Apple-loving fun!

It's that time of the year that I LOVE!  Apples, Pumpkins and cooler weather.  We have been learning about apples for that past 2 weeks.  Here's a few things I did with my little learners:

Family Apple Tasting

Daddy explaining the 3 different kids of apples we will be taste testing - green, red, and yellow

Nixon tasting his apples

Jackson liked yellow best so he colored his apple picture yellow.

Nixon liked the red apple best.  We held out each colored marker and asked him to pick the color of apple he liked best.  Who knows if this is the one he liked...the most important part is that he was involved.  

I sent out a text to family members and they sent pictures (via text) of them eating their favorite colored apples.  We took that "data" and we are in the process of making a graph out of it.

Apple Stamping

This simple art activity ended up being lots of fun for the boys!  We cut an apple in half, observed the inside, counted the seeds, then stamped it in some red and green paint.

I love this picture! You can clearly see Nixon copying what Jackson is doing!

I started with 2 pieces of paper and ended with tearing off a LONG piece.  They kept stamping and stamping and stamping!

Painting fun!

Loved it!

Ten Apples Up on Top
After we read Dr. Seuss' book Ten Apples Up on Top (one of my favs), we stacked apples on top of our self-portraits.  Then we played an addition game using a dice, our "apples" (yellow and red foam squares) and our addition sentence strip.  Easy and simple...roll a number, stack the apples, roll again, stack the apples, write addition sentence, then find the sum.

 Apple Tree Fun with Food Recipe
Pictures explain the steps and show the fun that we had doing this!

Hope this gives you a few fun ideas to do with your little learners!
Happy Fall Yall!  And happy learning with your little ones!

Take a PEEK inside my planning book...

Here's a peek inside my lesson plan book.  It's working for now, but I am sure that I will tweak it when I find that it's not working the way I hoped it would.

At the "old house" I used a file box.  For me, it took up to much space and I couldn't just grab and go!  With this book, I can organize it at home or use it on the go.

Check it out (sorry the picture is not flipped):

Pretty self explanatory, right?  I plan on Sunday's, after church, while everyone is napping:0)  It usually takes me about 1 hour to plan for the week and if I am "on a roll" I pull for the next week or theme.  We usually don't finish everything that I plan for in that week.  So it spills over into the next week...One of the many pluses of homeschooling!

I use this storage basket to store all the supplies that I'm using for that week.

If any of you have others ways to organize your supplies/lesson plans, I would love for you to share them!

Happy Learning with your little ones!

Peek inside our new place!

I am so sorry I haven't blogged in 1, nope 2.5 months! Vacation, then packing, then moving and unpacking plus company...been a lot to handle these days!
I finally have our "Learning room" functional and we are getting in the swing of schooling at home again!  I'm gonna be spoiled in this house!  Extra bedroom completely devoted to learning and having fun!

Here's a few before and afters:

unpacking = felt like my first weeks as a public school teacher...but better!

Here's our Calendar and Morning Message board that we do every morning.  Great purchase from Ikea (to the right) stores all of our materials.  

Computer Center (on the corner desk); Pocket chart for  Phonemic Awareness/Poetry activities; Magnetic board 

Math corner - using file cabinet as magnetic board; Number line and pocket chart for addition and visuals.  

We have started easing our way back into learning by simple calendar time, countdowns and morning message...here are a few pics of that.

What a great way to start the day!  I pre-write the message the night before so it's ready to go.  The "letter monster" usually comes and eats some of our letters in the message...which leads to Jackson having to practice letter sounds and handwriting skills.  Nixon always is in the room, sometimes "helping" or just doing his own thing.

Here's one of our recent countdowns...Take off a sticky note a day at a time to reveal "the special code" 

I am currently working on how I want to organize my lesson plan book.  I was using a file box, but didn't like the way that was working.  So I will share that soon:)

A few easy lessons that I have carried over from our other house have been earning "fuzzy balls" for awesome behavior.  Yes they work for behavior but better as a teaching tool!  Here are some pics:

We usually use fuzzy balls/pompoms when we count  on these number strips...but I couldn't find a picture.  But I'm sure you get the idea.  One car for each box...great for 1-to-1 correspondence.  

Counting fuzzy balls on his 100 chart

Colored in #74 to help us remember and hung it about the behavior chart.
Once he gets to 100, he has earned a special trip.

Here is something that I recently added to our daily learning!  

Jackson and Nixon LOVE playing on the Ipad/Tablet Time.  They get 25 minutes a day to play.  They can use it all at once, but Jackson has figured out to break it up throughout the day!  Smart boy!

