KinderBach Piano Curriculum Review (FREE Coloring Books!)

The  KinderBach Online Piano Lesson Membership with Teacher Corner was a really fun product to review.

It is a complete online Piano program geared for children ages 3-7.  These early music lessons can work for homeschool  piano students  or in music classes in a school setting. It includes short interactive videos, accompanying worksheets, and teacher instructions.  The only things you really need are a computer, some sort of keyboard (we have a $40 piano keyboard that worked just fine:), and a printer.  I was able to download everything I needed on-line, which was wonderful for us.

My 5 year old mainly used it and had loads of fun.  We printed out the whole book and put it in a binder so it was ready to use.  They also have an easy link with each lesson so you can print as you go.   We would watch the lesson, participate in the activity (tapping, pressing the keys, and/or answering questions), and then enjoy the accompanying worksheet.  Most of the time we would watch 3 to 4  lessons at a time because we enjoyed it so much.

There are 6 levels of music curriculum to choose from.

Since we didn't have any prior music knowledge we started at Level 1.  It took a few lessons for me to get the hang of it and to really see what the program was all about.  I have to say I was impressed.  While the older kids would walk in and think it was silly, my younger ones loved it.  The characters are a boy named Frisco, Dodi the Donkey, Carla the Caterpillar, Edward the Eagle, Felicity the Frog, Gracie the Gorilla, Alan the Alligator, and Bob the Bear. Through the characters  a story is told and the children are taught corresponding music concepts.  (e.g.  Dodi lives on the D key, etc.)

Cost for membership:  $130/yr (Special Offer – currently only $95.88/year)

Where to find it: Kinderbach.com

What you get

Early Music Lessons:   Beginner piano video lessons that can be streamed to PC, MAC, tablets, ipads, and smartphones.  (Available for purchase in DVD format and Levels 1 to 3 are available in an iPad/iPhone app. along with 6 ipad games.)

Interactive Worksheets with almost every lesson:  You receive interactive worksheets that can be printed out to be put in a notebook or printed individually.

Teacher Corner:   Downloadable materials that include tools for instructors, whole group lessons, and additional resources.

Meets Kindergarten Common Core Standards:  Common Core standards are met for Kindergartners in the areas of  reading, writing, speaking and listening, language, and math.  You can get more specifics and each common core standard that it meets on their website.

Piano Pal Storybooks:  These are full color storybooks that go along with the lessons.

Songbooks:  4 different songbooks (hymns, Christmas,  Patriotic, and Everyday) are included with their MP3 accompaniments.

And So Much More:  There is so much more I have yet to learn and explore on their website.  I really look forward to learning more with my little guys.

Review Summary

Pros:   A very thorough piano curriculum that is effective in getting the students interested and engaged.

Cons:  Some of the songs and surfer guy accents are a little outdated.  Older kids catch on right away and make comments but the little guys don't have a clue.

Here is a fun, little video that gives you a sneak peak of the product:

There is a free two week trial that you can sign up for.  Just click on any of the pictures to hop on over.

And now for the FREE...

Just click on the this link -Free Coloring Books and copy/paste the codes in at check out.  Enjoy:)

"A House for Dodi" book - use the Coupon Code: DODIHOUSE

"Train Stations" book -- use the Coupon Code: TRAINS

You can connect and say thank you to KinderBach for these cute coloring books at these sites:

Facebook

Facebook for Teachers

Twitter: @KinderBach

Pinterest

YouTube

Have you found anything in this resource that might interest you?  Why would you or would you not choose this product in your classroom?  Please share any thoughts you might have in the comments section below.  You can read more reviews from the crew here.

Thank you for traveling with TheTravelingclassroom ... I hope you found this review helpful:)

Reading Comprehension - A Review and Giveaway!!!

As a homeschool teacher I am always on the look out for easy to use products that I can incorporate into our classroom.   With a busy schedule and different age groups to teach, I can genuinely appreciate a product that can be used  with minimal explanation. This frees up some valuable time that I can use teaching other subjects!  Little Red's Schoolhouse has some great items that do just that.

 

This last week our classroom was able to use Little Red's Reading Comprehension packet.  This packet has over 80 pages of great learning materials.  There are worksheets AND fun activities included!

 

I found this packet simple to use.  First I selected worksheets that we would  use during the upcoming week. I then printed them out as booklets.   After folding each booklet, they were ready to use! (Some of the kids used brads or raffia to beautify their booklets:)

This product is geared for grades 3-5.   I used it for my 2nd - 8th graders! My 2nd grader used it to learn about new language topics, while my 8th grader used it as a review!

