literacy lava 5 is here!

WOW! Five issues of Literacy Lava, and every one is worth taking the time to print, read, and share!

I am incredibly honored to be among the fantastic, creative, and totally awesome contributors of this issue.

The fifth issue of Literacy Lava, a free pdf for parents or anyone who wants kids to love reading, writing and communicating, is now available from Susan Stephenson's website.

Clicking on this link will take you to the exact page where you just have to click the cover of Literacy Lava 5 to download it as a pdf.

In this fifth edition of Literacy Lava, you’ll find:

• ideas for helping kids develop spelling skills;
• ways to pair fiction and non-fiction read-alouds;
• ideas for letter writing with your kids;
• information on whether graphic novels are real reading;
• the skinny on how to unwrap a picture book;
• tips for a loving bed-time story ritual;
• ideas on how to help your video-loving kid to love reading too;
• tons of ways to encourage kids to write poetry.
  

Don’t forget to check out the Online Extras page or the Activity page for kids. Enjoy and happy reading!

sky writing

Sometimes, you need nothing but your fingers and the sky to practice writing.

Today, during a way-too-hot lunch out on the porch, Owen, Cora, and I chatted about Brady's first trip to the groomer that morning, about how excited we were about the pool opening this weekend, and about the letters we knew that were 'kind of' the same.

A pretty cool way of passing a lunchtime if you ask me. . .

• Sky Writing: Sky Writing is just that--writing in the sky.
  

The great thing about Sky Writing is that you don't have to search for markers that work or a blank piece of paper; the not-so-great thing is that even with the most beautifully composed letters, you've got nothing to show for it when you're done.

Today, out of the blue, Owen said, Mommy, do you know that B and R and P are all kind of the same?

Really? What do you mean?

I can make a 'P' like this (and he wrote a 'P' in the sky). And then for an 'R', I add this (he added the tail of the 'R' in the sky). And for a 'B' I just bring it back to the line like this (he made his 'R' a 'B'--also in the sky).

You're so right. Way to use your brain, Owen. What other letters are kind of the same? Hmmmmm. . . I can think of an 'L' (I made an 'L' in the sky), and an 'E', if I add two more lines like this (I added the lines in the sky).

Cora said, I can make a 'C'. But I can't do it in the sky. I need paper.

Owen said, A 'C' is like this. (He made a 'C' in the sky.) And it's an 'O'. (He connected the side.)

Or a 'Q', I added. (And I added the tail.)

Cora wouldn't try a Sky Writing 'C', and that's fine. We water painted yesterday afternoon, so she said she only wanted to make her letters with water and a paintbrush. And sometimes it's just not worth arguing with a 3 year-old, right?

Overall, it was just a teeny bit of easy learning on a super-hot Thursday.

In the next few days, I think I'll have Owen and Cora pull two letter cards from a pile or two letter lids from a big bucket and ask, Can you write a 'B' or an 'L' (or whatever letters they pull) in the sky--or before it disappears from our porch? It may be more of a fun way of getting them playing with letters. . .

Here are some Alphabet Letter Flash Cards as a pdf for a quick download if you'd like to try this with your little ones. Happy writing!

take time to rhyme--4 fun ways to play with rhymes

Repost from an article I wrote for ABC & 123, on 5/03/10:


Whether you're taking your kids to preschool, enjoying a walk, or just lazying around in the back yard, any time is a good time to play with rhyming words. Rhyming in any shape or form is super important because it helps our little ones develop phonological awareness, or the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate sound units in words.

Believe it or not, phonological awareness plays a huge role in early literacy development. If kids are not able to hear individual sounds in words, then they will not be able to read words on the page, write words, or understand what they read. So let's start rhyming!

Here are four easy and exciting ways of sneaking in some "rhyme time" into your every day:

• Rhyme Challenge: An easy game that requires no set-up, clean-up, or materials whatsoever, you can play Rhyme Challenge just about anywhere. We often play it in the car or while we're waiting to pick up my oldest from kindergarten.
  

One person chooses a word and says, I challenge you to think of as many rhymes as you can for 'cat' (or any word). And the next player says as many words as he can that rhyme with that word. Both players keep count. I try to model saying the given word with the rhyming word so my little ones stay on track with rhymes (Cat, bat. Cat, hat. Cat, mat. . . ), but this isn't necessary for older kids.

