ABC and 123: A Learning Collaborative

Monday, August 27, 2012

Musical Monday: HooplaHa.com

Are you looking for some lighthearted fun to add a smile to your Monday? Have you ever explored HooplaHa.com? HooplaHa aims to connect the world by sharing positive, funny, and inspiring video stories. They are certainly feel good clips, certain to put a smile on your face.

Baby Jonah, the Breakbeat Baby, and his parents turned some adorable 1 year old noises into an awesome rhythmic video.

My 1 and 3 year old boys are hooked.

“Again!”

“Again!”

We hope you add some music and movement to your Monday!

Disclosure: ABC & 123: A Learning Cooperative has not been compensated in any way for sharing HooplaHa with you here. We do appreciate the ongoing relationship we have been building with the PR company that represents HooplaHa and some of our other favorite children’s brands.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

An ABC Staircase

Let's face it: Life is busy. Between play dates, meal prep and running errands some days leave little time to breathe let alone give your child ABC practice. So when I saw this photo of a staircase in one Singaporean primary school, I was immediately struck with excitement. By covering each step with a fact or visual of the solar system, teachers discovered a simple way to turn an ordinary staircase into a teachable moment.

Source: Two Weeks In Singapore

So I decided to create my own version of this magical staircase. To start, I gathered a few supplies: 26 blank index cards, a pack of colorful markers and a roll of tape. On each card, I wrote a different letter combination like this one.

Then I taped one card to the side of each step on our stairwell.

Since we have 13 stairs, I posted the first half of the ABCs on one side and the second half on the other.

When my son woke up in the morning he was thrilled to discover his alphabet surprise. We slowly marched up the steps as we sang the ABCs. "A" (step) "B" (step), "C" (step)... Then we counted the letters as we marched up and back down. He was thrilled to discover his very special first letter {C} and he LOVED hunting for his brother's special letter {G}.

Other Ways to Play

Call out a letter and invite your child to race to it.
Invite your child to trace each letter as she walks up the stairs.
Say a word and have your child listen to the first sound she hears. Have her climb to the letter on the stairs.
Give your child a short word like {cat}. Invite your child to sound it out slowly and hop to the letters she hears. In this example, she would race to the {c}, then the {a} and then the {t}.

Find more playful ways to help your child learn to read on Playdough to Plato's blog and Facebook page.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Butterfly Lifecycle--Movement and Music!

Hi, I'm Jedda from This Little Project.

We are enjoying a lot of butterfly fun at our house right now. We rescued a monarch from the middle of the road this past week and have been watching a friend raise some monarchs from egg to chrysalis. Today I'll share some Movement and Music ideas to go along with that beautiful transformation from caterpillar to butterfly.

It's a miracle every time!

This movie shows the transformation of of a butterfly from an egg to a monarch butterfly. It's perfect to watch before learning and singing the songs below.

This movie is a song about the life cycle of a butterfly, with pictures. It's short and easy for young kids to sing. (Note: usually the "house"a butterfly makes is referred to as a chrysalis and the one a moth makes is a cocoon.)

We made some fun Butterfly Finger Puppets to fly around the room.

By using pieces from a glove they are easy to make and slip on little fingers.

For directions to make yours, go here.

Here is another song about the butterfly life cycle-no pictures, but the kids would love coloring this one to go with it. Just cut out each piece and glue to it a popsicle stick and hold it up for each part of the song.

I love this way of acting out the life cycle. You just need a blanket, some butterfly wings, and some "leaves to eat". This is a wonderful way to incorporate movement into learning.

A Snack Craft! is a fun way to do some hands-on learning. This gummy worm is the caterpillar and then the kids turn him into a butterfly. For peanut allergies, substitute marshmallow cream for the peanut butter spread. Directions here.

I hope you enjoy learning about butterflies as much as we have!

Be sure to stop by This Little Project for more learning fun ideas!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Teaching with Ticia: Hands on History

Yesterday at church one of my students told me history is boring. I just about cried in frustration thinking all he is missing out on.

Then I realized it's because he's not being taught it right, and sadly many teachers fall into this trap because they didn't enjoy it either, so they try to do as little as possible with it.

