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 post Letter A: Laughing Apples and Handwriting Printable by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

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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The post Smart Apps for Kids: 3-6 years old by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

“Your sons have a really nice pencil grip”. I can’t help but beam ear to ear at such comments about their prewriting skills because these boys, my 5 year old twins, are as rough and tumble as they come. If I could bottle up their energy levels and sell it, I would be a rich, rich lady.

So, for these boys’ to come to a point where they can sit long enough and build up their prewriting skills so they can hold that pencil in that beautiful tripod grasp, is no mean feat.

We don’t fill our day with loads of prewriting worksheets; simply because they aren’t engaged for very long with such prewriting activities. Instead, they have built up their prewriting skills mainly through play. Hours of building up their fine motor skills through:

• Creative Play
• Art Activities
• Messy Play
• Outdoor Play
• Play Dough

Here is fun way to build up prewriting skills using a very simple art activity: painting with a cotton swab.

You will need:

• A large A3 sized piece of paper. If possible, use a thick heavy weight paper.
• Cotton swabs
• Food colouring in a small bowl or tub.

For our prewriting activity, we started by drawing wavy lines. I left it up to their discretion which direction the wavy lines would go along the page. N decided to draw his wavy lines vertically down the page, whereas M drew his wavy lines horizontally across the page from left to right.

After the wavy lines have been drawn, we then practised drawing circles and then filling those circles in.

Using food colouring instead of paint was great because there was no drying time required. Although hands were stained during the activity, it washed off within a day or so.

Here are some prewriting strokes children can practice:

• Straight lines, slanted to the right and slanted to the left
• Curved lines, in an anti-clockwise direction and clockwise direction
• Circles, in an anti-clockwise direction and clockwise direction.

More Activities for Preschoolers

Three to Five: Playful Preschool is stuffed to the brim with tried, tested and loved playful learning ideas for preschoolers. There are 25+ ideas for preschoolers, ten printable resources and additional links to over 50 more activities. A great resource for parents. Download your copy here.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment; I’d love to hear from you. If you are new here, you might like to receive updates direct to your email. We have many fun ideas to share.

The post Prewriting Activity: Cotton Swab Painting by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

How to Teach Reading and Writing Letters: Four Guidelines

 
There are many possible ways to introduce reading and writing letters to young children. Here are four guidelines I have found helpful when deciding the order in which to teach letters to young children.

 
{ONE} Start with the most common sound for a new letter. This is usually the sound the letter makes in a short word, e.g. fat, bet, sit, etc

 
{TWO} Separate visually or auditorily similar letters. Separating similar letters reduces the possibility of confusion. These sounds are similar: f and v; t and d; b and d; b and p; k and g; m and n; i and e; o and u. These letters are visually similar: b and d; b and p, q and p, n and m; h and n; v and w; n and r.

 
{THREE} Introduce more useful letters first. Learning more useful letters helps children decode more words. Vowels are the most useful letters. More useful consonants are b, c, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, and t.

 
(FOUR} Introduce lower-case letters first. Since a majority of words when writing and also in reading are lower-case letters, lower-case letters should be taught before uppercase letters.

A recommended sequence for introducing reading and writing letters to young children

 
Here is one possible order I’ve used to teach letters to young children.

Don’t miss our Reading Game: Mr Tongue’s House; a fun reading game for developing phonemic awareness. These skills lay the groundwork for later reading skills, e.g. sounding out words and blending.

The post How to Teach Reading & Writing: Letters by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.