reading Archives - Page 2 of 2

8 Ice Cream File Folder Games for Learning

July 30, 2013 By Deirdre

JDaniel will start kindergarten in a few weeks. I decided to create 8 file folder ice cream games to review skills I thought he would be learning or reviewing at the beginning of school. On Friday I shared two of the ice cream file folder games in a post called Preschool Activities- Ice Cream Games. If you visited that post of Friday, I hope you won’t mind my sharing them again in this post.

Here are all eight of the ice cream games for learning that I made:

Math Activities

Number Matching

jdaniel4smom_icecream_folder_idea_counting_dots

Matching the number on the scoop to the correct cone required counting the dots on some of the cones. I love that my son self checked his answers to confirm that he was selecting the correct cone.

Button Count

Counting out the correct number of button to place on each scoop to match the number on the cone required number sense and eye had coordination. My son counted each set of buttons before placing them on the cone.

Addition Cones

We worked together to select the correct numbers for each addition sentence. My son put one scoop on a cone at a time. Then we added the correct number of buttons. Finally we worked out what number to add on top of the scoop by putting the bottom number in our heads and counting on with buttons.

Language Arts/ Reading

Letter Recognition

Matching the correct lowercase letter to the correct uppercase letter could have been tricky. I chose to focus on the beginning of the alphabet. Many of the letters at the beginning of the alphabet are confusing for kids. Letters like b, d, and g look similar to some children.

Building Sight Words

For this activity we had to read the word on the cone and search for the letters that we needed to build a word. Then we reread the sight words.

Sight Word Concentration

I selected four sight words and put them on two ice cream scoops. Then we turned them upside above the cones. My son had to search for the matches. Finding the matches wasn’t hard. There were only four words to look for. The hard part was reading the words. If a word couldn’t be read, it had to be put back and attempted again when it was selected.

Other Learning Activities

Color Words

For this game my son had to match the color word with its matching color scoop. I read the color words for my son and had him repeat them. I picked basic colors. It would be fun try some more unique colors.

Pattern Match

This final ice cream game for learning had my son matching the pattern on the cone with the same pattern on a scoop of ice cream. This was a wonderful activity for introducing vocabulary words like zig-zag, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal.

We had a wonderful time reviewing learning concepts with all 8 ice cream games for learning. My son really enjoyed them. I think I will be working on more with other themes.

Here are some more wonderful games for learning:

Cootie Catcher Learning Games

Cup Holder Math Games

Ninja Turtle Learning Games

What are some other skills I could cover with file folder games?

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Preschool Activities- Ice Cream Games

July 26, 2013 By Deirdre

Should I Share My Ice Cream? (An Elephant and Piggie Book) is so cute. Elephant really wants to share his ice cream cone. He truly does, but while he is deciding what to do something happens to his ice cream. I bet you can guess what happens. No, he doesn’t play ice cream games. No, he doesn’t set it down to do preschool activities. Yes, it does melt. You really feel for him.

Preschool Activities- Ice Cream Games rolling

Elephant is lucky! Piggie ( his best friend) arrives on the scene and share his ice cream with him. Don’t you love that he does.

I love that both Elephant and Piggie think about sharing with a friend. Sharing is such an important thing to be able to do especially if the thing you are sharing is something you really love.

What did we do to explore this book?

We made pretend ice cream and played ice cream shop. We also reviewed learning concepts using ice cream games. (They would be great for preschool activities or early elementary aged activities.) Here are two of the games we played. There will be a post on Wednesday, July 31st sharing all nine of the ice cream folder games I created.

Creating Pretend Ice Cream and Playing Ice Cream Shop

The following recipe was used to make pretend ice cream:

Pretend Ice Cream Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups of hair conditioner

1 1/2 cups of corn starch

3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder

Directions: Mix all the ingredients in the bowl until the mixture looks creamy.

You could add food coloring and extracts to make other pretend ice cream flavors.

JDaniel had the best time using an ice cream scoop to serve the pretend ice cream in colorful plastic bowls. The pretend ice cream was creamy and easily formed rounded scoops. (It was just a tad sticky, but nothing like goop is.)There was plenty of pretend ice cream to play with. JDaniel filled two bowls and there was still some left in the large mixing bowl.

