Deirdre, Author at JDaniel4s Mom

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as a elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5 year old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog's FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.

Sharing His Love and His Ted

January 22, 2014 By Deirdre

This is not JDaniel’s actual Ted.

Last Friday I headed over to travel with my mom by ambulance to a doctor’s appointment. The appointment was on a day that JDaniel and I had off from school. JDaniel was going to spend the morning with a friend and her children. He had a bag filled with toys to share with them and his teddy bear. Ted tends to travel with us when we are going new places or on rough days.

The first part of the week had been tough. I went to my mom’s rehab center to feed her dinner every night. She had not eaten much of anything at any meal the week before. She didn’t want the mushy pureed food she was being given. I was determined that she was going to get nourishment and be strong enough to go to the doctor’s appointment.

Mom had also stopped saying much. I heard her tell me the words yuck and quiet and not much more. She had stopped saying my name and didn’t seem to know where she was. Her words indicated she was living in the past.

We decided to try to get her to give us Power of Attorney anyway. She just might talk to my husband and our family lawyer. My amazing sister in law would be present too. She has such a calm and loving presence. She might just change my mom’s mood.

It didn’t work. She asked my husband to help her communicate, but he couldn’t help her successfully say the name of any of her daughters. Any daughter would have done. We all love her and want to help her pay her bills.

We were frustrated to say the least. She was at risk of being asked to leave rehab. She wasn’t able to participate in speech or physical therapy much. We have hospital bills arriving from her seven week stay there. Mom still has a drain from her gall bladder. (Most nursing home facilities won’t accept someone with one.) We prayed as a family, we prayed on our own, I asked you on Facebook to pray.

By the time Friday came and I was heading to drop JDaniel off at my friend’s house I was sure God’s answer to our prayers was either wait or no. Yes just didn’t seem to be an option.

As we pulled into the driveway of my friend’s house, JDaniel said, “Mom, I think Ted needs to stay with you today.” What a gift he was offering me! His special stuffed pal was going to stay with me to encourage, comfort and support me.

I gave JDaniel the biggest hug when we got out of the car. I wanted him to know how touched I was by his generosity.

The day did get better. My mom was totally lucid. She was great at the appointment. She did great with the speech therapist. (I left the room and frantically called our lawyer to see if we could try to get mom to agree to a power of attorney while she was lucid.) She was able to answer the question our attorney needed her to for us to get power of attorney.

Was it Ted that made the day better or mom’s progress or knowing a prayer was answered? Each of those was special. Each put a smile on my face. The real cherry on the top of a wonderful day was the love my son showed me. He has been through so much since his grandmother got sick and he saw past his need to mine. What a special gift!

Valentine’s Day Card Learning Activities

January 21, 2014 By Deirdre

Cardboard valentines make great teaching tools. I recently picked up a bunch at a dollar store to make a few learning games for JDaniel. The box I selected was filled with cards that were rectangular without fancy cutouts. They looked like they would be the easiest to work with. I also avoided cards that were scratch and sniff and had areas to punch out. Those type of cards might distract my son from the task we were being asked to do.

Sight Word Game

On the back of a group of cards I placed a white business card sized sticker. The Valentine’s Day cards are not really wide, but the sticker fits onto them with hanging over. Onto each sticker, I wrote one of my son’s sight words of the month at school. Really any sight words you might want your child to work on would be alright.I spread the cards word side down on the table and asked my son to select one card at a time. If he could read the card, he got to place in a pile in front of him. If he missed it, he had to turn it back over and try it again later.

The goal the first time we did this activity was just to read the word. As he got more familiar with the words I asked him to read me the word and use it in a sentence. This allowed him to demonstrate that he understood the meaning of the word.

Puzzle Piece Match

Several of the remaining cards in the box were cut in half with jagged, curved, or funny shaped divisions. Several cards with the same picture on the front were used in the activity. I wanted my son to really have to look at the cards carefully to decide which halves fit together. He was able to put the cards together rather quickly. I think younger children would have found it to be more of a challenge.When all the cards were put together, I asked him to describe the line I had used to divide each card. We talked about how words like smooth, jagged, wavy, curved and zig-zagged might be used to describe some of the lines.

Cards of Kindness

We still had some card left. I asked JDaniel to write notes on them to neighbors or teachers that he thought could use a message of kindness. I think he liked this activity best of all. Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as an elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5-year-old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog’s FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.

Five Little Snowmen Song and Craft

January 19, 2014 By Deirdre

Five Little Snowmen is the fifth five little song and craft we have shared on the blog. There is something really fun about these rhymes. We started with Five Little Pumpkins as few years ago. JDaniel relearned it in kindergarten this year. He sang it over and over again. That inspired me to look for some more five little songs. Since then we have done Five Little Turkeys, Five Little Christmas Trees, and Five Little Firecrackers.Five Little Snowmen’s craft involved white paint, a potato masher, and some odds and ends from our craft closet. I used black paper to make the white paint really stand out in hindsight I should have probably used a lighter color.

Five Little Snowmen5 little snowmen sitting on the ground, (pat hands on floor)the first one said; “oh my aren’t we round.” (make circle with arms)The second one said; “there are snowflakes in the air.” (wiggle fingers above head)The third one said; “but we don’t care.” (shrug shoulders)The fourth one said; “Lets run and run and run. (pat hands quickly on the floor)The fifth one said; “I’m ready for some fun.” (smile)Whew went the wind (blow) and out came the sun (make a circle with arms over head)and the five little snowmen knew their fun was done.(pretend your melting)

JDaniel painted the white paint onto the potato masher. I thought it would keep the paint from looking clumpy. It would have probably looked more natural with clumps.

We started by placing the paint loaded potato masher onto the paper to make circular prints. JDaniel thought we need to wiggle the masher a little to create blurred lines. Honestly, his blurred lined snowman really looked better than mine.

five_little_snowmen_song_and_craft_potato_masher_printmaking

JDaniel also placed his circles at angles so, they aren’t standing straight and tall. I really love the added character he added to his snowmen.

When the snowmen had dried, we pulled out some odds and ends from our craft closet and decorated them. My husband thinks they look like snow penguins. What do you think?

If you love five little songs like we do, watch for a post on Five Little Valentines song and craft.

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as an elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5-year-old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog’s FB page. You can also check her out on Google+

17 Olympic Themed Activities for Kids

January 17, 2014 By Deirdre

The symbols of the Olympics have inspired 17 Olympic themed activities for kids posts on this blog and for some of the posts I wrote for Kid’s Activities Blog. The Olympic rings, torch, and Olympic values are each represented in the posts below. I hope you will be inspired to create them at your house or in your classroom with your children.

Crafts

The Olympic torch above was made by sponge painting various shades of red, yellow, orange and black paint. My son loved marching around the living room with it during the opening and closing ceremonies.

A paper towel wrapped around a kitchen spoon was another fun way we explored painting. It was supposed to look like an Olympic torch.

Food Creations

Olympic Symbols Bento Lunch displays various finger foods created to look like the Olympic rings, torch, and victory wreath.

Olympics for Kids- A Gold Medal Meal shares a muffin tin lunch featuring a Nilla wafer gold medal and a cheese popcorn torch.

Olympics for Kids- Read.Explore.Learn. introducing a wonderful Olympic themed book called Elympics and a bento lunch that explores the main character in the book.

Olympics for Kids- Edible Torch is post I wrote for the Kid’s Activities blog. We made a ice cream cone and some wonderful snacks into a fun torch. It tasted great too.Olympics for Kids- Fruit Filled Olympic Rings shares a great way to learn the colors and meaning of each ring. These fruit filled rings were a great visual display of the rings and their colors.

Learning Activities

Printable Olympic Passport with Learning Activities shares various ways a passport I created can be used to help children work on writing, researching, and pretend play. The ways you can use the passport are endless. I bet you can come up with several of your own.

