A handful of Thanks!!

We made thank you cards for Em's birthday guests. There is something I love about a child's hand print. My mom still has my preschool handprints hanging on one of her walls. It has always been my favorite childhood art piece.

We used a few art supplies we had around the house: kids paint, paintbrushes, and card stock cut up to any size you prefer( When I cut mine I kept envelope size in mind).

Find an area around the house that can get messy. I chose outside because the weather was nice. If I did this inside our house, I would sit at the table or on the floor and put a tarp under us to allow for an easier clean up.

Once we were set up outside, Emery chose a few colors and we went to work. I painted her hand with a good coating of paint. I then placed her hand straight down on one of the card stock pieces.

To make a full print I gently pressed on each finger. I talked with her about doing her best to not wiggle as I did this. It worked for the most part :)

I gently pressed on the bottom, than on the top.

After pressing each finger, I also pressed lightly on the area above the palm. Then lifted her hand straight up. She eventually took over this step as we made each card. This is what it looked like.

We did a few in this color and then I cleaned off her hand so we could do another color. The paint cleans off easy because its kids washable paint. I used a different paintbrush though so I didn't have to clean the brush during our project. My child is a little too fast paced to wait through that. After all the cards were done I let the cards dry in the sun. While they dried I cleaned up and she played in the yard. Once the cards were dry, Em put stickers on the back of each card. She had a pirate party so we tried to use pirate stickers. Once we got started she thought of adding personal touches. Like on Grandma Michelle's card she used convertible stickers. It turned in to her picking stickers for each person on our list. So cute & emergent learning at the same time :) After the stickers were added, I wrote a message in the blank area.

I also wrote the words thank you on the front. We mailed a few and also delivered a few. It ended up feeling  very personal and it cost us nothing...well maybe a few stamps :)

Spring is in the air!

With the official arrival of Spring, we are emerging and exposing ourselves in the fresh beauty. Spring is my favorite season :) On the first day of Spring we did a few activities to celebrate the occasion. My goal was to post this days ago, but life has been quite busy with deadlines, and Spring Break activities :)

We began the morning discussing "what happens during Spring?" with some book look time. Book Look time doesn't involve physically reading..it is just as it sounds, we look at the book and her or I ask questions as we go. The books are basically a tool for discussion prompts. Luckily, I have a small personal collection of books leftover from my teaching days. The library is also a wonderful resource.

As I was planning our activities, I realized our books fit into great Spring categories/themes.

Gardening/Plant Growth

Bird Life Cycle

Earth Day

Butterfly Life Cycle

Bugs, Bugs, and more bugs

Since Spring is a time of birth and re-birth, when book look was over, I read this book(and another) to get us further going. It seemed a little above Em's comprehension level, although she did identify with the plants growing and eating food to grow pages. This lets me know, the concept living vs. non-living is a great place to continue our Spring study.

I chose to read one more book because it connected with our previous seed planting adventure. This is a wonderful book about a few kids that plant a garden with seeds given to them from their mother. The adventure starts because mom doesn't tell them what type of seeds they are...it's a surprise! As time passes, change begins to happen. Growth is happening everywhere! The book continues on through the season of Spring into the season of summer and harvest. The author did a wonderful job incorporating counting and observation skills(logical-mathematical intelligence) along with naturalist skills. 

The last page is my favorite. What a chart and great visual stimulation(spatial intelligence). We looked for seeds we planted in our garden :)

Little Em was pretty much done with books so we moved on to a bodily-kinesthetic activity that also involved her intrapersonal intelligence with dress-up time! Dress up time is a constant in our house! A favorite being comes and visits during the Spring...who could that be??

For every holiday I love to decorate the house. As we decorated Em started her own imaginary play with this basket of eggs. She cooked, hid, sorted, mixed&matched, and counted the eggs. She was entertained the whole time I was decorating :)

Later in the day, we continued our fun with a nature walk(naturalist and bodily-kinesthetic) to hunt for SIGNS OF SPRING and added a few Spring poems(linguistic intelligence) to our poem collection.

For our nature walk we went up the road to a local nature park. The trick here is there are no toys at this park..it is really more of a preserved natural area. Many cities are trying to create these type of environments. I encourage you to see if your local city has one...or heck, your backyard could already even be one :)

Daddy came with us :)

Right away he spotted a caterpillar! Em and I walked right past it. Can u tell he was a Boy scout?