We also play where one person chooses a word, and we take turns saying just one rhyming word, one right after the other. Sometimes we kick it up with 'speed rounds' where we yell out rhyming words as fast as we can, and other times, we just take it slow. Depends on the day.

• Rhyme Sorts: Rhyme Sorts are simply pictures of rhyming words on cards that kiddos place into proper categories.

Rhyme Sorts always begin with an 'anchor word' that identifies the rhyme of each category, and then together, we name each picture and determine into which column it belongs.

It's best to begin Rhyme Sorts with only two different rhymes, after which you can introduce three- or five- rhyme sorts. The great thing about Rhyme Sorts is that little ones can see a picture, connect it with a sound, and can very clearly compare one sound to another.

Making solid comparisons like this--and isolating individual sounds this way--is a great way of developing phonological awareness for little ears.

• Rhyme Bingo: Rhyme Bingo is the next step after Rhyme Sorting, and if your kids are anything like mine, any bingo game is a huge hit. Add a little rhyme, and everyone's happy!
  

Rhyme Bingo puts nine pictures on each board, with cards containing a picture of a word that may--or may not--rhyme with the pictures on a player's board.

After each player takes a minute to say all of the pictures on her card, the game's on and all ears are listening for rhyming words on the cards as they are flipped. As a card is turned, we say, Okay, 'sail'. Sail, tree. Sail, can. . . ,and we go through each person's board to see if she has a picture that rhymes with 'sail'.

As players get comfortable with the game, more can be done individually, but initially the practice is helpful for everyone. Rhyme Bingo is an extremely simple concept that continues to emphasize simple sounds in words.

• Rhyme Go Fish!: Rhyme Go Fish! is just like the old Go Fish! game we all love, except that this version uses rhyme words on cards.

This game is great for emerging readers who already have a handful of sight words and early word families down.

To play Rhyme Go Fish!, all of the cards are placed in the 'pond' and each player takes five cards. After checking to see if they have any rhyming pairs, the game begins.

Player one asks the player to his left, Do you have a word that rhymes with 'men'? Player two reads her words and determines whether she has a match or not; if she does, she hands it to the first player. If not, she says, Nope! Go Fish! Play continues until the first player has no cards in his hand.

Rhyme Go Fish! has been a hit with my oldest and many of my students. It's a fun--and exciting--way of reinforcing rhyming and early reading skills!

Rhyming is important for all of our learners, whether they are reading or not. It's easy, it's muy importante, so rhyme away!

Thanks to Bear's Words Their Way (2004) for inspiration on Rhyme Sorting and Rhyme Bingo.

reading, learning, and dogs, dogs, dogs

Ever since Brady boy entered our lives, things have been hectic, nuttier than ever, and dog-crazy.

While Maddy, Owen, and Cora have always been interested in animals, Brady takes the cake as far as pets are concerned. So at this point, my kids are willing and eager to read, play, talk, learn--do anything--related to d-o-g-s.

I'm trying to jump on it. We've been reading articles and books about Bo Obama and every other dog you can imagine, and we've been playing Dog Bingo like whuuut. (I'll share our Dog Bingo love shortly. . . ).

Here are just a few ways we've done both non-fiction and fiction reading on a hot topic in our house:

• Newspaper Reading, Kids Post: We read The White House is his doghouse (5/19/10) in the Kids Post of The Washington Post last Wednesday, and since then, the kids have asked to see the slide show of Bo a gazillion times. Because we are so close to the White House and we have just picked up a pooch ourselves, Bo has been particularly interesting to my little familia.
  

Although the article didn't tell us much new information, the slide show on The Post's site is really pretty cool for little ones who are interested in the First Dog, an interesting and special part of the First Family. It really is pretty neat to see little fuzzy Bo's First Dog leash, watch him playing in the snow and wrestling with Sasha and Malia, or just hangin' with the Secret Service guys. Bo is seriously just having a grand old time in the most recognized house in the US of A.

• First Dog, by J. Patrick Lewis and Beth Zappitello, illustrated by Tim Bowers: We picked this up First Dog at Owen's book fair this spring, and we love it. It's been read and re-read dozens of times already; the story is cute, and the illustrations are even more adorable.
  

