Book Study Unit | Mimi and the Grands

More Thanksgiving Books: A Unit Study

by Nancy "Mimi" Taylor

I have a great fondness for Thanksgiving. While I do decorate my house somewhat for Halloween, I can’t wait to get out my cornucopias, turkey pillows, gourd candles, and pilgrim dolls in anticipation of this great holiday. So obviously I love to teach my grandsons about Thanksgiving with books and other multiple intelligence activities. I have done blog posts on Thanksgiving books before, but this year I chose some different books from the local library and planned activities for the grands: Tigger (8), Kona (6), and Tahoe (4).

While I will use the books as the “center” of this unit study, I will include activities so that all eight intelligences are incorporated sometime during the course of the unit. Since I have more time with Tahoe, he will have more opportunities to participate in a larger variety of activities. (Tigger and Kona have school and homework, so they may not have a chance to do as many activities.) I will include pictures as we complete some of the these activities. Within this post, I will also mention any academic focus I plan on integrating into any of the activities.

During the past two years, I have written other Thanksgiving blog posts featuring different books than are mentioned here. If you would like to read these blogs, they can be found here:

T is for Turkey – Book Study Unit

Thanksgiving Parade Book Study

Linguistic Intelligence (Word Smart)

Read and discuss books- I normally get my books from the library. I always discuss the pictures, captions, and any new vocabulary as I read along with the grands, but I have an additional academic focus for each book as well:

Nonfiction: Thanksgiving by Ann Heinrichs is actually a combination of historical background, poetry, and activities for children about Thanksgiving. Some of the poems included in the book are “Thanksgiving Comes Again,” “The Pilgrims Came,” “At Grandma’s House,” and “Over the River and Through the Wood.” The book has whimsical illustrations as well. Since this is a non-fiction book, it additionally includes text features such as a Table of Contents, Glossary, and Index. Academic focus: Rhyming–As I read the poems to the grands, I will have them identify the rhyming words. Text Features: Besides showing the grands the Table of Contents, Glossary, and Index, I will model for them how I would use the index to find certain topics within the book (such as the location of the poems, information about corn, the Plymouth Colony etc.) Thanksgiving by Lisa M. Herrington and A Short History of Thanksgiving by Sally Lee are both good books to provide basic Thanksgiving information about this holiday. They contain great photographs or illustrations that help explain the first Thanksgiving and how this holiday is celebrated today with parades, family dinners, and serving others. The last two books are easy enough for both Kona and Tigger to read aloud. Academic Focus: Compare and Contrast–How was the first Thanksgiving celebrated. What is similar and/or different about how we celebrate Thanksgiving in the present?

Fiction: Gobble, Gobble, Tucker! by Leslie McGuirk tells the story of Tucker, the dog, who can tell just by the smell of a baking turkey that it is Thanksgiving. He loves hanging out around the kitchen where everyone is getting ready for the meal. Tucker is very helpful, as well, by keeping nearby in case someone drops some food. When visitors arrives he greets them and they give him belly rubs. His family doesn’t forget Tucker when they sit down to eat; he is given his own feast of yummy Thanksgiving food. This is the book that the grands wanted me to read over and over to them. Academic Focus: Details–I’ll have the grands give me a few details from the story.

Grace’s Thanksgiving by Lisa Bullard is another one of those books that is a combination of fiction and non-fiction. Grace is getting ready for the Thanksgiving holiday by creating a “Thankful List.” The story about Grace and her family celebrating Thanksgiving is fictional, but the story is interspersed with information about this holiday, including other types of harvest feasts around the world and how Thanksgiving became a national holiday in the United States. The book includes directions for making “Turkey Cookies” and a glossary. Academic Focus: Sequencing–What are the events that occurred that led to Thanksgiving becoming a national holiday?

Over the River and Through the Wood: The New England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day by L. Maria Child and illustrated by Matt Tavares is one of those books that I think I will purchase for the grands because it is a book that I would love to share with them every Thanksgiving. Besides providing the wonderful verses of this traditional song, including some verses with which I was unfamiliar, the illustrations are magnificent! This book also is part of the Musical Intelligence since I will use it to teach the grands this song. Academic Focus: Rhyming–This is another great book to use to model or practice rhyming skills.

Read Aloud:

Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten (and Other Thankful Stuff): Junie B. Jones #28 by Barbara Park tells the hilarious story of a classroom of first graders who are trying to write a “Thankful List” for a school contest and get ready for a Thanksgiving feast. I was able to find this title as an audiobook and we listened to it as I drove my grandsons home from school. Some parts of the book are “laugh out loud” funny and I enjoyed listening to the grandsons crack up over some of the dialogue in the story. Academic focus: Humor–The grands and I discussed the humor in the book and why certain parts of the story are funny.

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)

Incorporating Other Activities: I like to incorporate math into the other activities we do with this unit.

For example, I will ask the grands to count the number of times we had to wind the yarn around one of the Yarn Sticks (see Spatial Intelligence). Counting practice is good for both Tahoe and Kona, but I would ask Tigger, who is in third grade, to figure out how many times we would have to wind yarn on one stick. Then I would show him it’s easier if you break the problem into smaller sections, such as how many turns of yarn is needed for one inch (have a ruler handy). Hint: the yarn’s thickness might match the 1/16 width or 1/8 width on the ruler to make the estimation easier to visualize. From there he can multiply the length of the stick by his one inch estimation (how many turns or winds for three sticks of equal length?).
Another idea would be to estimate the length of yarn needed to completely cover a stick. I would give each grand their own stick and have them cut out a piece of yarn to the size they think would cover the stick. I would probably have both Kona and Tigger measure the length of yarn in centimeters as well. Finally, they would use the yarn they cut to cover their stick and see how well they estimated the amount of yarn they would need.

Musical Intelligence (Music Smart)

Using the book (see Linguistic Intelligence) about the song “Over the River and Through the Wood,” I will teach the grands a few of the verses.
I will also have the grands listen to/learn these hymns: “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come,” “For the Beauty of the Earth,” and “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow.”

Naturalist Intelligence (Nature Smart)

Cooking with Cranberries: I will have the grands make whole berry cranberry sauce using fresh cranberries, sugar and water. The recipe is simple:

Place 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil.
Empty the contents of a 12 ounce bag of fresh cranberries into the saucepan.
Continue to boil gently for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Cool at room temperature and refrigerate until you are ready to serve it.

Other variations of this recipe can be found at: http://www.oceanspray.com/Recipes/Corporate/Sauces,-Sides-Salads/Fresh-Cranberry-Sauce.aspx

Spatial Intelligence (Picture Smart)

Drawing: When asking my grandsons to draw pictures, I have often heard from them, “But I don’t know how to draw a….” so I often find books or online videos that provide simple directions on drawing familiar items. I happened to find the book How to Draw: Thanksgiving Things at the library and have used it to help my grandsons gain some drawing skills. Tigger has enjoyed drawing items from the book, while Tahoe prefers drawing from step by step videos I found online. I used some of these drawing for the Centerpiece project explained below.

: Tigger preferred using a book with step by step instructions to draw some Thanksgiving designs.

: Tahoe used a video to create his drawings.

: Tahoe’s drawing #1

: Tahoe’s drawing #2

Craft projects: The grands love to do art projects, and I love to decorate for Thanksgiving, so I try to choose projects that can be used to adorn the house for the holiday.

Yarn Sticks: For the first project, I bought multi-colored yarn and had my grandsons find sticks (which also makes this part of the Naturalist Intelligence). The grands wrapped the sticks with the yarn, using glue to keep the yarn from unraveling. I happened to find a nice wine basket and decorative autumn leaf piece on clearance at our local craft store. I placed the sticks and autumn leaf piece in the wine basket to make a nice door hanging for Thanksgiving. I got the original idea for the Yarn Sticks from this blog: http://babbledabbledo.com/easy-crafts-for-kids-yarn-sticks/

: Tahoe needed a little help wrapping the yarn around a stick.

: These are the first three sticks that the grands completed.

: This little autumn piece of foliage was on clearance at the local crafts store.

: I also found this wine basket on clearance at a craft store.

: This is what the door hanger decoration looks like with three wrapped sticks. The grands will be making more to add to this basket.

Centerpiece: I used the ideas from the yarn sticks and drawings my grandsons had created to decorate an old terracotta pot we had at the house. First Tigger cleaned up the pot. Then Kona wrapped yarn around the “lip” of the pot. Then I took some of the grands drawings (I had to reduce some of them on the copier to make them fit the pot) and decoupaged them on the pot. I added a colorful plant to the pot to complete the centerpiece.

: Tigger cleaned the terracotta pot.

: Tahoe brushed on Mod Podge in the area where his drawings would go.

: After placing his drawings on the pot, he sealed the pictures by brushing on some more Mod Podge.

: Kona added Mod Podge to the lip of the terracotta pot.

: Then Kona wrapped yarn around the lip and the sealer kept it in place.

: I added a colorful mum to the pot to complete the centerpiece.

Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart)

Thankful for Family: This is something that the family already does before the Thanksgiving dinner, but I want the grands to think about this more frequently. Whether they are eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner, asking each grand to describe how they are thankful for members of the family is a great way to remind the grands that family is very important in their lives.

Dramatic play: I will engage the grands in some dramatic play in which they dramatize the first Thanksgiving. This will tell me how much they have learned from all the books we have been reading about the beginnings of this holiday.

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (Body Smart)

“Turkey” Horseshoes: This is somewhat similar to playing “Horse” with a basketball, but the object of the game is to spell “turkey” and it uses horseshoes instead. I will have the grands take turns throwing a horseshoe (can be plastic) at a post from a certain distance, determined by their ability. Each grand gets one throw per turn. They can add one letter from the word “turkey” each time they are successful in landing the horseshoe around the post. I want the game to continue until each grand has had the chance to spell out “turkey.”

Intrapersonal Intelligence (Self Smart)

Thankful List: After reading these books, I will have the grands create their own individual “Thankful List.”
I leave the library books in a convenient place for the grandsons so they can browse or read them on their own.

I hope you are finding these Multiple Intelligence activities useful as you plan lessons for children in your care. If you would like to see more of these unit studies as I create them, you can become a follower of this blog.

I love to add my blog posts to link parties such as:

Book Study Unit Education Multiple Intelligence Lessons Reading

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Books About Butterflies: Lesson Plans for Ages 3-7

by Nancy "Mimi" Taylor

Our local botanical garden has a butterfly pavilion that opens in early May. In anticipation of a field trip with my grandsons to this event, I planned a unit of study on butterflies.

After ordering several books from the local library, I created some lesson plans that I will share with you in this post. As always, I planned a variety of lessons in each intelligence to have differentiated activities for each grandson: Tigger (7), Kona (5), and Tahoe (who just turned 4 in the middle of this unit). I have more time with Tahoe, since his brothers go to a charter school, so he did more activities than his brothers in this unit. I had planned to spend three weeks on this unit of study, but it has been two months and we are still in the middle of this study unit because there were so many activities that I wanted to complete with them (and the books were so good, too). When using a study unit, I want the grands to complete at least one activity for each intelligence.

Linguistic Intelligence (Word Smart)

Read and discuss books- I read and discussed at least one of these books to the grands each day during the study unit. The first few times I read the books to the grands, our discussion centered on vocabulary. After those initial discussions, I had specific reading skills I used as a focus for each book, depending on my grandsons’ individual needs. These are the books I borrowed from the library and the skills I chose for further discussion:

Traveling Butterflies by Susumu Shingu is a great introductory book to explain the life cycle and migration of monarch butterflies. Besides the simple explanations in the book, the illustrations are gorgeous. This was an especially good book for Tahoe.

Discussion Focus: Sequencing-This was the main book I used to explain the sequence of events in the life cycle of butterflies. All the grands could tell me the sequence of events after reading this book to them several times.

Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian by Margarita Engle tells the story of a seventeenth century girl who became a famous scientist, artist, and explorer. The book explains how by careful observation, Maria Merian discovered that metamorphosis was a natural process, and that insects did not spring forth “spontaneously” from mud.

Discussion Focus: Fact and Fiction-Because this book explains how Maria Merian used observation to uncover the natural process of metamorphosis, it is a good book to use to explain the difference between facts (which can be proved somehow) and fiction (which is an imagined creation).

Butterfly Park by Elly MacKay is a beautiful story of a little girl who moves to a new town and brings a community together as they revitalize a butterfly park. The paper-cut illustrations are remarkable in this book!

Discussion Focus: Identifying Main Ideas Themes: Children need lots and lots of examples of the thinking process involved in identifying the main idea of a story (what the story is mostly about) and theme (the underlying message). This is a good book to use as you model how you use details in the story to uncover both the main idea and the theme.

Elmer and Butterfly by David McKee is a cute fictional story of an elephant and a butterfly who help each other out of dangerous situations. This is a great book for preschoolers, including Tahoe, aged 4.

Discussion Focus: Story Elements-I used this book to practice identifying main characters, setting, problem, and solution with the grands. For Tahoe, (4), I modeled my thought process in identifying these story elements. Kona and Tahoe were able to identify the story elements with just a little discussion reminding them how to find the problem and solution.

Butterfly Counting by Jerry Pallotta and Shennen Bersani is not only a counting book (using numbers 0 to 25), but it includes information on a variety of butterflies and offers the word “butterfly” in different languages. The illustrations in this book are absolutely magnificent as well.

Discussion Focus: Finding details-With this book, I would have the grands discuss at least one detail they had learned about the butterfly on each page. The older grands were also asked afterwards if they could remember any of the foreign language words for “butterfly” from the book. (Tigger loved the word German word for butterfly: schmetterling.)

What’s the Difference? Butterflies and Moths by Lisa M. Herrington is a terrific non-fiction book for the early grades that explains the differences between moths and butterflies.

Discussion Focus: Glossary and Sight Words-Since Tigger (7) has pretty much mastered sight words, we discussed how to use the glossary at the back of the book. We looked in the glossary to see if the words he didn’t understand could be found there. I had Kona (5) pick a a page and tell me all the sight words he knew (he knows about 50 now). For Tahoe (4) I showed him the word “butterfly” when we came across it in the book.

Inside Butterflies by Hazel Davies is a book that I should just buy for the grands because there is so much information in it. This book includes information on butterfly senses, the life cycle, eating habits, defense systems, camouflage, silk, migration and several other topics. Each page unfolds with more beautiful photographs, illustrations, and facts. There is also a table of contents and glossary in this book.

Discussion Focus: Table of Contents-There is a lot to read in this book, so I had Kona and Tigger use the Table of Contents to pick a topic to read and we just focused on that page each day.

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)

I used the Butterfly Counting book with Tahoe to practice his counting up to 25. (He is getting pretty good at counting objects up to 30 at the moment.) With Kona, he chose two pages and I had him add the numbers of butterflies on those pages. This way, if he needed “counters” to do the addition, he could count all the butterflies on the two pages.
Create math problems with butterfly themes such as: Three Monarch butterflies landed on the milkweed plants in the backyard. Each butterfly laid five eggs. How many eggs in all were placed on the milkweed plants by the butterflies?

Musical Intelligence (Music Smart)

“The Butterfly Cycle” song: I taught Tahoe this song about butterflies:

“The Butterfly Cycle” sung to “The Farmer in the Dell”

The butterfly cycle, the butterfly cycle,

1-2-3-4, the butterfly cycle.

First there is an egg, first there is an egg,

1-2-3-4, first there is an egg.

Then a caterpillar, then a caterpillar,

1-2-3-4, then a caterpillar.

It makes a chrysalis, it makes a chrysalis

1-2-3-4, it makes a chrysalis.

Last a butterfly, last a butterfly,

1,2,3,4, last a butterfly.

The butterfly lays eggs, the butterfly lays eggs,

The cycle starts over again, the butterfly lays eggs.

The butterfly cycle, the butterfly cycle,

1-2-3-4, the butterfly cycle.

Other songs: The older grands enjoyed the rap song “Butterfly, Butterfly” which I found online from Harry Kindergarten Music.

Classical Music: These pieces are inspired by the butterfly: Moritz Rosenthal – Papillons and Edvard Grieg – Schmetterling, Op. 43/1. I played these pieces for the grands as they worked on their art projects.

Naturalist Intelligence (Nature Smart)

I purchased a kit to so the grands could watch real caterpillars eat and grow, form a chrysalis, and transform into butterflies. We are still in the middle of this project, and the grands are so excited to check the cup where the caterpillars are growing throughout the day. Their caterpillars are nearing the pupa stage, where they will each become wrapped into a chrysalis. Update: All five caterpillars formed a chrysalis and 7 days later we had five butterflies. The grands are enjoying them for a few more days before we release them in the backyard where their mom has planted some milkweed and cosmos for these butterflies and their potential offspring.
Walk around your neighborhood and see if you can find butterflies.
To encourage butterflies in your backyard, add plants to your garden that attract the local butterflies. I am going to have the grands plant some varieties for the Painted Ladies butterfly which are the type of butterfly that will emerge from the caterpillars I purchased in the kit.
Visit butterfly pavilions in your area. Often they are offered seasonally at local botanical gardens, zoos, and natural history museums. Our local botanical garden offers a butterfly pavilion from mid-May through mid-August. This is the field trip that we have yet to do, but will be the culminating activity of this study unit.

Spatial Intelligence (Picture Smart)

Craft projects: The grands love to do art projects, so I always have lots of activities in this intelligence.

Butterfly Eggs on a Leaf:

Tahoe completed two of these projects. For the first one, I drew a leaf on some green construction paper for Tahoe. He cut it out himself. Then I had him make small balls from PlayDough to represent the eggs that will eventually hatch and become the butterfly.

For the second leaf and egg activity, I cut out a leaf pattern from white construction paper and had Tahoe use his green dot paints. When those were dry, he glued pom poms onto the painted leaf to represent the eggs.

Caterpillar

I helped Tahoe make a caterpillar out of an 8 ” length of ribbon, a milk bottle cap, strips of construction paper, googly eyes, glue, tape, and a permanent marker. Glue was not strong enough to keep the milk bottle cap on the ribbon, so I used tape. Tahoe used glue for all the googly eyes and construction paper.

Butterfly

Since my grands love to use the circle punches I own, I use them in a lot of my craft projects. To make the butterfly, I drew the outline of a butterfly on a piece of manila construction paper. Then Tahoe was able to punch out his own circles from several different colors of construction paper and glue them inside the butterfly outline.

Videos: I also showed short videos to the grands regarding the life cycle of the butterfly.

Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart)

Circle Storytelling: After the grands understand the life cycle of the butterfly, have them take turns explaining it in a story. This can be done as circle time, or around a meal. Start the story with, “One day I found some small eggs on the milkweed plants in the backyard.” Then have each child take their turn to add to the story.
Dramatic play: The grands often use the topics we have been discussing in their “pretend” play, or dramatic play. One day I saw two of the grands playing together and using their toy cars and pretending that they were caterpillars and butterflies. Just watching them play together like this can tell me a lot about their understanding of this study unit.

Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence (Body Smart)

I had the grands use their bodies to show me each stage of the butterfly. Here are some of the ways they demonstrated the life cycle of the butterfly:

: Butterfly egg

: Caterpillar

: Pupa (chrysalis)

Fingerplays with songs: I also found several fingerplays and songs (incorporating the music intelligence with the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence) at this website that I use frequently to get ideas:

http://www.coffeecupsandcrayons.com/caterpillar-and-butterfly-themed-finger-play-songs/

Exercises: I also found this idea online which uses a variety of physical exercises to demonstrate the life cycle of the butterfly:

http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/4afacf34-958c-455e-bc4e-fe8e6f9ca53d/butterfly-life-cycle-lesson-plan/

Intrapersonal Intelligence (Self Smart)

Discuss individually with each grand: What is your favorite part of the butterfly’s life cycle? Show (from our library books) or tell me which butterfly you like the best?
I leave the library books in a convenient place for the grandsons so they can browse or read them on their own.

