Craft day at school

Me and my little assistant (my daughter)

Earlier this month I organised a craft day at my daughters school. As I have mentioned in my earlier posts "Dog House from a recycled box" and "Making dogie with simple shapes", they were teaching kids about Dogs and being a team player. Teachers and I had prepared/cut all the required things during the week. Believe me 10 classes in 1 day is a lot, so the day was dedicated to making dog houses (class teachers did the dogies from shapes themselves as per my samples).

Kids enjoying the activities

In Kindergarten class and Pre-K class we (me and the teachers) divided kids into smaller groups and got them to do several activities. We got them to cut some shrubs, bones etc to decorate the dog house. They learned to use a punch to make shapes, we made flower shapes for decorations. They divided work amongst each other like one will apply glue on the box, another would paste the tiles, 3rd would cut the excess off etc. That not only helped them take turns and do every activity but taught them how to work in a team. All groups came up with a name for their dog houses, which is also an exercise in itself. We made doors and windows as per what they thought was required in them (glass for light, door knobs for opening the door etc).

Kids enjoying the activities

In classes with younger kids I directed the activities with kids like by applying the glue and asking them to make a pattern on the roof with colorful tiles. Everyone got turns to do their bit. Needless to say we had a blast. Best part was 2 days later when the school displayed all the creations in the lobby for all the parents too see. Kids who participated in activities would take their parents to the dog houses excitedly and show them what they did. It is such a great feeling to have kids enjoy themselves while learning. Also the sample dog house is actually home for a small cat now. It gives me so much joy that I can't even express.

Dog houses made by kids

What kids learned from making Dog houses:

• Cutting
• Pasting
• Pattern making
• Punching
• Importance of different elements of a house
• Teamwork (by dividing work and coordinating amongst each other)
• Patience (by waiting for their turns)

I also have to thank everyone who reads this blog and leaves such lovely comments. I really appreciate all the support.

Dog House from a recycled box

This 'Dog House' is another project for the craft day in my daughter's school. First one I already shared with you 'Making Dogie with Simple Shapes'. But that one is for classes with younger kids. For pre-K and Kindergarten children I want to do something that will be fun and will encourage teamwork. Theme as I said earlier is dog mascots.

So the idea is to encourage kids to first think what all would a dog needs in his/her house, then work as a team to create a dog house meeting those requirements. I also want kids to see how a used cardboard box can be transformed into something functional and fun.

Saanvi enjoying making a dog house

Materials needed:

• Empty cardboard box
• Foam Sheets (my absolute fav. product, its so colorful and easy to use)
• Tacky glue
• Scissors
• White Acrylic paint
• Flower punch

Process is quite simple. Cutting foam sheets for making tiles was the only thing that took most amount of time.

1. Take a used cardboard box.
2. Cut out doors and windows as desired.
3. Take a piece of another cardboard box to make the roof.
4. Cut out to folded sides of the box into triangular gables matching the roof using masking tape.
5. Paint the box white (or any other color as desired).
6. Decorate the dog house yourself or with your kid.

I asked Saanvi how she wanted to decorate the house and she wanted bushes and flowers on the dog house. You can use punches to cut out flowers and whatever else you want to add on the dog house. You can use Popsicle sticks to make fence around the house or anything else you child can imagine.

I can guarantee your kid will have a blast doing this activity. And kids are more receptive to learning when they are having fun anyway. So this activity can double up to be a learning exercise as well. You can talk about a dog's needs and requirements and elements of a house. That not only put names to things that they see around the house but increase their vocabulary too. You can also explain them the importance of each element like door and windows. If this activity is done in a group (like I plan to do) then you can teach them how to work in a team, divide work and have patience.

If you liked this post and decide to try it with your kids then please share your experience too. I love hearing feedbacks and suggestions.

Thanks for reading and sharing.

Importance of teaching Patterns

Design and Drill activity Center

During one of the many meetings we had with a potential pre-school for Saanvi, director of the school was urging Saanvi to make a PATTERN (she was trying to figure out which one of their classes does Saanvi qualify to be in). When I heard that word (Pattern) I started to think to myself "Why is she stressing on Patterns so much?". I had not been teaching Saanvi anything about patterns. In fact I didn't even know the Importance of Teaching Patterns.