It was delicious as far a homemade pretend ice cream that you won’t ever really eat because it has hair conditioner in it can be. It was really easy to spoon out of the bowl and it looked like real ice cream. If were to make this in a classroom with a group of children, I would have to be very clear that eating even tasting was just not allowed. I wouldn’t want anyone to get sick. We just pretended to savor spoonfuls of the pretend ice cream at my house.

After pretending to serve the ice cream, we played with it. It easily rolled into balls and snakes. I was surprised at how malleable it was.

More Preschool Activities

File Folder Ice Cream Games

Counting Ice Cream Game in a Folder

I simply glued several construction paper cones and ice cream scoops to a file folder. Onto each of the cones I wrote a number. JDaniel was asked to read me the number. Then I had him put the correct number of button sprinkles onto the ice cream scoop on top of each cone.

JDaniel counted out the correct number for each scoop in his hand before putting them on the scoop. I then counted the button on each scoop to see it were correct.

This is a very simple game, but it really helps children make abstract (the actual number) numbers more concrete (visual displayed with real objects kids can touch).

Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching in a Folder

This time uppercase letters were written on cones glued into a folder. JDaniel was to put its matching lowercase letter on top of the cone. “D” and “B” are tricky for young children. They can be for my guy. I was impressed that he got them without and trouble.

This was a easy, but he asked me to make cones in folders for the rest of the alphabet. I guess he liked these preschool activities.

How did you explore books this week? If you have a post you would like to share, please link it up below. Once you have added your post, please visit at least three others.

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ABCs of Exploring Books with Reading Games and Crafts

January 11, 2013 By Deirdre

This post contains affiliate links.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I shared the first two part of this series on the ABCs of Exploring Books with Reading Games and Crafts. On Monday I shared reading games and crafts that begin with the letters A-H. Tuesday I shared reading games and crafts that started with the letters I-Q.

Today instead of sharing a book and the activities we did to explore it. I am going to finish the series of ABCs of Exploring wit the letters R-Z. There is still a place below to link up your Read.Explore.Learn. post below.

ABCs of Exploring Books with Reading Games and Crafts R-Z

Here are reading games and crafts ideas that start with the letters R-Z :

Reused Royal Tube Scepter

After reading the story Potty Animals: What to Know When You’ve Gotta Go!scepter with a cardboard tube and ribbon. I love how the ribbons swirled. Ribbon Spool Racing We loved reading the book That’s not fair, hare! After reading the book, we created ribbon spool racers displaying a tortoise and a hare. During our races, the turtle and hare both had turns at winning. Rolling Out Play Dough

The snail shell in the book Ordinary Oscar became part of a play dough exploration. I printed out a picture of a snail and JDaniel created a long narrow piece of play dough that he could display on the snail’s spiral shell.   S Square Paper Plate Craft

  I am not sure why we had a square yellow plate, but it sure made a pretty sunflower paper plate craft. JDaniel made this sunflower after reading the books Sunflower Houseand to be like the sun.  Spool Painting Painting the foliage and flowers on trees with spools was a lot of fun after reading Hopper’s Easter SurpriseSpelling with Clothes Pins    A file folder, some clothes pins with letters written on them and a picture of an aardvark made for a fun spelling activity to do after reading The Awful Aardvarks Shop for School (Reading Railroad)Snacks with Book Themes

After reading a book about the fire truck, JDaniel had a fire truck snack. Book themed snacks are fun to make and children really enjoy them.

Sewing or Stitching a CharacterA book character can be traced onto cardboard and then made into a sewing card that your children can weave yarn through. Just like the goat JDaniel worked on after reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff (My First Fairy Tales)

TTesting Out Concepts

JDaniel read about Fletcher catching leaves in the book Fletcher and the Falling Leaves and decided that it would be fun to try. I took out his butterfly net and JDaniel tried to catch falling leaves.

Transportation We read the book Madeline in Londonand created a double-decker bus using an old cracker box. Old boxes are great for creating transportation. Trains, plains, and automobiles can all be made out of old boxes.

  U Understanding Concepts in a BookWe used an old orange juice box to make a robot that would help us review the initial consonants of words after reading Maisy Goes to Preschool.

