Food and Learning?

by Kristin Miller on 04/18/16

Yes - we love learning with food.  I mean, come on, how many times growing up were you allowed to paint with your yogurt???  Super fun!

From painting with our applesauce and ketchup, to smearing our yogurt, coloring on tortillas, learning the colors with our fruit loops cereal, scooping up rice, and making letters with our cheese and crackers.  There are endless opportunities to learn using food.  It is so practical and easy; and the best thing, the kids LOVE it (because they get to eat their "homework" - literally!)

5 Foods to Easily Learn with at Any Home:

1. Tortilla or Bread - Have your child build their fine-motor skills to tear the pieces apart.  Then, color on them!

2.  Thick Liquids or Foods as Sauce (Ketchup, Yogurt, Applesauce, Mustard, Jelly, ect) - Just for some messy fun, let your child finger-paint (or use a paintbrush) to smear these fun sauces around on thick white paper!

3. Foods you can Cook (spaghetti noodles, rice, ect.) - After they have cooled off, throw some noodles in a bucket (or rice).  Give your child a cup, fork, and a spoon to stir.  Creative imagination and pretend play will be sure to keep your child busy as they make some spaghetti or rice for you!

4. Snack Time Foods - Like crackers and cubed cheese - Use these to teach tons of learning skills, like letters, numbers, counting, and making shapes.  Check out our other blog post specifically for ideas HERE.  

5. Breakfast Time Foods - Using a variety of cereals to teach learning concepts, such as colors, counting, making letters, and using to build fine-motor skills and literacy awareness!

- See more at: http://www.eteachingme.com/Mom-Blog.html?entry=food-and-learning#sthash.yvSzqBTg.dpuf

Learning with Home-Made Tools

Teachers, parents, and nannies .... teaching your child is easy and interactive with this "outside of the box" thoughtful idea!  You can vary it in many different unique ways, for any age, to teach multiple concepts, anywhere at anytime!

Watch our Videos for an interactive experience of HOW-TO TEACH this Lesson Plan 

Video 1

Video 2

Lesson Plan:  Learning Literacy using Home-Made Tools

Age Range - 1 to 5 years old

Cognitive Learning Focus Areas:  Literacy, Math, Language development, Early reading readiness, Fine-motor skills, Hand-eye coordination

Author:  Kristin Miller, M. Ed. Founder www.eteachingme.com 

Materials needed:
Paper towel roll
Black magic marker
Long white art paper (or poster board) cut into strips (about 1 1/2 feet long and 1 inch wide)

What to do:
1. PARENTS ONLY - Pre-Create the "Language Tool" before teaching lesson to child.   Using a knife (to start the square holes) and then scissors, cut 4 squares out on one side of a paper towel roll.
2. Cut long strips of paper (about 1 1/2 feet in length and 1 inch wide) out.  Multiple strips desired for however many learning concepts you wish to teach.
2. Create "language strips" by writing different teaching concepts on each strip.  See ideas below for what to create and teach child.
3. Line up the strips of paper, following the same length apart as the 4 square holes on the paper towel roll, and write whatever concept you want your child to learn in that same spot.  Do so in a way that when the child pulls the paper through to "read" what's inside each hole, they can see what is written through the holes easily, so that it all measures up accurately.  See pictures as an example.
4. Sit with your child and learn together; using different "language strips" to teach specific concepts.
5. Let your child put the "language strips" in the paper towel roll, and "learn freely" to teach you what they may see in the holes, or you help guide child to teach the concepts.

Ideas for "Language Strips":
* Alphabet letters to build words
* Numbers
* Shapes
* Sentence - story telling pictures and/or words combine
* Sequence of event pictures
* Child's letters in their name
* Emotion pictures
* Colors
* Counting amounts (# of dots for children to count)

Elf on the Shelf Ideas and Teaching Tools

Do you do Elf on the Shelf??? Check out our calendar of ideas to hide Elf and use him to teach your children at the same time!  An original, creative, and one-of-a-kind calendar for anyone to use in December, for all ages!

Please GO HERE to view the calendar larger and print to use!  Enjoy!

Merry Christmas

TRACING? 10 Creative Ways to Teach...

Tracing is a beginning skill that kids need to and can learn around age 2 to help with early writing and fine-motor development.  Below are some helpful activity ideas to help you teach tracing skills to your toddler and preschooler.  The KEY when teaching tracing - to make it easy on their eyes and make it engaging so they WANT to do it!  All 10 of these activities below will help you do just that .... AND the best part, they are all AFFORDABLE and EASY to prepare!

