Tuesday's Treat: Build a Rocket!

Each week Momondealz brings you a craft that is fun, educational, and frugal. For the remainder of July and August, I be concentrating on preschool and kindergarten skills.  This week marks the anniversary of the day that man first walked on the moon (July 20th is Moon Day) so I thought making a rocket ship sounded like a great idea!

Materials:
Paper Towel Roll
Red Construction Paper
Aluminum Foil
Tape and Scissors

 

Directions:
1.  The adult should cut 4 slits in one end of the paper towel roll.  Space them evenly around the roll and make each slit about 2 inches.

Tuesday's Treat - Rainy Day Craft!

Each week Momondealz brings you a children's craft that is fun, educational, and frugal! This week's craft is perfect for a rainy day and can be applied to many skills that a child should know before entering kindegarten. For the rest of the summer I will be focusing on important pre-kindergarten skills.  

Materials: 1 big sheet of paper
1 sheet of sandpaper
5-10 small shells (you can draw and cut some out if you do not have any available)
Cotton balls
small amount of toothpaste
goldfish
glue
crayons/markers  
Directions:

FREE online reading games for kids!

Free reading games for kids! GoGo Kabongo develops cognitive skills that are essential to reading. Fun, educational children’s games will build confidence and stay challenging with auto-leveling games that advance at your child's pace. Discover three different games in each habitat, each with six levels.

Kabongo - Free reading games for kids ages 4-7!

Free reading games for kids! GoGo Kabongo develops cognitive skills that are essential to reading. Fun, educational children’s games will build confidence and stay challenging with auto-leveling games that advance at your child's pace. Discover three different games in each habitat, each with six levels.

Kid's Frugal Fun - Macaroni Lady Bug Plate

Each week Momondealz brings you a kids craft that is fun, frugal, and educational. Today, July 7th is Macaroni Day so this week's craft will focus on using macaroni noodles for some learning fun!

Macaroni Ladybug Plate

Materials:
Macaroni Noodles(use coupon here to save on these noodles)
Paper Plate (use coupon here to save on Chinet)
Markers or Paint
Glue

Tuesday's Treat - Fun, Frugal, Patriotic Windsock Craft!

Each week Mom On Dealz brings us a craft that is fun, educational, and frugal! She sent us this one for Memorial Day...but I didn't get it up in time so I saved it for July 4th! It's an appropriate craft for either holiday.
Thanks to Enchanted Learning for this idea. Educational modifications are at the bottom.

Materials:
Oatmeal container
red and white streamers or strips of construction paper
blue and white construction paper
glue
string

Borders Books Summer Reading Program!

Got a Borders Bookstore nearby? Your child can earn a FREE book of their choice (from a select list) for reading any 10 books!

Valid for children 12 and under at Borders, Borders Express or Waldenbooks 6/1/11-9/5/11.

See all the details and get the form here.

Half Price Books Summer Reading - Earn $5 book bucks!

Do you have a Half Price Books in your neighborhood or town? If so, they want to help your child "Feed their brain" during the summer!

Go to their website and download the reading log to document time spent reading this summer. Then your child can redeem the log for $5 in book bucks to use at Half Price Books!

Program is for kids 14 and under and goes from June 1st to July 31st. For children 14 and under. (Children that are not yet able to read are eligible if a parent reads to them.)

Thanks Beautiful Books for Children!

Tuesday's Treat - Ice Cream Craft

Each week Momondealz bring us a craft that we can do with our children that is fun, educational, and frugal!

Summer means ICE CREAM so here is a fun, frugal, educational, ice cream craft (that won't melt!)

There is also a recipe for making ice cream in a bag HERE.

Materials:
Construction paper
Scissors
Crayons
Directions:
1. Using brown construction paper cut triangles out to make "cones".

2. Draw an ice cream scoop shape on various colors of construction paper to create your "ice cream".

3. Decide what topic you would like to reinforce and write on the shapes (different topics listed below). I chose to use A, B, C and common words that begin with those letters. Will can mix up the "scoops" and then match the words to the correct beginning letter.

4. After making your game, enjoy some real chocolate ice cream!

There are endless learning topics you can use with these ice cream cones:

Tuesday's Treat - Fun, frugal lesson about money!

Each week Mom On Dealz brings us a kid friendly craft that is fun, educational, and frugal! June 1st is a little known holiday-"Flip Coin Day". There are so many activities that can be done with coins but I have picked my favorites and listed them below.

Piggy Bank
Materials:
Oatmeal container, coffee container, pringles can, etc
sturdy cardboard
Knife (for adult use)
1 penny, 1 nickel, 1 dime, 1 quarter
pencil
white paper
crayons
Directions:
1. Cut a sheet of paper to wrap around your "bank". Have your child decorate it.
2. Glue or tape the paper to the container.
3. Have your child "rub" an impression of each coin by placing paper over them and coloring over them. Glue the pictures to the lid of the container.

4. Cut holes next to each picture for coins to be inserted.
5. Cut 2 pieces of cardboard to fit standing in the containter. Arrange them so that there are 4 divided areas in the container.
6. Place the lid on top of the container so that each hole is over one of the divided areas inside.
7. Start saving!
Educational applications: 1. Have a discussion with your child about each coin, their worth, design, size, etc. 2. Talk with your child about what saving means. If they are old enough, you can talk about an item they may want to purchase and how they can use the bank to save for it.

Money Mobile
Materials:
Coin printouts-you can print some HERE
String
Hanger
Crayons
Directions:
1. You can either print out the coins or have your child color some of their own.
2. Examine each coin and discuss the size, color, worth, inscriptions,etc.
3. Punch holes in each coin and tie string thru them.
4. Attach each coin's strings to the hanger.
Educational application: Use the mobile to help your child ID coins.

"Flip For Probability"-game
Teaching probability to children is a difficult skill. A game my students used to love to play was Flip for Probability. All you need is a piece of paper and a coin.
1. Show your child a coin and examine them sides. Discuss that one side is known as heads and the other side is known as tails.
2. Tell them you will be flipping a coin 20 times today. Have them predict what side will land the most during the game-heads or tails? Why do they think this? Discuss that since there are only 2 sides, the probability is that the coin will land on each side pretty equally.
3. Flip the coin 20 times and record each time what side the coin lands on-heads or tails.
4. Discuss the results.
Educational application: This game helps your child understand probability (the likelihood of something happening), making predictions, and recording results on paper.

Tuesday's Treat - Make Discipline Fun!

Thanks to Mom on Dealz for sharing her great, educational, frugal craft ideas with us!

Each week I bring you a craft that is fun, frugal, and educational! This week I chose to share one that can help with discipline. As an early childhood educator I believe very strongly in positive reinforcement. Some may feel that this is "bribing" but the reality is that by reinforcing your child's good behavior with a reward system has been proven to be much more effective than other negative programs.

Materials:

Various shades of construction paper
Markers or crayons
Scissors
Tape or glue
Directions:

Have you taught your kids a foreign lanugage?

I've always wanted to be able to speak another language. Unfortunately in my small town high school, Spanish was my only option and the teacher wasn't that great. And there was an absolute lack of Spanish tutors in this small town. So needless to say, I'm not fluent in Spanish. In fact, I can barely say anything past "Hello, how are you?" I know a lot of Spanish words but just not how to put them in sentences.

I've taught Bug some sign language. He was doing very well around his second birthday. He could sign close to 100 words and put them together in sentences like "more milk please". But his verbal skills have improved exponentially the last 6 months so we dropped the signing (totally my fault!)

So, I thought since his verbal skills have improved so much, maybe we should start working on a second language. But, I don't know a second language. Would I do more harm than good "teaching him as I learn"?

Have any homeschooling parents taught a second language to their child that they didn't know beforehand?

Just trying to get some feedback!

Find things FREE online - Learn a Foreign Language

The internet is a valuable resource for many things! And the great thing about it, is that most of the information and help you can find in it is completely FREE! Come back every day in May for FREE ONLINE RESOURCES!


LiveMocha.com is a social network site for people looking to learn another language. It connects you with someone who wants to learn your language that is fluent in the language you speak. Get help from others in practicing your foreign language skills!

I admit, I didn't do so well learning Spanish in school. I've always wanted to be able to speak another language. I just didn't have a very good Spanish teacher in high school and never pursued any Spanish tutors. I passed but never excelled. I think I'm going to check out LiveMocha.com, now I just have to decide what language I want to learn!

