Zippin Down the Freebie Trail

Brenda over at Primary Inspired has created a fun blog hop for this whole week! I jumped on board with 26 other bloggers to offer you a freebie. 

I have 2 FREEBIES for you that will be useful in your math centers this spring.

First, an EVEN or ODD Center

16 Cards
1 student sheet

1 answer key

Second, a LEAST and GREATEST Center.

12 cards
answer sheetanswer key

Your next stop on the Bunny Trail is at Funky First Grade Fun.

Day 3: Toys, Games & Puzzles

I am always for turning anything into a game.

When my youngest was 3, I made this poster matching game. Simply buy 2 of the same posters,
cut one apart and then use velcro dots to attach the pieces.

Here's another alternative to a worksheet. These are counting cards.
Your child can circle the answer
with a dry erase marker if you've laminated the cards. Or use clothespins.

If your kids are like mine, they love computer games. And if you're like me, you want them
doing something educational, not mind-mush.

Here are our favorites:

Continue on the blog hop:

Day 2: Schooling In The Kitchen

Learning can take place anywhere. Often times, we do our best learning when we are not sitting at a desk or staring at a book.  Our favorite subject to do in the kitchen is science. There's nothing like a edible science experiment to really bring the learning home.

Our recent science lesson was on the 3 kinds of rocks. Did you know you can eat igneous rocks? Ok, you can't, but you can make fudge and that's a lesson on igneous rocks.

The lesson here is that the sugar, salt, marshmallows and chocolate chips represents minerals and other rocks that get heated and turned into magma. I got some of this stuff on my finger and let me tell you, it felt like lava! Use caution when working with boiling sugary liquids! The fudge cools in the fridge for a few hours which also symbolizes the lava cooling. At the end of the cooling period, the kids looked under a magnifying glass to see if they could notice any crystals. 

This lesson was an introduction to igneous rocks. It is certainly easy an not too scientific but it is an amazing springboard lesson. We talked about this lesson as we moved through the rest of the rock unit.

Who needs a science lab when you've got a kitchen!

Check out the rest of the blog hop:

Day 1: Delight-Directed Teaching

As if the decision to homeschool isn't big enough, then you are faced with the choice of how to homeschool. If you listen to a group of homeschool moms, you'll hear things like unschooling, delight-directed, school at home, or eclectic tossed in the conversation. Where do you begin? How do you know what kind of homeschool family you are?

The Schoolhouse Review Crew is taking a look at Delight-Directed Teaching as Day 1 of 5 Days of Teaching Creatively. This is a week long blog hop. So, let's hop on in and take a peek at Delight-Directed Teaching.

Delight
noun

: something that gives great pleasure or satisfaction

Delight-Directed Teaching is the approach where learning is driven by student interest under the guise of parental supervision. The belief is that students will dive into something that interests them and therefore will have more meaningful learning. Dr. Raymond Moore, considered to the the Grandfather of homeschooling, said, “Warm responsiveness and doing things together with your children are the best way to ensure that your child will be cognitively mature at age 12.” 

I want you to notice two things:
1. Parental input and direction do play a role, but they take a backseat to the child's interest.

2. Dr. Moore encourages doing things together. Again, that means with you, the parent.

I want to get a bit technical with you when it comes to teaching in order to understand where I believe your role is in student led learning.

The famous ZPD model. The Zone of Proximal Development created by Vygotsky. That middle blue area is where teachers aim to be to target the greatest learning. The center is the area where a student can do something without help. Teach in this area too long and the student will become bored and obviously there's no learning taking place. The outer ring is the area where a student cannot do something without help. If a student is left in this area, he will grow frustrated. His confidence will dwindle and learning will be non-existent. Think of Goldilocks trying to choose the bed that was "just right".

Kids are naturally curious.

Kids are also naturally lazy.

I believe the role of the parent in Delight-Directed Teaching is to help the student stay within the middle ring, the ZPD. If your 4th grader wants to study dinosaurs, you will help guide him to choose books that are on his reading level.  You might find a Lapbook for his level on dinosaurs. Another great tool for getting started would be to use a K-W-L chart. 

Your child could complete the chart with- 

K: what he knows

W: what he wants to know

L: what he learned

The Notebooking Fairy

To learn more about Delight-Directed, please continue on the Blog Hop: