Math.Content.1.OA.B.3

I will draw some examples and post them on my Lesson Plan Store!

Who doesn't love a good bar graph!?

Halloween night was so much fun for us all. The kids had a blast dressed in their "Ocean Theme", as Penelope kept telling people. Cooper was a shark and Penelope a mermaid. Our neighborhood seems to come to life on Halloween and the kids have the most wonderful time. Actually, the grown ups do too! 

So much fun, in fact, that it was hard for all to fall asleep (well, everyone except Cooper, who fell asleep almost as soon as his pajamas were on). This seemed at the time to be perfect. The next morning we would be dealing with Fall Back Daylight Savings time, so going to bed a little later than usual could end up being our way of tricking the universe! UM...not so much. Cooper woke at his usual 6am, it was now 5am, and Penelope heard us head downstairs so she decided to join the party at 5:15am. How crazy, these days were so wonderful and magical before having kids! Now, ugh, you have to put your head down and charge through it! 

Since we were up nice and early (it was pitch black out, and raining, oh and we had to be quiet because my mother in law was in town sleeping)I had to think fast on the activities! 

We grabbed the candy bag and started to sort through the candies. I'm sure I could have pushed the limits and had Penelope organize the candy by type, but it was not the morning to push anyone, so we just stuck to organizing by color! 

I labeled the paper plates with color names and Penelope started to put the candy on the plate with the correct color name. Cooper tried to participate and amazingly, Penelope didn't get upset as he grabbed the candies and threw them around. 

Penelope then put the organized candies into their own bags. Once Nani was awake, we showed her the organized candy and used that candy to make a graph. I labeled a graph with numbers, made circles for Penelope to color in and labeled the bottom with colors. 

I didn't get to take any pictures of Penelope while she was coloring the graph, mainly because I was holding Cooper back from the markers! She opened each bag and we counted the candies as she colored the circles. 

Both the red and brown candies had more than the 13 circles I drew, but Penelope is only 3, so its really just about counting, and coloring. I have to point out though, her first coloring was the red circles and on her own after that color she started coloring the circles by making tighter color dots in the inside. And as you can see, by the time we got to brown, it was time to eat some candy and stop counting it! 

In First Grade we graphed things constantly. I do love a good bar graph or pictograph! This whole activity reminded me of a lesson I did to teach the class about voting. How perfect that Election Day is tomorrow! 

Click here for a fun voting and graphing lesson!

"The Scream" and Halloween!

Halloween is right around the corner and our neighborhood is definitely in the spirit. As we take our morning walk each day, Penelope asks when we can decorate our house. Well, I guess its time to jump on board and put up some decorations! 

I love having Penelope make decorations, so I had to think fast about a fun and kid friendly activity we could do to decorate our house. I remembered a great craft I learned from a mom, whose daughter I taught many years ago. While I was teaching I invited parents to come join in on the celebrations in class. However, I needed to keep things organized and calm- sounds impossible, doesn't it? I encouraged the parents in my class to come up with four different crafts or activity ideas and we would use my reading center rotation to rotate the groups through each activity. This kept the kids engaged, the groups small, and the parents excited to help! I learned some great ideas during these parties and used one to help decorate the house for Halloween! 

                    Craft Idea: Halloween Ghosts! 

First I had to get all of the supplies together. 
-White trash bags. Cut them in small squares (I think I got 8 squares out of each bag)
-Scissors
-Newspaper (The mom used Styrofoam balls, but I did not have the time or want to spend the money going to get them)
-Sharpe Markers
-String
-Hole Punch (I brought this out to put the holes in the top of each ghost, but ended up just sticking a pen through the top to create a hole)
-Picture of "The Scream" by Edvard Munch

Step 1

Cut out small squares in your trash bag. I had to do this myself, but with older children it might be a great cutting activity for them to do. 

Step 2

Crumble a sheet of newspaper into a ball. I have read, time and time again, that this is a great fine motor activity for kids, so thats a plus! 

Step 3

Place that newspaper ball in the middle of one square of trash bag.

Step 4

The newspaper ball is the head of the ghost, so take a small piece of string (I did not precut the string because Penelope loves to cut and as long as I could hold the string for her, she would cut the pieces for me) Tie the string around for a neck- tie it at the base of the newspaper ball after you cover the ball with the trash bag square. 

Step 5

Time for eyes and mouth! I know not everyone feels comfortable with their children using Sharpe markers, so you can do it or use washable markers. It is what you are comfortable with doing! 

Step 6

Put string through the top of the ghost head and tie it together in a knot so that you can hang it from a tree or bush! 

Step 7

Start decorating!

Connecting this to Edvard Munch

Click here for a great writing lesson with "The Scream"!

