This article was written for and first published at the Carrot Ranch Literary Community as part of a series supporting parents with children learning at home. Although it is now the 3rd of December, you will still be able to complete most of the activities, especially since many of you will be on holidays and entertaining your own children during December. Enjoy!
With the timing of this post on the last day of November, I have prepared a December Advent Activity Calendar for families (parents and children) to use in the lead-up to Christmas. There is one suggestion for each day until Christmas. In this article, I provide a brief outline of each activity. For those who want more, I have prepared a PDF with additional details for each activity which you can download freeby following this link.
Put up the Christmas Tree
It is traditional for Christmas trees to be put up and decorated at the beginning of December. In my family, we try to do it on, or as close to, the 1st of December. If you haven’t put your tree up yet, perhaps it’s time to think about it.
I have provided the outline of a Christmas tree which can be cut, coloured and hung on the real Christmas tree. Write the year on it. On the back, write something you wish for yourself, something you wish for others, and something you wish for the world. Hang it on the Christmas tree. If you do the same thing each year, you can reflect on changes in yourself and in the world.
Make Paper Chain Decorations
Paper chains are easy to make and add colour to the tree or can be hung around the room.
In this post, I am sharing information about a new Christmas Activity Book I have recently complied and uploaded to the readilearn collection. It is a 30-page booklet with 20 different activities and is perfect for 5 ̶ 7 year-old children to use at home or in the classroom.
The book includes:
games to play alone
games to play with others
literacy activities
maths activities
word puzzles
number puzzles
logic puzzles
poems to write
and much more.
Some of the activities are already available as separate items in the readilearn collection, but not available together. More than half the activities are new. I decided to put them together in one book for ease of printing and distributing. You still have the option to print pages separately if you prefer, but you have access to all 20 activities in one document.
Learning about living things is an important part of education for young children. This post suggests ways of teaching biological science in lower primary classrooms with lessons ready-to-teach and activities that make learning memorable and fun.
Concepts include:
the needs of living things
external features of living things
where living things live
how living things grow
and relate specifically to insects and other minibeasts.
This week I have added a new classroom game for junior entomologists to the collection. The game is a fun way to integrate learning across the curriculum and, while appropriate for use at any time of the year, is particularly so when completing a unit of work about minibeasts.
The game works well as a group activity in science, literacy or maths lessons. It is also great as an activity with buddy classes. It is best if an adult or older buddy is available to explain and oversee the play.
Cross-curricular links
The game involves children in learning and practice of skills across curriculum areas; including:
Science
Biology – focus minibeasts
Living things
Features of living things
Needs of living things
Life stages of living things
Literacy
Reading:
For information
To follow instructions
Research skills – finding the answers to questions
Maths
Subitisation – spots on the dice
Counting one for one correspondence – moving spaces around the board
Tallies – recording points
Adding – totalling points
Comparing numbers – establishing the winner
Social-Emotional Skills
Games are an excellent way of teaching children the essential skills of getting along, including:
Taking turns
Being honest
Accepting decisions
Accepting that winning is not always possible nor the most important part of the game
Winning and losing gracefully
Contents of the Junior Entomologist Game package
All components of the game are downloadable and printable. Laminating is recommended for durability.
Many games involve children in practising maths skills, and playing games is a great way of incorporating fun into the maths program. With the additional benefit of supporting the development of social skills and, oftentimes, literacy skills, there is no reason to not include games. A daily dose of fun with maths contributes much to an enjoyable classroom experience, developing positive attitudes to maths, in addition to providing opportunities for consolidation and practice of maths learning.
Adding a little physical activity to the game increases the benefits, and there are many simple games that can be played with the whole class, indoors or out; some that require equipment and some that don’t; some that take just a few minutes, and some that take several. Many games can be invented on the spot to suit current learning.
Last week I shared an interview revealing a little about myself and my hopes and plans for readilearn. I also uploaded some little Who am I? Easter caption books. It’s seems timely then to discuss the value of creating, writing, and reading Who am I? puzzles in the classroom.
Children love solving puzzles and it is good for them to engage in thinking activities. Who am I? puzzles involve deductive reasoning, and are easy for children to write. Solving them means listening attentively to the clues, remembering all the information, relating new information to existing information, and using the clues to eliminate options in order to identify the specific.
In addition, the puzzles can be used to discuss and teach the difference between statements and questions and the appropriate way of punctuating each.
Children can begin by writing statements about themselves, such as those they may have shared in About me booklets. They can also add interesting facts that others may not know about them. Remind children
In this post I introduce you to Michael Rosen, the storyteller. Michael’s story Going on a Bear Hunt many be more familiar to you than his name. But Michael Rosen is a storyteller extraordinaire and his website is a treasure trove to explore*.
