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Fostering a Love of Reading
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Summer Reading and Writing: Make It A Challenge!
May 21, 2011 — 2 Comments
As the summer months come closer, kids in school are getting excited about the freedoms from school schedules! Parents across the country are looking into camps and extra curricular activities to keep their youngsters busy, but there are also fun ways to encourage their literacy learning at home!
Make your child’s reading and writing success a challenge over the summer. Encourage their success by offering points for every book/article/magazine they read and added bonus points for any writing response they do. Make sure you require them to do at least 1 to 3 writing responses a week ensuring that they are stretching their comprehension and keeping up with their spelling and writing skills. After they acquire a certain number of points (20-50) they can cash them in for rewards.
Some fun ideas for rewards are:
- Watch the movie version of the story your child read. Curl up together (probably with a yummy bowl of popcorn) and enjoy! Discuss the book&movie similarities/differences when it’s over.
- Sweet treats are always nice: ice cream, popsicles or even watermelon wedges are all fun to have on a hot day!
- New books! For every 10 books your child reads, they can take a trip to the book store to get another one. What a great way to encourage their reading interest!
Keep us posted on your fun family challenges, and check with your local libraries for reading challenges in your community!!
End of the Year at School: Moving Up and Moving On!
May 18, 2011
The end of the school year is near and wow how we have grown! In these last couple months, it’s a good idea to reflect on the growth of the children. Youngsters experience a range of emotions at the end of the school year–from excitement about a long-awaited vacation to nervous anticipation about the next grade. Set the stage for a discussion about these feelings by reading aloud A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle. Explain to students that they have something in common with the crab–they are growing up. Just like the crab who outgrows one home and moves into another, students are nearing the end of this school year and will soon be ready for a new one. Give each child an opportunity to share one fond memory of this school year and one hope for the coming year. Be sure to tell about your memories and hopes, too!
There are many ways to celebrate the end of a year. Some teachers do “moving up” days or ceremonies, while others have graduations for children moving on to bigger places. Whatever you choose to do, make sure children are reassured and feel secure about this change. Involve parents and caregivers in this important process while taking time to discuss and write about the accomplishments of the year as well as the feelings about the unknown future.
Let us know how you celebrate the end of the year at your school!
Fun With Summer Reading!
May 15, 2011
It’s already time to start thinking about all the fun things you can do with literacy activities over your summer vacation! During these months there are many books to read, activities to do and literacy skills to build on. It’s a fact that many children regress with their skills over the summer months. To keep up with their literacy learning, reading and comprehension activities are key to their success! There are tons of engaging ways to keep your kids busy and learning as well as resources you can use in your own community. Here are some simple yet important things to keep in mind:
- READ! I know we say it always but books and stories of fact and fiction make great summer and travel companions. Both children and adults can learn from sharing their e-books, books on CD, traditional stories and love for reading. Bring your books with you and share them at home, on vacation, in the car, on a plane or a boat. Bring your books here and there and everywhere!
- Play Games: board games, memory games, made up games and comprehension games all help with literacy learning! Kids today spend a lot of time playing games on the computer, which can help with skill retention. However, games with a hands-on experience provide children of all ages the opportunity to problem solve and learn from one another!
- WRITE! Don’t forget to keep writing! Allow your kids to dictate, use story starters to create their own tales, and review their books to share with others. Staying in touch with writing skills is also key in maintaining their literacy learning.
Have fun organizing your summer reading and literacy activities! Keep us posted on any summer reading success!
MeeGenius News: Max’s Chametz Mystery
April 5, 2011
MeeGenius is pleased to announce
the newest addition to the MeeGenius library
Max’s Chametz Mystery
Save the Date:
Passover begins Monday, April 18th at Sundown!
MeeGenius News: Heigh Ho! St. Patrick’s Day! and More from Hans Wilhelm
March 10, 2011 — 1 Comment
MeeGenius is pleased to announce the newest addition to the MeeGenius library
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
And MeeGenius is pleased to announce
Oh, What a Mess.
Another Hans Wilhelm masterpiece.
Love is Something if you Give it Away!
February 15, 2011
“Love is something if you give it away”, that’s what we sing at my preschool. Each day we shower our kids with positive praise and boost their performance with consistent reinforcement of loving and caring behaviors.
One may ask how you turn a difficult or bad child into a successful and kind child; and my simple answer is… with true love and attention. As a role model for young children, I work very hard to teach positive behaviors by giving children the language to express their feelings and connect with others. By paying close attention to their actions, I turn the focus onto their good choices instead of their bad behaviors. Giving children many opportunities to be successful also allows for more praise and instant gratification for positive decisions.
