Show & Tell #7

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It's Tuesday, time to show off all the great ideas and learning that's been taking place! Let's start off by sharing one of later entries to the party last week, we're so glad Excuse Me Mrs. C jumped on. She shared a game from a program that,

"Is all about teaching kids to get along and work together, problem solve and make strong descisions through a variety of games that are especially designed around teamwork."

Sounds great to us!
Elise at Inspiraton Surrounds, Creativity Abounds was inspired by her daughters interest in clowns to make this felt file folder game that is great for independent play.We love how Fowl Single File carried on the tradition of May Day, aren't these umbrella's a great way to use up any lingering candy canes in the pantry? Plus it's always great to get kids involved in putting a smile on other's faces and doing something nice.

We hope you'll join us this week, so that you'll have a chance to be one of the three randomly selected participants featured next week!

<a href="http://www.abcand123learning.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="abc button" src="http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt46/meyeringk/ABCGraphics-Page003.jpg" /></a>

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!

PS: Don't forget to come back and share your Mother's Day celebrations, handmade gifts & cards, or your best recipes for your family gathering on our linky this THURSDAY! That one will specifically for anything related to Mother's Day, so please don't add anything with that theme to this linky, wait until Thursday. We're giving you some extra time so you'll all have time to get your posts up!

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Play To Learn: DreamBox Math Review & Give Away!

I was recently given the opportunity to review DreamBox for ABC & 123! DreamBox is an online math curriculum for grades K-3 that teaches your children math through the use of fun interactive games! We reviewed the Kindergarten and 2nd Grade math games.

DreamBox offers 2 pricing options:

• 6 months/1 child: $59.95
• 6 months/family up to 4 children: $99.95
• Click here for a FREE TRIAL!

How DreamBox works:

• When you first start, your child creates an avatar, they can even print and color it! (One comment my daughter made is that the avatars look like teenagers when you pick them, but then when you get into the game they look more like ‘babies’ and she didn’t like that. Just a suggestion for the DreamBox folk!)
• All of the lessons cover the key concepts from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics-recommended curriculum for each grade level—with over 100 lessons per grade.
• An initial placement lesson and ongoing assessment ensure that your child starts at the optimum point in the curriculum, and continually gets the right new lessons at the right time.
• The games encourage children through the many different adventure stories they can explore, and they can track their progress, collect rewards, and feel a sense of accomplishment.
• All aspects of the experience are adapted for each child—including the lessons, hints and instructional feedback, the pace, sequence, and much more—to help your child to feel engaged, motivated, and successful.
• And my favorite part: parents get progress report emails, tips for fun home activities, and an online "Dashboard" so you can easily follow your child’s progress.

Like I said, we played the Kindergarten and 2nd grade levels, but here are some images from their 3rd Grade level as well:


My Thoughts:
I especially like that the game gives your child an assessment test right off the bat followed by tutorials to show them how to play the games. Once they’ve passed through the assessment and tutorials they start into the actual curriculum. Each time they play the activities change and increase in difficulty, but not too much, the games make it so your child is successful but challenged at the same time.
I also really like the parent dashboard, its very easy to see how your children are doing in the program, and how well their progressing. This is especially helpful when you have multiple children!
The only thing my kids didn’t like was that it was difficult to go back to a different spot in the same level if you don’t like the one you picked the first time. It appears you have to play through the area you pick before you can move on to a different game in that same level. But once they got over that, it was no big deal.
I have to say that overall we liked this program, the games were easy to follow and they caught on very quickly. My kids fought over who got to play next, and since math was involved, I took that as a good sign!
Visit DreamBox for more info!

Now for the Give Away!

DreamBox has generously offered a 1 month free subscription for one of our readers!

This Give Away will be open until Friday May 14th, 2010 midnight EST!

Winners will be announced Sunday May 16th!

There are 3 ways to enter this give-away, PLEASE LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT FOR EACH ENTRY! (Please make sure you leave an email so we can reach you!)

• Leave a comment letting us know your interested!
• Visit the DreamBox Parents section and tell me what your favorite feature is for parents!
• Subscribe to ABC & 123 for an extra entry!

Good luck!

Disclosure: I was provided with a free DreamBox membership in order to test the products and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.

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Teacher Appreciation

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National Teacher Appreciation Day is this week, but even if you're scrambling to put together a little something special, it's never too late to tell your teacher what a wonderful job he or she has done! Any of these ideas would also make great end of the year gifts too and if you're on the budget a heartfelt handwritten note is always appropriate but... If you're really ambitious, you can coordinate a "Jar of Joy" from the whole class, like Imperfectly Beautiful did. Hers was a Valentine gift but this is the ultimate thank you that is perfect anytime of the year.

If coordinating something with the whole class seems too overwhelming we also really like this top 5 reasons book at {unwrapped}...and dancing in the rain, isn't the presentation fabulous? We love that the reasons are handwritten by the child, all teachers get teary eyed over that kind of thing, trust us!