Fresh spring rain on a native Oregon Lupine

Cherry blossoms

Leftovers from winter

Not sure, but it looked neat

We also saw daffodils, wild roses, lots of new buds popping of branches, ducks, field mice(EEWWW), and hawks! The best part about nature walks is how your child's ever-emerging personality shines through  in new environments :)Em wanted to truck up this big hill and loved every minute up and down it! She is quite the hiker!! Looks like I need to plan a few summer hikes :)

Spring Sprung,
~M.I.MaMa

Did you wash your hands....??

Did you wash your hands? Lately, this is an ever important question, I've been asking of my 3&1/2 year old.

The more bathroom independence Em develops,  the more crucial it's becoming to reinforce this bodily-kinesthetic,  interpersonal, and intrapersonal skill. As all moms know, we can't be there all the time! In fact, for me, now that Em is capable of going to the bathroom by herself, I prefer it that way! Of course, bathroom independence comes with a whole new line of parenting. I hear, "Mooooooommm, I need yooooouuuuur HELP" bellowing from the bathroom almost daily. Bathroom trips are usually followed with the ever important question, "Did you wash your hands?" which is followed with a "yes",(even though I know I heard the water turn on for maybe five seconds) which is then followed with," Do I need to do a mommy check?" Don't get me wrong, when Em started potty training, I dove right in and modeled a hand-washing routine that involved myself and her always washing our hands. Unfortunately, in her ever growing independence, our routine isn't quite sticking without the watchful eye of a grown-up. And if you are wondering why this is a big deal even at home, I will simply say two words: toddler wiping. This should probably give you a visual image as to why it's important. Remember, these toddlers then come touch everything in the house!!    

My goal for Em is hand-washing be a habit, just like second nature(naturalist). My brain began wracking the following question, 'How can I invest Em in the development of a hand washing routine that will promote her independence with personal hygiene, be developmentally appropriate, FUN, and change the constant mommy responses from questioning to praising?"

I came up with the following idea: a visual chart for the bathroom. Em helped me construct the chart.

 I first started by gathering the materials needed(sorry, no picture): 2 sheets of  white paper, scissors, a few markers and crayons, tape, soap dispenser from bathroom, and a drying towel from bathroom. I chose to gather the objects used in the hand washing routine so Em would have a visual reminder as we made our chart.

After gathering the supplies, I called Em to the table and said we were going to make a chart(spatial intelligence) together to help her remember all the steps people do when they wash their hands. Seeing a table full of supplies always seems to intrigue her. In front of Em, I modeled folding the paper into 4 even squares(fold the paper in half, and then in half again). Unfold paper and cut along the crease lines to make 4 squares(logical-mathematical).

Since, our routine has already been established, I asked her leading questions like, "What do we do first when we wash our hands?" She replied, "we get them wet." I labeled one of the squares with a 1 to represent the first step. I drew something that resembled the faucet and then drew water droplets. She even drew one of the droplets. I continued asking leading questions for each step. I labeled each step with a description word(water, soap, sing, dry) to exercise her linguistic  skills. She added her personal touch to each square. 

We sing the ABC song to help make sure a proper amount of time is used for scrubbing. Em added bubbles to this card. This simple moment in time is also exercising her musical and linguistic intelligences.

The step she got stuck on is the one she always forgets..DRY your hands :)  On this card she drew the shape of the towel and colored it the color of our bathroom towels(logical-mathematical and spatial).

We concluded with her idea!! She wanted to trace her hands on the leftover blank squares because she has recently learned this skill. I thought what a great incorporation. I labeled each hand with the word hand. A great extension for this would be to include the words right and left.

We taped the pictures near our sink and ,voila, we were done.

~Happy hand washing,
M.I. MaMa

St. Patrick's Day a Multiple Intelligence Way

We've spent the month of March talking about how Spring is coming and the holiday, St. Patrick's Day. Along with a few original stories associated with the holiday, I put my own twist on the holiday and explained to Em the Leprechauns help bring Spring. The day finally arrived and what fun we had!

We woke up to a display of our day's activities. I intentionally didn't want candy associated with this day. Candy seems to be associated with every holiday....she even looked around for some :) This leprechaun only left healthy and fun treats though.  

 Here is a letter our Leprechaun left Em(linguistic intelligence)

Here are the leprechaun's healthy GREEN snacks she likes to eat,

The juice, Em actually loves this too:)  "It tastes like apple juice" is what she said when she first sampled it at Trader Joes.

The gold,

And a game board to help Em find the gold our leprechaun made. I adapted this game from one of my favorite blogs, No Time for Flashcards.

This game became a big part of our day, and the next morning. Her logical-mathematical, naturalist,bodily- kinesthetic, and spatial skills are all at work here. She immediately wanted to hunt for the gold.

To make the game board is very simple. Find a piece of paper or cardstock to use as the game board. Label the board with whatever you decide to call the game. Then use one coin to trace multiple circles. I chose to draw 15 circles. Em has been leaving the number 15 out while she counts. I used this game as an opportunity to exercise this important number. (When you are making your decision just think about where your child(ren) are in counting skills. If your child is still mastering 1-10, stop there. If you need to count higher, than do so). I intentionally didn't label the board with numbers, YET. I did this because I wanted to model number writing with Em. Since I had to pre-make the board the night before, she wouldn't have seen this important modeling. 

As she placed the gold on the board she started counting. 

 Look at that one-to one correspondence in action!

We continued playing this game. First, I hid the gold and she found it. Next, she hid the gold and I found it. To exercise our intrapersonal intelligence,  we dressed up in leprechaun clothes when we were the one's hiding the gold. I believe when a child dresses up or plays make-believe, their self- intelligence is being developed. We kept the hunt inside because it was mighty cold and wet outside. Even inside, her naturalist and spatial skills were still at work. The hunt was focused to two rooms of the house: the kitchen and the living room.  I thought the whole house was to large of an environment for our first scavenger hunt. She really had a good practice with perseverance and  her under, behind, in, and above observation skills. 

All sorts of counting(logical mathematical intelligence) was happening as we played the game: How many have you found? How many more do you need to find? When she found big piles she'd count each one, then say I found four. I loved hearing all the math language she was using!! We had to stop playing to get ready for school, but our afternoon continued with rainbow painting!( More to come below)

The next morning we added the numbers to the game board. Em dictated each number while I wrote. We when got to 12, she lost track. This is a great opportunity to teach the count-on skill. I went back and pointed at the number 10 and said "ten". This got her going. I pointed at 11, she said "eleven". I pointed at 12, she said, "twelve, THIRTEEN!" She was so excited she remembered. We actually had to repeat this again for 14, and 15.  Parents, this is why I love playing games. It gives you the opportunity to assess your child's needs in the moment and teach from there. I call this experiential learning! 

  

Our Rainbow paint afternoon!

The supplies needed:

The recipe:

I discovered I needed more water! Also, while the mixture is cooking, a wooden spoon works way better for mixing than a plastic spoon. When the mixture is smooth and slighty thick, it is done. After you cook it, if it looks like this put more water in!

 Don't make my mistake :) Mine was too thick and started hardening in the yogurt containers

(I love using recycled yogurt containers for painting projects.)

We went to work exercising our spatial, logical-mathematical, and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences, with some color mixing.

Making orange. Emery did the dropping. I instructed her with how many drops. For example for orange, I stated," Put three drops yellow, two drops red." Please adapt this to what your child(ren) developmental levels are....meaning you may need to do all the prep and just let them paint. 

The end results! I could tell the paint still wasn't quite the right consistency. I once again added water.

Can you tell a difference in the two paints? The bottom is before more water.It is too thick! Also, please notice our work station. I had plenty of paper towels around. I laid out the rainbow cards we made on a previous day. This helped Em recall the order of a rainbow.

The next photo is of a  very important tool. It is a paint knife. We used it for stirring. The paint quickly wiped off when we had to make a new color. If you don't have a paint knife, popsicle sticks would work as a stir stick. Just use a new stick for each color.

When our paint was all cool, Em started painting. I had told her we needed to make Lucy the Leprechaun a thank you card for the gifts and fun ideas! The point of this was to exercise her interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. Here is her card and mailing envelope.

&, of course throughout the day we were working our musical intelligence with the following tune:

Feeling Lucky,

M.I. MaMa