Structured Play

Building Good Readers

2019-01-04T19:00:00.000-06:00

"Your boys are such good readers! I wish mine loved to read like yours do! How did you do that?"

Can parents build good readers? How do parents build good readers? This might seem like a daunting question, a task too difficult to tackle. But truly, it does not have to be.

As our children grow and become readers on their own accord they often feel that they do not need or want parents to read to them. It is very common for this to happen, but as their parents, it is our job to push back.

Readers are not born, they are made.

We must find times to read to our children. That might mean reading aloud looks different as they get older. Maybe instead of before bed; you are reading at the dinner table, as they are playing, or during snack time. The point is to share books that will pique their interest and hold their attention. You might have to choose books you might not otherwise choose. The key to reading aloud is to model reading for them and to show them that reading is important and enjoyable.

In addition to reading to our children, we need to read our own books in front of them. They need to see us reading to see the value in becoming lifelong readers. You should be reading and sharing what you have read by talking about the book, magazine, newspaper at dinner or other times.

At home, reading should be fun. Children learn how to read from a teacher. When you are reading for pleasure do not teach reading skills, just make reading enjoyable!

For more tips on Building Good Readers check out this resource:

December Project-Based Learning: Sharing Through the Season

2018-12-02T12:00:00.000-06:00

Every classroom teacher knows how crazy the classroom can be from Halloween to winter break. There are fun community activities, holidays, and a lot of excitement! I learned instead of trying to fight against the hype, to channel the excitement into projects!

This time of year the necessary elementary classroom routines become dull and have a harder time keeping student interest. So what better time to introduce project-based learning!

I feel strongly about learning about the culture and traditions of others. In my classroom, over the years I have learned traditions celebrated in holidays I was familiar with and traditions from holidays I was not aware of previously. This project was created to provide a way for students to share their personal family traditions during this exciting time being all-inclusive and without making religious statements.

Project Objective: The students will each select and read a picture book to the class asking questions as they read. After the reading students will pass out a trinket that represents the story to each student.

Activity:

1. Students choose their favorite pictured book from this time of year. It can be a holiday book: Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Kwanzaa... Or it can be a winter book.

2. Then the students practice reading and rereading the book. They must complete a story map from the book.

3. Students must prepare three questions to ask the class before, during, or after the reading.

4. Students must make a trinket for each student that represents the book in some way.

I introduce the project by reading The Polar Express. As I read I ask questions. While reading I have a hidden bell in my hand that I ring when the book describes the sounds of Santa's bells. After the reading, I pass a small bell on a ribbon to each student. This reading demonstrates the project for students. The bells and ribbon cost me $3.

The resource includes; 1. a letter to parents explaining the project, 2. A project guide for students, 3. a question template, 4. story map, 5. personal student evaluation, and 6. lesson plans.

Sample trinkets made by students

I have examples of trinkets students have made from years past. We get anything from drawings to clay, to more expensive crafts. I explain that students must make the trinkets not buy items. The trinkets can be made at school using school supplies or at home based on your students. They are very basic, homemade, and inexpensive but I do have students make enough for everyone- "Sharing" through the Season.

If you are looking for a project or activity to break up the chaos of December without being holiday specific, this is a fun way to build relationships by getting to know your students better. Project-based learning brings the play into learning!

Find this resource in my TPT store.

Pencil Grips for Kids

2018-12-01T09:10:00.000-06:00

Children's fine or small motor skills develop at a different rate, like any skill. As a generalization, boys fine motor skills tend to strengthen later than girls. We have all noticed children struggling with holding a pencil, coloring, cutting, and especially with handwriting.

Here is a diagram of pencil holds and ages children move through the stages. But what happens when a five or six year old is still in the digital grasp stage? How do you help a child that is not comfortable trying a tripod grasp?

Pencil Grip Holders can really help guide a child into the correct grasp but it is not an end all be all for every child. To truly build that fine motor skill children need to strengthen the muscles in their hands. The best way to strengthen the hand muscles is to give children time to PLAY with their hands!

Building with LEGOS

Play with Play-doh

Explore in Sensory Boxes

Providing opportunities for children to use their hands will strengthen the muscles in their hands. Providing playtime is the most important thing you can do for your students or children! They must be able to provide pressure, manipulate, and stretch fingers.

