Do you Playaway????

Do you have a display like this at your library???

My girlfriend, Nancy filled me in on these little gems about a year ago.  I was in love with them the minute the headphones hit my kids ears.  A Playaway is the simplest way to listen to an audiobook on the go. With the audio already contained within, and a battery to make it play, there’s nothing left to do but plug in earphones and enjoy. My local library is filled with some great Playaways.  Here is our latest rental for a long car trip...

Both my 8 and 5 year-olds love these.  Just give them some earphone, tell them to imagine the story in their heads as they listen, and they are content till the story ends.  Great for long car rides!!!  Check your local library and see if they have them, you will want to check them out!

Teaching Heart's Top 10 the benefits of listening to an audio book.

1. Improves listening skills
2. Helps improve story comprehension
3. Can spark a love of reading in low-interest readers
4. Aids in word pronunciation
5. Kids hear how words can come alive in an expressive way (when they read stories on their own this will help with fluency)
6. Develops a child’s imagination as they visualize the story
7. A pre-reading child can listen to the story over and over by themselves
8. Audio stories are affordable and portable
9. Great for car trips.
10. Gives mommy or daddy a break from reading a favorite book 100 times - snuggle up and listen with your child. 



Thanks Nancy for the tip! 

Silverlicious Game Board Review....

My five year old is a HUGE Pinkalicious fan.  We loved the Silverlicious book and were excited to try this game.  The game board and its pieces are very attractive just like the Pinkalicious stories. However; game play of this game is not “so easy-licious”…  Too bad they didn’t ask for assistance from a mom with a four to five year old when creating this game…  However, we changed the rules to the game and then had a great time playing.  If your child cannot read, you will need to play with them for sure.  You must read each card to know what to do while playing the game. 

Here is how we played.  There are three paths that one of three pieces can choose to follow to the end of the game.   Have each player choose a piece.  They follow that path to the top to win.  Before they can win they need to collect four silver coins along the way.  They pick cards from their pile (each player should pick a pile of cards to draw from) along the way that tells them what to do.  Once they make it to the top of the board game play is over and they are the winner.  The cards are very cute and ask each player to do cute things… like draw Toothina, tell the name of Cupid in Silverlicious, write a note to a family member about why you love them, or say something nice to a player…  Once you complete the task on the card, the card tells you how many spaces to move.  We enjoyed the game playing it  this way and have played it many times.  I would recommend the game if you don’t mind making up your own rules for game play.  The board and playing pieces were well thought out but the game rules are a little difficult.  I would still purchase this game for a Pinkalicious fan, I would just play it differently.    

Plastic Easter Eggs Make Learning Fun!

This is an old post; but, it is FILLED with Plastc Egg Learning that you cannot misss!!!

Plastic Easter eggs are fun to fill, hide and hunt, but the teacher in me always sees learning possibilities in every fun toy or product I come across.

My Three Year Old is still working on her shapes. I draw common shapes like circles, squares, triangles, hearts, diamonds & stars on the eggs with a sharpie. I hide the eggs and then she shows me what she has found. She tells me what shape is on the egg. For a challenge, use a variety of colored Sharpie permanent markers and challenge your preschooler to find the red star, the blue circle and so on.

Another thing she still has not gotten is recognizing her name. I put the names on slips of paper and put them in the bag. We draw an egg from the bag, open it, and then read whose egg it is.

We also sort them into groups of like colors. Count how many of each color there are. She loves this!

Grab an egg carton and place a color dot in the carton. Have your child find the egg that matches that color and place it in the carton over the same color.

For older kiddos, place a picture on the bottom of each space in the carton and on an egg write the letter sound the picture starts with. Hide the eggs. As they find the eggs, they place their egg with the sound on it over the correct space. For example, if they found an /a/, they would put that egg in the space in the carton with an ant in it. If they found and /f/ they would place their egg in the carton with a picture of a fish in it. I do this with both of my kiddos. My daughter just tells me the letter she has found and then together we place the egg. My older son can place his eggs independently.

