Wisdom Wednesday: Crayola's Big Colorful Birthday Adventure

If you check most school supply lists, you will likely see a request for crayons, but not just any crayons. Crayola crayons. These are a favorite for teachers because they are true to color (which is important when working with younger ones learning to identify colors) and work well in the classroom.

Crayola is celebrating their 110th birthday party, and they wanted me to let you know that the original 8 crayons are throwing a birthday bash. Because I'm posting about it, I get to celebrate with them and get a limited edition birthday party pack, but you can join the celebration too!

Like Crayola on Facebook and you can enter to be one of the first in line for the new Crayola Experience.

The new Crayola Experience features four floors of new interactive exhibits and one-of-a-kind attractions that will bring the magic of color and your child's creativity to life! The winner will be among the first to experience the fun, along with a three- night, all-expenses paid stay. It's an experience your kids will never forget - and neither will you! 

It sounds like it will be fun for everyone! I've already entered!



*Disclaimer: Information was provided by Crayola for promotional purposes. I will be send a party pack for my participation.

Wisdom Wednesday: the Saga continues

I've posted about the struggle we've had with my daughter before. We kind of have an update to that- in that this update is just that further testing proves what I have been saying for year.

Problem: the solutions are all the same. They may be rephrased, put on a special hand out, or in a "top ten list" but they are still the same. And they haven't worked yet. I'm not saying they aren't worthwhile, we still do so many things to help build comprehension, but she still struggles.

So I may need to set up another case conference and see what her options are.

Right now, if someone were to ask what my goal is for her, I'd not try to make it sound educated. I just want the work that she puts into her education have a more significant pay off. She works harder than many children I know, yet she continues to struggle.

I'm blessed with a daughter who WANTS to learn. She wants good grades, she wants to be a teacher, she loves school. She's a better person than me. She faces a struggle every day, she takes bad grades in stride, and she keeps on keeping on. I shut down when things get hard. I get upset when the work I do has little to no result. I give up or give in.

She doesn't. She continues the fight and I am thankful that I can learn from her.

Wisdom Wednesday: Make a Journal

Our Spring Break was spent close to home this year, but that doesn't mean that we didn't do fun things or that learning was over. We had a lot of hands-on learning activities like going to a science museum and shooting off a rocket.

To add on to this I had my kids make a Spring Break Journal. It was super simple, as you can see. If you wanted to make a special notebook, that would work too, but for me it was more about the process than the project.

My son and I worked on 2 sentences to describe his favorite part of each day. My daughter used a brainstorming web and picked a favorite part, and backed that up with 2-3 details. She also had to do an introduction and conclusion sentence.

The kids took them to school on Monday to share, and my son discovered that writing about his vacation was an assignment for the day- and he was already done ;)

I plan to make a summer journal for the kids out of composition notebooks, we will decorate the front cover and write in it throughout the summer to capture some of our favorite memories and to keep writing practice fresh for the next school year.

Wisdom Wednesday: Fun with Colors

One of the best ways to teach children about colors is to give them opportunities to mix them up and see the result. You can talk about things over and over, but until you give some the chance to have a hands-on experience, you're wasting your time.

Here are some ways to mix up some colors with less of a mess:

1. Rolling Box: Use a shoe box, marbles, paper, and paint. Put the paper in the box, add some paint and marbles in the box, put the lid on, and shake it up. Test out different colors and combinations.

2. Paint Bags: Use a zipper sealed bag. Add two different colors and see what happens when the bag gets squished.

3. Playdough: When you make your own, mixing the colors won't cause a problem. Make a batch and separate it into three sections. Add red, yellow, and blue color to those sections. Then let the kids mix it up.

Here are some ways that can make a HUGE mess ;):

1. Finger Paints: Better put down a plastic tarp and smocks. You'll still get paint everywhere but you tried ;)

2. Food Coloring: Put some drops of food coloring in water and let the kids mix up spoonfuls. Just don't wear anything you want kept stain-free

Wisdom Wednesday: Keyboarding

One thing that schools are adjusting to as the digital age comes on full force is the use of computers during testing. Most multiple choice tests use a computer (gone are the days of filling in the bubble on the sheet and matching it to the right problem), but now even the written parts of assessments are starting to be done on the computer.

There are perks to this, one major one being the ability to read what the child writes! There are also a lot of problems. Many children haven't learned how to type, so when they are faced with a keyboard most of their sentences are typed using the "hunt and peck" method. This can be distracting and costs the students time that could be spent planning their essays. 

Since I know this is something my kids will encounter in the near future- we have started to work in typing skills with our computer time. 