No Fuss Fabulous suggests giving your teacher a pencil bouquet along with this special message your child can sign, visit her site for the download. If you prefer to give other much needed supplies, try this message instead. While you're there you might want to also check out the adorable Diggin' Garden Labels they provide as a free download. They would also be great as word cards and if you print out two for match activities. There are also some cute book plates over there too, lots of goodies so be sure to look around this great site.

eighteen25 has put together what has to be the ultimate box of teacher goodies! You have to hop over and see how cute the color coordinated treat look inside. Another idea for a smaller but still super cute treat jar is also shared. It's great because she even provide downloadable jar toppers so it's quick and easy. Another great download available at eighteen25 is the one for these "The grass is greener" tags and wait...there's even more! Their Quick and Cheesy Teacher Appreciation Gifts are anything but...head over to see how they transform Sweedish fish, anything scented, chocolate bars, and even A&W Root Beer into thoughful and fun ways to brighten your teacher's day. Don't have a green thumb? You can still make a cute pot of "flowers" to give your teacher. Check out the ones made by Random Thoughts of a Supermom.

How Does She? Has a great idea how to turn a ream of paper into cute notepaper cubes that would look perfect on your teacher's desk. They've also got more ideas and a downloadable card on this post and they also show off how nicely some freebies - you just pay shipping - from Vista Print turn out.

Do you have another good gift idea? Tell us in the comment or link to your post so we can all come by and see it!

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Mothers Day Craft, Gift, and Card Ideas

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

Wow Mother's Day kind of snuck up on us, yikes! To help us and you, know what to make with the kids here are some ideas you can still squeeze in before Sunday.

Husband at a loss for what to get you from the kids? How about a stack of money and a whole lot of love? We hope an afternoon of kid free time is thrown in too, so you can go out and enjoy shopping and pampering yourself...sans kiddos! What makes this so special? Head over to HowDoesShe? to see all the little notes interspersed throughout the stack.Give mom or grandma the ultimate planter, complete with her address on it. We love this great way to give flowers for Mother's Day, as seen on Positively Splendid. A few tweeks like letting the kids paint the pots instead of using spray paints and maybe only doing one pot might be needed to make it more kid friendly depending on the age of your child but what a fabulous idea! Create this pipe cleaner flowers, as seen on Make and Takes, and give an everlasting bouquet for Mother's Day. Be sure you check out the other gift suggestions too, you'll find lots of great handmade ones. Check out these photo flowers and the Mother's Day vase, both lovingly made at Our Crafts~N~Things.More everlasting blooms come in the form of these blooming handprint canvas print, made by Lulu's Tiles.Artsy Momma also incorporates handprints into this fun handprint flowerpot art project, she also provides a poem to go with it. This would make a great one of a kind Mother's Day card. Combine handprints and real flowers to make these extra special flower pots, like Melinda did at Living on 1 (and1/4) Incomes.
Our Crafts~N~Things shared this great hanging paper plate and handprint project, the poem turns this into a really sweet piece of art work any Grandma would love to proudly display in her home.
Can you tell what this recipe holder is made out of? Find out how craft sticks can be turned into a hanging recipe holder over at Teaching Tiny Tots. The NutureStore suggests having your child embroider sweet little pictures and M for Mummy as gifts. We love this sweet little kid's drawing turned into needlecraft. Several other ideas are provided in a separate post.We especially like the one to make personalized bookmarks. Present one with a new book and a lovely bouquet of tissue paper flowers to really make Mother's Day special.

We hope we've given you lots of ideas for ways to make Mother's Day extra special both for you and your Grandma's, Great Grandma's, and any special mother's you have in your lives. If you've got another great idea...well then why the heck didn't you submit it to us? We especially love to feature our readers! We hope you'll leave us a link in the comments so we can all come visit!

Have a very happy Mother's Day this Sunday!

We'll plan to have a Mother's Day Linky party next week on THURSDAY so that everyone has time to post about their celebrations. We want to hear all about your celebration, what you got, any last minute things you made, and if you've got a great recipe or no fail dish that makes the Mother's Day Brunch every year...do share!

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Cinco de Mayo

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

Cinco de Mayo, spanish for fifth of May, is a holiday celebrated in the United States and limited portions of Mexico. The holiday commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

I'm embarrased to say that our family's celebration of this holiday includes little more than burritos for dinner, which I am sure are the American rendition of Mexican food. So, I was excited to search out some unique crafts, activities and traditions that we might be able to incorporate today.

According to Martha Stewart, it wouldn't be Cinco de Mayo without Empanadas. She shares a recipe as well as several others suggestions for celebrating in style!

The Love to Know wiki has a great round up of craft suggestions including Mexican Bird Rattles and Maracas.

On Origami and Stuff for Kids you will find colored printables for folding your own Cinco de Mayo Boy Doll, Girl Doll, and Paper Maracas.

Try a Mexican Hat Dance. Have the children dance around a large somprero, when the music stops have them pick up a card that is in the brim of the hat. On the card you can write a letter, number, Spanish vocabulary word, etc. Go around and have each child read off their card and then put it back.