I had to find out not only for Saanvi but because I wasn't taught patterns in our school and I was curious. So I researched and surveyed and read and read. The only thing people repeatedly told me was that it helped with Maths.

Whats the importance of  teaching Patterns?? How does Patterns help understanding Maths and algebra??

Then I found this:

Patterns pervade every part of our lives. This range of examples shows how we experience patterns from child's play to career choice.

• The toddler separates red blocks from blue blocks. The separation is a pattern: the reds go here, the blues go there.
• The kindergartner learns to count: the numbers are a pattern.
• A first grader makes a pattern with stamps or stickers: tree, turtle, tree, turtle.
• The fourth grader notices that multiples of five end in five or zero—another pattern.
• Sixth graders make tessellations: patterns that cover a plane.
• High school students learn that mathematics from algebra to calculus is all about function, which is the pattern of how one number changes into another.
• The college chemistry major studies how symmetry in a molecule—a pattern in space—affects its infrared spectrum.
• The stock trader looks for trends—patterns—in the stock market.
• Designers of all kinds create beautiful and functional patterns, ranging from the pattern in fabric to the way rooms are arranged in a house to the order of images in a TV commercial.
• And the physician does her best to decide who is well and who is ill, and recognize the patterns of health.

This is from a great website called learners.org. After reading this a light bulb lit up in my head (sort of). And I began finding every possible creative way to make Saanvi understand the concept.

Here are some creative ideas.

• Design and Drill Activity Center (my and Saanvi's favorite) She loves making different patterns on the activity board with colorful bolts and a power drill.
• Pattern Fish & Pattern Bug (These provide a general, basic understanding of patterns and relationships while reading books, making observations and doing hands-on investigations)
• Patterns: What Comes Next? 
• Count on Math:Activities for small Hands and Lively Minds (an absolute must have book).
• Sort the laundry into groups of shirts, socks, pants etc.
• Sort all the toys in the toy box.
• Group DVD and CD’s into two groups.
• Sort books into groups. For example: Fairy tales and Animals
• Clap Patterns: Slow, slow, fast, slow, slow, fast
• Action Patterns: Hop, hop, clap, hop, hop, clap and wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, hop
• Patterns with Materials: Making a simple AB pattern using crayons, colour milk lids, plastic animals or buttons.
• Make Fruit Loop Necklaces: Simply use Fruit Loops and string the cereal together to make a necklace. A child can make a necklace with two colours repeating creating an AB pattern or any other pattern he or she would like.
• Bingo Dabber Patterns: Fold letter size paper in half the long way and cut. Use bingo dabbers to create patterns.
• Paper Chains: Cut construction paper in strips. Bend paper to make a circle and glue ends together. Repeat with a different colour. Children can make different patterns for each chain.



Some great websites on Teaching Patterns:

• http://prekinders.com/math-patterns/ (I love this website)
• http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/data/data.html (pattern quest games for kids)
• http://www.teachrkids.com/examples/pattern.asp?advanced=2&count=5 (Pattern recognition.. what comes next)
• http://www.kidslearningstation.com/preschool/pattern-worksheets.asp (some great worksheets)

I am sure there are lots more good resources out there. If you know some good ideas or websites or books please do share.

Making Dogie with simple shapes




Comical Dogie


My daughter's school is very open about parents coming and teaching their kids crafts or read books to them or play with them. Coming month they have assigned me a day to do some craft activitie with kids (I am super excited about it). They told me to do something around dogs (and being a star). So I thought why not teach kids" How to make a Dogie out of basic shapes (and colors)". So here are my prototypes which my daughter and I made (she had a blast and so did I)..



Star Dogie



Dogs from simple shapes


Supplies Needed:

• Foam Sheets
• Googly eyes
• Scissors
• Glue

Process:

• Cut out various shapes like squares, rectangles, triangles, ovals, circles etc
• Make different arrangements to make them look like dogs. (Use the pictures above if you need a reference)
• Glue the pieces together or on a stiff paper.

