Friday, January 31, 2014

Olympic Winter Games BINGO


My son loves BINGO. If you've been following my site for awhile, this is not exactly news to you. Truth be told, I like it too. It's a game we can play together and because it's based entirely on luck, any player can win.

Since our family is counting down the days until the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, I thought it would be fun to make a BINGO game with that as my inspiration. Having made graphics of four sports already (for our Olympic-inspired Sudoku game), all I needed to do was make three more graphics and then use them in game cards and call cards.

I made six game cards and laminated them. Then I cut the five pages of call cards apart and shuffled them. With a bowl full of circular cereal (doesn't it kind of remind you of the Olympic rings?), we were ready to play.

A free 11-page PDF of this game is available on Google Drive here. Note: this is a pretty colorful game. To keep from draining all the ink in your personal printer, take the downloaded file on a thumb drive to your local office supply store to have them print it for you.

I had my son select one of the six Winter Olympic Games bingo game cards I'd made; I picked another one. Then, I placed the stack of call cards facedown between us.


One by one we flipped them, placing cereal game pieces on the lettered sport pictured on the card we turned over (and the FREE space, too).

When I was the first player to get five in a row and win, my son eagerly suggested we play black-out. And when we were done, he asked to play again.


As we played, we talked about some of the sports pictured. He's especially excited to watch the biathlon now. (He's not the only one.)

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

How to Weave a Basket out of the Newspaper


Long before everything was made out of plastic, people used baskets to carry things. Weaving reeds is a age-old craft and one I knew would capture my eight-year-old son's interest.


Our reeds were made out of Saturday's newspaper. With our hands, several pieces of newsprint, and a glue stick, we successfully made a small basket.

Here's how we did it.


  1. Open the newspaper and cut along  the center fold. You'll need 11-12 pieces of cut newsprint. Tightly roll it the long way.
  2. When completely rolled, flatten.
  3. Add glue to secure. Repeat until you have made 11-12 newspaper reeds. Try to make them approximately the same width. (Our newspaper reeds ends up being about 1 inch wide.)
  4. Now lay four reeds vertically on the table in front of you. Weave four other reeds through them, centering the woven part in the middle.
  5. It will now look like a cross made out of newspaper.
  6. Fold the ends of the reeds up and begin weaving another newsprint reed through the spokes, moving around the basket to make the first layer of the basket's sides. (It helps to have another set of hands for this step!)
  7. Glue the reed's ends together by overlapping. Continue with two to three more layers of reeds, building up the basket's sides.
  8. Now fold over the reeds that are still sticking up either into or out of the basket. Trim if necessary and tuck the ends down into or up and under existing weaving.
Voila! You're done. Paint it if you'd like.



This idea came from a wonderful book of craft ideas I checked out from our local library.

Monday, January 27, 2014

After School Linky Party (1-27)


Welcome to the After School Linky Party!


It might be cold here in the Midwest but the ideas are hot, hot, hot at this linky.
If you missed last week's party, check it out now.
Here are just a handful of the extraordinary blogs, ideas, and activities shared.



















Free Printables
Bible Fun for Kids: Ruth
Enchanted Homeschooling Mom: Hibernation Toss and Sort Game
Makeovers and Motherhood: Superhero Activity Pack Printable
School Time Snippets: Build a Snowflake Busy Bag and Workbox Labels


We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventures that you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, homeschool, or on the weekend! When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board or Feature on our After School Party next week! Don't forget to follow along and join our After School Enrichment Community.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Multiplication AREA Dice Roll Game


Have you been over to Teach Beside Me? Karyn always has amazing ideas and this one is no exception. I give her total credit and am thankful that she, like so many other bloggers I follow, shares her educational activities online.


This game requires little to no prep. What you need is a piece of graph paper (I have some large scale paper available for free download here), two dice, and two markers in different colors.

Because I want to reuse the game, I laminated my graph paper and used fine-tip dry-erase markers.

Player 1 gives the dice a shake and using the numbers rolled, colors in the blocks on the graph paper, figuring out the area and multiplication problem. For example, if Player 1 rolls a 2 and a 3 then they color in an area 2 squares by 3 squares, and solve the multiplication problem by saying aloud, "6 is the area."

