Learning Games Archives - Page 19 of 21

Christmas Activities- Christmas Treasure Tree

December 11, 2012 By Deirdre

One of the things on our list of twenty five things to do before Christmas was to go visit the Festival of Trees in downtown Greenville at the Hyatt Hotel. JDaniel’s preschool had sponsored and decorated a tree that was to be on display and I wanted him to see it. JDaniel’s school tree had a Happy Birthday to Jesus theme. It was such fun to see the birthday hats that his teacher has worked on right there on the tree.There were many trees on display. I think that there were at least twenty five of them. Some displayed a theme that fit the business that had sponsored the tree and others were decorated by school using homemade ornaments. On the way home I thought about all those uniquely decorated and beautiful trees. There weren’t any that were the same. Each displayed the personality of its designer. We needed to have one of our Christmas activities be decorating our own personal tree.

Christmas Activities- Christmas Treasure Tree

We have a three foot tree that we put out for JDaniel upstairs that had yet to be decorated. Seeing all those wonderful trees gave me an idea. Why not have JDaniel decorate the tree with recycled treasures. He loves to collect treasures and used them to create with.

JDaniel and I scoured the house and garage looking for things that he could use to decorate the tree.

Here are some of the things we found for our Christmas activities treasure tree:

Mardi Gras Beads
Hawaiian Lei
Netting From a Bag of Sweet Potatoes
Bottle Caps and Lids
Tulle from last Christmas
Stickers leftover from decorating Party Hat Christmas Trees
Ribbons and Bows
Bread Tags

After we had gathered all the items that could be used to decorate, JDaniel started creating. This was going to be a “Do Your Own Thing” tree JDaniel informed me.

He had a wonderful time putting things on the tree and taking them off. Things were placed over and over again in new spots. Decorating a tree is very serious business and he was going to make sure it was done well. He did a great job with the tree. I love the idea of a Hawaiian lei garland and bow star.

The lei ended up being decorated with foam stickers as did old jar lids and the tree limbs themselves. It was such fun to sit back and watch him work. Old bread tags made wonderful ornaments and ribbon pieces were shoved (placed) into branches to make really whimsical decorations.

He is going to redecorate this tree many times until Christmas I think. It will be fun to watch him create and recreate decorations. I don’t mind I love that he has made recycled treasures into a wonderful Christmas treasure three. He also worked on his small motor, creativity, and planning skills while doing it.

Here are some more Christmas activities:

Fine Motor Christmas Activities

Printable Gingerbread Numbers

Sight Word Christmas Tree

You will find more Christmas activities on my Christmas Learning Activities board on Pinterest.

What sensory activities have your children been working on?

The Lonely Scarecrow Activities for Kids

November 23, 2012 By Deirdre

This week we read a wonderful book called The Lonely Scarecrow by Tim Preston and did a few scarecrow activities. The scarecrow is placed in a field to scare the local animals away from the farmer’s crop, but doing what he was created to do leaves him lonely. He longs to get to know the local animals and finally have friends. Yet they can’t get past his scary face and flapping coat.All through the spring and fall he watches the animals play wishing he could be part of their fun. When winter draws near, the animals scurry to find warm winter homes and he is left alone.

When the snow arrives, the scarecrow is covered from head to toe in it and the animals think he is a snowman. The animals come out to play on and around him. Yet he was afraid that they would fear him again when the snow melted.

Thank goodness they remember who their friend is on the inside when spring comes and his scary features reappear.

Here are our Lonely Scarecrow Activities for Kids:

Haystack Cookies

My sister in law Marcia make the most wonderful haystacks and brings them to our family Thanksgiving celebration. Her version contains peanut butter and chow mein noodles. JDaniel avoids everything with peanut butter in it even though he has decided he likes peanuts. We made our haystacks with chocolate and butterscotch chips, marshmallows, and chow mein noodles to take to our family’s Thanksgiving celebration.

JDaniel thinks they are wonderful!