My six year old, loves addition problems. On one side of the egg I write a problem and on the other side I write the answer... he has to put the eggs together to find the answer. When he is done, I check quickly to make sure he got the correct answer. Something fun for him to do while I make dinner!!

Similar, put rhyming words on the eggs. They must match up the word to a word it rhymes with. Perfect skill for k-2 grades!!!

We also put sentences in 4 eggs. We hid the eggs. My son found the eggs and read each sentence and put the sentences in order. Then reread the story he had made... For example:

1.) First we have Palm Sunday.

2.) Next we have Good Friday.

3.) Finally Easter is here.

4.) Easter Morning we go to church to celebrate!

0r

1.) Once upon a time there was a boy named Nathan.

2.) Nathan loved jelly beans.

3.) He loved them so much that he once ate 1,000 Jelly beans.

4.) His belly hurt from what he had done.

It is great seeing them manipulate the sentences to place in order. This activity works on reading and comprehension skills.

Ideal for grades 1-2. If you were doing this in a classroom (as I have in the past), you would simply place four eggs in a Ziploc baggie. The students bring the eggs back to their seat. They would open the eggs and organize the sentences in correct order. In grade two they would rewrite the sentences in their journal and illustrate the finished story.

Put spelling words or sight words in the eggs and hide them. As your child find the egg, they open it and read the word. Then they spell the word for you.

Multi Age Idea -
On a rainy day find a small puzzle --- about 25 pieces. Place a puzzle piece in each egg. My daughter (the toddler) would find the hidden egg and then give it to my six year old who would open it and try to work the puzzle as the pieces were brought to him.

As you can see all of these activities can be set-up in minutes. All you need are the eggs and the rest of the supplies you should have around your house... Go have a LEARNING blast with those eggs!!!

Eggs Around the Web

Look, there are more ideas for those little colorful buggers...

The Ramblings of a Crazy Women Shares Some Easter Egg Games

Teaching Two Shows You a Rhyming Game she made!

Learn How to Make Your Egg Hunt Educational!

Geeky Housewife shares 50 Things to Do With The Eggs!

Different Easter Egg Hunt Ideas

For Many More Fun Sping Ideas, Visit this Sping Index!!!

Getting Ready To Read With Environmental Print!

Environmental print is the print of everyday life. It's the name given to the print that appears in signs, labels, and logos. Candy wrappers, labels on peanut butter and the M in McDonald's are other examples of environmental print. For many emergent readers, environmental print helps bridge the connection between letters and first efforts to read.

Infact, when you are out driving and your child points to the McDonald's sign and says, "Look Mommy, that is McDonald's!", your child is reading!!!  When you are out at the grocery store and your child sees a soup can and says, "Campbell's!", they are reading!!! 

 Environmental print is a great starting tool for teaching phonics and reading. Most children recognize labels and logos from their favorite products.  Environmental print provides lots of opportunities for kids to interact with letters, sounds, and words.

Print out some environmental print at Hubbards Cupboard over at this page.  I laminated the pictures and stuck a magnet on the back.  I also added the sentences:

I want to go to...
I want to eat...

The kiddos can then sort out the print to match the sentence.  Next they can read the sentence they made!!!  My pre-reader loves this activity and showing others how she reads!!!

Below are two FREE printable Bingo games you attach to a clipboard.  The first one you use in the car and your child can check off the things they find as they ride.  When they have filled their card, they win.  It may take a few car trips to fill the card.

This is one I have used while shopping.  My daughter loves holding this in the cart and checking off the "words" she spots as we shop.  Once she finds them all, she gets a treat!!! 

You may print both of the above card here at Teaching Heart!!! 

Snow Cream on a Snowy Day!

