Helping Kids Learn to Read Their Name

Help Younger Children Learn To Spell Their Names

As big brothers and sisters return from school and talk about what they are learning, autumn is a perfect time for younger children to learn to spell their name and share what they are learning, too.  There are some fun activities to help remember the letters of their name and the sequence of those letters.

  You will need some heavy stock paper cut in 4”by 16” strips, white glue, marker, elbow macaroni or penne pasta, sandpaper, felt, child’s scissors, poster paint, colored glue, and confetti. Texture Helps Learning

  Print your children’s names with marker on one of the tag board strips. Precut heavy stock paper can be purchased at most craft or school supply stores and is great to have on hand for projects.  The letters need to be 

Texture Helps Learning to Print Names

large enough and spaced far enough apart so children can glue pieces of macaroni to the strip to form the letters over your printing.  Make sure the only capital letter is at the beginning of the name. It’s a good idea to start with only the first name.     

   Carefully, go over each letter, explaining to children that these letters in this order spell their name. Show them how to glue the macaroni onto each letter, saying the name of the letter as they are gluing. When the glue has dried, have them trace each letter with their finger and spell as they trace. They can paint the name with their favorite color when it is very dry.

  The letters of their name can also be cut from sandpaper or felt and glued to another tag board strip in the correct order. Cut the letters yourself, but your children can glue them onto the tag board.

   Using colored glue to outline the letters is fun, too. Glue can be tinted with food coloring. Children can add sand, glitter, or confetti outdoors to make a colorful art project from the name.

  Touching clues can be very helpful when children are learning letters and words.  Tracing over the noodles, sandpaper, or felt with a finger can help your children remember how to spell and print their names.

Great ABC Books

  Families may wish to check out some alphabet books at the library to practice remembering letters.  Some favorites are 

Many ABC Books Help 

“Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” by Bill Martin, Jr., “Thomas’ABC Book” by Rev. W. Awdry and “Dr. Seuss’ ABC’s.”  Another book that will add some motor activities is “Movement ABC’s for Little Ones” by Rae Pica.  This book gives ideas on how to make letters with your body.  Make letter cards together and play games like “Memory” and “Go Fish” to review letters. Also check out the many puzzles and games that feature the ABC’s. For more ideas see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/ Learning through the Seasons.

Taking a Second Look in Kids’ Lunch Boxes

Whole Apple Slices - NOT Processed Apple Sauce

Let’s see, pack the school lunch box, check: peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat, check, one cup apple sauce, check, fruit punch, healthy lunch, check. 0pps, not so fast. Nutritionists and physicians would like families to take a closer look.

  That lunch we just sent off with our little darlings may have a whopping 75 grams of sugar. The American Heart Association suggests children have about 17 grams of sugar a day.  One rounded teaspoon of sugar or a sugar cube has about 5 grams of sugar. If we look at our lunch again, we just packed 15 sugar cubes in our children's noon meal and sent them merrily on their way. What??

  Dr. Jim Surrell colorectal surgeon whose special interest and expertise in nutrition and weight loss programs led him to write his book” SOS Diet Stop Only Sugar” helped provide information for this column.

Sugar Detectives

  With one of every three children over weight and on their way to type 2 diabetes, what can we feed children that they will eat and still be low in sugar?  Both Dr. Surrell and experts with the American Heart Association have excellent suggestions. First, start early not giving babies and toddlers food with sugar added. Read the labels. 

There are many names for sugar. If fructose, corn syrup, sweetener, dextrose, fructose, honey, or molasses, just to name a few are near the top of the ingredient 

Be A Sugar Detective

list look for alternative foods.

   The more processed the food, the more sugar content.  One packet of flavored oatmeal has 13 grams of sugar. One cup of regular oatmeal with unsweetened almond milk warmed in the microwave with a few berries 

or natural applesauce with no sugar added has much less sugar.  Older children can be trained to be sugar detectives by reading ingredient labels and adding up the sugar grams.

ABC Guide

  Dr. Surrell has a simple ABC guide in his SOS” book:” A- Avoid excess sugar!; B- Become a label reading detective!; C-Choose low sugar and high fiber!

  Let’s go back to that school  lunch. What can we do? Learn to substitute. Pack peanut butter with no added sugar as a dip for a sliced and cored medium apple (14 grams of sugar) tied with a rubber band around it.

Follow the ABC Guide

  Dr. Surrell’s other high protein, low sugar suggestions include: hardboiled egg, cottage cheese, Swiss, cheddar, Colby or string cheese, handful of dry roasted peanuts, cocoa or  plain roasted almonds, cashews, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, whole grain crackers, red or green vegetables like crunchy snap pea pods, and water. For safety include an ice box to keep food cold. If teachers ask for snacks, some of these might be sent to school.

