20 Best Tips

Hands On Angry Bird Addition with Unifix Cubes

Feb112013
February 11, 2013 by 1 Comment

When readers email me sharing ways that they have adapted printables – well, I love it!! It’s so wonderful to see them in action in other’s homes and also to see the creativity in learning as well.

Here’s a fun example that Sarah sent in. She printed off the addition page from the Angry Bird printables to use with her son, added in some unifix cubes and voila – some hands-on math fun!

Angry Bird Adidtion

From Sarah:

I printed off the addition activity today and we had so much fun. I taped the birds onto unifix cubes of the same color and we used our Angry Birds game with the sling shot and pigs.

My son set the pigs up and got ready to attack. I gave him a problem… "Joey had two red birds and 4 blue birds to get the pigs… how many did he have all together." We built the problem and then he could use the blocks (birds) to shoot at the pigs. It was great motivation for him to complete his addition problems. Thanks so much!

Great idea, isn’t it? You’d better believe that we’ll be using it when we work on Angry Birds next week!

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Filed Under: Math 1 Comment

Shape Word Cards for Read, Build, Write Vocabulary Mats

Sep102012
September 10, 2012 by 5 Comments

Many of you all have asked for a set of shape word cards to go along with the Read! Build! Write! Mats! Although Kaleb knows his shapes, we are working on identifying shape words and these will be a great help to us in using the vocabulary mats.

Shape Word Cards

 

There are two different pages in the word cards – one in black in white and another in color.

All downloads are in the green columns on the Read! Build! Write! page

The Read! Build! Write! Vocabulary Mats

Not familiar with the Read! Build! Write! mats? Basically, they are a fun way to work with your child on word identification and spelling.

Read, Build, Write collage

Here’s how you use the mats:

Read: Place one of the vocabulary cards in the top box and read the word together.

Build: Use letter tiles or magnets to build the word in the second box.

Write: Finally, practice writing the word in the bottom box.

Print the mats onto cardstock and then laminate them so that you can use Vis-à-vis markers or dry erase markers on the mats.

Read, Build, Write collage 2

Check out the Read! Build! Write! page to find additional themed vocabulary cards to go along with all of the Early Learning Printable Packs that I’ve put together so far.

All downloads are in the green columns on the Read! Build! Write! page

Additional Early Learning Printables

Looking for a few other free printables to use when practicing those numbers? Check out these resources:

~ Color Matching Cards and more

~ Number Tracing Cards ~ great ‘take along’ activity for numbers 1-20

~ Number Playdough Mats {for numbers 1-20}

~ Number Matching Cards ~ colorful and they also include Roman Numerals for older children to use!

Hope these help you all out! Feel free to ‘pin’ the printables and share them with others! If there are some other vocabulary cards that you would like to see me put together, leave a comment and let me know!

 

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Filed Under: Kindergarten, Preschool Printables, Printables, Read/Build/Write Mats, spelling 5 Comments

Current Read-Aloud ~ Darien’s Rise {AIO Passages}

Jul122012
July 12, 2012 by 12 Comments

imageAlthough I had pulled out the Borrowers series for us to read, the kid’s weren’t too excited about it. {Don’t worry, I’m keeping them handy}. Fortunately, I bought a big pile of books at a recent homeschool book sale, so there were plenty of books to choose from.

Darien’s Rise by Paul McCusker

Our kids love the audio cd’s from Adventures in Odyssey, so we I pulled out the first book in the Passages series by AIO ~ Darien’s Rise by Paul McCusker. The story parallels a key Bible story, which I was SO happy to have the kids figure out early on {grins}.

So far, the book has been a hit. I don’t want to give too much away {in case you all want to read it too!}. In this story two young children, Anna and her brother Kyle, travel to the land of Marus and are caught in the middle of a conflict between a powerful king and his general.

The story is set in a different time and place, so it has been very fun to think about what this Bible story would have been like during a period like the 1930’s or 40’s. The deeper conversations that the book has prompted have been wonderful. When we were talking about the king not listening to God, it started a talk about how listening to God is similar to how we obey our parents {all a good thing}.

As soon as we’re done reading Darien’s Rise, I have a fun little surprise for the kids ~ the audio adventure of Darien’s Rise. I know that it seems like it might be duplicating, but Adventures in Odyssey does such an amazing job with their recordings, and we always catch a little something more when we listen to the dramatized version of books.

Need a few read-aloud suggestions?

Here are a few of the books that we’ve read and enjoyed recently:

What books are you reading as a family to ward off the summer heat? Anything good on your lists? Leave a comment below!

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Filed Under: Reading, Subject Spotlight Tagged With: 12 Comments

Our Current Read-Alouds ~ Swiss Family Robinson and Homer Price

May232012
May 23, 2012 by 39 Comments

Reading out loud together has really been something that has taken off over the last few months in our family. After reading The Underland Chronicles by Susan Collins, I wanted to find some other books to read that we would enjoy just as much and also wanted to mix in a few classics along the way.The Swiss Family Robinson (Great Illustrated Classics (Abdo))

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss

As we were wrapping up our school year, we picked up the Swiss Family Robinson to read. The Great Illustrated Classic version of the story isn’t quite as intense as many of the other translations, but overall was great. Reactions to the story were mixed overall, because several kiddos loved The Underland Chronicles so very much ~ and Swiss Family Robinson was so very different {perhaps I should have read them in a different order ~ ahem}.

We put the book aside for a little bit this past month. When I attempted to start another book, we had a bit of a mutiny on our hands.

