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Gingerbread Baby: A Writing Project

Dec10

I saw an article in our local newspaper about a classroom that read the Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett and used this as a springboard for a writing activity. One particular gingerbread baby had an amazing adventure in Iraq with an uncle who was serving over there.

I love the idea of incorporating several subjects. I think children make better connections with the material that is being studied. Not only are reading and language arts incorporated in this activity, but art, geography, and math too. This idea can be done with any number of books and is not limited to only “people” so I have created a list of some books that I think will help you with this project if you decide to use a different character.  Many of the books listed below are in a series, which is always a plus when encouraging reading 🙂

Ideas for Gingerbread Baby Writing Project:

Read the book either as a read aloud or assign it to the student.

Have your student(s) create their own gingerbread  baby from the book that can be sent in the mail. You can either create a construction paper baby or a felt gingerbread man.

Write directions about what you would like the recipient to do. For instance, take pictures of places the Gingerbread Baby went, what did he see/do, send pictures of his adventures to us, etc. Here is a decorative Gingerbread Baby Writing Border for you to use.

Mail your character and letter to the person. If you want, you can send several Gingerbread Babies out on adventures.

Upon the arrival of your return letter (You can have pictures sent via internet to save money and time if you like.)

Look at the pictures of Gingerbread Baby and read about his adventures.

Write a follow-up story about the adventures Gingerbread Baby had while visiting. You can use the same Gingerbread Baby Writing Border as before.

Look at a map to see where Gingerbread Baby went. Calculate the distance from your house to the location (and back if you like).

Take a picture of Gingerbread Baby and his return to the daily routine along with a thank you to the original recipient.

Send Gingerbread Baby on another adventure!

Ideas for Additional Characters

Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett

The Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires

Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown

Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy E. Shaw

The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds by Joanna Cole (Your characters can be one of the students or a seed.)

Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert (great fall book!)

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner (for older students)

I was going to write a separate blog post about doing a Gingerbread Man unit, but I found this amazing blog that has so many activities that you it will take you a month to go through all them and every idea (and more) that I thought of were here for you!  I think you will love this website. It is great for preschool through primary aged students. click here

Online Math Games

Jul2

Summer is a great time to review math facts so that your student doesn’t forget all of the knowledge that they worked so hard to gain throughout the year. How about using some fun online games to help?

Fun 4 the Brain This website has games that children review and learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Math is Fun has tutorials on various math topics and practice for grades 1-6 and algebra too.

Math Play There are games on this website for grades 1-8!

Looking for math worksheets? Math-Aids creates worksheets and flashcards and you have several options from which to choose. There are so many topics to choose from that I think you will find something for each of your students since it is multi-age beginning at kindergarten and includes some geometry worksheets. click here

Math playground has games for a variety of math levels, including fractions, geometry, and algebra. check it out!

Looking for games that focus on fractions? How about math games?

Softschools has games and online practice for all mathematical operations.

Play Kids Games not only has games to play, but you can also have your student print out the results of the games. It’s a great way to track practice and improve skills.

Happy Playing!

~Lisa~

Reading Incentive Programs

Jun20

UPDATED 6/20/12

Do you have a student who needs a little incentive to read? How about food? Pizza Hut has a national reading incentive program for the summer and academic school year for grades 1-6. The summer reading program is called Summer Break Reading Challenge. There are online games, recipes, and activities to do throughout the summer. Any student that reads 5 or more books can enter a contest to win A Dairy of a Wimpy Kid package. During the academic year, Pizza Hut awards students with a free personal pizza. Yum! click here

PizzAchievemnt is a delicious school year reward program is open to home school teachers in areas that have LaRosa’s Pizzerias. This includes Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky; Middletown, OH; Beavercreek, OH; Centerville, OH; Englewood, OH; Huber Heights, OH; Kettering, OH; Mt. Orab, OH; Oxford, OH; Southeast Indiana (Batesville & Greendale). For more details click here

Not wanting to have food be an incentive? Sylvan Learning has a program called Book Adventures that helps students  K-8 pick books, take quizzes, and earn points for rewards. Find out more about the program by clicking here.

Interested in reading for helping others? I love this! Heifer International has a reading program where students help with the feeding and training of families less fortunate. Each reader finds people to sponsor each book they read and then collects the money and help with gifts of livestock and training.  This is a fantastic idea to get your student(s) involved with serving and helping others. click here

Berean Christian Stores has a reading program this summer. Here are the details from their website: read 8 age-appropriate books between May 16th and August 18th to earn one $5 Gift Card! Pretty easy, right? Next, if you read your Bible for 15 minutes a day for 50 days this summer, you can earn another $5 Berean Gift Card! Pick up your $5 Gift Cards on August 18th, 2012 on KID’S DAY ! Bring a friend who has never been to Berean and they will get a $5 Gift Card too! OR if you’re an online only customer, mail the form to our offices, postmarked by August 17th to get your $5 Berean Gift Cards online! For more details click here.

Barnes & Noble’s reading program allows children to earn a free book after they have completed reading 8 books. Click here for more details.

Half Price Books gives students 14 and under the opportunity to earn two $5.00 gift cards for reading in their Feed Your Brain program. How awesome is that? click here

LIBRARY PROGRAMS

I love the programs the library has to promote summer reading. I have listed several within the greater Cincinnati area.

If you live in Hamilton County there is a reading program for preschoolers through adults called Reading Rocks. Check it out!  click here

Do you live in Butler County? There is a summer reading program for ages preschool through teens. See more details

Perhaps you live in West Chester, Middletown, or Trenton? Here are the details for the Midpointe library system.

Mason’s library program began in late May, but it’s not too late to sign up.

Happy reading to all!

