Multiple Intelligence lessons | Mimi and the Grands

Big Snow – And Teaching the Letter S

by Nancy "Mimi" Taylor

I love combining a book study unit with teaching a letter of the alphabet. We don’t get snow in the valley where we live, but even so, the grands enjoy learning about snow (and of course, snowmen). So, I developed a study unit on the book Big Snow by Jonathan Bean, and planned activities to teach the younger grands the letter S.

This delightful book, published in 2013, describes the anticipation of David, a little boy, wanting to see “a big snow” in his neighborhood. I loved the way the mother in the story tried to keep him busy by helping her with chores, but unfortunately everything seems to remind David of snow. Even the dream during his nap is focused on shoveling large drifts of snow that accumulated in his home. When he awakes from his nap, his father has come home early from work, due to the snow. The whole family dresses warmly to go out and explore all the snow that is now covering their neighborhood.

I have actually spent several weeks on this unit, mostly because the boys and I have taken turns recuperating from colds (or flu), but this would most likely be a four day unit otherwise. As always, I plan a variety of activities in each intelligence and choose the ones that best work for each grandson (Tigger 6, Kona 4, and Tahoe 2). If you use this study unit, I encourage you to use at least one activity from each intelligence.

Linguistic (Word Smart)

Reading- I have read Big Snow to each grandson several times. There is always a discussion of the pictures, new vocabulary, the sequence of events, and the letter S as I read to them.

Writing- Both Kona and Tigger love to type on my iPad, so as I read the story to each of them, they located words that begin with “S” and typed them. We read the words together afterwards. The youngest grand, Tahoe, traced the letter “S” in the air with my help.

Decoding – Tigger worked on decoding words that had s-blends (such as stop and slug) using this website:

http://www.progressivephonics.com/attachments/article/19/Int_Book_2_screen_version.pdf

Spatial Intelligence (Picture Smart)

Letter crafts- (Snowman Craft) I planned a simple craft project to use the letter “S” to make a snowman for the two younger grands. I cut out a letter S, some snowman face features, a hat, and some buttons from construction paper. I happened to have scraps of red yarn too which we used as the snowman’s scarf. First, to make the body of the snowman, we glued the letter “S” to a piece of construction paper. Next I had the boys spread white glue to make two circles within the letter “S” and then had them sprinkle baking soda on top of the glue. After the glue and baking soda had dried, we gently shook off the excess baking soda. We decorated the snowmen with the construction pieces and yarn that I had prepare to complete the picture.(Snake Craft) I had Tahoe create a separate project as well. I cut a large letter “S” out of construction paper and had him trace it with his finger. I told him that “S” starts the word”Snake” and we made the sound a snake makes together. Then he used his dot paints and crayons to turn the “S” into a “Snake”.

Both Tahoe and Kona enjoyed making this snowman with the letter S.

Videos on Snow- I found several news videos online about the blizzard in New England (Jan. ’15) so I watched them with my older grandsons after reading the book Big Snow. (I always preview videos before showing them to my grandsons, and if necessary, we watch the videos with the audio turned off.) We discussed the similarities that we saw in the videos and the book.

Videos on Letter “S”- I also showed videos on the letter “S” to Kona and Tahoe that I found online. They are so many of these videos available and they are easy to find, so I won’t share the links we used.

Interpersonal (People Smart)

Dramatic play – After reading the story several times to the grands, we reenacted the story using dramatic play and any props that were laying around the area where we played.

Cooking – Since my grandsons are still young enough to need lots of supervision during cooking activities, I have placed this activity under Interpersonal. It could go under Logical/Mathematical (for measuring) or Linguistic (for reading directions) as well for older children. I chose two recipes to share with my readers. Since the main character in the book starts making oatmeal raisin cookies, I would use this recipe if my grandsons weren’t on a gluten free diet right now. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Oatmeal-Raisin-Cookies-I/

For a gluten free version, I planned to do this recipe: http://kitchensimplicity.com/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-raisin-cookies/

Games- “Snowball Fight” Since we didn’t have real snowballs, the grands and I used rolled up socks as snowballs.

Bodily-Kinesthetic (Body Smart)

Pretend Snow- Since we don’t get our own snow, we have to make “Pretend Snow” instead. I found an easy recipe at this link (although we didn’t add glitter or lavendar oil to our version.)

http://www.raisinglifelonglearners.com/snow-dough-science/

: Kona had to measure 3 cups of baking soda for this project.

: He measured 1/2 cup of hair conditioner.

: Kona mixed together the concoction.

: I had him work with the “pretend snow” on a cookie sheet in the kitchen floor to make it easier to clean up afterwards. He made two snowmen.

