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Christmas Carols

Published December 4, 2012 by Mrs. Malo

Day 4 was all about Christmas carols. Last year we started a tradition where the kids gather around the piano and sing a Christmas carol while Daddy plays the piano, and Mommy tapes it as our Christmas message. This year we have decided to extend it a bit – both of the girls will play their Christmas pieces on the piano and then we will sing a carol. I picked up Curious George Christmas Carols to offer them some inspiration. Tonight we read through the book and sang a bit of each of the carols. The book also came with a CD so I have added it to my iPhone and showed them how to play the songs whenever they want.

And the winner is … Deck the Halls. Fortunately it was unanimous. Later this month, after lots of practice, we will record our message.

Merry Christmas Splat (& Seymour)

Published December 4, 2012 by Mrs. Malo

Last night’s book was Merry Christmas Splat.

In the story Splat writes his letter to Santa and then worries that he has not been good enough. We used this as an opportunity to write our letters to Santa. You can find many different templates online for letters to Santa. I let the girls pick one out and printed 3 copies. We talked about what you write in a good Santa letter. Kaitlyn wrote hers independently, I wrote for Eileen as she dictated to me, and we tried to get something out of Michael (without too many suggestions).

I wanted to start something a bit different this year so I combined two ideas on interest. I picked up some large clear plastic Christmas balls at Michaels and each child put their handprint on a ball. I then wrote their name on the ball and the year 2012. If you are doing this make sure to use permanent marker or it will wipe off (my scrapbooking markers wiped off too easily). Next was the tricky part. I folded and rolled up a copy of their letters to Santa and put it in each of their balls. Of course we made a copy to mail to Santa as well. All that was left was to add some ribbon so we can hang them on the tree. I am having trouble getting a good picture of them so these will have to do for now. Once our tree is up I will try and take better pictures with them hanging on the tree.

A Hypochondriac Christmas

Published December 2, 2012 by Mrs. Malo

The Book for Day 2 was Scaredy Squirrel prepares for Christmas by Melanie Watt.

I was very excited to see that there is a Scaredy Squirrel christmas book so I had to pick it up. It is a bit advanced for Eileen and Michael but Kaitlyn loved it. It is quite a bit longer than the usual Scaredy Squirrel books so we didn’t read it all in one sitting.

It is divided into 8 ‘chapters’ and Chapter 1 is called “Christmas is Coming”. Scaredy has a list of 12 things to do do before Christmas so we decided to make our own list (well Kaitlyn did – the other two weren’t interested). She wanted boxes just like Scaredy’s list so I drew the lines for her but she did the rest herself. She did an awesome job!!

24 Books of Christmas – Day 1

Published December 2, 2012 by Mrs. Malo

Our 24 books of Christmas was such a hit last year that it has become a must-do for our family this year. This year I feel it is even more important because it make me stop and do something fun with my children every day. Since I have gone back to teaching full time and my kids have such busy schedules our life has become a bit chaotic. All of our books and activities are strategically planned and scheduled this year – with larger more time consuming crafts on slower evenings and weekends.

We of course started off the countdown with The Elf on the Shelf. When the kids woke up on December 1st it didn’t take them long to find that Frankie (our elf) had returned for the holiday season. To celebrate his return our actvities for the day were all elf based. We re-read the book (well Grandma actually read it to them because I had an eye infection and reading was challenging). I was searching for elf related crafts and ended up on the official Elf on the Shelf website. If you go to “North Pole” and “Reindeer Stables” you will find a number of elf crafts. I have also pinned them on my Pinterest Page.

We started with the Elf Clock. I wanted to start the season off with a craft that we would add to our collection and would come out every year. We took a trip to Michael’s Arts and Crafts where we found the Clock Movement Package. It didn’t call for a specific size but we used 3/8″. Grandpa also helped out by making us a box out of plywood. This makes it more durable and more sturdy for saving for future years. The girls started by painting it with red acrylic paint and colouring the elf template (we used pencil crayons, markers and silver glitter).

We gave Granpa the job of attaching the clock parts – I didn’t want to mess it up!

After it was all done it was the first item put on our mantel for the holiday season.

For fun we also made the Elf table. This was pretty easy, but I did all the gluing with the hot glue gun. The instructions are very clear but make sure you get large tongue depressors for the large stick and mini sticks (smaller than popsicle sticks) for the small sticks.

Our elf table took it’s place on the mantel beside the clock – maybe Frankie will decide to sit on it one day!!