Pom poms were sorted into old applesauce cups displayed to look like the Olympic rings in a post called Olympics for Kids-Color sorting. We had great fun sorting the pom poms with chopsticks.

Threading felt leaves onto a pipe cleaner is a great fine motor activity. It also creates a fun laurel wreath for your little Olympian.

Olympic Themed Graphs and Charts features seven different charts, graphing sheets and diagrams that children can used during the Olympics or leading up to them.

Dream Big- Read.Explore.Learn. is a post that shares a wonderful book about Michael Jordan’s Olympic Dream. It also shares a sight word basketball game.

Olympic Values

I wrote a series of posts on the Olympic values during the Summer Olympics of 2012. They were great fun to write and we all learned how they practically applied to our lives.

This series was a lot of fun to write and I think it was a lot fun for you to read.

The first post in the series was called Olympic Values: Respect and focused on self respect and knowing one’s limit.

The second post was called Olympic Values: Growing Excellence and was about doing your best.

The final post in the series looks at the Olympic Values: Friendship and I talked about JDaniel’s working on making new friends.I hope you find an idea among these 17 Olympic Activities for Kids.

Kids Activities- Olympic Themed Graphs and Charts

January 15, 2014 By Deirdre

I decided to create some kid’s activities with an Olympic theme that feature graphs and charts. Since JDaniel started kindergarten, we have been working more and more with them. They are being emphasized a lot at this school. Providing JDaniel with opportunities to explore them while interacting with some of the sports he will see during the Olympics was my goal for creating this unit. These kid’s activities could be done in at home or in a classroom. If you were doing them at home, you may need to gather data from friends or neighbors for some of them. You could also ask your Facebook friends what they would pick.Let me walk you through each of the Olympic Themed Charts and Diagrams for Kids.

Learning About An Olympic Sport (Lotus Diagram)

olympic_themed_chart_learning_about_an_olympic_sport

Children are invited to select an Olympic sport and describe various aspects of it. If they don’t know much about the sport they selected, they can research it at the library or online. This chart focuses on the basic aspects of a sport. Other circles could be added to cover more specific aspects of the sport.

Olympic Venn Diagram

This kid’s activity asks children to compare and contrast skiing and skating. The center area focuses on the ways that both sports are the same. Skiing and skating are vastly different sports. It may take some higher level thinking to figure out of they are the same.Olympians Can Have Are Chart

This is a new chart for me. I found Can Have Are Charts while searching for charts for kindergartners. Children are asked to brainstorm thing that Olympians can do. Things like march into an area with athletes from around the world, win Olympic medals, and live in dorms with athletes from around the world. Then they are asked to have thing that Olympians have like team uniforms and the chance to win a gold medal. Finally,they are asked to come up with things that Olympians are like the best in their sport.

Olympic Medal Count

Rather than select four countries for children to follow the medal count of our medal count recording chart has the countries blank. Children can select any countries that they would like to follow. Each day of the Olympics they can record the number for bronze, silver and gold medals that those countries have won. They can record each medal with a tally mark or a circle. We will be using tally marks at my house.

Olympic Sport Spin and Graph

The Olympic Sport Spin and Graph allows children to record on a bar graph each time they spin a particular sport. Skating, skiing, bobsledding and hockey are pictured on the spinner.

Children will need a pencil and a paper clip to create a spinner. They simply put the end of paper clip in the center of the spinner. Place a pencil in that end of a paperclip. Push the paper clip with their fingers and watch it spin. The sport it lands on will be recorded on the bar graph.

Favorite Sport Graph

Children can ask friends, neighbors, parent’s Facebook friends what their favorite Olympic sport is and record it on the graph with a circle .

Skiing or Skating Medal Count Chart

There are so many Olympic sports that use skate or skis. Children will need to learn a little about the sports at the Olympic to know whether they use skates or skis. Then they can record whether a country has won a medal or medals in a skiing or skating sport each day.