I have other study units for this age group. You may be interested in this one:

https://mimiandthegrands.com/2016/02/19/books-about-clouds-lesson-plans-for-ages-3-7/

I love to add my blog posts to link parties such as:

Book Study Unit Education Multiple Intelligence Lessons Multiple Intelligences Reading

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Books About Clouds: Lesson Plans for Ages 3-7

by Nancy "Mimi" Taylor

We’re in the middle of winter, and so in our “neck of the woods” we have more clouds in the sky than at other times of the year. This is when I would usually schedule my “weather” units when I taught fourth and fifth grades. Now that I am retired and watch my grandsons several days a week, it was the right time to plan some weather related units to use with them.

I decided to start by creating “Cloud” themed lessons for the grands. After ordering several books from the local library, I created some multiple intelligence lesson plans on clouds that I will share with you in this post.

As always, I planned a variety of lessons in each intelligence to have differentiated activities for each grandson: Tigger (7), Kona (5), and Tahoe (3). Since I am an “afterschooler” for my two oldest grands, and a “homeschooler” for Tahoe, I don’t spend the same amount of time on these lessons with each grandchild. However, during the three weeks I spent on this study unit, I tried to complete at least one activity for each intelligence during that time.

Linguistic Intelligence (Word Smart)

Read and discuss books- I read and discussed at least one of these books each day during the three week period. The first few times I read the books to the grands, our discussion centered on vocabulary, discussing the photographs or pictures to predict or better understand the content in the book, and pointing out “describing” words such as colors, shapes, and numbers. After those initial discussions, I had specific reading skills I used as a focus for each book, depending on my grandsons’ individual needs. These are the books I borrowed from the library and the skills I chose for further discussion:

It’s Cloudy Today by Kristin Sterling is a good book to introduce the cloud theme. It provides basic information and beautiful photographs on the three types of clouds and the type of weather they bring. Additionally, this book contains an activity using shaving cream to form clouds. (We used this activity as part of the Spatial Intelligence). There was also information on the Latin root words that are used to describe clouds (cirrus, cumulus, stratus, and nimbus).This was a good book to use with all three grandsons.

Discussion Focus: Latin Roots-This skill was adapted for each grandson. With Tahoe (3), I introduced the pronunciation of the Latin roots for each cloud and had him repeat them aloud. After introducing the Latin roots to Kona and Tigger, I had them match the Latin roots with the cloud type and why those particular Latin roots were chosen to name each cloud.

The Weather Wise book, Clouds, by Helen Cox Cannons, is another good book to use to provide basic information on clouds for all three grands. The illustrations and pictures are very informative in explaining water droplets, water vapor, and the types of clouds. This book has a table of contents and index too.

Discussion Focus: Table of Contents and Index-I discussed how useful it is to know how to use the table of contents and the index. Tahoe was more interested in the numbers, while Tigger and Kona were able to use them to find topics in the book.

The Cloud Book by Tomie de Paola starts with the three basic cloud types and then adds word parts (Latin roots) to make ten categories of clouds. Cloud mythology and common sayings regarding clouds and weather are also part of the story.

Discussion Focus: Rhyming Words: Many of the common sayings were in rhymed verse. With Tahoe I read the rhyming words aloud and had him repeat them. For Kona, I would give him one of the words from a rhyming pair on each page, and he would have to listen and tell me the rhyming word that matched. Tigger had to give me the rhyming pair as I finished (or he finished) reading each page. Sight Words–I had Kona (5) pick a few pages and tell me (or write down on a white board) all the sight words he knew (a, and, the, it, see, of, are, up, can, by,

look, there, ). Tigger (7) and I reviewed the Latin roots and how they were used to create new cloud names in this book. (Tahoe is still learning his letters so we focused on finding the letter “C” on some pages.)

Freddie and Gingersnap Find a Cloud to Keep by Vincent X. Kirsch is a fanciful story about two dragons who look for clouds. One of the dragons wants to keep a cloud, while the other dragon tries to explain that he can’t keep it. Or can he? This was Tahoe’s favorite book of all the “cloud” themed books and he asked me to read it to him over and over again. It has “A Cloud’s Song” as part of the story, which is found in its entirety at the back of the book. (See Musical Intelligence to listen to the song on the author’s website.)

Discussion Focus: Main Character (Who) and Setting (Where and When): I still need to break down “Setting” into “Where” and “When” for Kona and Tigger. I have Kona discuss these with me, while I have Tigger write them down. Tahoe and I talk about who, where, and when as I read this book to him.

Cloudette by Tom Lichtenheld tells the story of a little cloud who watches the big clouds water crops and make mighty rivers flow. Cloudette dreams of making a difference too, but what can a small cloud do?

Discussion Focus: Finding Details – I had the grands find the details to answer the major theme of the book: Why are clouds important? The younger grands discussed their answers with me, and I had Tigger write his answers on a white dry erase board.

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)

Lie down in your yard, look up at the sky, and classify the types of clouds that can be seen that day. You can even do this for several days, keep track of them each day, and see if the children can find all three types of clouds in the sky during the length of this unit of study.
Watch a cloud in the sky and time it to see if it is moving. In which direction does it move? Do all clouds move at this speed? If not, what might make the cloud go slower or faster?
With the oldest grandson, I can discuss larger numbers, so we discussed the height of clouds using the chart found on this website: http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-clouds.htm

Musical Intelligence (Music Smart)

Listen to “A Cloud’s Song” that goes with the book Freddie and Gingersnap Find A Cloud to Keep. You can find it on the author’s website: http://www.vincentxkirsch.com/listen-to-a-clouds-song/
I taught my grandsons some songs and rhymes about clouds that I found at this link: http://www.preschoolexpress.com/music-station08/cloud-songs-rhymes-mar08.shtml

Spatial Intelligence (Picture Smart)

Creating Cloud Pictures 1: I have several sizes of circle punches that I use for many of the craft projects I do with the grands. They love punching out the circles themselves, so it is a good fine motor activity for them as well. This craft was very simple to create, but helped Tahoe to understand that the rain was going to come from the darker cloud.

Tahoe punches out circles to make his picture.

He used large circles for the clouds and smaller circles for the raindrops.

Creating Cloud Pictures 2: I drew a simple cloud for Tahoe to cut out. Then he painted it a dark color. In the meantime, I cut up some linguine and placed them in a cup of blue paint to turn the linguine into a bluish color. Once the linguine pieces were dyed, I pulled them out of the paint and set them on a paper towel to dry. When the cloud and linguine were both dry, Tahoe glued them onto construction paper to create a rain cloud.

Tahoe cuts out the cloud I drew.

Next he paints it.

The project is done.

Making Clouds from Shaving Cream: Using the activity on p. 28 of It’s Cloudy Today, I had Kona make the three main types of clouds using some shaving cream. I also had him practice his handwriting by tracing the names of these clouds to label the shaving cream creations. (I placed blue construction paper under a clear plastic tablecloth for this activity. It was easy to clean up afterwards.)

Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart)

Science Demonstration in a Group: Make a cloud in a bottle with adult supervision. The directions can be found here: http://www.weatherwizkids.com/experiments-cloud.htm
Cloud Recognition Game: Using the illustrations or pictures of clouds in the books from the library, make copies (or draw pictures) of the three types of clouds. Play a game in a small group to see who can say the correct name of the cloud as you hold up each picture.
Finding a Cloud Game: Hide pictures of the three main types of clouds around the house (or in your yard). Have children take turns finding a cloud, bring it back to you , and tell you the type of cloud they found.

Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence (Body Smart)

Pantomimes: I planned a simple activity to help Tahoe remember which clouds are highest and which are lowest. I had Tahoe place his hands over his head and make his hands pantomime a feather. Then I had him say “Cirrus.” Next he pantomimed a big puffy cloud in front of his tummy and I had him say “Cumulus.” Finally he bent down and waved his hands back and forth in front of his knees and said “Stratus.”
Cloud Relay: This can be done with one child or a small group of children. Place pictures of each type of cloud at one end of the playing area (or hallway). Have the children start at the other end. Call out a child’s name along with a cloud’s name, and have that child run to get the correct picture and return it to the starting place.
Water Cycle Game: I found a more complicated “Cloud” game on this website but haven’t yet played it with my grandsons. http://teachers.net/lessonplans/posts/1663.html

Naturalist Intelligence (Nature Smart)

I had the grands go outside to look at the clouds. I asked them if they saw pictures in the clouds. Kona saw a dragon and a snake.

Observe the clouds outside. Have the children describe the clouds they see. They might even take pictures of them and later make a Cloud Journal.

Intrapersonal Intelligence (Self Smart)

Discuss: Which is your favorite type of clouds in the books that we have read?
I showed the grands “Giant in the Clouds” by N. C. Wyeth, which can be found on the internet. Then I had the grandsons go outside with blue construction paper and a white crayon to draw the clouds and try to find a picture in the clouds they had drawn.
I leave the library books in a convenient place for the grandsons so they can browse or read them on their own.

I love to add my blog posts to link parties such as:

Book Study Unit Education Multiple Intelligence Lessons Reading

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Elf on the Shelf Book Study-Ages 3-5 Years

by Nancy "Mimi" Taylor

My daughter and son-in-law have been doing The Elf on the Shelf tradition for several years with their three boys, and my older grandsons named their elf Graham Cracker. So my youngest grandson, 3 1/2 years, is already familiar with looking for the elf’s location each morning. However, this Christmas he is ready to understand more fully The Elf on the Shelf story.

That is why I created this Multiple Intelligence Book Study just for my youngest grandson, Tahoe. I have read the book aloud to him several times, and additionally planned at least one activity for him in each intelligence. I thought I would share this with others to show how I turned this book study into an enriching educational experience for Tahoe. I used at least one activity for each intelligence, but often we did more than one.

Linguistic Intelligence/Word Smart

I read the book, The Elf on the Shelf by Carol V. Aebersold and Chanda A. Bell, aloud to Tahoe each day of the study unit.
In subsequent readings, I focused on the letter “L” which was one of the letters I am currently teaching Tahoe. I gave him a letter “L” from one of his puzzles, and he easily found two letter Ls in the title of the book.
Since this is a rhyming book, I pointed out the rhyming words as we read the book.

