PUMPKIN PIE: THINK INSIDE THE CRUST

Can YOu Make a Whole HOle?

In the story, Pickled Pumpkin Pie: A Thanksgiving Treat, Uncle Pete definitely thinks outside the box. He has a favorite food. He is also patient and waits a long time to enjoy it.

Included in this blog post are instructions and printables to encourage your kiddos to think outside the box—or inside the crust.

So, without further delay….go ahead and have a 'HOLE LOTTA FUN!

(Reminder: The free eBook downloads will be available November 10 and 11.)

Amazing artwork by Jaime Buckley!

November & a Month of Thanks

November—A Month of Thankfulness

Empty candy wrappers are scattered around the house.

The carved pumpkin has yet to show its age.

The deciduous trees have only recently begun their autumn fashion show.

October is barely behind us, but all eyes are facing forward—to the next two months of thankfulness, togetherness, and abundant generosity.

November is an important time to pause and reflect on the things for which we are thankful. To show my gratitude to the readers of this blog, I will post printables and free eBook reminders (with dates) throughout the month. This way, the kiddos in your life can have some fun while they are dreaming of turkey legs and pumpkin pie—while you find the time to plan and create the feast for the table.

My Thanksgiving-themed book, Pickled Pumpkin Pie, will be available for a free download on November 10^th and 11^th on Amazon. Jaime Buckley created the amazing artwork for this book. I am attaching three activities that are included in the printed version of the book.

Have fun and THANK YOU for reading this blog.

The link below will take you to the eBook on Amazon. The free download is scheduled for November 10 and 11, 2016.

Link to eBook: Click Here

Baxter's PAW-lor Trick with Uncle Pete

Artwork by Jaime D. Buckley

Children’s books are so much more than just books. Books provide time for togetherness with a read-aloud. Books are a strong avenue for language development. 

Books are also a springboard for educational activities.

The key is to make the activities fun and to make the activities memorable.

The characters, storyline, and theme of Pickled Pumpkin Pie by deb troehler (link) and 

Jaime D. Buckley (link) definitely provide all of the above-listed opportunities.

When I was creating the follow-up activities for the story, I kept going back to the idea of a whole pie. Soon, that morphed into a HOLE in the pie—which lead to an activity that I used to do with my students. The activity below teaches children not only the difference between circumference and area. But it also helps children expand their minds and think outside the box

—Or, more appropriately, to think INSIDE the pie crust.

At first, Baxter kept thinking about the edge of the pie—or the circumference.

However, he soon figured it out.

The images below are useful for teaching children to cut a hole large enough in a circle to climb through it.

This post was shared on Create-with-Joy. Please check them out.

This post was shared on The Squishable Baby. Please check them out.

AUTUMN, CHANGES, & BUTTERFLY BATIK

Change—New Paths—New Directions

While most of us realize that in order to grow we must step out of our comfort zone and explore new paths in life. However, recognizing the need to change directions and actually taking that first step are often at opposite ends of the spectrum. Many times we need a nudge to help us take that first step. For me, the nudge came in the form of a major health setback. I was forced to make choices that I preferred not to make. Yet, now that I can look back at the footprints I have left on that new path, I realize that my change in direction was a good choice to make.

Since the beginning of 2014 my blog posts have become less frequent. In fact, for several months I did not even add a new post. I apologize for the lack of new educational ideas and activities during this time. I have come to the conclusion that for the remainder of 2014, I must devote my time to my family, my health, and personal commitments. Trying to juggle all of those needs with maintaining this blog was not in the best interest of my family, my readers, and my health. I intend to return to this blog in 2015, hopefully renewed and revitalized. In that time, please remember that monthly activities and ideas that I posted in 2013 and early 2014 will still provide creative suggestions for making learning fun and memorable.

My final blog post for 2014 fits in perfectly with my decision to journey down a different path for a while. Mother Nature is on her own path to change with the turning of the seasons. While pictures, books, classroom decorations, and the like lead us to believe otherwise, the transition from one season to the next is anything but sudden. For weeks in our area summer has been fighting to maintain its hold on our region. In fact, during the first week of September we had record breaking temperatures. Our usually wet month of September has been dry. Yet, each morning, there is a glimmer of hope that the cooler autumn weather is winning the battle of the seasons. Spiders are capturing the dew each morning and now spinning the spectacular webs that are synonymous with fall. Moths and butterflies are hastily slurping the last of the nectar from the fading blossoms of summer. Caterpillars are beginning to stake their claim to their sleeping grounds to ride out their transition to new creations—moths and butterflies that will emerge in the spring.