So, to help any other kids from thinking history is boring, let me give you a few simple ideas to make it more interesting:

War of 1812

1. Act out battles. It doesn't have to be elaborate. This battle is acted out using scrap fabric, figures from games, and empty boxes. Acting it out gives you a better idea of what happened and how.

French and Indian War

2. Show it on a map. If they don't know where it happened or how it affects them, than it's useless to them.

Steps to the American Revolution

3. Use props. Many kids are visual learners, give them something to associate it with that isn't just a textbook.

Fountain of Youth

4. Built it. Build famous landmarks, build buildings, build maps.

5. Watch it. National Geographic has some amazing specials that are available on Netflix and many are age appropriate for early elementary. Liberty Kids came out a few years ago and is an excellent show about the American Revolution.

6. Visit it. Almost every city I've visited has some sort of living history museum, or even just a history museum. I'm lucky to live by 2 history museums, and 1 living history museum. Go to them. Talk to the enactors, talk to the docents, they'll have all sorts of interesting tidbits for you to think about. Fun stories.

Ohio: Neil Armstrong

7. Read it. Find picture books and read them, find classic books and read them. Do you know how we know about the French Revolution of 1832? Primarily from Victor Hugo's novel "Les Miserables," How did we find the city of Troy? Archeologists pieced together things from the Iliad to find it. Books have amazing ways to engage us, and teach us so much while entertaining us. Most of my geography posts are chock full of wonderful picture books with history in them.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Summer Fruit Series: Blueberries

Step by Step Homeschooling has written a post with ideas to compliment the book Blueberries for Sal.

Itty Bitty Bookworm is a fabulous preschool curriculum that has integrated lesson plans using Blueberries for Sal.

The Blueberry Council website has a blueberry math worksheet printable.

Scholastic has a "Gone Picking" blueberry activity to practice numbers and operations.

Counting God's Little Blessings has a Blueberry Jello Salad recipe that sounds delish!

Hands of a Child also has a K-3 Literacy Packet to accompany Blueberries for Sal.

Have you read the poem Blueberries by Robert Frost?

Martha Stewart suggests using corks to create blueberry prints on fabric. Cute.

Melodies Plus shared some interesting blueberry trivia and jokes.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Show and Tell #107

Even though the 4th has passed, the fireworks still go on night after night in our neighborhood. Reading Confetti shared a simple and quiet firework project using candy sprinkles.

Two Much Fun linked up with a simple letter recognition game that is easily replicated with whatever alphabet letters you may have in your home.

Sunny Day Today Mama suggested some outdoor science fun perfect for your curious kids.

It's your turn!

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, July 2, 2012

Teaching with Ticia: Illinois and Alabama

Illinois

Illinois state symbols- we lost ours, since coop was at another house

Hog Music- 'A little girl is sent a birthday present by her aunt, along the way things are added to her present to make it truly memorable.' After reading this we took the time to figure out what we would give her if we were sending a present cross country. It has to pack well and not break while traveling a long way. Our group came up with dolls, and hair ribbons, and the boys, of course, added in weapons.

Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers- 'A little girl writes a letter to presidential hopeful Abraham Lincoln encouraging him to grow a beard.' We stopped the book half way through, right after the letter was written and each of the kids wrote what they would suggest Mr. Lincoln do.

Popcorn- Illinois is known for its popcorn, and so we tried an experiment with soaking popcorn kernels in different liquids to see which would pop best.

Other ideas I didn't cover due to lack of time and or books to read:

Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan (born in Illinois), Wild Bill Hickock, Field Museum, Great Chicago Fire, the first McDonald's, Oreo cookies

Alabama

Sadly, our library only really had anything about Rosa Parks, so our study was rather short for Alabama.

Alabama state symbol book

Rosa Parks- After reading about Rosa Parks we talked about small ways we can right wrongs. Rosa Parks did by not standing up. Then we talked about it.

Helen Keller- This is one of those great stories about not giving up. If you have not read about Helen Keller, go out and read her life story. She is incredibly inspirational, and as a little girl I read her life story over and over again.

Last Mule of Gee's Bend- Gee's Bend helped with the Civil Rights movement in a small, but very important way. They provided the mules that helped pull Martin Luther King Jr's coffin. For a while I thought about having them show a way to honor someone, but instead decided a craft was called for, so we made mules, to help us remember the mules from Gee's Bend.