V Validate Feelings Talked About After reading a book about feelings like Llama Llama Misses Mama, JDaniel painted worry rocks to take with him to preschool.   WWrite a Poem

JDaniel and I composed a poem about the moon after reading the book The Fox in the Dark.  X X-Ray Craft

We read the book My Mom Has X-Ray Visionand then JDaniel made a mom with x-ray vision out of noodles, paper, and old 3-D glasses.Y Yarn PaintingYarn can be used in so many ways. In December JDaniel used it to make a Christmas card to send to his uncle who is serving in Afghanistan.

Z

ZooIf you read If I Ran the Zoo you could visit the zoo. That was exactly what we decided to do.  How have you been exploring children’s books this week?

ABCs of Exploring Books with Children: A-H

January 7, 2013 By Deirdre

Many of you made New Year’s resolutions to do more with your children or to be better parents. The bloggers of the Kid Blogger Network are hosting a ABC event that will probably cover the area you wanted to work on. There are posts that contain lists with related post on Mom Tips and Tricks, School Activities, Learning Through Play, Literacy and Arts and Crafts.

Click here to view all of the blog participating in the ABC event along with their topics.

Due to the fact that I host a weekly link up based on exploring concepts discussed in children’s books called Read.Explore.Learn, I thought my ABC list should be about about exploring books.

When I was a classroom teacher, I used books to introduce new concepts to my students all the time. Not every child came school with the same experiential background. By reading a book on a topic those who need some foundation building learned some facts on that topic and those that had already learned about that topic had their mind refreshed.

After reading a book, I think it is helpful for children to make a learning connection to the concepts that have just read. There are so many ways to explore books.

Today we will look at activities from A-H. Tomorrow I will cover activities from I-Q and on Friday I will share activities from R-Z.

Here are some of exploring books that we have tried at my house and others I have admired found on other blogs:

A

Album of Book Related Concepts

JDaniel and I read a book about Veteran’s Day and then talk about how his grandfather was veteran. We put photos of the types of planes he flew that I found on the internet and pictures of his grandfather. into an album.

Animal Snack

After reading the book Night Tree last Christmas, we made a snack for the birds to have and hung it from a tree we planted for JDaniel in our year.

Acting Out a Story

Whether it is the child acting out the story or having them use toys to do so helps them share what the story was about and what they learned from it. We used stuffed rabbits to retell the story Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!

B

Bring a Meal

Bringing a meal like breakfast you made for Mom on Mother’s Day is a way to extend the concepts you heard in a book based on Mother’s Day.

Bug Counting

Simple materials like bug shaped erasers and bug box can be used to explore the counting concepts covered in a book like One Little Blueberry.

C

Craft Furniture

If a book has a specific piece of furniture that is featured in it, like the bed in Princess and the Pea. You can crease a simple bed with construction paper.
Compare to Another Story

After reading one book on farm life, JDaniel and I read another farm themed book. We then talked about the similarities and differences of the books.

Cookie Cutter Retelling

We happen to have a lot of cookie cutters at our house. It is fun to search through our bins of cookie cutters to find ones that relate to a story we have read. We can then use them to retell the story just as we did when we read Room for a Little One about the animals around Jesus in the manger.
Cards
After reading a Christmas story last year, JDaniel helped me make homemade thank you notes to send to friends and family.

Craft a Flower

Valentine’s Day and a Valentine’s Day book last year lead to JDaniel making craft that was a vase with flowers to give as a gift.

Cook a Dessert

My family loves haystack cookies so, after reading a book about a scarecrow we made some for dessert.

D

Dough Ornaments

Dough ornaments are fun to make. We made some last year after reading a book about Christmas ornaments.

Design Cardboard Transport System

After reading the book The Red Sled, we made a sled for JDaniel’s bear Ted to ride on just like the bear in the book.

E

Experiment with Concepts

JDaniel and I read a book about a world of ice cream and then we made our own ice cream by rolling a coffee can back and forth.

Eat a Snack Based on a Character

Just last month JDaniel and I had a snack based on the Hobbit after reading a simple picture book based on the book.

Experience Concepts of a Story

Last summer right before going to the beach we read a book about tide pools and when we went to the beach we build one.

