Teaching with Technology: Stop Motion Videos (Sea Anemones)

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We gave new life to our sea animal research project by turning our research information into a stop-motion video!

We gave new life to our sea animal research project by turning our research information into a stop-motion video!


My son’s science class in our co-op finished learning about the ocean just before break. Although there is not often take-home work, the teacher did in this case give the class an assignment: learn about a sea animal and report back to the class in some sort of presentation (a poster, a pamphlet, etc.). Since I absolutely love everything to do with the Coral Reef, I strongly encouraged him to so something coral reef related. (I would have been happy with something else if he really wanted.
It was finally time to give him all the pieces of my Coral Reef Unit! When he found the drawing component a bit too tedious, we changed is final project into a stop-motion video using a simple app on his tablet! Continue reading →

To Grandmother’s House! Workbox Ideas for the Car

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workbox for the carWe will certainly go over the river and through some woods, but our journey to grandmother’s house will take at least two days of solid driving in the car before we make it!
We have traveled across the country with our two kids twice before. We will take plenty of breaks, and I do have a tablet set up with plenty of applicable movies. But I am also realistic about tablet time not always being a possibility, and so I also have prepared for the fact that we are going to be squished in a car for a long time, and my two kids (ages 7 and almost 3) are going to be bored and uncomfortable.
To add to the holidays, I also wrapped the games I am bringing for the kids. I was not thinking about this post at the time, so I already wrapped it all! Much of what I wrapped up were things we already owned, but I am excited nonetheless for it to be a “surprise” for the kids as we go along the road.
wrapped workbox
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Practice Writing with Personal Note Cards

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It is about time that I provided a blank note card alternative to my Thank You Cards product for my son’s personal use.
‘Tis the Season for….writing Christmas cards! I admit, I am really bad at this one. I put it off every year. A few years I have not sent anything.
My son, on the other hand, loves to create his own birthday cards, Christmas cards, “How are you?” cards, and so forth. But, he definitely still needs to have primary-grade lines to help him keep straight.

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Numbers Busy Box

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numbers busyboxThis week I thought I’d send some fun numbers activities and games in my daughter’s workbox. I’m finding that because she’s such an active one, I’ve got to give her lots of active games each week. I can picture her spreading these games out on the floor to enjoy.

  1. Numbers (1-5) tubes. I found this activity on Pinterest (see the blog post here) and I loved it! I was able to replicate it without too many difficulties, and Strawberry enjoys playing with the set.
  2. Ducky Counting (posted as a freebie at my shop). I made this a few months ago. My daughter loves her ducks!
  3. Numbers counting mats. This was an inexpensive game I bought for my son when he was young. My daughter likes matching the numbers and the backside has places to match the items to the correct room it belongs in.
  4. Self-Correcting Number Puzzles (1-6). These game from a larger game (afflink) that I got years ago! I only selected out the 1-6 cards so Strawberry can play with a limited number of puzzles at a time.
  5. Puzzle Counting Book. Books are so much fun when they are also puzzles! This Caillou book was a gift (afflink).
  6. Miscellaneous picture books about numbers concepts. (not pictured). I have 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and Chicka-Chicka 1-2-3 (afflinks). I may find more to add in!

What do you do to introduce number concepts to your young child?
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ABCs Busy Box Ideas

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Strawberry loves the LeapFrog videos that teach the letters. She is quite adept at recognizing letters (especially uppercase letters) as we go about our daily life, and often recalls the LeapFrog word most frequently associated with it. Thus, the “C” is “Cold” and the “H” is Hot. I decided to send a few letter activities in her busy box this week. She’ll loved the ABCs Busy Box! Here’s what I had for her.

abc workbox
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Embracing Mess: 3 Reasons to Let Mess In (Paper Mache USA)

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Embracing Mess: Three Great Reasons to Let Mess In
Despite the fact that I am a homeschooling mom to two, and therefore I am surrounded by my kids all day, I cannot stand chaos and mess. I just do not do well. My son has never been overly interested in crafts projects. He likes building projects and reading and putting things together, but he too does not like mess.
My daughter is a different story. She wants to try it all!
So, when I read Recipes for Play a few weeks ago (reviewed on Rebecca Reads), I started feeling the urge to try something messy and drastically different. I saved some newsprint and bought paints. We were going to make a three-dimensional paper mache model of the United States. I learned to let mess in, and I learned about teaching in the process!  Continue reading →

Hands-On LDS Devotional: Painting Lehi’s Dream

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Painting Lehi's dreamI love to start our school day with a simple devotional but I’m struggling with how to make it memorable for my young son when he has a sister dancing around distracting him. My son is seven now, so I know he can do more than simply listen to the words of scriptures. I know he understands.
The past few weeks we were revisiting General Conference talks but now we are back to our (very slow) study of The Book of Mormon.
This week I decided to ask Raisin respond to what we read (1 Nephi 8) by painting it. Continue reading →

Shapes Workbox

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shapes workboxThis week I want to clarify that I try to keep all the activities that my daughter is to do during her “preschool” time need to fit in one box! I found a great carry-all craft box like this one (affiliate link) that has a few compartments. It works really well, and I need it to be self-contained since I usually have my arms full of other things for the class that I teach!
My daughter has shown an interest in shapes recently, so I decided to put together a few shape activities for the adults who watch Strawberry to do with her. Here’s what her workbox includes this week. Continue reading →

Trees Read and Play

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I’m glad to be a part of a great Halloweeen Read and Play blog hop today as well. The Halloween-ish book I chose to focus on is The Spooky Old Tree by Stan and Jan Berenstain. I loved this book when I was a child, so I love that it has lived on in to my children’s generation. Strawberry loves the “three bears” (as she calls them).
For my toddler daughter’s workbox this week, then, I decided to continue the fall-ish theme started with apples last week by playing with trees!
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