Designing Note Cards

What better way is there to involve young children in writing than by creating their own cards? It provides practice and develops life long social skills that never go out of style. These handy note cards say thank you, get well, or congratulations. 

Materials: plastic table cover, card stock paper or card, FOAM shaving cream, food coloring, cookie sheet, scraper (credit card type edge), spatula, stick, crayons or markers.

What to do:

  Cover the workspace with plastic.  Help children squirt a large mound of FOAM shaving cream on a cookie sheet. Show children how to spread foam with a spatula a little larger than the card.  Help them leave the cream thick as it is being spread. Next children drop a dot or two of food colors at different spots on the foam. Discuss the choice of colors. Teach or let them guess what will appear when they swirl the colors together. While swirling with a stick discuss what is happening. Be careful not to swirl too much as the design will turn gray.

  Children are ready to create a card. Help them place the paper on the foam, coating one side. Remove it carefully. Scrape off excess foam with a scraper. This is the outside of the card.  Children may choose to do the other side of the paper which would be the inside design.

  After an hour, the card is ready for your children to print inside.

Help them print a very short note if they are ready. Absolute correctness isn’t as important as the message. Some adults use dots to print a short note, and children follow the dots. Correct manuscript handwriting guides of upper and lower case letters are available at stores and on-line. Be aware that children’s skills are different from child to child even in the same family. A certain age does not guarantee a certain skill. Sometimes is it best for children to draw a picture or make some scribbles, and then adults print the scribble meaning. Children can also dictate a sentence to an adult. Keep it fun. Friends and relatives will love the thoughtful notes regardless.

How does this help my child?

  By swirling primary colors of red, blue, and yellow your children create secondary colors of purple, orange, green. Adults are also providing practice with letter recognition, sounds, holding a printing tool, quiet discussion, and creating contemporary art.

What else can I do:

Use blue paint tape and tape off shapes.  Remove the tape once the card is dry. Print inside the blank spot. Your child might want to add stamps, stickers, or draw pictures.

Find More Activities: 

For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site www.grandparentsteachtoo.org.

Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest.

Picture: Gray, Ann. background.jpg. December 1, 2006. Pics4Learning. 2 Feb 2014

Use Pebbles and Pasta for Graphing Fun

Graphing helps children look at numbers in different ways. Starting children with graphs when they are young helps them count items quickly, organize, compare, and discuss information. Using different items makes graphing fun. 

Materials:  Four varieties of pasta, beans, or stones, paper, crayons, pencil, and a small bag

What to Do:

   Explain to your children there are different kinds of graphs and you are going to be using a bar graph. These graphs help people actually see comparisons between numbers of items.

   On one sheet of paper make a graph that has the same size boxes of four columns with ten rows in each column. In each bottom box, draw a simple illustration of the chosen pasta, bean or stone. Explain that each row going across and each column going down in a graph is called an axis.

  Place no more than ten pieces of each type of pasta, bean, or stone in a bag.  Help your children sort the items based on characteristics like color, shape, size, or texture and count each group.

 Children can place each item in a box above the correct picture. Talk about what the graph looks like. Does one kind have more? Which kind the least amount? Are there any that are equal?  Your children can then color a box as a piece of pasta is removed. Older children can color the correct number of boxes after counting each group. Be sure to have a conversation about what the graph is showing.  On another paper children can dictate sentences about the graph using words such as more, less, and equal. Tape the papers together and tape them to the refrigerator to share with other members of the family.

 

How Does This Help My Children?

  Your children are seeing numbers in a different way. A graph is a great tool to explain math concepts like more, less, and equal. Children are counting and working with one to one correspondence as the item is counted and then placed on the box of the graph. Graphing is a good way to see different groupings as well. By using correct math terms you are teaching math vocabulary that is necessary for school success.

What Else Can I Do?

 Try flipping the graph so that the boxes extend horizontally. Does it show the same information?  Is it just as easy to see which item has more, less or is equal?  Add a different shape of pasta and be sure to add another column for that shape. How does that change the information? A few good books to read with your children that explore graphing and different kinds of graphs are:” The Great Graph Contest” by Loreen Leedy, “Lemonade for Sale: Bar Graphs” by Stuart J. Murphy and “Graphing Favorite Things” by Jennifer Marrewa.

