Fun and Learning for Quiet Times

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 Vigorous physical activity is a big part of each day to keep young children healthy, but adults need to plan for quiet activities too.   While some limited TV time is OK, what are some other quiet easily managed activities you can set up?

 Listen to this activity online at the WNMU Podcasts

Materials Needed:  magazines, paper, crayons, markers, scissors, paint set, Q’tips, yarn, water, small rocks, white glue, 

What To Do:

Painting with Water

   Take a science walk and collect rocks of various colors, sizes, and shapes. At home, set your children up with a waterproof area and provide a small paintbrush or Q’tip and a bowl of water to help build up the small muscles of their hands. These muscles must be strong to print letters.  Show how to “paint” the rocks with water and notice how the color shows up like magic.  

 Pet Rocks 

   Help children use permanent markers to draw a face on the surface of favorite large rocks. Help them glue on a little yarn to make hair. Teach a dot of glue does a lot. Teachers will love you. Can you think of a good name for each? Place the rock on your table, desk, bookcase, or garden.

Crayon Resist

  Use a crayon on paper to carefully print your young children’s names in big letters.   Use a capital for the first letter and lower case for the following letters.  Then use water with a little paint color to make a wash over the whole sheet.  The name will stand out and be a perfect door decoration or book cover for a whole series of pictures. You can se dots or dashes to outline names. Show children how to start at the top of each letter to correctly follow the dots to print their names. Praise what they can do. They’ll try their best.

 Favorite Pictures  

  Using old grocery fliers and magazines, help children choose and cut out pictures of favorite flowers, fruits, animals, vegetables, and toys.  Print each blank paper with a picture title, for example:” My Favorite Fruits.”  Let the kids cut, sort and paste the pictures.  Talk with children about choices and use a marker to print the name of each item. This is a good activity to practice letters and beginning sounds of each word.  Very young children should work on only one category at a time. All these activities encourage creativity, build vocabulary and make the connection between reading and writing.

Reading

 The number one priority is reading, reading, and reading!  Read to children several times every day and visit the library to check out books and attend free library programs.

Photo: Norman, Steve. nat143.jpg. . Pics4Learning. 22 Dec 2012

 For more fall activities to help your children succeed in school and have a life time of learning see the authors’ book Learning Through the Seasons in museums, bookstores, and in E-book form atSmashwords.com.

Are We There, Yet?

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  How much longer before we get there?  How many more days before my birthday? How many piano practices this week? Young children often have a difficult time waiting because time can’t be touched, seen, heard, tasted, or smelled. Listen to this activity online at the WNMU Podcasts

Materials:

  Paper, crayons, and scissors

 What to do:

  Difficult concepts like time are much easier for children to understand when they are involved in discussing and crossing something off.  These ideas can also be used to help manage chores around the house, change habits and behavior, and traveling.

Traveling

  Children get impatient while traveling.  They want to be there NOW. Decide on a picture or symbol to represent a length of time. Children can prepare pictures of cars or airplanes representing each half hour before the trip. The drawings can be taped to a car window, placed in a backpack, and removed as each period passes. Then children can count how much time is left.

Special Events

  The time before holidays or family visits can seem endless for children. A week before an event, cut out symbols for the holiday and line them up on a window. Every morning children can take down one object and place it in a basket. Then count how many objects are left on the window.

    Families can help children put something up to mark time instead of taking one down. As an example, for Christmas you can create a paper tree for a window and place paper ornaments on the tree until the big day.

  If people are coming for a visit make a little calendar and X off the days. You can also draw faces representing the visitors and place them on a calendar.  This is also a good time to start learning days of the week, counting, and subtracting. Children learn more quickly when information is important to them.

Developing Habits

  Families can tape a calendar and list of three age appropriate chores to the refrigerator. They can add stickers when children complete assigned family chores or accomplish a task. Children may earn a special toy or money for being successful.  Every management plan becomes old and must be replaced or tweaked. Keep your plan and expectations realistic to your children’s ages. Praise even little successes. 

Photo: Christen, Blaine. dali.jpg. June 2008. Pics4Learning. 12 Dec 2012

--> For more fall activities to help your children succeed in school and have a life time of learning see the authors’ book Learning Through the Seasons in museums, bookstores, and in E-book form atSmashwords.com.

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Make Sock Puppets with a Tech Twist

Who doesn’t like puppets? Puppetry offers hours of creative fun. You can use materials around the house, but here’s the new Tech twist: grab your cell phone or electronic tablet and create puppet shows online. Then save your electronic puppet show as a video to post and share on Facebook or YouTube with others in your family.

