Let's Learn About the Number Four - Composing

(4 Years)

Little Miss and Wild One love using dot markers.  Therefore, whenever I can tailor an activity to include dot markers I do, because I know I'll definitely get them to want to work on whatever I've planned.  This morning one of our activities, besides Soak the Sight Words (again!), was working on composing the number four out of unifix cubes and then filling our work in using dot markers.  My inspiration for this activity is from Playful Directions, I found her on - well, you know where.

I modeled how to complete this activity with the number three.

We took turns pointing to the top of the page, the tally marks, the number in word form, in number form, and in dots (subitizing).  I modeled the different ways we can make three with two sets of cubes (they chose black and green).  We removed each cube, and used the same color dot marker to make a dot that represents each cube.  That's when Little Miss noticed a pattern.  Next to each row, we wrote the corresponding equation.  Little Miss then took over and began explaining how I should write the remaining equations.  

Before we began working on making the number four, the kids put the cubes back together in columns of ten.  Wild One counted each cube to make sure he had ten linked together.  Little Miss borrowed her brother's set of ten and measured it against her set to determine if she had the correct amount.

Together they discovered that they were missing just one cube.

Did you notice that Little Miss completed the left side of her sheet first?

 Little Miss wasn't done straightening her cubes when I snapped the picture.

She then removed one set of cubes at a time, and added the correct color dot marker to her sheet.

I think next time, we work on composing numbers I'll use two different objects instead of the same object in different colors.  When we discussed that 3 black cubes + 1 red cube = 4 cubes, and 3 red cubes + 1 black cube = 4 cubes, she said, "It's the same 3 + 1 = 4, why did we do it two times?"  If we use bears and cars, I think it may be easier to understand that the colors represent two different groups that we are adding together.  

What a busy morning!  Picnic breakfast, three rounds of Soak the Sight Words, swim lessons, imaginative play in the pool, read several books, worked on composing numbers three and four, and lunch.  Whew I'm wiped out!  Little Miss went straight to sleep during nap time.  Wild One decided he wasn't tired- even though he has dark circles.  He ran to the couch with a Cat in the Hat, Learning Library book and began "reading".  So cute!  

Easy Baked Jack-O-Lanterns

(43 Months)

I love Autumn.  Crisp Fall apples, the mouthwatering scent of pumpkin bread baking, pumpkin apple muffins, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin spice lattes...  mmm...  Last year we were lucky enough to visit my sister's family during the Fall (I miss you all so much).  They took us out to an apple orchard and the three little ones picked their first apples off a tree together.  Little Miss and Wild One still talk about how much fun they had with their aunt, uncle and cousin "Buddy".  Here's our adventure.  Look how little they were.

Buddy and my brother-in-law.  I miss you!!!!!!!!

I've been wanting to make baked cotton balls for a few weeks now.  When I saw Asia's baked Jack-o-lantern on Fun At Home With Kids, I knew we were going to get messy in the kitchen soon.  This is an easy and fun project for the kids to work on.  Little Miss and Wild One helped mix the flour and water solution, combined the colors, and squished the flour solution onto the cotton balls.

After Wild One finished with the orange cotton balls, he was done.  He said he didn't want to get his hands dirty anymore.  Oh well.  Little Miss kept working at it, she loved that she was working on this almost independently, with no help from Mommy.  By the way, did you notice in the above pictures that she is tilting the mixing bowl as she mixes?  That's how we mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients when we are making batter for cupcakes, muffins, pancakes, waffles.....  She even said, "we lift the bowl to mix the wet into dry ingredients."  I love that girl!

Here's the recipe:
We first made a huge batch of plain colored flour/water solution in a large bowl.  For the two Jack-o-lanterns we used 3 cups of bleached all-purpose flour and about 2 1/2 cups of water.  Next, we whisked the flour into the water until there were no more lumps (it's going to be thick and goopy, perfect for little ones hands to squish).  Then, we took about 1/2 cup of the faux paint for the green cotton balls and ladled it into a small mixing bowl.  We used about 3/4 cup for the black cotton balls and ladled it into a medium mixing bowl.  We left the remaining flour/water in the large bowl for the orange cotton balls.  I love how Asia incorporated scent to her faux paint.  We mixed in 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to the black paint* and 1 tsp of pumpkin spice to the orange paint, before adding in the cotton balls.  Little Miss and Wild One loved the delicious scents. Bake it at 300 degrees for 80 minutes (on tinfoil for easy cleanup).  It took our creation about twenty minutes to cool down.  This was perfect timing to work on before lunch, then let it bake and cool to be ready for after nap (if they nap).

With the left over faux paint, we added in some extra cotton balls to smash!  I'm so glad we did, because they had so much fun using the hammers to whack the baked cotton balls.  They were so surprised that the soft, fluffy cotton balls baked into almost a rock!  Then, I told them that we are going to go outside with some hammers and smash them.  "Can I use Daddy's hammer?"  Once that first baked cotton ball was smashed and they saw that the inside was still white and fluffy, they were hooked.  They began smashing one after another.  "Mommy, can we do more please?" Even Grandpa got into the act.  "Mommy, can we do more please?"

*I first tried making the flour/water black with food dye.  It kept turning green or brown.  After a few tries, I remembered that I had black liquid watercolor.  We tried that and it still didn't turn out black.  However, after it was finished baking it did turn black.

The kidabunks loved this project.  Little Miss loved every part of it, mixing, squishing, creating and smashing.  Wild One's favorite part was mixing and smashing.  I love that I have a beautiful keepsake that will hopefully last past this season.  They already asked if we can make more (baked) cotton balls.  Fun and easy.  