Cleaning House- Part of the story Big Snow, includes David attempting to help his mother with household chores (changing the sheets and cleaning the bathroom) to take his mind off the snow that was coming down outside. You might not be able to do this in a classroom, (although you could pantomime these activities), but since I watch the grands in their own home, it is a wonderful activity for us. As you work together, discuss items you are using that begin with the letter “S”, such as suds, spray bottle, soap, etc.

Playing with Scooters-While I’m not sure you can ride on scooters in the snow, I remind my grandsons that “scooter” begins with the sound of “S” as they play with them. Kona and Tigger love to race each other in their scooters, while Tahoe thinks it is fun to try to balance on two scooters at the same time.

Tahoe loves trying to balance on two scooters.

Winter Clothing Race- In the story Big Snow, David keeps going outside to check on the snow. Each time he leaves the house he has to put on his jacket, scarf, hat, and mittens. I designed a race for Tigger and Kona where I left pieces of their winter clothing around the great room in their house, and they had to race to collect each piece and then put them all on.

Playdough mats- I created my own playdough mat of the Letter S and a snowman for Tahoe and Kona to practice the formation of the letter S and to create their own snowmen with playdough.

: Kona is ready to start his snowman on the playdough mat.

: First he rolled a playdough “snake” to make the letter S. Then he began creating his snowman.

: His snowman is complete with eyes, ears, nose, mouth, buttons, arms, and something “green” on his belly.

Naturalist intelligence (Nature Smart)

Field trips– If it doesn’t snow where you live, you may be able to take a field trip to a place that does have snow so they can experience and play in the real thing.

Nature Letters- I took the grands outside and had them make the letter “S” out of natural materials they had found in the yard.

Outdoor Scavenger Hunt– I either make a list or take picture cards of some items that we might find outside that begin with the letter “S” such as sticks, stones, sand, stars, saplings, sun, or sunshine.

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)

Counting activities: Tigger worked on a “snowflake” activity which required him to use his counting and measuring skills. He had to create a six sided snowflake with pipe cleaners, count the number of cups of boiling water I poured into a mason jar (3), add nine tablespoons of Borax to the water, and place three drops of blue food coloring in the liquid before stirring. The complete directions for this fun activity can be found here:

http://pagingfunmums.com/2015/01/23/grow-frozen-themed-snowflakes/

: Tigger adds nine tablespoons of borax to boiling water as part of his “snowflake ” activity.

: Here is the finished snowflake.

Measuring: One of the towns in Massachusetts had 36 inches of snow. I had Kona and Tigger measure 36 inches pieces of construction paper that were taped together and then attached the measured paper to the wall so the grands could easily visualize how much snow had fallen during the blizzard.

Intrapersonal Intelligence (Self Smart)

Independent reading– I always allow time for the grands to look over the book we are studying on their own.

Exploration– Since we don’t get “real snow” where we live, I kept the “Pretend Snow” (explained under Bodily-Kinesthetic) in the refrigerator. The boys were able to take it out and play with it on their own. (Tahoe wouldn’t play with it though. He said it was too cold.)

Musical Intelligence (Music Smart)

Finger plays and songs- “Frosty the Snowman”or “Susy Snowflake” can be sung all during the winter season. The lyrics can be found online. “Five Little Snowmen” is a cute finger play and can be found at this link:

http://wiki.kcls.org/index.php/Five_Little_Snowmen

Listening to classical music-Play Vivaldi’s “Winter” from the Four Seasons Symphony while you have a snowball fight (listed under Interpersonal Intelligence). Or listen to “Waltz of the Snowflakes” from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker while making “Pretend Snow” (see Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence).

I hope you are enjoying my lesson plans using Multiple Intelligence strategies, and finding some ideas that will work for the children in your care. If you are interested in seeing more of my lesson plans, please sign up to follow my blog.

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Teaching Short Vowels-The M. I. Way

by Nancy "Mimi" Taylor

Now that I’ve finished my series giving a brief overview of Multiple Intelligences (M. I.), I want to share how I use these strategies when planning a unit of lessons for my grandsons. The first unit of study I am presenting to you will cover short vowels. I have so much information to share, I’ve decided to divide this information into two different posts. This post will cover three intelligences: Linguistic, Spatial, and Interpersonal. The lesson ideas for the other five intelligences will be presented in another post.

