G is for Gingerbread!

Gingerbread Playdough

1 C. flour

1/2 C. salt

2 tsp. cream of tarter

spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves are what we had on hand so used.)

1 C. water

1 tsp. vegetable oil

Mix dry ingredients in saucepan.  Add water and oil.  Mix and cook until a dough forms.

Sure smelled good in this house today!  We made the above "gingerbread" playdough recipe after we got back from the school and as it cooled a bit (in plastic wrap to help keep some of the warmth) we did our calendar, focus letter G work, and heard the story about the gingerbread man.  If you can believe it, I don't have that book!  And when I was at the library they only had Gingerbread Girl and Gingerbread Friends and  I really wanted the classic story.  So decided we'd find one online to listen to.  Well, that was a good thought but do you think I could find one that was similar to the sequencing cards I had and had our favorite repetitive verse of "run run as fast as you can..."?  No way, no how.  :-P  So, K. had to deal with me telling the story vs. hearing from a true story teller. 

Telling stories without a book isn't my strong point.  But it seemed to work out.  After I told the story, K. retold it as I wrote it down.  Always interesting...those retellings.  This time though she got it right down.  :-D  I'll be leaving the sequencing cards out for future retellings!  The playdough mats were from SparkleBox and the sequencing cards were from www.homeschoolshare.com

Gingerbread Family

I showed them how they could use the different size circle sponges to make a head and then add paintbrush rectangle body, arms and legs to make a simply gingerbread man.  Then I encouraged them to make a family.  When dry they will add oil pastel details.

Gingerbread Fine Motor Cards*

Wasn't going to add these to the blog but after seeing T. using them I decided to.  T. is just shy of 2.5 years old.  Typically he is given these cards and he does exactly what he is doing on the tray.  But today, for the first time, we can see the two that he did before he went back to his typical use.  I was impressed!  2.5 years of age is about when I start to see preschool tendencies.  He's right on schedule.  :-)

Gingerbread Sequencing and Measurement*

I like to add the extra nonstandard measurement task with sequencing cards.  Remember to talk about 1st and last, even odd, smallest-largest/shortest-tallest, etc.

Gingerbread Man Puzzle*

Adding a little "copy work" to her scissors work today.  :-) 

Gingerbread Man Patterning*

She cut all the pieces out and created her own pattern using them all.  It ended up being an ABC pattern and fit across the bottom of a 12"x18" piece of construction paper so I mentioned a crown and she was very excited about it so voila!  The extra step to make a pattern crown.  :-)

Gingerbread Stamp and Roll

www.prekinders.com

You can easily find (or make your own theme related) sheets such as these.  Typically what happens is the child rolls a dice and stamps from left to right until they get until the end.  This time I traced a few more gingerbread at the bottom and wrote the numbers 1-12 randomly onto the gingerbread.  The reason being is that if there is anything K. needs to work on is numeral recognition...for some odd reason!  LOL  So using two dice allow for a little more challenge in numeral recognition but also allows us to practice what "addition" means.  I was also slipping in there that if we know what number the dice is representing, counting doesn't take as long.  :-)  She knows 1, 2, and usually three and four on a dice since we use dice often so today we worked on what 5 looks like on a dice.  Good practice!  By the way, she was giving the gingerbread "belly buttons!"  Love it!

10 Little Gingerbread Men and Sorting/Descriptive Language

http://www.kidssoup.com/

This activity had multiple goals.  I really should have made sure this got done in the morning since K. is tired by afternoon and thinking about same and differences was a bit more difficult than it could have been. Keep that in mind when you are working with your child. The children are usually more capable of "academic" type tasks moreso in the morning than in the afternoon.  :-)  First off she sorted the 10 gingerbread into pairs/"sets of 2".  She then told me why she put the two together.  Then I challenged her with "what's different" in each pair.  Great for noticing details and verbal descriptions.  Then she put them into two lines, each with a "set of 5".  She told me that 5+5=10.  :-D  Then after placing the tactile numbers in order from 1-10, she then used a dry erase marker to write the numerals up on the magnet board.  Then we sang the song that went with this activity.  1 little 2 little 3 little gingerbread... the second vs. went along with whatever action word was used at the end of the first verse.  For example...

Run, run, run 10 little gingerbread.

Run, run, run 10 little gingerbread.

Run, run, run 10 little gingerbread.

Run until the morning.  (Clap, twirl, sleep, stomp were some of the action words we used.)

K. is getting more of a "homeschool" experience vs. a preschool experience since my numbers are so low and I'm not filling the spaces.  That has pros and cons.   Academically she is really progressing.  Socially, she'll be fine, I'm not worried but it is something to keep in mind when you are deciding what is the best experience for your child would be. 

* www.homeschoolcreations.com- Gingerbread Baby printables packet.

Mathematics and Preschoolers VIII

Well, introducing the Classic Balance Scale with Bears, from www.discountschoolsupply.com, yesterday made me realize that I haven't talked about measurement yet.  At the preschool level we want to introduce vocabulary that goes along with measurement and then the majority of our hands-on activities are going to be nonstandard measurement. 