Measurement Activity with Scarecrow

The Lonely Scarecrow Activities for Kids- Measuring a Scarecrow

JDaniel made this wonderful scarecrow in preschool a few weeks ago. We have had him hanging on our refrigerator. Recently we took him down and used inch cubes to measure him.

We measure the length of his nose.

We measure the length of his smile

It was fun to use some of JDaniel’s school art to work on a math activity.

Here are some wonderful posts that linked up last week:

I love the wild bird study that was done on Like Mama~Like Daughter. Her handprint bird project is amazing.

$Jack & the Beanstalk Math$

This retelling tool for Jack in the Beanstalk from Fantastic Fun and Learning is truly amazing too.

How have you been exploring books this week?

Bats for Kids- Baby Bat’s Lullaby Activities

October 26, 2012 By Deirdre

The links below are affiliate links.We spent time this week reading and exploring books about bats. JDaniel and I really love the book Baby Bat’s Lullaby by Julia Noonan. We spend a lot of time together just the way the mother and child bat do in this book. The mother bat shares with her child many of the things he does during the day that make him special.

This lovely book’s words flow as you read and the rhyming text draws you into their day. I love how the mother bat loves her baby. The pictures and the words both share that message.

Bats for Kids Activities

Bat Text Guide

I created a bat text guide for JDaniel to use while we read the book. We used the guide in several different ways. His first job to turn the guide sideways and pull in under the text as I read the story.

JDaniel’s second was to go through the book with me and look for action words in the story a second time.Next he had to help me look for rhyming words.If you are looking for more information on using a reading guide or viewer, you will find some on this post I wrote for the Kid’s Activities Blog called Simple and Fun Strategies for Reading.Stained Glass Bats

Bats for Kids- Baby Bat's Lullaby Activities

I cut out bats and added shape cutouts to the bats. There was a rectangle bat, a circle bat and a triangle bat. JDaniel’s job was to cut out tissue paper squares to use for the bats.When we both had our parts of the craft ready, JDaniel glued the tissue paper squares to the back of the bats covering the shape cutouts I had made. This bats for kids craft looks wonderful hanging in a window.

Alphabet Bats

JDaniel was given some bats with alphabet letters on their tummies. He was asked to hang them on a tomato cage so the letter would be facing the right direction. The bats have clothes pins glued to the back of them to allow them to be attached to the tomato cage. This was my son’s favorite bats for kids activity!

Here are some wonderful book exploration posts from last week:

I love the elephant Living Life Intentionally create to go with the book Elmer.

Reading Confetti created an amazing paper Light Up Pumpkin to go with the book Spooky Boo!

How have you been exploring books this week?

Halloween Safety Rules and Ways to Review Them

October 24, 2012 By Deirdre

Halloween Safety Rules and Activities to Review Them

We have been reviewing Halloween or Trick or Treating Etiquette at our house for a couple of weeks. I just started this working on Halloween safety rules with JDaniel.I searched the internet to see what safety rules I wanted to cover with him and found a couple of websites with lists of rules. I wish I had know about Living Montessori Now’s Halloween Grace and Courtesy post. I only found it after I had started mine. I like hers a lot.

Here are the ones I chose to cover with JDaniel:

Halloween Safety Rules

1. Children should never trick or treat alone

2. Parents need to check children’s candy before you eat it.

3. Children don’t have to talk to every stranger they meet.
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4. Cross the street at the corner or the crosswalk.

5. Walk close to the curb if your neighborhood does not have sidewalks.

6. Visit houses with lights on.

7. Don’t play near a lit pumpkin.

8. Don’t push to the front of the group to get your candy first.

9. Say please and thank you.

10. Accept your treat at the front door. Don’t go in a stranger’s house.

11. Check your costume and make sure it isn’t too big or too long to walk in.

12. Make sure you can clearly see out of a mask if you costume has one.

Rather than just talk about the safety rules I created two activities with JDaniel to review the rules while playing.