By doing this craft activity you can teach kids not only about various shapes and colors, but also open their minds to creating things from shapes. I am looking forward to making some similar dogs with my daughters friends. I hope they have as much fun as we did.

Choosing Books for kids

A dear friend of mine reminded me of the time when Saanvi was a baby and I would try to read a book to her and she would be interested in chewing it. I was left wondering whether I am choosing the right books for her or not? Or what should I do to get her interested in books? For that matter even toys. But that's a different discussion for a later time maybe.

She would be interested in pictures in the books but not for more than few seconds. Soft books were a good substitute for teether I believe. Hard cover books also got chewed on. But there were some books that caught her attention more than others.

• Pop-Up books... With clear and really big pop-up images.. Eye-Catching is the imp. word.

The Very Lazy Lion



The Very Silly Shark

(Please click on the link above to see the inside of the book)

• Noise making books... Not too noisy or distracting, but Interactive books with clear visual and sound associations.  

                                                           Little Cricket's Song



                                                                    Noisy Peekaboo

• Books that questions the readers...  Simple questions that kids can relate too and being extremely colorful helps..  for example Eric Carl's Books (can't tell you how much Saanvi loves these books, more on them later)..

  

  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?
  
  
  
  
  

There could be tons of more recommendations but these are some my daughter liked.
I do believe that every age has a different requirement and every kid has a different sensibility, so some book might or might not work for your kid. However these are some simple points that most kids respond well too (I am not making these up, I did research and surveyed teachers and parents)..


One of the things we all worry about is How we should get our kid excited about books, and what are right kinds of books for what age. Here a few links to help us understand that from Parents.com


How to get Kids excited about books:

• For Newborns
• For 1-2 years
• For 3-4 years
• For 5-6 years

Recommendations for Best Books age by age:

• For Toddlers
• For Preschoolers
• For Big Kids

 A few great articles on Raising Readers:

• Reading with Babies (what babies are learning and how to make story time worthwhile)
• Reading with Toddlers (Worried Moms question is answered)
• Foster a love of reading from very start (Love this article)
• Reading Timeline: When should my child learn to Read?

My suggestions:

• Make it fun.
• Be dramatic, act out while reading books.
• Make crazy sounds appropriate to the character or animal in the book.
• If kid gets bored move on, do not push him/her.
• Maintain a routine, familiarity to a routine helps kids interested and excited about reading or activities.
• Enjoy spending time with you kid, don't fret if he/she doesn't wanna read.

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If Yes, then Thanks you and if you can think of anyway to add more to it please leave a link or a useful comment.

If No, then please help me make it more useful and infromative, be leaving a useful comment or sharing links of appropriate articles.

Teaching ABC's

Stuffed Felt Alphabets

First twelve months after giving birth to my daughter my focus was largely on taking care of her, we did do the reading aloud, listening to rhymes etc. But immunizations, starting solids, motor skill development like turning over and crawling etc were the biggest concerns. Apart from the physical developments I was always concerned about the mental development of my daughter. Research show that the first five years of life a child develops 90% of their adult-size brain. And children may fall behind in both academic and social skills if they are not exposed to the right kinds of intellectual, emotional, and physical stimulation. (Talk about pressure eh!!)

So I started looking for various creative and out-of-the box teaching methods along with the tradition methods of teaching.

Alphabet wall 

We all know that first step towards reading and writing is Letter Recognition. I wanted to surround Saanvi with a variety of activities and books based on alphabets to make her familiar with them. We had books, foam letters and numbers, alphabet silly bands, magnetic letters, puzzles, blocks etc.

Bath time Foam letters were the biggest success in teaching her letter recognition. Using Foam alphabets and numbers, bath time was fun and educative. We played with those foam shapes everyday for months. And every time she remembered some new letters and numbers and colors. Hunting for letters in the bath-tub and then pasting it on the tiles was fun for her. We also practised sorting out colors in the process.

