SPLAT! Fun Game for the Magna Doodle

My daughter recently upgraded her mini Magna Doodle to a larger one with stamps and she LOVES it! We have played several SPLAT games. I'll explain what those games are in a minute. First, let me tell you the one thing you need to know when playing SPLAT... use one of the magnetic shapes to splat (or stamp out) the correct answer (whatever that answer may be- it depends on the game!) If you don't have a Magna Doodle with shape stamps- no problem! Use a magnet from your fridge!

These are some of the SPLAT games we have played:

SPLAT all the letter "A"s, "B"s, ....etc

SPLAT the letters in alphabetical order

SPLAT the number 1,2,.....etc

SPLAT the word cat, dog, her name...etc

SPLAT the oval, rectangle......etc

The possibilities are endless!

We have had so much fun (and learning time) with this toy! Yay for unsuspected education! :)

Happy TEACHing!

Our Favorite Apps!

We are blessed to have had the opportunity to play around with both Apple and Android apps. I wanted to make a list of some of our favorites apps and some that we would like to try out. I created a page (can be located in the sidebar) all about these apps. And just a warning- most of them are educational and geared towards the preschooler!

Techie parents- I would love to hear about any of your favorite apps! There are so many!!!

Happy Teaching!

Scripture Stories Book: Celebrating the Book of Mormon One Section at a Time

You know that feeling when you finish reading a book and you are left wanting more? You have fallen in love with the characters and have dedicated time in their world. For this reason, as a classroom teacher, I loved to celebrate books we had read. If it was acting out scenes from the book, coming up with games that the characters might have played, or writing and performing a readers theater based on the book. I love celebrating books!

It is no different now that I am a mommy teacher and reading books with my girl!

My daughter and I recently finished 1 Nephi. (For those who don't know, it is the first book or section of the Book of Mormon.) Some may ask, why not wait and do a celebration when the entire book is finished? It is a big book for a three year old! And, you know, who doesn't like to celebrate??

I wanted to somehow combine our celebration with documenting all her favorite stories that we had learned about.

I thought a homemade book of all her stories would be perfect!

I plan to divide her book into each of the sections of the Book of Mormon. That way all her favorite stories will stay organized.

Before the stories, I also plan to include a page that shows the important people of that section.

I plan to include details of the story that are significant to my daughter.

Would you like to start making a scripture book for your little one? Create your own pages or you can download the stories we used for 1 Nephi here. Some of the images were found on Living Scriptures website- a great resource that we love!

I also wrote a list of all short role plays that go along with each of her favorite stories:

• Lehi leaves Jerusalem (packing up a suitcase)
• brass plates (going to Laban, played by a stuffed animal, and trying to get the plates. Then running away from him. Then going back to get them.)
• tree of life vision (eating fruit and calling out all the people we want to come eat it with us)
• travel in wilderness, broken bow, and liahona (walking around with our suitcases, camping out in our play tents, pretend to break a bow while hunting, and finding a round ball outside the tent)
• build a ship (use a cardboard box and pretend to build a ship. Then pretend that Nephi is tied up while the box boat rocks back and forth until he is untied)

Happy Teaching!

Using the Magna Doodle to Make Words

We recently discovered how fun making words can be with a Magna Doodle! All you need is a Magna Doodle and magnets shaped like the letters! A fun way to teach reading! :)

Happy Teaching!

Staying Organized With iCal

This post is for all you Mac-mommies! There are so many features I absolutely love about my mac... iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie, and most recently iCal! It is a great calendar solution for anyone who has a million things to plan and remember! (like dinner menus, learning calendars, activity days, holidays, birthdays, field trips, scripture stories, cleaning calendars... the list goes on!)

What I love most about iCal is the color coded schedules so you can easily see what is going on in your day. Instead of reading a list, I can see that I have my blue dinner item, my green work item, and the two purple items that I need to work on with my daughter. I can see that I fill up my week with just the right amount of blue, red, purple, etc activities.

Don't fret if you don't have a Mac... Google has a great calendar system that has the same great features. And because it is online through your google account, you can access it anywhere. You can also allow others to view and edit your calendar. I have been using google calendar for a few years, and love it... however I like the look of the printed iCal better!

So throw away the old pencil and paper calendar and stay organized via computers!