A Visual Book to Teach Sentence Parts (6 yrs old)

I bought a Mad Libs book for my niece and I to do together this summer. However, I needed to figure out a way to teach her about the basic parts of a sentence.

For me this was a difficult one to learn because I couldn't "see" it, as a child. My niece (going into 1st grade this year) is a great reader, but I know she'd get frustrated with reading this. And, I know that trying to teach by simply explaining would be impossible for her age.  So ... here's what I came up with:

To help with playing Mad Libs. 

I created a Word document for Nouns and Adjectives. We started with nouns and Clip Art. I did the top row first showing a teacher, school and bus (person, place and a thing). She started thinking of the rest.

We printed her noun pictures and then she cut them out and pasted them in her rows.

This kind of activity is super fun for her. A: she likes to use a computer B: she loves cutting and pasting. 

Here's a close up of all of the nouns she picked herself and organized into each row on her document:

Baby, House, Dog

Doctor, Hospital, X-Ray

Librarian, Library, Book

Farmer, Farm, Cow

Visitor, Zoo, Zebra

The Adjectives page we created on the computer and printed. She selected some of her nouns, and described them to me. As she was using her descriptive words, I typed, and then we printed it off. 

This book has been very empowering for my niece. She's learning at a very fast pace. Can't wait to add more to her book as we explore the rest of the parts of sentences. 

~AJ

Exploring fruits and vegatables - and a visual for kids

Here is a visual I created to help my kids eat their fruits and vegetables:

The top is a food pyramid, below are the cards showing the kids a part of the body, and a list of foods that are beneficial to that body part.

 

I made cards for our Brain, Heart, Bones, Teeth, Hair, Skin, Eyes and Muscles.

 

My son is so into muscles and my nieces want to have beautiful, healthy hair so they were excited to try the food on those cards!

 

We hung our visuals on the fridge:

Close-up (a card showing food that's good for your bones).

 

Before introducing the cards, we explored some fruit and vegetables with our senses. Seeing, touching, tasting, smelling ... take a look at all of the education that took place here ...

Let's touch the vegetables and talk about which ones are familiar to you. Are there any you're unsure of? Which ones are fruit and which ones are vegetables?

Then we broke up the veggies and placed them into our own snack bags. 

Showing him the visual card I made, I pointed out that broccoli is good for your hair. He took a big bite out of it, and eventually spit it out. He did eat the cauliflower! 

They were proud of their veggie snack bags! 

Here they are putting their vegetable snack bags into our "grab a snack" drawer. 

Let's pick up the fruit to see how heavy it is. What is it?!

Mmm, smelling the fruit was a lot of fun too!

Peeling and cutting... 

Love that face! 

Peeling and cutting... 

We love the banana slicer! 

The best part was tasting, I'd say .... 

Talking about why we wash fruits and vegetables... 

What fruits and vegetables need to be washed and which ones don't.

Do I like this? Yes!

Our snack drawer is perfect! 

Enjoy!

Empowering my Children at the Supermarket: Lu, 14 months; D, 3 yrs

I've always tried to involve my son with the whole process of going to the grocery store. When he thinks of something we need, he helps me write it on our list for the week. When we get to the store, he walks around helping me locate the items we need from our list, and puts them in the cart as he's able. Doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun; and yet, he really seems to enjoy it. His love for our grocery store trips has inspired me to begin thinking of new ways to empower him in the process.

I created a grocery store checklist for my son, and some food cards for my daughter.

The grocery store list has the food/drink name along with its picture - similar to our First Reading Books we made not too long ago.

My son thought of items he can't seem to live without. (These are his staples that we tend to purchase weekly.) There are two pages.

For my daughter, we use sign language to empower her communication. These visual cards will help to build her vocabulary, teach new signs, communicate her needs at home, and get her involved at the store. 

Here are some of the cards. Each card has the name and picture of the food/drink. (I plan to make a game out of this.)

We won't have an opportunity to try these out at the store until this weekend. Meantime, my son is having a lot of fun playing/pretending with his check list. He's perfecting his coloring skills by filling in the squares, and he's practicing his X's and check marks. My daughter and I are practicing her new signs. 

How do you get your children involved at the store?

Homemade Reading books (Ages 2-5)

D (almost 3) will see a word and ask me what it says. He does this all day long. He wants to read. How can I help him read aside from our learning time during the week?

I-Bell is 5 and is writing. She's always asking me how to spell words. What can she do when I'm not able to sit with her and help her spell/write a word? How can I empower her so she can do more on her own?

This is how our first reading books came to be.

Learning to read through pictures.

 

I-Bell and D were huge contributors to putting this together. We used their interests and their ideas. They sat with me and I helped make their ideas come to life on the computer. They chose the pictures, I wrote the words. When they lost interest in creating the book, we stopped creating it. When they were interested in making it again we'd work on it again. I wanted this to be a book that they created.  

 

In the end, they each got their own binder and their own copy of this book.

D's first interest was trains. His Thomas trains, in particular. We also included The Polar Express. We have multiple pages of these in his and I-Bell's book. I catch D peeking at the bottom of his wooden trains to see the names now. I believe he is memorizing them, or learning them by sight. However, he knows what letter all of these trains start with by memory. ("I'm thinking of a train that starts with the letter ...") We play this all the time!

I-Bell wanted Super Heroes:)

Animals. Sort by category: Farm animals, Jungle animals, Zoo animals, etc.

Transportation 

They helped me think of all of these. We add more on our Microsoft Word Doc as they think of more.  I'm constantly jotting their ideas down in my phone so we can remember them when we get home. They are so excited about adding to their books!

Body Parts 

Craft Time 

Colors 

Weather. 

D and I-Bell already are in the process of creating a Tree section, a leaf classification section, plants, flowers and insect identification sections. I'm thinking Spring ... Bird classification/eggs. The possibilities are endless!

We got out a box of pictures and they chose the pics they wanted in their books. We did a scrap book at the end. 

After they chose their pictures, I'd write about them. I-Bell, 5, told me about each picture and I wrote what she told me. That way she can work on her reading. 

D's book was kept very simple.

 

I can't wait to see what they add to their books next!