*Note: Not all of Michael’s stories and videos are suitable for early childhood. Please preview them before presenting them to students.
One of my favourites of Michael’s stories is Chocolate Cake. Please follow the link to view it on his website.
In the story from when he was a boy, Michael sneaks downstairs in the middle of the night and eats all of the remaining chocolate cake, leaving not a skerrick for a lunchtime treat. If only he’d been able to restrain himself, then he would have had a treat as well.
Michael tells the humorous story with expressive voice and face. Children laugh out loud as they recognise themselves in the story, if only they dared (or did they?); and beg for it to be retold, often spontaneously joining in with the telling.
After a few repetitions, children are confident enough to retell the story independently, imitating many of Michael’s humorous gestures and intonations.
Listening to Michael tell stories is a great way to encourage the development of expression, in both telling and reading stories.
The latest post from readilearn explains resources for a new board game to play at Halloween.
The game is great for literacy and maths groups, to play with buddies or in family groups. It links literacy, maths and physical activity. Players collect treats and perform actions as they move
Would you believe that with the hundreds of picture books I have in my possession I do not have one about pirates! That surprises me. There must be oodles of books about pirates on the market.
When I was in London last year I did buy a delightful book for my grandchildren called My Granny is a Pirate by Val McDermid. We had enormous fun reading it and laughing at the wonderful illustrations by Arthur Robins.
Although I own many titles by Mem Fox, I don’t own her “all time classic and long-lasting bestselling” pirate book, Tough Boris . In the information about the story on her website, Mem explains how the story came to be and raises issues of sexism, particularly regarding the over-representation of male characters, in picture books. This is a topic that is very familiar to me.
In addition to not owning books about pirates, I can remember using a pirate theme for teaching on only one occasion. This surprises me too as pirates seems to be a perennial theme for birthday and fancy dress parties. Children and adults find the idea of pirates fun. You have only to look at the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean series to know that.
Of course, in this post I am referring only to the pirates of picture books and movies such as these, that were no more real than other fanciful characters such as giants, fairies, elves and dragons.
The occasion for my using a pirate theme was over twenty years ago when I was running early childhood classes as part of my home-based business Create-A-Way, and the inspiration for it was of a practical rather than literary nature. I was required to wear a patch over an eye after having a pterygium removed. A pirate day seemed like a great way to avoid upsetting the children and to have a bit of fun as well. Perfect!
But why am I thinking about pirates you may wonder. Well, it’s in response to the post by Charli Mills at the Carrot Ranch and her challenge to writers to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a pirate story. As always Charli gets me thinking about different things with her prompts. She is talking about the piracy from her internet data service and drinking rum before 10 am, which is apparently something pirates do.
As usual I take the prompt to the early childhood education setting, and I’m excited by doing so. Ever since reading Charli’s prompt I have had ideas for teaching and learning experiences based on a pirate theme swirling around in my head. I may be late coming to the party, but I’m not coming underdressed.
One of the things I have always loved about teaching is the opportunity to be creative: to write and prepare fun educational resources to use with my children. What wonderful things could be done with a pirate theme. I can’t believe I have never done it. And while I am no longer in the classroom and the opportunity is not there for me to use them with my own class, I can make them for my website to share with other teachers. The fun of thinking, writing, and creating is still mine!
I’m pleased to announce that my website is underway. I have signed with a web designer and developer. It should be ready to go live by the end of January, ready for the start of the new school year in Australia. I can’t wait. Well, I can wait. I still have so much work to do in the meantime. I have resources to finish and new ones to write. There are many “in progress”. While I won’t be rushing into making pirate themed resources, I am putting them on my list. I have lots of ideas.
Actually now that I think about it, the mix of feelings I have now that the website is imminent may be similar to those experienced by someone walking the plank: there is no way back and the choice for the future is to either sink or swim. If I do manage to hold my head high and above water level, I hope I don’t get eaten by sharks!
On my website subscribers will be invited to suggest or request resources to match their requirements. I love thinking of resources to suit particular topics or to teach particular skills or processes. I would love a request for pirate materials so that I could get started on making them sooner rather than later.
Here are a few ideas I have to start with. I’m sure I would come up with many more given a little longer.
But now here is what got me thinking about pirates in the first place: my flash fiction response to Charli’s prompt. I’m definitely sticking with my early childhood theme and a bit of fun for this one.
Freeze, or Musical statues as it is sometimes called, is a popular childhood game wherever groups of children gather.
While not suggesting that playing the game has any great educational benefit, it can be used with good effect from time to time in early childhood classrooms.