Musical Intelligence/Music Smart

I found a video online of musical selections from Elf, the Musical, and showed them to Tahoe.
I played a recording of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” which has a similar theme to The Elf on the Shelf and we sang it together.

Interpersonal Intelligence/People Smart

Elf-Friendly Wassail: I love to cook with the grands, so Tahoe and I made a simple recipe of wassail for our elf. This recipe made enough for Tahoe and me to have some too. Here is the recipe we followed: Put 2 cups apple cider, 1 cup orange juice, a stick of cinnamon and a pinch of ground cloves in a pot and stir. With adult supervision, let the mixture simmer on the stove for 20-45 minutes. Let it cool a bit so the elf doesn’t burn his tongue. Great for a cold winter night! (For older children, this could be a mathematical and linguistic activity too.)

: First I had Tahoe look for 2 cups on the measuring cup.

: Then I had my grandson pour the apple cider to the 2 cup line.

: When all the ingredients were in the pot, Tahoe stirred the mixture.

Dramatic Play: With another person, I had Tahoe reenact some of the pages in the story. (For example, Tahoe would be the elf, and I would be the child looking for the elf in the house.)
Hide and Seek: This is similar to the dramatic play activity, however, in this game, Tahoe got to choose where to hide, and didn’t have to rely on the book for ideas. This game could be played with his brothers and parents as well. Whoever was the elf got to wear an “elf cap” my daughter had at the house.

Spatial Intelligence/Picture Smart

Play Dough Mat-I created a Play Dough mat by drawing the elf on white paper, adding a title, and slipping the paper into a plastic sheet protector. I thought Tahoe could use the Play Dough to create a place for the elf to hide. However, Tahoe decided he wanted to dress up the elf instead of creating a hiding place for him. I also had him make “snakes” of Play Dough to fill in the letters “e-l-f” on the mat.

I used geometric shapes to design an “elf” for Tahoe to put together. He cut out most of the shapes, drew a face on the elf, and glued all the parts together.

: I used geometric shapes to create the parts of the elf project.

: Tahoe cut out most of the shapes (and I cut out the rest).

: All the pieces were glued together to finish the project.

: Ta Da! The elf project is complete. (Tahoe added buttons to the pants.)

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence/Body Smart

I found motions for “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” on the Internet which I used to teach Tahoe some cute moves to use as we sang the song together, but you could also create your own moves to teach the children in your care.
We danced to the music in Elf, the Musical.

Logical/mathematical Intelligence/Number Smart

We discussed which number was “more” and he circled that number.

I had Tahoe glue paper circles to each elf cap to match the number I had written under each hat.

I had Tahoe count the elves on each page of the book.
As we worked on the art activity (see Spatial section), I had him identify the shapes we were using to make the elf.
Using an “elf cap” cut-out, I had Tahoe glue paper “pom poms” to each hat to match the number I had written under them. Then we discussed which cap had more “pom poms” and he circled that number.

Intrapersonal Intelligence/Self Smart

After Tahoe found the elf one day, I had him tell the elf his wishes.
I gave Tahoe the opportunity to “read” the book to himself.

Naturalist Intelligence/Nature Smart

Neighborhood Walk-We took a walk in our neighborhood and looked for good places for the elf to hide in order to watch Tahoe and his brothers at play outdoors (such as inside the slide at the local playground).

I love to add my blog posts to link parties such as:

Book Study Unit Education Multiple Intelligences

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Books About Autumn: Lesson Plans for Ages 3-7

by Nancy "Mimi" Taylor

Fall 2015: I’ve always loved the autumn season, even though I live in Southern California where the start of the this season does not segue into cooler temperatures. But leaves and acorns do fall from the trees, and Grandpa Jim rakes the leaves in our backyard into piles so the grands can jump into them.

We visit an apple orchard in the local mountains and take hikes. In October we carve pumpkins (and this year our garden produced four of them) and make pumpkin pies. So, yes, autumn is still a wonderful experience for all of us.

I decided to build upon these experiences by creating “autumn” themed lessons for the grands. After ordering several books from the local library, and looking at the plethora of autumn activities that other educators and homeschoolers are posting, I created some lesson plans that I will share with you in this post.

As always, I planned a variety of lessons in each intelligence to have differentiated activities for each grandson: Tigger (7), Kona (5), and Tahoe (3). We spent three weeks on this study unit, and completed at least one activity for each intelligence during that time.

Fall 2016: I revisited this topic with the grands this month and so I have updated the post with more books and activities that I used with the grands in 2016. (In the fall of 2016 the grands are ages 4, 6, and 8.)

Linguistic Intelligence (Word Smart)

Read and discuss books- I read and discussed at least one of these books to the grands each day during the three week period. The first few times I read the books to the grands, our discussion centered on vocabulary, using pictures to predict what was going to happen next in the story, and then pointing out “describing” words such as colors, shapes, and numbers. After those initial discussions, I had specific reading skills I used as a focus for each book, depending on my grandsons’ individual needs. These are the books I borrowed from the library and the skills I chose for further discussion:

Count Down to Fall by Fran Hawk is a great (backwards) counting book, mostly about autumn leaves, with amazing illustrations. Each page focuses on a different type of leaf and has rhyming verses.

Discussion Focus: Rhyming Words-This skill was adapted for each grandson. With Tahoe, I explained the rhyming words on each page and had him repeat them after me. For Kona, I would give him one of the words from a rhyming pair on each page, and he would have to listen and tell me the rhyming word that matched. Tigger had to give me the rhyming pair as I finished (or he finished) reading each page.

Fall (Seasons of the Year) by Cynthia Amoroso and Robert B. Noyed covers other aspects of autumn such as picking apples at orchards, birds flying south, and squirrels gathering food for the winter . Beautiful photographs accompany the text.

Discussion Focus: Sight Words-I had Kona (5) pick a few pages and tell me (and write down) all the sight words he knew (a, and, the, it, see). For Tahoe (3) I showed him the sight word “a” when we came across it in the book. (Tigger has pretty much mastered sight words.)

Mouse’s First Fall by Lauren Thompson is another beautifully illustrated fiction book about two mice playing in some autumn leaves. This is a great book for preschoolers, including Tahoe, aged 3.

Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber focuses on the different types of trees and their leaves. This book is nice for younger children interested in matching the fallen leaves with their trees. It has lovely illustrations.

Discussion Focus: Finding details-This was more of a discussion only item for Tahoe, but with Kona and Tigger, I chose three different leaves and after reading the page on each leaf, they had to tell me at least two details. I had Tigger write down the details.

Autumn Leaves by Ken Robbins is a terrific non-fiction book that also matches the autumn leaves with their trees. It would be better for school-aged children rather than preschoolers. The photographs and text cover such trees as the sweet gum, hickory, red oak, linden, and dogwood. It would be a nice resource to take on hikes or trips to the park.

Discussion Focus: Finding Details- I had the grands look for details on the “shapes of leaves” as I read Autumn Leaves with them. Tigger had to write this information in his journal.

Why Do Leaves Change Colors by Terry Allan Hicks is a non-fiction book that is full of scientific explanations, photographs, and an activity for older elementary aged children. It was a wonderful resource book for me, and I did read a few pages to my grandsons and show them the illustrations. However, the grands weren’t ready to have the entire book read to them, even though it is only 30 pages long.

Discussion Focus: New Words-I used this book with Tigger to pick out words that were new to him and had him write them down so we could discuss them.

Fall Harvest by Gail Saunders-Smith is a great short book for vocabulary development and for early readers. It has wonderful photographs of people and machines harvesting a variety of foods including pumpkins, apples, sugar beets, wheat, corn, potatoes, and cranberries. There are short sentences on each page, so it is a good book for those children who are just beginning to read books and a glossary in the back.

Discussion Focus: How is Food Grown- I used this book with Tahoe to help him understand how food is grown (some in the ground, some on stalks of leaves, some on trees). Since the sentences are short, Kona was able to read most of the sentences once I had read the book to him several times and he began to recognize words such as harvest, people, and machines. Tigger and I discussed how many non-fiction books have a glossary in the back of it.

Animals in Fall by Martha E. H. Rustad (All About Fall series) is similar to Fall Harvest with its fantastic photographs and short sentences on each page. This book differs because it focuses on the many ways animals prepare in the fall for the upcoming winter season.

Discussion Focus: Similarities and Differences-I had the grands give me details from each animal that was discussed in the book and discussed how these preparations for similar or different from each other.

Fall Ball by Peter McCarty is a cute story about some children who can’t wait to get off the school bus so they can enjoy their favorite fall sport: football. As the children get of the bus, they start organizing a football game at the park, although one boy decides to stay behind because there are too many leaves on the ground. Another character in the story is their dog, Sparky, who also loves football. My grands loved the dog’s antics during the football game.

Discussion Focus: Making Predictions-There are many opportunities in the story to ask, “What do you think will happen next?” so this a great way to practice making predictions with all of the grands.

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)

Walk around neighborhood and pick up some of the fallen autumn leaves. The children can later categorize them by color, shape, or even tree.
Create math problems with autumn themes such as: The squirrels in the neighborhood park are collecting acorns to store for winter. If five squirrels each collect six acorns today, how many will that be? What if one of these squirrels is very ambitious and collects nine acorns instead of six. How many acorns would be collected by all five squirrels now?
Have the grands throw a football and measure the distance it was thrown.

Musical Intelligence (Music Smart)

Play Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons-Autumn” as you read one of the stories aloud.
I found some great rhymes and songs including “All the Leaves are Falling Down” using the tune
“London Bridge is Falling Down” and “Saw a Leaf” using the melody from “My Darling Clementine” at this link:

http://www.preschoolexpress.com/music_station07/fall-leaves-songs-rhymes-sep07.shtml

Spatial Intelligence (Picture Smart)

Autumn Leaf craft projects-Since most of the books focused on leaves, I designed some autumn leaf crafts for Tahoe (3). Among the art supplies that I frequently use are Creatology foam stickers and circle punches. I buy the buckets of foam stickers from the craft store whenever they are on sale or I have a 50% off coupon because the boys love to work with them. I also have three different sizes of circle punches because (again) the grands enjoy punching out circles from construction paper and the circles can be used in so many craft projects.