1. USE A HIGHLIGHTER TO TEACH TRACING - Using a highlighter shows children "one continuous line" - therefore, makes it easier for them to follow along and less stimulating as those "dotted tracing letters workbooks".  When you ask them to "trace" - Say a simple phrase they would understand, such as, "can you follow along the yellow lines with your marker?"  Always show and model for them what it is you want them to do, before expecting a child to do it on their own (for the first time).

2. USE CLEAR TAPE TO TEACH TRACING - Have your child use their finger or a marker to follow along the clear tape on a colored sheet of paper (for easy viewing).

3. USE PLASTIC COOKIE CUTTERS TO TEACH TRACING - Have your child use their finger to follow the outline of the cookie cutter.  Then, have them put the cookie cutter down on white paper, and use a marker to trace its outline.

4. USE GLUE TO TEACH TRACING  - Help your child use liquid glue to trace the outlines of letters, lines, or shapes on a sheet of paper.

5. USE PAINT TO TEACH TRACING LINES - Have your child use a paint brush and paint to trace lines, or letters, you have drawn out on a sheet of white paper using a highlighter, as shown below.

6. USE PAPERCLIPS TO TEACH TRACING - Have your child use a pen and paperclips to trace their outlines.

7. USE YOUR CHILD'S HAND TO TEACH TRACING - Have your child trace the outline of their hands, feet, or your hands on a sheet of white paper or the sidewalk with chalk.

8. USE CHALK TO TEACH TRACING - Write your child's name with a piece of white sidewalk chalk outside, have them use colored chalk to trace over it!  You can also substitute by having them use a paintbrush with water to trace over the letters written in chalk, as a form of "erasing it!"  FUN!

9. USE HOMEMADE PATTERN SHEETS TO TEACH TRACING - Create some fun, different pattern sheets (have them laminated at the local Office Depot) and give your child a dry erase marker.  Have them "trace" or follow the patterns on the sheets, like shown in the picture below!

10. USE POPSICLE STICKS TO TRACE PLAY DOUGH LETTERS - Create letters in play dough, then have your child use Popsicle sticks to stick in the play dough following the letters outlines.  View in picture below!

Matching: 25 ways to tell, show, and do!

Learning how to match things together is a necessary skill that a child should be able to begin learning and doing as early on as 2 years old.  You can teach this concept in so many different and easy ways.  Matching is the capability for a child or person to put two, or more, of the same things together to represent alike.  The easiest way to explain matching to a young child is to make it "short and sweet."

Tell child:  "Matching means putting together things that look the same."

Show child: Put two of the same looking pictures, objects, or things together.

Learn with child:  Lay out objects on the floor that will help teach your child the concept of matching.  Encourage child to match and sort objects according to same attributes.

25 WAYS

Things you can use, or do, at home to easily teach matching skills with your child:

1. Using free paint sample cards from Lowes or Home Depot to teach matching colors, as shown in picture

2. Putting pairs of socks together

3. Putting pairs of shoes together

4. Putting together same shapes, as shown in picture

5. Putting together matching colored toys or blocks

6. Matching colors using Kool-Aid packages, as shown in picture

7. Putting same coins together; nickles, dimes, pennies, and quarters

8. Matching crayon colors

9. Play dough ball sizes OR cotton ball sizes (big and small), as shown in picture examples

 

10. Matching Goldfish colors

11. Matching Fruit Loops Cereal colors, as shown in picture

12. Matching colored M&M's, as shown in picture

13. Spoons and Forks together (for 3 years and up)

14. Alphabet letters (capitol and lowercase or same case-letters), as shown in pictures

 

15. Paper strips cut in different lengths to match sizes, as shown in picture

16. Matching numbers on tickets, as shown in picture

17. Matching letters in their name usign paper or tape, as shown in picture

 

18. Matching together movies or DVD's that are the same genre, for instance, all the Mickey Mouse movies together or all of the Blue's Clue's Movies together

19. Numbers and corresponding dots on spoons and plates, as shown in picture

20. Playing a game of copy-cat.  Copying actions of someone else to match what they are doing, as shown in picture

21. Matching one-to-one correspondence, as shown in picture

22. Matching colors together using an egg carton and tortillas that are colored, as shown in picture

23. Using snack items to teach matching concepts, such as tall and short or one-to-one correspondence, see picture examples

24. Using "Memory-like" board games to match same pictures on cards - or Use flash cards

25. Have your toddler or preschooler put together matching sight words with their beginning letter on a chart like shown in the picture below