The story follows the sweet, curly-furred unnamed dog on the cover as he travels around the world looking for a home--the perfect home. He meets all kinds of dogs in places from Newfoundland to England, from Russia to China, but he keeps coming up short. Finally, he makes his way back to Washington, DC where he reads a headline in the newspaper: "First Family Looks For Dog". You can only imagine where Dog marches immediately--right on through the iron gates to the door of the White House.

J. Patrick Lewis (whose website rocks!) and Beth Zappitello do a really a fantastic job of sneaking in a bunch of dog facts within the story, which my kids loved. Most of the story is written from Dog's point of view, and his feelings and ideas are ones that little ones can really connect with--Dog says that he doesn't want to spend all day at the hairdresser's like the standard poodle or live next to a lion's den like the Rhodesian Ridgeback. Who would?

I also loved that part of the story is told through Tim Bowers' awesome illustrations, with several pages completely wordless. I love when authors do this because it gives little readers a break from reading, and it allows them to use what they know--along with what they've already read--to make some inferences of their own. When the illustrations are simple and are done well, readers get a chance to tell a piece of the story along with the author. So cool.

And that's just a glimpse of how we've thrown in some learning in over the past few days. Really, capitalizing on kids' current interests is key when getting them on the reading--and learning--train. Happy sneaky learning!

just a little back yard rainbow hunt

Just a big pile of leaves, flower petals, and weeds? Nope.

Rainbow hunt? Yes!

Yep--right in our back yard, where we've already hunted for letters, numbers, fragrances, and colors. And a ton of other things I just always forget to blog about.

One sunny afternoon late last week, I had two over-tired kindergartners, a 4 year-old, and a 3 year-old walking aimlessly around our backyard, bothering poor Brady and wondering what they could do since they just finished a marathon game of superheroes and fairies.

Knowing that my kids always jump at the chance to pick flowers--and what kid doesn't?--I said, How about you go on a rainbow hunt?

And so began a quickie backyard rainbow hunt.

• Backyard Rainbow Hunt: Really, this earned big smiles from Maddy, Owen, Cora, and their sweet little buddy next door. I gave them the rules: one petal of each flower to show the color, look for as many rainbow colors as they could find, and bring them all back to me in a few minutes.
  

I ended up walking along with them to reach high leaves and petals and to open the gate for the front yard. It was a riot--they were looking at our yard with careful eyes, noticing every single color on every single bush and plant. And minutes before, they were all running crazy back and forth between the playset and the big 'bush hideout' in the corner of the yard. It was crazy.

organizing the backyard rainbow

We all chanted the colors of the rainbow as we walked around the yard. In fact, we had just watched an episode of Sesame Street the day before where they were talking about ROYGBIV, so we tried to stick with Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, even though most little guys can't distinguish 'blue' and 'indigo'. I'm not sure I can myself, to be honest.

I flipped over one of Maddy's school papers as our 'rainbow board', and after we collected colors from the entire yard, everyone dumped them on the board.

Mostly Maddy and her buddy arranged the colors, but Owen and Cora chimed in and helped. And they ran for missing colors, like blue, which quickly appeared in the form of a badminton racket handle.

Overall, in the quick fifteen minutes it took to search for colors and organize them, they all created a pretty darn beautiful rainbow--just from things in our backyard.

All that great stuff I always say about sorting, grouping, and organizing came into play in a really easy activity. Sure, all of the kiddos playing are pretty comfortable in their knowledge of colors (okay, minus indigo), but this backyard rainbow hunt forced them to look at their own regular, everyday play area with a different set of eyes--scientist eyes, artist eyes, detective eyes.

They really seemed to enjoy it.

And with a little bit of learning disguised as a game--and with no prep and very little clean-up--I surely enjoyed it, too.

scholastic 2010 parent blogger awards--please vote!

Yaaaaah-hooooo!

Imagine my complete and total excitement this week when I learned that I was chosen by the editors of Scholastic's Parent & Child magazine to be one of the finalists for the 2010 Parent & Child magazine Parent Blogger Awards.

There are three finalists in six different categories: Work/Life Balance; Books & Reading; Green; Humor; Crafts & Cooking; Special Needs.

Teach mama was chosen to be a finalist in the Books & Reading category!

So if you have a minute between now and June 4 to head over to Scholastic's Parent & Child site and give lil ole me a big fat vote, I'd be eternally grateful.