Little Book Adventure – Challenge #4: Inviting Pinkalicious to Dinner

Published July 16, 2012 by Mrs. Malo

We started challenge #4 by discussing the idea of characters. I realized it is a difficult idea to explain without using the word character. We talked about that a character is the who the book is about but that ‘who’ doesn’t need to be a person – it could be an animal or a thing. I tried to use some simple examples such as the pigeon in Mo Willems Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (example of an animal character), and Thomas the Train (example of a thing character). I sent Kaitlyn, Eileen and my niece Lyric to find a book with a character they all loved. The two younger girls really had no idea what they were doing, as I quickly realized when they both brought me ABC board books. Kaitlyn understood but was bringing me books she liked with more obscure characters. I went to her bookshelf with her to find some more well known characters that her sister and cousin might also like. First I suggested Curious George and was met with a look of disgust (not really sure why). When I pulled out Pinkalicious her eyes lit up. I quickly found Purplicious, and Goldilicious and rounded the girls up on the couch. We read each of the three books and then I explained their task to them. We were going to plan a dinner party and invite Pinkalicious to Dinner.

Now that they had picked the character it was time to get started. First Kaitlyn helped me pick the menu.

Don’t worry we didn’t eat mice for dinner – it is to read mousse. From this I found some recipes online and made a grocery list. My nieces were with is for a few days and they are vegetarian, which is why we had risotto for the main course. My kids LOVE risotto so I thought this was a good fit. There wasn’t too much for me to prepare. I had made coloured devilled eggs for Easter so this was pretty easy. All you do is soak the boiled egg whites in water with red food colouring for about 30 minutes before adding the yolks back in for devilled eggs. We found a pink brie recipe and pink risotto recipe online. We bought a mix for strawberry mousse at the grocery story along with pre-packaged raspberry lemonade. Not to much work but a successful, and kid friendly menu.

Before heading to the grocery store we decide to paint some pink pictures for the walls of the kitchen to decorate. This was inspired by the art class which Pinkalicious had in the book Purplicious. I got out the three paint palette trays I had picked up at the dollar store a few months ago and mixed red and white together to make a variety of shades of pink. I gave each of the girls a large piece of painting paper and let them create.

I love how Eileen has become so meticulous with her painting. She decided she would paint a cupcake and took her time and patience and it looks like a cupcake!

After we returned from the grocery story the girls set the table with Grandma while I worked on the food. We searched the house and pulled out everything pink we could find. I managed to find 8 small pink plastic plates along with cutlery from our Princess Tea Party last May. I also found some streamers and random balloons in the craft bin in the basement.

After that Kaitlyn quietly disappeared – and I didn’t realize how long she was gone unit she came back upstairs with her creation! She had decided that we needed a real Pinkalicious for our party so she made one! This was entirely her idea and it was AWESOME!

She also decided that Pinkalicious needed a proper invitation so she disappeared back downstairs to her craft centre and returned with an invitation.

Front of Invitation

Inside of Invitation

Everything was ready so the girls ran off to get dressed. They found the fanciest pink dresses they could in their closets. The table was set and Pinkalicious was waiting for her hosts!

Appetizers were ready to be enjoyed. Yes, I know the crackers are not pink – I could not find any pink crackers in the grocery store.

Our pink risotto!

Finishing off with some yummy pink mousse (not mouse).

It was a fun afternoon preparing and a fun dinner for everyone! Now I think I may just have to take the girls to see the Pinkalicious stage show before the summer is over!

Camouflage – Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit

Published July 13, 2012 by Mrs. Malo

It was one of those really long, but good days. I want to just curl up and go to bed but I thought I should post about our book today.

Our next book from the “Kindergarten Ready, Set Go!” calendar was Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit: A Book of Changing Seasons by Il Sung Na. I read this book to my Kindergarten class back in March as a diagnostic task for assessing their ability to Make Connections. After studying signs off Fall and our unit on migration in November I wanted to see they could connect with this book and how the different animals know that it is time for winter. After that activity I put in on the shelf but pulled it out today to read to Eileen and my niece who is visiting for a couple of days.

Since it is not really a time of year when they can relate to changing seasons, just VERY warm dry weather, I decided to focus on a different aspect of the book. The rabbit in the book know it is time to change the season and changes the colour of it’s coat. We talked about why he might change his colour, and with some prompting we figured out that he might want to be able to hide. In the winter with a white coat, he can hide in the snow but that wouldn’t work very well in the spring so he changes his colour to blend into different surroundings.

I then sent the girls on a hunt to each find 3 stuffed animals in our ‘stuffy bin’ that they could hide outside. I talked about how we would want them to blend in with their environment. They really didn’t understand this at all but had fun playing find the stuffy. I was glad I picked 2 to hide so that it was bit harder for them to find.

They didn’t quite understand the hiding concept and I found them just laying on the grass. It was kind of funny that Lyric hid her first and then Eileen pretty much just went and put them in the same spot.

