Cat in the Hat - Balancing Game

Today's activity for Seuss Week was based on Cat in the Hat, a big favorite at our house.  I came up with a Cat in the Hat balancing game idea a couple days ago in the middle of the night when Baby H was having a hard time sleeping, and I'm so glad I didn't forget it in my sleep-deprived haze.  We have a version of the book that has both French and English, so I even integrated a bit of French terminology in the game.

I picked six objects from the book (cup, hat, fish, ship, ball, book) and five body parts (hand, foot, chin, head, elbows, legs) and put the names of the objects (in French) into two photo-cubes:

Then I gathered the appropriate objects.  We took turns choosing who would be the Balancer.  Then the other girl rolled the dice and helped put the correct object on the correct bodypart of the Balancer.  We kept rolling the dice until the Balancer couldn't balance the objects any longer:

It was a real challenge, and the girls laughed and laughed as the objects kept slipping.  We also played a variation where you only roll the dice once and then have to carry the object using the correct body part across the room.  You could also add a third die with actions (like jump, stand on one leg, etc..) for more challenge.

Once the girls had enough of the balancing game, we played "What's in the Hat" by hiding different objects in the Dr. Seuss hat and then trying to guess what's inside or putting multiple objects inside and trying to find something specific using sense of touch (this is a variation of a Montessori Mystery Bag game):

When we read The Cat in the Hat after playing the game, the girls had a new appreciation for the amazing balancing act the cat performs.  They also could recognize some of the objects by their French names.

Other Seuss activities we've done this week include:

• Yertle the Turtle Number Craft
• Green Eggs and Ham: Try New Food Challenge
• The Shape of Me and Other Stuff

Now I need to come up with some ideas for the rest of our week...

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Math Games and Activities for Preschoolers

L and E are 31 months old.  Here is an update on our preschool math curriculum...

We're still doing RightStart Math Level A.  We've gotten through lessons 1-9, with a lot of repetition.  The girls don't like practicing the same thing over and over so I always try to come up with creative ideas to bring in new math manipulatives or come up with different games and activities.  I'm probably going to stay on these lessons until I feel that the girls have mastered the concepts before moving forward.  Considering this is a Kindergarten math curriculum, we can definitely take our time.

The girls have become really good at identifying groups of objects to 5.  We practice this in lots of different ways:

The picture above is from the Number Lap Books we're creating.  I photocopied some of the pages from the appendix of the RightStart Math manual, and the girls choose the items that represent a specific number (two sticks, two fingers, number two, two abacus beads, etc..).  Then the girls practice drawing a certain number of lines and circles (see L's paper in blue above).

We also play a game with a deck of Uno cards, where we flip over one number and then demonstrate that number using objects, tally sticks, fingers, or the abacus:

(and then they eat the corresponding number of Goldfish Crackers!)

We sing 'Yellow is the Sun' almost every day.  It's a song that helps kids memorize how numbers from 6 to 10 are decomposed using 5 (6 is 5 and 1, etc..).  We often use manimulatives to illustrate the concepts as we sing the song:

I've also been demonstrating what addition really means by showing them how to add up various objects, and by using the Add It Math Game Free Printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler:

Patterns and blocks are really popular with the girls, as well.  Here is a photo of a game I made for them by cutting up non-stick shelf-liner into various shapes and letting them place blocks on them (blocks came from a game from older kids that we found for a clearance price.. great fine motor activity):

Since all the math activities we do are very hands-on, not just flashcards, the girls are really getting the concepts.  I know this, because they demonstrate the things that they know whenever they play (even when they're just playing with each other and I'm overhearing them) - I love that math is not reserved for a special 'class at school', but is integrated into the activities and games that we play every day.

Check out Part 2 of this blog:  Ten More Early Learning Math Games - Number Line and More

Some other math-related activities from Learners in Bloom:

• Yertle the Turtle Number Recognition Activity
• Number Olympics
• Math Game: Grouping Fish
• Blocks In Socks: Early Math Game
• Bumblebee Math Game

Here are some links to other Mommy/Teacher Blogs with ideas for math activities and games appropriate for the preschool age-group:

• Everyday Math in Preschool from Deborah at Teach Preschool (with Linky)
• Six New Math Games from Peaceful Parenting
• Everyday Math Play from Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds

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Green Eggs and Ham - Try New Food Challenge

Today's Seuss activity (in celebration of his birthday March 2nd) was based on Green Eggs and Ham.  I've seen tons of wonderful Green Eggs recipes and art projects all over the web to go along with this book.  However, I decided to take the opportunity to do something that would focus more on the message of the book - don't assume you won't like new things until you try them.  What a great opportunity to encourage (i.e. trick) my picky eater, E, into trying new foods!

First, I wanted to teach the girls about the biases we all carry.  I put their (white vanilla-flavored) yogurt into three bowls and added a little food coloring to each so they were different colors:

Then I told them they had to taste each one and tell me which tasted the best.  E took a taste of each color yogurt and declared that the yellow one was definitely the most delicious!  L tasted them all and looked puzzled.. I asked her which one tasted the best, and she replied that they all taste the same (silly Mommy!).  Then she chose pink, because it was her favorite color.  I explained that she was correct and they were all the same, but sometimes we judge things by other factors such as external color instead of seeing what they really are.  Then we took the opportunity to do some color mixing:

The main event (for breakfast, when the girls were good and hungry) was a chance to try different foods.  I made a platter with a variety of food - some that they eat on a regular basis, and others that I'd like them to try (vegetables, meatballs, etc..):

I read Green Eggs and Ham to them, and we discussed how the main character was reluctant to try new food, but actually liked it once he gave it a try.  Then the girls took turns putting on the blindfold and opening their mouths, as I gave them different foods to try.  They were amazingly good at guessing what the food was (I've seen Reality TV cooking contests where the chefs did much worse in this challenge).