I used to think she will be bored of doing the same activity everyday. But to my surprise she loved the predictability of knowing what activity we will do during bath time. She would jump into the bath-tub and pour out all the letters in the tub indicating me to start playing. Later I read a research that showed that kids react differently to Repetition than adults. For them repetition isn't boring because each time they do a familiar activity they experience it in a completely different way. First she learned the names of the letters, then she learned to associate the name of letter with its appearance, then the sequence of letters (reinforced by ABC song and books).

Alphabet Bookrack

Another toy that helped Saanvi to associate letter with their name is Leapfrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Alphabet Set

This toy is very multisensory -  auditory, visual (color/letter), and tactile.

We pointed out letters in rooms, outside, in books, catalogs, shop fronts, signs, anywhere and everywhere. We stamped letters on paper reciting their names, questioning her and asking her to help us figuring out what alphabet it is. 'Super Why' is one of our favourite shows which helped her pick up on alphabets as well.

Some of her favourite books for ABC's are

• Dr. Seuss's ABC
• Chicka Chicka ABC
• Baby's First Library-ABC
• Baby Einstein: The ABC's of Art

Some informative articles and website:

• http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/raising-readers-writers-and-spellers/201101/teach-your-preschooler-read
• http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/62126/10_ways_to_make_teaching_the_abcs_as.html?cat=25
• http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/general_content/free_resources/teachers_corner/lesson_plans/alphabetNameGame.jsp 

 Things I have learned from the process and articles:

1. Keep it simple, keep it fun.

2. If a child gets bored, move on to another activity.

3. Surround kids with activity-rich environment.

4. Read aloud regularly, kids like a routine.

5. Let them lead the activity.

6. Most importantly have FUN.

What is the favourite toy or activity your kid prefers for learning ABC's?

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Hello World



Few years ago (actually 4 yrs ago) I learned I am pregnant. Along with the joy of the news came a sinking realization of being Clueless when it comes to kids. I had no idea what to do, how to take care of newborns or kids in general, what to buy, where to buy it from etc. (u get the picture rite.. now multiple it by 100, that's how clueless I was).


I had never ever taken care of a kid, leave alone a newborn. Closest I came to playing with a child was in Boston (where we lived before coming to Atlanta). A friend of mine there was open enough to let me TRY and play with her 2 yr old son. I remember learning a nursery rhyme from her that she used to sing to him all the time (my 1st nursery rhyme). I used to be surprised on how she remembered so many of these rhymes from when she was a kid and admired her for the ease with which she handled her toddler.


When I learned about my pregnancy I was scared and confused and lost to say the least. I turned toward Internet and numerous books on What to expect etc. Quite informative I would say they were (You can find links to the websites and books at the end of the article).
But I learned most from a friend here in Atlanta who had a 6 month old when we met, and she shared everything she knew with me. She even let me feed her 6 month old (at that time it was a very big deal, trust me). By the time I gave birth to our daughter I was much more at ease.




1 week old Saanvi


I sometimes wonder what I would have done if she didn't share her knowledge, or people who write all the informative articles won't be so open about teaching others through their experiences. I would say all the experienced moms (and some dads) out there were my source of information. Now I am fairly confident in my abilities as a Mom. And I believe it is my turn to share my experiences, successes and failures as a gratitude to all who have helped me and are helping me still to learn and improve.


In this blog I will share any kind of creative way to teach kids. Be it academics, manners, sports, day-to-day activities or chores. I know so many creative friends who invent new ways to teach their kids and I hope they will share their stories here as well. I believe fun is the best way to motivate kids in doing activities and learning. So I hope this blog become an encyclopedia to fun and creative methods of teaching.


I would love for anyone and everyone out there to share their experiences/stories of their methods. I will share them on this blog.


Informative books for new moms (or to be moms).

• What to expect the first year
• The pregnancy book month-by-month
• Your one year old

 Some great websites for new moms (or to be moms).

• http://www.whattoexpect.com/what-to-expect/landing-page.aspx
• http://www.parents.com/pregnancy/
• http://www.babycenter.com/

Some great books for moms with kids 2 and above.

• How to talk so kids will listen
• Parenting with love and logic
• What your preschooler needs to know
• What your Kindergartner needs to know

Hope these links are helpful. Keep reading and sharing.