Carnations

In science group we are talking about plants (parts of a plant, i.e. roots, stem, leaves) and as an experiment we put white carnations in food coloring and water to see that the stem sucks up the water for the plant. It took about 12 hours to see a result from this, but it's science "magic":) Jett has especially loved the flowers.

Once Upon a Thread: children's literature, photography, and (yikes!) sewing

Put Me in the Zoo (one of my kids' favorites)

Dana from  MADE

Some really talented people have put together some photos along with favorite child literature. It's found on the blog No Big Dill and the theme this month is Once Upon a Thread.

I came upon this yesterday in my (unfortunate) habit of blog surfing late at night when I'm too tired to do anything really productive and should be sleeping. How cute are these? I love these ideas even more than the READ poster idea. Again, maybe I'll find the time and energy someday to do this. Maybe I'll surprise myself?

Reading List 2011-2012

I'm starting our reading list for 2011-2012 (taken from the Classics to Read-Aloud list in A Thomas Jefferson Education) and here is what we have so far (and yes, I'm lazily not correctly italicizing or underlining any of these):

APR:        Rapunzel
                 Robin Hood
MAY:      "Casey at Bat"
                Aesop's Fables
JUNE:     The Little Engine That Could
                Little House on the Prairie
JULY:     Peter Pan
                "God Save the Flag"
                "Paul Revere's Ride"
AUG:      The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
SEP:        Riki Tiki Tavi
                Snow White
                The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg
OCT:       The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
                Tales of the Arabian Nights
NOV:      Winnie the Pooh
DEC:      "Twas the Night Before Christmas"
                The Fourth Wise Man
JAN:       "Lincoln, the Man of the People"
                The Little Red Hen
                Sleeping Beauty
                The Princess and the Pea
FEB:       Pinnochio
MAR:     Dr. Seuss Series
APR:      The Wind in the Willows
MAY:     Pollyanna
        

Play Money Spelling Bee

For spellers:

Prepare a list of $1 (easy), $5 (medium) and $10 (difficult) words for the grade level. If working with a class, divide the class into teams of four/five students. Appoint a banker for each team to handle the money. That student would hold and keep track of the team's dollar amount.

I'm thinking at home I'd have to have different stacks of cards/different reading and spelling abilities. I'd probably color-code them by K, 1st, 2nd, etc with all the cards for K written in red and 1st written in blue, you get the idea. Then I'd probably be the banker and keep the score on our chalkboard or something.

Each student will then choose the dollar level he wants to try when his turn comes. Explain to the students that it is better to pick a $1 word and get it right than to try a $10 word and get it wrong. Play for a set number or turns for each child or set time limit.

No one is ever "out" in this game even if they miss a word. After each turn, the students just go to the "end of the line" and await the next turn.

Idea came from the book, Great Teacher Projects K-8, by Laura Mayne.

READ Poster

Also from the book mentioned in the previous post, Great Teacher Projects K-8, one project is to make a poster with your child's photo with the word READ as a motivator for reading or as a reward or gift.

This mentions that the American Library Association (ALA) has a software file that you can put the photo in and print the poster. I checked it out and its pricey ($89) so of course I thought about how easy this would be to do for someone who has any knowledge of Photoshop (not me, I still need to learn) and can transfer the file to print out at your local photo developer.

Visual reminder. Poster of self. Sounds cool to me.

By the way, there are posters of celebrities holding books with the word READ across for sale ($16) by the ALA on their website. Just if you are interested. I think my kids (at their ages) would prefer a poster of themselves:)

Stop, Drop and Read Day

I checked out the book, Great Teacher Projects K-8 by Laura Mayne, from the library on a whim a couple of weeks ago and it has some fun ideas in it. Basically, I was looking for some fun learning games to play with the boys. They love learning and are constantly begging me to do more "lessons" with them. Sheesh. I don't want my kids to be couch potatoes but sometimes Mommy's just got a lot to do and no fresh ideas. I can put that on here, right? Other parents run out of ideas sometimes, too, right? So don't be surprised (if you live near us) if you and your kids are invited to a "stop, drop and read day" at some point--I'm thinking this would be perfect for a hot summer afternoon when I'm eight months pregnant and don't want to even think about how hot it is outside:)

Here are some notes/ideas from the book on having a "Stop, Drop and Read Day" which doesn't have to be a full day at all--just a previously set amount of time.

• "Everyone reads from individual books quietly for one minute, mark starting and finishing points, count the words read in one minute, and come up with a total number of words for each individual and for the class as a whole).
• Lip reading: guess what the person is saying as they read without vocalizing.
• Use atlases to look up place names. For example, find a place that has a girl's name, boy's name, name of a color, etc.
• Read aloud.
• Everyone reads aloud (different things) at the same time for one minute. Silly and loud.
• Sing the words being read to the tune of the ABC song.
• Let older ones read to younger ones and the younger ones (non-readers) can use a book to tell a story to older ones.
• Listen to an audio book.
• Have a collection of materials written in other languages and let the kids have fun trying to figure out how to pronounce the foreign words and their meanings.
• Design a bookmark that can be given to the kids at the end of the day."

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