itsy-bitsy

I love using itsy-bitsy miniatures as learning tools. There are so many options and ways to use them. I gathered 10-15 items from around the house and but them into baggies. Most of my things come from Polly Pocket sets, Barbie accessories, or pieces of toys we no longer play with. I have found bags of miscellaneous items at garage sales or consignment shops. We have 3 bags with different items.
In this bag I have: a bowling pin, baby, elephant, pheasant, cereal, pretzel, tea pot, sword, hand-held mirror, Christmas stocking, dinosaur, coin, dog, fork, baby bottle, hair drier and magic lantern.
Here are a few ideas for using the itsy-bitsy miniatures as learning tools:

1. Lay out 5 or more itsy-bitsy miniatures. Choose one itsy-bitsy miniature and start telling a story using the itsy-bitsy miniature as the subject. The next player chooses another itsy-bitsy miniature and continues the story. Why is this a great activity? It encourages your child to really listen to the story. She needs to know what is happening in the story so that she can add her part. Plus, it helps her to think quickly. It promotes humor since the stories often turn out funny.

2. Lay out 5 or more itsy-bitsy miniatures. Ask the players to look at them closely and then close their eyes. Take one itsy-bitsy away. Ask "what's missing?" Why is this a great activity? It is a great thinking skill. It requires your child to say the items over and over inside her head. This helps your child to develop her inner voice, which will help her learn speech and self-correct her speech.

3. Lay out 5 or more itsy-bitsy miniatures. Ask the players to look at them closely and then close their eyes. Take away all the itsy-bitsy miniatures. Ask "What were they?" Have the player say all the itsy-bitsy miniatures. Why is this a great activity? It is a great idea to teach your child to make up a sequential story in their head to remember the order of the itsy-bitsy miniatures.

4. Lay out 15 itsy-bitsy miniatures. Have your child arrange them into groups, according to things that are the same and different. Have your child explain their reasoning. Why is this a great activity? Use this to teach some vocabulary such as: classifying, groups, sets, categories, same, different, fewer, longer, heavier, lighter, bigger, smaller, etc. This will help your child greatly in math.

5. Lay out 5 or more itsy bitsy miniatures. Have your child arrange them in some order such as their favorite, the biggest, the fastest, or the shiniest. Then you can guess the reason. Why is this a great activity? Again, it is a great way to teach vocabulary, comparatives and superlatives which are important math concepts as well as language concepts. Teaching about adding -er and -est to words as well as most and more.

6. Lay out 5 or more itsy-bitsy miniatures. Talk about the beginning letter sounds. Are any the same? Put them in ABC order.Why is this a great activity? Developing phonemic awareness is critical in learning to read. Having your child recognize beginning or ending sounds helps prepare then for reading.

7. Lay out 15 itsy-bitsy miniatures. Say the name of one of the itsy-bitsy miniatures as you separate the sounds. Your child will need to listen carefully and choose which itsy-bitsy you are saying. For example, say (ch) ---- (i)-----(k)-----(en) Why is this a great activity? This activity will help to develop phonemic awareness. Put some time in between the sounds to make it more difficult. For an older child, spell the word and have them find the itsy-bitsy.

8. Make a mystery box. Cut a hole in a box. Put your itsy-bitsy miniatures inside and have your child reach into the box without being able to see into the box. As your child feels the objects, guess what it might be. Pull it out and see if you are right. Why is this a great activity? It provides a sensory experience through feeling each object's shape, texture, dimensions, and weight. Aside from being fun, it also helps the child to produce mental images of objects they have seen and touched.

9. Lay out 15 itsy-bitsy miniatures. Say, "Find something that begins with the "t" sound. Your child will pick up an itsy-bitsy miniature. Ask your child to name the object to confirm it begins with the correct sound. Say, can you hear the "t" sound in the word "train?" to reinforce the concept. Why is this a great activity? Again, you are encouraging phonemic awareness and the sounds at the beginning of words.

10. Lay out 5 or more itsy-bitsy miniatures. Say, "Find something that rhymes with log." your child will then look at the itsy-bitsy miniatures and find one that rhymes with log (maybe, "dog"). Why is this a great activity? Encouraging your child to rhyme helps her to develop phonemic awareness as well as recognize beginning consonant sounds. It will help with reading as your child gets older.

A bag of itsy-bitsy miniatures is so easy to carry in your purse. You'll have learning opportunities at restaurants, doctor offices, or any place you sit and wait! Have fun collecting your own itsy-bitsy miniatures.

Pumpkin Alphabet

The girls loved completing this activity.

Objective:
a. practice letters of the alphabet

Points to Remember:
1. Get some alphabet stickers and make sure they are easy to remove from the backing so your child will be able to complete the activity independently.

Lesson:
1. Draw a pumpkin shape on a large piece of paper.
2. Write the letters you would like your child to recognize. I put all 26 capital letters.


3. Give your child the stickers and the pumpkin. Explain to match the sticker to the letter written on the pumpkin. Brooke figured it out and started before I even gave her directions.

4. Let your child work independently and help only when needed.
5. Sing the alphabet song as you look over her work.

Modifications:
1. Use lower case letters.
2. Use alphabet stamps to match to the written letters.
3. Use with numbers.
4. Draw a Christmas tree or other holiday related picture to fill with letters.

Thankful Thursday

So very thankful today for The Giver and not the gifts!

James 1:17 tells us: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father….”

B - Baby Jesus! I am thankful that God fulfilled his promise of sending his only son, Jesus
E - Everlasting Life! I am thankful for Jesus' ultimate sacrifice so that I may live in heaven

T - Turkey!
H - Health and Healing! Thankful for God's promise that all things work toward His good.
A - Abundance! I am thankful for the abundant blessings in my life
N - Neighbors and friends! My friends are a treasure in my life. Thank you!
K - King of Kings! I am thankful that my God is the King over all the world and all in it.
F - Forgiveness! I had a debt that I could not pay - Jesus paid the price - I am thankful
U - Umbrella of Protection! My family is under the protection of God. Psalm 5
L - Love! God loves us no matter what and I give thanks


Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psalm 100:4

The Fruit of the Spirit

Two years ago, when my son was 4 years old, we learned Galatians 5:22-23 as Thanksgiving Day approached. Each day we learned one fruit of the spirit, and then added another, and another, until he had memorized the 9 Fruits of the Spirit. Then on Thanksgiving Day, he was able to recite the verse for his grandparents.


To help Jake visualize the Fruits of the Spirit, I used a cornucopia with some pretend fruit. Each day we added a new fruit to the cornucopia and then ate that fruit as our snack for the day. For example, the apple represented love so we put an apple in the cornucopia. The next day we added an orange to represent joy and repeated, "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy." The next day we added the strawberry and said, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace." We kept adding until we had all the fruits in the cornucopia.

The memorization on this verse has been a staple in our disciple plan. For every act of obedience or disobedience, it leads back to a fruit of the spirit and I am able to use it when I correct my children.

Scenarios:
Jake is frustrated with his sister and calls her stupid. I can correct him by reminding him of kindness. The fruit of the spirit is kindness and what you said to your sister was not kind; God wants us to show kindness. What can you do next time to be kind?
or
Jake is whining about wanting a snack. I can correct him by reminding him of patience. The fruit of the spirit is patience and you are not showing patience right now. How can you show me that you are being patient instead of whining?
or
Jake is told to make his bed and goes upstairs and forgets. I can correct him by reminding him of faithfulness. The fruit of the spirit is faithfulness and that means you will do what you said you would do. I know that sometimes we forget things, but we need to try hard to show faithfulness since it is a fruit of the spirit.

You can take any behavior and bring it back to the fruit of the spirit.

So, since this is so valuable to our family's values, and the twins are 4 years old, I decided to teach them Galatians 5: 22-23. Now, I love the girls a ton, but their gift is not memorization. For Jake, he had the verse memorized in a few days (we skipped ahead) but for the girls I knew I needed to reinforce it a little more.

So....we brought out the cornucopia and also added a few other tricks to help them memorize the verses. We added a coloring sheet to our learning poster. This poster has the letter of week, their Awanna verse, and other things we are learning throughout the week. We put the coloring sheet on our learning poster and color one fruit each day as learn it. After we review the fruit already in the cornucopia, we add a new fruit, and then recite the verse again andcolor it on our poster.
We have colored, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and goodness so far. Then at night we reinforce the fruit of the spirit again. I put the coloring sheet onto a iron-on transfer and made a pillow case. Using a fabric marker, we color the new fruit of the day and recite the verse a few more times. Then the girls choose something they are thankful for. Below is Brooke's pillow and she is thankful for Mommy, Daddy, Kate, Jake, the G means grandma, the P means Papa, Jake (again), Tex, on the top is the entire Bowen family, and everybody.

The girls are doing great with the verses and I expect them to have it memorized and able to recite on Thanksgiving Day!


We love to dance and sing the Fruit of the Spirit song from the CD entitled 20 Bible Verses Every Child Should Know

Below is a video of Jake saying the Fruit of the Spirit when he was 4 years old.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Candy Experiments

It was certainly time for the Halloween candy to exit the Miller home. So we did some candy experiments to help finish it off.

1. Sink or Float. I wonder which candy will sink and which will float? We unwrapped some candy and dropped it into a bowl of water to find out. We used Twix, peanut butter cup, gum, Tootsie Roll, Whoppers. Sweet Tarts and Bottle Caps

The only floating candy are the Whoopers. We talked about the air that is trapped inside the Whoopers which make it float.

Jake helps to keep a chart for us!


2. Dissolving in Hot or Cold Water I wonder if the candy will dissolve faster in hot water or in cold water? We filled 2 bowls....one with boiling water from the tea kettle and one with cold water from the tap. We used Now n Laters, Skittles and M & M's.

We found that the candy melted faster in the hot water. I had to look up the reason to find that molecules move faster when it’s hot so the candy in hot water dissolves much faster.

3. Floating S. Let's see if the S comes off the Skittles! This experiment was pretty cool. We put a few Skittles in a bowl of water. After a few minutes the S came off and floated to the top. If you enlarge the picture, you'll see it. This happened because the ink used the stamp the letter S on the Skittles does not dissolve in water. Cool, huh?

Want more ideas?

Acid tests, chocolate blooms, color separation, Light Saver sparks, oil tests and sticky experiments can all be found at Candy Experiments

Thankful Thursday

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

Prayer +Thanksgiving = Peace

Sometimes life just stinks. Clearly, the key is not just to pray though it, it is to pray with thanksgiving! Sometimes it’s hard to find things to be thankful for isn’t it? And I’ve realized that finding something to be thankful for, even if it’s just something silly, changes my focus from the things that are worrying me, onto the Lord who has covered and supplied ALL-MY-NEEDS!

Which is why Paul goes on to say:

“Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble,
whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if
there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” Philippians
4:8

Letters E and F

Objective:
a) review letters E and F
b) listen for beginning letter sounds

Points to remember:
1. We already spent two weeks learning these letter independently and Brooke already was familiar with the objects for each letter.
2. Remember to teach both the name of the letter and the sound of the letter. Oddly enough, my child knows the sounds better than the names. So when we did this activity we reinforced the name E and F and not so much the sounds "eh" and "fff"

Lessons:
1. Put the miniatures for the letters you are reinforcing in a basket.
2. Give your child the letters on a paper. We have sandpaper letters - which I love because Brooke likes to feel/trace the letter and I can teach the proper way to make a letter.
3. Pick one item out of the basket. Your child may pick the flower. Encourage your child to say or repeat, "flower begins with F" or say "flower begins with fffff". Then place the flower under the F.
4. Pick the next item. Have your child repeat or say, "Flag begins with F" or say, "Flag begins with fffff and and F makes the fffff sound."

5. Since there were items in the basket that begin with both F and E, Brooke had the listen carefully to the beginning sound. Since this is a new skills we are developing, I made sure the sounds were very distinct and easy to tell apart.

6. Have you child continue to sort the items until completed.

7. As a review, have your child pick up one item at a time, say the name of the item as she puts it away. This is more practice at hearing the initial sound.

Modifications:

1. Use 2 -5 letters for your child to sort. Make sure to limit the miniatures to about 2-3 for each letter so the task is not overwhelming,

2. Always review the name and the sound for each letter. We often use the Leap Frog song:

The F says fffff

the F says fffff

every lettter makes a sound

the F says fffff

Numbers

Objective:

1. One-to-one correspondence.

2. Number recognition 1-6

3. Practice following the directions of middle, biggest, smallest and all

Points to Remember:

1. I typically have some "homework" that Brooke and Kate do while Jake does his homework from 1st grade.

2. The kids sit at the kitchen table to complete their homework as I walk around and help as needed.
3. Since we do this everyday, I usually don't get too much complaining.

Today we worked a little bit on numbers and following directions while Jake practiced his word wall words from school.

Lessons:

I printed worksheets on apples from TLS Books.com . The site has great worksheets to print for free.

In this sheet your child counts the apples and circles the answer. Then your child colors the middle apple.On this sheet, your child counts the apples and circles the number. Then your child colors the biggest appleHere your child counts the apples and circles the number. Then your child colors the smallest apple.On this sheet, your child counts the apples and circles the answer. Then you child colors all the apples.

What I like about these sheets is the practice with middle, biggest, smallest, and all as your child practices one-to-one correspondence and number recognition.

Brooke did great today and successfully completed all the sheets after I read her the direction.

Modifications:

1. I printed all 4 sheets onto one page. Then cut the page into four small sheets, giving Brooke one sheet at a time. Saving paper!

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

Objective:
a. Teach and memorize Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
b. focus on rhyming

Points to Remember:
1. Teaching Nursery rhymes have so many benefits for young children. Look here
2. Repeat this nursery rhyme over and over....say it in the morning, during car rides, have your child say it to friends or to grandma on the phone. Get lots of practice this week.

Lesson:
1. Introduce the rhyme on a poster. I printed the rhyme from Enchanted Learning

I like this poster since it has pictures as well as words. Talk about the poem. What is a pumpkin-eater? What kinds of food have pumpkins in it? What is a wife? Do you know anyone who is a wife? Is it possible to live inside a pumpkin shell? Do you think this is real or pretend?
2. On YouTube there are multiple videos of the nursery rhyme. Watch some videos with your child.
3. Print a coloring page. Have your child circle all the letter P's in the poem. Help her to find them.
4. Here is my 8 page book. Feel free to print and read over and over with your child.
5. Since it was Halloween time, we used a pumpkin leaf bag to act out the poem! Here is Kate in the pumpkin shell....where I kept her very well!


Modifications:
1. Put on a puppet show. Use your own puppets or print puppets from the Enchanted Learning website.
2. Print off some coloring sheets of Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater if your child enjoys coloring.

Thankful Thursday

Today is Thursday: Thankful Thursday as I call it and I need find something to be thankful for today. It shouldn't be that hard! I feel that I am truly blessed in all areas of my life - and I have this promise from God that He will make my path smooth.
Proverbs 3:6
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths smooth.
I love this translation....I love the mental picture of God making my path smooth - He's a giant steam roller rolling over the bumppy path and behind him is a smooth road. Yes, there are still bumps and potholes and danger along the way....but those bumps are made a little bit smoother when I trust in God and acknowledge Him.

Lately, I feel attacks by Satan, him evil schemes. I think it is because God has a purpose, a plan, something big planned for me and Satan needs to get me to fail, feel guilty, and sin all in an attempt to thwart God's plan. I refuse to let that happen.

Do you know why Satan's tactics are called schemes in 2 Corinthians 2:10-11? A scheme is a plan, design, or program of action. Satan's schemes are well thought through plans specifically targeted to do three things:
1. To increase your desire for something outside the will of God.
2. To make you think giving in to a weakness is no big deal.
3. To minimize your ability to think through the consequences of falling to this temptation.
Satan is a master of keeping that cost hidden until it's too late. He delights in darkness.

Dear Lord, I am reminded that boldly following You is so much better than any short term experience that's not pleasing to You. Give me Your eyes so that I can see temptation and its many different faces. Thank you for already winning this battle. Thank you for declaring victory over Satan at the cross. Thank you for fighting on my behalf. Thank you for promising that Satan will be crushed: And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Romans 16:20 Satan will one day be under my foot and it is God who will put him there. Thank you for the victory.

Humpty Dumpty

Objective:
a. Teach and memorize Humpty Dumpty
b. focus on rhyming


Points to Remember:
1. Teaching Nursery rhymes have so many benefits for young children. Look here
2. Repeat this nursery rhyme over and over....say it in the morning, during car rides, have your child say it to friends or to grandma on the phone. Get lots of practice this week.
3. Make some hard-boiled eggs before you begin today's lesson.

Lesson:
1. Introduce the rhyme on a poster. I printed the rhyme from Enchanted Learning

I like this poster since it has pictures as well as words. Point to Humpty Humpty and identify him by name. What is Humpty Dumpty? What do you know about eggs? Explain that he sat on a wall; why was he sitting on a wall? Talk about Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall. Who tried to help Humpty Dumpty? Could they fix him? Then read the poster and run your finger under the words and pictures as you read.

2. Have an acting day! With your child, get an egg out of the refrigerator. How does it feel? Cold? What would happen if you dropped it? Let your child draw a face on Humpty Dumpty.




3. Gather the Kings horses and the King's men: we used some My little Ponies and Lego men.

4. Head outside and find a wall for Humpty Dumpty to sit on. Recite the nursery rhyme as you act out Humpty Dumpty.


5. Here is a video of the Nursery Rhyme


6. Now, pull out your hard boiled egg and have it be your turn. Let the hard-boiled Humpty Dumpty fall off the wall. What happened? Why didn't it break? Try it again and again.....I did it 3 times before Jake realized the egg was hard-boiled. Talk about the difference in the eggs?

7. Now, try to put Humpty Dumpty together again with tape and Band Aids.


8. Enchanted Learning also has sequence cards. Have your child color the pictures and then cut them out. After cutting them out, let your child color the pictures. On a 1/2 sheet of construction paper I wrote the numbers 1-4. Have your child put the picture in order and then glue them on the sheet as first, second, third and fourth



Once the cards are in order, say a line of the rhyme and ask your child to point to the correct scene on the cards. For example, say "All the King's horses and All the Kings' men." Your child should then point to the 3rd scene card.

9. Create a little book for your child to read. Having your child "read" a book will help her practice memorizing the rhyme as well as give her the confidence that she can read! Download mine here

Modifications:
1. Put on a puppet show. Use your own puppets or print puppets from the Enchanted Learning website.