Halloween Safety Rule Activities

The first activity we made was a Halloween Safety Rule Game. We traveled from the house at on the left to the house on the bottom right. When we landed on a green dot, we had to answer a safety rule question. You can find directions on how we created the game on The Studio by Kiwi Crate.

JDaniel loved this game so much we ended up taking it to a restaurant and playing it before our meal came. The rules are in the pumpkin cup.

Then we gathered together items that we could use to play and review the safety rules in a sensory bin.

Here is what we used to review Halloween Safety:

-We used some train track that has a road side to be the road we walk on while trick or treating.

-I found a small pre- lit pumpkin light to represent the pumpkin children shouldn’t play near.

-My sister Kate just sent us the train station we used to represent the house we would visit while trick or treating.

-An odd assortment of characters from JDaniel’s Star Wars collection and his Playskool set also helped represent trick or treaters, the homeowner and a parent.

-I added leaves and small decorative pumpkins to the sensory bin too.

We had a great time sitting at the kitchen table pretending to trick or treat and reviewing the rules.

I hope you will take a moment or two to go over Halloween safety rules with your children. I found going over them while playing helped JDaniel remember them. I bet you can find fun ways play to review them at your house

This post is linked to Mrs.Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday.

It’s Pumpkin Time- Read.Explore.Learn

October 19, 2012 By Deirdre

This week we have been working on pumpkin activities and reading It’s Pumpkin Time! by Zoe Hall. It’s Pumpkin Time walks its readers through the stages of growing a pumpkin from seed to sitting carved on a front step.

The illustrations in this book are amazing. I love the coloring layers and vivid pictures. Sharl Halpern did a wonderful job sharing in pictures each of the stages Zoe Hall described.

What did we do to explore Its Pumpkin Time?

Pumpkin Emotion Game

JDaniel and I created an emotion box and facial features that expressed different emotions. We talked about emotions and how to express them.This activity was created for The Studio by Kiwi Crate. I have written several activities for The Studio. I hope you will check out my page of activities there.

Pumpkin Dice Game

I created a game sheet with ten pumpkins and wrote the numbers 1-10 on one of each of them. JDaniel rolled the dice and then put an acorn on the numbers as he rolled them.We used dice with dots on them so JDaniel could count them. An older child would be able to use a set of dice with numbers on them and add the numbers together to make sums. They could then cover the sums with an acorn.

Here are some of the wonderful posts that linked up last week:

Healthy Eating Starts At Home created an amazing lunch to go along with the book In the Tall, Tall Grass.

Tots and Me has a wonderful moon unit. I really like the activities she selected to learn about the moon. Her moon craters activity really looks like fun.

How have you been exploring books this week? Share your children’s book exploration posts below. I will be featuring them on the Read.Explore.Learn. Facebook page during the next week.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share- Read.Explore.Learn.

October 12, 2012 By Deirdre

Have you ever had a dream that you found gold at the end of the rainbow? Well, a hen has a dream that she will find a hidden treasure trove of corn and she sets out to find it in this wonderful book called Gimme Cracked Corn and I will Share by Kevin O’Malley.The hen convinces another hen to help her seek out the corn that she has dreamt she will find. They have quite an adventure. Yes, they do find the corn.

What did we do with Gimme Cracked Corn?

Corn Cob Math Match

Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share- Read.Explore.Learn- Math Match

I made three corn stalks out of construction paper. Each corn stalk had a number on it. JDaniel had to shift through the corn cobs and find the cobs that matched each number.

Some cobs had dots on them that represented that number. Some had shapes with that number of sides. Some cobs had pictures with that number of objects on them. Corn Cob Painting

Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share- Read.Explore.Learn - Corn Cob Painting

I found some pretend corn cobs at Hobby Lobby and decide that would be great for creating corn paint prints. We filled our turkey roasting pan with newspaper, construction paper, and paint.

12 Top Montessori Activities 2012 - Corn Cob Painting

We put blobs of paint on the right-hand side of the roasting pan and the construction paper on the left-hand side. Then JDaniel rocked the roasting pan from side to side.

When he painting was done, he decided he would be the photographer and I would do the painting. He zoomed up close to the corn cob for his shots. I think he did a wonderful job.

The corn made a really pretty print onto the paper.

Apple Pie Popcorn

I found an amazing recipe for apple pie popcorn on Super Healthy Kids and had to make it with JDaniel.

We mixed 2 cups of microwave popcorn, a dash of cinnamon and 1 cup of apple cinnamon dried apples. Then we put them in a mini pie plate to have for the snack.

Another Fun Corn Activity

B-Inspired Mama had a great guest post exploring concepts based on the book There Was An Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything on her blog. The guest post was written by Educator’s Spin On It.

Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share- Read.Explore.Learn. - Scarecrow Activities

How have you been exploring books this week

Ten Red Apples from Pat Hutchins : Read.Explore.Learn.

September 21, 2012 By Deirdre

We read the book ten apples this week. What fun counting book! The farmer tries to count the apples and his animals want to eat them. This book is filled with humor, problem solving and cute pictures.

What did we do with the book Ten Apple?

Apple Core Puzzle

Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins - Read.Explore.Learn.

I cut out an apple core out of white paper and cut it into puzzle pieces. One side of each piece would match only on side of another piece. Then I glued the red top and bottom the core pieces that would end up of the top and bottom.

JDaniel’s job was to put the pieces in order and then glue them onto a piece of blue paper. It took a lot of figuring to get the pieces just right.

Ten Red Apples Button Count

A counting strip with ten red apples was placed out with a cup of buttons for JDaniel to count with. He started by counting from 1-10. Each apple core needed to have the correct number of buttons on it.

Then I took away all the odd numbered sets of buttons and we counted by twos. We could have added the button onto the apple cores by twos instead. Maybe we will do that next time.

Here are a few wonderful posts that others linked up last week:

Ten Apples: Read.Explore.Learn.- Yarn Apples

3 Dinosaurs made a wonderful apple yarn craft to go with the book Up, Up, Up! It’s Apple Picking Time!

After studying books on the octopus Joyfully Weary made this really cute octopus craft. The bubble wrap tentacles are super cool!

If you like these Ten Red Apples activities , you will like these apple activities too!

Red Apple Spelling Game

Preschool Activities- Five Little Apples Rhymes and Crafts

Building Word Families – Worms and Apples

Cool Math Games for Kids -Appleseed Counting

Sight Word Games- Apple Tree Words

Outside Play- Apples and Apple Orchards Link Up

September 19, 2012 By Deirdre

Welcome to Outside Play a monthly feature on JDaniel4’s Mom that is co-hosted by several other wonderful blogs. This month the focus is on apples. If you have a post on apple picking, visiting a orchard, an outdoor game with apples, a picnic featuring apple related foods or any other apple play, please take a moment and link it up below.

JDaniel and I headed to SkyTop Orchards in North Carolina last week to pick apples and explore all the wonderful play areas it has. He didn’t know we were going ahead of time. I actually didn’t decide until Friday morning while he was in school to go.

It was such a pretty ride heading north. JDaniel silently looked at the beautiful clouds and mountains as I drove.

Outside Play- Apples and Apple Orchards Link Up

SkyTop is such a pretty orchard. We had never been there before. Friends had raved that it was the place to go to get apples. It didn’t disappoint.

You have to walk down hill from the store area to the apples. There are over ten different kinds of apples in various areas of the orchard. Many of the trees on the left were not ready for picking. The trees are the right were and so that is where we headed.

JDaniel took charge of the basket they gave us for gathering apples on the way down the hill toward the Jonathan Gold. An apple guide in the store had said that the trees in that section would be just the right size for JDaniel to pick apples from all by himself.

They were right. JDaniel was able to gather a basket full of apples without even having to stand on his tiptoes. The Jonathan Gold trees were loaded down with beautiful apples.

Once the basket was filled, the task of carrying the apples shifted to me. Actually a basket filled with apples is really heavy I don’t blame JDaniel for not wanting to carry it. When you visit apple orchards all the apple seem to call to you and you end up with heavy baskets.