Find out more about the importance of play!

Back at it!

2018-11-30T21:29:00.002-06:00

Stay tuned, we are back to blogging and sharing activities to do with your children at home or within the classroom. Life gets in the way but finally, with the request of followers, I have decided to get back to blogging and sharing.

My boys are older and have different academic needs. I have started working again and am loving being in the field again but I have quickly learned that I need to be overly organized at home. This is my closet. It is where I keep my teaching materials and office supplies.

More to come...

Alphabet Puzzle- ABC Practice

2015-06-22T14:07:00.001-05:00

This is our Alphabet Puzzle. It is a great puzzle for practice with the alphabet because it shows a community and community members that work. This sparks interest and discussion while putting it together. Joey is not interested in doing activities that he thinks are learning activities. So he is able to have fun and practice motor skills while still learning identifying the letters of the alphabet.

Now I helped Joey find the next letter by singing the ABCs. I was also able to help him find letters by telling him what the picture looked like. Ie: M is a mailman look for the mailman, now look at the letter at the top, that is an M.

There it is complete. Joey would not be able to do this alone but was more than willing to do it with me! Eventually he will be able to do it alone!

Beach Theme- Week 4

2015-06-22T08:01:00.000-05:00

Sorry, we were out of town for a week and although we did do some activities from our Structured Play plans, I did not get a chance to post. Here is Week 4 Plans...

Week 4 Beach Theme

Counting Shells- 5 year old

2015-06-08T12:08:00.001-05:00

I gave Jacob a bag of shells to count. He said it would take a year to count all 7 billion shells in the bag. I told him he could organize the shells to help him.

He decided to organize the shells by the look of the shell. I let him do it and just said, "that is one way to do it." He quickly lost count and started over numerous times before telling me he could not do it wil us in the room, we were too distracting. I suggested he organize them in another way to count. He couldn't possible think of any other ways to organize the shells and was getting frustrated so I stepped in. I suggested we put them all together again. He did not like that idea so we kept them in 3 piles. I suggested we do one pile at a time and put them in small groups of 10. Explaining it would be easy to count by 10s. (He does know how to count by 10s. He liked this and put all 3 piles of shells into groups of ten by himself. He ran into a problem when we did not have for a pile of ten. I suggested we put the left overs in a pile to make them in piles of 10. He again, did not like mixing the different shells. So I suggested we count all the one style. I let him count the 10s but jumped in to count the extra as a model for him. 23. He continued to do that for all 3 piles of groups of 10. At the end I asked, "now how do we know the number of shells altogether?" He thought for a while and didn't have ideas. I suggested we keep the groups of ten but all the leftovers together so we can easily and quickly find the total as he is not doing double digit addition yet. When he hears fast and easy, he is on board. We had 72 shells.

This activity was a great way to explore numbers and counting. There was a lot of letting him fail to find the answer. That can be hard sometimes but needs to happen if you want to raise thinkers. We also were able to talk about his complaint at the beginning of the activity. He suggested there were 7 billion shells. We talked about how 72 is a lot but not 7 billion! And we talked about how to easily count a large number of things.

This was a great activity to put Mr. know-it-All 5 year old in his place and show him he still was learning!

Color Practice- 22 months old

2015-06-08T11:50:00.002-05:00

I gave Jack our color buckets again. (Target dollar station) and some sponge fish. We stuck to 4 colors this time.

I modeled how to match the color to the box then placed them in the box saying the color.

He did it with a little guidance then quickly lost interest and carried around the boxes to play. He used the fish to dump and refill the boxes. Sometimes he would put them in the coordinating boxes other times he would not. The whole activity lasted about 5 minutes.

ABC Game- 3 year old

2015-06-08T11:48:00.001-05:00

Joey and I worked on letter recognition and letter sounds with this easy game. (Link to site on week two plans) I wrote the letters into the colored circles. We rolled a die and moved our pieces to the letter.

Once on the letter we said the letter name and the sound or a word that started with that letter. This was as much a number activity as a letter activity. Counting the dots on the die and counting the spots on the game board. The whole game took about 10 minutes.