Materials Needed:

Gather old, clean socks and markers. You also need glue, yarn, scissors, buttons, felt or cloth to create the face and other clothing on your puppet.  Check out garage sales or visit your local craft store for sale items.

 Go to the Internet iTunes links below to download the free Sock Puppet and Puppet Pals Apps to your Mac, iPad or iPod Touch.  Puppet Pals also has a full version with multiple characters and backgrounds for $2.99.  For Android phone & tablet users, use the Amazon link and search Puppet Show Apps.

Sock Puppet for iOS App http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sock-puppets/id394504903?mt=8 ; Puppet Pals  for iOS http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/puppet-pals-hd/id342076546?mt=8

or search Amazon (www.Amazon.com) for the Puppet Show Android Apps by Bran Herman which costs $ .99

What to do:

Put a sock on your hand, pulling the tip of the sock into your palm to create the talking mouth.  Use the marker to mark the locations for two eyes above your knuckles. Glue the pieces of yarn to create hair, and buttons for eyes. Cut and glue on cloth for a scarf, hat or shirt.

Bring your puppet to life using different voices and puppet face movements to express feelings: anger, fear, happiness, sadness, etc. Your puppet can recite a poem, abc’s, counting, or sing a song. Make up stories with two puppets talking to each other.  This is a fun way for kids to use language and express emotions creating dialog and speaking through their puppets.

Save your stories and recitations as videos and share on Facebook or YouTube. Here you will be able to view your creation over and over.  Kids love repetition and seeing their creations online. For more advanced puppet shows, use the Puppet Pal app. Here are some tips and tricks for using these apps: http://blog.simplek12.com/education/socks-or-puppets/

What else can we do?
Read fairy tales and poems together and discuss how these stories develop. Do a Google search for puppetry videos online using key words “youtube kids puppets” (make sure to include the word “kids” in the search).

How does this help my children?

Puppetry helps develop language and writing skills where kids learn sequencing of events, and visual representation.  Development of emotional learning and communication skills occurs through creation of situations, laying the groundwork for future writing activities. 

Photo from Wikipedia Creative Commons Images at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sockbutterfly.jpg
http://bit.ly/Yv439t

Family Holiday Activity

The holidays are special times when children love activities the whole family can enjoy. Creating your own family tree is a perfect winter afternoon activity that can include telling family stories.

 

Materials You Will Need:

 a large sheet of  paper, smaller pieces of colored paper,  scissors, glue, markers , crayons, and several pictures of family members and pets.

What to do 

  Gather the family together so every member will have a part in the project. Draw a tree with a trunk and branches, using the markers and crayons.  Get ideas from everyone.  Young children will have fun coloring the tree bark. Together trace and cut out everyone’s hands.  Some of the younger children may need help, but it doesn’t matter if the cutting is imperfect. What matters is that everyone is working together and having fun.

   After the hands are cut out, write the owner’s name on each hand before it is glued in no specials order to the tree. Have older children write the names of toddlers and babies.  They’ll like to help with that.  The hands will be the leafy part of the tree. You can put individual pictures on each hand or place them under the tree. Be creative and accept ideas from everyone.  You can even make paw prints for pets and put pictures them on the tree, too.  Think of special things about each family member and write or draw them on the hands.  This will be a work of art with each child and adult adding something unique.  You could even frame the project and hang it on the wall in your home. This also is a great gift for Grandparents.

How will this help my child?

Working together helps young children learn to share and help each other. It’s important for them to see that a project is better because everyone has a part in it. Drawing, cutting and gluing are important fine motor skills. Telling family stories prepares children for reading because reading is “talking written down.” Telling family stories is the beginning of learning history.

 What Else Can I Do?

Anything done as a family creates a bond between family members whether it’s a quiet afternoon at home or a day at the ski hill.  Children love doing projects with other family members.  At this time of year great family activities would be baking with Mom and Grandma or helping Dad and Grandpa with the decorations.