You can vote for one person in each category--so go ahead! I'm flattered to be among some really talented and creative parent bloggers! (Just please be sure to vote for me in the Books & Reading category, por favor!)

Here's the exciting part: the six finalists will be featured in the August/ September 2010 issue of Parent & Child (fingers crossed, knock wood), and the winner will be a guest blogger for Scholastic. So, so, so awesome.

So head on over to the Scholastic Parent Blogger Awards and vote, my friends! And please get your friends, family, and neighbors to vote for teach mama, too! Thanks for sharing the teach mama love!

new for us friday: cue sticks (and giveaway!)

Nope, I'm sorry, all you pool playin' teach mama readers--I'm not talking about those cue sticks.

This week, we had a chance to try out a different kind of Cue Sticks--an awesome, new little gem, thanks to a pal here in the DC Metro area who invented them. I'm talking about Cue Sticks Motivational Stickers and Temporary Tattoos.

I am a huge fan of happy, little reminder notes, and apparently so was Nancy Shapiro, the owner and creator of Cue Sticks. Except that Nancy's super-motivated and took her idea to the next level, creating temporary tattoos and stickers with smart, thoughtful, and above all, helpful, reminders.

I couldn't be happier that we had the chance to try them out (and I have two sets to give to you!) for this week's New For Us Friday. Here's why:

• Cue Sticks: A "fun, unique brand that creates motivational products used to inspire people when they need it most," Cue Sticks tattoos and stickers are something that I believe could be the next Silly Bracelets for moms. (Or, at least I'm hoping so, for Nancy's sake.)
  

Owen's Cue Sticks Tattoo

The morning I opened our envelope from Cue Sticks, I spread them out on the counter, and I tried to find ones that worked for each Maddy, Owen, and Cora. Then I said, Who wants a tattoo? Heeeey, Maddy, Owen, and Cora, who wants a tattoo on their hand? And three kiddos came running to the kitchen.

I said, Lucky us! We have something new to try out this week--tattoos!! But these aren't like the tattoos that we usually wear. These are like little note tattoos--each one has a message especially for you.

The messages in my set were seriously perfect for where our kids happened to be at the time.

To Cora, I said, Cora, This tattoo is for you. It's a little penguin with a message that says, 'You'll Be OK.' So when you feel scared of the shadows in your room at nighttime, you just look at your hand and read the message and you'll be okay.

Her eyes brightened, and she said, It's for me? Okay, I'll be okay. It's good.

I gave Owen the tattoo that said 'Never Give Up' with the football player on it. He loved it. He had tee-ball that afternoon, and the practice followed a recent game where he needed to use the tee more often than he wanted. (They like to have the ball pitched, and they use the tee after five missed pitches.) He gave me a good, Yeaaaaah, never give up! and ran around for a little, looking at his hand and saying in his toughest little-guy-trying-to-be-a-big-guy voice, Never give up!

Maddy's tattoo said, 'I can do this, I know I can,' and this day followed the one and only day all year that she gave me a tough time about going to school; she said she was tired, that she wanted to play at home, and that she wanted 'to sleep on' instead of getting up. Strange, out of the blue, and overall a really tough morning for us. Maddy loved her butterfly tattoo and must have said, I know I can do this! half dozen times before we left for school.

I'm guessing the stars were aligned and that we did something right at some point in time to have three little ones' Cue Sticks tattoos jive perfectly with their little lives. I'm also pretty sure that these sayings are open-ended enough that they'll 'fit' just about any situation you need. (Smart thinkin', Nancy!)

my very helpful tattoo, on my very old-looking hand,
next to a stuffed cheetah--not Maddy's pants

I put on the I'll do what it takes tattoo, and believe it or not, I did look down a few times that night when I was out at Starbucks on a writing-rampage for some freelancing work I was trying to finish. When my mind strayed, and I wanted to start Facebooking, Tweeting, or checking email, I looked at my (oh my gosh, ridiculously old-looking) hand to get me back on track.

Cora's tattoo got crumbly after about three days, and luckily we had another just like it to put on, because she requested it. She wanted another, and (please no eye-rolling!) by the end of the week, she was not waking us up at midnight to say she didn't like the shadows in her room. Seriously.