June Plans- Week 2

2015-06-07T19:57:00.000-05:00

We are getting into Week 2 of our summer Structured Play activities. Here are our plans, we are continuing with the Beach Theme.

Week 2 June Structured Play

Sight Word Book- 5 year old

2015-06-04T14:18:00.002-05:00

One of the activities we are doing this summer with my big boy (5 year old), is a sight word book (Pre-K, Kindergarten) in preparation for kindergarten. I bought this printable book on Teachers Pay Teachers. This is a great site where teachers provide the work they have done either for free or a small amount.

Once you buy the printable you print and have the child cut and glue the pages into a notebook. This is a great resource because it builds not only sight word recognition but also gives them an opportunity to cut, glue and color.

And write! This is the first sight word and the first two pages. I worked with Jacob to put it all together in hopes that next time he will know how to do it himself. I did not nit-pick, this time, for a number of reasons; I want him to feel sucess so it it not a fight every time we do it, I want him to see grown with cutting, coloring and writing skills as the summer continues, and I want him to see that it might not look his best next time so he starts noticing his own ability. I try to teach the boys that their brain is a muscle that needs exercise to grow. They need to try hard to be "smart," it is not something they were born with. I am starting with a word a week and hope to move to a word (2 pages) a day.

This book was well worth the $7.50 it cost and I am sure we will work our way through this summer. I do not like to use a lot of printables (paper/pencils) but sometimes you need to. When this is the case I am so happy that hardworking teachers share their excellent work! Thanks to Jill Bell for all her resources!

Number Practice- 3 year old

2015-06-04T11:57:00.001-05:00

We read, The pout-pout Fish Goes to School. It is a cute story but also counts to 4 repeatedly. I used the number cards (1-4) while reading. I used this to start out counting activity. After the story I laid out the number cards randomly. I told Joey we were going to put them in order. Numbers 1-4 were fairly easy for him since we just used them for the story.

After 4 he knew 5 but was confused by 6 and 9. I had him look at the fish on the cards to help him. The fish were placed similarly to the Touch Math Method (Google it, it is a great resource!)

He had to count the fish for 8 and nine but was able to put them in order using that method. After finishing placing them in order, I mixed them up again and asked him to hand them to me in order. I did this as a little assessment to see which numbers he knew by recognition and which he did not. He knew 6/9 and the higher numbers were the ones he had trouble with. This data collection will help me know what to focus on when we do numbers again.

Feed the Frog- 22 months

2015-06-04T11:28:00.001-05:00

Today we worked on motor skills. Jack had to feed the frog! I used an old Parmesan cheese container, drew a face and grabbed some craft balls we had on hand.

He loved it! He practiced putting the balls through the whole and even added opening and closing the "mouth" each time.

He got silly and said the frog was eating his fingers! This is a sign of success! When a child takes a skill building activity and expands the play creating a game and getting "lost" in play, that is when you know learning is happening.

Big brother even wanted a turn! This is the definition of Structured Play! They are learning through play. You take a little for thought preparing a skill building activity and let them go from there!

Alphabet Practice- 3 year old

2015-06-04T11:04:00.001-05:00

We practiced letter identification. Joey knows his letters by singing them but we are working on identifying them. I laid out cards with shells and letters. I started by modeling singing "A" then finding the A. He jumped right in and as we worked I gave him silly identifers. Joey is my silly dude so by telling him B has two bubblers- one in the mouth and one in the belly, he will laugh and remember the letter. I just made things up as I went. Some letters he knows others he confuses.

We made it all the way through the alphabet without him losing patience or getting distracted. That is totally readiness on his part. I have tried similar activities awith him and he just wasn't ready. Happy that at 3 1/2, he is ready now!

By the way his favorite letter clue is Q. Q is an O sticking his tongue out! 😛

Color Sorting- 22 months

2015-06-01T11:58:00.001-05:00

I set three color buckets out for Jack (22 months). We sorted color cards into the buckets. This was his first time trying this activity so I worked with him and was very slow and deliberate with my words. I pointed to the color on the bucket and to the color on the picture card. I kept repeating "match."