Summer to autumn

Autumn to winter

Winter to Spring

Spring to Summer

The endless change of directions that nature takes is a reminder to all of us that to grow we must change, even if the change may not be as easy as we’d like.

As my final educational activity for 2014, I have chosen a craftivity centered on what I believe are the ultimate examples of change—butterflies. From the moment they hatch into a tiny caterpillar until the time comes to settle into a deep metamorphic slumber, butterflies are nature’s example of how trust in change can result in beautiful creations. When a butterfly lays her eggs, not knowing if her efforts will succeed, she trusts that the leaf, the branch, or the seedpod will provide for her young offspring. The caterpillars emerge and forage for weeks, trusting that food will be readily available. They grow and shed one casing after another, trusting nature to protect them during each transition. Then, the caterpillars trust nature once again to protect them as they spin their protective chrysalis and finally emerge a magnificent winged creature.

The activity below provides children with an opportunity to demonstrate how change (addition of paint to a crayon resist background) can yield beautiful results.

Beautiful Butterfly Batik*

Objective: Children will learn the traditional method of batik (hot wax resist), but use that information to create a variation of the method—crayon batik.

Materials:

Crayons with fine points

Sturdy paper or cardstock

Diluted tempera or acrylic paint
Large bowl
Optional: butterfly template (provided)
Plain newsprint or screen mat for drying

Procedure:

Preparation: Prior to conducting the activity, pour a small amount of paint into a large bowl. Dilute the paint with water so that there is ample pigment in the water, but the paint is now the consistency of water. This will be used as the paint bath to dye the crayon artwork.

1. Show your children pictures of traditional batik (Hint: an internet search will provide some excellent examples).

2. Discuss the process for creating traditional batik.
A. Paint melted wax on fabric.
B. Dye the fabric a light color and allow to dry. The dye will resist the fabric that is coated in wax.
C. Add more melted wax. Repeat the dying process.
D. When the last dye has been added and dries, the wax is melted from the fabric, usually with a hot iron.
The result is a design with bold colors and lines that crisscross the colors where the wax cracked during the dying process.
3. Ask the children to use the crayons draw a block style picture of a butterfly or moth, encouraging the children to use large shapes with small spaces in between. It is important that the crayons completely cover each shape with a thick layer of wax.

 

 

4. Fold and crinkle the paper into a ball.

 

5. Unfold the paper and briefly dip it into the bowl of diluted paint. (Hint: younger children may need to be reminded that if their artwork is allowed to remain in the paint too long, the paper fibers may become weak and tear.)

 

 

6. Place the artwork on a flat surface to dry.

 

The faux batik butterfly artwork is a combination of different mediums that can represent the change of the seasons. When the children look at their completed artwork, ask them to find the small lines of paint that worked their way into the blocks of crayon wax. Explain that these lines can represent the days where our seasons are a mixture of two seasons—for example, very hot days in September that begin chilly with a heavy dew coating the windows and plants.

*I originally created this activity for a wonderful web site that focuses on teaching children the wonders of nature and how butterflies are wonderful ambassadors for nature’s ability to grow and change. Please check out their site for more activities and information about butterflies.

Kids Butterfly dot Org

Snow! Snow! Let the Winds Blow!

We all know the weather patterns—hot in summer and cold in winter? Or, is that correct? This year alone we’ve had temperatures in the 80s with torrential rains followed by bone chilling, pipe bursting temperatures so cold that schools and businesses were closed. These extreme weather swings took place in the month of January. Climate change is more than likely the cause of our now-familiar roller coaster weather patterns.

Why not tap into these changes in weather patterns to create a snowman glyph?

Today’s post includes instructions and printables to use with your children to practice recording and interpreting data, create and interpret bar graphs, and improve fine motor skills. As an added bonus, I am including a  set of snowflake-themed printables for you to use with the kiddos. So, when the winds are howling and the snow is blowing, you can stay inside warm and snug and still enjoy the snowflakes.

HOW WOULD YOU BUILD YOUR SNOWMAN GLYPH? 

OBJECTIVE: Demonstrate the ability to read and interpret glyphs.

*Please note that younger children may need assistance with cutting the snowman components.

MATERIALS NEEDED

Printouts provided with this lesson*

Scissors and glue

 

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Prior to the activity, prepare a snowman glyph with your personal choices for the snowman components. Show your completed snowman to the children, along with the key.

Ask: Looking at the snowman that I made and the key, what do you think my favorite candy is? What type of shoes do I like to wear?

Explain that the children are going to create their own snowmen, based on their favorite things.

2. Show the key to the children. Discuss the options to use for each category.

3. Give the snowman printout and the component printouts to the children, instructing them to build their own snowman based on their choices.

4. When the glyphs are completed, children will share their choices to reinforce reading the glyph with the Snowman Glyph Key.

