Guest Post
Guest Post by Deborah J. Stewart, M. Ed. of Teach Preschool
I have been following No Time for Flash Cards for a very long time now and one thing I know about Allie is that she loves a good quality children’s book. So I thought I would share a fun little book we recently explored in my preschool classroom…
The title of the book is “Not a Stick” by Antoinette Portis. The book is very simple to read and the basic idea is to get children’s imaginations going by imagining the stick in the book is anything but a stick!
As a class we have read this book at least three times and now as I read the book, the children shout out what the stick will be next! “It’s a fishing pole!”
After we read the book for the second time, I had the children go outside and gather sticks from our play yard…
As you can see, there is no shortage of sticks in our “play yard!” Once the children had selected a few sticks, we came back inside and each child taped their sticks to their own large sheet of paper…
The children then used crayons and their imaginations to turn the sticks into something that was “not a stick”…
This process was simple for the children and yet challenging too! The children tended to draw random lines around the sticks and talk about what they were making. When the children had finished their drawings, I had each child dictate to me a story about their stick. We started the story with, “It’s not a stick. It’s a….” and the children had to complete the sentence…
Our sticks turned out to be alligators, spiders, circles, swords, and more. A process like this is simple yet promotes great opportunity for story telling and imagination!
Whether you are a parent or a teacher, I would love to invite you to stop by Teach Preschool and see some of the other books and activities I share on my blog that young children will enjoy both at home or in the classroom!
Guest Post by Susan Case
There is a growing body of evidence which indicates that direct experiences with nature are essential for a child’s physical and emotional health. Studies have also shown that exposure to nature can increase a child’s resistance to stress, anxiety, and depression as well as build up their immune system. Ask your child if they would like to go on a nature scavenger hunt or go bird watching. Their answer may surprise you.
Become as a child yourself as you rediscover the wonder and mysteries of flowers, ants, worms, birds, or critters in a pond. Take a free walk around the neighborhood meeting friends, relaxing, and building muscles as your child leads you on an adventure of learning and awe. Bring a sack or basket to collect some of the treasures that you discover.
My friend Katie from Mommy with Selective Memory took these photographs of her twenty-two month-old Little Buddy and three-year-old Munchkin Girl on an outdoor adventure.
Little Munchkin and Buddy took a nature walk with mom, gathering some of nature’s beauty.
When they returned home with their sack of treasures, they helped mom make a Salt Dough mixture so they could make a keepsake.
The children enjoyed combining the ingredients and feeling the texture of the salt dough.
Then they pressed their nature objects into the dough.
Mom baked the keepsakes to harden them. Now they can be used as a gift to grandma on Mother’s Day or kept in their special Treasure Box as a reminder of a fun outdoor adventure.
I asked Katie if the nature walk and salt dough recipe was enjoyable for her children. This was her response: “Yes, they had so much fun they wanted to go back outside and collect more stuff! They spent the next 30 minutes happily collecting outside and talking to each other about all the things outdoors. It was really cute.” If you need a laugh, click here to see what Little Buddy collected the next time Katie gave him a sack.
Salt Dough Recipe:
1 cup of salt
1 cup of flour
½ cup water
In a large bowl, combine the salt and flour.
Make a well in the salt/flour mixture and add the water.
Knead until smooth and shape into a ball (can wrap in plastic or store in airtight container for later use).
Press flat and add objects.
Put on baking sheet in oven at 100 degrees C or 200 F for 2-3 hours, or if hot weather, may dry outside for several days in the sun.
Check out these posts that have more ways you can use your nature collections. Pattern Naturally has ideas for children to learn math by using objects found in nature. Also, Why Craft? Why Art? will give you more ideas and reasons why the art process is so important for children to experience.
Susan Case is a retired teacher, now author and blogger. You can visit her at Kindergarten for Teachers and Parents.
Guest Post by Rebekah Patel
One way I build literacy skills with my preschool daughter is to dedicate time to journal writing. Our journal time is inspired by what I learned when I facilitated Lucy Calkin’s Writing Workshop with my former students. My daughter is a pre-writer because she writes only a few words and no sentences, but she can develop language skills by composing her thoughts into a writing journal. Through journal writing, she learns the ideas she talks about can be put onto paper.
We begin journal writing by reviewing what we wrote about the previous day. Then, I model one simple writing idea in my own journal. When I first modeled journal writing, I drew a picture and wrote. I observed that my daughter was very hesitant to write anything in her journal. Now, I only draw pictures in my journal, and she has become more confident and independent in creating her own ideas in her journal.
Below are some writing ideas that I have used for my daughter, but when you model writing for your child make sure the writing is relevant to your child’s life.
Writing Ideas
- How To’s – brush teeth, do laundry, bake cookies
- People and Pets - Mama, Papa, grandparents, cats
- Events – parties, trip to library, holidays
- Their World – rain, home, school, grocery store
- Likes – food, clothes, places, television shows
- Feelings – sad, happy, angry
- Learning – topics of interest such as planets, wild animals, weather, numbers
After I have modeled writing, my daughter begins to write about her idea. She is free to write about a topic that interests her, and she doesn’t need to write about the same topic I showed her that day. During this time, she works independently for about five minutes. She often writes about a new topic, but I do notice she has other typical behaviors displayed during journal time.
