Mr E and Miss K made these for their morning tea. A note of warning for children with nut allergies as this activity uses peanut butter. Although we didn’t try it, I think you could easily substitute the peanut butter with jam or another spread of your choice.

Ingredients:

• Apples
• Peanut Butter
• Mini Marshmallows

Method:

1. Cut an apple into eight slices.
2. Spread peanut butter onto one side of each slice.
3. Place some mini marshmallows on top of the peanut butter.
4. Sandwich it with another apple slice.

So simple, silly and yummy!

We talked about the letter shape for a, and the short vowel sound “a”.

Here’s a free handwriting printable of lower case letters of the alphabet, including the letter a.

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The Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 Kids is the tablet that grows with your child. With intuitive Kids Mode, parental settings and a great selection of preloaded apps, it’s the unique tablet for kids that parents will love.

After the best apps for kids? Let me tell you firstly, my household is one that has a strong culture of video games. My husband is a gamer. I knew this while we were dating, I knew this before I got married, I knew this when I said my vows to him at the altar on our wedding day. Four kids later, he is still a gamer. It is who he is, and I love him.

I find gaming a polarising topic; you either love it or hate it. I have known and spoken to parents who have laid down strong boundaries regarding gaming. Eg limiting gaming time to 15 minutes a week, if any at all. I understand the feelings and rationale of people who belong to this side of the fence. (I’ve heard my own father’s laments about this over many, many years).

I, myself don’t play games. I find it way too stressful. I perpetually feel the need to restart the game after any little failure in the game, (a terrible habit from years of piano practicing and my control freak ugliness). However, after watching and hearing my husband and kids game, I have witnessed the rich narratives great games offer; the characters, developments and plots are honestly just utterly engaging.

It’s been awhile since I first watched this TED Talk by Ali Carr-Chellman about gaming to re-engage boys in learning. I find myself agreeing with her on so many points: they (boys) are playing video games and we need to meet them where they are; we need to put ourselves into boy culture and stop demeaning it.

I also agree with Ali’s call to design better games for learning. Most apps for kids are still basically fancy flashcards. I think there’s a place and time for these. What we’re all waiting for, are more apps for kids, that have depth and rich narrative.

What are your favourite apps to re-engage boys in learning?

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Before kids, I didn’t mind being the subject of a photo or video clip. Now that I’m a mum, I am definitely more comfortable behind a camera, than in front of it. There’s nothing more humbling that seeing photos and video clips of yourself taken by your kids… while you are ungraciously eating, sleeping or breastfeeding in front of the TV. (Goodness me, is that how they see me?! Such an unflattering angle. Just look at my chins!)

I am ever, ever so grateful that the world has not seen any of those photos or video clips. My mind screams in horror at the potential of such sharing – especially via my public social media profiles!

Are there other parents who share my underlying fears of the potential mistakes kids could make when using technology? How do you set rules and limits so that so that they can use technology safely and within reasonable boundaries? I’m still figuring this out. I now have a password lock on my phone – but that’s useless when I unlock it for them so they can use my phone.

Imagine my utter delight (and relief) when I first switched on the Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 Kids and was greeted by the Kids Mode. This very special tablet has been designed, so that on top of the standard mode for adults, there is an intuitive Kids Mode built in and designed for kids aged 3-6. The very clever parental settings help parents stay in control of which apps kids use (and purchase!), and the amount of tablet usage each day.

What I would give for such great parental settings across all types of technology!

Smart Apps for Kids 3-6 Farm 123 from Pauline LessonsLearntJournal on Vimeo.

Safety and reasonable boundaries aside, the Kids Mode on the Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 Kids also comes preloaded with some of the best smart apps for kids that I have seen to date. Yep, preloaded. You don’t have to purchase or download these best selling kids apps. They come, set up ready to go, out of the box. No fussing about with this and that, looking and loading, waiting and telling kids… just a minute … one more minute… okay… look over there while I figure this thing out.. (grr!!).

Here are some of our favourite smart apps for kids aged 3-6 years old, that are FREE on the Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 Kids. All come preloaded, ready to go, out of the box, (except for Learn to Write English which is free from the app store).

A very special mention about this particular app, because it is simply brilliant. Pettson’s Inventions (1 and 2) is all about building inventions to solve a problem and make something happen. It’s utterly engaging – (*cough* and not just for kids).

Smart Apps for Kids 3-6 Inventions from Pauline LessonsLearntJournal on Vimeo.

Now for the icing on the cake, the GALAXY Tab 3 Kids comes with a unique protective and colourful rubber bumper to keep the edges of the tablet protected. That’s one less thing to shop for.

Hand on heart readers, I am a Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 Kids convert. I love it. Right now, there’s a special cash back promotion on offer. If you purchase a Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 kids tablet between 27 February and 30 April, you can get $50 cash back^.

$100 Google Play Voucher Giveaway!

To share the excitement of my new found love, we will be giving away a $100(AUD) Google Play voucher*. For your chance to win, leave a comment on this post sharing:

“How would the GALAXY Tab 3 for Kids fit into your life?”.