Explore Emotions

After reading a book on pumpkins that talked about emotions, we played with a felt pumpkins emotions activity and talked about feelings.

F

Fake or Pretend Play

We haven’t had a lot of snow here in South Carolina, after reading a book about snow we played with fake snow (cotton balls) in a sensory bin.

Field Trips

Field Trips are a great way to extend concepts from a books. We have gone to visit an apple orchard after reading about one as well as a local garden after reading a garden related book.

Finger Puppets

Creating finger puppets like an elephant made of a recycled cd or a turkey out of a cardboard box are wonderful tools for retelling or extending a story.

G

Grab Similar Toys and Pretend

You may not always have a toy that is just like the characters in a book, but you can grab similar ones or have the toy pretend they are the character. We did that with a book based on ocean animals.

H

Hand Puppet

Hand puppets are great for retelling just as finger puppets are. We made a fox puppet to go along with a Dr. Seuss book that still comes out to retell his book along with other books.

Help a Character Dress Up

A simple outline of a character can be dressed up in clothes that wore in the story with cloth, paper, or other craft elements.

Reminder: Tomorrow I will be sharing ABCs of Exploring Books with Children- Part Two: I-P

For more literacy ABC posts you may want to visit the wonderful blogs below.

Books for Preschoolers from Mommy and Me Book Club

Early Literacy from Playdough to Plato

Graphic Novels from Pragmatic Mom

Learning to Read Through Play from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

Learning to Write from NurtureStore

Reading Comprehension for Pre K-Grade 1 from The Wise Owl Factory

Storytelling from A Mom with a Lesson Plan

New Year’s Eve Sensory Bin

December 27, 2012 By Deirdre

With New Year’s Eve coming up next week I thought JDaniel would enjoy exploring some of the elements of a New Year’s Eve celebration. A quick visit to our local five and dime and a rummage through cabinets provided a variety of objects for JDaniel to explore.

I filled a turkey roasting pan with some of the following New Year’s Eve sensory bin objects:

paper horns

plastic cups wrapped in sparkly pipe cleaners

streamers

black eyed peas and various beans

red plastic spoon

funny glasses

a tracing tool in the shape of a clock

cookies cutters for the number 1-9

JDaniel had a grand time looking over each element in the New Year’s Eve sensory bin. He sorted through everything to see exactly what was in the bin and how much of each item there was. Then he put in everything, but the glasses back in to play with. JDaniel had too wear the glasses. I knew he would love them.

There isn’t a right or wrong way to explore the New Year’s Eve sensory bin. You can fill cups or horns with beans. You can make all kinds of noises with the horns. You can stretch, throw, or wrap the streamers! The goal is too just have fun.

With this bin I sat with JDaniel and talked over each of the objects and why I had put them in the bin. With some bins I just let JDaniel dig in and play. He has a grand time playing and learning while he works with the various items in the bin.

What kinds of learning can be explored using a this New Year’s Eve sensory bin?

Language

Letter formation- The beans can be formed into letters as can the other objects in the bin.

Oral Communication- Children can talk about what they are doing as they explore.

Storytelling- Children can make up a story using objects in the bin as props.

Vocabulary Development- Parents can introduce holiday related words like celebration, countdown, etc..

Math

Number Sequence- Children can line up the cookie cutters in the correct order.

Measuring Volume- Children can measures how many spoonfuls of beans can fill a cup.

Measuring Length- Children can measure the length of the streamers.

Counting Objects- Children can count how many of each object there is.

Compare Numbers of Objects- Children can find object that there are more of than the horns.

Number Sentences- Children can add the number of cups to the number of cookie cutters.

Music

Homemade shaker- The beans can be put in the cup and a child can put the clock on the top of the cup and shake it.

Spoon Playing- Children can explore what objects make the loud or soft sounds when tapped with the spoon.

Horn Playing- Toot out songs and march around.

Fine Motor Skills

Clock Tracing– Children can use the clock tracing tool to create a clock as well as a specific time on a clock.

I bet you can come up with dozen of other ways to explore this bin. I bet your children can too.

If you are interested in learning more about sensory bins, you can check out the bins I have pinned on my Sensory Bin Pinterest board.