Tahoe, age 3, drew brown crayon lines to make his tree and then added stick-on leaves and acorns.

Here is Tahoe’s finished project.

Another autumn tree craft was made using circles I punched out for Tahoe. My 3 year old grandson used the larger brown circles to make a tree trunk.

Then he used a glue stick to place all the smaller circles as leaves. Can you see the leaves falling from the tree?

Scarecrow and Spider Crafts-My grandsons also enjoyed making autumn themed crafts for a scarecrow and a spider.

You can get the directions here from my other blog posts:

Kid Craft Challenge #2-Craft Stick Scarecrow

Kid Craft Challenge #1-Paper Plate Spider Web

Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart)

Dramatic play-Reenact the story of Mouse’s First Fall or Fall Ball with siblings.
Work together with others (such as siblings) to rake the leaves and create a large pile of them. Then take turns jumping in the leaves.

Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence (Body Smart)

I found several physical activities on websites for autumn and created one of my own.

Acorn Race: I gave my grandsons one acorn and a wooden spoon. I had them hit the acorns with the spoons to move the acorns from one side of our front sidewalk to the other side. They got to practice first before an “official” race began.
Leaf Blowers: My grandsons were given each a leaf and a straw. The object of the game was to blow the leaf across the width of the table. After they raced several times and were getting really good at this, I challenged them to race along the length of the outdoor table.

I found the Leaf Blower idea and many other physical activities for autumn at this link:

http://www.kidactivities.net/category/Games-AutumnFall.aspx

Football Activities: Since one of the books we read together about autumn is focused around the game of football, I have included some bodily-kinesthetic ideas for football. One idea is to have the grands practice throwing a football through a hula hoop. Of course, the grands are at a good age to start passing the football to each other as well. I looked for other easy activities they could do with a football and discovered some excellent ideas on this website: http://fitfamilytogether.com/fun-games-for-kids-football

Intrapersonal Intelligence (Self Smart)

What is your favorite autumn activity? Draw a picture or write about it in a journal.
Discuss: Which is your favorite autumn leaf in the books that we have read?
I leave the library books in a convenient place for the grandsons so they can browse or read them on their own.

Naturalist Intelligence (Nature Smart)

Visit a pumpkin farm or an apple orchard. Grandpa Jim and I usually take our grandsons to the local apple orchards for a picnic, hiking, and buying apples. We also visit a nearby pumpkin patch.

: The grands enjoyed the “Kid Quizzes” on the nature trail we took next to the apple orchard.

: Grandpa Jim is demonstrating for Tigger why one should not pick up a pine cone from a Coulter pine tree.

: The grands always enjoy a trip to a nearby pumpkin patch.

Walk around your neighborhood and collect fallen leaves, seed pods, acorns, or other natural materials. I had the grands start a nature journal using natural materials we found on our walks or hikes.

I hope the children in your care enjoy these activities as much as my grandsons did.

I love to add my blog posts to link parties such as:

Autumn lessons Book Study Unit Education Multiple Intelligence Lessons

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“Ocean” Themed Lessons Ages 3-7

by Nancy "Mimi" Taylor

During the summer we took the grands to the beach again, and their mom took them to a small aquarium. I decided to build upon these experiences by creating “ocean” themed lessons for the grands. So I ordered several books from the local library and created some lesson plans that I will share with you in this post.

Linguistic (Word Smart)

Read books-These are the books I borrowed from the library and used to create the lesson plans. I read at least one of these books to the grands each day during the three week period. I chose three nonfiction books:

National Geographic Little Kids Ocean Counting by Janet Lawler has beautiful photographs. Besides being a counting book, it has has simple information on the animal featured on each page.
Oceans by Cathryn Sill has beautiful illustrations and features a nice variety of ocean inhabitants. The Afterword includes more information about the animals in each illustration.
Bill Nye the Science Guy’s Big Blue Ocean includes information and experiments related to twelve different topics about the ocean. The information in this book is more in depth, so it may appeal better to elementary aged children rather than preschoolers.

I also chose one fiction book for the Ocean Study Unit:

Sneakers, the Seaside Cat by Margaret Wise Brown is a fictional story about a precocious cat who explores the wonders of the seashore when her family takes her on their vacation.

Discussions-For the book Sneakers, the Seaside Cat, we made predictions on the topic of each page by looking at the illustrations. With the non-fiction books, I focused on the vocabulary and recalling details on each page.

Audiobooks-Our library also had an audio book version of Magic School Bus – On the Ocean Floor. I always try to have at least one audio book in my car for the grands because we spend some time traveling pretty much every day.

Musical Intelligence (Music Smart)

Finger plays and songs-I found some songs on the Internet to teach the grands, including a youtube video created by Toddler World TV for “The Underwater Song” which was a good one for Tahoe. It has simple rhymes and incorporates some common sea animals as part of the lyrics. Another easy song I used with Tahoe is “Animals in the Ocean” which uses “The Wheels on the Bus” for the melody. I found a youtube video of this song created by Nursery Rhymes TV. Other ocean songs to use can be found at this link which gives the lyrics for songs and uses familiar melodies such as “I’m a Little Teapot:”

http://www.preschooleducation.com/socean.shtml

Classical Music-I usually try to find classical music to play for the grands. For this lesson unit, I played a version of The Carnival of the Animals-Aquarium by Camille Saint-Saens. (This is easy to find on the Internet as well.)

Spatial Intelligence (Picture Smart)

Drawings-

To help the grands develop their spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences, I found some videos online that demonstrated how to draw a variety of ocean animals. I had the grands watch a video on sea jellies and they drew their own versions.

: This is five year old Kona’s version of a sea jelly after watching the video.

: Tigger (7) decided to color his sea jelly after he finished drawing the outline.

Besides using a video, I found a great book to help the grands draw ocean animals (which includes some fun facts about each creature as well). Learn to Draw Sea Creatures by Walter Foster Jr., shows step by step instructions to draw over 25 ocean animals starting with simple shapes such as circles, ovals, rectangles, squares, and triangles. Some of the creatures included in this book are dolphins, crabs, manatees, octopus, sea horse, and walrus.

Videos-The grands and I have been enjoying the television series Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin which we are able to access from the On Demand button from our cable provider and I believe some abc affilitates carry it as well.

Directed Projects-Tahoe needs to practice drawing circles and triangles so I used these shapes to help him draw some simple fish. Then he used a very diluted blue wash to paint over his crayon drawings to look like the fish were in the ocean. Kona did something similar but he used an oval, small circles, and two triangles to draw a parrotfish.

Kona used simple shapes to draw a parrotfish from a photo in one of our books.

I helped Tahoe draw his fish using circles and triangles. He is painting a very diluted blue wash over the fish to make it appear that they are swimming in the ocean.

This is Tahoe’s finished project using triangles and circles to draw fish with crayons. He brushed on a diluted blue paint to create the ocean feel.

On another day, we discussed sea turtles and created our own representation of one of these beautiful creatures.

Kona is painting a paper plate for his sea turtle project.

Tahoe starts his sea turtle project by painting a paper plate.

Green dot paint was applied to the paper plate as well.

With a combination of scissor practice and tearing, Tahoe cut out pieces of brown construction paper for the project.

Using my circle puncher, Tahoe cut out the circles that would become the head and feet of the sea turtle.

Here is the finished product. (Can you tell the circles are the head and feet?)

Sea Light Table: Just before I was to publish this post, I saw this amazing idea. I haven’t tried it, but I thought it was worth including in this lesson unit:

http://whereimaginationgrows.com/under-the-sea-small-world-light-play/

Interpersonal (People Smart)

Dramatic play-I love using dramatic play as a way to help the grands understand the stories I read to them. A fun activity was to have the grands pretend they were the characters in the book and act out the book with other members of the family.

Play dough mats- Tahoe and his seven year old brother, Tigger, enjoyed working together on a play dough mat. I loved listening to their conversation as they worked together. Just from their dialogue with each other, I could tell they both had learned a lot of new vocabulary as they named and described the ocean animals and plants they were making out of play dough. (This is also a bodily-kinesthetic activity for Tahoe, who needs to develop his fine motor skills so he can write as he gets older.)

: I created a play dough mat using construction paper. (I told the grands that the mat showed sand, seaweed and a sea jelly.)

: Tahoe and his older brother created all kinds of ocean life with their play dough.

Experiments-Kona and Tigger worked together on an experiment to help them understand why there is so much salt in the ocean. We read pages 24-26 in Bill Nye the Science Guy’s Big Blue Ocean and followed the directions for the salt water evaporation experiment on p. 27. This experiment needs a few days before looking at the results. (Make sure you tell the rest of the family that the wet plate with paper towels on the patio table is an experiment or else the experiment might get washed after dinner.)

: Tigger and Kona worked together to measure the salt for the experiment.

: Kona and Tigger pour the saltwater solution onto the paper towels.

Bodily-Kinesthetic (Body Smart)

Crab Walk-I had all the grands practice the Crab Walk (which is really good for developing upper arm strength….believe me…I had to model it for them). To do a Crab Walk, I had the grands sit on the rug with their hands behind them, their feet flat on the floor, and their knees bent. Then they used their arms to lift their bottom off the floor. If they could hold this position, then they could begin to walk; backwards is easier than going forward.

: Tahoe is able to hold the Crab Walk position, but still needs to practice crab walking.

: Kona was able to do the Crab Walk backwards.

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)

Counting and measuring activities: There are always lots of counting opportunities for Tahoe in most of the books we read, but the book National Geographic Little Kids Ocean Counting was a good place to start.

Reading data on graphs-Using information found on a link to a local beach, Tigger, Kona, and I discussed the graphs on wave height and wind speed. Since some of these numbers were written as decimals, it gave me an opportunity to explain what .5 meant as a decimal and a fraction. We also practiced reading time on the graph (low and high tide.)

http://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Huntington-Beach/forecasts/latest/six_day

: Tahoe counted all the ocean animals on each page by himself.

: After checking the online chart, Kona was able to write the time and height of the high tide that day.

Subtraction Problems: Tigger and Kona created simple subtraction problems using the information about surf height from this chart:

http://solspot.com/north-orange-county-5-day-surf-forecast/

Intrapersonal Intelligence (Self Smart)

Personal reading – Giving the grands personal time to look over the books I have read to them gives them a chance to explore at their own pace.

Ocean in a Bottle-I made a sensory bottle for the grands out of salt, water (colored with a bit of blue paint) and vegetable oil. I had the grands shake the bottle and then watch it as the salty water and oil began to separate. This began a discussion on why water and oil don’t mix, and what happens when oil finds its way into the ocean. (I used hot glue on the cap so the liquid couldn’t accidentally spill out when they shook it.) This was an activity they could explore later on their own. It’s amazing how fascinating these sensory bottles can be. I found the basic information about this activity at this link:

http://happyhooligans.ca/ocean-in-bottle/

Make sure to secure the cap with hot glue or duct tape so the oil and water don’t accidentally spill out as the bottle is shaken.

Naturalist Intelligence (Nature Smart)

Field trips– My daughter had already taken the boys to a local aquarium and Grandpa Jim and I took them to the beach before I started this unit. I took Tahoe to a local pet store thinking we could find some salt water fish on display there, but alas, they only had freshwater fish for sale at this store. Tahoe still had a blast looking at all the different variety of creatures in the aquariums. I had to be careful not to get the shopping cart too close; he wanted to stick his fingers inside to grab some of them. Grandpa Jim and I plan to take all our grandsons to a local tide pool in a few weeks when all the boys have a day off from school.

: Tahoe and Tigger enjoyed visiting a local aquarium with their mother this summer.

: Tahoe was intrigued by the ocean creatures he saw this summer when his mom took him to a local aquarium.

Spelling practice in the sand-Whether at the beach, or in the sandbox in the backyard, I usually try to include natural materials when the boys practice their spelling, letters, or sounds.

Kona practiced some spelling words in the sand.

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope these articles are helpful when you are planning learning activities for the children in your care.

You can also find my posts on these linky parties.

Book Study Unit Education Multiple Intelligence Lessons Ocean Lessons Reading

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“Construction” Themed Lessons for 3 Year Olds

by Nancy "Mimi" Taylor

I love spending time with my 3 year old grandson, aka, Tahoe, and luckily I get to spend three days a week with him. As a retired teacher, I also love to plan lessons to teach him, especially using the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. During the last two weeks, I have used a “construction” theme to help Tahoe explore a topic he really enjoys. As I planned activities for the “construction” unit, I tried to plan at least one activity for Tahoe in each of the eight intelligences.

Linguistic (Word Smart)

Read books-These are the books I borrowed from the library and used to create the lesson plans. I read at least one of these books to Tahoe each day during the two week period.

One Big Building by Michael Dahl is a counting book showing construction workers busy working on a twelve story building.
The books Construction and Demolition by Sally Sutton also have wonderful illustrations. Besides describing the different jobs, machines, and tools needed in the construction and demolition processes, there are rhyming words and samples of “sound words” in these books. These are great books to use when “modeling” expressive oral reading.
Builder Goose by Bobi Ashburn reworks familiar nursery rhymes and children’s songs using a construction theme. Examples are:

“There was an Old Foreman” (“There was an Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe”) “Roll, Roll, Roll the Road” (“Row, Row, Row Your Boat”) “It’s Spinning, It’s Roaring” (“It’s Raining, It’s Pouring”)

Discussions-Whenever I read to Tahoe, we have lots of discussions about the illustrations, rhyming, and new vocabulary (such as skid steer, jackhammer, and concrete mixer).

Musical Intelligence (Music Smart)

Finger plays and songs-Tahoe loves to sing. Since the book Builder Goose already contains familiar songs rewritten with the “construction” theme, I used it for my source of songs for the musical intelligence for this unit. Some examples of rewritten songs from this book are:

“Do You Know the Bulldozer” (“Do You Know the Muffin Man”)

“Three Dump Trucks” (“Three Blind Mice”)

“I’m a Heavy Grader” (“I’m a Little Teapot”)

Spatial Intelligence (Picture Smart)

Videos-I played several videos for Tahoe (found online) which showed construction vehicles in action.

Freestyle Crafts-While I often give Tahoe a more “directed” craft project, I also encourage him to create art on his own. I gave him pieces of construction paper, scissors, glue, and crayons, and we talked about some of the illustrations of buildings in the books we read together. While Tahoe doesn’t cut on lines yet, he was happy practicing his cutting skills on scrap paper and using the pieces he cut for his projects. (His older brothers had cut some of the bigger pieces of paper for him.)

After gluing together his “building,” Tahoe decided his project needed more colors.

Interpersonal (People Smart)

Building Together-Tahoe enjoys getting involved in projects with my hubby, Grandpa Jim, with handyman projects around the house. I feel it is important that Tahoe learn how to work on projects with other people.

: Tahoe wanted to help put together the seesaw for our backyard and was given direction by Grandpa Jim.

: Both Tahoe and his older brother lent Grandpa Jim a helping hand to put together their new seesaw.

Bodily-Kinesthetic (Body Smart)

Pantomimes- Tahoe and I discussed some of the construction jobs from the books and together we practiced pantomimes for each of them. (He usually incorporates some of these pantomimes on his own during his dramatic playtime.)

Intrapersonal Intelligence (Self Smart)

Personal reading – Giving Tahoe personal time to look over the books I have read to him gives him a chance to explore at his own pace. Often, Tahoe retells the stories in the books as he looks at the illustrations.

Tahoe enjoys looking over the books I have read to him and retelling the stories to himself.

Building Towers-Tahoe also enjoyed being able to play with the building blocks and create his own “construction” projects.

Tahoe decided to construct a tower with the blocks.

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)

Counting activities: There are always lots of counting opportunities for Tahoe in most of the books we read, but One Big Building was written as a counting book, so Tahoe got practice counting from 1-12.

Naturalist intelligence (Nature Smart)

Field trips-There are many opportunities to see construction in our area, so we stopped at a site (at a safe distance) and discussed the tools, machines, and vehicles that were being used. Also we discussed how nature had been changed by the new construction.

: There are a lot of construction sites in Tahoe’s neighborhood, so we had an impromptu field trip one afternoon (after I got my Starbuck’s iced coffee.) Tahoe enjoyed visiting a construction site as they closed down in the late afternoon.

: This building looked very similar to one of the illustrations in the books we read during the week. I discussed with him the different types of materials that were being used in the construction.

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope this article is helpful when you are planning learning activities for the “tots” in your care.

I love reading posts and getting ideas about teaching the preschool age group. Here is one of the links I love to explore:

Book Study Unit Education Multiple Intelligence Lessons Reading

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“Construction” Themed Lessons Ages 3-7

by Nancy "Mimi" Taylor

School hasn’t started for my two oldest grandsons yet, but I wanted to continue their learning as the summer was ending for them. I decided to use one of the subjects that all my grandsons find interesting as a theme for some lessons. Now, my grandsons had always been enthused by anything on wheels, and lately I’d seen them play a lot with their construction vehicles: dump trucks, bulldozers, etc. So I ordered several books from the local library and created some lesson plans that I will share with you in this post.

As always, I planned a variety of lessons in each intelligence to have differentiated activities for each grandson: Tigger (7), Kona (5), and Tahoe (3). We spent two weeks on this study unit, and completed at least one activity for each intelligence during that time.

Linguistic (Word Smart)

Read books-These are the books I borrowed from the library and used to create the lesson plans. I read at least one of these books to the grands each day during the two week period.

One Big Building by Michael Dahl is a counting book showing construction workers busy working on a twelve story building. All the grands enjoyed this book whether they were counting or measuring the items in the illustrations.
The books Construction and Demolition by Sally Sutton also have wonderful illustrations. Besides describing the different jobs, machines, and tools needed in the construction and demolition processes, there are rhyming words and samples of “sound words” (onamonapeia) to discuss with the grands in these books.
Builder Goose by Bobi Ashburn reworks familiar nursery rhymes and children’s songs using a construction theme. Examples are:

Discussions-Whenever I read to the grands we are always making predictions on the topic of each page by looking at the illustrations, and having discussions on the vocabulary.

Making Lists and Writing Simple Paragraphs- After reading the book, One Big Building, Tigger (7) and I discussed the topic “vehicles” and he made a list of vehicles from the story. Then I modeled orally how to use this list to plan a paragraph which included a topic sentence. I will continue doing this with Tigger over several days until he understands how to use the list to create an oral paragraph. Then I will actually have him write the paragraph about vehicles.

Rhyming words-The book Builder Goose contains familiar nursery rhymes and songs rewritten with a “construction” theme. After reading the entire book to the grands, we discussed rhyming words and the grands wrote some of rhyming words on a dry erase board.

After reading one of the rhymes in Builder Goose, Kona, 5, wrote down some of the rhyming words on a dry erase board. (The last word on the board is supposed to be “feet.” If you look closely, he squeezed in a small “t” at the end of “FEE.”)

Figurative Language-Onamonopeia-The books Construction and Demolition have lots of examples of Onamonopeia (sound words) in it, such as Clang, Swoosh, and Thonk. I thought this concept would be easier to explain, but the grands didn’t quite get it. They think most words make sounds. (“But, Mimi, chair must be a “sound” word because it makes a sound when it is pushed around on the floor.”) Well, at least they have been exposed to this concept. Mastery will come after a lot more examples I’m sure.

Musical Intelligence (Music Smart)

Finger plays and songs-Since the book Builder Goose already contains familiar songs rewritten with the “construction” theme, I used it for my source of songs for the musical intelligence for this unit. Some examples of rewritten songs from this book are:

“Do You Know the Bulldozer” (“Do You Know the Muffin Man”)

“Three Dump Trucks” (“Three Blind Mice”)

“I’m a Heavy Grader” (“I’m a Little Teapot”)

Classical Music-I played Verdi’s “Anvil Chorus” from Il Travatore to the grands. (It sounds like a hammer hitting an anvil in the music from this opera.)