 

This packet has easy references so you can use each page for before reading, during reading, or after reading. The attractive layout and cute graphics were an added bonus to these worksheets. There are definitions and simple explanations on each page.

 

  This worked great for our classroom! Even though all my kids are reading at different levels, they were all able to use these to learn and reinforce important language concepts.  

  

 

 Everyone here at Thetravelingclassroom has been learning a bunch this past week!  We will be using the  other reading activities this next week along with the cute Reading Royalty Achievement Certificates and Badges when we are finished!  

  You can read more of what is include in this packet at their TPT store.

 You can also grab the FREE  Reading Royalty Achievement Certificates and Badges here.  Don't forget to leave a comment if you download it!

And now for the Giveaway!  One winner will win this bundled pack below ...just click on the pictures to learn more about each of them - a $10.50 value!

Classroom friendly supplies  has also generously donated a beautiful pencil sharpener to one of my readers.  What a great addition to this  bundle -sharpened pencils!  I know I love a sharp pencil, don't you?

I have also decided to throw in something from Thetravelingclassroom! Wow, what a giveaway!!

Enter below to win the bundled products above from Littlered's Schoolhouse, your choice of one item from Thetravelingclassroom, as well as a pencil sharpener of your choice! 

 Thanks for traveling with us!

This post is a product review.  I received a free PDF copy of this product in exchange for an honest review.  The opinions and ideas expressed here are solely my own.  

 .  

America's Great Depression - A Review & Giveaway!

The Great Depression a Review & Giveaway!




We recently completed this notebook study of America's Great Depression. We followed the planning guide that's included in the unit, completing it in ten days.

I used this for a 10 day mini-study on the great depression for three of my children (ages 11-14). It was super easy to use and get started on (love that:)! First I printed it out in booklet form and divided the reading portions into 10 days.

Here is a picture of the historical reading portion:



I just printed out one of these and had the kids highlight the important information.


Each child had their own response booklet to the reading. This way I could check their reading comprehension and answer any questions that came up. Everyday they did their reading for that day and filled in the appropriate section of responses in their booklet.

The information was presented in short chunks that made it easily understandable  The visual pictures also made the reading very interesting.



In addition to writing responses they also added new words to their vocabulary section on the front page of their interactive notebook ( or booklet).



Each section was nicely broken up so that the kids didn't feel like they were just answering questions.  It was broken up in such a way to make it digestible for young learners.



Each day was appropriately connected to each reading section. The kids were able to independently work through their reading portion and response section without much help from me.



The children also added to the timeline section daily. I liked that this was included. Using a timeline of events helped them to understand the sequence of events during the great depression.



As you can see each page has a very nice layout that is visually appealing!



These Note Packs are a great way of notebooking your way through The great Depression. I think this would make a wonderful addition to any classroom. This pack makes learning history fun and interesting for the students AND the teacher!

Here is a little more information about this unit from In the Hands of a child website:

 With this unit study you will be able to teach your 6th-10th grade classroom about America's Great Depression (1929-1941). The Great Depression in the United States was a time of extreme financial crisis. It began in 1929 and lasted until 1941, affecting both the rich and the poor. Teach your students about what led up to the Great Depression, the Great Crash, life in the Great Depression, famous people, the New Deal, and recovery. 

Make your lesson planning easy with the America's Great Depression (1929-1941) Curriculum from In the Hands of a Child.

 This pack includes a 10-day Planning Guide, Related Reading and Bibliography, 21 Hands-on Activities PLUS 5 Extension Activities, a 16-page Research Guide, Timeline, and an Answer Key.

We ended our unit study of America's Great Depression with this fun movie:)





Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken is a 1991 film that takes place during the great depression. It is the life story of  Sonora Webster Carver, who was known as a diving horse rider. 

It added a little more history to our knowledge of The Great Depression and gave the kids a visual setting to put all of their information into.

Now on to the Giveaway! 


Hands of a child has agreed to give a copy of the same unit to one winner! The winner has a choice of either a lapbook or Note Pack format!


I would love to hear your experiences studying the great depression and any great resources you have used!

 Please leave a comment below (it's counted as an entry:) and don't forget to enter the giveaway to win a copy for your classroom!


(You have just read my honest review that was exchanged for a free copy of this unit.)

Thanks for traveling with us,

Learning for FREE at MrNussbaum.com

Hola...
I just found a free learning website.

If you are looking for free educational games,
this is a good place to start.


They also offer these incentives if you share their website:
Review MrNussbaum.com on your site,

your school’s site or anywhere else.