Would you like the whole collection of Olympic Themed Charts and Graphs ? Just click on Olympic Themed Charts and Graphs link and your will be able to download them for free.

{Homemade Giant Tangrams} Exploring Tangrams

January 14, 2014 By Deirdre

Homemade Giant Tangrams from a Pizza Box

I recently served store bought pizza to my family that came in a huge cardboard box and decided the box would be great for making homemade giant tangrams. Although the bottom of the box wasn’t a perfect square shape, I decided to try to cut out the tangram shapes without trimming it down to a square. Some of the shapes ended up a little wonky and did end up being trimmed down. All in all the shapes in the tangram are not perfect, but worked out well for building some really cool tangram designs I found online.

We are going to keep this set, but I may try to make another set using a ruler to actually make sure each piece is just right. I did use a ruler to draw lines for each shape before I cut it out of the giant square. I didn’t paint or color each of the tangram pieces either. Instead, I opted to leave them brownish cardboard colored. It might be fun to have JDaniel have me paint another set of them. Colored shapes seem to help the designs pop out a little more.

(The link below is an affiliate link that will take you to Amazon.com.)

JDaniel hasn’t been big on exploring tangrams. The fact that these are giant seemed to make them interesting and more fun. There is just something wonderful about learning tools being super-sized. I think selecting a pattern that he might enjoy helped too. There are hundreds of different design patterns available online and in books. Grandfather Tang’s Story (Dragonfly Books) is a book that I have used in the past with students. It would be just wonderful to read the book and create the tangram designs that it shares in its illustrations.

What designs did JDaniel like the best?

Homemade Giant Tangrams from a Pizza Box- Sunrise Pattern

We both really liked this sunrise design. I think it is a sunrise. I guess it could be a sunset design too.

Homemade Giant Tangrams from a Pizza Box- Rocket Pattern

JDaniel has always liked rockets and space. Creating a rocket design was right up his interest alley. It was a little challenging to fit the rocket on the table. The homemade giant tangrams took up most of the length of the table. We may have to move to the floor to make long tangram designs in the future.

Do you have a favorite tangram pattern, design or book?

Great Chinese New Year Activities for Kids

January 12, 2014 By Deirdre

I have some great Chinese New Year activities for kids to share with you. Chinese New Year is Friday, January 31st this year. It is one of those holidays we really enjoy celebrating at my house. I thought you might like to celebrate it too. This post shares fun meals and snacks. There are crafts and learning activities too. I am hoping there is something in this post that is calling out to you.Fun Meals and Snacks

We went to visit a Chinese market to search for fun and unique foods to try. JDaniel and I ended up selecting items for a chicken stir fry along with mango gelatin, rice cookies, and some tropical fruit. It was truly an adventure. If you have a Chinese market in your area, you may want to take your children to explore it. We found food items at ours that we would never have found at our local grocery store.

A roll of crescent rolls was all that was needed to create a crescent roll snake. A simple green dyed milk wash gave the snake his green tint.

We used to participate in a weekly link up called Muffin Tin Monday. A few years ago I created a green tortilla dragon lunch for a post called Muffin Tin Monday- Happy Chinese New Year!

Crafts

We used some old Easter eggs to thread together a snake for a post-Chinese New Year- Snake Activities.

This post also features dragon activities from No Time for Flashcards, Read-Set-Read, Kids Activities Blog, Carrots are Orange, Wildlife Fun 4 Kids, Baby Centre, The Imagination Tree, and 3 Dinosaurs. I was and am so thankful to those blogs for letting me share their creative ideas in this post.

Cupcake liners can be used to make really cute fortune cookies. We used bright red metallic cupcake liners for ours.We explored triangles, parallelograms, and squares while we created a Chinese shape snake. We used black paper to create on. It really helped the shapes in the snake pop.

Learning ActivitiesI gave JDaniel a print out displaying the animals that are a part of the Chines zodiac. He was asked to search the toy box and play bins in his room to find animals that matched the animals in the printout. We were both surprised to find all of them.(The second link below is an affiliate link.)