^ Terms and Conditions apply. Please visit www.samsung.com/au/promotions for full T&Cs
* This is a game of skill and entries will be judged based on creativity and originality. Open to Australian residents only. Entries open 9:01am AEDT on Monday 14 April 2014 and close 5:00pm AEDT on Friday 25 April, 2014. Terms and Conditions apply. Please click here for full Terms and Conditions.

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We’re fast approaching the first school holidays of the year. About 10 weeks ago, Mr N and M headed off enthusiastically to school, into their Kindergarten class. I also headed back to the world of teaching, and oddly enough – also to a Kindergarten class. So much happens in Kindergarten, but in my mind, reading, and learning to read is a huge part of Kindergarten.

How To Support Your Child’s Reading At Home

Before I delve into some specific activities that you can do at home to complement your child’s reading lessons at school, I want to make it clear that above all, reading with your child at home should be enjoyable. I know first hand how hard it is to juggle everything into the tiny space of time between getting home and children’s bedtimes – and on fading energy levels.

The best thing you can do to support your child’s reading at home is to listen to your child read every day, even for a short time.

I also personally think the 10 ways to encourage reading that I previously shared takes precedence over these possible specific activities you can do with your Kindergarten child at home. Growing a love of reading and of literature is priceless.

Having said all that, I have lately incorporated these short little activities at home with my Twin 5’s as part of our reading time at home. We only do these activities when we have a bit more time and energy up our sleeves.

I think these short reading activities can help consolidate certain reading skills taught in Kindergarten, and hence am glad to be sharing them here with you.

Activity #1: An Unknown Word in the Text

Using the text that the child has just read, choose one unknown word for them to look for, locate and construct.

For example, if the your child didn’t know the word “the”, ask him/her to find “the” on a given page. Have them re-read the sentence, stop at the word “the” and point to it.

We have a tub of magnetic letters at home and some small magnetic whiteboards. Such useful resources and certainly worth investing in. However, if you don’t have these, you can easily make up some small cardboard squares with letters on them and use these instead.

Give your child the letters that make up the unknown word. For e.g. for “the”, give them the letters “t”, “h”, “e”. Don’t give it to them in any particular order or the right way up necessarily. Ask them, using these letters, to make the word “the”. Check that they’ve:

• Placed the letters in the right sequence – e.g. t first, h next, and e last.
• Put the word together in the right direction – from left to right.
• Orientated the letters correctly – e.g. the letters t or h or e aren’t placed upside down.

After they have constructed the unknown word, have them write the word, checking that they’ve:

• Written the letters in the right sequence – e.g. t first, h next, and e last.
• Written the word together in the right direction – from left to right.
• Orientated the letters correctly – e.g. the letters t or h or e aren’t upside down.
• Used the correct letter formations – e.g.  for the letter t, we go down, take our pencils off, then draw a line across from left to right ; we don’t go up, pencils off, then draw a line across right to left.

Activity #2: A Known Word in the Text

Using the text that the child has just read, choose a known word.

For example, with Mr N, our known word was “pig”. I asked him to re-read the sentence and stop at the word “pig”.

I asked him to make the word “pig” using our magnetic letters. We then talked about what we would need to change in “pig” to make the word “big”. We discussed how the beginning sound/letter would need to change. I then asked if he could make the word “big” and place it next to “pig” so it would read “big pig”.

He then wrote the words “big pig” and drew a picture of a big pig. As with the unknown word activity, check that they’ve:

• Written the letters in the right sequence.
• Written the word together in the right direction.
• Orientated the letters correctly.
• Used the correct letter formations.

With this unknown word activity, you’re not necessarily going to get words that go well next to each other like “big pig”. Your two words may be “can” and “fan”. In which case, you would just have one word on the board at any given time. E.g. change the word “can” to “fan”. You can then ask them to draw a fan.

Activity #3: New Letter Combinations

As Mr N could do the above quite confidently, I then challenged him to make the word “small”, so it would be “small pig” instead of “big pig”. He proceeded to make the word “small”, spelling it “smol”, which makes perfect sense phonetically. I praised his attempt, then introduced the new letter combination “all” to him. We talked about some words with the letter combination “all”, like “fall”, “call”, “tall”, “ball” and “small”.

He made the word “small”, using the “all” letter combination, then wrote the words, “small pig”, and finish it off with a picture of a small pig.

Encouraging Children to be Independent and Autonomous Learners

The pace at which children learn is incredible. Even during those times when it seems like they aren’t quite grasping new concepts at a pace you’d expect or like them to, be confident that they will learn how to read – (perhaps to a different time frame to your expectations though).

While the above reading word activities for kindergarten can be helpful, to encourage children to be independent and autonomous learners, ensure that they have plenty of opportunities to read books that they are familiar with. Books that they can read easily, accurately and fluently without support. Give them access to a rich and varied range of reading material. Let them choose. Let them read. Give them time to read regularly during the week.

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The post Reading: 3 Kindergarten Word Activities by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.