ABC and 123: A Learning Collaborative: September 2010

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Thematic Teaching: Transportation

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Start your engines...today we are zooming into some transportation themed excitment!



Filth Wizardy put together some lego and cardboard trucks for imaginative play. They are sharing the printable you will need to make your own on their site.



Flipflops and Applesauce has a fun idea for a Street Sign Scavenger hunt that your kids can play while you're driving or you could take it along on walks in the neighborhood.

Kinderplans shares a great list of transportation themed books, as well as personal reviews of each book listed.


Mrs. Kilburn's Kiddos has put together a thematic unit on transportation and shares the books, rhymes, songs, activities, and printables she uses for the lessons.


Sticking with the transportation theme, have your students put together Word Family Trains using this printable from Hubbards Cupboards.


Kinders Printables has some great Cars movie themed desk tags and numbered cards for counting practice.


The Preschool Professor explains how to set up transportation themed centers for each subject area. You will also find that this is a great resource for transportation themed craft projects.






Monkey See, Monkey Do had all kinds of fun with their transportation themed activities. They sorted cars to practice colors, as seen in the picture. They also painted with caboose wheels and made puffy paint and chalk drawing train pictures.






I Can Teach My Child put together a great transportation themed birthday card.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Free Printables for Learning

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Who doesn't love online printables?? Today's round up includes many great resources for putting together some of your own learning materials.

D. Sharp's Journal shares the printable for making a mini piggy bank, perfect for learning to save and count coins.

Alpha Mom has put together printable lunchbox notes for you to encourage your school age child over the noon hour.

Use the back to school vintage lined tags at Free Pretty Things to have your child practice writing notes to others.
Homemade by Jill posted some cute and colorful aplhabet flashcards for your enjoyment.

Somewhat Simple shares how she turned a photo album into a dry erase activity book and shares downloads for the pages.

Flipflops and Applesauce shares a printable that not just a bookmark. It's also a mini vowel book.

Write your life story using the prompts from Becky Higgins. There is a teen and adult version.

Keep track of your books with these cute book plates from Orange You Lucky. There's also cute happy bookplate with a little girl and a kitty and even more, here.

Make and elegant library kit with Twig & Thistle, a beautiful way to remember what you've read.

Christie at Grace is Overrated has put together several journaling pages with fun fill in the blanks and prompts, like this one. Each contains several areas and is available to download in both color and black & white.

You can also make your own journal with this printable version at Tricia-Rennea. Cute pages for inside are also provided.

There are a variety of primary handwriting papers on Classroom Jr, some with space to also draw a picture.

Yellow Mum shared these math circles and dinosaur shapes. Both are part of her freebie friday printables so you'll want to check back and see what else she's come up with! In the meantime, you might want to see the flashcards and other printables she has for purchase.

Teach financial responsibility with these homemade piggy banks! Giver's Log provides a printable so you can make some with your empty spice jars.

Download a booklet full of ideas of fun things to do with your toddler at the Executive Homemaker.

You can also find two doodle placemats there and a few more Issa Sarza's blog. Print a few out and keep them in the car. You'll never be caught at a restaurant without something to keep the kids occupied.

Learn about birds with the bird watching printable and cutouts at Cooking with My Kid and go bird watching indoors.

Use this board from Let's Play to turn a shopping trip into a game!

These bingo boards were just too darn cute for us not to include! Part of a wonderful month long birthday series at Draw Pilgrim, after snagging the game you'll want to look around and download all the other pieces that make up a colorful and coordinated birthday party! Seriously we mean everything...from invites to decorations! All the links are compiled on this Wrap Up page.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Show and Tell #27

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Hi Everyone! It's Show and Tell time again, and we've got three great activities from last week participants to start off with!

I Can Teach My Child has used paint chips to make this fun learning tool. It's such a fun thing to have along for nature hikes.
Tons of Fun turned a file folder into a matching game, we love all the family faces peeking through!
Mama's Two Cent's Worth used her Cricut to make this darling puppet.

Now it's your turn! Link up below and please visit the other participants, everyone loves comments☺

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Please remember these rules:

~Post an "Ah Ha Moment," favorite lesson, experiment, learning game, field trip, whatever you're currently working on, or your child's fridge worthy artwork, handmade gifts or anything holiday related.

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

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

~If you come back and your link is missing, double check to make sure you've followed the directions!

