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Archive for the ‘Kindergarten’ Category

Teaching Calendar Math: Engaging Tips for Educators

A calendar is a great tool for teaching math, science, and some social studies. Just look at all the things that you can teach with calendar math.

  • Days of the week
  • Months of the year
  • Yesterday
  • Today
  • Tomorrow
  • Numbers 1-31
  • How many days until ____?
  • Holidays and other special days
  • Seasons
  • patterns
  • shapes
  • colors

Now let’s talk about how to teach these various topics. Not all topics need to be taught on the same day.

  • How to teach the days of the week, months of the year, seasons, weather, today, yesterday, tomorrow, and numbers up to 31:
    • Get a calendar
    • Everyday say “today is (day of the week, Month of the Year, and then the number).
      • for example,” today is Wednesday, August 20th”.
      • As you say every part of this point to the part of the calendar that tells us this.
    • Now ask some questions:
      • If you make your own calendar, put a number out of place then ask the child to find it.
      • What day was yesterday?
      • What day will be tomorrow?
      • How many days are in a week?
      • What are the days of the week?
      • How many months are in a year?
      • What are the months of the year?
      • What was last month?
      • What is next month?
      • Ask what is the current season?
      • Ask what was the last season?
      • Ask what is the coming season?
      • Ask questions about the season/weather such as:
        • What kind of clothes do you wear in this season?
        • What kind of weather do we normally have in this season?
          • Is it hot, cold, rainy, snowy, etc.
        • Ask what is the weather today?
          • Is it sunny, cloudy, partly cloudy, raining, snowing, etc.
          • Is it hot, warm, cool, or cold today?
  • How to teach counting up to 31 or down from 31 or less.
    • Count the days in the month, pointing to each number as you count it.
    • Count backwards from any number.
    • Ask questions:
      • How many days until the end of the month?
      • How many days have we had in this month?
      • If there is a special day coming up, ask how many days until (special day)?
  • How to teach about Holidays and other special occasion:
    • As you get close to any Holiday or special occasion, do these things:
      • Explain that (Holiday / Special occasion) is coming up.
      • Point out on the calendar where the day is.
      • Ask how many more days until (Holiday/Special occasion).
      • Tell about the Holiday / Special occasions the days leading up to it.
  • How to teach patterns, shapes, and colors.
    • Every month pick a different pattern to teach. The patterns could be:
      • shapes
      • colors
      • shapes and colors put together
    • Now decide what kind of pattern. It could be:
      • abab
      • abbabb
      • abcabc
      • ect.
    • Draw the pattern on the calendar.
    • On the 1st day have the child look at the calendar and see it he/she can find the pattern.
    • Discuss the pattern daily with the child. Ask questions about it such as:
      • If the pattern was extended what would the next color/shape be?
      • What type of pattern is it?
        • abab
        • abbabb
        • abcabc
        • ect.

Category:

1st grade, 1st grade free resources, early learning, Education, Kindergarten, Teaching ideas

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Essential Kindergarten Resources for Home Learning

In Kindergarten students are about halfway between preschool and 1st grade. Here are some links to get you started. 

Math

Language

Social Studies

Science

Art

P.E. 

Seasonal Units

Misc.

If you prefer pre-made lesson plans, consider this choice. It is available for just $5 per month.

36 Weeks of Engaging Kindergarten Lesson Plans

Category:

early learning, Education, Kindergarten

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Engaging Children: The Power of Hands-On Learning

There is an old Chinese Proverb that says,

Tell Me and I Forget; Teach Me and I May Remember; Involve Me and I Learn

When trying to teach children, this is helpful to remember. Children need to be involved in what they are learning. Think about what you remember the best. If you are like me, you remember learning from your mistakes more than from your successes. You probably are more likely to remember things when you learned in some hands-on way. Now apply these memories to teaching your children. Involving the child in something hands-on that is fun creates a fun memory for the child. Because they are able to remember doing the activity, they have also learned the information.

Category:

1st grade, 1st grade free resources, 2nd grade free resources, 3rd grade free resources, 4th grade free resources, 5th grade, 6th grade free resources, 7th grade, 8th grade, early learning, Education, High School, Kindergarten

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Top Homeschool Resources for Beginners

 Homeschooling Resources

1. Easy Peasy All-in-one Homeschool: Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool – A complete, free online Christian homeschool curriculum for your family and mine (allinonehomeschool.com)

This is a great place for beginner homeschoolers. It has everything that you need to begin with. I still use this site, and I have been homeschooling for about 12 years now. I like that you don’t have to buy anything- just paper and ink. If you live near a library, you sometimes can print there for free.

