Showing posts with label diy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diy. Show all posts

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Calming the Chaos

Welcome to the Calming the Chaos Blog Hop hosted by 2peasandadog.

All of us bloggers have come together to share our top tips for making the last month of
school run smoothly.

Visit each of our blogs to learn something new and catch a freebie or two!

Happy Hopping

To keep my kids engaged in learning I try to make it fun!

 (Some of the activities I share are a part of a product that I sell in my stores. If you are interested in them, please click on the picture to go to the store link)

Here are some ideas that work wonderfully:)

1. Games:

Flyswatter-
for math facts, alphabet facts, sight words, foreign language facts, etc.

Players lay a fact card down, say the correct answer and swat it!  The first to swat it wins the fact (works with any flash card or manipulative...letters, shapes, etc.)!   Winner with the most facts in the end wins!


Manipulative Eggs: 
1-3 player game. First player takes an egg, reads the fact on the egg, and uses the manipulatives in the egg to find the answer. Second player checks the answer. (In the picture below the game is used for multiplication facts and a calculator is used to check the answers)



Each player gets their own set of eggs with manipulatives inside all held together in their own (soap) dish! (All from the dollar store!!!)



Manipulative Game in a bag of gelle:

Choose any manipulative facts your kids need to learn and add it to a bag of gelle (cheap hair gelle from the dollar store!) Each player takes a turn finding their fact and records it on a recording sheet (paper, dry erase board, etc.). In the picture below there is dice in the bag along with addition math fact families. The player rolls the dice answer(5) and finds the math fact numbers that can make the answer(4+1=5). This is a great tactile activity to reinforce any fact your kiddos need to learn!



Go fish or Matching game using spoons or cards:

Use facts of your choice and have the players take turns asking for the match that they need. Use either as a go fish or matching game.

In the picture below each player takes turns matching the uppercase letter to the lowercase letter. Use any color spoons along with clear spoons.



Another example is using facts to match to the correct answer on a mat or chart. Below the students take turns with two different letters to blend a word. They can then record their answers on a recording sheet.



The example below is a matching game with cards. The students take turns matching the correct Spanish Word to the Correct English word. The cards are also color coded.


or matching the number card to the number on the mat. (This can be done in any language to practice vocabulary or number order)


2. Art projects & hands on activities:
Use play-doe to make words, numbers, letters, shapes, etc.



Singing to learn a lesson



Reenacting stories or facts from a lesson using masks (learning about rain forest toucans)



puppets (retelling a story)



Making edible models of different concepts:


Below the kids used cheese balls and tooth picks to show the parts and sizes of each part of an atom.



and then made a model of each...when they were done they could eat it if they wanted!



Chemical reactions and Color Wheel lessons: Use colored vinegar with an eyedropper to drop different colors into baking soda.



Art: 

 Use art when teaching concepts and you need your students to sit quietly and listen. When children use the right side of their brain (creativity) it has a calming and quieting effect. I allow my students to work on art while we are discussing or learning something new. It keeps them quietly busy and engaged.


The art below is a mixed media using oil pastels and water colors. They were specifically drawn using oil pastels crayons and then filled in using old markers dipped in water(watercolor.



This is a drawing with a 3D effect, using straight lines and curved lines. To do this have your students trace their hand or draw any object on a piece of paper. Then draw straigh lines across the paper using a curved line over their drawing (the fingers and hand).




Finding Secret codes:

Use hidden codes to teach subjects your students need to learn. I taught my students about the Egyptian alphabet using the activity below.


The students were given a name code in Egyptian hieroglyphics along with the code. They had to decipher the code to find whose name card they had. If you would like to do this with your students you can find everything you need here.



Here is a freebie that teaches the ancient Hebrew letters through their pictorial meaning. The students have to find the hidden ancient Hebrew letter in the picture! This is included in my Ancient Hebrew Civilizations, Root Words, Acrostic Poems Unit- common core unit.  I hope that you found something in my examples to inspire you to make learning fun for your students. If you did please leave a comment I would love to hear what your ideas and thoughts are!

Here is a little freebie (ribbon calendar numbers) and another little freebie (more ribbon calendar numbers) and another little freebie ( a sneak peak into abc 123 100 party on TPT) for you that I hope you will find useful! There is also a giveaway you can enter below!


Don't forget to visit the other blogs to get more ideas and FREEBIES!


Remember keep it fun!


Thank you for stopping by!
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Calming the Chaos Participants




I am also linking up with:
Link Up!  
Check out this Great Giveaway!




Friday, March 15, 2013

Our Friday Flashback!

This week we have been out and about.  We have made new friends and caught up with old friends:)
The girl's and I  went to a sweet friend's  Birthday Party....


 My eight year old and  ten year old daughters made her some jewelry. It was a girl's only luncheon and so  we  made her  a home-made  facial spa kit too!

 The spa facial kit included 3 different types of skin care.  We bought a cute heart shaped container with spoons included from the dollar store.  They are easy to make just combine the following ingredients with just enough to mix in and fit in your container!   We then made some labels on the computer and taped them on with clear tape! Viola!

(Sorry I didn't take more pictures:()

 Here are the recipes in case you would like to make your own...

1.  Mayan Moca facial mask

ingredients:  oatmeal,  your favorite ground coffee, cinnamon, and powdered chocolate  - don't eat it!  It's for your face - lol

2.  Warm Brown Sugar Scrub & Skin Polish

ingredients:  ground pure brown sugar ( here we call it tapa dulce , it is not refined and still includes the molasses) and almond oil

3.  Pina Colada Skin Polish & Antioxidant

Ingredients:  chopped & slightly pureed fresh pineapple mixed in coconut oil

The mask works great for any skin type.  If you have an oily skin type I would not recommend using the Skin Polishes on your face, unless it is extremely dry!  The polishes have natural oils and can really hydrate your skin beautifully!

I would love to hear if you make any of these and if you try any other variations!  Please come back and comment!

We also used some new finds from the dollar store...rear view mirror hanging dice (they smell great too!),  Paul Frank pencil cases, and basketball key lights for reading!


Here are the dice ...


and using them for math... the younger kids used them for addition and number recognition and the older kids used them for two, three, and four digit multiplication wars!

Then we went out on the Boquete Bird Walk today as part of our weekly field trip...

It was windy, we arrived kind of late, so we didn't see much.  BUT we did get to meet some new people visiting Boquete!  Here are some of our pictures...it was a beautiful day!



If your interested in homeschooling or teaching materials you can hop on over to this giveaway...you'll find my newest TPT set as part of the giveaway!  Just click on the pictures below.


I'm Linking up with...




 The Homeschool Village
Abiding Woman





Welcome! Bienvendidos! Shalom! from our family here in Panama to yours...

Disclaimer: Some posts on this blog contain affiliate links. (Thetravelingclassroom is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.) Using these links helps support Thetravelingclassroom blog. Occasionally, I receive products in exchange for a review or giveaway post. All opinions expressed on Thetravelingclassroom are my own, and I only suggest products or services that we personally use or I believe will be helpful to my readers. Please contact me for more information elydinah@yahoo.com. "