Illustration by Mark Nowicki

Indian Scare Crow Photo - keeney, carolyn. indianscrow.jpg. 10/20/2001. Pics4Learning. 21 Nov 2012

For more fall activities to help your children succeed in school and have a life time of learning see the authors’ book Learning Through the Seasons in museums, bookstores, and in E-book form atSmashwords.com.
Listen to this activity online at the WNMU Podcasts

Children Become Writers at Thanksgiving

Families want children to be well educated, creative, and resilient. According to years of studies, age 2 through 8 is a critical time to prepare children to read and write for a lifetime of success. Thanksgiving is a perfect time for families to spend more discussion time together that builds knowledge, vocabulary and binds the family together. Creating this book together is a gift in itself!

Materials: Several sheets of paper or large paper plates, pencils, crayons, and stapler. Optional are paper punch and yarn.

What To Do:

   Start by having a conversation with your children about things that both of you are thankful for. Keep it simple! After a few suggestions, sit together and begin to print an “I Am Thankful For… book. Depending on the age of the children, the book can either be dictated or printed by the children. Children just beginning to print can tell you the words. You can carefully print them on paper, and they can copy the proper spelling and letter formation.

  Keeping with the Thanksgiving theme, help your child trace their handprint to make a turkey outline on a few sheets of paper or plates. The thumb curves away from the fingers to make a head. This is a good time to talk about the makeup of turkeys with very young children. Turkeys have two wings and legs. They have a flap of skin on their necks called a wattle. Since they have feathers they are birds.

  Young children can print one word on each turkey that represents something to be thankful for. Some children will attempt sounds they know, others can write the whole word or short sentence while younger ones need to dictate the words to you. Make the printing big.   Staple pages together and add duct tape over them to bind. Then children can illustrate their book.

  After completing several pages, add a cover and assemble the book. Parents and grandparents might want to make a cover for the booklet with a simple title and child’s name on the front. Now you are ready to cuddle and share this book your children can read and add it to your storybook collection.

How Does This Help Your Child?

   Writing involves creative thinking. Forming letters correctly, tracing and coloring all help develop fine motor skills. This also models the idea that writing has a purpose.

What Else Can I Do? A good book for a read aloud is “I’m Thankful Each Day” by P.K. Hallinan. Use this idea to write books throughout the year. A rainy day book might be a part of a discussion how plants grow.

Original article by Jean Hettrick and Iris Katers. Photos by Pics 4 Learning

For more activities to help your children succeed in school and have a life time of learning see the authors’ book Learning Through the Seasons in museums, bookstores, and in E-book form atSmashwords.com. 

Listen to thisactivity online at the WNMU Podcasts

Easy Cooking with Children

It’s a fun time in the kitchen whenever children and adults cook together. Cooking is a great way to teach math and spend time conversing about ordinary things.  Cooking together is a great way to help children learn to focus, bring families together, and reduce the stress of childcare. 

What to Do:

  (Check that young children involved are not allergic to peanuts before using these recipes. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests waiting until age three to introduce nut products. Consult with your doctor.)

  Edible clay with peanut or almond butter is fun and easy to make.  The mixture works well to design edible Halloween pumpkin decorations. This is also a good activity for birthday parties. Try it out before a party to get the right consistency with your favorite nut butter. 

  Check that everyone washes hands well before cooking.  Measure equal amounts of smooth peanut butter and dry powdered milk.  Stir in a little at a time and mix together.

  Slowly add honey until the mixture is the thickness of clay. If it’s too wet add more dry milk.  If it is too dry add a little honey. Mold the mixture into animals, monsters, or pumpkins.  Children may decorate with raisins, sunflower seeds, small candies, sprinkles, frosting, or brush on cocoa powder based on how nutritious you want to keep the project. When finished you can eat immediately or refrigerate for a short time. Everyone helps clean up.

What Else Can We Do?

   Here are two other nutritious recipes made with any nut butter. A delicious toast topper is three tablespoons of raisins, five tablespoons of nut butter, and two tablespoons of orange juice. Make another spread from a mashed banana, tablespoon of nut butter, and a little maple syrup, if desired. Help children measure and stir into a small bowl. Then children can spread the mixture on hot toast. Although sometimes messy, stirring and spreading are good for eye hand coordination and building small muscles in fingers and hands. 

How Does This Help Children?

 Cooking teaches math skills like measuring, fractions, halving and doubling. Everyone loves this kind of math assignment!  Although stirring a peanut butter mixture may be too difficult for little hands, children can knead the mixture and use it to create like any other clay. Kneading helps children build strong fingers for printing letters. Cooking with adults helps children learn to carry on conversations and follow directions. Turn off media distractions to help them focus.

   Your library has loads of children’s cooking books, especially for choosy eaters.