  To introduce counting by 5's to Jackson, I made this easy system.  Does he understand "counting by 5's" now?  NOPE!  But he is getting some basic addition skills that will lead to that. 

Today he said "Mom, 5 plus 5 is 10...so I get 10 minutes?"  

Seems to be working!

Feels great to blog again!  I hope that you've missed us! But we hope that while we were unpacking boxes you were learning each day with your Little Learners!

FYI: We are learning about Apples the next 2 weeks!  Promise to post some ideas soon so that you can enjoy the apple picking season too!

Airplane/Car ride Entertainment Organizer...

Another short and sweet post due to leaving on vaca in 1 day AND packing up our home for the big move in  September!  YIPPY!

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How do you travel on an airplane with 2 kids BY YOURSELF?  Well, first you pray for patience (and naps) ant then you just do it! Plus providing LOTS of entertainment for your lil learners usually makes a successful and FUN trip.  

Yes, the Ipad will be fully charged, but that is always my back-up plan if I'm getting "the LOOK" from other passengers.  I have always packed TONS of kid-friendly fun usually purchased from the Dollar Bins at Target.  I would keep all of my $1 bin goodies a surprise before the trip so that it's fresh and new to my lil travelers.  The painful part was organizing it!  I would organize it using gallon-sized zip lock baggies.  This system was tricky and hard to use

 UNTIL....

...I found this plastic pocket folder gleaming in the Dollar Bin at Target (Man I love that place!)  Absolutely perfect!  Easy to slide in and out of our carry-on pack back and can fit everything from stickers to small books!

I even added a clipboard with a fun pen tied to it!  Plus cut file folders in half to create mini sticker books.  

Other items that I have stored in our pocket folder: 

~ cheap flash cards with velco on the backs so that they gently stick to the backs of seats in front of us.  **I only pull out 3 cards at a time because it's such a hassle picking them up if they drop! Can't find them without doing a back bend...oh well...they were just $1

~wipe away puzzle books with dry erase markers

~Color pages

~Wikki Sticks or Pipe Cleaners

~Colored paper clips

Hope this helps some of you create old-fashioned traveling fun for your little learners!  Turn off the tech and travel...until you get "the look"!

Sentence Sandwich

Just wanna let you know that our "formal" homeschooling lessons have come to a halt due to vacation and moving (staying in Florida...just different area/ house)! I have lots to plan, pack and get ready for...so my lessons have become very "informal" and on the go!  Ahhhh...one of the many joys of schooling at home!

Thought I would share this quick-to-make idea with you all...the ole "sentence sandwich". I came up with this because Jackson has really proven that he is a natural reader! We still have a lot of skills to learn, but he is excited about being able to read simple sight word sentences and is eager to learn more each day. 

This "I See...(family picture card)" was starting to get stail after a few days on our BiG pocket chart computer

...so this is how I introduced him to a new sight words while keeping word repetition for fluency and maintaining Jackson's reading confidence.

Using multiple sentence strips, I added 1 new sight word, but kept "I see" with in each phrase.  The phrases all overtap each other so that he can still add a name card on the black line at the end of the sentence.

And this is how I turned it into our "Sentence Sandwich" using the sentence strips and pieces of Velcro.  I did this just to make this pile of words easy to carry around (when we read in the car) and FUN!  Velcro makes a fun sound and putting the sandwich back together is like a puzzle to them (and mommy)

And here is what now hangs in the pocket chart/BIG pretend computer screen in Jackson's room.

"Sentence Sandwich" up at the top, family members picture cards at the bottom. 

I have taken some of the family picture/name cards out for this activity.  If you notice we sorted the names by beginning letter/sound.  Sometimes I cover up the picture with a sticky note, so that Jackson has to read only the name.  And he loves to pretend that he is the teacher and watch me make "reader mistakes"...like reading Nana's name when it's really Nic.  Lots of fun and laughter!  This simple skill will eventually lead us into a reading strategy "Look at the Pictures".

And for my Littest Learner...
Here are the color word cards that I made for Nixon.  Same type concept, just much more simplistic...

                                               



Happy Learning!  And thanks for those of you that have sent comments via facebook or blog!  You, along with my amazing children, keep me blogging!  I LOVE hearing from you and feel free to share your ideas with me also!

Learning through Discipline

Jeremy and I knew that we needed some type of visual for us and the kids when dealing with discipline.   So where did I turn for ideas...PINTEREST, OF COURSE!  I found this great chart and made it that day!  Check it out... 


My dear friend noticed that "Oops!" is misspelled!  Dang it!  Wasn't going to re-do the whole chart...oh well!

Here's how this chart works at The White House :0)
*Always start the day with your clip on Good Job
*Positive behavoir/good choices= move clips up!  Being on green is great!
*Negative behavior/bag choices = move clips down...not so good! 

Here's the wording on the chart from top to bottom:
*Awesome
*Super
*Good Job
*Warning
*Oops!
*3 minute (time out) Adjust these for age
*5 minute (time out)
*Lose Privilege

We have found that this really works well for us because it helps Mommy and Daddy look for positive behavior rather than mostly negative!  Every human, young or old, feeds off of positive praise, right!

My added touch were the picture clips.  I just printed out "happy" pictures of them and the hot glued them to a clothes pin.



So here's where the "Learning Through Discipline" comes into play!  If either boy has an "Awesome" day, then they are given 3 "fuzzy balls" aka pom poms.  We keep them out of reach and in a special cup...just to make it fun and exciting!

Jackson and Nixon's special cup on the left

Every time Jackson gets more "fuzzy balls", he counts them using his special number line that I made.  Use 2 sentence strips taped together, then stuck round circle stickers below each number.

                                                    
This is a great visual for him to see how many he HAS and how many more he NEEDS!  Because once he gets 30 fuzzy balls, then he will get to go somewhere special...his choice!  It could be a trip to the aquarium or splash park.  Something special, fun and easy.

Our first trip will be tomorrow!  He reached his 30 fuzzy ball goal, so I'm sure we will be planning an impromptu fun trip in the morning.
So now what?  We keep going...we plan to add 30 more, which will teach him numbers up to 60.

Happy Learning with your little ones!

Home-made Computer Fun! (Diffidently no IPad)

In-laws in town this past week = lots of running around town and not enough time for blog!  Sorry this post is short and sweet!


 Something that I'm truly beginning to love about homeschooling is the ability to really let your children drive your instruction!  For example, I (the teacher) had BIG plans for our word wall and family name cards last month, but my boys are enjoying the name cards so much right now.  MY PLAN (a month ago) was to put the cards up on our ABC word wall right away, but that plan quickly changed!  So this is what I did with them:

Moved a pocket chart into Jackson's room along with family name cards and added a keyboard.  Jackson practices "typing" his "I see..." sentence or the family names.  And Nixon is great at picking out his cousin Landon's name card and walking around the house with it.  It's also been a great way to see how they use them during independent playtime. Proud to say that even Nixon has "read" the "I see" sentence in his own little way!
Here's more pics of the set up!

Told ya!  Short and Sweet!  This week, we will be getting back on track with learning at home!  So I'll be sure to keep ya posted on what we decide to do with these name cards!  

Happy Learning Everyone!

Mini-Mathematicians

"It is THAT time!" said Jeremy, when I asked him what was the next step we needed to take for creating mini-mathematicians in this house!  We both decided to "move forward" after we were sure Jax understood sorting, counting verbally to 30 and using one-to-one correspondence using manipulatives,  more/less and a few other skills.
 So here's how I started intro to addition, last week...VERY SIMPLE!

Index card folded in 1/2 to make 2 sides, a foamy dice (Dollar Tree) and some round dot stickers

Keep in mind, my whole new idea in planning for my "school at home project" is to "work smarter, not harder"!  I do this by planning activities that can be used for Nixon AND Jackson.  (Same materials; different  lesson focus)  And keep in mind, we made these cards (in about 5 minutes) and then used them in a lesson 3 days later!
Here's what we did:

Nixon - fine motor skill development/one-to-one correspondence = peeling and placing stickers on cards while I count
Jackson - used dice to see how many stickers he need to stick on each side of the cards to make it "look like a domino"

I HAVE A VIDEO OF THIS LESSON BUT IT'S NOT UPLOADING!  I WILL TRY AGAIN OR JUST EMAIL ME (mommyslittlelearners@gmail.com) AND I WILL SEND IT TO YOU!

Dominoes are great way to introduce addition!  We just decided to make our own = child's ownership and to develop other skills.

This week, we are using foods (goldfish crackers, mini-marshmallows, cheerios) and placing one on each sticker of our homemade dominoes.

Once again, this helps Nixon with counting and one-to-one correspondence while Jackson is introduced to addition (for example: he puts 4 cheerios on one side, then 4 cheerios on the other side of this domino...pushes them ALL TOGETHER to see the "sum" of his addition problem.)  Hope this makes sense!

What a fun way to make your little learners into mini-mathematicians!