I love these Cue Sticks. I really, really do. I like them so much I wish I would have invented them or that I could at least say I thought of the idea at some point in time. Because it makes sense--little reminder notes help, little kids (okay, and most adults) like tattoos, so why not throw them together?

Cue Sticks come in a bunch of other sayings: move more; I ROCK; I'm a Sweet Big Sis; Don't Pig Out; kiddie food not for adults; O-Yeah!; and more. There are also a handful of other products to help keep you focused--stickers to put on snack food and water bottles with motivational sayings.

For this great little Cue Sticks Giveaway, we've got two packs to give away to two different teach mama readers:

1. Cue Sticks Kid-Pack: 5 packs of temporary tattoos, a Reusable Water Bottle, and a jump rope
2. Cue Sticks Mom-Pack: 3 packs of temporary tattoos, 3 packs of stickers, a Reusable Water Bottle, and a 'Beware! Bigger snacks mean bigger slacks' fridge magnet

To win, leave me a comment saying which pack you'd like more and why you think you need it. That's it. Contest closes next Friday, 5/28/10, at midnight.

Take a second to check out the Cue Sticks website to see the other products they've got. And many, many thanks to Nancy for sending a few packs of Cue Sticks across town for us to try, giving us two packs to share, and and for allowing me the opportunity to spread the word!

So that's this week's New For Us Friday--just one way I try to throw in a little something new-for-us each week. . . or as close to weekly as I can!

fyi: My opinion was in no way influenced by our friends at Cue Sticks; it was, however, influenced by three tiny tattoo-wearers and my own tattoo-wearing experience. I received no monetary compensation for this post, but our tattoos and stickers were kindly given to us by the company.

questioning and critical thinking: guess who?

I totally forgot about one of my all-time favorite games until this past weekend at our neighborhood yard sale when we scored big with re-sale games-- Guess Who?

I remember loving the faces, the cards, the simple strategy that the game required way back when I was little. My sisters and I must have played our Guess Who? game 100's and 100's of times. So I was psyched to find a new edition for Maddy, Owen, and Cora, on sale for a whopping $1.50!

Our new and totally fancy Guess Who? is the Disney Edition, which I think will make the game even more exciting for my kiddos, especially because they're on the younger end of the age-level for the game. Playing it for the last few days with the kids gave us a super opportunity to practice questioning and critical thinking.

• Questioning and Critical Thinking with Guess Who?: The object of Guess Who? is to guess your opponent's 'mystery card' before your opponent guesses yours. Simple, but not that easy for little ones because the only questions players can ask are yes/ no questions, and players take turns asking questions.
  

Maddy's 'mystery card' -- Cinderella!

It was a challenge, and for the first few times, we played 'teams'--Owen and me vs Cora and Maddy. Then when Cora was ready to move on to Lincoln Logs, Maddy and Owen played, and I just 'coached' each of them.

I found that if I modeled the first few questions, they followed my lead, and that was fine. We usually started with:

• Is your person a boy? (or girl)
  
• Does your person have something on his (or her) head?
• Does your person have dark hair?

From the initial question, we really had to talk through the answers and next steps. Owen or Maddy would say, Okay, I asked if the person was a girl, the answer was 'no', so that means I put down all of the boys, right?

It's not an easy game for a 6 year-old and 4 year-old to play solo; I realize that now more than ever, but it really is great for getting brains moving. What a great challenge to generate questions and then produce the language it takes to ask a question that yields a "yes" or "no" answer!

Maddy vs. Owen, with Cora as a Lincoln Log-playing spectator.

By the time Maddy and Owen were down to only a few cards left standing, I'd ask them questions to prompt their next question: What is the difference between the three people here? What do these guys have in common? What can you see that this guy has but that these three don't have?

It helped a bit, but more than anything, but I found that the hardest part was to let go a little (Gah! Isn't that always the case?!). Several times, Maddy or Owen just started flipping the wrong people after they got an answer which meant that they would never find the 'mystery card'. I held my tongue and watched them go down, but (I think!) it made them listen more closely and think more carefully for the next few times.

We'd go back and try to figure out where they made their mistake, but they weren't always that interested. They were ready to pick their next 'mystery card' and move forward. . .

So that's it--a little bit o' love for an old game, new to our family.

Need some Yard Sale Look-For's so that you're catching all of the best toys for your kids? Check out: What You Need From Local Yard Sales.

