Time intro...

Trying to incorporate a hands on activities to further enhance learning. We have worked with physical clocks but I wanted to turn this into a craft they could be proud of also. During our lesson on time we created clocks. What you need

dark plate (I used black, happened to have some from a party)

round multicolored stickers

brad pin

construction paper to draw big hand and little hands (In addition to using arrow points, I made the big hand bigger and the little hand smaller to help the children in distinguishing which one.)

hole punch

Using a separate circle cutout I told the kids to pretend this was a pizza and if we wanted to cut it up so that 4 people could have it how would we do that. B was given the cutout and began to show the lines using her fingers to make it in fourths (intro to fractions) I was then told to fold the creases. I unfolded the paper and told them lets now pretend this is a clock and had them tell me what numbers would be at the corresponding creases. i.e 12,3,6, etc (Add stickers to those areas to reinforce visually) We then talked about total minutes from 12 to 3 and introduced them to counting up by 15s. Then they were ready to begin.

I think the craft is pretty forward. To add to the learning they were given time worksheets and had to recreate it on there clock and then listened to dictated times and had to show me. What kid doesnt like a craft and even better that it helps them learn.

Creative Learning....

Today marks the 3rd day of school and a recent poetry reading sparked an idea to let the kids build. Using Melissa and Doug Blocks the kids were instructed to build a ship. My youngest didnt know how a ship looked so my 1st grader drew one and they went to building. This is the finsihed ship including the steam coming out the top of a little poster board ( how creative my son is)

The outside is my farm.....

There was a time when children lacked educations and learned everything from home. The amish are quite familiar of these lessons of life for their children. My mother learned on the farm with her family of 9. I find every opportunity for my children to grow and learn no matter where I am: The grocery store, the post office, the drs. office, etc.

Here is a great idea I came up with today. M-F My kids and I wake up to take my daughter to school in the mornings. This has been the routine for years but today.. yes finally today it dawned on me the possiblities of learning. On our less than 5 minute drive we pass a college where many cars are parked on the st. So starting tomorrow my kids will have to pay attention to the cars and count the "color" of the day car.