Since my grandsons are 2, 4, and 6 years old, I planned the units of study with an eye to modifying the various activities according to the readiness of each child:

Six year old Tigger had learned the short vowels in kindergarten, but I wanted to give him a good review before he started first grade in September. With Tigger, I would concentrate on short vowel sounds that were found in the middle of words (medial sounds) and review blending them with initial and ending consonants.
Kona, 4, already recognized all the uppercase and lowercase alphabet letters and had started to pick up quite a few consonant sounds. I decided he might be ready to learn about short vowels at the beginning of words. Possibly I would try medial short vowel sounds, blending sounds, and word families later on in the year.
Tahoe, 2, would not be ready to learn short vowel sounds, but I knew I could modify the lessons so his main focus would be on letter recognition and vocabulary development in the lessons.

Even though I am a retired teacher, I had only taught 4th and 5th graders, so I had never actually needed to teach short vowels before. Obviously, I would need to do some research and get advice from people who had taught short vowels successfully. And fortunately, there are many educators, homeschoolers, and afterschoolers who share their engaging lessons on their websites and blogs. I have been inspired by their ideas so much, and I happily share their links.

Crafts that visually match the letter with the short vowel sound are fun ways to help the grands learn. Their mom displays their crafts in their room, so they see these every day.

Usually I do at least one activity for each intelligence, although I may list many more activities in the lesson plan to give me choices depending on the needs of the grandsons. I planned to use two-three intelligences each day (about 30-45 minutes per day), depending on the length of the activity. When I planned this unit, I thought it would take about six weeks to complete with my grandsons. I would teach one short vowel a week, and then have a week to review all of them. Well, that was ambitious! While I did focus on one short vowel each week, I didn’t have time to do all the activities I thought would benefit my grands. So I extended our review week into as many as were needed, because I felt Kona needed a really strong foundation in short vowels before I proceeded to teach him how to blend sounds. Thank goodness I had the luxury of time when teaching my grandsons that I didn’t have as a classroom teacher. Additionally, I kept finding fantastic ideas on websites and blogs, so I kept adding activities to my unit plan. If you use this short vowel plan, it is best to do at least one activity in each intelligence, but please don’t feel you need to do all the activities I share in the post.

Before I begin, let me reiterate that many of these activities can be classified under more than one intelligence, (which makes sense since each of us has a blend of the eight intelligences). In my unit plans, I have organized the activities according to the intelligence that I feel is the most dominant.

Linguistic (Word Smart)

Read books-(All three grands) This is usually where I start my lessons each day. Before reading each book, we look at the pictures, make predictions, and discuss the vowel sound of the week. During the reading of the book, we discuss words with the vowel sound, and afterwards check on our original predictions. I found this wonderful website for lists of books that go with each letter of the alphabet:

http://www.themeasuredmom.com/books-to-teach-letter-a/

I perused this website each week and then ordered three books from the library for whichever short vowel I would be teaching. Here are my grandsons’ favorite books that I read to them for each short vowel:

short vowel a-The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall
short vowel e- Eggday by Joyce Dunbar
short vowel i-Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni
short vowel o-An Octopus Followed Me Home by Dan Yaccarino
short vowel u- The Umbrella Day by Nancy Evans Cooney.

Audio books-(All the grands) Since I drive the grands around a lot, I like to keep an audiobook for them in the car. I have found audiobooks for many of the books I used in the library as well.

Discussions–(All the grands) As I went about my day with the grands, I would point out words to the grandsons that started with short vowels and have them repeat the word and isolate the vowel sounds. For example, as I gave each grand a bowl of applesauce for a snack, we would discuss the short a sound in applesauce and have the boys repeat the word first and then say the vowel sound.

Bottle caps, letter stamps, or dry erase boards–(Modified for each grandson) I cut out pictures of things with the short vowel sound from magazines or completed workbooks and pasted them on paper. The grandsons could use the bottle caps (that I created), the dry erase board to write the letters themselves, or letter stamps (purchased) to indicate which vowel sound matched each picture.

I saved milk bottle caps and wrote the vowels on them. They can be used to match up with pictures cut up and pasted from Tigger’s completed workbooks.

Personal reading –(Tigger)We used the Progressive Phonics books that matched the vowel sound we were discussing that week. He read them with me, but later on he will be able to read them by himself.

http://www.progressivephonics.com/

Make lists- (All the grands) At the end of the week, make a list of all the words that we discussed during the week with the vowel sound. Tigger and Kona could illustrate the list as well.

Word Puzzles–(All the grands) I purchased these word puzzles a while back and used them with this unit of study. Tahoe, 2, recognizes the “o” letter the best and loves to find all of them and place them in the puzzles. Kona, 4, will place all the vowels in the puzzles, and has just begun to blend sounds with some of the pictures. Tigger, 6, has been using all the word puzzles to practice his blending of sounds as well.

All the boys love these word puzzles. Tahoe loves to find all the “o” letters and place them in the puzzles, while these puzzles help Tigger with his blending skills.