Spatial Intelligence (Picture Smart)

Videos-I played several videos I found online that showed construction vehicles in action.

Freestyle Crafts-We did several kinds of crafts in this themed unit. Some days I had the older grands cut out rectangles and squares from construction paper (I modeled how to make rectangles and squares with a ruler first.) Then the grands could create their own buildings by gluing the shapes on a larger piece of construction paper. Tahoe (3) doesn’t cut on lines yet, but he was happy practicing his cutting skills on scrap paper and using the pieces he cut for his projects.

: Kona cuts out long rectangles from brown construction paper for the other brothers to use.

: I love to see how each grandson uses their own creativity in “constructing” a building out of construction paper. Tigger is very proud of his project.

: After gluing together his “building,” Tahoe decided his project needed more colors.

Directed Projects-Other art activities were more directed. I made a sample of a concrete mixer using ovals, circles, half circles, squares, and rectangles made from construction paper. I also wanted the grands to get drawing practice, so I found some online videos that showed step by step directions to draw some construction vehicles. We tried one of them that basically used rectangles, squares, and circles, and was easy enough for Tigger and Kona to follow.

: Kona created this art project using squares and rectangles he had cut out. I have circle punches that the grands love to use to cut out circles for their art projects.

: This is Kona’s drawing of a dump truck which he drew as we watched a step by step video online.

Interpersonal (People Smart)

Building Together-The grands love to help my hubby, Grandpa Jim, with handyman projects around the house. The boys learn how to use tools, and Grandpa Jim gets some assistance, so it is a win-win situation.

: Grandpa Jim and Tigger work together to put together a seesaw for our backyard.

: Both Tahoe and his older brother lent Grandpa Jim a helping hand to put together their new seesaw.

Bodily-Kinesthetic (Body Smart)

Pantomimes- The grands and I discussed some of the construction jobs from the books and together we practiced pantomimes for each of them. Then we played a game where the grandsons pantomimed one of the jobs and the rest of us had to guess which job he was performing.

Human wheelbarrows-Making human wheelbarrows is a good way to help develop their upper arm strength and coordination.

Tigger and Kona played wheelbarrow. Tigger insisted on having something on his back. (It was very light and kept falling off because Tigger was so wiggly.)

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)

Counting and measuring activities: There are always lots of counting opportunities for Tahoe in most of the books we read, but I added measurement for Kona and Tigger. Then I had the oldest grands practice drawing various lengths with a ruler on a dry erase board.

: Kona used one of the drawings in One Big Building to practice his measuring to the nearest inch.

: Kona practiced drawing lines to the nearest inch using a wooden ruler.

Creating Addition Problems-I used one of their toy trucks and some building blocks to “construct” word problems for Tigger and Kona.

: Here is a “construction” math problem: Tigger’s truck has eight blocks on it. He wants to add six blocks to the truck. How many blocks will then be on the truck?

: After adding the six blocks to his toy truck, Tigger finished the equation.

Testing the Strength of Cylinders-We used toiler paper rolls to demonstrate the strength of cylinders. (Later as we are traveling, I can point out examples of the use of cylinders in structures.)

: First Kona used two toilet paper rolls to see how many large books they would hold.

: With three toilet paper rolls, he discovered he could place more books on the structure.

: Next Kona added books to four toilet paper rolls. He placed them straight in a row. Next time we do this I’ll experiment with the placement of the cyclinders.

Intrapersonal Intelligence (Self Smart)

Personal reading – Giving the grands personal time to look over the books I have read to them gives them a chance to explore at their own pace.

Tahoe enjoys looking over the books I have read to them and retelling the stories to himself.

Building Towers-The grands also enjoyed being able to play with the building blocks all by themselves. It is interesting to see the different types of structures they create when allowed to work on their own projects.

: Tigger’s fort.

: Kona’s train.

: Tahoe decided to construct a tower with the blocks.

Naturalist intelligence (Nature Smart)

: There are a lot of construction sites in Tahoe’s neighborhood, so we had an impromptu field trip one afternoon (after I got my Starbuck’s iced coffee.) Tahoe enjoyed visiting a construction site as they closed down in the late afternoon.

: This building looked very similar to one of the illustrations in the books we read during the week. I discussed with him the different types of materials that were being used in the construction.

Reading outside- I read a lot to the grands, but not all reading has to take place inside.There is something wonderful about reading books outside, under a tree.

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope these articles are helpful when you are planning learning activities for the children in your care.

You can also find my posts on these linky parties.

Book Study Unit Education Multiple Intelligence Lessons Reading

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Whales, Weather, and the Letter W

by Nancy "Mimi" Taylor

The school year is almost over and I’m finishing up the alphabet during the next few weeks. Kona just turned 5 and will be starting kindergarten in a charter school in the fall. I’m sure he’ll do great, especially since this charter school uses multiple intelligences as one of its main teaching strategies! He loves to have books read to him, and enjoys “reading” the same books to himself. Since Kona could name all the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet at the start of this “pre-school” year, I geared his alphabet lessons to increasing his vocabulary, and learning the consonant sounds and short vowel sounds of the letters. He has done very well learning all the letter sounds, and I love how he already tries to “sound out” words in books.

Tahoe, (3), will get the alphabet again next “school” year. He has picked up the name of a few letters this year, but most importantly, his vocabulary and fine motor skills have really improved this past year. He also loves to have books read to him, but what Tahoe really likes is to sing! My alphabet lessons for him next year will include a lot more music and nursery rhymes.

And Tigger (still 6), well, all I can say is Wow! He is finishing up first grade at a charter school and for the last month or so, he has been reading easy chapter books! What really pleases me is that he reads with such great expression. This is quite a difference from the beginning of first grade when he was still having difficulty with basic sight words and c-v-c blending.

So this unit study is on the letter “W” and before the middle of June, I should be able to work with the grands on X, Y, and Z.

As always, I planned a variety of lessons in all eight intelligences to have differentiated activities for each grandson: Tigger (6), Kona (5), and Tahoe (3). I try to do two intelligences per day, so this would be at least a four day unit. I usually plan more activities than I can actually do with the grands, but I always do at least one activity from each intelligence. As you can see, many of these activities do not need a lot of materials or preparation, which is why I love using Multiple Intelligence activities with my grandsons rather than worksheets.

Linguistic (Word Smart)

Read books-I decided to focus on two themes for the letter W: whales and weather. These are topics I have taught to older students and always enjoyed, but I needed to adapt my lessons for the ages of my grandsons. I used these books as part of the Letter “W” unit study:

Discussions-I adapted my discussions of the books with the grands depending on the book and the concepts I was trying to reinforce. Pipaluk and the Whales was a good book for Tigger. He enjoyed looking at the pictures on each page to predict what would happen before we read it together. We also talked about the survival needs for these whales while reading the book. After reading each page of If Frogs Made Weather, I asked Kona and Tigger to summarize the type of weather each animal preferred. While reading Stormy Weather with the grands, we identified rhyming words. Elmer and the Whales was a good book for discussing sequence. For Tahoe, besides discussing the words that began with the “W” sound in each book, we discussed the animals on each page of the stories.

Audio books-Since I have the grands in the car for about an hour each afternoon to pick up the oldest from school, I try to find audio books from the local library to play in the car to go along with my lessons . For the letter W I was able to find these two audio books: He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands (which came with a beautifully illustrated book) and Hello, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle (which appealed more to Tigger).

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)

Counting activities: I had Kona count out 23 pattern blocks and make the letter “W” from them (since “W” is the 23rd letter of the alphabet). I practiced counting to 23 with Tahoe, although he still misses a few numbers once we get past “twelve”.

Measuring: Since weather is one of our topics for the letter “W”, we discussed the rain we have had this past week. While we live in “drought country”, we actually get rain from time to time. Of course, every time we get rain, some people always wonder if the drought is over. I planned a little demonstration with some clear glass jars and units marked along the side to show them how much rain we got last year (approx. 6 inches), how much we got this year (almost 9 inches), and our average amount of rainfall in a year (about 15 inches) . No doubt about it, still need a whole lot of rain in our part of the country!

Bodily-Kinesthetic (Body Smart)

Walk This Way- The grands and I brainstormed the many ways someone could “walk” and practiced them. Some of the ways we discussed were backwards walking, crab walks, curvy walks, slow walks, fast walks, walking on our toes, etc. Then each grand had a turn to say “Walk This Way” and chose their favorite way to walk while everyone else followed along like a parade.

Pantomimes- We practiced several “W” words that are easy to pantomime such as: walk, whisper, wall, watermelon, wind, water, worm, wave, and witch. Then each grand chose one of the “W” words to pantomime and the rest of us had to guess the word.

Spatial Intelligence (Picture Smart)

Letter crafts- After reading Stormy Weather and If Frogs Made Weather, I asked the grands for the types of weather mentioned in the books. I used this information to make cut out pictures for a craft project: wind, sun, clouds, rain, snow, fog, and lightning. The grands then glued these cut outs to a letter “W” that I also cut out of construction paper.

: Tahoe glued “types of weather” pictures to the letter W.

: Here is Tahoe’s finished project.

Other craft ideas– After reading Elmer and the Whales to the grands, I decided to use my new circle punches to create a craft to make the whales as colorful as Elmer. The grands loved it and Kona and Tigger loved using the circle punches to make new circles for their whales.

: These are the materials I had ready for this art project to go with the book Elmer and the Whales.

: Kona (top) and Tahoe (bottom) really enjoyed this project.

Videos- I am always able to find lots of short videos on the Internet that teach the sound of the letter I am teaching the grands. We also found short, educational videos on whales and weather. Additionally, I wanted to introduce the grands to weather forecasting. Besides watching weather reports live on the television, you can also find videos of weather reports. Watching these videos can be helpful, especially if you want to do some dramatic play activities (see Interpersonal ideas below).