With the next few sunny days ahead, I anticipate busy afternoons outside filled with scooting and bike riding. And after this rainy streak, I know we're all looking forward to it!

rainy day, rainy games

Today, on this rainy, cool, gray Monday, we rocked it with an oldie but goodie: Sunny-Rainy Grid Games. Or Rainy-Sunny Grid Games, depending on how you're feeling or the weather outside.

We've played this game before, but not for a while, and last time we did, Maddy, Owen, and I played; today, Owen, Cora, and I played.

We were feeling tired and lazy after lunch and before rest time, so we plopped onto Owen's floor, pulled out our Rainy Boards, and got counting.

• Rainy-Sunny Grid Games: We've played grid games many times before, so Owen knows the ropes.
  

Cora, on the other hand, is the queen of independent play. She could easily trump Maddy and Owen in time spent alone, playing with dolls, cars, or stuffed animals, so it takes more of an effort for me to 'reel her in' and get her interested in the games and activities that Maddy and Owen would drop almost anything to play.

I grabbed our Rainy-Sunny Grid Games, which can be downloaded as a pdf here. It's now one document with four boards: Easy Rainy, Tough Rainy, Easy Sunny, and Tough Sunny.

I also chose to use the shiny 'jewels' that Cora loves to play with, hoping that they might entice her to join in our game. You can use any markers you'd like--Foamies, Cheerios, stickers, M & M's, or you could have your little one practice making X's or O's.

multi-tasking Cora . . .

I said, Cora and Owen, it's a super day for Rainy Grid Games because it's just so rainy outside. Let's take a minute to do some counting and see who can fill their board first! We can use these beautiful glass beads to keep count for us.

With all grid games, the goal is to be the first person to have all of the pictures on the board covered with markers. Players do this by rolling dice, counting the number of dots on the side, and then covering that number of objects on their board. Objects have to be covered from left to right, top to bottom, just like the left-right return sweep in reading.

Cora played with the Easy Rainy board, and Owen and I used a Tough Rainy board. Cora dumped and re-played her board three times before Owen beat me by one, covering his board first. She was only somewhat into it; it took a lot of cheerleading on my part to be more interesting than her Lego guys.

Hmmmmm. Just when I thought I had things down, my number three throws me for a curve in every which way. I'll be reaching for all new things to get this little one rolling with us this summer, I can see it now. . .

I'm trying really hard to look back into our game boxes for some activities that will benefit--and interest--Cora, since she is ready to start taking some bigger steps into school readiness. I anticipate having to re-vamp what I have and searching for and creating different ways of getting her moving. What better reason to keep reading and researching on my part!? Give me a hand, my smart friends!


And just a re-posted fyi on why we love grid games:

Grid games as I've said before, are a super tool for teaching one-to-one correspondence which emergent readers need to understand that every single number and letter is important and that a group of letters is makes one word. Grid games also work on emphasizing the movement of left to right on a page and the return sweep--reading one whole line from start to finish before moving to the line below.

Math-wise, grid games work on counting--whether it's dots on a die or a number on a card--and then translating that number to a specific amount on a page, or the number of objects that are covered by a game piece.

(And that's why I'll keep trying grid games now and again with my tiniest one!)

new for us friday: rhubarb pie

In my opinion, it's an old-lady veggie anymore. It's time rhubarb gets a little more time in the spotlight and a little more love from everyone. Bring on the rhubarb!

This New For Us Friday, my cousins' grandmother, Ruby, is smiling down on us from heaven. I remember her pies--she made awesome, incredible, sinful pies--and rhubarb was one of them.

Honestly, before this week, I couldn't have picked rhubarb out of a five-veggie lineup. I really couldn't. But we have our brand-spankin' new membership to our local CSA to thank for introducing us to something little new this week: rhubarb.

And for this sweet-tooth family, making rhubarb pie was the only thing I could think of to do with this crazy, new-for-us vegetable.

• Fresh Rhubarb Pie: At first, Cora would only call it 'roob', and Maddy insisted on calling it, 'rubar'. It took a lot of practice for my kiddos to call this veggie by its name, but after our afternoon with rhubarb this week, I'm convinced they'll never forget it.

We used a very easy and basic recipe called Fresh Rhubarb Pie. Fresh Rhubarb Pie Recipe is here to download as a pdf if you'd like, all kid-friendly and happy.