Blooms Taxonomy and The Three Little Pigs (Common Core)

(43 Months)

When I was teaching fifth grade, I used a Blooms Taxonomy wheel to help me create open-ended questions for our literature circles, guided reading and independent reading.  The kids liked the challenge of the harder questions and the variety of options (instead of just writing about what happened, they could draw a picture with a short caption, create a short video, have a conversation with the narrator or one of the main characters, create an alternate ending...).  Now, years later, a Blooms Taxonomy wheel is aligned with the Common Core Standards, for children as young as those in Kindergarden.

Today I decided to employ the same concept with my kidabunks during our read alouds.  I found these adorable cards at Dragonflies in First.  I printed them out, colored each set of questions a different color, punched a hole and put it on a ring. I definitely recommend printing these out on various colors of card stock, to make them more durable.  We've read The Three Little Pigs so many times, it's almost memorized so I knew this would be a great story to try with the cards.

We took out our puppets, our book and I held the cards.  Before we read the story, I tried out a few of the Knowledge questions:
Me "Who are the characters in the story?"
Kiddies "The three little pigs." (they were on the cover, the wolf wasn't)
Me "Is there anyone else in the story?"
Wild One "Yes!  The Big - Bad - Wolf!"
Me "What happens first in the story?"
Little Miss "The three pigs say goodbye to their mom and dad."
Me "What happens next?"
Wild One "The Big Bad Wolf blows down the houses."
Me "What happens before the wolf blows down the houses?"
Little Miss "The little piggies build their houses."
Me "Which house gets built first?" "...second?" "...third?"

Next, Wild One "read" the story.  Then, I read and paused to ask the following questions:
Comprehension:
"Describe the Big Bad Wolf."
"What are the differences between the straw house and the brick house?"

Application:
"If you could ask one of the characters a question, what would it be?

Analysis:
"Explain what part of the story was most exciting."
"Explain what part was the saddest."

Sometimes I asked a question, other times I had one of the three pigs or the wolf ask a question.  The kidabunks always eagerly responded.  These cards are wonderful for pausing during reading to think about what we just read, a skill that they will be using for the rest of their lives.  Before using these cards, I kept asking the same type of questions: "why do you think so and so is sad?" or "how would you feel?" or "what would you have done?"  It's so interesting that even at their young age, that they are able to work on something that is typically viewed as a more developed concept.

I love how much fun this is.  I also love that they don't realize they are learning, because we are staying true to our philosophy "learning through play is the best way".

Math Fun with Bugs

(41 Months)

Ok, so they aren't real bugs.  I was cleaning out the pantry and found a box of bug-shaped pasta that expired.  Instead of just chucking it, I gave it to the kids for a quick math exploration.

I made a quick bar graph template (minus the titles), poured some bugs onto two plates and then invited Little Miss and Wild One over.  I love how excited they get when I invite them over.  Although this time I knew it had to do with, "who wants to play with BUGS?"

 After a really brief explanation of our modified bar graph, including which bugs go into which column, they went to work sorting bugs by type and adding them to the bar graph.  When they finished we counted all of the bugs on the graph.

We took a few bugs away from each column, then reinforced vocabulary more than, less than, equal to, greater than, fewer than, same as and altogether.

It was interesting watching how the two of them played with the bugs.  Little Miss would search for all the butterflies and as she found one would add it to her graph.  Wild One would locate each butterfly and put them aside, then he added them all to his graph.

Little Miss and I practiced an AB pattern with two of the bugs.  After she completed a row, she just continued the pattern on the next row, and the next.  Wild One decided at that point, he was done with the bugs and started building with his jumbo cardboard blocks.

I wanted to also work on ABBA patterning, but she had other ideas of just playing with the bugs.  For the younger ones, a simple sorting the bugs into piles would be a great math game.

Sometime later (when there's time, there will be time sometime, won't there), I'm going to dye the pasta different colors.  We'll use it for art and more math fun.  Meanwhile, I'm glad that we got in our 10 minutes of dedicated math fun time.

b,d,p,q Identification Game and Assessment

(39 Months)

I never really paid attention to all of the different ways we write and type our letters (fonts), until I started pointing out the subtle differences to my kids.  You have got to be kidding me!  Talk about quick and simple, all you need is a sheet of paper, marker, dot stickers (or character sticker) and that's it.    The object is to place the assigned colored dot on the respective letter.  Yay sticker fun!

Then to make learning their letters and numbers even more challenging, there are the symbols that could be a letter or a number.  A straight vertical line could be a one, an I or a lowercase L.  How did that happen?  Especially when faced with the question, "but, why do they all look the same when they are all different?"   Ummm, hmmmm, ummmmm.

We've played a couple of letter matching games in the past (see here for a great fine motor skill game that focuses on upper and lower case matching), but I haven't tackled b, d, p and q isolated in a group.   I decided to create a fun game and assessment to see if we really know these letters, or are they guessing really well.  My inspiration came from Rockabye Butterfly, she did a fun following directions game using this format with numbers.

As soon as Little Miss and Wild One saw the stickers they were ready to get started- it's amazing how kids love stickers.   I tried to do a quick presentation on the different letters, but they were too eager to get started.  Normally, I'd have them hold off but I really wanted to see who knew what.

A few minutes into playing, Little Miss decided that she wanted to make designs with the stickers instead of placing each sticker where it belonged.  That's odd for her, she's the one who usually wants to sit and do her "work" for long periods of time.  Oh well, I didn't feel like paying the bills today and put that off.  Some people would argue that she needs to sit and finish a project, maybe when she's a bit older I might agree.  At age three, she's done when she's done.  Look at that sad face, how can I say no to letting her do an art project instead of practicing her letters?