Just finished making snow cream with the kiddos.  They had a blast.  Seems like they enjoy foods even more when they make it all on their own.  Who doesn't love snow and a little cream?  My kids were thrilled to see me go outside, scoop up some clean snow and tell them to put on their aprons.  We were going to make snow cream for a snack. 

All you need per serving is about 4 cups of snow.
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar (o, let them live a little)
1/2 milk.  I used 2% milk.
Let the kiddos Mix it all up and then let them eat it...

Mmmmmmm!!!!

Pretzel Bats and Pumpkins Sort and Graph

Learning is so much more fun if you can eat it!!!  The holidays always offer us lots of fun yum!  Click here to view some ideas at Teaching Heart.

A Teaching Heart visitor told me about these pretzels and asked if I could create a simple Pre-K to K level activity sheet to use with them!  Of course and here it is...

Click here to download the sheet.  I found the pretzels ad Sam's Club.  They come in a large box of 40 packs! 

You could have fun with this activity at home or at school!!!

Sprinkle Me With Fairy Dust (A Review of New Tinker Bell Movie)

A few days ago we got a free copy of the new Tinkerbell Movie, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (Two-Disc Blu-ray/ DVD Combo) courtesy of the Amazon Vine program (I love me some Amazon1!!).  My daughter was thrilled!!!   My daughter has seen all the Tinker Bell Movies and she is a huge Tinker Bell fan.  So she put on her wings and cuddled on the couch with Mommy to watch this new Tinker Bell film.  Quickly I could tell this film was going to become a favorite of this four year old.  She was mesmerized.  When the film was over, her first question...  "Can we watch it again!"  I guess she liked it!   We did watch the flick again with her big 8 year old brother and he didn't blink through the film (but he won't admit he liked it since he thinks boys should not like Princesses and Fairies). 

The Great Fairy Rescue is actually the third film in the series, but you don't need to watch the first two movies to understand what's going on in the third movie. The movie is rated G and is about 70 minutes long

As you can guess from the title of the movie, one of the fairies (Tinker Bell) gets captured by a human and needs to be rescued. During the course of the rescue, Tinker Bell ends up repairing the broken bond between a dad and his daughter

The extras are good.  There are some deleted scenes, there is a preview of Tangled (can't wait to see that), some  introductions. and a three-minute music video, "How to Believe", by one of the rising Disney stars; but the others, including the Fairy Field Guide Builder, and How to Build a Fairy House, are in HD and seem interesting.

I have enjoyed all three of the Tinker Bell Movies and both of my kids love them.  We were happy to add this to our collection and I am sure it will be watched many times. 
 
Click here to get a $10 coupon!

Back To School Scavenger Hunt

Reposting from last summer!!!

This summer has been great. We have played, played, played! The kids had a blast and kept active. My philosophy is busy kids ='s well behaved kids ='s happy momma!!! That is really how this summer went. We were super busy and I didn't have to yell much. The summer flew by. I am sad that today marked the first day of school . At the same time it is good to get some structure back to our lives.

Since this summer was such a blast and the kids were well behaved, we decided to celebrate with a Back to School Party in the park complete with games, crafts, and treats.

When the kids arrived at the park they colored a picture of a school bus. If you google Back to School Coloring, you will find lots of coloring pages to choose from.

Then we broke the kids off into teams of four and sent them on a back to school scavenger hunt. Each Team was given a team color, a map, a baggie to collect cards in, and stickers to mark their found cards off on the map.

Setting this up: A few days before the event, I went to the park and took pictures of various objects around the park. I took pictures of things all over the park; such as, sliding boards, ramps, picnic benches, signs, soccer nets, letters, numbers, swings... I took a total of 36 different pictures with the idea in mind that I wanted each of the four teams to go to nine places. Then I went home and printed each of the pictures twice. I placed nine pictures on a map of one color. Then I placed the same nine pictures on the same color and created cards of the 9 pictures. I did this four times. This way I could break the kids up into four teams (red, green, blue, and yellow). The day of the event I hung the (9 of each four colors ='s 36 cards) cards around the park. I taped the cards to their given object. So if there was a card with a picture of a swing, I taped the card to that swing.

How the kids played:

I broke the kids up into teams of colors. There was a red, yellow, green, and blue team. Each team was given a map, star stickers, and a bag for collecting their cards. The kids would look at their map and go to the given area on their map and find the matching card somewhere in the vicinity. They would then put the card in their bag and mark off the object on their map. The idea was to find all nine card on their map. Also, staying with the back to school theme, they had to find four apples of their team color to give to the teacher.

This seemed to be a hit with the kids! I would definitely do this scavenger hunt again for a birthday party or another back to school party. It worked well and it was easy to make and set-up.

Another activity that they enjoyed was the back to school relay. There were twenty kids so we split them into two teams. I set up a relay for each team member to run through.

1.)Get out of bed. (Sheet on the grass)

2.)Turn on the light. (Run over to a press light and turn it on)

3.)Eat breakfast. (Run over to lawn chair, sit down, eat a pancake)

4.) Put on backpack.

5.) Run through tunnel

6,) Jump in hoop and yell, "I am ready for school!"

7.) Run to cone (school) touch it and run back through and tag next person.

A great way to end a fun summer! I hope you had an awesome summer too!

Long Car Trips With Kids - No problem!

Long car trips are my specialty (or I should say my kids are really good at long car trips) because we do about three thirteen hour car trips a year. Plus we take "mini" four and six hour trips a few times a year. I thought I would share a few tips...

We travel to Vermont from Pittsburgh and that is probably our longest trip. Right now, we are getting ready to vacation in Maine. That will be a thirteen hour car trip. It's not so bad going, coming home is always the most difficult since we have already spent hours in the car getting there.

First step: Clean you car out three to four days before you leave. I like to start with a fresh clean car. That is just how I am. Vacuum, wipe everything down with a clorox wipe, spray the inside windows with windex, and get rid of junk.

Packing the Inside of the Car:

I pack the inside the car the night before we leave. My number one rule is to be ready to go when the kids get up. Funny story about our last trip. I always lay the kids clothes out the night before. This way I can dress my daughter and my son can dress himself when he wakes up. For this particular trip we would be stopping to visit friends we had not seen in a few years. I had laid out nice outfits the night before. So it is the AM of the trip, I wake up my son and tell him to get dressed, go potty, brush his teeth, and get in the car. While he is doing this I get my daughter dressed and put her in the car. We are all in the car. We stop about five hours down the road to visit friends. My son steps out of the car and is still in stained PJ's, no socks... but he has his tennis shoes on and he tells me, I did brush my teeth. Ummm. he brushed his teeth and went potty, but he forgot to get dressed and I never looked in the way back to seat to see if he was actually dressed. Moral of the story... don't assume anything with a six year old boy. Our friends probably weren't impressed with our dolled up daughter and neglected son... but hey, no one is perfect! It's hard waking up at 4:30 to be out the door at 5:00 AM....

One great packing tip: Pack things like towels, linens, beach towels in the BIG ZIP LOC baggies. You see mine here. One bag fits about six towels. It was great for keeping things organized and easy to get into the car. Plus they come with a large handle and are easy to carry. They are somewhat pricey. Still if you buy a box of six, you can resuse them trip after trip.

Another Packing Trip: I use one suitcase for my daughter and son. I group things in freezer size ziplocs... It makes it easy to find. Things like: Underware, hairbows, socks...

Beach Toy Packing Tip: They have these baskets at the dollar store. I think they are great for putting beach toys in. Sand comes out of them easily and you aren't bringing too much sand home from the beach with you.

Everything is packed in the car the night before...

In our cooler: fresh fruit in ziploc snack bags (grapes & blueberries), cheese sticks, juice boxes, milk, yogurt, and soda. All yummy things and healthy treats I don't mind my kids snacking on even if it is boredom snacking.