  For more healthy suggestions see Dr. Surrell’s “SOS” book, grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com,wnmufm.org /Learning Through the Seasons live and pod casts.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Sketch: Mark Nowicki

Safe Solar Eclipse View

Solar Eclipse August 21st 

Summer isn’t over the school bells ring! There is still time to do a few summer things.

   String problems may take the rest of the summer to untangle, but remember summer is not over until it’s over. You will need two people, balls of yarn or thick string, and  chairs.  Tie string loosely around two chairs with loose knots. The one who is not doing the tying can watch or to make the untying more difficult, look away.  You can use two different colors, take turns tying up the chairs, and as a team untie the string. This activity can be used for preschool on up, and you can make up many variations. It is inspired by the book “Maniac Magee” by Jerry Spinelli, a good read for middle school students.
An eclipse of the sun will occur when the moon gets between the sun and the earth August 21.

 Looking at the sun for even a short time can damage the eyes or cause blindness, but

  NASA has a safe fun way to study the Great American Solar Eclipse with a homemade pin hole camera.  You will need two pieces of cardboard or white heavy stock, one 4”x 4” aluminum foil, a pin or paper clip end, tape, and scissors.

We Are the Only Planet To See Total Eclipses

  Cut 2”x2’ square hole in the middle of one sheet of paper. Tape the foil over the square. Poke a hole in the aluminum foil. Place the second piece of paper on the ground, preferably in the shade for a clearer image. Hold the foiled paper with the foil facing up. Stand with the sun behind you and view the projected image on the paper below. Do not look at the sun. Move around until you find the image. The farther away you hold your camera from the ground, the bigger the projected image but not as sharp.

  We are the only planet in our solar system where the moon and the sun have the same apparent sizes because of distance. Total solar eclipses rarely occur over the U.S, in some cases every 99 years. Check what will occur in your area.

Shadow Pictures

Make Some Shadow of Your Own

  While in the sun make unique pictures of friends. In the early morning or late afternoon, tape  large pieces of newspaper on the ground. Your children can stand so their shadows fall on the paper and they can trace shadows. Can they arrange themselves so the shadows exactly cover (eclipse) a friend’s shadow?  Try this again at noon. How different are the shadows and drawings at noon when the sun is in a different position in the sky?  If done at 11:30 the shadows will point north. For more fun and family education see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com, wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Kids Can Catch Fish in a Bottle

Looking For Minnows Is Fun! 

Young children often want to net tiny fish for pets. Since minnows are very fast and don’t like to get caught, it is probably all right to give children a small net to puddle around and chase these terrified fish. They can put it in a container of lake water with sea weed for a short time.

  Then it is time to prepare for release and have the talk about minnows needing to go back in the water to grow bigger. Fresh water minnows eat insects, such as mosquitoes and flies, as well as algae and pieces of dead plant and animal matter.

Creating Minnow Fun

 Children can make their own minnow habitat.  You’ll need a clean plastic bottle two or more liters with the labels removed, small balloons, a few small rocks, sand, something to look like weeds like a piece of plastic flower, and permanent marker.

  Discuss with your children what fresh water fish or ocean mammals like white beluga whales need to survive: clean water, and food.

Children can search for a few clean pebbles and place them at the bottom of the bottle and add some sand. Slowly fill the plastic bottle with tap water about two thirds full and let the sand settle.

Fish or Whales?

Fish or Whales??

 Decide what kind of fish or whales you are going to add to your water habitat. Balloons come in packages with a variety of different shapes and colors. Long narrow ones are good for whales. More circular ones are better for colorful puffy gold fish.

Talk about their characteristics. Children can add small scales and different colors. Hold off on adding eyes and mouth. Place some water into a small balloon through a funnel if you have one. The water should be heavy enough to sink the fish.  Then blow air into the balloon until it looks like a fish after you tie the end. Place the fish in its new habitat to find out which part of the balloon will be the top so you can correctly draw the eyes and mouth with a permanent marker. At least at the beginning the fish should be under water and not be belly up.  After a few months the fish may change positions as the air or water may seep out.

   

Take a Break and Look Around You

Now you can take a break with a book about fish and a few fish crackers.  Young children will have a pet fish to keep for a long time and another fun summer lake memory. Among many excellent books are ”Beluga Whales” by Victoria Blakemore and “About Fish by Cathryn Sill. 

For more activities see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/learning through the seasons live and podcasts.

 Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos