ABC and 123: A Learning Collaborative: February 2012

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Show and Tell #90

Teaching the 5 Senses has always been a favorite of mine, as there are many exciting experiments and activities that are appropriate.  I especially enjoyed checking out the many ways Sonshine Classical Academy explored the senses.

Character education is such an important piece of what we do as educators, but it is not the easiest topic to search for interactive resources for young children around the web.  The Home Teacher put together a fun lesson on Anger Management using the familiar Angry Birds.

As part of a birthday surprise last weekend, we took our six year old daughter to see the Disney Live! stage show.  Her favorite part of the show, by far, was Beauty and the Beast.  The shiny magic mirrors from Joyfully Weary are very timely for our family and adorable too!

It's your turn!  What do you have planned for Dr. Seuss' Birthday on the 2nd?  Have you put together a great lesson sequence for March's Reading Month?  March's Music in Education Month? We can't wait to see what you have been up to!
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If you are new to Show & Tell or need a quick recap, here are the rules:


~Post your favorite lessons, crafts, traditions, kid friendly recipes, field trip recap, learning games, experiments, DIY organizational projects, holiday related activities, or Ah-Ha moments.


~Direct link to your post, not your home page.


~Include a link back to us or include our link button in your post or sidebar.


~Please try to visit and comment on at least three links. This adds to the positive collaboration that makes our learning cooperative a success!


~Each week we will feature three links from the previous week's party.  Some weeks these are chosen at random, sometimes by theme, and other times according to linky tools stats.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Movement and Music with Dr. Seuss!

Hi, it's Jedda from This Little Project.  Today I wanted to share some ideas to MOVE past just reading the  Dr. Seuss books and making a craft.  We're going to be getting off that chair and MOVING to Dr. Seuss!

Each year I get so excited to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday (March 2nd).  It's a wonderful way to celebrate reading and the fun world he created that kids love!

As you know, some children are full-body learners.  My daughter is very much this kind of learner.  Everything makes more sense to her when she can touch it or get her whole body involved somehow.  For the other kids, these activities reinforce concepts they've learned in other ways which is also very important!

One way to get bodies involved is to dress them up!

Here is our Cat in the Hat dress-up that we use for the game you will see below.
 (Link for details of how to make this dress up the kids are making their own hats.)


Dr. Seuss Rhyme Tag
This game is a fun way to reinforce rhyming practice and get the kids moving!

The person who is "it" is the "cat in the hat."  See photo above-

When the Cat in the Hat tags someone the person is "caught" and has to freeze.  The frozen person thinks of a word and says it when another player runs by.  Once someone rhymes a word with the frozen person and taps them, that person becomes "unfrozen" and is back in the game.

You can switch who is it/the Cat in the Hat with a timer or whenever they catch a certain number of kids.


Music + a Book = FUN!  
A little dance party to Green Eggs and Ham adds fun movement to this classic!

Green Eggs and Ham Song


Thing 1/Thing 2 May I? Game 
This is a variation on the classic, "Mother May I?" game.  You could also play this game using the Cat in the Hat dress-up above (so you don't have to make the puppets to play it.)

I wanted to combine the activity we are doing (thing 1 or 2 puppets) with a game to practice our rhyming and this is how we are doing it:

These are the puppets we are using this printable and directions on assembly at obseussed (where you'll find lots more Seuss fun!)

Thing 1 and 2 Game Instructions:
The idea is to use rhyming and Dr. Seuss characters combined with the usual parts of the game.
Hopefully this makes sense!
One child (the mother) stands a the front of the group with their puppet (either Thing 1 or 2).
Each child can ask (the mother) to do something (hop, steps, etc.) while holding their puppet and making it "talk."
The child who is the "mother" at the front uses their puppet to "talk" back to the the child that asked the question.  
The children takes turns asking ways to get to the front, varying the number of steps/ hops. 
 The one to get up to the child in the front first wins.  
If someone forgets to say "Thing 1" when they ask their question or cannot think of a rhyming word, they go back to the start.

It goes something like this:
Using their puppet, one child in line says: "Thing 1, may I take 3 hops?"
Thing 1 (standing facing the other children in the line and using their puppet): "If you rhyme with "ball" you may.
etc.

For those who really like to include movement in their learning, you will also like how we've been learning to do alphabetical order with Dr. Seuss at This Little Project

For more ideas with Dr. Seuss, be sure to stop by This Little Project and say hi!