With Penelope, I couldn't do a writing project- but I certainly could expose her to the painting and see where it took us. I showed her the painting and told her the title of it. She asked me why the person was screaming. "Well, I'm not sure. Why do you think the person is screaming?" This opened up a really neat discussion about things that might have scared the person in the painting. This is exactly what you end up having older children brainstorm and write about, but with a little one, you are just having a brainstorm. 
What I think is really neat about this idea is that you learn so much about your child. What does she think is scary? What does she worry about? She went in many directions. She told me ideas that she connected to friends of hers and what they are afraid of and then she mentioned things I know she feels a little uneasy about. It wasn't a long talk, but a very important one. 
Maybe with children slightly older than Penelope (she is just 3 1/2) you could have them draw out their ideas- even make it part of the painting by printing the painting out and attaching your child's picture to the Edvard Munch painting. Not only are you having a great discussion, a fun activity, and possibly another art moment, you are exposing your child to a classic painting that they will never forget! 

Happy Halloween! :)

Money, money, money!

A few weeks ago we realized that Penelope's piggy bank was getting very heavy! Probably because she tends to put any change she finds around the house in her piggy bank. So, it was time to cash it out! I thought about going to the bank to get change sleeves, but realized that would be very time consuming and with Cooper already putting everything in his mouth, it could be very dangerous! I decided we would head to Harris Teeter to use their change machine. I know that you can throw the change into the machine and it will the be organized and counted for you, but where is the fun in that? 

We waited for Cooper to go down for his nap one day and let the fun begin. I wrote the name of each coin on a plate (no, Penelope cannot read, but it is so valuable to label everything, no matter the age!) 

As we emptied out the piggy bank, Penelope organized the coins onto their labeled plates. We did go over the different coins and what they look like. As to be expected, nickles, dimes and quarters got confused a little. I made sure to repeat the name of the coin as she was placing it on a plate, or show her where a coin went when she had placed it on the wrong plate. 

We the poured each plate into a bag and took this very heavy organized money to Harris Teeter! 

When it was all said and done, Penelope had "saved" a bunch of money! So much so, that she decided to use some of it to buy her daddy a birthday present, and the rest to buy herself a special treat (Doc McStuffins mini Duplo set). 

                          In the Classroom

I found money to be a very tricky skill for many students. Not only is the differentiation of coins hard, but remembering the coin value is too. I vividly remember how confident students became as we worked with coins and then the day arrived when we started to add different coins together, and it was as if the universe was playing some evil joke on them! 

Having students organize a big bag of coins would be a great way to get started working on money. Doing just as Penelope did would get the ball rolling in class. It isn't a standard focus in the lower grades anymore- K/1 (maybe because it can be so frustrating for those young thinkers!) but introducing money through different standards can build confidence and help prepare your younger learners for what is coming! 
     Have them take it in a different direction by graphing the number of coins they had on each plate.
     Need to push some a little further? Encourage students who can to add up the value on each plate! 

Click here to find a Money Grab Game Packet!

Sorting Activity- "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom"

The other day during Cooper's afternoon nap, I took Penelope out back to do some painting on a large poster board. We didn't have a direction, so we took a bunch of supplies outside with us to explore! As we were painting, I started to paint some trees. I then eyed the big zip-lock bag full of stickers. We could make a letter tree! We started to search through a very big zip-lock bag full of foam stickers looking for letters. Every letter we found, we stuck on the letter tree. Looking at the pictures Penelope took of the final product, I thought of the fabulous book, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" by Bill Martin! 

*I had always seen  many different bulletin boards around school at the beginning of the year with the "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" theme. They were so cute but I must admit I had never read the book! That is, until Penelope came around. When she turned 1, the book was her absolute favorite! We would read her the book so many times, that neither myself nor my husband needed to look at the words in order to read it correctly.

             Penelope and Derek enjoying the book together! 

What a fabulous book for introducing and working on the alphabet with young learners! If you haven't read it, please make sure to grab it at the library the next time you are there. :)

                  OK, back to our art project! 

We didn't stop at the letter tree!  Looking at all of the neat supplies we had on the deck,I painted another tree, and we then searched for numbers in this big bag. Each number that we found we placed on the new tree, the number tree. 

At this point, I had her searching and sorting numbers and letters and she didn't even realize the wonderful learning that was taking place! (We had to head inside because of the heat, but I was then able to tape the poster on the door, making it easier for her to see the distinction between the trees.)

Finally, I painted one last tree because I noticed that my big zip-lock had three types of foam stickers; letters, numbers and shapes. 

Our third and final tree was a shape tree. Penelope was now searching through the bag looking for shapes, numbers, and letters. Once she found them, she was peeling the back of them, and sorting them onto the correct tree. 

 (As you can see I didn't have many shape stickers- maybe you could have students graph the number of "leaves" on each tree, since they most likely won't all have the same number of stickers!)

              

Letter Recognition CHECK
Number Recognition CHECK
Shape Recognition CHECK
Sorting CHECK
                          Classroom Connect
You can do this same project in the classroom! Children can work in teams or alone at a center to create these various trees. Push them a little deeper to make words using the letters in their letter tree, come up with math problems using numbers in their number tree or to create patterns using the shapes in their shape tree. 


(c) Susan Fleishman Haese 2015