Apparently a few of my kiddos enjoy seeing things through to the end of the story and didn’t like to be left hanging.

We finished up the book this past weekend by the light of the campfire. Then this week we sat down to watch the Disney version of the Swiss Family Robinson to see how the story compared to the movie {on a sidenote, has anyone seen the tv series to recommend at all?}.

Homer Price by Robert McCloskey

Homer Price by Robert McCloskey

Now that we’ve finished reading the Swiss Family Robinson, we’ve pulled out the book Homer Price by Robert McCloskey to read {you may recognize him as the author of Blueberries for Sal}. We’re about 2/3 of the way through the book and the kids are giggling at the funny short stories and antics all about Homer {they especially loved the mystery story about the robbery and the skunk}.

Next up is either The Borrowers series or another fun adventure book that I recently found…but that will be something I’ll have to share next month!

What are you all reading together?

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Filed Under: Reading, Subject Spotlight 39 Comments

Bird Lapbook ~ Preschool Corner

Apr132012
April 13, 2012 by 9 Comments

Preschool CornerLast week I pulled out the robin lapbooks that the three older kids had done a few years ago. The moment Kaleb saw those three pulled out he wanted to know where his was. After realizing he didn’t have one ~ well we had a project for this week!

Our week started out with Kaleb staring out the window at the daddy cardinal that loves to sit in the tree off our back porch. The pair of cardinals are at our feeder constantly and we love watching them!

For Kaleb’s bird lapbook we used only one file folder and the minit books from Homeschool Share’s Backyard Birds file. I opened the file folder flat and then re-folded it so that there were two smaller flaps on the sides. The above picture shows the front and the back of his lapbook. For the back cover, Kaleb colored a picture of a robin for me. For the front he

Putting the Bird Lapbook Together

Monday: A Bird’s Habitat ~ Our backyard

  • Identifying differences between male and female birds ~ minit book
  • What do birds eat? minit book
  • How do birds find their food? There were several robins hoping around in the yard outside our school window. We had so much fun watching the robins in our yard and learning that they actually see the ground move.

Bird Lapbook-2

Tuesday: Life Cycles/Nesting ~ Getting ready for babies

  • What are the predators of robins? minit book
  • Who builds the nest?

Bird Lapbook-1

Wednesday

  • Baby birds minit book ~ what do bird eggs look like?
  • Talked about where birds build nests
  • Kaleb dictated and then illustrated two robin stories {I did the writing below!!}.
    Here are Kaleb’s pictures and stories:

Birds lay eggs. They sit on the eggs. Then they hatch. They grow and turn into a dad or mom.

Bird Lapbook-4

Birds lay eggs on the ground, in trees, on buildings, and in holes. Robins lay four eggs. They are about the size of a quarter.

Bird Lapbook-5

Thursday ~ Putting the lapbook together

On Thursday we glued the pieces of Kaleb’s lapbook together {and were a little camera-shy}.

Bird Lapbook-3

That about sums up our week. Other than Kaleb asking every single day when we could do another chalk pastel together of a cardinal.

Thinking that needs to be on the list for next week, eh?

How was your week?

Links for Learning About Birds

 

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! Grab a button for your post below and be sure to take a minute to visit the person who linked up before you. You can read more in the updated guidelines for Preschool Corner.

Be specific in your ‘link title’. Leave either your blog name or theme and provide an age range for your activities. Something a little like this:

Police Officer Theme {ages 4-5}

 

Preschool Corner

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Filed Under: Birds, Lapbooks, Preschool Corner, Science 9 Comments

Art Chalk Pastels ~ Subject Spotlight

Apr112012
April 11, 2012 by 9 Comments

Subject Spotlight at Homeschool Creations

A few weeks ago I shared some links with you from HodgePodge for free chalk pastel tutorials. Because we’ve been learning about birds during our science time with Nancy Larson Science 2, it seemed fitting to try out the chickadee chalk pastel tutorial.

bird pastel

We’ve been busy watching the many birds at our feeder and we gathered all of our supplies. Although I didn’t go top of the line with all of our supplies {ahem ~ to see how consistent a certain momma is with art!}, I was really pleased with what we did use.

Supplies We Used

~ 9×12 Sketch pad

~ Chalk pastel set {we found a set with 48 colors}

~ baby wipes or damp paper towels

After pulling up a few additional pictures of chickadees to look at, we followed the instructions in the Chickadee Chalk Pastel Tutorial. I helped the younger two with a rough sketch of the bird’s body, but Laurianna was intent on doing hers a bit different than the rest of us.

Birds pastels-2

The others began picking their colors and the rest of us dove in and started coloring our creations. Making a mess of our fingers {and forgetting that once the chalk is on our fingertips it will leave marks elsewhere….}.

Desktop44

When all was said and done, we had five pastel masterpieces that everyone was very proud of {even I had fun with it!}.

Chickadee Pastels

Laurianna spent a long time after we were all through detailing hers to get it ‘just so’. Notice how her chickadee is facing the opposite direction that all of our birds are facing?

Birds pastels-9

There were only a few moments of frustration with one of the younger kids as we learned more about how to use the pastels, but otherwise the lesson was a HUGE hit and the kids are already asking when we can do another one! I’d say it was a success and one that needs to be repeated.

Don’t miss the other free chalk pastel tutorials from Tricia at HodgePodge. After a few more pastel lessons, we may even venture into her free acrylic paint tutorials as well.

 

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Filed Under: Art, Subject Spotlight Tagged With: 9 Comments