Hands-on Learning Archives - Page 15 of 19

Notebooking for Littles

February 2, 2012Tracy1 Comment

One of the things I have loved about this year is the notebooking we’ve done for our geography study. At the beginning of the year, I wasn’t sure how well it would go, since most blogs and sites recommend lapbooking for littles and notebooking for older kids. After all, both of mine could barely write. But I made the decision based on two facts.

1. I know myself. We did some lapbooking last year for K4, and though we all enjoyed it, it was a lot of work and a lot of planning. In the long run, I knew lapbooking our studies would be something that I would never get to (kind of like scrapbooking). The lapbooks are so cool! And we may still do a couple every now and then, but for a regular activity I didn’t think I had the stick-to-it-tiveness.

2. We made about 5 lapbooks last year, and I also put many of their worksheet pages in a notebook for them to show off and enjoy. Can you guess which of those gets the most traffic? Ironically, it’s their notebooks. It’s only every now and then that I see them pull out the lapbooks. Believe me, if I’m going to put the time in, I want it to pay off long-term with lots of use.

So notebooking was my choice for this year, and here’s what I did to make that choice successful for my young kindergartener and preschooler.

1. I printed off a number of pages before the school year: all of our animal study pages and “Children Just Like Me” pages. Then, I filed them in the back of my notebook. The geography pages I print off at the beginning of each 6 weeks—all of them. These pages I keep filed in their notebooks. Then, on the assigned day, I simply have them pull their notebooks out and turn to the correct page. The advanced prep has kept me from procrastinating and made the process pretty seamless.

Country page notebooking — Notebooking Nigeria

China Flag notebooking — Notebooking China's flag

2. Our notebooking is a combination of coloring and narration. Most of the blanks on the pages I fill in what they have told me. For instance, on our country notebooking page I typically fill in 3 blanks: the continent, the capital city, and the population. They tell me the continent, and I write it in. I tell them the capital and write it in; then, I show them a picture and have them tell me where to place the star (for the capital city) on their picture of the country. Last, I tell them the population and write it in (my son is very impressed with populations and large numbers), and they color the country. On the page for the country flag, I read the facts and guide them as they color the flag the same as the sticker inside their passport. For our “Children Just Like Me” page, my son writes the child’s name, age, country, and city (copying from our book); then the rest of the page is narration. Both kids recounts to me facts about the child’s family, favorite food, religion, hobbies, etc., and I write in what they remember.

Notebooking Children Like Me — Notebooking Children Just Like Me

There are two other elements to our notebook this year. On the second week of our study, we include a study of the country’s animals as part of our “Fun Friday” activities. We make a flip-book using the templates from Expedition Earth. I cut envelopes in half for pockets, glue them to blank sheets of paper, slide the flip-books in place, and insert the pages into their notebooks.

arranging flip-book — Arranging flip-book, largest to smallest

We’ve also classified animals this year: mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, amphibians, and arthropods. I pre-cut the pictures of the animals from our country (provided by Expedition Earth) because the lines are so tight that it makes cutting difficult for the kids. They tell me the classification, and I help them glue those animals in their proper divisions within the notebook.

Notebooking animal classifications — Notebooking animals by classification

The result? They love their notebooks! I love the simplicity! And we have a record of what we’ve covered as well as a place to practice skills like copywork and narration, coloring, organizing, and sorting.

The Land of China

January 30, 2012Tracy

We have had such a good time studying China. Even though, in the back of my mind, I know we could have done so much more with this particular study: panda bears, the Great Wall, etc. I really am excited about what the kids are learning.

I mentioned in a previous post how much my son is enjoying topography and learning the land features of the different countries. As we studied China, he was immediately intrigued by the huge section of purple, a new color that we hadn’t really encountered yet in our country studies. And with his ever-increasing reading skills, he was able to read the topography key all by himself to discover that purple indicated mountains. Who would have thought a child could get so excited about colors on a map!

We’ve also had a lot of fun with our notebook pages. The kids have really gotten into notebooking, and I’m so glad. I debated about which approach to go with, notebooking or lapbooking (not that you have to pick either/or; I made the decision based on the time I knew we would have). While lapbooking is very cool, it takes so much time and space, and I noticed that my kids were much more likely to flip through their notebooks than they were to go back through a lapbook.

For our geography study, we’ve been using the printable notebooking pages from Erica’s Expedition Earth. There are also a number of free printables that Jolanthe offers with her geography study, and we use her “Children Just Like Me” pages. But I found Erica’s geography pages to be a little more age-appropriate for my kiddos. Each week we color the country and draw a star for the capital city. I don’t fill in all of the blanks on the page, just the ones that will stand out to my kids: the continent, the capital, and the population. We also color the country’s flag and talk over a few facts about the flag’s colors.