We did a bit of research to figure out what to do with this strange veggie, and the best advice I read was to treat it like celery. After showing our rhubarb to Maddy, Owen, and Cora and talking about our pie-making plans, I washed it, cut off the leaves and the other end, and then I chopped it.

our beautifully chopped rhubarb

We each tasted a tiny piece of the rhubarb, and everyone except Cora spit them out almost immediately. Rhubarb is sour. It's tangy, and it is strong. It's such a strange, unappealing crunchy and bitter. I hoped it'd be better in a pie.

The recipe couldn't have been easier to follow; with only a handful of ingredients and a few steps, it was my kind of pie. Our CSA share only yielded three of the four necessary cups of chopped rhubarb, so we added a cup of chopped strawberries.

We mixed sugar and flour, sprinkled some on the bottom of the pie crust, and threw on the rhubarb and strawberry mix.

Then we added the remaining dry ingredients on top.

We added tiny pats of butter on top, then we pinched on the second pie crust.

fyi: I totally bought these crusts in the frozen section of the grocery store; I am not that skilled in the kitchen to break out the ole rolling pin and whip up my own pie crusts. Yet.

I am, however, super-decorative when it comes to my pies, so we added some hearts with bits of dough that broke off.

We put it in the oven, and we could hardly wait until it was cool to eat it. I cut four pieces, added a little bit of vanilla ice-cream, and we sat down for one of the most unhealthy afternoon snacks in the history of afternoon snacks.

It was, in my opinion, awesome. Perfect. The absolute best blend of sweet and tangy and just delicious.

But Maddy said hers tasted mushy, and Owen took the teeniest bite and said it was too sour. Cora wouldn't even have her pie on the plate while she ate her ice-cream. She said it made her ice-cream taste funny.

It may not have been especially pretty, but it
was delicious! (At least I thought so...)

I, on the other hand, had no problem putting away my piece. And Maddy's. And Owen's. Okay, and Cora's. It was the best rhubarb pie I can remember--and not because it was my kiddos' fingers who helped make it.

Want more info about rhubarb? Chew on these strange rhubarb facts:

• Rhubarb is actually a vegetable, but it's commonly mistaken for a fruit since it usually ends up in pies.
  

• When chopping rhubarb, treat it like celery. (Hey! We know celery!) Wash it, cut off the leaves and the end stalks, and cut into 1/4 inch - 1/2 pieces.
  

• Rhubarb will keep in the fridge, stored in plastic bags, for up to 3 weeks. And about 1 lb of rhubarb yields 3 cups chopped.

• Rhubarb is described as a "wonderous drug" and "an Asian plant with mysterious cathartic powers" (The Rhubarb Compendium).

• Rhubarb's leaves contain oxalate, which is poisonous if consumed in large quantities. What?! (also, The Rhubarb Compendium, poison information).

• Dispose of mushy stems because the oxalic acid may have migrated there if the plants survived a frost (allrecipes.com). Ack!
  

• You can substitute chopped rhubarb for half of the fruit in any dessert recipe (allrecipes.com).
  

And that's it for this week's NFUF. Sure, there's still some pie left in our fridge, but not much. . .

money poems, money songs

Maddy's been learning about money in school. Pennies, nickels, dimes--and she's been talking 1's, 5's, and 10's like nobody's business.

Add her big half-dollars from her Pap and the ever-busy Tooth Fairy, and Maddy's money jars are growing along her knowledge of coins and money.

So today, while she was home from school with a pinkish eye (which didn't even turn out to be pink eye--woo-hoo!), we poemed it up a bit. And sang a little. And some of it's even on video.

• Money Poems, Money Songs: Many thanks to Maddy's awesome kindergarten team of teachers who sent her home with several of these money-poems a few weeks back. Along with a few that I added myself, we sang money songs and read money poems between baking, playing, gardening, and (of course) tending to that somewhat sore, slightly pink eye.

I printed out the Money Poems, Money Songs sheet which is here as a pdf to download. I didn't even use cardstock this time, although I always think that's helpful.

two of the poems: I Have a Shiny Penny & Ten Pennies

Maddy cut out the piggy bank and coins, and I cut the opening for her. Unlike her excitement over decorating the Cookie Jar Poem pieces, she wasn't too keen on beautifying her piggy bank. She was more into preparing to ham it up for the video camera, which I brought out after she read the poems a few times to Owen, Cora, and me.

