Stained Glass Number Line!

Back to school!

Crazy town, right? I cannot believe that we're into August already. Where did the summer go? Where is 2013 going? And didn't we just do fall?

Apparently, we're about to do it again.

This year, I'm sending my oldest off to "school". And by school, I mean preschool at one of our local churches. She is so super excited about it.

Last year I did some homeschool stuff with her. Not much, really, and we were pretty relaxed about it, but I truly believe that she is way ready for pre-k this year because of that head start. And I'd like to do the same thing for Daniel.

Since I plan working with Daniel, I wanted to get our room ready. The room that we use for school is really just our play room, but the activities are a little more organized (when the room isn't a wreck) and I've got shelves and cabinets which house my curriculum books (both current books and books that I've saved from my years as a teacher), art and craft supplies, and other odds and ends that we use during the year.

One of the things that the room was sorely missing last year that I wanted to remedy this year was a basic number line, something that Daniel will be able to look up and reference when we're working on number recognition.

There are plenty of these available for purchase. But I have beef with most of them. They're not always cheap, for one. And secondly, most of them are too cutesy for my taste. I wanted something functional and easy on the eyes. Oh, and free. Free works.

The other major problem I have is that our room was built as a sunroom, which means that there are a lot of windows. I love windows, don't get me wrong. But it does make things difficult when I have so much to hang. Wall space is at a premium. Basically, I wanted something that I could hang in the window.

So I made it myself! (surprised?) It was easy, it was quick, and it gave me some ammunition for our next Friday's Art Smarts, which, let's all hope, will be more successful than last week. ;)

Here we go.

Materials:

1. old crayons

2. manual pencil sharpener

3. ice cube tray (or other tray with several compartments)

4. wax paper

5. parchment paper

6. iron

7. cardstock or old file folder

8. pencil

9. scissors

10. hole punch

11. thread or string (I used waxed string)

This is a great way to use up all your old, ratty crayons. I don't know about your house, but we have a ridiculously huge crayon collection. I don't know where they've all come from, but they came, and we have them, and now we have to figure out how to use them.

Pick out a few in the colors you'd like to use and sharpen them with the sharpener. Make sure you catch all the shavings in the ice cube tray to keep the colors separate.

For this project, one crayon filled two cubes with shavings, which means I only used seven crayons.

Not gonna lie. It's tedious sharpening all those crayons to bits. And it makes your fingers hurt. But it's worth it in the end.

On your ironing board, lay down a large piece of parchment paper. On top of that, lay out a large piece of wax paper.

On top of the wax paper, scatter your shavings in a way that pleases you.

Cover your shavings with a second piece of wax paper. On the very top, lay out a final piece of parchment paper.

The wax paper is what you're fusing together. The parchment paper keeps the wax paper from sticking to the both the ironing board and your iron as it melts. Read: it's very important.

Set your iron on a low setting; mine was set on "silk." Make sure you've turned off the steam.

Start ironing over the parchment paper, moving fairly fast. Don't let the iron sit in any one spot for more than a couple seconds. You'll find that the crayon shavings melt right away and begin to merge.

The whole process should take no longer than a minute.

Let the wax dry. I left mine alone for about 20 minutes.

While your wax is drying, draw out your number stencils on an old file folder or piece of cardstock. I made my numbers five inches tall and free-handed them, with the aid of a ruler.

Cut them out and trace them onto the wax paper. I used a pencil to trace them out.

Finally, cut those numbers out and - ta da! You've got some beautiful numbers ready to string.

I punched two holes in the top of each number and threaded my waxed string through. Then I hung them!

I love how colorful they are and I love, love how they look with the sun shining through them.

This is one of those standard crafts from my childhood that I'm so glad I resurrected. I can't wait to do a similar activity with my kids later this week. I think (I hope!) they'll have some fun with it!

I know a lot of you are getting your own homes ready for school this year (or classrooms!), and I'd love to hear it if you've used or modified this idea in any way. And send me a link if you blog about it!!

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Super Quick Impromptu Counting Game

When I was a teacher (I've taught a range of elementary grades, but today I'm referring to preschoolers), parents would start the year off by telling me that their kid already knows his/her numbers and how to count. At the beginning of my first year in preschool, I remember being both surprised and impressed with how advanced my class seemed to be.  All the kids knew their numbers and how to count.

