Sorting and classifying objects not only helps children make sense of the natural world around them, but it is also an important mathematical and scientific inquiry skill. When children begin to learn about different modes of transportation and think about how people move from place to place, it is a wonderful opportunity to introduce three geographical terms (air, land, and water). Use this printable to sort vehicles into these three categories while also strengthening those cutting skills. In the Playful Learning studio, we also love to have a collection of small vehicles nearby, perfect for tiny hands, to name, sort and classify. You can also use our Transportation Three-Part Cards.
Science is so fascinating because it is literally all around us, and simple machines are the perfect examples! We use them daily, often without even realizing it.
Enjoy the video below and have fun searching for simple machines in your homes and neighborhoods! Learn to see the world in a new way, identifying the simple machines that make up so much of what we use in our every day lives. Our full Simple Machines curriculum is available in the, Playful Learning Teachers’ Lounge.
Technology provides our children with amazing opportunities that we couldn’t have even dreamed of at their age. It’s important to emphasize to them that while technology has tremendous potential for making their lives better, it also has a flip side that they have to be aware of as well. The purpose of the Digitally Savvy online workshop is to explore both sides of technology, together, with parents and the digital natives in their lives.
Once you’ve connected in a positive way with your tweens and teens around the subject of technology (try the emoji lesson), your children will be more willing to engage in honest conversations around the topic, as long as you continue to be open about your own experiences.
It’s helpful to create a dialogue about the fact that there are positive/creative uses of technology and not-so-productive uses of technology, and that what’s most important to be aware of, is how we are spending our time. When technology is used as a medium for self-expression, like a paintbrush, instrument, or pen and paper, a whole new world can open up for our children. For us to blindly be adverse to all technology or make sweeping statements to our children about being on their devices too often, will only alienate them further. I’ve written more about creating forbidden fruits, here.
One way to bring this concept to life is for the whole family (or at least 1 parent and 1 child) is to keep a tech log of thedevices that are being used and how you are using them. Print out the Tech Log below for each member of the family. Choose a few days to track your use of technology (including tv). Even as grown-ups, we don’t always use technology in the most productive ways (Facebook, Pinterest, online news, shopping, etc.) and believe me, children this age can sniff a hypocrite from a mile away, so the more honest we are during this process, the more trust will be established. I am sure we all have a little room for improvement and what better way to work on it than with the children in our lives.
It’s very important that we do not become judgmental during this process. What’s most important is open discussion and empowering our children to make good choices about their time.
I may have just stumbled upon the golden ticket to opening up meaningful conversations with tweens and teens about technology!
We started the Digitally Savvy workshop in the Studio on Saturday. It’s been an interesting experience developing the curriculum for this workshop. I have a tough crowd to please—my 11 and 13 year old daughters are participating. I was humbled when a few days before our first session they looked me in the eye and said, “Mom, please don’t tell us this class is going to be about how much time we spend on our phones and online safety.” That very minute that I knew, I needed to take a different approach.
Yes, of course we want to get the message across that they need to make good choices about their time and they need to be aware of certain things to keep them safe, but before we have their ears, we need to establish an open dialogue.
So, I took some time to create an introductory learning experience that would help establish these important lines of communication in a fun and meaningful way. The Emoji EQ lesson acts as an ice breaker to get older children excited—to start them talking and to open up the conversation. You’ll be amazed at how everyone can relate to the language of emojis!
The tweens and teens couldn’t wait to get started and were giddy and full of enthusiasm as they shared their emoji experiences. I highly recommend that you do this activity with your children as the discussions that ensue are priceless. Our conversations went from emojis as a form of communication, to cyber-bullying, to the politics of group chats on text messages. I realized how important it is to meet children where they are. If we start with our own agenda in mind, we will more often than not lose them. However, if we begin with their agenda in mind we can weave in our goals and thoughts throughout the activity.
Aside from the goals mentioned above, It’s also helpful to use emoji’s as an example of ways that things can be misunderstood when communicating through digital technology. We started by talking about the very first attempt that humans made to use pictures as a tool for communication—cave paintings. Then we moved on to hieroglyphs, then verbal and written language. I explained that once humans were able to communicate digitally, it became hard to express emotion and/or pick up on someone’s tone, so we invented emoticons :-), where we used an interesting combination of punctation marks to give our digital communication a bit more emotion. These emoticons then lead to the pictorial images (emojis) we have today, and although we don’t think much of them, I can assure you that our children are very aware of each and every emoji they use and why. I thought it was fascinating that they said they often have to use more than one to get there true meaning across. We were very amused when we realized that all of us had different interpretations of what certain emojis convey and the implications that might have for developing possible misunderstandings.
Note: It’s really important to listen to your child’s ideas and responses throughout these activities, without judgement. We really just want them to open up and feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and experiences, and emojis are something this generation of tweens and teens love to talk about!
I will never forget the feeling of creating my first electric circuit. I was in third grade and my teacher introduced the concept to us and gave us the materials we needed to make it work. It took a few tries, a few adjustments were needed, but when that bulb lit up for the first time, so did my curiosity. I can remember my walk home that day, I worked through a few modifications in my mind and was elated when I finally visualized how the circuit I created that day at school was the same as the light switch in my house.
You see, children are natural tinkerers and when we give them the tools they need and the right dose of inspiration, they turn on, they light up, and they want to explore more… What more could you hope for in a day?
As I set out on a quest to develop more of these types of learning experiences for the studio, building a simple electric circuit quickly came to mind.
Read a book or watch the video in the resource section to introduce the basic concept of electricity and a simple circuit.
Next, use the KWL chart below to have your child start out the experience by writing about what they know about electricity. Then ask your child or student to think about and write what they would like to know about electricity.
Watch the video below… You can use the printable above or the one shown in the video.
When you have successfully completed your circuit, complete the experience by asking your child to reflect on what they just learned on the KWL chart.
Rather than filling children’s minds with empty screen time, a key to the thoughtful use of technology is integrating it into everyday learning situations in a way that enhances activities. Since poetry is a very thoughtful form of writing, and April just happens to be National Poetry Month, let’s explore some apps that can engage children in poetry through the use of technology. All of these apps are free (hooray!), and each approaches poetry differently. “Appy” Poetry month!
Instant Poetry 2 is an app which enables users to place refrigerator word “magnets” to create poetry. Although the app comes loaded with scenic backgrounds, a perfect way to utilize this app in a thoughtful way is to have children use their device to take their own pictures and find their inspiration in the world around them. Scroll through the word options and make meaning from the random choices. You may be surprised what images spark poetic stimulation, and how the words take the poems in their own direction.
My daughter loves to rhyme, and we play rhyming games frequently. Inevitably we get stumped, especially by her favorite color, not much rhymes with purple. Poetreat is an excellent app for focusing on rhyme and rhyme scheme, it even counts syllables for you! A side bar menu allows users to design their own rhyme pattern and the app offers a list of rhyme suggestions for final words in a line. Try using this app for collaborative poetry with a group of children. Set the rhyme scheme and have one child craft a first line of the poem. Then pass the device to the next child. They can create the second line based on the rhyme options presented by the app. This could lead to a poem that is creative, clever, and perhaps a little bit crazy! Another project with this app is to give children a short list of 5-10 words, perhaps seasonal, dealing with a unit of study, or a child’s current interest, then using the rhyme scheme and rhyme suggestions the child can create a poem on the given topic. Once the poem is written, brainstorm ways to creatively publish the final product.
As a classroom teacher, one thing I loved watching every year was when the English teacher on my team had students recite poetry. In a world of standardized tests, a classical learning experience like this may seem to be a lost art, but there are so many benefits. Children not only are exposed to exquisite words, but they learn to focus on rhythm, tone, meaning, and composure when speaking to an audience. Poems By Heart is the perfect app for memorizing poems. It comes preloaded with poems, and other “volumes” can be purchased. I especially like that you can hear the poem being read, then practice with filling in the blanks of the words. My favorite aspect of this app is that children can record themselves practicing their poetry recitation. There is something very powerful about hearing your own voice and learning from what you hear.
Poetry and technology may seem an odd couple, artistic versus mechanical. But, when thoughtfully combined, technology can allow children to creatively express themselves through poetry.
There are also some apps which encourage building, such as Toca Boca Builders and Minecraft. Oh Minecraft, you are amazing, but also a little too addictive for our School Boy, so we have to have very strict time limits.
This year, we plan on looking at buildings in our community and sketching them as we sit and spend time in the city or capturing them with a digital camera to view at home. We hope to create a little journal of buildings, which inlcude acts such as architect, date of build, etc. There’s so much to take in once you start to notice the details…
DIY gifts are an engaging way to involve children in the spirit of giving at Christmas. These digital DIY gifts are perfect for the budding photographer and artist in your family, and can be adapted so all age levels can participate. Not only that, they easily become frame worthy presents that grownups will truly enjoy receiving and displaying. Below are three photo editing apps that can make everyday pictures extraordinary. You and your child could choose from photographs you have already taken, or go on an expedition to take pictures just for this occasion.
I’ve included examples of my own picture morphed into three different versions using each app. My starting picture is a shot I took when we first arrived on family vacation this summer and it is the view of the path from our condo to the beach. This place has special meaning for us since we have a family reunion (over 50 people usually!) every other summer in this same location.
