How To Make A Song Caddy

Like many families we love singing with the kids but often I get stuck in a rut of singing the same songs over and over. As cute as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is it definitely can get old after the 20th time belting it out to my 9 month old.

Some of our favorite times to sing are in the car and when changing my baby's diaper. It serves as a happy distraction for him when he is less than excited to be changed. I often thought of writing all our favorite songs on a list so when I need to quickly come up with one for the kids we can have them all in one place, look on the list, and choose which ones we want to sing. A list seemed so "stuffy" for young kids so I came up with a more hands-on solution to our song dilemmas and it turns out to be a fun way to recycle those Gerber Puff containers! 

The materials needed are index cards (cut into 4's) or small pieces of paper, marker, ribbon, empty Puff container, and alphabet stickers. 

The girls helped me pick out the letters needed (also served as a fun letter recognition activity for my 3 year old)  We spelled out SING A SONG for the outside of the container. 

We then wrote down all the songs we like to sing on the cut up index cards and placed them in the container.

I tied a ribbon around the top and we were done!

There you have it, our very own Song Caddy!  So easy to make and a great way to recycle containers.  The kids enjoy pulling out a song from the bin and my 4 year old is even sounding out some of the words. A simple way to bring print into their everyday lives and encourage those emergent readers!

You can bring it along for a car ride, place by the diaper changing table, use for a preschool classroom circle time, the ideas are endless!

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5 Simple Ways To Encourage Reading and Writing in Your Home

We all know there are countless ways to encourage our young children to read and write. Today I'd like to share 5 of the many simple ways we inspire our children to engage in reading and writing in our home. These also can easily be adapted to work in an early childhood classroom as well.

1. Clipboards- Kids LOVE clipboards! I have several placed strategically around the house for the girls to use during play. I attached a string and pen/pencil and add clean paper to it when needed. This allows for easy use- how inviting for a child to see clean blank paper with a pen already attached. It practically screams "Pick me up and use me!" I usually rotate them every so often but we currently have one in our art area and on the train table where we store many our building/blocks toys. Placing near an area where they build things is also a great way to encourage them to draw what they built!

2. Cozy Reading Area- We have a reading area down in our playroom and of course there's an entire bookcase filled with books in the girls bedrooms but we also set up a cozy inviting reading area in our main living area. We have a child sized rocking chair and basket filled with books right next to it. I rotate the books every so often to keep it interesting. Setting aside a space for only kids to read really does send the message that reading is valued and fun for everyone!

3. Basket of Themed/Season Books- Along with a bookshelf in the girls bedrooms I also have a basket of books that go with the season/holiday that is occurring. Back in January/February we had Winter/Snow books and currently we have Spring/Easter books in the basket. I rotate them out every season or holiday to keep interest. Often the girls are excited about whatever holiday is coming up or interested in the current season. Having the books all in one place really helps with bridging their natural interests and excitement with literature. They love to see a fresh "new" set of books in there all celebrating the current season every few months.

*Tip- I have quite a collection of season/holiday books from my years of being a preschool teacher but I also take advantage of my daughter's Scholastic School Book Fair Monthly Flyers. You can find great deals that way.

4. Little Notebooks- This is similar to the clipboard idea. I found these great mini notebooks and ordered them in bulk at Discount School Supply. They are great for role-playing and placing in the kid's kitchen area. In this particular instance my girls were using it to play "restaurant". I also have some by my office area with pens and while I'm making my "lists" (groceries, errands etc.) I hand one off to the girls and they make "their lists" as well. I highly recommend having a stash of these as they are so versatile and can be used often.

5. Journals- This is an idea taken from when I taught preschool. I used to have the children engage in daily journaling. They each had a notebook and wrote/drew in it daily. They could draw/write whatever they wanted and when they were done I asked them to tell me about their page. I then wrote down their dictations word for word. I have implemented this same concept into our nighttime routine. We don't do it every night but a few times a week the girls "write" in their journals and tell me about their page. They love it! Having them witness you writing their words down is such a great way to demonstrate that words have meaning. It's also a fantastic way to show them that their words matter and their thoughts are valued!

As I said before these are only 5 of the many ways we encourage reading and writing. Do you have any to add to the list?

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Get the most out of reading aloud!

I firmly believe that the single most important thing you can do to help your child became a reader is to read to them daily.

While teaching Pre-K for many years I learned a thing or two about getting the most out of reading aloud to children and I thought I would share those ideas and concepts that will no doubt set the foundation for important literacy skills.

Before Reading The Story:

• Introduce the book- read the title

• Read the author and illustrator- Explain that the author is the person who wrote the words and the illustrator is the person who drew the pictures.  This teaches them that books have different parts. Someone created those pictures and wrote those words therefore words and pictures have meaning. 

• Make predictions! Preschool age children LOVE this! What do you think the story is about? By doing this you are encouraging them to think about the content of the story and to predict by looking at the illustrations, tying back to pictures have meaning.

During The Story:

• Point out unfamiliar words. i.e frustrated- What do you think that means? You can even make a vocabulary journals of new words and add those words to the journal. 

• Allow time to look and talk about the pictures. An early pre-reading skill is telling the story through pictures, so encourage this!!  Pictures are just as important as text. 

• Talk about the characters and events in the story. Ask open-ended questions (questions that will provoke thought not just yes or no questions). i.e. How do you think that made him feel? 

• When possible connect story events to their lives. Remember when we went on a train? 

After The Story: 

• Recall- Go back to those predictions in the beginning and ask about the events.  i.e. What happened to the alligator? Why was there paint all over? 

• Occasionally have your child retell the story to you in their own words. This is an excellent way to improve comprehension!!  

Most of all Have fun together!!  Snuggle!  Get cozy!  Enjoy these intimate moments of sharing a good book!!    

Sensory Table and New Playroom

This will be the first of a few posts showcasing my new Reggio Emilia inspired playroom.

If you would like to learn more about the Reggio Emilia Approach check out this site: www.education.com/magazine/article/Reggio_Emilia/

While I would love to say we have a huge playroom with lots of natural light and big beautiful windows the reality is it's in a small space in our basement that's shared with our laundry area.  Since we moved here a year ago it has been a dumping grounds so to speak for all the toys we own in the house.  I didn't like going down there, it was cluttered and unorganized.  Using my own experience working in a Reggio Emilia school as well as inspiration from this site playathomemom3.blogspot.com I set out to transform the playroom into an inviting organized space for my girls.

This first thing I did was purge.  I went through all the toys that are broken, missing parts, "Junk" type toys and got rid of them.  I also filled a bag with good toys- some still in their packaging and set those aside for Good Will.

The philosophy behind the new playroom was to make it an inviting pretty environment.  If I felt the chaos being down there certainly my girls did too.  It's really about setting things up for purposeful play, providing as many natural materials for exploration, and most important (in my opinion) is to have items/toys accessible.

I took the girls down to the new playroom last night and the reaction was incredible.  They LOVED it down there, were incredibly engaged and we only scratched the surface with the new experiences I set up.

It's still a work in progress but I wanted to share a few things I've done so far.

The sensory table!  This is my homemade super cheap sensory table.  As you can see it's really just an old bin I had in our basement.  There are many items you could out in a sensory table but I started it off with colored sand, measuring cups, and some gems.  My 1 1/2 year old had to be closely monitored to make sure she didn't stick the sand or gems in her mouth, but she loved it just as much as Mallory.





Mallory played with it for at least a half hour!



I also used the girls tent to create a cozy reading area in the playroom.  They looked at books in there that had been down in the play area for the last year but were rarely looked at.





Again it was about presenting them in an accessible manner, "inviting baskets" and displaying them in a cozy place. Case in point, Mallory yelled with delight "I remember this book." and proceeded to sit down and read it. The book had been in the play area all along before the transformation but by presenting it in a different way she thought it had been lost and found again!



Here are some more ideas for sensory table items: styrofoam, shaving cream, snow, water, pine cones, shredded pieces of paper, sticks/twigs, leaves, uncooked noodles, bubbles, the list is endless!

Stay tuned for more playroom ideas!