Snowmen and a Snow Fort

Use the completed glyphs to build a bar graph showing the total number of children who chose each component, as shown.

MODIFICATION: Children create a glyph based upon their favorite season. Create a bar or pictograph of the results.

 

 

A New Year is Here~TIME TO GET YOUR DUCKS IN A ROW

It’s official! The New Year has arrived. Across the country and around the world, January 1st signals the official end of the holiday season and a return to a noses to the grindstone time of year—in the workplace and in the classroom. The start of a new year, fresh with energy, is the perfect time to conduct a mini unit utilizing the new calendar.

Below you will find some of the many ways that a calendar can be used to teach, reinforce, and review essential skills. Many of these suggestions can be easily modified to meet age and ability levels. They can be used as center activities, small group review, or as a homework activity that involves the entire family.

Activities:

1. Begin the unit with a quick review of the months of the year in order. Enlarge and print the monthly calendar to use for this activity

2. Provide each child a copy of the calendar to use for the following activities.

• Guide the children in finding and coloring the block on the calendar that corresponds with their birthday.
• Play the “Standing Up for my Birthday” counting game where the children orally point and count each day of each month. When the month and date match the child’s birthday, they are to stand up and shout. “Hey! That’s my birthday!”
• Take turns reading the months of the year and having each child with a birthday that falls in the month stand up. Record those numbers on a page printed with the months listed in order.
• Use the bar graph template (provided) to create a bar graph based on the number of birthdays that occur each month.
• Practice left-to-right tracking and the concept of rows by pointing and reading the days of the week or dates for a particular week of each month.
• Practice the concept of columns verses rows by finding and reading the column in each month that begins with 7. This is great to provide a foundation for multiplication and skip counting.
• Locate and color the dates for important holidays.
• As a homework assignment, use the calendars to locate and color the block that corresponds to each family member. Remind children to use a different color for each one.
• Create a bar graph with the number of months that have the EXACT number of days—28, 29*, 30, 31. (See silly duck joke)
• Cut the calendars out and laminate to use in a learning center. Create task cards to place in chronological order, sort by season, sort by total number of days, etc.

 

 

*The calendars are also great additions to the morning warm-up folder for your children. They can be used to mark each day that has passed, identify weekend days, record the daily high/low temperatures, or provide sticker incentives and rewards. The possibilities are endless.

DECOMP PROJECT Connection Activity: Ignite Their Curiosity with Water

Now that a couple of weeks have passed since your students took out the trash (i.e. buried items in their decomp tub), it is almost certain that your students have begun to ask questions.

“What’s happening under the dirt?”

“Why do we have to add water to the dirt?”

Or, better yet…

“WHEN can we dig up the trash?”

These are all good questions that will encourage your students to seek answers.

Today’s connection activity will answer one of those questions, but will also motivate your students to pose more questions to be answered as the Decomp Project continues.

The following activity is a demonstration on the breakdown of material that occurs during decomposition. While this is not a complete example of the decomposition process, the activity will serve to illustrate one very important fact.--The plastic in our world affects many aspects of our lives.

IGNITE THEIR CURIOSITY WITH WATER

Grade Range: K – 3

Time to complete: 20-30 minutes

VA STANDARDS of LEARNING: SCIENCE K.1, 1.1, 1.3, 2.1, 3.1, 3.10

The purpose of this activity is to provide a visual example of how paper breaks down when it is exposed to water.

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION: Students will place several types of paper into a water bath (one set placed directly into the water and the other set protected in a sealed plastic bag) and shake the contents of the water bath. They will compare the results of the paper that is directly placed in the water with the paper that is contained in plastic. They will then make predications about some of the items that are buried in the decomp tub.

MATERIALS:

3 Pint-sized plastic containers with lids
1 cup measuring cup

3 cups water

2 4” x 4” squares of toilet paper

2 4” by 4” squares of bargain brand notebook paper

2 4” x 4” squares of bargain brand paper towels
3 zippered sandwich bags
2 cups dry soil
Small strainer

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Prior to the activity, prepare the materials by placing one of each type of paper into a sandwich bag and sealing it.

2. Conduct a discussion about paper and what paper is made from (wood pulp or recycled paper).

3. Pour 1 cup of water into a plastic container.

4. Place a plain piece toilet paper into the water and put the lid onto the container.

 

5. Shake the container vigorously for 30-45 seconds. Note any changes in the paper.

 

6. Using the strainer, drain the water from the paper pulp that was created. Set this pulp aside for later.

7. Repeat steps 3-5, substituting the toilet paper in the sealed plastic bag into the water. Hint: The paper in the sealed plastic bag should remain dry and unchanged.