2. Free Homeschool Curriculum – Freedom Homeschooling

Links to all sorts of homeschooling resources.

3. Library

Don’t forget to check-out your local library. They have tons of books. Check there before you buy any book.  Also, many libraries have great resources on the websites.

4. Free eBooks | Project Gutenberg

If the book is a bit old, check here. It is free to use. and you don’t have to create yet another account.

5. Under the Home Online Homeschool Curriculum – Home

Great for K-5th. Has a wonderful poetry section and it has great ideas on hands-on teaching of Shakespear.

6. Thift stores

You can find lots of books and sometimes unused homeschool curriculum at discount prices.

7. Comprehensive Homeschool Resources by Grade and Subject

A veteran homeschool mom offers resources and links for various grade levels and subjects, including lesson plans and additional educational topics.

Category:

1st grade, 1st grade free resources, 2nd grade free resources, 3rd grade free resources, 4th grade free resources, 5th grade, 6th grade free resources, 7th grade, 8th grade, early learning, Education, High School, Kindergarten

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Boosting Your Child’s Hand-Eye Coordination

We all want our children to be the best that they can be. We want them to learn and grow. However, sometimes things don’t go quite as planned. Today I want to talk about two things that could be the problem. These two things go hand in hand. It is eye hand coordination and small muscle strength in the hands. Both the eye and the hands have muscles. As we all know muscle need to be exercised to be strong and healthy. However, most people forget about the eyes and the hands.

Even if your child is not having problems, it would be a good idea to check for problems and even do some of the activities to help prevent problems. Symptoms of these problems include but are not limited to:

  • poor reading skills
  • poor writing skills
  • avoidance of schoolwork
  • not being about to catch a ball
  • not being about to kick a ball
  • not being about to hit a ball with a bat
  • running into things
  • not putting things completely on a surface (such as a cup half on and half off of a table)
  • frequently knocking over things
  • rapid eye blinking when trying to focus on any reading material
I good test to see if your child could develop these issues or if these issues could be from eye hand coordination problems is to simply try to get your child to follow a point without moving his or her head.  Please don’t assume that your child’s eye is good because they can pass and eye exam. My son has 20/20 vision, and he still had poor eye hand coordination. Most eye doctors are not trained to catch or correct this type of vision issue.
  1. Get something like a cute pencil eraser and have your child look at it. Hold it Infront of your child’s face. Can your child focus on it with his or her eyes for 5 to 10 seconds without losing focus? If your child’s eyes wonder around, there is a change of an issue.
  2. Now slowly move the object up, down, left and right. Did your child’s eyes follow? If not, there is a chance of an issue.

Another common problem is poor hand strength. This will cause your child to not be able to write. Now this problem can be with or without eye problems. Symptoms can include but or not limited to the following:

  • poor writing skills
  • poor pencil grip
  • refusal to play with play dough or Legos for any length of time
  • dislike of coloring
  • dislike of drawing
  • dislike of most activities that involve sitting still (think about those activities involve the hands)
These issues can be helped and even fixed with time, patience, and hard work. Here are some activities for these issues.
  • Play with play dough
  • Picking up small things with tweezers
  • Coloring
  • Drawing
  • painting
  • Buttoning and unbuttoning
  • String or thread anything onto a shoestring
  • Lacing cards
  • Building with Legos
  • Putting puzzles together
  • Practice letter writing
  • Mazes (make sure your child staying in the middle of the maze lines)
  • Tracing (draw straight and zigzag lines for your child to trace)
  • Cutting (draw lines straight and zigzag onto a piece of paper then have the child cut on the line)
  • play catch with different size balls

Make these activities as fun as possible. Congratulate verbally on even small improvements to help with their motivation. Remember that when you start using a muscle that is weak, it normally hurts a little. Children as well as adults have a tendency to avoid things that cause pain. With that being said, don’t push your child so hard that he or she over does it. You want this to be fun, not a punishment.

For more educational resources click here. 

Category:

1st grade, 1st grade free resources, 2nd grade free resources, early learning, Education, Kindergarten

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