Except they didn't. 

Well, they could possibly count up to 10, and maybe 15 or 20.  But what I quickly learned is that many of those kids had no idea what the numbers actually looked like.  And if you gave them a set of number cards, say, they wouldn't have any idea which order to put them in.  Not only that, but they weren't able to accurately count out a group of objects.  In fact, they seemed mostly clueless when it came to counting and numbers.  

What their parents were referring to when they said their kid could count was rote memorization.  Which is definitely a start, but we all hope that that's not where our counting skills end.

My son, right now, is able to count up to about 6 or so. Which is huge, believe me. But he only recognizes a couple numbers (number 2, number 3...maybe number 5). He can sometimes accurately count out a small group of objects, but often gets lost along the way.  I would not say that he knows his numbers. I would say that we're working on it. So we count everything.

Like these:

We bought these nifty little stuffed bowling pins for Silas's birthday last week.  Turns out they're coming in handy with Daniel, too.

This was an impromptu game. It started when Daniel began playing with the pins. I glanced over and casually asked him if he could find number 3 for me (something I was fairly sure he could do). He did and the rest is history. I've learned with Daniel that you strike while the fire is hot. If he's interested, go for it. 

I gathered up all the pins (6 total) and scattered them randomly in front of him. Then I asked him to find the pin that has a number 1 on it. He chose a few wrong pins first, and when he did, I'd say, "No...not that one," and turn the pin over so he wouldn't choose it again.

Sorry these pics are upside down. I was trying to get pictures quickly and discreetly. That meant taking them from where I was sitting ;)

We put all the pins in order that way.

When we were done, we counted them together. And then I asked Daniel to point to the numbers that I called out, in random order. This was much easier for him once they were all in order.  

We played the game a couple more times, and then...

He started throwing the pins. 

Like I said, strike while the fire is hot. ;)

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Math With Mosaics: Counting and Number Recognition

So, I have a bazillion little squares to use.  I ended up going crazy, apparently, last week when I was preparing for a mosaic pattern activity.  Note: one sheet of construction paper makes a lot of little squares.  A lot.

Rather than dump the extras in the trash, I've been racking my brain to come up with some other activities using the same squares.  Kind of like buying mushrooms at the store.  You only need about a third to make pizza...so what can you use the rest of them for?  Because if you don't come up with something quick you end up with slimy shrooms.  

But I digress.  

I did think of some pretty simple little ways to use our dozens and dozens of squares.  Today we practiced counting and number recognition with them.  

Materials:

1. graph paper (free download)
2. construction paper squares
3. glue
4. crayons (optional)
5. abacus or other counting manipulatives

Process:

This activity works really well if you are working on a number a week.  Alternatively, you could use the same activity to practice letter recognition.  Ahead of time, use a black marker to make an outline on the graph paper of the number you're currently studying, as I did in the picture above.  I drew their age - a number 3 for Daniel and a 4 for Natalie.   

Let each child choose a color (I made them pick just one color so that the number would show up well in the end) and begin gluing squares down:

Note: this activity is really more suited to the child who is just beginning to work on number recognition.  In our house, this was perfect for Daniel.  He was able to make his 3 without help (but with a little guidance to keep going), and then we spent some time working on counting.

Natalie made a number because it was fun for her to make something.  She's a girl after my own heart.

If you have a baby, you'd better be prepared with all kinds of distractions!  Babies love to eat little paper squares, by the way.

After they finished making their number, we used the abacus to count up to their number.  They then counted out the correct number of squares and glued them onto their paper.

As I mentioned above, I then spent some time working with Daniel on counting up to 10 using the abacus.  We counted out 4 rows of 10, and as soon as he started to lose interest, I let it drop.  He'd already been hard at work for at least 10 minutes before that...not bad for a 3 year old.

The finished pictures:

Of course Natalie wanted to fill the rest of her paper in with color!  I was thinking it would be cool to make one of these for every number up to 10 and hang them in the room, and Natalie liked that idea.  It may happen.  We still have loads of squares ;)


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