On this Valentine’s Day take time to give your love away by praising your kids with specific attention for their positive choices. Notice the details in their work and point them out. Find the good in the hard times and focus on making each day a little better than the one before!
Valentine’s Day for Kids
February 8, 2011
Next Monday is Valentine’s Day. And to get you in the spirit, here’s a round up of our favorite craft ideas for the holiday. In addition to these great ideas, you can use Valentine’s Day to inspire kids to write poems and their own stories about LOVE!
-Why do we celebrate Valentine’s Day? Learn some history to enhance the Day of Love.
-Don’t want your classroom to be too luvey-duvey? We love these monster cards. Put a little bit of edge into Valentine’s Day!
- I have never heard of an “inchie,” but this project came out really well and is adorable. It is also a great way for kids to get to know each other in the classroom.
-Not in the mood to make a card, Shiny Brite has some wonderful options for creative cards on the market.
-We love cookies! Here’s a great recipe to get them at the tummy!
For more ideas, follow us on Twitter!
Reacting to the Tragedy in Arizona
January 10, 2011
By now, everyone has heard about the tragedy in Arizona, the alleged assassination attempt on Rep. Giffords and the deaths of innocent people, including a child. But how do we overcome such sadness? How do we explain this horror to children?
With Martin Luther King Jr. Day coming up, it is very appropriate to ask these questions. How can we turn ideas and actions of hate into a time of learning love for others, no matter how different. Here are some ideas:
-The official title for MLK Day is the MLK Day of Service. Take your children to volunteer anywhere in the community. Give them a sense of a world bigger than their own. The official government site has ideas on how to achieve this as well as on how to join a project.
-Other activities include coloring sheets and crossword puzzles for kids to learn about MLK Jr.
-And don’t forget reading is a great way to connect with your children and share stories. To add to the sharing, encourage your children to write their own stories about when they were nice to a friend, sibling or anyone. If they are not writing yet, they can color pictures to tell their story.
With sadness comes an opportunity for growth. Please share any of your ideas for celebrating MLK Jr. Day and helping in spreading respect and tolerance around this country.
Happy New Year: Putting 2010 in a Box
December 30, 2010
New Year’s is usually thought of as a holiday for adults. There are very few kids in Times Square when the ball drops and staying up till 12 am is a challenge for kids (and some parents.) So, how can kids celebrate the New Year in a kid-friendly way? Make a time capsule!
Time capsules can be fun to make and fun to open when the time is right. With a new decade almost upon us, why not make something that marks where we are right now. You can make the time capsule and plan to open in 2020. (Will there be flying cars by then?)
Here are some ideas for making time capsules. You can use a coffee can, cookie tin or shoe box and put all your favorite things in there. A simpler version might be to have an envelope for each child. If I were making my own, I might put in my favorite books of the decade, or newspaper clipping, a mix-tape, photos of family and friends and maybe even some ticket stubs from my favorite movies and shows. You may even want to interview your child and see what they want to be when they grow up. Or record them talking about the past year. Making a time capsule is a great way to spend time with your family and a great way to look forward to the future.
Happy New Year: How to Help Your Kids With the Concept of Time
December 29, 2010
Happy New Year! I often wonder how young children really perceive time going by and try my best to remember how I understood time as a child when teaching about the concept of time. In my classroom, I work hard to help children with the sequencing of events throughout their day. Our daily schedule shows photographic representation of the events that happen, and each photograph is a different size depending on how much time it takes up. For example, our free play time takes up the longest amount of time in our day, so therefore it’s the biggest picture on our schedule.
There are many ways that we can help our kids grasp the concept of time by keeping it as concrete as possible. If you have a calendar in your home, help your child understand how many days in a week by counting out objects to represent the days. By counting actual things, the days become more of a hands-on experience, and you can help with other concepts such as patterning, simple addition and subtraction using concrete objects as counters.
I’ll never forget many years ago when a four year old child in my class, whose father was out of town for business, told me he was “counting down the grapes until his daddy came home”. When I asked him what he meant, he explained that he had a bowl of grapes next to his bed and that each night before he went to sleep he ate a grape. By the time he had eaten all the grapes his daddy would be home!
Help your kids by giving them fair warning before you come and go from place to place, show them how time passes in a variety of ways whether it be day to night, week to week or season to season! Let us know what helps your kids understand time and how it passes so quickly!!