Because we have our routine set for how we “tour” each country, my son opens each new study with a million questions:”Are we going to read Around the World in 80 Tales?”, “Are we going to read about a kid from China?”, and the big question, “What do they worship?” It has been so moving to be to see his intense interest in the missionaries and spiritual condition of the people in these countries. And to hear his short, innocent prayers that the people groups would have a missionary or get a Bible in their language, I’m often moved to tears.

Another fun aspect of this study was our Chinese meal. I love Chinese food, anyway. And though I love to eat it prepared at a restaurant best, I make a pretty good stir-fry and fried rice. So, we ate at home.

I’m really not a recipe person. My stir-fry is a mix of frozen vegetables, some cut up chicken breast, and Kikkoman’s stir-fry sauce. For my fried rice, I steam some edamame beans, squeeze them from their pods, and set aside. I then scramble 1 or 2 eggs (depending on how much rice I am making). Then, toss some cooked rice into the pan to saute with some olive oil, add the scrambled egg and stir, then add the edamame and stir until the rice has the crunchy texture I want. Nothing super fancy.

Both the kids had fun trying to eat a little rice with chopsticks, but notice we all forks for back-up.

It was definitely a fun finish to our China study. Next up, the land of Russia!

Casual Friday activities

January 16, 2012Tracy

Last fall, I implemented our casual Fridays or “fun” Fridays, as the kids call them, where we lay aside our structured day for more relaxed learning. The workbooks, the readers, even the schedule are laid aside, and we tackle a little more “living” learning. It has worked out so well for us, such a nice finish for our week. Not only do the kids need it mentally, but I’ve found that I really need the change as well.

We make flip-books of the animals from the country we’ve studied or bake some cookies together or play games. Here’s a peak at what we did this last Friday.

Dice add-up game from Living Math Ideas. He played this nearly all day! It was a huge hit. Roll the dice, write the two numbers in the blank, add it up!

Math supplement notebook — I put together a math supplement notebook from the printables at schoolsparks.com. The little one was thrilled, and she worked out of this notebook nearly all day!

They chose to do these activities at the dining room table. “Fun” Fridays are our day to get out of the school room a little bit. I was really surprised at what a huge hit these two activities turned out to be. They kept pulling them back out to work on them again and again. Before lunch, after lunch, after nap/quiet time, after supper (to show Daddy)—and then they asked to do it again the next day. I’d say these were definitely worth repeating.

We did take a little break to get a few more things in, like reading. My son chose the back porch area for this; and as it tends to get a little chilly back there, we all grabbed our favorite throws and blankets and cuddled together while my son read to us.

Usborne Very First Readers: "Knight Fight" — I chose this book from our Usborne Very First Readers set, since it reviewed our special sound of the week: "igh."

My son's choice and a hit with my daughter, too: Big Pig on a Dig.

Usborne Bible Stories — The story of Noah—this book is a dual-reader. My son read the top lines, and I finished the story with the text at the bottom of each page.

Next, we took a moment to remember last year. I’d made a “yearbook” of sorts using Shutterfly, and then bided my time waiting for a significant sale. The sale code finally came, and I finally ordered a book of last year’s memories. The kids had a lot of fun reminiscing.

The blur of the photos is from the fact that I could hardly get pictures: the two of them were excitedly jumping and pointing and bobbing up and down. It was a fun stroll down memory lane.

And that was our day! A nice break from routine while still covering the essentials.

Preschooler’s Pick

January 12, 2012Tracy2 Comments

It’s a constant challenge for me to keep my preschooler occupied while I work with my son, even though she does fairly well with independent work. I sometimes get absolutely stumped—what do I give her to do next? And it’s not as though I don’t have a wealth of activities for her! Maybe it’s the pregnancy-brain. Maybe it’s just that time of year. But I will admit that my hardest days with her are the ones when I have neglected to fill her pockets with activities.

Then, my mom gave me the most brilliant piece of advice: let her fill her own pockets! Ah! What a magnificent change that has made!

So, my three year old and I sat down and made an agreement. She willingly completes the 3 or 4 things I have for her, and she may fill the other 7 or so pockets with whatever she chooses. The result? Not only is she more willing to do what I give her to do, but she contentedly works through her pockets without disturbing my time with my kindergartener. Oh, I can’t tell you the blessed relief that has filled our school room.

Here are a few of the activities she’s done this week—some of my choosing (the academic-looking ones) and most of her choosing.

Counting Bears — Our family counting bears are always a favorite. Here she has decided to line them up in a row around the table: "decorating" she calls it.