Moving yarn, straws and cotton with child friendly chopsticks was fun not only for JDaniel, but for my Sunday school class too. I place the materials into a sensory table at church and the kids loved transferring the items with chopsticks. We usedHog Wild Sticks chopsticks for this activity.

Olympics for Kids: Printable Passport with Learning Activities

January 10, 2014 By Deirdre

It is possible to travel to the Olympics with your children using this printable Olympic passport. They won’t get to travel to the Olympic host site using the printable Olympic passport. They will learn about what a passport looks like, review basic facts about themselves, and learn a little bit about the host country as they fill it out. This Olympics for Kids activity will make them feel more a part of the event.

I have updated the passport! The layout is the same. The graphics are a little different. You will see a version of the old one at the bottom of this post.

While they are filling out the passport, children will work on writing their name, address, where they were born, and their home country. They will also get to create an illustration of their home country’s flag and the host country’s flag.

There is a spot for you to glue or tape a picture of each child in their passport. You could also have them draw a picture of themselves if you like.

Getting the Olympic Passport

The calendar is a PDF. Once you have downloaded, the set you will need to open it with a PDF reader like Acrobat Reader.

Olympic Passport

What could you use the Olympics for a kid’s passport for?

Pass out the passports when you are going to view part of an event on T.V. It could be like a ticket to view the event.
Use the passports at an Olympic obstacle course you create in your home or classroom. Place a stamp on the back of the passport for each obstacle they complete.
Fill out the passports after reading a book about the Olympics or an Olympic event. We like the book Elympics
Have your class pretend they are going to the Olympics as an athlete. Have them fill out the passport and then write a story about them as an Olympian.
Put them in a center along with Olympic symbols for the children to explore.
Assign different children to various Olympic host cities from the past. Have them research that host city’s flag and have them display it in their passport.
Have your children create an imaginary Olympian and fill out the passport for them. Then have them create journal entries for that athlete’s time at the Olympics.
Set up a different Olympic event in various rooms in your house. Have your children show their passports as they enter each event.
Visit our local library with your passports and make looking for books on the host country or the Olympics an event.

Olympics for Kids- Printable Passport with Learning Activities

This is an older version of the passport. JDaniel worked on it when he was little.

More Olympic Activities

Olympic Shot Put Catapult

Code and Color Olympic Medals Algorithm Pages

Static Electricity Olympic Flame Activity

Gold Medal Painting Idea

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as an elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay-at-home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5-year-old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals, and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on Twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog’s FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.

Finding Joy in Bleak Moments

January 8, 2014 By Deirdre

We can focus on the deep water covering the path we are on or find
the joy of seeing a bridge at the end of it.

I have decided to find joy in the challenging situations I am in this year. Instead of making a set of New Year’s resolutions this year I am choosing to focus on joy. As I mentioned last week things here are a little bleak. My husband is back in school after losing his job and my mom’s health is very unstable. It would be very easy to go through each day filled with anger and dread of what will happen next.

Yesterday we went by to see my mom in the rehab center she is staying in. The nurses came in as soon as I arrived. They wanted me to know that she isn’t eating and spends most of her day with her eyes closed. She doesn’t seem to want to respond the m or even be there. I don’t blame her. She has been through so much. There have been many tests, scans and procedures in the six weeks since she entered the hospital. The food she is been given is mushy and very much like baby food. Last Friday when she arrived she ate spoonful after spoonful of it when she first arrived. I think she hoped it would get better as she ate. Until her legs get stronger she has to stay in bed or be moved to a chair with a lift. Yes, right now her life is bleak and she is silently very angry.

We don’t know if the doctors will find cancer when they do a procedure to remove the stints in her liver and explore the pancreas next month. At this point, we don’t know much and she knows just about the same things we do.

Yet I know that each day is a gift and we are not promised tomorrow. We can choose to live a day in bleakness and anger or try to find joy. Even small moments of joy in a bleak day can brighten it a little. I talked her about just that yesterday. She opened her eyes and I squeezed her hand as I shared with her.