Here are some of the games that they play:

Ghost Typing Game

Keyboard Revolution

Dance Mat Typing

We also have started having them type out letters and emails to practice. 

Wisdom Wednesday: Educational Apps

I've posted before about Technology and Education, and how I was trying to find different apps that my kids could use to help them learn through play. Now that my school corporation is going to have more technological aspects, I think that any practice they have using technology would help too.

McGraw Hill is a textbook company that many schools use, and they have quite a few apps that can help with building fundamental skills in different areas. 

I can't wait to use the reading apps to help my daughter work through some of her reading comprehension struggles. I just hope that these apps are fun to use as well :)

Do you have any great educational apps? Link me below and I will check them out!

Wisdom Wednesday: Retention

This isn't an easy subject for me to talk about. It's one that I didn't anticipate having to deal with personally at all.

My daughter learns differently than others. She has since she was a toddler. She was in First Steps (an early intervention service in Indiana) until she aged out of the program, focusing on speech because she did not talk. She was in Speech through the school system from 3- present day. She, through lots of hard work, did well in Kindergarten through the first half of First Grade. Then it started going downhill.

I thought the change in schools caused the dip, but it turned out that reading comprehension is something that she struggles with. At first it only affected her reading grade. She could memorize spelling words, math was not difficult, so her grades were still okay through second grade (though dropping each grade period). At the end of second grade she was tested by the school psychologist and had high non-verbal intelligence, but verbal intelligence was well below where it should be.

Enter Third grade. Reading comprehension is not just for the weekly story. Math includes story problems (and algebra) that is difficult to understand if you can't process what you read. Science, History, and other subjects test on the material read. Spelling words stop following the phonetic rules (or common rule breakers). She is assessed constantly through standardized testing.

Right now it looks like she will repeat the Third grade, only I don't have a game plan. Every effort we are making (the school, and us at home) is only causing more stress without any change in grades. She had referrals to be tested from her doctor and we're in the waiting game portion.

What are your opinions about retention? If you have any resources I can turn to about processing disorders, I would appreciate them. I feel like I don't even know where to start with this, and I feel like her school feels the same.

Wisdom Wednesday: Sight Word Practice

One thing that we have been working on lately has been sight words. These words are ones that are high frequency and children are taught to memorize them by sight, since most of the time they do not follow phonetic rules. You can find a list of the Dolch Sight Words here.

Here are two ways to help practice them.

Make a Word Wall. Usually teachers will send home flashcards to use, but if not you can use index cards. Write each word, and as they are able to read them, add them to the wall and keep practicing the others. Then, read the words on the wall. As they watch the number of words they know grow, it may encourage them to learn even more.

I did this a lot while working on my own homework. Copy a page in a text book, grab an old magazine or newspaper, and give the kid a highlighter. Tell them to find every "the" or other word on the page. Identifying the word is good practice, because they will have to do that while reading. 

Wisdom Wednesday: Spelling Word Practice

We are always struggling with fun ways to practice spelling. My son really dreads homework (so unlike my daughter, but even she gets over writing words over and over again). Here are a few ways that have worked for us :)

1. Spelling Baseball.

I made a baseball board and each child gets a player. When one is "up to bat" I "pitch" words to them. They spell the word and if they get it correct they can advance to the next base. If they get through all the bases, they score. If they misspell the word, they get a strike. 3 strikes and they are out and the other child is "up to bat." They get to use this chance to study their words again to hopefully get better the next inning.

2. Shaving Cream.

This is a messier way to practice, but can feel more fun than writing all the words out. Using a cookie sheet and shaving cream, it can reduce the mess, but I have used the whole table before :)

3. Mystery Letters.

This takes more prep time, but cutting letters from magazines can make spelling the words out more fun. They can pick out the letters and glue them in order to spell their words on a piece of paper. This isn't limited to spelling words, I still remember writing ransom "notes" with a friend (they we really jokes, like "Why didn't the lion eat the clown" "It tasted funny.").


4. Cheer letters.

Make your body into the letters needed to spell the word (think the motions for YMCA). This is a good way to get some movement into spelling and sometimes can even lead to a song to help with remembering the spelling.

5. Rainbow words.

Pick a different color for each word and make it into a rainbow. This was more popular with my daughter than my son though :) He saw right through it and felt like it was more writing.



6. Clap the letters.

This is good for when you're in the car or unable to write the words. Say the word, then clap as you spell the word (for each letter), then say the word again. Sometimes the repetition helps keep the words in their heads, and it works really well when trying to study on the go.