Illustration by Mark Nowicki

For more activities to help your children succeed in school and have a life time of learning see the authors’ book Learning Through the Seasons in museums, bookstores, and in E-book form atSmashwords.com. 

Listen to this activity online at the WNMU Podcasts

 

Help Children Observe Like Scientists

 Did you know that 35% of grandparents provide childcare three or more times a week or are raising their grandchildren? To help parents and young children get some vitamin D and exercise, experts are suggesting science walks. Children also expand their observation skills, vocabulary and walks relieve stress. It’s a great time to teach observation through the concepts of “living” and “non-living.”

Materials:

  A small drawing and writing notebook, paper, crayons, magazines, scissors and glue

What to do:

  After walking for a while, find a spot where you’ll see both plants and animals. Explain that living things move, grow, and reproduce themselves.  Together list and draw things children see that they think are alive.  Explain that plants and animals are both alive, but they move and grow and reproduce in different ways. .

  Pick up a rock and ask your children if it is living or not living.  Make sure they understand that a rock cannot be alive because it cannot move, grow by itself, or reproduce itself. Ask them to tell you something else that is not living like a swing set.

What else can you do?

  When you return home staple together several pieces of paper to make a book.   Find five or six pictures of living or non-living things in magazines and cut them out in large circle shapes.   Write a simple sentence on each page. “A robin is living. A rock is not living.”

After gluing each picture on the appropriate page, read the book together.  Young children love “reading” along, knowing what each page says because of the picture.

How will this help my child?

  Your children will begin to think like scientists as they question, observe, collect, and discuss with adults. Science discussion expands their vocabulary and helps them with reading. Cutting and gluing are good small motor activities to strengthen fingers. The best thing of all is the book you both have created.  Your little ones will be able to read it and explain concepts they have learned.
photo: http://www.pics4learning.com/details.php?img=toad03.jpg  

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For more fall activities to help your children succeed in school and have a life time of learning see the authors’ book Learning Through the Seasons in museums, bookstores, and in E-book form atSmashwords.com.
Listen to this activity online at the WNMU Podcasts

 

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Creating a Halloween Candy Graph

When Halloween is over, what can we do with all that candy besides eat it for months? After Halloween take a look at your children’s stash from the night’s activities and spill all of it on the floor.   Ask children if they want to easily SEE how many different pieces they have in their haul. How can you do this? Make a Candy Graph...here's what you need and how to do it.

Materials you will need:

Halloween candy, large piece of paper, and marker

What to do:

  A few days before trick or treating, prepare a paper for graphing. Draw a straight vertical column of two inch squares the same distance from each other all the way up the column. Each square will hold one bag of candy. It is important to have squares equal distance from the others so the height of the candy columns can be correctly compared.

     After placing the candy on the floor, separate into piles of candy by type.

To graph, carefully print the name of the type of candy for each column based on your piles of candy. Although your young child may not read yet, you are showing how reading and writing are used.

  Start with your children’s favorite candy for column one. Place one candy in each square starting at the bottom and count as you go up the column. Place the second favorite candy in column two, etc.  Discuss the sizes, shapes, and colors.

  When all of the columns are full, it is time to discover and discuss what the bar graph shows.  First, count each type separately. What type has the most? Is it also their favorite? What type has the least? Are there two the same height or close? Why do you think people give out more of one type of candy?  Point out how easy it is to talk about something when the materials are organized in a graph rather than a big pile all mixed up.

How Will This Help My Children?

  Graphing is a mathematical idea that uses another way to see the parts of a big picture.  Using a bar graph helps young children to count, be organized in the placement and comparison of objects, see different attributes of objects, and increase math and science vocabulary and thinking.

What Else Can We Do?

   Candy can be graphed by sizes, with or without nuts, gum flavors, types, or colors.

Small toys like cars and Legos, cereal, money (with close supervision), rocks on the beach, or leaves can also be graphed.

  Good books about graphing concepts are More or Less, Three Little Firefighters, and Dave’s Down-to-Earth Rock Shop, by Stuart J. Murphey and More, Fewer, Less, by Tana Hobin at local libraries. 

Photos: http://www.pics4learning.com.jpg

Retired educator Jean Hetrick, member of Grandparents Teach, Too, presented this activity. For more fall activities to help your children succeed in school and have a life time of learning see the authors’ book Learning Through the Seasons in museums, bookstores, and in E-book form atSmashwords.com.

Listen to this activity online at the WNMU Podcasts