More Fun: For more math fun see the authors’ books “Learning Through the Seasons” available at bookstores, museums, and our website. Also check out more activities for fun on the WNMU Learning Through the Seasons Podcasts and Grandparents Teach Too YouTube videos

Picture: Mark Nowicki  Photo: Fran Darling

Come Indoors and Make Play dough: Video Version

Just in time for all the holiday fun! Make play dough for fun, learning, and great conversation. Watch our Youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL1WpveL8jY for all the ways simple play dough making and playing benefits your children.....

Here are more: Handy Recipes 

 Keep these around the house so you are always prepared for unexpected weather or visitors. 

  

    No Cook Play dough

Mix together: 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup salt in a separate bowl. Mix together ½ cup water, 3 drops food coloring, and 5 drops liquid detergent. Add liquid to dry mixture slowly and knead until desired consistency. Do not ingest. Keep refrigerated in a tight plastic container. It lasts for about a month.

    Clay Dough

This dough can be used to make small sculptures, garden stones, vases for dry flowers, and paperweights. Mix 2 cups salt and 2/3 cup water in a pan. Heat mixture until the salt is completely dissolved. Remove from heat. Mix 1 cup cornstarch and ½ cup cold water in a separate bowl. Stir quickly into the salt water and mix well. The dough will be stiff. Allow to dry 3-4 days.  Add food coloring to the water mixture, if desired. Dried sculpture can be painted. Look for animal, people, and car pictures to help children use their imagination. This mixture must be used immediately.

  Coat any container or pie plate with Vaseline or cooking spray for use as a mold. Press the dough into the mold. Add old jewelry or fake gemstones into the mold first.  Then add the dough. After thorough drying gently remove from the mold.

    Bumpy Texture Clay

  Use this dough for doorstops, summertime garden stepping-stones, and flower pots. They will crack if left over the winter. Mix 1 ½ cup flour and ½ cup salt. Add 6 tablespoons water. Knead to create the clay. This clay must be used immediately. The dried clay may be painted and spayed with polyurethane (adults only).

    Cotton Puff Dough

This is so simple. Mix 1 cup flour with 1 cup water to make a paste. Add 1 bag cotton balls and mix thoroughly. Scoop up a handful and let excess fall away. Form into desired animal or other shapes on a baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees. Paint when cooled.

    Never Fail Play dough

This is the recipe used in the video. Mix 1 cup flour, ½ cup salt, and 1 tablespoon cream of tartar. Add 1 tablespoon cooking oil with 1 cup water colored with food coloring. Cook in a 3 qt. saucepan over medium heat until mixture sticks together. Remove from heat. Cool slightly. Knead. Store in plastic bags.

How Does This Help Children?

  Children who are read to twice a day and played with often, enter school with 20,000 words instead of a 3,000 word vocabulary.

For more easy fun activities see the our book “Learning Through the Seasons” at museums, bookstores, and http://grandparentsteachtoo.org  and listen to podcasts on WNMU Radio 90 at: http://wnmufm.org/learningthroughtheseasons.  

Great News! Podcasts On the Air at WNMU Public Radio 90

Starting this month, our Learning Through the Seasons activities for your children and grandchildren can be heard on your Public Radio dial...90.1 FM. WNMU broadcasts from Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI. Our Podcasts will be On Air every Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 and every Saturday morning at 8:30. Give a listen.

You can also go to the WNMU Podcast webpage to hear any of the posted audio activities. If you are looking for quiet, active, science, reading activities all set in the context of social interactions with family and friends. Much to enjoy along the way, while you gather those great ideas to try with your grandchildren.

As always, you can find all our links to media, articles and podcasts on our GrandParents Teach, Too web site. Check us out!

Read, Write and Inspire Your Children

What could be better than reading with your children? Writing stories with your children, of course! Both are excellent activities for reading development but writing stories develops organizational and thinking skills while learning use of language and vocabulary. Sound difficult? Here is a wonderful online tool that can help. Storybird provides all the elements to engage and inspire you and your children, alike.