So let's start with vocabulary:
It's starts as simple as "big" and "small".  Here are some other vocab that I use regularly, not in any specific order.
long, longer, longest
big, bigger, biggest
small, smaller, smallest
medium
tall, short
narrow, wide
measure
ruler, tape measure, scale
weigh
perimeter (actually this is used daily.  We glue "around the perimeter" of the shape.)
heavy, light
equal, same
more, less, fewer
couple, dozen
yesterday, today, tomorrow, week, month, year
about, approximately
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Some vocab for specific activities:
cup, oz, tbs. etc
time, minute, hours
inch, foot, yard
Fahrenheit

So what is nonstandard measurement?  Simply put...it's measuring without using an actual ruler, tape measure, scale etc.  Our goal is to "introduce" measurement.  Does that mean we never get the rulers and tape measures out.  Absolutely not.  We get them out for free exploration or for practical purpose when it's part of our verbal problem solving (please talk your "problems" out so your children hear how you are solving the problem...this is priceless!).  We just don't expect them to measure something and tell us how many inches, cm, etc an object is (some children will and that is just fine!). 

Children love to measure with their body.  Talk about how when we measure we have to use the same size object and they must be put one after another.  You can show how it works on a ruler. 
   * Sid the Science Kid: Exploring Measurement is an excellent DVD for preschoolers as an intro.  After watching this DVD they'll want to measure a room using their complete body.
   *  You can measure how long objects, let's say a piano bench, is by measuring with a child's hand.
   *  Measure how long the sandbox with their feet, one foot in front of another.

All those manipulatives that you are using for patterning, counting, sorting and etc can be used for measurement also!  (As long as they are the same size.)  Linking cubes, plastic links, inch cubes, blocks, crackers, craft sticks, dominoes,.  And check your toy shelf...what can be used there? Once you show a child how to do this, you'll begin to see it in their own play. Presently we have our Cracker Barrel Checkers set out.  Do they play checkers?  No.  They do use them for 1:1 activities, matching colors, patterning, measuring and so on.

The maraca is 3 dominoes long.

The window is 19 checkers wide.

Another manipulative that works well for measuring is the Gingerbread Sort and Snap.  We purchased ours from www.discountschoolsupply.com.  I take that back...we got our from www.amazon.com with free super saver shipping :-) but you can purchase from Discount.

The rhythm sticks is approximately 5 gingerbread people long.

Another activity we do with multiple themes are use our mini accents that has been purchased from www.trendenterprises.com.  I laminate mine for durability.  Here's a picture from our pumpkin theme, they were measuring themselves.  This particular time they also had a sheet with blackline pumpkins along the one side with the same numbers and they drew themselves starting at how tall they were at the wall and working down to the number 1 pumpkin.  Then they had a fill in the blank sentence that they used our number stamps with "I am _____ pumpkins tall!"

Using inch worms that are actually an inch long works nicely to introduce actual rulers. You can put 12 inch worms along a ruler to show 12 inches.  I just google an image and make it an inch in my Print Shop, copy and paste a bunch, print on cardstock, laminate and cut out. Here is an example of one inch work you can find if you google it. He's a cute little bugger!

Another cute way to lead into actual rulers are to make nonstandard measurement rulers first by using craft sticks.  You can easily make it theme related by using foam shapes or stickers.  

The block is about 4 faces long.

I don't typically use yarn for measurement except for those circumference introductions (measuring around a pumpkin, for example) or if a child is interested in maps and scales and so on.  But here is an activity we did awhile back but plan to do here again soon.  You can get a lot out of this activity if you plan it just right.  :-)

Use a theme related object or have the children choose an object to measure.  Then cut off yarn strips that are longer, shorter, and approximately the same size.  Then together as a group sort them.  You can write the words with the children (teaching them print concepts), you can remind them about longer, shorter, and same by drawing corresponding lines under the words.  You can arrange it so that when you are done you can review, long-longer-longest, short-shorter-shortest, and equal.)  Also, one skill I look for is the ability for the children to look at a set of three and tell me that there are three there without counting them...so that is why I chose 3 yarn lengths for each category.  :-) 

Well, measurement is beyond just length, height and width but that is what we focus on the most.  We do cooking activities on occasion. Wanted to do a weekly one but it just doesn't seem like there is enough time in the days!  Weight and capacity is often through sensory exploration and as time goes on you'll know when to keep quiet and when you can slip in a question or statement to help scaffold their learning.  At the preschool level, time pretty much is about yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  When we do things (day/night), the order of the schedule-"We'll eat after centers." "Mom will be here after nap." and so on.  Money can be introduced but remember that Kindergarten teachers typically begin teaching about money and time the 2nd half of the year.  For example, Caleb is just now learning about money.  They really get into in 1st grade.  You can do simple coin recognition activities and do some counting with pennies (1s) and if you wish you can practice your skip counting (10s, 5s) with dimes and nickles.  in general, just have some plastic coins and money out for their dramatic play.  We also have a game called "ALLOWANCE" that is lovely for Aaron (7-8 years old) but Caleb does just fine with some help (5 years).  I do not recommend it for preschoolers.

As you can tell, I can go on and on but time doesn't allow.  So we'll let this be all for today!