7. Send an email.

My kids love any chance they can get on the computer, and sending email is one my my daughter's favorite things. So letting her type out her spelling words and email them to me is not only good practice in using the computer- but she gets to work on homework at the same time.

8. Felt Letters.

There are different felt sets that have letters precut or you can cut your own from felt to help practice spelling words (you may need to as the words get more complex). This idea isn't limited to felt, you can use magnet letters, flash card letters, anything that allows them to manipulate the letters and spell out words.


9. Glitter Glue.

Even Dollar Tree has little bottles of glitter glue, so this isn't too expensive (though it's one we save for days when bribery is the only way to get them to do extra work). As a bonus, squeezing the tube can help develop more fine motor control as well as spell the words, so you can remind yourself of that as you clean glitter glue off your dining room chairs ;)


10.  Spell it in sand.

This is a messy one, that I limit for outdoor play or if I'm really feeling like being the best mom ever (if doing inside, a table cloth on the floor works well to catch the runaway sand). Spell out the words in sand or moon sand to get some sensory play in while working with the words.

How do you work on spelling words? I'd love to have more ideas!

Wisdom Wednesday: Tens and Ones Activities + Free Printables!

A friend is going through the Student Teaching process right now, and it's reminding me exactly what I was going through a year ago! I've looked back on some of the stuff I did and am a little sad I won't be able to use some of the activities in my current job.

So I wanted to share them here! I have five activities (including 3 printables) that can be performed at home or in classrooms as part of a math center. These were used in a first grade classroom.

The first is a Tens and Ones activity using base blocks. The children match the number of tens blocks and ones blocks to the number and write the number of tens and ones. The other part is to identify the tens blocks given and determine the number.

If you draw dots on a paper and laminate them, children can practice circling the groups of ten, and determining the number of dots by counting the groups of tens and remaining ones.

The second printable is a Tens and Ones activity with confetti (or other small papers/stickers). They will glue the number of tens and ones in each box (so for the number 54, they would put 5 pieces in the tens box and 4 pieces in the ones).

You can also use Q-Tips to teach how to groups tens (as well as the concept that 10 items is 1 GROUP of tens.

The final activity is a Tens and ones activity with dice. They will roll a pair of dice and use one number as the tens and the other as the ones. This worked best when we used a red one for the tens and a white one for the ones, to help reinforce the distinction.

I hope these help you either at home or at school!

Wisdom Wednesday: Conjunctions

For this Wisdom Wednesday, I'm just going to share a worksheet I made to practice using conjunctions to turn simple sentences into compound ones.

This is really simple, but it can kind of give practice at putting the sentences together.

If you wanted a more visual/manipulative way to teach this, I would print the sentences on strips of paper and put the conjunctions on little pieces of paper to connect the two. Even if a word is a conjunction, it doesn't mean it will fit the sentence, so make sure to review them at the end to see if the compound sentences they've created make sense.

Wisdom Wednesday: Website Resources

Technology is a great tool for education. It can be overused and misused, but I think that when used correctly is helps so much! Our children are growing and learning in a different world than we are, and I think it is important for them to learn to use technology. I also think that we need to raise a discerning generation that is able to check the sources for accuracy.

Here are a couple of the websites that my kids love to play on when they have computer time, the best is that not only are they educational but they are free too :)

You can pick a subject and practice on grade-level skills in many subjects.

This is one my kids (and the kids at school) request to play all the time.

Wisdom Wednesday- Varied Word Choices

This is an activity I did with a 3rd grade class. We needed to work on this standard:

EL.3.5.4 2006

Use varied word choices to make writing interesting. 

So this is a little activity that you can modify to suit your needs. 

Materials needed:

Emergent Reader Books

Paper

Pencil

Thesaurus (if choosing words is difficult)

What to do:

Most emergent reader books have very few words and repeat the same words. This is great when learning to read, but as readers (and writers) progress using the same words can be stifling. Read one of the books to the children. Ask them to pick out the words that are said multiple times. Give each child a book to "rewrite" with better word choices. The children can choose a different word for each word in the book, or focus on changing the words that are repeated. 

A Thesaurus can help this lesson, if children seem unable to think of synonyms on their own. Though if they use a thesaurus, make sure that the word they choose fits the sentence. You may need to demonstrate some examples of words that fit and words that do not fit, even if they are synonyms. This goes back to using words in context (another standard this group is struggling with). So by using the thesaurus with this activity you can reach multiple learning standards.

Have fun! The stories they create are fun to read and as a child completes one book, they can rewrite and illustrate it or move onto another book.