Will she choose joy? Can she through the mental illness she already had prior to this decline find a way to even think of joy? Can she open her eyes to the small and wonderful things that God has given her? Really only God knows.

JDaniel and I have started sharing 5 things about our day that filled us with joy or that we are thankful for each night after saying his bedtime prayers. I think I am going to try this exercise with my mom when I go to see her on Thursday. Even if she doesn’t choose to participate with 5 things of her own she will get to hear mine.

Why don’t you join me in trying to find things in our lives that bring us joy or that we are thankful for?

{Number Recognition} Do You Know Five?

January 4, 2014 By Deirdre

When you encounter a new concept or skill for the first time, your mind may need several experiences with it to find meaning and understanding in it. Numbers are one of those concepts. Children need to experience them through various modalities (tactical, visual, and auditory) before they have number recognition. They also need to view them with concrete (hands-on), semi-concrete (displayed in pictures) and abstract displays (numbers).

A number concept bag like the one displayed above can be filled with objects that will help children explore numbers. This bag explores the number five in many, many ways.

Let me share with you the learning tools placed in the bag and how to use them.

Wooden Blocks

Blocks can be used to explore the number five in various ways. A mighty tower of five can be built with the blocks. Children could create an imaginative way to display the blocks horizontally and then tracings can be done around the display of five. To bring in auditory learning the blocks can be dropped one at a time so children can hear what the number five sounds like.

Die

Beyond finding the five dots on the die there are several other ways the die can be used to get to know the number five. Children can find combinations of dots on the die that equal five and record them on paper. Another activity could be to keep track of the number of times it takes to roll the number five. They number of rolls could be recorded on paper with tally marks.

Glue Outline of Five

A number five can be created using glue on an index card or piece of cardstock. Children can rub their fingers over the shape of the number. They could also place a paper on top of the glue outline. A crayon can be rubbed over the paper to create a rubbing of the number.

Bean Outline of Five

A number five can be created using glue and beans can be placed on the glue number. Children can rub their fingers over the number five times to help create a tactile memory of the number. The bean outline could also be used to create a rubbing if the rubbing was done carefully.

Stickers on a Card

A card can be created displaying five stickers. The children can create the cards on their own or the card can be created ahead of time. Counting the stickers on the card gives children the opportunity to work with a number in a semi-concrete manner. There are still objects to count, but they are not movable once they are on the card.

Beads on a Pipe Cleaner

Placing five beads on a pipe cleaner could be done by the children or done ahead of time. The idea is that the pipe cleaner is bent to create a bracelet that students can wear once the beads are on it. They can move the beads forward on the bracelet when they count up to five. Moving the beads backward and counting backward from five to one would also be a great way to visualize five in a very concrete way.

Number Recognition- Tooth Pick Tally Marks

Toothpick Tally Marks Toothpicks can be arranged in play dough to display the number five in tally marks. Children can push the toothpicks into the play dough one at time counting as they go. Creating the gate across the four toothpicks to create the number five can be challenging. Children will really have to push down on the fifth toothpick unless they create a thick area of play dough.Popsicle Tally Marks

Popsicle stick tally marks are super easy to count with. Four blue sticks were selected for this activity along with one red. The four blue sticks would be displayed vertically. The red stick would place over them going diagonally. Giving the stick that will be displayed diagonally a different color helps it stand out visually.

Pentagon Puzzle Piece

If you have a shape puzzle, the pentagon puzzle piece from it makes the great tool for learning the number five. Children can see and feel the five sides and five angles that make up a pentagon. They can also trace an outline of that puzzle piece onto paper. The tracing of the pentagon can then be labeled with the numbers 1 to 5.

Five can be explored and understood when this Do You Know the Number 5 bag is shared during circle time or at your the kitchen table. It contents could be further explored in a center or work table. Leaving the materials out to be explored would be a wonderful invitation to learn more about the number 5 and work on number recognition.