I thought that I hid mine in places a bit more difficult to find but I also was more strategic picking what animals to use.

They found the hummingbird pretty easy but needed a lot of guidance to find the brown monkey in the bush – can you find it?

Even though the girls didn’t understand the purpose of the game or really understand camouflage at all we had fun. If I was to do this again, after reading the book I would show them some images of real animals and how they use their colours to camouflage. Then I would give them toy animals to hid that they would be able to blend into their environment. For example they may have had more luck with the green turtle.

After playing we went on a search for some very special twigs and then took them back in to the air conditioned house. I told them we were going to make our own animals that we would then later hide for Kaitlyn to try and find outside. I got out the goggly eyes, pipe cleaners, white glue and a bit of gold glitter glue. We made our own creatures out of our sticks, and the two pinecones the girls just had to use. I found my inspiration at KinderNature.

They are a bit more camouflaged but the urge for the girls to pick bright colours for their legs won out (mine is the one with the brown legs). We didn’t have time to hide them for Kailtyn today but we will make sure we do it sometime this weekend before my nieces go home!

Everything I Need to Know Before I’m Five

Published July 9, 2012 by Mrs. Malo

It is summer time and that means more frequent trip to our local public library. Last week I took Michael and Eileen to the launch of the summer program and told them they could both pick out a few books to borrow. Michael randomly picked a board book and Eileen came back with 4 picture books. They all looked pretty cool but I don’t know if there was much method behind her selections.

Tonight we read Everything I Need to Know Before I’m Five by Valorie Fisher. This is not what I would call a prime Read Aloud but it is a cool book none the less. The title pretty much gives it away, this book is a a series of pages introducing the concepts of numbers, opposites, shapes, colours, seasons, weather, and the alphabet. As a Kindergarten teach I would have to say it is pretty much the basic rote information a child learns in JK. In school there is much more that they learn in terms of comprehension, social skills and critical thinking but for the things that just need to be memorized this book pretty much covers it! The illustrations are bright and simple photographs appropriate for the under 5 crowd. Michael loved pointing to things he recognized as we read along.

This is a book I definitely want to get for the concept book section of my classroom library. I can see many of my students spending lots of time going through the pages quizzing each other and reinforcing their knowledge. A cute idea for a book!

Black All Around

Published July 8, 2012 by Mrs. Malo

Our next book in the 2012-2013 Kindergarten Ready Set Go Calendary was Black all Around written by Patricia Hubbell and illustrated by Don Tate. The girls have really enjoyed making their movies so I thought I would expand on that. I gave them my iPhone and sent them on a hunt throughout the house to find items the colour black. They love taking pictures on my phone so this wasn’t much of a request. We then downloaded them to the computer, decided which ones needed retakes, and made a quick slideshow using iPhoto. They helped me create the opening and closing slides. Everyone was tired today so I did most of the picture cropping but I think this is something Kaitlyn is almost old enough to do herself. Voila!

These activities are to help prepare Eileen for Kindergarten and this one was great for colour practice but I got some good ideas for Kaitlyn out of this exercise. Some of the photos were not great so in 1 minute I talked to her about staging the items and holding the camera/phone very still – her retakes were a huge improvement. I am thinking she may almost be ready for her own camera – or maybe even just giving her my old camera. It needs to be fixed but I may take it in and if it doesn’t cost too much I think she would love it. Then we can start to teach her how to use a camera properly and I am pretty sure that soon enough she will be taking better pictures than me!

5 Little Ducks, a Donkey and a Wolf – MeMe Tales Readathon Week #1

Published July 7, 2012 by Mrs. Malo

I was very excited to learn about the MeMe tales readathon and we downloaded the app and the first books a couple of weeks ago. However, as school had not finished yet we are a couple of weeks behind.

Week 1 of the Readathon was all about Animals. We have tonnes of animal books at home but it was cool that both of the books for the readathon were traditional tales. I am been trying to introduce the kids to nursery rhymes and fairy tales so this fit in perfectly.

We started with 5 Little Ducks.

The Five Little Ducklings

See more at memetales

This is a familiar tale and instantly my girls started to sing the song. I went to iTunes and downloaded them the Raffi version. They listened to it over and over again and then decided that they were going to act it out for themselves. I sent them on a hunt to find as many toy ducks as they could. Michael’s favourite toy is his stuffed duckie but we managed to find a bunch more, especially when we got into the bath toys! We used two large pillows covered by my green table cloth for the hill (they called it the mountain), and we filmed in the backyard on a sunny day. It took a bit of rehearsing and distracting of one little brother but it ended up pretty cute!