The first app to experiment with is called Waterloge. I first discovered this app at a friend’s home. She had three framed pictures of local landmarks in her dining room, and I asked where she had found her artwork. It turns out, she created them herself with Waterloge! This app turns your pictures into water color paintings, and is ideal for landscapes, objects, and buildings. Wouldn’t it be neat to take a picture of Grandma’s house, the spot someone was married/engaged at, or a favorite, frequented local destination?
The next app, called Percolator, was introduced to me by an art teacher. I love it because it reminds me of a mosaic. The app is somewhat coffee themed, you can choose the “grind”, “brew”, and “serve” of your picture, but I prefer to use their examples and then tweak from there if needed. The various styles provided lead to endless artistic opportunity.
Finally we have Wordfoto (shown in title photo) I used it with fourth grade students when working on projects about their homes/families, and they loved it! This app allows you to transform your picture by recreating it out of words. Brainstorm a list of words describing your picture or the people in it, and then the app uses your word set to create your new picture.
Once you’ve altered your pictures using one of the apps above, simply have them printed as you would normally print pictures, select a frame, and you are ready to wrap a personalized, special gift!
Nuria from the The Adventures Archive is here today to share some fun kid-tested and mama-approved apps.
Here you have 8 Apps that are both fun and educational. All tested and approved by my girls, age 5 and 8…
Monument Valley: Guide a silent princess through a fantastical breath-taking world. This is probably one of the most beautiful apps ever created. I can assure you that you will love exploring it as much as your kids.
Toca Builders: A super fun building game. Think Minecraft for younger kids.
Plants: TinyBop, the team behind the famous Human Body, is back with a new game, and this time is all about exploring Mother Nature. From pollination to the food chain, the amount of things children can learn with this app is just incredible. Tinybop games come with no instructions. They have a “show, don’t tell” approach which I find great for inquisitive kids.
Pepi Doctor A cute role-play game which is perfect for little kids who are afraid of doctors or dentist.
Wee-you-things: Let your children explore the concepts of tolerance and kindness with this adorable app that celebrates the little things that make each one of us different and special.
Daisy the dinosaur: This game introduces children to basic computer programming. It is fun and a perfect way to develop their logic, analytical thinking.
Sago Mini Doodlecast My girls favorite drawing app. Perfect to develop their imagination. I also love that they can record their voices as they doodle.
Toy mail: This app comes with a toy (a cute little animal). Relatives and friends can record a message to your child via the app and the toy will deliver it to him or her. Your child can then respond right from his toy. Perfect for parents who travel often or for distant grandparents.
Rebecca from Thirteen Red Shoes is with us todayto sharesome greatnew app recommendations for kids.
Miximal and Drawnimal. Miximal is new on the app market, however Drawnimal has been around for awhile. I adore how both of these applications have a strong animal focus as well as education for little ones. Drawnimal encourages drawing animals after seeing the animation and learning letters of the alphabet and Miximal is all about mixing up animals to create a unique species! Adorable. Both are created by Yatatoy.
Hip Hop Hen have a delightful early phonics series of three applications: ABC songs, ABC jigsaw and ABC tracing. All adorable in their own right and stand alone apps which also work well in conjunction with each other.
Tap Tap Toink Tap Tap Toink is a musical puzzle for children. Precious and straight forward. This application is purely visual and auditory and has been created for the very young.
Word Teller An app designed to encourage the listening of sounds and depicting a word form using color cues. You need to drag the letter/sounds to the correct place in the work shown at the top of each page.
Endless Reader Endless Reader introduces sight words as part of an individual word and then as part of a sentence. The creators Originator Kids also have developed Endless Alphabet and Endless Numbers. These apps also have in app purchases when you want to add additional words or numbers to the package.
Montessori Math (+ & -) and Montessori Multiplications. Les Trois Elles have recently released two new Montessori inspired applications. These apps are perfect for children who have advanced past one to one recognition and are looking for a little extra extension in this area. There are so many different options available to solve problems from games, quizzes, slate boards, bead frames and stamps. As you progress through the challenges, you accumulate a score which can then be transferred in the Monster Shop to creating your own monster. A lovely reward at the end of a hard math session at home!
Rather than filling children’s minds with empty screen time, a key to the thoughtful use of technology is integrating it into everyday learning situations in a way that enhances activities. Since poetry is a very thoughtful form of writing, and April just happens to be National Poetry Month, let’s explore some apps that can engage children in poetry through the use of technology. All of these apps are free (hooray!), and each approaches poetry differently. “Appy” Poetry month!
