Alright so I guess I have been a little blog happy the last few days, but I really want to share some of the great ideas I have learned for kids. I have been in many trainings and classes, I have worked as a teacher and come up with ideas of my own. I have thousands of activities and learning techniques to share. If you have a question about a certain subject or something that you would like an activity for feel free to ask. If I don't have something I know a bunch of teachers who might. As you can tell my favorite subject is science, but I also really like math and have lots of ideas for reading, teaching about different cultures, and practical life activities. This blog is mostly for mom's that would like to have more learning activities for their kids.
Lets talk about Animals today. Kids are fascinated by animals, which means you can use them for many things. You can teach counting, math, letters, reading, geography, ecosystems, and many other things.
Here is a lesson I made up with animals and the kids just absolutely loved it!!
Adults and Babies
I made a booklet with a Picture of an adult animal on the left and a picture of the baby version of that animal on the right. Some animals look very similar to the adult version, and some you can not tell they are the same animal at all. This was even interesting to me as an adult! I taught the vocabulary and language that went with the pictures as well. Cow Calf, Kangaroo Joey, etc. I placed this booklet on a tray and then I put a stack of flash cards with the exact same pictures in a pile on the other side of the tray. The kids would lay the cards out and match the baby with the adult. You can also actually put the written word on the bottom of the card to start introducing the letters. The kids don't need to be able to read to do this activity you can start very young, it is just introducing them to the idea that written words translate into what they are speaking, the idea of reading. In all actuality most of the words will be much too hard for them to read (not beginner words) but introducing the idea of reading is something you can never start on too early.
From this stage you have many possibilities.
You can change the pictures to ones that are slightly different and see if they can still match them.
You can make what is called a 3 part card. This is important for symbol matching. Even if they don't know what they mean, if they can see that there is similarities and differences in-between letters they are really showing reading readiness. A three part card consists of a whole card with a picture and a label underneath it. Then another whole card that is cut between the picture and label so it is in 2 pieces. The child lays out all of the whole cards then first matches the pictures from the cut card, after that they match the words from the cut card. I will put a picture example to the side.
This is a really great activity because it can immediately turn into a memory game! Just flip all the flashcards over, mix them up and take turns picking two. If you get a match, then take another turn. If you don't get a match then it is the next persons turn. Make sure you emphasize the vocabulary with every game, vocabulary will make a child more affective at communicating. Communication affects so many parts of life, it will help in social situations, it helps to learn and pick up concepts faster, and it is so important for many jobs and vocations.
Ok well I will talk to you later!
If you are watching be sure to enjoy General Conference tomorrow and Sunday. You can watch online at http://lds.org/general-conference/watch?lang=eng
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