Valentine Themed Learning Activities

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Katie's Nesting Spot suggests Conversation Hearts for a math sorting, counting, and graphing activity.

Tired, Need Sleep put together a printable count and clip game great for practicing basic counting this heart day.

Use something simple you already have in your home, playing cards, to make a Valentine memory game.

Using a pile of conversation hearts as story starters for creative writing, or have children add to a collaborative round table story by using key words of a conversation heart.

At Muffin Tin Mom, see how Michelle put together this simple sight word file folder matching game.

Katie has also put together a post of Valentine activities worth checking out: Heart Attack (writing / life skills), Secret Cupid (life skills), Hidden Hearts (reading/life skills), and Converstation Starters.
What heart themed learning activities have you put together for use with your students this week?
Please link to your posts below! (Please Note:  We will be featuring a Valentine Cards and Crafts link on Friday, so please save artsy-craftsy suggestions until then).

Incorporating Music Into Children's Daily Routine

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Today's Musical Monday is part 2 of our feature written by Vanessa from Silly Eagle Books.  {If you check out this same post on her side all of the song titles are linked to YouTube.}

Last week, I shared a GIANT list of 100+ songs to sing with your child (and the books to go along with them). Today, I thought I would give some tips on how to incorporate these and other songs into your child's daily routine by sharing how Juliet and I do it. Hopefully, this will give you a good place to start and allow you to customize it and make it work successfully for your own family.


How do I choose the songs?
With such a huge list, where do you start? I recommend starting with what you love. Did any of the songs on the list jump out to you? Did you think, "Hey! I haven't thought of that song in years!" or "I loved that song as a child!" Go with those! Your enthusiasm for the song will go a long way in getting your child exciting to sing it, too. (And it doesn't hurt that you already know the tune!)

For me, I jumped at the chance to sing the California Gold Rush song Sweet Betsy from Pike, Toora, Loora, Loora, and the Red River Valley because I remember my dad singing them to me as a little girl.

After you've checked out and enjoyed a few familiar tunes, take a risk and choose one you don't already know. I have been overwhelmed at how many beautiful songs I have gone my entire life without ever hearing! Two that we experienced, learned, and fell in love with together are Froggy Went a Courtin, and All the Pretty Little Horses (I know! How did I miss that one?) We loved Froggy Went a Courtin' so much that we added the book illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky to our home library. The illustrations are just incredible.

Once you've picked a few new ones out, it's time to figure out the tune! All of the books on my list have the actual music somewhere in the book. If you play an instrument, you can pick out the tune. (I did this on the piano for a lot of the lullabies in Lullabies an Illustrated Songbook.

Don't worry if you can't play the piano! YouTube is the perfect resource for learning the tune to almost any song. You might find some odd versions and videos out there, but at the very least you can pick up the tune.

How do I use the songs?
The easiest way to incorporate these songs is just to add the books to your book pile. Do you usually read books together before bed? Try singing a few together during that time. Maybe start with a song and end with a song or alternate between a regular story book and a song book.

As you get more comfortable with this, consider setting aside a special "singing time" that you take part in everyday just as you have a special reading time. For us, it's right after Juliet takes her bath. She gets out of the tub, gets her pajamas on and we sit down in the hallway and sing through a few songbooks. It's easy to do because we've attached our singing time to something we do together everyday-- getting ready for bed--but you could make yours at whatever time works for you. Maybe you are morning people and like to start the day with a few songs? Or maybe right before nap time is a good time to snuggle up and sing together.

Sounds great, but one little problem. I can't sing!

First of all, let me assure you that I cannot sing either. I have never been and never will be asked to sing in public. But the great thing about singing with kids is that they don't care at all about how good or how bad your voice is! They just love that you sing. I'm serious. Is you kid around? Burst out singing Skip to My Lou at the top of your lungs and see what they do. I guarantee that after the initial shock wears off, they will be jumping around, clapping and singing with you in less than 10 seconds.

We've learned that the more we sing together, the more these songs stick in our memories. By intentionally making time for music in our routine, we've discovered that we break out in spontaneous song more and more throughout the day and have even found ourselves making up songs of our own.