Although I have many color buckets, I only started with 3 as to not

overwhelm. I would pick a card, say the picture, then say the color. I read an article on toddlers learning vocabulary and a key take away was to make the last word, the most important word they are learning. So we were learning/practicing colors, the color needed to be the last word. (Not typical in English language.)

"Jack you have a duck. Duck is yellow. Find the bucket, yellow, where is yellow?" All the while pointing to the duck and then the yellow bucket being careful to articulate yellow.

There were about 4 cards in each bucket. The entire activity lasted aproximently 10 minutes. I put the buckets away after we were finished so he does not play with them as his toys so the next time he knows what they are used for and how to play with them. (Although we will do different activities with them from time to time.

Buckets came from Target's dollar section. Color cards were printed from Home School Creation. You can find the link here: http://structuredplay.blogspot.com/2012/01/every-month-i-try-to-include-new-color.html?m=0

Comment and/or share pictures to our Facebook page if you try this activity or one similar! Have fun!

June Structured Play Plans

2015-05-29T21:40:00.002-05:00

June Beach Theme

Week 1: June1-5

With three boys Structured Play time is a little difficult but Jack (the baby) is old enough that we start getting things done all together. The Blue boxes are the activities the children will do with me. While I am working with one of the boys, the other two will have an activity that they can work on alone. I will be right there with them so if someone has a question or needs help I will be there but I will be working one-on-one with one for the most part. I will work hard to do posting of each activity but have linked to activities that I have done before so you can see the general idea. If it is an activity I have sourced, I added the link to the original source.

Summer 2015

2015-05-29T21:12:00.000-05:00

Our summer schedule for this year...

This will be our basic schedule for the summer. Some days may be different but I like to have a general plan because the kids thrive on routine. This is the last summer before Jacob starts kindergarten. I want to make sure we do all the fun things we can do before school starts.

October Sensory Box

2014-10-19T19:41:00.001-05:00

Joey enjoys turning his sensory box into a make shift kitchen. This month their are beans, a toy pumpkin, gords and counting blocks. He poured and stirred the beans making sure all other items were out of the box. He used the pumpkin to make pumpkin pie and we pretended to eat it. He also spent time counting the blocks and the beans.

Remember the purpose of a sensory box is to explore texture, pouring, scooping. From there it is up to their imagination! Let them explore and pretend!

Five Little Pumpkins

2014-10-13T10:51:00.001-05:00

Today Joey and I read Five Little Pumpkins and acted out the story with some props: felt pumpkins and a toy fence.

This is a great way to build reading comprehension. By acting out the story with props you must first listen to the story and look at the pictures carefully. Then you must remember what was read. These are all skills needed for comprehension. Building the foundation for comprehension during reading aloud time with your child will help tremendously once they begin reading on their own.

Acting out stories is a fun way to make stories come alive for children. You will find the stories you read and take a step further become your childrens' favorite books. Allow them to change the story after acting it out a few times. This away they are creating their own stories by making connections and using their imagination. Find a story to bring alive today!

Apple Picking

2014-10-11T15:30:00.001-05:00

We headed to the country to an apple orchard for a morning of picking. My boys love "farming" so we hit up www.pickyourown.org every season to find local farms.

I feel like they learn so much by getting out and doing, just breathing the country air and seeing wild turkeys on the road. I sometimes wonder if we should move to the country for our boys but this mama is a city girl!

We pick and we sample. We learn the best apples to pick and the best way to pick the apples. We work hard and sweat but no one notices because it is fun to work when you are learning!

Check out pickyourown.org to find farms in your area. We pick: strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, peaches, apples and pumpkins.

Apple Counting

2014-10-11T10:54:00.001-05:00

My little joey is a great counter but we are working on identifying the digit that represents the number. We started by drawing a tree on a large sheet of paper. I knew to include him in this process. If I had drawn a cute tree and had apples all set up he would not want to participate but including him in the process ensured his willingness and excitement.

We drew the tree and some apples, his name and some numbers . At the bottom I drew "baskets" with numbers in them. Then I pulled out the apples I had ready with numbers on them. I told Joey we were going to pick the apples from the tree and put them in the basket on the matching digit. At first he said, "no, you do it." To which I complied. I did it from number 1 to 3 when he stopped me to finish for me. He is very much an observer. He needed to see what I wanted not just hear directions. He happily matched the numbers from the Apple to the basket time and again. Then he told me what to do and praised my good work.