Friday, February 24, 2012

HOP - A Number Recognition Game {free download}





Learning Objective: identify & name numbers 11-30

Materials:
~20 bunnies labeled with the numbers 11-30
~8 bunnies labeled with the word HOP

Instructions:
~Shuffle all of the bunny cards and place them in the center of the playing area
~Take turns drawing a card & saying the number aloud
~When a HOP card is drawn all players jump out of their seats and hop around like bunnies

~Play until all of the cards have been drawn.  A winner may be determined by counting who had the most HOP cards when you get through the deck.  
~Shuffle and play again!
With THANKS for all of our fantastic readers, those who faithfully submit their ideas for us to share, our great group of Show and Tell friends, and our many new Google followers we are offering you a FREE download of this hoppy little game in plenty of time to prep for your Spring math lessons! 

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Telling Stories: Prompting Creative Writing


Whimsical Ways helps young writers get creative with story stones.  A simple and fun way to encourage character, setting, and plot development.

Teach Beside Me made color coded blocks labeled with interesting nouns, verbs, and places to set writers up with a story idea.

TLSBooks offer several creative writing prompt ideas, similar to this Serious Question activity.

With a few fun pebbles and a sharpie marker, First Grader at Last will inspire creative writing.

meg writes uses a simple jar to inspire creative writing.

I may have mentioned it before, but my favorite resource for creative writing prompts is Rip the Page by Karen Benke. {fyi: not an affiliate link, just a fave}

I also really like the idea of these story cubes from The Literary Gift Company.  What do you think, do you have an idea for a DIY version of these cubes?

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Bilingual Wednesdays- Cognates part I


Cognates are words in two languages that share a similar meaning, spelling and pronounciation.
30 -40% of English words have a related word in Spanish.
For learners of Spanish as a second or foreign language, cognates are a bridge to the new language.
Cognate awareness is the ability to use cognates as a tool for understanding a new language.
Children can be taught to use cognates as early as preschool. They feel confident when they can master cognates because they are very similar to their mother tongue.
There are many cognates, but I choose the most familiar for my kids such as chocolate, pizza, pasta, television, computer, sofa,etc
In this picture children choose their favourite cognate, draw and then we sort them by objects, people or animals.

You can download the labels here, just right click on the picture, save as. It is a .jpg

Teaching cognates help children to transfer knowledge from one language to the other and to build anchor charts.
 

I made this posters with the letters of the word COGNATE . I use the posters not only to build the word but also to sort cognates according to beginning sounds.
We look for cognates in magazines, cut them and hang them from each letter using a ribbon or yarn.Whenever we learn a new cognate we add it to the list.
Stay tuned! Be sure to register as a Follower.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Show and Tell #89


You guys!  Seriously, there were so many neat ideas in last week's Show and Tell Linky.  If you missed it, you are going to want to go back and check it out.  My three little highlights are not going to do it justice.  Thank you to all of you who add your ideas to our party!
Our Feminisit Playchool used a piece of tempered glass to draw portraits with her preschooler.
The Post-It Note math scavenger hunt set up by Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational is a fun way to keep a busy little body busy learning!

My Shae Noel shared the books, an art project, and a reflective writing prompt they used to learn about Martin Luther King Jr.
It's your turn!
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If you are new to Show & Tell or need a quick recap, here are the rules:


~Post your favorite lessons, crafts, traditions, kid friendly recipes, field trip recap, learning games, experiments, DIY organizational projects, holiday related activities, or Ah-Ha moments.
~Direct link to your post, not your home page.
~Include a link back to us or include our link button in your post or sidebar.
~Please try to visit and comment on at least three links. This adds to the positive collaboration that makes our learning cooperative a success!
~Each week we will feature three links from the previous week's party.  Some weeks these are chosen at random, sometimes by theme, and other times according to linky tools stats.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Teaching with Ticia: Rhode Island and Vermont


I apologize for being late getting this post out this morning.  We've been sick for most of February and I got distracted enjoying our first non-sick days in two weeks.

So, here we go:
Rhode Island
I figure it is rather apt that Rhode Island is a small state, so I found only a few things on it in our library.
Nathaniel Greene- He was a Revolutionary War hero and has many different roads, cities, and schools named after him.  However our library had nothing on him, so I designed something from Wikipedia.  Does anyone have some book suggestions for him?

Rhode Island State Symbols-Rhode Island is one of the few states that has fairly unique state symbols.

Finding Providence-This is a great book about the founding of Rhode Island.  If you are Christian it's a great opportunity to talk about your faith and having trust in God.  Our activity for this book was to write down how we can know God's Will in our lives.

Carousels- There are some great carousels in Rhode Island, or so I've been told.  We read "Carousel Cat," but "Feivel's Flying Horses" is supposed to be about the actual carousels Rhode Island is famous for, it was sadly checked out at the time we were studying Rhode Island.

Other Activities:
Study clams- there are many interesting things you can learn about how they are formed and how they make pearls.  This could be followed up by trying clams.
Make a "Cabinet-" this is the state drink.  It's supposed to be quite good from what people have emailed me.

Vermont
I was very lucky to find some GREAT books for Vermont.
Tricking the Tally Man- This is a very cute book that is a combination of local legend and truth.  My opinion leans more towards legend.  Afterwards we "tallied" the people in the different towns. This was a great way to work on making tally marks.

Champy- Vermont has a legend that Lake Champlain has it's own version of the Loch Ness Monster, Champy.  While there are books about this animal available, they weren't available to me, so I used Stephen Kellog's book "The Mysterious Tadpole," which is really about the Loch Ness Monster.  Afterwards we drew what we thought Champy looked like.

Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream- Any activity that includes eating ice cream is a hit.  We read about how ice cream is made and then discussed the unusual names Ben and Jerry's uses.  Afterwards we came up with our own flavors and created our own unusual names.

Nora's Ark- About 80 years ago Vermont had some very bad flooding that resulted in several towns being washed away.  This story is how one family was able to save many of the people in their town because of where their house was located.  After reading we tried to fill our houses as full as Nora's house was.
John Deere- He was born in Vermont, but the factory is actually located in Illinois, so you could also study him there.  I didn't figure all of this out until I was looking up more information for him later.

After reading a rather compicated book book about tractors by Gail Gibbons, one of the few times I didn't like her book, we created our own farming vehicle to help farmers.  The kids all enjoyed this activity.  If you were doing this at home you could have them create it out of recyclable material.
Vermont State Symbols- I always find amusing when I find an ocean animal as the state fossil.  I don't know why.

Additional Activities:
Apple Pie-Vermont has a state pie, apple pie.  So you could make an apple pie.
Justin Morgan had a Horse- If you have older kids, this is a great book for a 3rd/4th grade kid.  It's all about the original Morgan Horse, Vermont's state horse.

Books Used in Both Units:







Thursday, February 16, 2012

Handwriting Tool: Word Spacing


My daughter is a Kindergartener , which means she is also a beginning writer.  It has been delightful to watch her figure out the sound/symbol relationships and now she is becoming more aware of writing conventions.  In the past few days she has been analyzing the spacing between words in all types of print media.  She is quite concerned that some magazines don't have a big enough "finger space."  Her interest in this developing skill encouraged me to check into the type of tools you are all using to teach this beginning writing skill.

Thoughts from a Kindergarten Teacher explains how to use Mr. Spacey to teach Kinders the importance of spacing between words.

Debbie's Resource Cupboard has a downloadable Space ship.


Remind students to use proper spacing with this 5 Finger Rubric from Kindergarten Crayons.
The Long Way Around introduced some cute little Spacemen.
The Enchanted Homeschool submitted a wonderful link for a Helpful Handwriting Tool.  She explains:
Learning Objective:
The general purpose of this tool is to help children with spacing. I know that the rule of thumb is to teach children that they need a “finger tip” of space between each word in their writing but my kids lost that concept within a week or two, especially my son who struggled with handwriting initially due to lack of interest and being left handed. So I came up with this tool! 

Materials:

-         1 Sticker (either leave the manufacturers backing on it or place the sticker on a piece of paper so there is no sticky side left)
-         Elmer’s glue
-         1 Large sized regular old paper clip
-         Small piece of wax paper
-         Scissors


Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Show & Tell #88

Happy Valentine's Day!  Wishing you a day of  hugs & kisses, pinks & reds, friendship & love!

The Princess and the Tot shared a post full of Valentine themed work centers. Several of the ideas are simple enough to put together for your tot to enjoy yet today.

The heart day photo props from Little Wonders' Day are bookmark worthy for next Valentine's Day!

At The Golden Gleam they practiced measuring area and perimeter using non standard units of measurement.

 It's your turn!
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If you are new to Show & Tell or need a quick recap, here are the rules:


~Post your favorite lessons, crafts, traditions, kid friendly recipes, field trip recap, learning games, experiments, DIY organizational projects, holiday related activities, or Ah-Ha moments.
~Direct link to your post, not your home page.
~Include a link back to us or include our link button in your post or sidebar.
~Please try to visit and comment on at least three links. This adds to the positive collaboration that makes our learning cooperative a success!
~Each week we will feature three links from the previous week's party.  Some weeks these are chosen at random, sometimes by theme, and other times according to linky tools stats.

Monday, February 13, 2012

eBooks to Enhance Your Homeschool


Happy Monday Friends!  While doing a little bit of searching today for links to share with you, as well as some resources for the grad class I am currently enrolled in,  I came across two resources I was excited to share with you.