Writing Behaviors
- writing name over and over
- letter writing practice
- scribbles
- copying Mama’s work
- a lot of family and pet pictures
Once she has finished writing, she tells me about her writing. I transcribe her words on the page. Sometimes she doesn’t want me to write directly on her page, and I will write her ideas on a sticky note. I stay positive about the work she shows me even if she has spent the entire time scribbling. I know she doesn’t end up scribbling every day, and there may be some days she has hard time figuring out what she would like to write in her journal.
Journal writing builds children’s confidence in their writing ideas. It allows children to learn to stay focused on writing tasks. As children develop, they will start writing more words in their journals.
Rebekah is a former elementary school teacher who now is a stay at home mom. In her blog, The Golden Gleam, she shares art, play, and learning ideas to light up kids’ lives.
Guest Post by Debbie Clement
In kindergarten I won a coloring contest and picking up my award made quite an impression on me. I went on to earn a degree in Fine Arts, teach elementary school art, and from there have gone further to create picture books as both author and illustrator. My newest book has received a national award of excellence!!! All of these milestones occurred in my life because I was encouraged to create as a young child. What can you do to encourage creativity in the young people in your life and why should it be a priority?
As our world moves forward at mach-speed, it is ever more imperative that we think creatively, think outside the box, and cultivate our unique set of skills bringing them to every problem. Nurturing the skill of creativity needs to be our highest priority for children, whether we interact with them as parent or teacher. We need to nurture the questioning spirit that is natural in young children, fostering their spirit of inquisitiveness while listening to their schemes and brain storms with genuine interest.
One of the easiest ways to foster a spirit of imagination is to listen to the children in our lives. Listen to their stories. Listen to their questions. Listen to their interests, to their wonderings, to their curiosities. Listen to their inquiries, to their hopes. Listen to their songs and their stories. Children have dreams of being astronauts and archeologists. They dream of distant planets and dinosaur bones, of tree houses and excavations, of foreign lands and make-believe characters. When we listen and offer tools for exploration of these dreams we support the child’s longing for their wider world.
Beyond listening we can offer tools: building blocks and dirt, play-doh, glitter, soap bubbles, paint, tissue paper and glue, buttons, puppets, scarves and blankets, drums and kites. When we offer crayons and paper-mache, cardboard and costumes, wiggly eyes, tubes, construction paper and screws, the whole gamut of pieces and parts that invite open-ended construction with no-wrong-answer combinations, we show our interest in the very process of creating. We can watch close at hand and observe the color combinations, the balance and form emerging from the child’s imagination. From the very first squiggle drawn in shaving cream to the highest towering castle of building blocks, we stand and observe, coax and support, all the while extending creative play by offering our time and attention and therefore valuing its worth.
My favorite suggestion is to value your child’s work by asking questions. What is your favorite part of your painting? Can you tell me where that idea started? Where did you get the inspiration to build this project? Where do you think we could display this drawing? Would you like to perform your story for an audience? Allow even the youngest child to appreciate their own effort by speaking to you about it. Roll up your sleeves, open your heart and ears and let the children paint!
Debbie Clement is an award winning arts educator, performer and children’s book author/ illustrator. A renowned advocate for arts education Debbie spreads this passion through her company Rainbows Within Reach as well as speaking and performing at conferences, schools, libraries. For more inspiration check out her blog too !
I am so excited about sharing on No Time For Flash Cards today. I have been following this blog for along time and love Allison’s ideas. My son (JDaniel) loves to cook and bake with me. With Saint Patrick’s Day drawing near I thought it would be fun to make Irish Soda Bread. Bread making has always been a challenge for me. The end products are usually too tough because I have over kneaded them. Bread that tastes like a rock or should I say Blarney Stone isn’t good at all.
While searching through recipes online, I found one for Irish Soda Bread that didn’t require any kneading at all just stirring called Amazingly Easy Irish Soda Bread on AllRecipes.com. My son loves to stir. This sounded like a great recipe for us.
It is super easy too. This one just required dumping in ingredients and stirring. We are both really good at that.
Here is the recipe:
Easy Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients:
3 cups of bleached flour ( I used unbleached.)
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 egg
2 cups of buttermilk
¼ cup of melted butter
I added:
1 cup of raisins or a dried fruit your children like
Directions:
1. Grease the bottom of a loaf pan and preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Dump in all the dry ingredients.
4. Add the egg and melt butter.
5. Stir until all the ingredients are moist.
6. Add raisins and stir just until they are blended into the mixture.
7. Pour into pan.
8. Bake for one hour.
9. Let it cool overnight.
10. Eat!
JDaniel4′s Mom spent twenty years teaching children as elementary school teacher in Virginia and South Carolina before becoming a mom. Now her four year old son JDaniel is teaching her to explore the world through his eyes. She hosts a weekly link up called Read.Explore.Learn. that encourages bloggers to share ways they are extending ideas they have read in books with their children through crafts, learning experiences, cooking and more.