He is a very different learner than my oldest, Jacob, and I have really enjoyed getting to know him as a learner! The blog pictures are not as "pretty" as they were with Jacob but the learning is just a rich, if not more so!

Apple Sensory Box

2014-10-11T10:29:00.001-05:00

The two little guys enjoyed playing with dry rice, foam apples, red cotton balls, acorns, silk flowers, walnuts, etc. They used spoons and bowls from our play kitchen taking the sensory box a step further in play- making Apple pie and Apple sauce.

I have had comments asking about how I control the mess of sensory box. My answer is I don't. Yes, my kids make a huge mess but hey they are kids when don't they make a huge mess? I am sitting and playing with them so I do not let them purposefully just dump but you cannot expect them to Keep every grain of rice in the box. I put the box away when we are finished and reserve the sensory box for Structured Play time.

Pouring and dumping, feeling different textures their hands that is what Sensory Play is all about. You do not have to be too creative in setting it up, leave that to the kids. They will quickly figure out how to play with the box.

Fall is here! September is Apple Month

2014-10-11T09:45:00.001-05:00

This month we read Ten Apples Up on Top and practiced tricks with a foam Apple on our head. This is a fun and silly story but helps to illustrate what is real and what is pretend. This is something important to start presenting to children at an early age: could that really happen? Discerning reality is a critical thinking skill that is never too early to instill.

We had a lot of fun being silly with the apple and trying to out trick each other. If you can find the book it is a a fun early reader. It is hard to find as it is out of print. This is one of Dr. Seuss' first books before he started using the pseudonym, Dr. Seuss. It follows his format of easy reader/rhyming words.

Bunny Foo Foo

2014-03-25T21:07:00.002-05:00

Spring is here but you would not have known it today. We had snow flurries all day! I needed to bring a little spring into our air because the snow made me grouchy! I was singing Little Bunny Foo Foo to our baby when I remembered a cute marshmallow bunny I had seen on No Time For Flashcards. I thought it would be a fun activity for us to do to lift our moods.

I made a model then called the boys to create their own. I did draw an outline for them but they used the glue themselves.

Our little Joey beats to his own drum. He outlined the bunny with marshmallows but did not do so with any kind of order. I love to watch them work because they are so very different. Joey does not always want to join us but he is starting to come around a little.

And there is Jake working right around the line in order. He worked slowly because he was very busy tasting the goods. Joey ate them too. Joey loves them and says the word marshmallows so funny! We just kept asking him to say it over and over. I think we will all say, "marsh-mewows" from this day forward!

Such a fun and cute project but also a great way to practice motor skills!

Wild Kratts

2014-02-26T22:30:00.001-06:00

My 4 year old LOVES Wild Kratts on PBS Kids. I wanted to make his obsession with this cartoon to become educational. He was playing Wild Kratts after watching the show on a daily basis so I decided to make him a costume with some accessories. I was able to find some printables on PBS's website. I printed them and laminated them. The Creature Power Suit is made out of felt. It is a vest that can go on over anything that he is wearing. He can change his creature power and there is a pocket in the suit where he can keep the other "powers."

I wanted to take it a step further by making his play educational. I printed out a paper with 4 boxes; Animal, diet, animal type, and habitat. After he plays we do a debriefing in the HQ- Headquarters. We discuss the animal and some of the traits. Since he is not writing yet, I printed out cards that fit into the boxes. This helps him by being able to choose from a group of options.

He was a "Whale" in his Creature Power Suit so he placed the card on the board. Then he picked the cards that matched the traits of a whale. He is able to define the traits as well as identify them. He really is interested in animals and I attribute a lot of his interest on the show Wild Kratts. I feel that the best way to help our children learn is to take what interest they have. Because of, dare I say, a TV show my 4 year old can now articulate whether an animal is herbivore, carnivore or omnivore. He can describe the habitat and tell what class of animal it is.

Little Brother got involved in all the fun too! I took their interest in a TV show and created Structured Play. This is what Structured Play is all about and your child should not be the wiser. All they know is they are having fun!