If you take the time to plant the seed of music in your child's heart, it will send down roots, and begin to grow. In no time at all, you'll get the privilege of hearing a tiny, little voice floating up from the backseat singing something like, "O, give me a home! Where the buffalo roam! And the deer and the antelope play!" and asking questions like, "Why does your Bonnie lie over the ocean, mommy, why?"

So, which songs are you going to choose? I'd love to hear about the songs you love and any suggestions you have for ones we don't have on our list!

Open Up to Possibility

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If you believe you can change the world, you just might.
This featured YouTube clip, created by a video team inside the walls of one school, is a reminder for all of us that the future is the children. It is a great encouragment for us to keep on keeping on in our daily teaching, learning, and loving!



Are you teaching your children and students to dream big and to make an impact?
Imagine all they can do to change the world?

Thematic Thursday: Cocoa Cafe' Thematic Center

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For today's Thematic Thursday we wanted to share a thematic learning center with you and include several suggestions for skills to develop through this activity.  If you have set up a thematic center in your home or classroom we'd love to share it in a future post.  Send us your pictures, a link, and a list of skills your center supports.

Welcome to the Cocoa Cafe'

Thanks to Kelly from Doing Life Together for sharing this with us. 

You will want to check out Kelly's post for information about where she found this idea, the materials she use to set up her center, and  more pictures. 

Social Skills
~Working Together
~Listening: Taking orders
~Manners: please, thank you, pardon me, etc.

Math Skills
~Counting: count out cups, marshmallows, straws, etc.
~Money: identifying coins, counting coins, taking money, making change
Obviously, these skills will depend on children's ages and ability levels
~Comparison Skills: Talk about more and less
~Sequencing: Offer different size cups and have children organize the cups by size

Language Arts Skills
~Writing: Write a menu for the cafe'
~Creative Writing: Come up with clever drink mixes and names
~Come up with a name for the Cocoa Cafe'
~Make advertising signs for the shop
~Write receipts for the cocoa customers
~Follow up the play time with a journal or creative story using the Cocoa Cafe' as the setting

Social Studies Skills
~Ecomonics: Introduce the assembly line process to children. 
Give each child a different job for putting together a complete cup of cocoa.  Talk about how many cups of cocoa a can be put together in the same amount of time with group assembly versus individual assembly.
~Talk about supply and demand.  Discuss how pricing may impact sales in the Cocoa Cafe'

If you set up your own Cocoa Cafe' learning center we'd love to see pictures.  In fact, send us your pictures and we would be happy to put together a post showing them all off!  If you think of other great skills to practice using this play center we would love to see your ideas in the comments.  Enjoy!

Get a "Taste" of Reading with Super Why

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The creators of Super WHY have just announced they've added a new episode to their line up.  They have put together the information in this post to encourage parents and teachers to think about authentic activities from everyday eating opportunities for teaching literacy skills. 

Super WHY is an award-winning literacy series from Out of the Blue Enterprises.  Each episode is aimed at engaging vieweds in entertaining and interactive alphabet and word games.  I (List Maker Katie) find this program to be especially beneficial for encouraging imagination, spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension activities.  Hopefully it is also instilling a life-long love of reading!

Hip Hip Hooray! Super WHY whips up a whole new reading-powered adventure when the Super Readers soar into the pages of a cookbook for the very first time! Super WHY and the Cookbook premiered January 29 on PBS stations from coast to coast (check local listings).

Whyatt wants to bake his little sister a special birthday cake - but he doesn't know how. So Super Why and his friends soar into a new kind of book - and get the information they need from a rhyming chef with a silly sense of humor as well as a recipe for fun! In the end, Whyatt learns how to create the perfect birthday for Baby Joy.

Here are some awesome tips to help you cook up your very own yummy reading adventure:

~Encouraging preschoolers to read recipes, signs and more helps them navigate their world and gives them a real reason to use their new-found literacy skills.

