Tie-dye Snowflakes

With this activity, I've taken the typical paper snowflake and jazzed it up a bit. It is very simple to do, and since the paper is thin, it takes less strength to cut making it a good activity for preschool children. This does take a bit of skill using scissors so it would probably be best for children 3 and up - possibly younger with a lot of help. My almost 4-year-old was able to do it all by herself.

This is what you'll need

• One 4 cup round coffee filter (white)
• Markers
• Newspaper or wax paper
• Spray bottle
• Scissors

Directions:

• Lay out the newspaper or wax paper and flatten the coffee filters out on top of it.
• Have your child(ren) color the coffee filter with markers - making sure they use a lot of colors.
• Once they have finished coloring their filter, have them spray it with water until the colors start to blend.(Make sure they don't spray too close - you want them to mist, not soak, it)
• Leave it on newspaper or wax paper to dry.
• Once the filters have dried, remove them from the newspaper.
• Have your child fold the filter in half, then in half again

• Next, show them how to cut the filter on all three sides, making sure to leave portions of the folded area connected.
• Unfold, and voila! Tie-dye snowflakes! :)

Variation: If you want to make these look more traditionally tie-dyed:

• Grab the center of the filter and pull the ends together like a cone.
• Tie rubber bands or twisty ties around the filter.
• Color and spray.
• Let dry.
• From this point you just follow the same directions as above.

Making Clay Pots With Kids

Working with clay is so much fun, and children especially can't get enough of it. It's a great way to build up their fine motor skills and is a wonderful sensory experience. I have made pinch pots with children as young as three. Beyond the obvious difficulty of the task, clay isn't something you want your child ingesting so I think three is a pretty good cutoff.

To start, you will need to buy your clay. You'll want to get air dry clay, unless you have access to a kiln.  You can by it from a number of sites online (links below) or you can just get it from any A.C. Moore or Michaels (don't forget those coupons). If you're only using this for your family, get a small amount- 5 to10lbs. Clay is dense. A little goes a long way.

Next, you will need fishing line, or you can buy clay cutting wire. I just use fishing line and it works perfectly.
 
Select a workspace with a flat surface that's fairly easy to clean. Clay is so moist, it will tear up anything you try to cover the table with so it's easiest to just clean up afterwards. Clay is water soluble so water and a sponge work fine.

Wrap the fishing line around your fingers like this, and slice off a chunk of clay.  Give each child a piece about the size of a tennis ball.

Show them how to roll the clay in their hands or on the table to make a ball.

 

Once they've made their ball (or something close to a ball) have them give a thumbs up sign. Then use their thumb to press a hole deep into the ball, but not all the way through.The next thing you will need to show them is how to pinch their thumb and index fingers together.

Once they've shown you that they know how to pinch, you are ready to show them how to pinch around the ball to create the pot. But I guess I should show you first. :)


Placing your thumb all the way down into the hole squeeze your thumb and index fingers together to flatten the clay, repeat this all around the base of the pot. After you've finished the bottom, you just keep pinching your way around the pot until you've reached the top.

Once their pots are completed, They can use a little water to smooth out the clay if they'd like. You can give them a small bowl or cup of water to use, but instruct them to only dip two fingers at a time in the water. Too much water will destroy the clay.

Now they are ready to decorate their pots. Any pencil or play-dough tools will work. They can poke holes (not all the way through) draw pictures or shapes, whatever they want to make it their own. Do not push objects like buttons or play jewels into the clay. Clay shrinks as it dries so any solid object inserted in it, will cause it to crack.

Lay your pots on wax paper to dry. (If you have trouble removing them from the table, run the wire along the bottom to cut them off). It will take a day or two for them to dry completely. Once they are dry, you can paint them with acrylic (not tempera or washable) paints. After the paint has dried, spray them with a clear coat sealant.

These pots have not been fired so you cannot put water in them and they are very fragile, but they work very nicely as little trinket holders and the children are very proud of them.

If you have a local potter who is willing to fire your pots for you in a kiln,  you will need to fire them first, then paint them with a glaze and fire them again.


Any questions? Post them in the comments section and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Crayola Air-Dry Clay - 5 lbs. Kids will have a blast creating sculptures beads plaques and decorative projects. Smoother and less sticky than traditional clay--perfect for young hands to manipulate. This natural white clay air-dries without baking in an oven or kiln.

Air-Dry Clay - 25 Lbs. Children will love the tactile experience of modeling keepsakes with this air-dry clay - the clay hardens without being fired in a kiln! Easy to use with traditional modeling techniques such as pinch coil and slab building itÆs also a snap to clean up. Decorate with paints when dry.