Then we headed over to check out the goats who didn’t seem to hold JDaniel’s attention and the bamboo forest which did.

JDaniel wanted to know if there were pandas in the forest. I told him that there are not enough pandas in the from there to be some everywhere there is bamboo in the world. Outside Play- Apples and Apple Orchards Link Up

The best part of the bamboo forest was this little bridge. It looked like we were entering a foreign land while crossing it.

If you have an outdoor post with an apple or apple orchards theme you would like to link up, please take a moment and add the badge below to it.

This hop is being co-hosted by the following blogs: Angelique Felix, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, The Fairy and The Frog, Rainy Day Mum, Inspiration Laboratories, Growing a Jeweled Rose, and The Pleasantest Thing.

Naughty Toes Activities for Kids- Read.Explore.Learn

September 14, 2012 By Deirdre

This week we explored Naughty Toes by Ann Bonwill is a wonderful book about finding hobbies that you love. The main character Chloe tries to love ballet the way her sister does, but she just can’t. Chloe isn’t even drawn to wearing the classic pin leotard and shoes. She would rather wear red, purple and green.The dance teacher tells here she has naughty toes. She just can’t convince them to point. She tries to float like a cloud, but her cloud is filled with too much gusto. Thankfully the class pianist realizes she needs to follow her feet and her feet are leading her to tap dancing.

Naughty Toes Activities for Kids- Read.Explore.Learn

What did we do to explore Naughty Toes?

JDaniel inherited a lot of shoes. I thought it would be fun to use them to create some learning activities. As you can tell my sisters tend to buy brown shoes for their children.

Shoe Patterning

Shoes really lend themselves to patterning. I created the order the shoes should be in my setting out the first four shoes place. JDaniel had to repeat the pattern.

We also worked on abab patterns by having the first shoe pointing up and the next shoe pointing down. The same pattern could be done by have the first shoe vertical and the second horizontal.

Match the Letters Shoe Game

Naughty Toes Activities for Kids- Matching Shoes

I put Post-It notes on the bottoms of the shoes and JDaniel had to match the uppercase letters. This activity could be extend by matching the lowecase letter to the uppercase letter. It could be made easier for young children by have the matching letter on the other shoe in the pair. I had the matching letters on different shoes.

If you like our Naught Toes activities, here are some more book related activities:

Fire Safety Themed Book and Activities

Activities Based on Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?

Making a Gnome or Fairy House Based on Bella – The Fairy Ball

Bad Kitty (An Alphabet Book)- Read.Explore.Learn.

September 7, 2012 By Deirdre

This week we explored Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel. Bad Kitty really likes to eat foods that are bad for her like chicken cheesecake, jellyfish jelly and nightingale nuggets. When shhe isn’t served what he likes, he does really bad things like overturn her cat box.She really doesn’t want mushrooms, xigua or vegetable stew.

Bad Kitty (An Alphabet Book)- Read.Explore.Learn.

Bad Kitty takes you through words from A to Z. Four times in this humorous book. Once when the good foods are shared. The second time when what bad things Bad Kitty does are shared. Thirdly when the bad foods are pictures and lastly when the kitty does good things to thank her people for the bad food.

What did we do with the book Bad Kitty?

Cat Whisker’s Counting Game

This cat game is a little like the starfish game we played a few weeks ago. JDaniel and I both had a cat who really needed whiskers and toe claws. We rolled a die to see how many we got to add each time it was our turn.

I tried to keep my cat symmetrical and someone else didn’t. The goal was to give the cat a total of twenty. I think we both saw the number twenty differently.

Hungry Cat Kitchen Search

JDaniel and I both had a cat game board. When it was our turn, we pulled a letter out of a bowl. Then we had to find something in the kitchen that started with that letter for the cat to eat. If we found one, we got to move our cat up a square on the game strip.

Remember Bad Kitty liked to eat odd foods and household items. He did in our game too.