Materials Needed:

Go to http://storybird.com/ Click Explore to read hundreds of stories written by others just like you. Click Parents for many ideas and ways to share stories. Interaction is big part of Storybird. Making comments and suggestions engages writers and develops social skills at the same time.

What To Do:

Click Create to sign up for your free account. Start your story by viewing an extensive gallery of illustrations to inspire you to “unlock” the stories inside you. You and your children collaborate to develop story ideas that bloom through imagination. Type in your text online and drag the pictures into scenery boards that become the pages of your book. You can easily edit text and rearrange boards at any time. You work is saved as you go along and remains unpublished until you submit your final copy…but it can still be changed anytime after.

Your stories are saved securely online account to share on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter. Snuggle up with them all on your iPad internet browser,

marking your favorites. All this is free, but you can also purchase hard copies of your books. Print stories on your own printer from downloadable pdf files or order published soft or hard cover books…perfect for sending to friends and relatives for presents. Write your own personal histories and save them in beautiful, professionally illustrated books.

How Does This Help My Children?

Read and write with your children for twice the learning! And because you are writing with online tools, you join a global community of writers, readers, and artists of all ages.

For more great educational activities visit Grandparents Teach, Too web page and listen to WNMU Radio 90 Learning Through the Seasons podcasts.

 

Photos: Storybird website

We Are Now on youtube -- See Your Favorite Activities!!

After a bit of practice and technical trials....you can view many of our favorite activities on youtube.

See live demonstrations of Water Play: Does It Sink or Float?; Making Play "Sand"; Make a 3D Travel Map; Safe Hockey; Making Bubbles...all activities that help children learn and expand vocabulary at the same time. Support children through your interactions, as you will see in our many examples that build confidence and self-esteem.

Hope you enjoy them all...send us your comments and ideas on any of these fun activities.

For more ideas go to our Grandparents Teach, Too Blog: http://grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com/ and listen to Learning Through the Seasons
http://www.wnmufm.org/learningthroughtheseasons.

Podcasts on WNMU Public Radio 90:

Enjoy all your special sharing times with your children and grandchildren!

Traveling with Young Children

  Traveling to family gatherings can be stressful, or it can be fun.  Snacks, drinks, a favorite blanket, drawing materials, books, storytelling, and games keep the family happy while riding along. 

What To Do:

  Young children love to hear about family member’s childhood.  It is their first exposure to history and stories of people they love.   Most important these tales are passed on and not lost.

  Think of some lessons of kindness, perseverance, courage and triumph over difficulty. Perhaps your grandparents told you some funny or scary stories you vividly remember.  Retelling the story with exaggerations, descriptions, and sound effects will make it come alive for your children, too. When you reach your  destination, children will rush in and tell all about what they heard on the way.

   Children can play Tic Tac Toe and Dots game with a hardcover book for a desk. To play Dots make ten rows and columns of dots equally spaced. Each player has one turn to connect two dots.  The object is to connect dots to enclose a square, put your initial inside, and earn another turn. The player with the most squares wins. Preschool children catch on to these two games quickly.

  You’re about an hour into the trip.  Now what? Take a few verbal games out of your bag of tricks.  One game is called “What Do You Know?”  The adult asks simple questions and children take turns giving their answers.  Questions are based on children’s age, interest, and vocabulary.  For example for the younger child, “How many colors do you know?  What foods are red? What do we call people who take care of us when we get sick?”

  For older children the questions could be related to geography or history. “How many states begin with the word New?  Now many bird names can you remember?

Can you name a holiday for each month?” 

   Another car game is called “I just saw it.” One person begins having noticed something just passed—for instance, a telephone pole. “ It was tall and thin. I just saw it.”  The others begin to guess.  If they fail, the person adds more clues until the object is guessed.

 “Colors” is played by naming a common color.  When two things are found you take turns switching to another color.

  How does this Help My Children?

  A recent study compared the vocabulary of children entering kindergarten from the 1950’s and 2009. It found that children in the 1950’s had DOUBLE the vocabulary entering school.  Family games and conversation help build vocabulary used for reading and success in school.

For more ideas about traveling with children go to our previous blog: Are We There Yet? and also check out our WNMU Learning Through the Seasons podcast about traveling. For more ideas check out the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons.” 

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