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With the new Common Core Standards being introduced in most states across the country next year, in ELA (English Language Arts), you will start to see a HUGE push for your children to start reading many more non-fictional texts. Non-fiction [...]
One of my favorite children’s books is the “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” “If You Give a Pig a Pancake,” “If You Give a Moose a Muffin,” and “If You Give a Cat a Cupcake” books by Laura [...]
Even though it is only the middle of March, in your child’s classroom, he/she is most likely starting to gear up for the EOG (end of grade tests) that usually take place in May. As a teacher, parents would often [...]
It might be a little early for the saying “April showers bring May flowers,” but, with all of this warm weather I just couldn’t resist reading books all about spring! In my classroom right now, my Pre-K students are learning [...]
Environmental print is a great starting point for teaching children to read. Environmental print refers to the print we see in our everyday life. We’re surrounded by words and phrases on street signs, food packaging, billboards, candy wrappers etc. For many emergent readers, these words and phrases become their first attempts to “read” something. As adults we don’t consider this to be “real reading.” However, environmental print is the first print most children can recognize. Store and restaurant signs, cereal boxes and the label on your jar of peanut butter all provide opportunities for emerging readers to interact with print and the written word in their own environment.
We do periodic movie nights at our house which our whole family just loves. Sometimes though, we like to substitute our passive movie watching bonding with a Family Game Night. Board games are fun and can teach your child a lot. Aside from the obvious skills that the individual games promote i.e.: counting, colors, etc, board games teach children important life skills like taking turns, being a good winner as well as a good loser, cheering other on and cause and effect. There are so many great games geared for the Preschool and younger elementary age children. Some of the favorites in our house are:
Recognizing numbers can be a bit of a challenge for Preschoolers and Kindergartners. We spend so much time drilling the alphabet into these little guys and don’t exert nearly the same amount of effort with numbers. Sure, we count out loud to our kids, but do we teach them what a 7 actually looks like?
Parents are on the right track with counting aloud to their children. This teaches numerical order, as well as one-to one correspondence; the ability to match numbers to objects or object to object. Try some of these fun and easy ideas though and your child will get those numbers down pat too. The best part is, they won’t even know they are working!
Looking for some educational activities that will keep your children warm this winter? How about reading the story “Stone Soup” as a family? This story is about a couple of hungry travelers who stumble upon a village. They expect the [...]
Special occasions and holidays are a perfect time to teach children the art of writing a thank you note. Some people may consider it to be an outdated form of communication, but I just consider it to be good manners. Thank you notes incorporate so many different skills. Of course the obvious one is learning to be a considerate and gracious human being. It’s also a great way to teach your child about the different components of a letter; such as the
A great book series for older kids to get into are the “Secret Series” by Pseudonymous Bosch. This series has everything from action/adventure, friendship, mystery, and even a little magic! Currently, there are 5 books in this series, starting with [...]