In our front seat basket; cooler, Clorox wipes (I bring these into rest areas to wipe the table we sit at), wipes (you will use these to wipe faces, wipe spills... pretty much priceless), kleenex, garbage bags, extra change for tolls, sunglasses for adults and kids, IPOD (loaded with playlists, and read along books), DVD's, Anti Bacterial Waterless Hand soap. Twizlers for when Mommy drives!

In The Backseat: I sit in the back with the kids. I am lucky to have a spacious mini van that allows me to do this. Everything I use for kids entertainment is ONLY used on trips. I pack it all away when we return home so that the next time we pull it out, it will be like new.

With my six year old - I stack his front pocket in the seat ahead of him with comics, a few new books, a handheld game (we saved these from years ago, some of them date back to the 80's... but he loves them), personal CD player loaded with 6-7 reads alongs, the books to match the read alongs on his personal CD player (this can keep him busy at least an hour), I-Spy Books, A trip-tic (which he loves and you can get at AAA for free if you are a member. If your child likes maps, this is the greatest trick for car trips)

Each child has a pillow, blanket, and one favorite stuffed friend.

For My three year old - I have a small box with a handle that is filled with car toys she only sees on trips. I pull them out as needed. The include:

Wikki Sticks, small color wonder books. manga doodle, kids clips player, mini princess cd player, little container with polly pockets, small stuffed animals (like the ones you get in happy meals), books that make noise, dry erase boards (not to the wise.. this gives my daughter hours of fun, but it does stain clothing and it hard to get off of little hands and legs).

Reminder - VERY IMPORTANT TIP - All these toys get put away after the trip. They only get pulled out again when we go on another trip. This way they are new and exciting to the kids.

I told you that we have a DVD player in the car, right? Well, believe it or not... on a 12 hour trip we have been known not to use it once. My kids seem happy enough with their boxes of stuff, music, books, and snacks to not need it many times. If we do use it, we hold out to at least six hours into a trip. Then we try to limit it to 3-4 hours max per long trip. We hardly ever use it on trips less than six hours. I have found a day of sitting in the car watching DVD's makes it hard for my kids to sleep when we get to our destination. I think their little brains may be on TV overload and they can't get the images to stop flashing in their little heads... I find this makes for a hard first night. The less TV time on the trip, better sleep that night!

Hopefully you picked up an idea or two to make your long car trip a bit easier. If you have other ideas, please feel free to share in the comments idea. I am always looking for new ideas for long trips.

Spelling Words - No Problem!

It's the end of the year...  The spelling words are getting more difficult and your child is getting more difficult to convince to practice!  Sound familiar?  Below are great ideas and resources to help you make spelling practice fun!!! 

My favorite - Finger Spelling This activity is so much hands on fun! Place a plastic shoebox, a can of shaving cream, and a list of current spelling words at the center. A student sprays a small amount of shaving cream into the shoebox and uses her finger to write the spelling word she sees. Or a friend tells her a spelling word and she spells it without looking. After she is sure the word is correct she spreads the foam around to erase the word, then repeats the procedure until all the words have been spelled correctly. Your thinking "messy" aren't you. Actually, I did this with a life skills class using numbers and all you need to do or have the student do is wipe it up with a paper towel and the shoebox is ready for the nest student. You may want to have four or five shoeboxes in the center. If your students did not like to practice their spelling words before, they should after this!!!!

This is an awesome list of ideas - Click Here!!!

Chalk, Swings, and Beach Balls ='s LEARNING TIME!!!

Here’s to what’s around the corner when all the snow melts! Spring and Summer Learning!

Sidewalk Chalk =’s learning… Did you realize all the fun that could be had with a box of chalk from the dollar store? Better yet, did you ever think of the summer learning you could trick your kids into with a box of sidewalk chalk.

