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!
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. :)
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!