Now I mentioned that E is a picky eater.  She is not your typical picky eater - she loves olives, goat cheese, hummus, and salami, but with spit out birthday cake!  Oh, and whenever I give her chicken nuggets, she uses them to lick the ketchup off her plate but will never take a bite (whoever told me that if you present the same food to a child 10 times they will eventually accept it, has never met my E).  So I thought this would be a wonderful way to get her to try (and hopefully like) some new foods.  She let me put foods in her mouth that she never eats, but all the vegetables came right back out.  She even spit out the chicken nugget!  I guess she's just a girl who knows what she likes and what she doesn't.  L discovered that she likes cooked red peppers (but not raw green ones), celery, lettuce, and craisins.  The veggie-fritters were not a big hit either.  After the girls tasted everything, I let them finish up the food sampler platter:

The girls polished off the plate pretty well in addition to some extra apples, oranges, and olives by popular request.

Thank you, Dr. Seuss for helping my kids try new foods!

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Simple Yertle the Turtle Activity

In celebration of Dr. Seuss's Birthday on March 2nd, I'm going to try to integrate at least one Seuss-themed activity into our play every day this week.  We started with Yertle the Turtle.

The story is about a ruling turtle who (literally) steps on the backs of his subjects to elevate his status until one of the proletariats overthrows him (like my puns?).  This activity was so ridiculously simple to set up that I finished preparing it before the girls were done chugging their cups of milk.  All you have to do is cut out a bunch of turtles from green (or blue) construction paper and label them with numbers (or letters).

The girls had to glue the turtles in a stack in the correct order.  Then they drew in eyes for the turtles as well as water for them to swim in.

Simple, educational, Seuss-inspired fun!

Foiled Again!

We've been playing around with aluminum foil as a medium lately.  I still haven't quite pinpointed that perfect kids' project with foil yet, but I'd like to share three of our experiments nonetheless.

We tried some coin-rubbings (with foil) last weekend (tape coins on paper, tape foil on top, use rolling pin and fingers to create circular impressions) :

The girls enjoyed seeing the circles appear in the foil.

There's a Montessori activity which involves poking holes in a paper with a pin.  I'm not quite comfortable letting the girls play with sharp thumbtacks yet, so I tried creating a similar experience with foil and cocktail forks / plastic toothpicks.  I taped the foil to one of those mats that you use to line kitchen or bathroom shelves, which allowed the girls to 'draw' on the foil and poke holes in it without ripping it to shreds:

We basically just played around using different 'tools' to make patterns in the foil.  Then we used markers to draw lines and shapes that we traced with tiny holes.  The effect was pretty neat and the girls enjoyed looking at the light peek through the holes in the foil.

Finally, who doesn't like a little 'bling' in their wardrobe?  We tore up our foil masterpiece (above) and wrapped the pieces around pipecleaners to make shiny bracelets:

I'll have to scan Pinterest for more ideas for playing with aluminum foil.



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Number Olympics

L and E are 31 months old.  I always like combining physical activity with learning (like jumping over sight words, making an obstacle course in our living room, etc..), and I've had the idea of integrating math skills with Olympic-style activities for quite some time.

So yesterday after I completed my own record-setting endurance event (a 2-hour nap with Baby H!), the twins and I had a little bit of Olympic fun.  It almost turned into a reenactment of the first Greek Olympics (in the nude!), but I managed to keep the girls dressed long enough to take some pictures.

Our first event was the long jump:

This was the first time the girls had used a tape measure.  They helped me read the numbers, and we used ordinal/math words: "L's first jump was 10 inches, and her third jump was 22 inches.  This was her longest jump", etc.. (and yes, my 31 month old can jump almost 2 feet!).

We followed this with the high jump.  We've jumped over the broom before, but this time we added some number concepts to the game by increasing the height by one Duplo block at a time.  The girls counted the blocks and made sure we had the same number on each side.   Then we sang a variation of Barney the Dinosaur's "Number Limbo" song (substituting "limbo" with "high jump", "under" with "over", etc..).

A little more bragging - the girls both jumped over a height of 4 duplo blocks!  When we got to 5, they decided it would be easier to go under, which was a fun challenge too.

Next it was time for some track & field running events.  The girls took turns running around the living room, while the other one operated the timer:

We practiced hitting the correct buttons for Stop and Go, read the numbers on the display, and counted the laps.  I was most impressed by how the twins took turns very nicely with the highly-coveted stopwatch.

The shotput (beanbag) throw provided more number practice:

 The girls read the digits with ease (the only ones they mix up are 6 and 9), and were able to tell me which numbers were greater.

The most creative event I came up with was Weight Lifting.  I put out 24 blocks and asked the girls to put 12  in each pail.  Then we weighed them to see if they were the same:

 After getting both sides to weigh the same, I taped the buckets to the broomstick and the girls did some weight lifting:

Their Dad had taught them to grunt and huff-and-puff while they lift weights (for extra drama), so it was hilarious!

Our Olympic afternoon ended with some rythmic gymnastics:

We had so much fun.  I'm planning on building on this and doing an entire Olympic week this summer for the 2012 Summer Olympics!