Find Things FREE Online: Teacher's/Homeschooler's Resources

The internet is a valuable resource for many things! And the great thing about it, is that most of the information and help you can find in it is completely FREE! Come back every day in May for FREE ONLINE RESOURCES!

As a pre-school teacher, my favorite sites to use for resources and printable worksheets are:

Kidzone - I especially love Kidzone for the custom trace line sheets. I can make sheets with the kids' names on them for them to trace! They have resources for Pre-K through 5th grade.

abcteach - abcteach has a paid portion but they also have great free resources as well. They also go through middle school.

Do you know of another great resource that would help out us teachers/homeschooling parents? Please share!

Find Things FREE Online - Business Classes

The internet is a valuable resource for many things! And the great thing about it, is that most of the information and help you can find in it is completely FREE! Come back every day in May for FREE ONLINE RESOURCES!


I took some business classes a few years ago through an online extension of our local community college. They weren't that expensive but hey, free is always better, right?

sba.gov is where to go for FREE business classes. They have a wide range of self-paced courses, including How to Prepare a Business Plan, Marketing 101 and Introduction to Accounting. The courses are offered by the U.S. Small Business Administration, free of charge.

Find Things FREE Online - Test Prep

The internet is a valuable resource for many things!  And the great thing about it, is that most of the information and help you can find in it is completely FREE!  Come back every day in May for FREE ONLINE RESOURCES!


Get free test prep for the SAT, ACT or GRE at Number2.org.

Find things FREE online - Educational Games for your Toddler/Preschooler!

The internet is a valuable resource for many things!  And the great thing about it, is that most of the information and help you can find in it is completely FREE!  Come back every day in May for FREE ONLINE RESOURCES!


Fisher Price has online games for Infants (if they're big enough to bang on the keyboard they can play the Peek-A-Boo game - Bug loved it when he was a baby!), Toddlers and Preschoolers!

Starfall.com is a website geared towards teaching phonics and reading to pre-K and K students.  But my Toddler loves the ABC videos!

Tuesday's Treat - Create a "store" to teach your kids about money!

Thanks to MomOnDealz for the great, fun, educational ideas she brings us!

Materials:
Construction paper
Magazines/Internet
Glue
Scissors
Play Money (can be printed HERE)
Markers

Directions:
1. Talk with your child about what kind of store they would like to open (Will chose a dinosaur store). Draw that store on paper.
2. Browse magazines or the internet for pictures of items that may be in the selected store. Cut out the pictures and glue them in a display on the paper (Obviously we used PBS.org to get our Dinosaur Train pictures).
3. Label the items in your store with prices.

I love the Dollar Tree!

My local Dollar Tree has been getting in a LOT of great stuff recently!

We had to go to a birthday party for a friend's son who loves all things Cars (the movie).  I was able to load up a gift bag with two Cars puzzles, a Cars coloring book and a Cars stamp set.

While I was there, I picked up some stuff for Bug.  He's almost 2 and 1/2 (that hurts to admit that!) and he LOVES to learn (maybe because his mommy is a preschool teacher?)  I'm so proud of him that he already recognizes all his colors (even brown, black, white and gray - the hard ones!), he can count to 10 and recognize 1-5, he can spell his name and recognizes the letters in his name when he sees them other places.

Tuesday's Treat - Frugal Fun and Learning with Easter Eggs!

Here is another great educational idea from Mom On Dealz!


If you go into any drug store or dollar store, you are sure to see tons of Easter decor out and about, especially the ever popular plastic Easter eggs!  If you're like me, you keep them to reuse every year so you probably don't need to buy more.  I thought it was a good time to give some learning activities you can do with the eggs. The kids I used to teach always loved them!

Language Arts:
1. Contractions:  Label one half of egg with the contraction (example-I'm) and the other half with the 2 words that make the contraction (example-I am). Have your child match the parts.
2.  Upper and lower case alphabet:  Label one half of the egg with the capital letter and one half with the lower case. Then have your child match them.
3.  Rhyming words:  Label the egg halves with ryhming words.
4.  Label halves of eggs with different vowel sounds (short a, long a, short e, long e, short o, long o, etc).  Label the other halves with words that contain the vowel sounds.  Have your child match the words to the sound.