8. Continue steps 3-5, substituting the remaining paper that is pictured above.

Ask: Why did the paper in the plastic bags stay in one piece? Why did some of the plain paper (not sealed in plastic) take longer to break into smaller pieces?

9. Take the pulp that was strained in step 6, add it to the dirt, and mix well. Take the plastic bags with the paper sealed inside and ‘stir’ them into the dirt. Discuss why stirring the sealed bags doesn’t work as well.

 

Explain that when water is added to the decomp tub, some of the items might change. It will take longer than it did today, but there will be changes by the end of the year.

Ask: What items in our decomp tub do you think will change by the end of the school year? What items in the decomp tub do you think will not change? Why?

 

10. Make a list of the predictions to display beside the predictions made at the beginning of the Decomp Project. Discuss any changes in the predictions.

EXTEND THE LEARNING; EXTEND THE DISCOVERY; EXTEND THE FUN:

Now that your students are beginning to comprehend the process of decomposition, plant more seeds of curiosity.

Ask the students what happens when the plastic trash bags that every home, every school, every store, every restaurant, every—well, you get the idea, EVERYONE uses gets taken away by the trash trucks. More activities based on this very important question will be added to the Decomp Project later in the year.

For now, however, the pulp that was created (and possibly more paper pulp from your classroom recycle box) can be used to create their OWN paper. Your students will have fun while they are adding to their awareness of their impact on the environment.

The video below is a fantastic demonstration of the paper making process.

cHECK OUT tHE vIDEO CREATED BY tHEgREENpARENT dOT cOM

 

SYMMETRY: Balance in Nature, Balance in Education

SYMMETRY: Balance In Nature & Education

Butterflies: Nature's Ultimate Example of Symmetry

With cooler days ahead, it’s only natural that kids want to head outdoors for exploration. Today’s activity taps into children’s natural curiosity by striking a balance between building skills, adding to a child’s knowledge base, and having lots of fun while doing so.

Teaching the concept of symmetry can begin at any age. As soon as a toddler is able to walk, he taps into his own natural symmetry to navigate his environment. As a parent or teacher, you can use that awareness to help your child make connections to symmetry in the world around him.

Age Range: 4 to 7

Time to complete: 45-60 minutes

Subjects/Skills Addressed: science, math, physical education, fine motor skills

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION: Children will use their reflections in a mirror to build understanding of bilateral symmetry. They will then gather leaves and use those leaves to identify lines of symmetry.

*Please note: For the purpose of this activity, when the term symmetry is used, it refers to bilateral or reflective symmetry.

MATERIALS:
Full length mirror
Removable painting tape
Symmetry stick (straw or other straight object that can be used to visually divide a leaf or flower.
Leaves of various shapes
Crayons
Scissors
Construction paper

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Prior to completing the activity, place a vertical strip of green tape on the mirror that is a bit longer than your child’s height.

2. Have your child stand in front of the mirror so that he is visually divided in half by the tape.
3. Practice standing in various positions with both feet on the floor, keeping his head and arms balanced. Point out that each side of his reflection looks the same.
Ask: Is it easy to stand in one place when you look the same on both sides of the green tape? What do you think will happen if that changes?
4. Have your child raise his foot slightly. Then raise it higher.
Ask: Is it still as easy to stand in one place? Why do you think it takes more work to stand with only one foot?
5. Practice hopping on two feet and hopping on one foot.
Ask: Is it easier to hop on one foot or on two feet? Why?
6. Explain that when objects are balanced (have symmetry), they are able to stand better without falling. The same is true in nature.

Symmetry*: When you draw a line down the middle of something and both sides look the same, as if they are a mirrored reflection of each other.

7. Go on a nature walk to collect leaves and look at tree trunks. As you collect the leaves, use the symmetry stick to visually divide the leaves to see if they have symmetry. While many trees have leaves that are mainly symmetrical, there are trees with leaves that are naturally asymmetrical. Refer to the photos for examples of each.

8. Sort the leaves by whether they are or are not symmetrical. How many of each type are there?

 

AFTER THE NATURE WALK:

1. Use construction paper to create your own special type of Symme-Tree. Fold construction paper in half and cut free-form leaf shapes. This is not only a great way to practice fine motor skills, but it also reinforces the concept of lines of symmetry when the paper is folded and cut.

 2. Use the leaves that were gathered to create leaf prints by placing a leaf under a piece of paper and rubbing with the edge of a crayon. Once the rubbing has been created, use another crayon to draw the line of symmetry.

Another connection: Use wooden blocks to create towers that are balanced and towers that are not balanced. Which type of tower can be built higher? Count the number of blocks of each type of tower built.