~Lastly, please try to visit and comment on, at least three links. Spread the comment love and make someone's day!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Play To Learn ~ Numbers & Counting

Welcome to this week’s Play To Learn feature where we are learning our numbers! Here are some helpful activities to learn number recognition, counting and writing for your preschooler.

We use a lot of variations of our number cards to learn things like number order, counting, and number recognition but I think the most effective thing we do to promote counting is our daily Calendar Time. My preschooler is in charge of putting up each new date number then we count to that number while pointing to each one as we say it. The sheer repetition is helpful in building counting skills!

We also have different themed number cards that we use with various manipulatives. We put them in order on the floor. I wrote numbers on mini-clothes pins and here she matches them to each card.

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We play number hopscotch by laying out large number cards on the floor. Sometimes we do them in order, sometimes out of order and I’ll just call a number and have her hop to it.

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We use fun counting cards to practice counting and number recognition at the same time. Here she is counting apple seeds then putting the correct number card next to the apple based on the amount of seeds on it.

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This is a number recognition, counting and one-to-one correspondence activity. You can use the grid with stickers, pom-poms, magnets, or any other fun manipulative of your choice!

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These number dot cards are helpful in showing counting along with the numbers when you are still working on number recognition. I usually do a one-to-one correspondence activity with them like the mini-clothespins or pom-poms.

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Number Sticker Sheets, We use these to color, glue things to, or place stickers on. of course you put the correct number of items on each number! You can also laminate these and use them as play-doh mats!

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More counting cards, as you can see we use lots of different manipulatives to practice counting. I really believe that repetition is key in getting the basic skills down, and doing something as simple as changing theme makes it seem like a new activity each time even though you’re working on the same skills! {Shhh, don’t tell!} (click here to see more of the elephants, and click here to see more dinosaurs!)

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This is a fun game called “Roll a Number”. You can use die with numbers or dots on them. The idea is to roll a number then find the associated puzzle piece to add to your picture. {Click here for the kite roll a number game}

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We also practice writing our numbers. These cards are large enough that they’re easy for my preschooler to write, and they also help her to get ready for writing skills required in kindergarten. Click here for the Kite letter practice.

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I downloaded a great domino game called “Domino Parking Lot”. Younger kids can count the dots and place the dominos in the correct spot. Older kids can add the 2 sides together to find the correct spot.

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Here is a super cute idea from Jenae at I can Teach My Child on practicing counting with the “Ten Apples Up On Top” book by Dr. Seuss!

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Those are just some ideas to help with number skills! If you have more ideas to share, or would like to be included in future “Play To Learn” posts, please email me at homeschoolerconfessions {at} gmail {dot} com, we’d love to hear from you!

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Friday, September 24, 2010

Feature Yourself Friday: Meet Sarah

Welcome! New to ABC and 123? Please check out our FAQ in the sidebar.

Today is our first in a series of weekly features that we're thrilled by the response to! We have so many people interested that we're scheduled through spring! Today we'd like to introduce you to Sarah from The Ramblings and Adventures of a SAHM.

I quit my full time job as an Attorney to stay at home with my daughter Ryleigh when she was 9 months old....It was the best decision I ever made....Now I practice on my schedule... We had our son Braeden a little over a year ago... Life with a preschooler and a soon to be toddler gets pretty hectic...and I am busier now than I was when I "went" to work everyday!

My husband and I met while working at a summer camp...and have been married for a little over 9 years... I consider myself extremely lucky that he works so hard so that I am able to stay home...

I teach a Mommy & Me music class .... homeschool preschool for Ryleigh and some friends...and have started doing "tot school" for Braeden... In my free time (if you can call it that)...I teach piano lessons to 3 and 4 year olds...take on legal cases...and blog....

Ryleigh...
Braeden...
They play really well together...

Some of the kids around the gathering drum during Music Class...
The lesson plan is made up of songs, instruments, rhythm recognition,
dancing and parachute time.


Ryleigh enjoyed doing a toilet paper mache project for stART one week...stART (a story + art) is hosted by my friend Michelle at A Mommy's Adventures...it was really easy to manipulate, fun to do and was fairly sturdy when it dried....
For another stART project we made a firefly...entirely out of shapes...great not only for review of shapes, but also listening to directions and doing things in order....
We also like to use our felt board...for pattern work... story (re)telling...sequential exercises... and sometimes just to use to make different designs... it's a great way to be hands on!
Until our classroom is finished we have preschool and tot school in our makeshift room (dining room)...

To come see what we are up to...The Ramblings and Adventures of a SAHM...