Naturalist Intelligence (Nature Smart)

Field trips– (Wildlife Sanctuary)- We live about an hour away from a wildlife rehabilitation facility that we have visited several times (now called the Big Bear Alpine Zoo at Moonridge). This is a great field trip for the letter “W” to see wildlife up close and discuss how wildlife can be impacted by man.

Outdoor Scavenger Hunt- We made a list of “W” words that could be found in nature and took a walk around our neighborhood to find as many as we could. Here is a partial list: weeds, worms, wind, wildlife, water.

Interpersonal (People Smart)

Dramatic play- “Weather Report”- After watching several weather reports, I thought it would be fun to do some dramatic play as weather reporters. You don’t have to gather props ahead of time, but if the grands think of a prop they want to use, I let them get it.

Cooking -I consider cooking to be an interpersonal activity, because the grands still need to work with adult supervision to create the food from the recipes. (When they are older and can read recipes on their own, cooking activities will be more linguistic.) For the letter “W” I found an easy watermelon popsicle recipe, which I adapted to fit into the time frame Kona and I had that day. The basic idea is to cut up enough watermelon to make 5 cups. The cut watermelon is put in the blender with 1/2 cup sugar, pureed, and then poured into a medium sized container to be placed in the freezer for a few hours to become “slushy”. (The puree shouldn’t be frozen at this point.) Then we added a small handful of mini chocolate chips (to look like watermelon seeds) to the watermelon slush and stirred. Lastly, Kona and I poured the concoction into the popsicle molds that I already had on hand. The next day, he got to enjoy his watermelon popsicles.

: Kona cut the watermelon wedges into smaller pieces. (Grandpa cut off the rinds for him first.)

: Then the watermelon pieces are placed in the blender with a little bit of sugar and pureed.

: Chocolate chips are added to the watermelon slush (to represent watermelon seeds) and poured into the popsicle molds.

I adapted this recipe to make it easier for my grandsons:

http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/2012/06/watermelon-ice-pops.html

(I didn’t have time to add the lime sherbet.) I will probably make the entire recipe with the grands again at least once this summer…maybe for the Fourth of July!

Intrapersonal Intelligence (Self Smart)

Independent reading– The grands love to look over the books we have previously read together on their own time.

Water Play–Since “water” begins with “W” I counted water play as an activity for this study unit. The grands have lots of bath toys to use during bath time. However, one day I gave them different sized plastic containers during their bath so they could experiment and discover the capacities of each container.

Musical Intelligence (Music Smart)

Finger plays and songs- I used “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” and the nursery rhyme “Wee Willie Winkie” with this study unit. If you don’t already know hand motions to use with “He’s Got the Whole Word in His Hands”, there are several videos on youtube that can help you.

Create your own fingerplays or songs- We created our own lyrics to “He’s Got the Whole In His Hands” to go along with whales and weather. For example:

“He’s got the wind and the clouds, in His hands….”

“He’s got the narwhal whale, in His hands….”

I hope you are finding these Multiple Intelligence activities useful as you plan to introduce letters to the children in your care. If you would like to see more of these unit studies as I created them, you can become a follower of this blog.

Book Study Unit Consonant Lessons Education Multiple Intelligence Lessons Reading

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Q-tips, Queen of Hearts, Quinoa and the Letter Q

by Nancy "Mimi" Taylor

Tahoe and Kona loved painting with Q-tips as one of the activities in the Letter Q Study Unit.

It has been a busy spring so far. Tahoe’s just turned three, Kona seems to have grown a foot, and Tigger is starting to read chapter books! Sometimes I wish that time could just stand still because the grands are growing up WAY TOO FAST! Alas, I can’t stop time, so I have to remember to be “present” during all the times we have together RIGHT NOW. One of the ways I can do that is by enjoying the many ways my grandsons learn as I engage them in fun activities that I pray will make learning so much fun for them that they will grow up to be lifelong learners.

It was time to begin the letter “Q” and I was not looking forward to it. I thought it would be a boring letter to teach, but boy was I wrong! I went to a one of the websites that always inspires me:

http://www.themeasuredmom.com/letter-q/

From there I began ordering books from the library for this unit of study. Once I pinpointed some great books to read to the grands, my imagination began to soar and I discovered or created many activities that we all really enjoyed.

So I planned a study unit that combined activities connected with the sound and formation of the letter Q. As always, I planned a variety of lessons in each intelligence to have differentiated activities for each grandson: Tigger (6), Kona (4), and Tahoe (3). I try to do two intelligences each day, so this would be a four day unit. (Tigger goes to a charter school, so he isn’t always able to do all the activities.)

Linguistic (Word Smart)

Read books-Every day I read the books for the study unit to the younger two grands. We discuss the title, author, illustrator, preview the book by looking at the pictures, and pick out words beginning with the letter “Q.” Tigger helps to read whenever he is able to join us.

Matching Pictures with Sounds-I have the grands match “bottle cap” letters of sounds we have been learning with picture cards. (To make the picture cards, I use illustrations from the grands’ completed workbook and glue them on construction paper. I also save bottle caps from the gallon milk containers when they are empty and print letters on the bottle caps with a marker. These are great ways to reuse items I already have on hand.)

Spatial Intelligence (Picture Smart)

Letter crafts-I did two different crafts for this unit since my grands love arts and crafts.

Since I was using the nursery rhyme about the “Queen of Hearts”, I used that as the inspiration for the capital letter “Q” project. The grands used q-tips to paint the construction paper Q and then added a crown, foam heart stickers, wiggly eyes and a drawn smile to complete the face.

For the lowercase q, I had the grands glue pieces of fabric to a construction paper “q” to look like a quilt.

: These are the items to need for the Queen of Hearts Q.

: Q-tips were used to paint the Q. This is Tahoe’s finished masterpiece.

: Tahoe is getting really good with the glue stick as he places small pieces of leftover fabric to make a quilt covering the lowercase q.

: Ta Da! It’s completed!

Videos-I played several videos I found online that teach the sound of the letter “Q” and had the grands repeat the sounds and words that began with the letter Q during the second playing of the video. Amazingly, after playing the video twice for Kona, I discovered him singing the letter Q song while he was playing with his legos later in the day.

Interpersonal (People Smart)

Dramatic play-I love using dramatic play as a way to help the grands understand the stories I read to them. A fun activity is to have the grands pretend they are the characters in the book and act out the book with their siblings and/or adult.

Cooking– I found a recipe online for Quinoa “Mac” and Cheese. I simplified it so Kona could help make the recipe. We used pre-cooked quinoa, one and a half cups of shredded cheddar cheese (sharp), two eggs, one cup of milk, salt, and pepper. It was baked at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Both Kona and Tahoe gobbled it up at lunch time. Here is the original recipe that I adapted for our use:

http://www.monimeals.com/meals/quinoa-mac-n-cheese/

: Here are the ingredients for the Quinoa “Mac”and Cheese.

: Kona loves cooking and is getting better at measuring and pouring.

: The quinoa is just about ready to be placed in the oven.

Bodily-Kinesthetic (Body Smart)

Pantomimes- I put pictures/words that begin with the letter “Q” on cards and together we practiced pantomimes for each of them. Then we played a game where the grandsons picked out a card without showing me, and then pantomimed the word or picture.

Physical Education Activities– Another nursery rhyme I used with the letter Q was “Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick.” I made a “candlestick” out of a toilet paper roll, felt, and construction paper. Then I had the grands quickly jump over the candlestick several times.

: I made a “candlestick” by covering a toilet roll with construction paper and using orange felt for the “flame”.

: My cameras could not get a clear picture of Kona jumping over the candlestick. He got quite a workout jumping over the candlestick, but I had to settle for a picture of him posing next to it.

Naturalist Intelligence (Nature Smart)

Quills and Quails-I showed my grandsons a Wild Kratts episode “Quillber’s Birthday President” which explained how porcupines shed their quills. We also watched some videos together about quails.

Nature Letters or Words-Making letters from natural items is always a good way to make a connection between the shape of the letter and a word that begins with the letter. So making the letter “Q” out of stones is a good activity for the naturalist intelligence. I had Tigger spell some “Q” words using a stick to scratch out the letters in the dirt.

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)

Counting activities: Quartets, Quintets, and Quarters, Oh My! I had the grands use their toys and a quarter to show the meaning of “quartet”, “quarter,” and “quintet.”

Kona used toys and a real quarter to match the words with their meanings.

Pattern blocks: I had Kona make a capital “Q” with pattern blocks. Then he had to name all the shapes he used to make the letter. I had him do this several times using the different types of pattern blocks.

: Kona made a lowercase “q” out of hexagon pattern blocks.

: Tahoe prefers squares and trapezoids to make his lowercase “q.”

Intrapersonal Intelligence (Self Smart)

Personal reading – I give the grands independent time to look at the books I mentioned in the Linguistic Intelligence. In fact, they love to curl up under a quilt as they read.

Favorite “Q” words – At the end of the unit, I asked the grands to tell me their favorite words that begin with the letter “q.” Kona told me his favorite “Q” words were “quintet” and “quiet.”

Musical Intelligence (Music Smart)

Finger plays and songs-“The Queen of Hearts Made Some Tarts” and “Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick” are two nursery rhymes that I used in this unit. We made gestures to go with the rhyme as we repeated it. Other songs created for the letter “Q” can be found online here:

http://childfun.com/index.php/alphabet/187-the-letter-q-activity-theme.html?start=4

Create your own finger plays or songs- I chose the melody from “Row Row, Row Your Boat” to create my own “Q” song for the grands. Here it is:

“Q, Q, Q for quail, Nesting on the ground. In the brush you’re eating seeds, and berries you have found.

Q, Q, Q for quick, You are much too fast. I can’t move at all like you, so in this race I’m last.

Q, Q, Q for quilt, Put it on your bed. You’ll be comfy underneath, ‘Night you sleepy head.”

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope these articles are helpful when you are planning learning activities for the children in your care.

Book Study Unit Consonant Lessons Education Multiple Intelligence Lessons Reading

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Mimi and the Grands

Educating Through Multiple Intelligences

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Whales, Weather, and the Letter W

Q-tips, Queen of Hearts, Quinoa and the Letter Q

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