As with other games, it does provide opportunities for children to:
participate in a social situation
understand and follow game rules
accept game decisions, for example being out
respond in positive ways to their own participation and the participation of others
have fun
It also provides opportunities for activity and to release tension.
In this post I describe how to play the basic game and a few variants and suggest some times suitable for its use.
How to play Freeze
The basic game
Requirements:
a manager, often a teacher or parent but can be a child
a group of participants, often children but anyone can play
enough space for the participants to move about without bumping into each other, and
a source of music that can be played and paused.
How to play:
The participants find a spot within the defined space from which to start the game.
The manager plays a piece of music. Moving to the music, the participants move about the space without bumping into any other participants.
After a few seconds (varying duration between approximately 2-20 seconds) the manager pauses the music. As soon as the music is paused, the participants must “freeze”. Anyone seen moving is out of the game and sits to the side.
The game continues until only one participant remains.
Variant #1 — Topic words
No music is required.
Before the game commences the manager, or the manager in consultation with the participants, decides on a set of specific statues to be used in the game. These statues are explained and demonstrated to participants.
The manager turns away from the participants and counts loudly to ten, while participants form one of the statues. After ten the manager calls “freeze” and participants freeze in the statue they have chosen. The manager then calls out one of the statues and turns around to see who has made it. Those who did remain in the game. The others are out and sit to the side. (The reverse can also be played with the called statues going out and the others staying in. Participants would need to be informed of this before the game begins.)
Suggestions:
butterfly
When learning about butterflies, participants could make these four statues:
egg — curled up in a ball on the floor
caterpillar — prone on the floor
chrysalis — standing with knees bent out to the sides and one hand pointing up while resting on the head (attached to a leaf or twig)
butterfly — fists on hips and elbows out to the side (for wings)
shapes
When learning about shapes, participants could make these four statues:
circle — fingers meeting above head, arms forming a circle, feet and legs together
square —arms out to side, elbows in line with shoulders, forearms and fingers facing upwards at right angles, feet and legs together
triangle — legs wide apart, and hands on hips with elbows out to the side, making three triangles in all
rectangle — lying on back on the floor with arms and legs extended straight upwards
Suggestion: the possible statues could be written or illustrated on a dice to be rolled or on cards to be selected.
Variant #2 — Groups
Music is required.
The manager calls a number from 2 – 5 then starts the music. While the music plays participants quickly form groups of that number. They must freeze in group formation when the music stops. Groups that do not freeze and participants who are not able to join or form a group are out of the game and sit to the side.
Play the game until four participants remain. Call all participants back into the game to move to the music once again.
This game can be a fun way of exploring groups using the number of children in a class. No one is out in this version.
Count the number of children in the class. Write the number on the board or chart. Play the music. Participants move to the music. When the music is paused call out a number. Children quickly form groups of that number and freeze. As a class count the number of groups, identify the number in each group, and how many “left over”. Write the information on the board or chart. Repeat with all children participating for different numbers.
Variant #3 — Find a partner who
Music is required.
This activity will be noisier and require more time than other versions.
In this version participants try to link up with someone with a similarity; for example the same colour eyes, the same number of people in the family, the same favourite colour, or who plays the same sport.
Before the music starts tell the participants who they need to find. When the music stops, those who have not found a match sit to the side, as the others explain their matches.
Everyone joins in again for each new round.
Suggestion: Add a bit more fun with this one by having partners freeze touching the same body parts together, for example, ankles, elbows, tops of head, or bottoms.
Suitable times for playing Freeze
To transition from a noisy activity to a quiet activity
To provide an opportunity for movement during lengthy sessions of seated work
To dismiss children for recess (use Variant #1 rather than the basic game)
To ease a tense situation
To settle children and prepare them for the next activity
My first thought was to the movie “Frozen” which my granddaughter enjoys, being completely captivated by Elsa and her beautiful blue dress. I thought she should prefer Anna who shares her name (though pronounced differently) and hair colour.
My second thought was to the scientific explanation of cold as the removal of heat. It’s all relative. Instead I decided to go with a bit of fun. However, for my flash I did incorporate a little science thinking spurred by the question “Why do ice cubes crack when you drop them in drinks?”
Frozen
To an external observer she would have appeared immobile as if frozen in place and time. But her insides churned as the heat engulfed her body in a wave from toes to head. She thought her heart would erupt from her chest and wasn’t sure she could contain the contents of her noncompliant belly or from which end of her body they would spew. Others mouthed soundless words, their messages obliterated by the relentless pounding in her head. Just when she thought she’d crack, like ice exposed to sudden temperature change, she breathed deep, composing her tumultuous fear-fuelled mind.
Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction.
Norah Colvin 