~Asking questions will expand their creativity as well as reinforce comprehension. It can also inspire them to write their own signs, recipes or stories!

~Pick out a simple and tasty recipe with your budding Super Reader. Ask them to point out all of the letters and words they already know in the ingredients

~Write a grocery list together, sounding out the words as you go along


~At the supermarket, have your kids help read the signs so you can find the ingredients you need

~As you cook, read the recipe out loud every step of the way


~Before serving your delicious treat, create colorful place cards for each member of the family, assisting your preschooler in writing out the names. Have fun – and bon appetite!

Disclosure:  ABC & 123 has not been compensated for this post.  Grand Communication sent us this information regarding the new release and we felt it was valuable information to pass along to our readers.

Groundhog Day Activities

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Happy Groundhog Day!

Accoding to the office site for Punxsutawney Groundhog Club:
~Punxsutawney Phil is the only true weather forecasting groundhog.
~His prediction is correct 100% of the time, of course!
~On February 2, Phil comes out of his burrow on Gobbler's Knob to predict the weather for the rest of winter.
~According to legend, if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring.
~Punxsutawney held its first Groundhog Day in the 1800s.
~Punxsutawney Phil was named after King Phillip.

It's likely you have all kinds of fun learning activities planned for today. 

For a start, you might like to put together a Groundhog's Day eCard with your learners and send it off to a friend.

 

We'd love to see what you've been up to.  As you finish your plans and have a chance to post them, please link up!

Musical Monday: 100 Songs

We are so very excited today to kick off a 3 week series of Musical Monday posts authored by our guest, Vanessa from Silly Eagle Books.  She has put a tremendous amount of time and effort into compiling a fantastic musical resource for all of us, which we hope you enjoy!

As parents, we've all experienced moments where we've sang a lullaby or hummed a tune to comfort our crying child. Maybe you are a musical person and already have an endless supply of tunes and lyrics at the tip of your tongue, but if you are like me, then maybe you max out your song knowledge at Twinkle, Twinkle and the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

It's not that I don't know any more songs, it's just that when I find myself bursting out into a spontaneous singing session with my daughter, I often end up only remembering half the lyrics or only a portion of the tune! I sing the few lines that I know and end up humming the last few bars before dwindling off and mumbling something like, "Um...yeah. I don't know anymore."

Fortunately for me, three-year-olds are endlessly gracious and forgiving. She doesn't care that I don't know all the words, she just loves that I sing. And I love singing with her! My voice isn't great, in fact, I think it would probably be described as pretty terrible, but somehow that doesn't matter when we're together. We just belt out tunes at the top of our lungs and enjoy every off-key minute of it!

To make the most of our singing sessions, I started checking out songbooks from our local library. I discovered that there are quite a few exceptional sing-along picture books out there along with some wonderful illustrated traditional songbooks.

These books have extended and enhanced the way we experience music in our daily lives. Every night, we spend a few moments before bedtime snuggled up together singing from our songbooks. I've rediscovered childhood favorites like the old folk songs my Dad used to sing to me and found new ones that I've never heard before.

Obviously, the printed lyrics are a life-saver for me--now I can sing the entire song correctly from beginning to end, but the real surprise has been how much the illustrations have enhanced my daughter's enjoyment and understanding of the music. Adding that visual element to the songs has helped her drink it in and love and remember the songs all the more.

Like I mentioned earlier, I have been checking out songbooks for the past several months. I wanted to share my list of 100+ songs to sing with your child (and the books to go with them) with you. I hope that it will serve as a resource and maybe give you a place to start in your search for books that you can sing with your child. Here is just a sampling, from the middle of the list, labeled Camp Songs:
58. Make New Friends Illustrated by Nan Brook

59. Camp Granada by Frane Lessac

60. Rise and Shine
61. Peanut Butter and Jelly
62. Worms
63. Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee
64. Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh
65. Found a Peanut
66. Little Bunny Foo Foo
67. Taps

In the next couple Musical Monday posts Vanessa will share with us some practical advice for incorporating music into daily life and the benefits of music as a teaching tool.  You won't want to miss it!