One of the things I love most about blogging is how one post will inspire another and not just on the same blog but from one blogger to another . I wasn’t going to post this yet but when Kristina from Toddler Approved posted this Corn Roll  game that we inspired with our Candy Corn Counting I knew I needed to share this game. Also we have been playing it a lot, and not just because the tv is broken, because it’s fun! 

1. Gather your materials. You will need some paper, markers, marshmallows or even cotton balls, a die and someone to play against.
2. Start by drawing Santa , I couldn’t find a good printable with a beard big enough for the numbers. Which was good since my printer is out of ink anyway. So I drew the santas.
3. Add numbers.
4. I put the sheets on clip board to keep them from blowing around, but you could laminated them or pop them on a cookie sheet with some magnets too.
5. The objective is simple you want to fill up Santa’s beard first but covering all the numbers with marshmallows. The way you do that is to roll that number on the die.
6. Roll.
7. Add the marshmallow… oh and look who is getting a little fine motor practice too. I’m so sneaky.
8. We ended up playing a few times and by request one was a boys against girls. My daughter even rolled the die for the girls’ team!

I love games like this because they use a few novelties like Santa and marshmallows but are still packed with learning not only math but about sportsmanship and good game play.

Books About Santa

Christmas Morning by Cheryl Ryan Harshman  wasn’t what I expected , it was more. It’s written in the spirit of ” The House That Jack Built” and the text builds and builds starting with snow falling on a house as children sleep and ending with Christmas morning. What I wasn’t expecting is that the author tells the story of The Nutcracker , albeit a very simplistic version, in the rhyming text as well.  The illustrations of the Rat King is a little frightening but nothing that will prevent you from reading it.

How Santa Got His Job by Stephen Krensky is a fun and surprisingly practical story about Santa and how he developed the skills needed for his one of a kind job.  It starts with Santa as a young man and as he keeps bouncing from job to job he acquires skills like going in and out of chimneys as a chimney sweep with ease and without getting dirty,  develops a relationship with reindeer as a zoo worker and gets chubby eating all the food at a all night diner gig!  There are more but i don’t want to spoil the story. My son loved it, especially once the elves showed up, which was when the toys did too! I know when i was a kid I wanted to know how Santa got his job, and there are movies dedicated to this so this book  jumped on the bandwagon and did a great job , it’s very cute!

McDuff’s New Friend by Rosemary Wells was a classroom classic in my last year teaching. I think I read it every day for 3 weeks straight and then a few weeks after Christmas too! In it McDuff the little Westie dog saves the day finding Santa stuck in the snow! I love Susan Jeffer’s retro illustrations and the little details like the dad feeding the baby, the doggy sweaters the McDuff wears in the snow, and how Santa gave them all gifts they needed in the story .

Finding fun spooky games to play that won’t scare the pants of little guys is not always a simple task . This game is simple, spooky but not at all frightening.  As I was making it I wasn’t so sure of how we’d play but the rules evolved and we’ve been playing it all weekend . The giggles were epic and the only screams were  when I forgot the spiders are fake and walked  into the living room and saw them on the floor. This activity works on balance , problem solving and can be adapted for various levels.

1. Gather your materials. You will need some painters tape, plastic spiders, a prize for the end like a glow stick and if the simple version ( explained below) is too easy have some other obstacles like these ghosts ready to make it a challenge.
2. Start by making a web with tape on your floor. You can do a full web or if like me space is limited just do a half.
3. Make an obvious start and finish. We call our finish home base.
4. Add some spiders around the web and the prize ( glowstick) in the center. After the first go I let my son scatter the spiders himself.
5. Time to play. So the object of this web walking game is to stay on the web andpick up all the spiders then the prize ( glowstick) without falling off the web . Now this can be made very difficult by requiring tippy toes or much easier by only counting a fall onto the floor as a true fall. For us he was out and had to start again if he took a step off the tape.
6. It was not a big enough challenge so we added ghosts!  He could step over them but if his foot touched one he was out.  Another way to make it much more of a challenge for older kids is to turn it into a timed challenge with a stop watch. 
7. When he did step off I’d make a cackling witchy laugh and proclaim ” You fell into the goo, ew, ew, ew ! ” He’d laugh and start again

Spooky … a little but definately not scary! I think this game will be coming out every October for years to come.