Recieve a $10 gift card for each review.




MrNussbaum.com Created by a real public school teacher.


MrNussbaum.com is pretty simple and straight forward.

Games include: arm-wrestling soft pretzels,

Place Value Pirates,

Decimals of the Caribbean,

fraction-obsessed pizza shop owners,

armies of vindictive semicolons,

the Greatest American Zero,

Fraction Man, and Tae-Kwon Donuts and many more.

Why not check it out for

some free educational games this summer?




MrNussbaum.com:

• Entertains kids with over 150 wacky,
and addictive learning games that pinpoint
specific skills highlighted in the Common Core Standards

• Engages students ages 2 – 14

• Helps reinforce and teach skills through easy-to-use,
interactive math workshops such as Decimals Worskhop,
Fractions, Workshop, Drag n Drop Math, Graphmaster,
and the Amazing Number Board

•Provides extensive interactive research modules
in hundreds of subjects such as the 13 Colonies,
Civil War, Space, Birds, insects, Presidents,
U.S. Constitution, Explorers and many more.


• Provides more than 150 leveled printable or
online reading comprehension exercises that mirror
those found on state mandated standardized tests.

• Provides rewards for student users
such as real prizes and printable certificates.

MrNussbaum.com is 100% free for all to use. The entire 3,500-page site!








MrNussbaum.com also offers most of its content for free on your tablet.

No need to download apps (they have those too),
much of the site’s content can be used directly off your iPad or Android browser.


Check out the MrNussbaum.com home page,

find information on the available mobile content,

and visit the testimonials page to learn more.

Teachers and homeschooling parents can even earn money by contributing content to MrNussbaum.com – click here to find out how!


mrnussbaumcom@gmail.com


We checked it out and I know we will go back!

I did not see inappropriate ads popping up
and there was definitely educational value to be found in the games.


I don't know about your kids, but mine love to play games.

Lately it has been an incentive to get their work done:)


I would love to hear what you think about the website
and what FREE online educational games you like...

The Kindergarten Pod Product Swap & A Giveaway!

(The link up starts Sat. April 20 at 7 pm EST)
This is my first product swap, hosted by Jessica Stanford! I was matched with Lori from The Kindergarten Pod.  I  am so excited to be able to participate...my kids are too:)


 Lori is a Kindergarten teacher and author of the blog The Kindergarten Pod. The product I chose to review, is one of her best selling items in her store on TPT;
Kindergarten Morning Work - Part II


I chose this pack because of the progression of skills it introduces with each page.  Each page progresses to the next number and to the next skill to be reviewed.  This product contains morning work for January through May and is intended to use 3 days per week. It includes 63 pages!

The skills included in this product are:

* Sight Word writing practice (Dolch Sight Word List)

* ABC Order

* Scrambled Sight Words

* Beginning & Ending sounds

* Short vowel sounds

* Rhyming Words

* Word Families

* Sentence Editing

* Number Writing Practice

* Coin names, values and counting

* Symmetry

* Shape Attributes

* Simple addition/subtraction with a number line

* Counting by 2s, 5s and 10s

* Probability

* Hundreds Chart counting

* Time to the Hour

......and much, much more!

She also has a Part I that you can find in her store!


Kindergarten Morning Work - Part I


We used the individual pages for independent work




 and for school work with BIG Brother!




Sometimes working with your Big Brother is a little bit more motivating!

These morning worksheet printables were super easy to use. I just printed them out and filed them so they were ready to be used at any given time.  Then, I just pulled out the sheet of the day.



 One day my little guys wanted to make their own little books ...


so we just printed out our pages in  booklet form!



 These would work great for Kindergarten and/or First Grade. They would be great for assessing your little guys to see how much they know and what type of intervention they might need. I love how they cover multiple subjects and are so easy to use! If your looking for a great start to your day, while those little minds are fresh - this definitely is a great way to start!

Thank you Lori for creating such wonderful Good Morning Worksheets that are sooo easy to use!

Be sure to check out Lori's blog for informative and interesting posts! Click on her blog button below to hop over and say Hi!





Don't forget to stop by her store and follow her! She has a lot of great products and FREEBIES too! My favorite is her Word Hunt Freebie!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Kindergarten-Pod


That's not all...

You can enter below to win Lori's Good Morning Work AND my packet Fun Word Families Set 3 that Lori is reviewing! You can also enter this same giveaway on Lori's blog and/or our facebook pages! The only requirement to enter is to leave a blog post comment!  Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out the other product swaps and giveaways!




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