Educational Tips and Tidbits

I have to apologize for the infrequent updates!  I really do love that you’re visiting so regularly, and I really WANT to update…honest I do!!  But I’m having technical difficulties.  For some reason, my ISP won’t allow me to connect at home with this site.  I’ve tried using a proxy, but that doesn’t allow me to post.  Any suggestions would be appreciated if you happen to be a technical guru.  My own tech guy feels that there’s something wrong in my service provider’s system and so  far he doesn’t believe me.  So I can only update when I’m connected away from home right now.

Meanwhile, I do have other blogs I’m keeping up with regularly.  Check out the Learning Nook or the Job Training Readiness Centeror Teaching Reading to get the latest crazy holiday ideas, fun stuff to do with kids,or some great ideas to help your job situation.

And remember that you can email me at reading (at) allinfoaboutreading.info.

I hope you’ll visit soon!!

Sandy

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Don’t underestimate the power of kitchen activities with your children of all ages.  No matter how old or young your child is, you should be involving him or her in cooking activities regularly. 

Cooking builds many important skills, from eye-hand coordination and understanding of textures to reading comprehension and math skills.  Help your child find real-world application for textbook learning by cooking together.

Sure, it may be a mess at times, and it’s almost always less efficient than doing the job yourself, but the benefits are so enormous for your children that it’s worth the investment in time and energy.  Watch your child blossom as you work with fractions, cooking words, and following directions.  Every aspect of cooking together will build skills.

So open the kitchen up today and help your child to find ways to help you as you go about family cooking tasks.  Get a few kids’ cookbooks from the library and try a few new projects.  Make some homemade culinary presents to give out at the holidays.  Teach your child to be increasingly independent at kitchen tasks.

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(c) 2008 Sandy Fleming

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Try this fun game on a blustery day with your elementary-aged students!

Use an old newspaper, ruler, scissors, glue and paper to hold an old-fashioned scavenger hunt with a twist.  See who can find and cut out the largest letters or numerals.  Challenge players to find the longest and shortest columns, the biggest and smallest headline, and the largest and teensiest pictures.  You can even set up your hunt so that players must find items that match specific sizes, such as a picture that is one hundred square centimeters or two square inches. 

Remember that measurement is an important life skill, and often gets neglected in favor of other math lessons.  Help take up some of the slack by providing children with intriguing practice activities from time to time.

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©  2008 Sandra Fleming

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If you have a young reader that you’re trying to motivate to plow through more books, try a giant gameboard wall display! On a bulletin board or even on a plain space of wall, use paper or poster board to create a giant trail game. Colorful paper works best, but white will do just fine as well. Get your student into the act by having him or her decorate the spaces (papers) with artwork or even directions such as “go back one” or “take another turn.” Don’t forget to create a starting line and a finish line. Hang up the pieces end to end, so that they make a trail like a game board across or around your space. Make some twists and turns if you can, because straight lines are boring! Have your child make a cutout piece (whatever shape and size you like!) to use as a marker. You’ll tack or tape it to the gameboard as the game progresses.

Now, set up the rules for your game. You’ll want to specify a small reading goal that will allow the player(s) to move one or more spaces. This can be something like reading two books in one day, or seven books, or 100 pages. It can even be reading a book and responding to it in some fashion like a book review, report or diorama. The goals can easily be individualized. Allow the player(s) to move the marker(s) when they reach the small goal. Offer a prize at the end of the game!

Now, we adults know that reading is supposed to be intrinsically rewarding-children are supposed to love to read for reading’s sake. But the reality is that many children, especially those who are having to put a bit of extra effort into the process, do not find reading pleasurable right away. These kids need a bit of a boost to get them over the motivational hump. Most of them will be just fine once we can coax them into getting addicted to books. Games and extra motivators like this one can help bridge that gap and set them on the path to bookwormdom.

If, however, you try motivational tricks like this one and your child still cannot seem to get ‘into’ books, you’ll want to make sure that there aren’t underlying reading problems. Many struggling readers reach a plateau of sorts at about the third grade reading level. They seem to be reading just fine through the early years of elementary school, but then fall farther and farther behind as they mature. Don’t let that happen to your child! Get help immediately if you suspect a small reading problem before it turns into a large one.
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Need help for a struggling reader? Visit All Info About Reading for articles, lesson plans, activities and free printables.
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© 2008 Sandra Fleming

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Sometimes getting kids excited about numbers and math takes a bit of effort. Here’s one way you can get them going and have them practice basic computation at the same time….Math Magic! Just try a few simple math tricks. Young kids can use a calculator to play along if you’d like, or they can play as part of a team with more advanced students.

Here’s one example to try out….

Use a standard deck of 52 cards. The magician should secretly peek at the bottom card AFTER SHUFFLING, and write down the card seen there. Deal out the 12 from the top of the deck, face down. Turn any four face up and put the rest on the bottom of the pack. For each of the face up cards, start at that number and deal enough cards to count up to ten. For example, if there is a four showing, deal six more cards to that pile while counting five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Add up the values of the original four cards. From the top of the deck, count that many cards down from the top of the deck, turn over the card, and it will be the one predicted.

Now, head off to Stunning Friends with Math Magic and learn some more!

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