I got inspired to create a special breakfast for the girls around the duck theme. I found a gluten free pancake mix in the pantry and decided pancakes and fruit would be perfect. The only problem was that most of my cool shaped cookie cutters are plastic. I found a tutorial at Time 2 Save that helped me use tinfoil to copy my pastic duck cookie cutters. This was supper easy and let me make duck shaped pancakes for breakfast. They asked why they didn’t have 5 ducks each but I am glad I didn’t make that many – they each ate only 2!

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Teaching in the Digital Age – Blog Party (Chapter 1)

Published July 6, 2012 by Mrs. Malo

I had been waiting to see what the book was going to be for the pre-K/K blog party this year and was excited to hear it was selected to be: Teaching in the Digital Age by Brian Puerling. I like to thing that I am techie but I am always striving to find developmentally appropriate ways to use technology in my JK/SK classroom. This past year I found that 75% of the time I was the one using the technology and my class were simply passively observing. The only times they were engaged is when we were using the Smartboard but even then there was very little critical thinking taking place. I am starting the book study a bit late for a couple of reasons. First it took a month for my book to come in – it was on back order. Also in Canada we don’t finish school until the end of June so I didn’t have time to crack my book open until school ended. Now that school is finished and I am starting to feel relaxed I am catching up on my reading!

I started by reading the introduction and chapter 1. I love how it is written very simply. I find too often I am reading education texts that I first have to think about decoding the vocabulary and it takes a bit more concentration to understand the deeper meaning. It is summer and as a rule I don’t want to have to think too hard about anything! Before I even got to chapter 1 I started to take advantage of the QR codes and I downloaded a QR code reader on my iPhone – I don’t know why I hadn’t done this earlier, it is so cool! As an aside I also downloaded one on my new playbook but I can’t get it to work. I especially like how it points out what should be obvious to me but I need to think about. For example it talks about getting media consent. I never post any pictures or names of my students on the web but this is something I need to figure out for September. I would love to have a closed website/blog that parents can view with a password and then I can post student pictures and videos. I need to figure this out. With the new ELK program we are starting in September many of our assessments and observations will be done on my new playbook through a lot of pictures and videos I would love to be able to have the students use this material more interactively and also share it with student’s families. That is one of the things I am hoping to get out of this book.

Chapter 1 is entitled “The Digital Classroom”. This immediately reminded me of David Warlick’s Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century. This was a great book I used when I use to run the school library but many of the strategies I found too difficult an abstract for my kinders. Often the limiting factor is a requirement of basic literacy: reading and writing.

In chapter 1 Puerling discusses the world our students are experiencing inside and outside of the classroom. As a parent I immediately thought of my own children.

This is not an unusual sight – to see all three of my kids sitting around the iPad. What is more common is to see one on the iPad, one on my iPhone and one on the computer. My youngest, Michael is very adept at using the iPad and can easily find his favourite apps (he is not 2 years old yet). Now don’t worry my kids aren’t on technology all day. Often they play a bit in the morning while they are still waking up and then maybe a bit in the afternoon on a really hot day, like we have had all week, when it is just too hot to go outside. When they are not on technology they are usually dancing (to the same songs over and over again) or doing crafts. But I digress …

The reason I mention my kids is because I feel they are not indicative of the population we live in. Last year I set up a symbaloo site for my class to use at home and very few actually did. I want to set up a class website/blog but I am not sure how many families may actually use it. A few families in my class don’t have internet at home and of those that do some are still on dial-up. Our county is expanding broadband to the more rural areas but this process is slow and frustrating. This does not mean that I shouldn’t use the technologies in my class but it means that I need to be aware that my students will come with varying levels of background experience.

The key is to marry the use of technology with my play based classroom. I love Bonnie Blagojevic’s comment that we need to: “Use technology to enrich, not replace, hands-on learning experiences so important to young children”. We don’t use the technology to teach the technology but rather as a tool to learning. If we keep this in the forefront of our minds I believe both teachers and students will be successful!

Take away from this chapter:

Check out the forms at the back of the chapter. I may not be able to use all with the new way of planning in the ELK program but they will help me get organized.
I want a document camera! After they were mentioned I looked them up and one would be awesome to use in my class. We could use it to share the awesome work students will be doing and exploring in our inquiry based class. Think how we can share the items my students bring in from the natural world!
Use my Evernote! This is one of my goals for the summer. Come September I am hoping to use Evernote to record assessments of my students (using my new Playbook) and why not start now. I hadn’t thought of it until Karen on Pre-Kinders commented on using Evernote to record comments so I am going to try it with chapter 2.

Mommy's Lessons

Sharing ideas and experiences on the journeys of motherhood and kindergarten!