Spatial Intelligence (Picture Smart)

Letter crafts-(All the grands)-The grands really enjoy crafts and I always start their craft session with a picture that can be created from the vowel sound. Some of the grands’ creations are pictured near the beginning of this post. While I found lots of ideas on different websites, I had to be careful that the craft ideas I chose were depicting something with the short vowel sound. For example, I wouldn’t make a craft of an eagle for “e” since “eagle” doesn’t begin with the short vowel sound. There are step by step directions for some letter crafts on this fantastic website:

http://crystalandcomp.com/2013/08/u-is-for-underwater-a-letter-of-the-week-preschool-craft/

Other crafts-(All the grands)-Ideas for other crafts to go with each short vowel are endless. (For example, the amount of craft ideas for “apples” could keep the grands busy for a year!) This is the website I usually visit first for craft ideas:

http://www.themeasuredmom.com/letter-o-crafts-preschool-kindergarten/

I also found a terrific project on stamping “pumpkins” that I adapted to use with short vowels at this website:

http://www.coffeecupsandcrayons.com/sight-word-pumpkin-patch/

Kona says the short vowel sound before stamping a “pumpkin” on the letter.

Videos-(All the grands) Another way to use the spatial intelligence is through videos. I found so many wonderful videos that teach the short vowel sounds. Here is our favorite site:

http://www.sightandsoundreading.com/teaching-the-short-aa-letter-sound/

Playdough mats- (All the grands)-While I created these playdough mats myself, you can find printable mats on many websites including the one I used for my inspiration:

http://thisreadingmama.com/alphabet-playdough-mats/

: Playdough mats are a great activity to help learn the short vowel sounds using the spatial (as well as bodily kinesthetic) intelligence. These are ones I created with construction paper.

: Add playdough to finish.

: Playdough mats are great spatial activities. Kona completed the inchworm.

Interpersonal (People Smart)

Dramatic play (All the grands)-In dramatic play participants may pantomime and speak. There is often a created story line. Encourage and participate in dramatic play using words that start with the short vowel sounds. Props can be used, although “pantomiming” the props is easier and adds to the creativity. Here are some ideas to try:

short a: astronauts taking a space walk from the Space Lab

short e: collecting eggs; washing elephants

short i: building an igloo; using different ingredients to make a salad (or soup, cake, smoothie, casserole etc.)

short o: pretending to be an octopus trying on new clothes

short u: exploring an underwater habitat

Kona really enjoys our cooking sessions together. Here he is adding cinnamon to his mini apple turnovers.

Cooking -(All the grands) Since this activity requires adult supervision due to my grandsons’ ages, I have categorized this in the interpersonal section. When my grandsons are more independent readers, I will categorize cooking under linguistic since they will be reading and following the directions in recipes. My grandsons love to cook, so I always include some type of culinary activity with each short vowel:

short a: Make applesauce or mini apple turnovers. (Actually, we made both but on different days.). To make the applesauce, I peeled and cut two Granny Smith apples and placed them in a two quart microwaveable casserole dish. My grandsons added a little water, honey, lemon juice, and a few dashes of cinnamon. After microwaving for three minutes, my grandsons helped me mash the cooked apple pieces. They had to wait for the applesauce to cool before eating.

I found the mini apple turnover recipe at this link:

http://brownchrista9.wordpress.com/2014/09/18/simple-apple-activities-that-would-make-johnny-appleseed-proud/

Short e: scrambled eggs-Use your own recipe or try this one:

http://www.kidsacookin.ksu.edu/Site.aspx?page=Recipe&Recipe_id=4488

short i: Italian bread salad. I discovered this recipe, but haven’t tried it yet.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mid-summer-italian-bread-salad/

short o: olive and cream cheese spread-Mix 3-4 ounces cream cheese with a small drained can of chopped olives, and a tsp. of mayonnaise. Spread on crackers, bread, or in celery.

short u: upside down cake- I will be trying this recipe:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/easy-pineapple-upside-down-cake/c4d3321d-fad9-41cb-8f29-8d91a4279b07

Shell game (All the grands) Even the youngest grandson enjoyed playing this simple activity. I found this short vowel game on this website:

http://www.coffeecupsandcrayons.com/vowel-sounds-practice-game/

Shell game with short vowels:Rocky and Kona loved this game, however instead of a pom pom, they substituted one of their cars.

Well, those are some activities for three of the multiple intelligences. My grandsons have enjoyed these activities so much, and my hope is that by engaging all their intelligences, I am helping my grandsons become lifelong learners.

Next week, I will publish a post explaining how I used the remaining five intelligences to teach my grandsons the short vowels.

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.