Holy Spirit Led Homeschool is offering a free eBook to all of their facebook page likers.  The book titled 100 Indoor Activities for Kids {TV Not Included} looks promising.  I just downloaded it myself and look forward to browsing through it for some ideas for our children.  Once you have liked the page you will see a tab under their sidebar image that says "Free eBook"
Simply Living for Him is also offering two free eBooks to those who like their facebook page.  The book, Simply Homeschool: Having less clutter and more joy in your homeschool, is written to be a great encouragement for homeschool parents.  The second free title is Unplug You Mind and Recharge Your Soul.  Again, I have not read either of these yet, but am anxious to take a look.
Neither of these pages are advertisers or  affiliate links, just interesting resources I thought you might enjoy.  I'd love to hear if you know of other free eBooks to enhance teaching and learning!
Also, if you haven't done so already we would love if you like ABC & 123's Facebook page as well!  


Have a great evening!

Friday, February 10, 2012

Terrific Teeth: Dental Health Month Activities



Toddler Bites submitted a thematic unit about health teeth. 

Mrs. Wheeler put together some toothy grin math games


The Popes enjoyed many clever activities while exploring dental health.  I especially love the flossing activity using yarn, mega blocks, and play dough.



The Teacher's Corner shared several writing prompts that are appropriate for February, with some of them focusing on healthy teeth.


1st Grade with Miss Snowden used eggs in a healthy teeth science experiment.


Mrs. Kilburn's Kiddos also has a great thematic dental health unit.  Her post is stuffed with great toothy links! I especially appreciated his list of appropriate books.


For a fun craft extension perhaps your students would enjoy making their own Teeth Monsters like these from Long Thread.




Thursday, February 9, 2012

Valentine Writing Prompts


Sub Hub has shared a free Valentine's Day poetry writing activity that can easily be downloaded.
Classroom Freebies has a downloadable Valentine themed lined paper for you to use for any of you classroom writing projects.
Kindergarten Freckle Teacher posted a Valentine poem freebie for shadow writing.
Practice writing with prepositions following this Lilly's Chocolate Heart writing project from Suite 101.
Journal Buddies suggests 77 love themed writing prompts for elementary students.
Elementary Technology Lessons used Party Printer to turn writing assignments into Valentine shapes.
Connect a Blog offers free Valentine's themed stationary for writing projects.




Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Show & Tell #87


Simply Designing linked up to last week's Show and Tell with a clever Valentine activity or gift.

Creekside Learning used a favorite winter time storybook, The Mitten, to encourage a scientific experiment.

Mom to 2 Posh Lil' Divas used a winter favorite - snowmen - to practice sorting long and short vowel words.
It's your turn!
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If you are new to Show & Tell or need a quick recap, here are the rules:


~Post your favorite lessons, crafts, traditions, kid friendly recipes, field trip recap, learning games, experiments, DIY organizational projects, holiday related activities, or Ah-Ha moments.
~Direct link to your post, not your home page.
~Include a link back to us or include our link button in your post or sidebar.
~Please try to visit and comment on at least three links. This adds to the positive collaboration that makes our learning cooperative a success!
~Each week we will feature three links from the previous week's party.  Some weeks these are chosen at random, sometimes by theme, and other times according to linky tools stats.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Teaching with Ticia: Biographies


This would normally be the post I would give you a couple of more states to study.  However, there's some things that happen all month long that I want to spotlight first, so come back later in the month for that post.

February boasts President's Day and Black History month.  Both of those require finding a good source for children's biographies.  During my trek through the United States I've found some great sources that I will always head to first if they exist.
David Adler "A Picture Book Biography" series- He has written or co-written a book for almost every major historical figure in American history, and most people you would cover in Black History month.  This is my go to biography books right now, it provides a fair amount of information for early elementary without overloading.

Rookie Reader biographies- These are great for preschoolers, or for a first/second grader doing a report on their own.  Most of them are geared for later first grade readers, and it gives them the right amount of facts for an independent report.  These also sometimes venture into athletes occasionally.

Jean Fritz biographies- These are mostly the biographies of "dead white guys," as my history teacher used to say.  She specializes in American Revolution time period and a few Civil War books, but most of hers are the American Revolution.  These are written at a 3rd grade reading level and are great early chapter books.  When I was that age I nearly wore out my copy of "Shhh! We're Writing the Constitution."  These books are great for a third or fourth grader writing a report.  It provides a lot more meat to them and is written in a conversational style.

Do you have any biographers that you really enjoy?  There's several other authors who have written some great books, but they are more of the one shot type of books.