Counting and Sorting:

First, you can count the pieces of chalk. Then have your child sort the pieces into colors. Ask show your child:

How many whites are in your box? Do we have equal amounts of white and blue? How many whites and yellows do you have?

Jumping Path;

Make a line with things your child is working on. For my daughter (who is three), I would draw a star, triangle, the sound /b/, the number 3, her name, the sound /a/. I would draw this in a path form. Then I would show my daughter how much fun it is to jump on the path. When you jump, make sure you shout out what you land on. My daughter loves this!

For older kids you could have them jump on sight words you write on the driveway. Or you may want them to jump on math problems and give the answer after they jump on the problem.

Shoot and Score;

You will need a basketball hoop and ball for this and of course, chalk! I draw three numbers on the driveway; 2, 3, 5. I place them in random places where my son can stand on the number and then shoot a basket. She stands on a number of his choice and tries to shoot a basket. If he makes the basket, he writes the number he was standing upon on the driveway(as seen in the picture). Repeat five to ten times. Add up your numbers to get your score.

Toss Game

Draw a board with three rows and three columns. In each square place a sight word. For the younger kiddos, place a number or letter sound. Have the children take a rock and toss it in the box. Whatever square it lands on, the child must read, if they read correctly, they color in the square. Play till all squares are colored/

Draw a Road

My son can spend hours drawing streets and then driving either his bike or a toy car on the street. For the younger child, draw a street for them and encourage them to drive their toy car on the street.

Water Bottle Squirt Gun Erase Game:   Draw stars on your driveway. Have you children or two teams of children race to squirt their star off the driveway.

Here are a few ideas to help with taking turns on the swing as well as throwing in some learning fun!

Counting: one person's turn end after the swinger counts backwards, 5-1, counts in Spanish, counts by 5’s, counts by 10’s.

Spelling: Sometimes turns are over after a swinging kiddo spells first and last names (we help each other out and yell out a letter with each push), sometimes we spell our family's names, our friends' names, or our dog name.

Rhyming: The waiting person calls out a word and the swinging kid calls out a rhyming word with each push, or we all take turns yelling a rhyming word with each push.

Grouping: The waiting person calls out any word (colors, sports, cars, tv shows) and the swinging person yells out words that go with that topic with each push.

The dollar stores have out all of their summer fun treats; like, BEACH BALLS! Here are a few ideas of ways to use those beach balls.

1.) Write out the numbers on the top and bottom sections. Throw the ball gently to a child and they have to add the numbers where there thumbs are.

2.) Another game is to sit in a circle and count to a specific number. Whoever says that number has to go to the center of the circle. Keep going till there are two left. Everyone yells showdown and they play till we we have a winner . I have done this with counting by 2's, 5's, 10's, days of the week, months, etc. Easy and quick and they really like it a lot!

3.) Today my son and I tried to see how many times we could throw it to each other without dropping it. We set a timer for one minute to see how many times we could throw it to each other.

4.) Like musical chairs, but with a beach ball. Pass the ball around the circle, when the music stops the person holding the ball is out!

5.) Write your child's site words on the ball. Throw the ball to your child, whatever their right hand is on is the word they need to read.

6.) See if your kiddos can make a basket with the balls. Use laundry baskets. Can they make a math problem? 2+1 = 3

Easter Shows!

I pack my holiday books away with my holiday decorations. So when they come out for each holiday, the kids are always excited to read them. I also pack away our favorite holiday shows and pull them out for the season. Thought I would share some of our favorites with you!

Yesterday we watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Here is my favorite scene from that movie.

I love the message from the Ompa's!

We also love the Easter Carol Veggie Tales.  I love the songs on this DVD.  My favorite is called Hope's Song. 















Here is the clip of Hope's Song

My kids always yell for me when this part of the show comes on.  They know I love it.

Of course we love Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Original TV Classic [Remastered]




My daughter loves Max & Ruby - Easter With Max & Ruby

Do you have a favorite Easter Show?