Song

You may know the song ” One Elephant” This is a Halloween version that fits this activity perfectly. In my class I used to sing this with me starting at one side of the circle time rug calling each child over. My assistant teacher would be last. I have had so many requests for songs, I couldn’t ignore this perfect match of song and activity.

One little ghost went out to play upon a spider’s web one day
He had such enormous fun that he called for another little ghost to come.
Two little ghosts went out to play upon a spider’s web one day
They had such enourmous fun that they called for another little ghost to come.

and so on and so on…

My husband and I traveled internationally a lot before kids and we want to share our love and curiosity for other countries with our kids. Like many with young kids we aren’t up to taking them to all these places just yet. Instead we read lots of books , look at lots of pictures ( our own and others) and play games like this one that GASP uses flash cards . These are in the dollar spot at Target right now, even I couldn’t pass them up for a buck.

1. Gather your materials. You will need a globe or map, and some fun geography flash cards.
2. Start by having your child pick a card. Ask them by looking at the picture where they think it might be. Wild guesses or close calculations are wqually good, this is all about exploring from your own playroom, not getting facts “right”.
3. Flip it over and find out where it is.
4. Next find it on the map.
5. Keep going as long as it’s fun.
6. Beware for wee sisters who swipe the landmarks.

]]> http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2011/08/sometimes-we-do-have-time-for-flash-cards.html/feed 19 http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2011/08/3d-word-search.html http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2011/08/3d-word-search.html#comments Mon, 22 Aug 2011 07:35:12 +0000 admin http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/?p=10473

When children are learning to read playing games with their developing skills is a great way to practice while playing. This giant word search can be used so many ways. For my almost 5 year old I put in simple words he could recognize or easily sound out.  I also helped him by making all the words a consistent color and horizontal only. With younger children it can still be a fun game simply looking for specific colors or letters. With older ones you can make words multi colored, going every which way. The learning isn’t just in the searching either, using the dry erase marker to carefully circle the letters or words is fantastic writing practice and the foam letters are a sensory experience too.

1. Gather your materials. You will need a sturdy backing like a inexpensive canvas or even some cardboard, contact paper ( which will make it wipe off) foam letter stickers ( two packs) and scissors. Also a dry erase marker to play with.
2. Start by covering your canvas or card board with clear contact paper. This makes the surface friendly for dry erase . I found that a baby wipe worded the best to get the marker off after we played.
3. Start making a column of letters.
4. Decide on some words to pop in. Like I said in the preamble you can customize this to your child’s specific stage of learning.
5. Add the words mixed with some random letters.
6. Invite your child to play. I meant to make a list of the words I included but forgot and it turned out we didn’t need them. You may want one though.
7. Oops he circled the o but it was no biggie because it’s dry erase!

I was fascinated by which words he knew by sight and which he sounded out. He loved this and I can see myself making a few more over the next few months for sure.

]]> http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2011/08/3d-word-search.html/feed 8 http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2011/07/letter-dominoes.html http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2011/07/letter-dominoes.html#comments Tue, 26 Jul 2011 07:49:39 +0000 admin http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/?p=10175

This is an activity that you will have to make for your children to play with. Don’t worry, it is very easy.

You will need a piece of foam board (I got mine from the dollar store), marker, scissors, and a pencil.

Draw lines for your domino pieces. I made mine with four rows going long ways and six columns going short ways. I used a piece of scrap I had for the missing two letters. I didn’t measure them out exactly, but this is where type A’s could really have fun.

Use your scissors, craft knife, or steak knife and cut out your pieces.

This is where I drew a line across the middle as a divider. I drew mine in pencil because I always mess up.

Write upper and lower case letters on each side. I drew mine in the same direction to make it easier for my children to look at the dominoes and decide which ones matched up. I didn’t want any upside down.

This is a very good time to pay attention to which letters you write next to each other on the same piece. You want your children to be able to match the letters throughout the alphabet. I just did them in order starting with an upper case Z on top and a lower case a on the bottom of the first. The second domino had an upper case A with a lower case b. And so on.

Now throw the dominoes on the floor and start playing an matching up!

You can alter these with site words and pictures, dots and numbers, or anything you would like some hands on learning and matching. The possibilities really are endless. What are you going to write on yours?

________________________________________________________________________________