Colorations Acrylic Paint 8 oz. - Set of 8 This set of 8 specially-formulated acrylic craft paint is stellar for small projects. Get amazing one-coat coverage with 8 oz. each of 8 brilliant colors: black blue brown green purple red white and yellow.

Teaching Sight Words to Young Children - Part 1

Before any of you think, who is this lady, and is she just talking out of her butt? I will let you know that I do have a Masters in Education, and spent a number of years teaching children of various age levels so... I am only moderately talking out of my butt.

Anyway, as you will probably figure out over time as you read this blog, I have very strong opinions concerning education, particularly early childhood education. Using a whole word approach when teaching a child to read is something I think is very important.  Not that phonics are unimportant, I just feel phonics are too heavily relied on as the method for teaching children to read. Phonics are a great tool for decoding new words, but that isn't how we read. We read by memorization. If we had to sound out every word, none of us would ever want to read because it would be a huge pain. 

The biggest problem I've found with teaching sight words, is that most of us, parents, don't really know how best to do it, so we either use boring tools like flash cards or just rely on phonics, which seems to be more straight forward. So I thought I would share some techniques for teaching sight words to kids in ways that are fun and meaningful to them.

So for this first entry, I want to focus on my favorite method: Using children's books.

It's something so simple, but it just doesn't occur to most of us. I actually got this idea from my mother in law and had to, begrudgingly, admit that it was a really good one. (Don't you hate that!)
Basically, you look through you child's favorite books for simple words that are repeated. Then you choose one word to focus on with each reading. Begin by showing that word to your child and say it with them. Then point to the word every time it appears and allow your child to read it.

For example, in the book Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! by Dr. Seuss, the word "go" is used a lot. So before beginning the book, I showed my daughter the word, and told her that "g" and "o" spells "go". Then I told her that I wanted her to help me read the word "go' whenever she sees it in the book.  Every time I came to the word "go"  I would cue her by pausing and pointing to the word, and she would say "go" -  with great enthusiasm I might add. It is a lot of fun, and after one or two readings doing this, she pretty well knows the word.


You can do this with all sorts of books. It doesn't matter which ones, as long as you can pick out some highly repeated words. You can use words like "I" and "you," and other high frequency words if you want, but it's more fun if you choose more interesting words that fall at fun spots in a story.  Also, learning one word per reading is best. Trying to teach too many words at once may lead to confusion. Once you've mastered certain words like, "go" and "dog" from Go, Dog, Go for example, you can ask your child to read both words to see how well they can differentiate between the two.

Here are a few books that I like to use for sight words:

• "Go" from Marvin K Mooney Will You Please Go Now! by Dr. Seuss
• "Sam" and "ham" from Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
• "Tree" and Boom" from Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
• "Bear," "duck," "cat" or "hen" from the  Little Bear books by Else Holmelund Minarik
• "Bear," "big" "one" and "day" from Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
• "Moo" from Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type by  Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
• "See" and "me" from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
• "Go" and "dog" from Go, Dog, Go by P.D. Eastman

Have any of you ever used this method to teach you children or students to read?

Do you have any books to add to the list?

I want to hear what you  think.
 

DIY - Montessori Dressing Boards

I am obsessed with Montessori. Not the woman, the toys! (i.e. learning materials). This stuff is so brilliant, but it is also super expensive. Fortunately, a lot of the materials aren't that hard to make with a little ingenuity and some elbow grease. One of my favorite diy Montessori Materials are the dressing boards. Dressing boards are a great way for little ones to work on their hand-eye coordination skills. They're usually for children around 2 and up who are learning to dress themselves, but my daughter was playing with the zipper frame at 13 months old .

These are pretty expensive new, and really easy to make, so it just makes sense to do it yourself. Dollar store wooden frames work great! I used one of my daughters old sweaters, but the other two I got for really cheap at a consignment store.

What you'll need:

• 5X7 wood frames
• Needle nose pliers
• Infant clothing - 3 or 6 months - with zippers, buttons and/or snaps
• Chip clips or clothespins
• Staple gun and staples (approx 1/4 inch)

Directions:

1. Remove the glass and backing from the frames.
2. Using the pliers, carefully remove the metal tabs from the frames.
3. Fit the clothing over the frames and lay them button side down.
4. Bunch up the excess clothing in the back, and secure it with chip clips or clothes pins. (Don't pull to tight or the buttons will be difficult to manipulate)
5. Staple the clothing onto the frame leaving at least and 1 to 1 1/2 inches between staples.
6. Remove the chip clips and fold the excess material so it lays flat. Staple it to the frame using the spaces between the first set of staples.

 

Here are the ones I made. There is a button frame, zipper frame, and snap frame. Next I need to figure out how to make a lacing frame. They just don't seem to make bustiers for infants. ;)