Pocket #1 was chosen to hold a few duplo blocks, with which she played quite happily for over 15 minutes.

Play do—of course. Why couldn't I think of that?

chalkboard and chalk—another 15 to 20 minute activity

Nest — Of course, Mommy had to throw in a few of the activities. She's counting eggs and graphing them at the bottom. And let me add, she took this very seriously, asking my son and I to please be quieter with his flashcards.

N and dot stickers — Fine Motor Skills: placing dot stickers on the letter N; she also wanted to count how many dots it took to make the letters (23 for big N, in case anyone was curious).

N is for nest — She also had fun playing in the lapbook my son had made last year on "n"ests. She built a nest for the bird out of feathers, dry leaves, yarn, and sticks.

Nest lapbook — Here's a closer look at our lapbook.

Other activities included a coloring book, a note for Daddy, a coloring page, and some of her own flashcards.

I can’t wait to see what else she decides to put in her pockets. And it certainly takes a load off of me. And just in case you need a few more ideas, here’s a link to Erica’s blog where she relates some activities for her toddler/preschooler.

A Trip to Egypt

December 6, 2011Tracy

During my blogging break, we covered Egypt in our geography study. There is so much to cover with this country! Picking and choosing what to study was a real challenge, but a fun challenge and a fun study. Our schedule for geography is pretty close to the same each week.

Week 1

Day 1: Stamp the passport with flag sticker; learn a new geography song; find our new country on the map and globe.

Day 2: Read from our atlas and talk about geography of our country; find our new geo terms in Geography from A to Z

Day 3: Color our country and mark the capital (and any other key features) on our notebooking page.

Day 4: Read about the country’s flag and color our notebooking page.

Day 5: (Our Casual Friday) Watch a video, do a craft, read about the animals of the country, etc.

Week 2

Day 1: Discuss the spiritual needs of the country from Operation World website; pray for an unreached people group of that country.

Day 2: Read Children Just Like Me and complete notebooking page.

Day 3: Read Around the World in 80 Tales and any library books from on that country.

Day 4: Read a story of a missionary to that country.

Day 5: (Our Casual Friday) Spend the entire school time studying animals from that country and reviewing our animal classifications (mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, arthropods).

For our Egypt study, I actually put Netflix to work. I have read on other people’s blogs how they love using Netflix for homeschool, and it gave me the idea to look for some Imax films for our geography study. Of course, Egypt was a good place to start. So we popped some popcorn and sat down to watch “The Mystery of the Nile.” I wasn’t sure how they would do with a film like this, but they absolutely loved it. It was the perfect casual Friday activity.

Preschool Play and School

October 13, 2011Tracy1 Comment

I thought I’d spend today updating you on the little one’s activities. She has good days and bad days in the school room; and though overall I’d say we have a blast, we still have days that are much less than successful. Of course, I don’t often think to grab the camera during the fits, so all you ever get to see is her sweet smiling face. But just to encourage you, my little one also has days when nothing is going to make her happy.

On our better days, however, we play with some of our Letter of the Week activities.

Then, she usually has a couple of fine motor skills activities: cutting, threading/lacing, and other coordination fun. This time, I had her balance the pom-poms on top of the pegs. She was thrilled with this, and experimented with different sizes for awhile to see which ones worked best.

We also love our teddy bears. I pull these out 2 to 3 times a week and use them with both of the kids. With the little one, we practice color sorting, size sorting, counting, and filling shapes.

Last of all, we tackle some counting and number recognition. I went ahead and pulled out my pumpkin cards the other day, just for the fun of fall.

She always amazes me with what she is learning, many times picking up on lessons when I thought she was most uninterested or resistant. I don’t force her to do “school” with us, and sometimes she’ll opt to go play rather than finish her pockets. But most of the time, she loves being with us and having big girl things to do just like her brother has. And, of course, we love having her playing alongside.

Appreciating Renoir

October 12, 2011Tracy

We’ve been working on our second piece of art from Renoir, Still Life with a Bouquet. And my little artists have been meticulously creating their own rendition.

I was thrilled with the little one’s project this time. In my last post on art, I mentioned how she likes to express her creativity. But this time, she really got into the project. I worked with her a good deal, helping to point out the colors. And the fact that she had new coloring pencils probably helped.

Still Life2 — With the little one, my priority is just to get her to match the colors with the original.

The challenge with my son right now is getting him to relax when he colors. He doesn’t think he has colored a page unless it is covered with the richest, waxiest color his crayon can produce. And he attempts this same strategy with his coloring pencils. Of course, it kills his hand muscles. To combat that, we’ve been discussing the light and dark areas in the picture, and I’ve been showing him how to hold his pencil to change the intensity of his color.