~Lisa~

Technology in your Homeschool? Educational apps reviews

Jun18

Technology is a wonderful tool to use in your classroom, but it can be overwhelming too! Today I thought I’d give you some websites that can help you make informed decisions about what games you’d like to let your children use for school and free time. There are so many fun and innovative apps for your children to use that can enhance and reinforce learning.

Common Sense Media The link I have given you is for the educational apps reviews, but the website has reviews for more a variety of media. Common Sense Media is a non-partisan organization that gives information about media so that you can make good choices for your family.

Here is a review site for educational apps for children 0-12 for your iPad and iPhone. Best Kids Apps  ** As a side note** Bookworm is recommended as a game for all ages and I concur. I have it on my iPod and iPad and play it when I can. I really enjoy it. Keeps the ol’ gray matter challenged.  🙂

OHMommy has written reviews of some of her favorite educational apps for preschoolers. I have seen a few of her recommendations on different websites as well and since she has some of her own testers. I am sure her recommendations would be worth looking into.

Do you have a child with Special needs? I found a website that will be helpful to you. I tutor several autistic students and this has given me ideas to use with them. Apps for Children with Special Needs

Have you found any websites or apps that your children enjoy? Please share!

~Lisa~

Legos: A Fun Tool for Math

Jun16

UPDATED WITH NEW INFORMATION 6/12

Do you have a child who is interested in building with Legos? Did you ever consider using them for various subjects such as math, science, language arts, social studies, and art? Here are a few benefits of playing with Legos.

MATH

  • Developing spatial intelligence
  • Visualizing mathematical concepts
  • Teaching /reinforcing mathematical operations such as counting, sorting, adding, multiplying, subtracting, and dividing.
  • Constructing geometric shapes. (square, rectangle, triangle)
  • Estimating
  • Following directions
  • Reading a diagram
  • Teaching area
  • Designing
  • Graphing- Graph the results of the science or the sorting activities

Now that I got you thinking about Legos, why not incorporate them into your school day or use as an after school activity? 🙂 Here are ideas to help you.

SCIENCE

  • Buoyancy- How long can your model float? Hold a regatta, invite other home school friends to join you, and give a little Lego set as a prize.
  • Velocity- How fast does your model travel? (airplane, space craft, race car)
  • Simple machines- inclined plane, wedge, screw. Inclined planes- How long does the plane need to be in order to construct your creation? Try different lengths and angles. Check out this website. It has a variety of models of simple machines.
  • Ecosystems- Build a habitat for your models to live in such as a jungle, a garden,
  • Volume- How much liquid can your model hold?
LANGUAGE ARTS
  • Writing/giving a description of the creation
  • Writing/narrating a story including the model
  • Writing/ telling step-by-step directions on how to construct the model
  • Write to Legoland and ask for a map of the park and any other materials. (One of my students was going there and had a map of the park before he went since he had written and requested one. How fun was that for him?)
SOCIAL STUDIES
  • Build a model of a settlement or town of the time period you are studying.
  • Construct a catapult while you are investigating the Middle Ages
ART
  • Draw a picture of the model
  • Color the picture of the model
  • Draw designs of future projects
  • Design new Lego characters
  • Create jewelry using Lego blocks

I am tutoring a 6th grade student who loves Legos. I find it interesting that he can easily make these complex models. He is amazing at not only building the models that were purchased, but being able to create his own. His mother has told him that he has to wait until I come to the house before he can program his robotic Lego since this is part of his school time with me. I love it because he always looks forward to me coming. The funny thing is that I was under the impression that he and I  were going to build this complex model together. We sat on the carpeted floor and he began to open up all these packages of small pieces of Legos. All I could think of was that we were going to lose the pieces. All he could think of was the robot.

At first I sat there worrying about how he and I were going to find the correct piece, read the directions, and try to assemble this pile of several hundred pieces (more likely thousands of pieces) into something like the picture that was featured on the kit. My worry changed to astonishment and then admiration as I watched him construct this robot from the directions that were provided. He didn’t need my help at all, and in fact, I was pretty much in the way. He showed me which piece was needed and how the pieces fit together. I wasn’t the tutor that day, but rather the student. This was a wonderful way for him to not only build, but also explain and demonstrate what was occurring. Don’t you love how this activity is not only for math, but language arts as well? My student was kind to me though, and let me feel useful by giving me the task of assembling some wheels and holding some of the tiny parts that I was concerned about losing.

NEW INFORMATION

Bricks4Kidz is a homeschool owned and operated company providing learning programs that teach elementary school aged kids principles of science, technology, engineering, math and more using LEGO® components.  Their programs provide an extraordinary atmosphere for students to build unique creations, play games, and have loads of fun using LEGO® bricks. Check it out!

Websites

Do you have a student who has been playing with Legos and is wanting a challenge? Why not have them enter a Lego contest? The whole family can be involved in this project since it involves creating a 2.5 minute video.  Have fun and post a picture of your creations that you enter for the contest.

Here is a website that has activities for younger students to work with Legos, but you can adapt these to students of various ages. littlebrickschoolhouse

Have you seen legoquest yet? This is a blog that is sure to inspire your creative builders. A challenge is given, models are built, and pictures can be sent to the blog for all to see. There are tabs on the side for further exploration as well.

Check out First Lego League The intent of creating Lego teams is to foster an excitement for science and technology. There are teams that compete from all over the world. You can go to this website to lean more about it.

Have you thought Legos are just for young students? Look at this website. Your senior high student will benefit from this if (s)he is interested in engineering and/or math.

Has anyone used Legos for school and would like to post an idea? I’d love to hear about it. Does your Lego engineer  or artist need an audience to view their masterpiece? Post a picture and I’ll be sure to comment. Now, what to do with all those pieces that are on the floor…