Player 2 does the same, and play continues to alternate between players.

When a player rolls but can no longer make the shape because there isn't enough free space on the page, count the colored areas up to see which player has the most. They're the winner!


This game is a great way to review multiplication problems for tables 1-6 and to introduce the difference between perimeter and area.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Simple Winter Sport Sudoku


Our family is psyched for the Winter Olympics. To familiarize our oldest son with some of the sports being played there, I made a simple hands-on Winter Sport Sudoku game with the following represented:
Ski Jump
Bobsled
Figure Skating
Curling

I printed one set of the game pieces with checked backgrounds and three sets of the solid background game pieces. I laminated them for durability.

Click the picture to download a free 2-page PDF from Google Drive with these game pieces.



Next I cut a large square piece of thick felt and added a grid out of washi tape (wider tape for the center cross and thinner tape for the other lines).

Now I took the four pieces with checked backgrounds and arranged them on the board. I handed my son the solid-colored pieces. I explained that the pieces I placed on the game board could not be moved. The solid-colored pieces in his hand could be rearranged as much as he liked.

The objective was to have only one of each sport represented in each row, column, and quadrant. No sport should be represented twice.

It took a little manipulating, but my son got it and, boy oh boy, was he excited.


I think he's ready for a more challenging board with nine different kinds of game pieces instead of just four. It looks like I have some more game pieces to make!

Monday, January 20, 2014

After School Linky Party (1-20)


Welcome to the After School Linky Party!


Each week it gets harder and harder to pick just a few activities and ideas to feature.
Rest assured, I'm up to the challenge though. (Truthfully, I love it!)






Math Fun with Fraction Pie at B-Inspired Mama






Free Printables
Bible Fun for Kids: Samson Part 2, The Good Samaritan
Every Star is Different: Extreme Weather Conditions Week 1
Trillium Montessori: More Winter Printables


We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventures that you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, homeschool, or on the weekend! When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board or Feature on our After School Party next week! Don't forget to follow along and join our After School Enrichment Community.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Controlling Your Kid's Electronic Time


I am no parenting expert. I make mistakes. Sometimes I'm tough when my kids need nurturing. Sometimes I'm gentle when I should be strict.

But when my husband's iPad became my oldest son's infatuation, I knew an intervention was necessary. We've tried two strategies to limit my oldest son's time with electronic devices.

Click on either of the charts below to download them free from Google Drive.

Strategy #1
The first approach was to award him a set amount of minutes every day. We chose 35 minutes, with the occasional option for him to gain 10 extra minutes. I created a chart which (like mercury in a thermometer) depleted as minutes were used. Before he could use any electronic minutes he had to eat breakfast, get dressed, and do his chores. Time was deducted for any outbursts (throwing a fit or being hurtful).



Strategy #2
Our second approach was to have our oldest son earn minutes by completing chores, being a helper, and demonstrating positive behaviors toward others. The minutes he earns today, he can use tomorrow. Our chart is populated with a long list of ideas for him (e.g. get the mail, set the table, complete your homework without being asked, write 6 sentences about your day, make someone feel special by doing something, try a new food, etc.). Most of the activities are worth 5 minutes, but a select few are worth 10.

Whatever he does, we check on the list. At the end of the day, we add up the minutes earned and write the number at the bottom of the chart, clearing the checkmarks for the next day.



Each of these strategies has worked for us but I like Strategy #2 best right now because he's mature and responsible enough to determine his own fate by earning minutes.


Both charts were printed, slipped inside a heavyweight sleeve protector with adhesive magnet tape on the back, and hung on our refrigerator with a dry-erase marker clipped to it.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Put Your Hands Together for Conjunctions


Conjunctions are joiners or connectors that bring together words, phrases, and clauses. A few of these important words follow:
And
But
Or
Nor
So
For
Until
After
Because
Since

To teach my son about how these words are used, I created an activity we'll be able to do again and again, with a template I'll use for practicing other skills too.


To get started I printed several pages of these right and left hands. Download a 1-page PDF here.

I used colored papers, but that's not necessary. After they were printed, I laminated and cut them out (including the hole inside the hand); yes, this is a bit of a pain but with a small craft knife, it went rather swiftly.

Once my hands were done, I cut some small strips of paper. Now I got busy writing parts of sentences on right and left hands with a fine-tip dry-erase marker. I also wrote the conjunction that would join them on the blank slips of paper. Here are some of the sentences I used:
During the race I swam and ran.
I got today's mail and put it on the desk.
Mom was tired after exercising at the gym.
I stayed awake until the sun came up.
Molly hated peas because they never stayed on her spoon.
Do you want popcorn or peanuts?
I do not like broccoli so I chose corn instead.

By laminating, the dry-erase markers wipe clean making the hands reusable!


When my son came home from school we read a great book by Brian P. Cleary. I'm a huge fan of his Words are CATegorical series and this book delivered the same whimsical illustrations I expected with the simple, clear definition of conjunctions my son needed.


My son also watched Schoolhouse Rock's "Conjunction Junction" video; I remember it from when I was a kid. This little song is certainly handy (and mighty catchy too; my son was singing it later that evening)!


With the hands laid on the table, it was up to my son to determine which conjunction was missing and join the hands together by looping the paper with the conjunction through the hands and stapling it. My son made quick work of the task and was excited to have joined the sentence fragments with the correct conjunctions.


Next time, I might scramble the fragments to make the exercise more challenging for him. 

Monday, January 13, 2014

After School Linky Party (1-13)


Welcome to the After School Linky Party!



It's so impressive to see all the wildly creative, messy, and educational ideas
that are shared each week.

Here are just a few of my favorites (ya know, in case you missed 'em).

Cardboard City at Lemon Lime Adventures.



Roman Empires, Emperors and Landmarks (DIY groma and craft stick arch)
at Highhill Education.





 Moon Phases Experiment at We-Made-That.com.


Snow Ice Cream at Apron Strings & Other Things.


Free Printables
Bible Fun for Kids: Samson Part 1 and Bible Verse Printables
Boy Mama Teacher Mama: Roll a Snowman Games and FREEBIE
Every Star is Different: Christmas Unit Week 4: Winter
The Educators' Spin on It: Penguin Writing Prompts
Wildflower Ramblings: 24 Preschool Chants



We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventures that you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, homeschool, or on the weekend! When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board or Feature on our After School Party next week! Don't forget to follow along and join our After School Enrichment Community.


Friday, January 10, 2014

What Gets a Capital Letter? (Board Game)


It can be a real struggle to remember what to capitalize when you're eight years old. And since grammar doesn't stick like math does for my son, I wanted to find a fun way to help him learn.

The What Gets a Capital Letter game is a sneaky way to trick kids into remembering that the following are always capitalized:
Days of the Week.
Months.
Names of holidays.
Names of people and pets.
Names of places.
The beginning of a sentence.
The letter "I" when it is a word.

Download a PDF of the game for free on Google Docs here.

It's an easy game with very few rules. Game pieces (we used laminated photos inside binder clips) are placed on the START. The youngest player starts the game by drawing a card from the deck. He/she reads the card and identifies what in the sentence needs to be capitalized and why. Then, the player moves his game piece to the first occurrence of that reason on the game board.


For example, a player might draw the following card:
kiwi fruit is so delicious.

He/she would then say "kiwi needs to be capitalized; it's the beginning of a sentence," then move their game piece to the first blue box on the game board that reads "beginning of a sentence."


Now it's the opponent's turn. Play alternates between players.


If a player draws a "GO BACK" card, he/she must draw another card and instead of advancing based on the reason for capitalization, they'll retreat. If the player is too close to the start and there's no "months" box, for example, to move back to, their game piece remains in its place.

If players are near the end and draw cards with reasons for capitalization without any remaining boxes, they must still say aloud the correction and reason, but do not advance. The first player to land their game piece on the final "days of the week" box wins the game!


To accompany this game, my son read Kick Ball Capitalization by Michael Ruscoe. It covers many more reasons for capitalization in a very fun way!