The Ask Deb blog has a brief history lesson about today as well as a list of interesting facts and celebration suggestions.

It's a Daisy Day put together a fun Cinco de Mayo table decoration and gives us the step by step instructions in her post.

Kid Kapers suggests a kid friendly taco bar dinner with authentic Papel Picado decorations, which you will find the instructions for on their site, as well as other recipes and games.

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Show and Tell #6

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

Thanks for all of the wonderful links you shared in last week's Show and Tell.

Here are three fun picks!

Activity Mom put on her creative thinking cap and came up with 15 uses for a bag of fun buttons.

Monkeyin' Around came up with a fun game of Raining Letters.

Roots of Simplicity designed some adorable little ladybugs and shared a list of great games and activities that use them.

We hope you'll join us this week, so that you'll have a chance to be one of the three randomly selected participants featured next week!

<a href="http://www.abcand123learning.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="abc button" src="http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt46/meyeringk/ABCGraphics-Page003.jpg" /></a>

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!

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Teach Mama: Take Time to Rhyme!

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Please check out our FAQ in the sidebar.

Whether you're taking your kids to preschool, enjoying a walk, or just lazying around in the back yard, any time is a good time to play with rhyming words. Rhyming in any shape or form is super important because it helps our little ones develop phonological awareness, or the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate sound units in words.

Believe it or not, phonological awareness plays a huge role in early literacy development. If kids are not able to hear individual sounds in words, then they will not be able to read words on the page, write words, or understand what they read. So let's start rhyming!

Here are four easy and exciting ways of sneaking in some "rhyme time" into your every day:

• Rhyme Challenge: An easy game that requires no set-up, clean-up, or materials whatsoever, you can play Rhyme Challenge just about anywhere. We often play it in the car or while we're waiting to pick up my oldest from kindergarten.
  

One person chooses a word and says, I challenge you to think of as many rhymes as you can for 'cat' (or any word). And the next player says as many words as he can that rhyme with that word. Both players keep count. I try to model saying the given word with the rhyming word so my little ones stay on track with rhymes (Cat, bat. Cat, hat. Cat, mat. . . ), but this isn't necessary for older kids.

We also play where one person chooses a word, and we take turns saying just one rhyming word, one right after the other. Sometimes we kick it up with 'speed rounds' where we yell out rhyming words as fast as we can, and other times, we just take it slow. Depends on the day.

• Rhyme Sorts: Rhyme Sorts are simply pictures of rhyming words on cards that kiddos place into proper categories.

Rhyme Sorts always begin with an 'anchor word' that identifies the rhyme of each category, and then together, we name each picture and determine into which column it belongs.

It's best to begin Rhyme Sorts with only two different rhymes, after which you can introduce three- or five- rhyme sorts. The great thing about Rhyme Sorts is that little ones can see a picture, connect it with a sound, and can very clearly compare one sound to another.

Making solid comparisons like this--and isolating individual sounds this way--is a great way of developing phonological awareness for little ears.

• Rhyme Bingo: Rhyme Bingo is the next step after Rhyme Sorting, and if your kids are anything like mine, any bingo game is a huge hit. Add a little rhyme, and everyone's happy!
  

Rhyme Bingo puts nine pictures on each board, with cards containing a picture of a word that may--or may not--rhyme with the pictures on a player's board.

After each player takes a minute to say all of the pictures on her card, the game's on and all ears are listening for rhyming words on the cards as they are flipped. As a card is turned, we say, Okay, 'sail'. Sail, tree. Sail, can. . . ,and we go through each person's board to see if she has a picture that rhymes with 'sail'.

As players get comfortable with the game, more can be done individually, but initially the practice is helpful for everyone. Rhyme Bingo is an extremely simple concept that continues to emphasize simple sounds in words.

• Rhyme Go Fish!: Rhyme Go Fish! is just like the old Go Fish! game we all love, except that this version uses rhyme words on cards.

This game is great for emerging readers who already have a handful of sight words and early word families down.

To play Rhyme Go Fish!, all of the cards are placed in the 'pond' and each player takes five cards. After checking to see if they have any rhyming pairs, the game begins.

Player one asks the player to his left, Do you have a word that rhymes with 'men'? Player two reads her words and determines whether she has a match or not; if she does, she hands it to the first player. If not, she says, Nope! Go Fish! Play continues until the first player has no cards in his hand.

Rhyme Go Fish! has been a hit with my oldest and many of my students. It's a fun--and exciting--way of reinforcing rhyming and early reading skills!

Rhyming is important for all of our learners, whether they are reading or not. It's easy, it's muy importante, so rhyme away!

Thanks to Bear's Words Their Way (2004) for inspiration on Rhyme Sorting and Rhyme Bingo.

You can find more on this topic and others over at teachmama, where Amy shares the ways she sneaks a little bit of learning into her children's every day. . . or as often as she can with a 6, 4, and 3 year old. Or join her and many other ABC & 123 friends at we teach where they're chatting up a storm, sharing ideas, and learning a little themselves.

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