Because Maddy had read some of these poems several times already, I brought out the video camera so she could watch herself do the reading. She was pumped--ready to roll--and once the camera started recording, she got funny and nervous. We watched her read two poems, and then she said it was enough.

Maybe she really felt uncomfortable with how she looked or sounded; I'm not sure. Maybe it was because Cora and Owen lost interest and started making flowers and sippy cups (don't ask) out of Tinker Toys.

Either way, I didn't push it. I was happy to have her home, happy to have her excited about reading the poems, and happy that she was looking forward to playing with her brother and sister. (From a distance, of course, for fear of them catching her pinkish-eye.)

fyi: Some of these Money Poems, Money Songs I love, and some are just well, not my favorites. I'm not a fan of slant rhyme (thin/ten; coin/find), and I did take some liberties with changing punctuation or wording here and there. Be forewarned, and my apologies to the real poets, wherever they may be.

But I am a huge fan of the big re-read as an attempt to increase emerging readers' confidence, familiarity with a text, and overall fluency. With shorter pieces, like poems and leveled texts, re-reading is especially easy and incredibly worthwhile.

It's no secret that the best approach to supporting our emerging readers is providing them with a balanced reading program--one that promotes phonological awareness, fluency, phonics, reading comprehension strategies, and writing development on a daily basis (NICHD 2000).

Fluency is an incredibly easy element to work on at home, with our little learners, and there's tons of cool ways of doing so. Whether it's with a video recording, an echo read, a choral read, or reading into the ole mic, re-reading texts is important. Fluency can be increased through repeated oral reading with feedback and guidance (NICHD 2000); it's just a matter of coming up with interesting ways of convincing our kiddos to pick up that book again. And again. And again. And then maybe one more time.

I know it's something that I have been working on with Maddy for the last few months, and it's something I'll make more of an effort to share in future posts. Thanks for reading!


thanks for the inspiration:
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching Children to Read: Reports of the Subgroups. (NIH Publication No. 00--4754. Washington, DC. US Government Printing Office.

Pressley, M., Gaskins, I.W., & Fingeret, L. (2006). Instruction and Development of Reading Fluency in Struggling Readers. In S. Samuels, & A.E. Farstrup (Eds.), What Research Has to Say About Fluency Instruction (pp. 47-69). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

painting flower pots--simple and special gifts

This year for Mother's Day, I leaned on an old faithful: painted flower pots!

I really think that you can't go wrong when you take a little time to jazz up a clay pot, add some daisies, and throw in a little bit of love.

First, while Maddy and Owen were at school one morning, Cora and I painted the three pots and dishes white.

Big strokes with a flat brush and the challenge of covering the entire pot with paint was super fine-motor practice for my little Cora. Plus, we had a chance to talk--uninterrupted--about puppies, ponies, and mermaids while we were busy at work.

Our palates--filled with Crayola washable paint and some
leftover craft paints.

I keep everything--everything. These handy little palates? Many thanks to Costco for super-packaging on their mini-quiches!

Owen adds a heart stamp to his pot for Grandma.

I really wanted to keep this gift simple for the kids and--okay, me.

So made hearts and tulips out of a few sponges I picked up at the Dollar Store a while back, and I gave Maddy, Owen, and Cora a quick lesson on stamping. Owen was totally up for trying it out and even threw in some blending on top.

Cora has been totally into blending colors lately, so there was also a whole lot of blending going on. . .

Owen wanted to make his for his Nana,
so he added a pink 'N' and painted away. .

. . . and before we knew it, we had three gorgeous flower pots.

We let the pots dry, and the next afternoon, we put on our garden gloves (even though we didn't really need them--my kids just love wearing them!), added some potting soil, and re-potted our daisies.

With a gerbera daisy in each, these pretty pots were ready for Mother's Day!

Not a whole lot of learning on our painting day, but I think that when kiddos walk through the process of creating something, especially if it's something that requires several steps, they tend to feel more invested in the activity. This gift began at the nursery when Owen, Cora, and I picked out the daisies and the clay pots. The next morning, Cora and I put on the base paint, and that afternoon, we decorated. The following day, we added flowers and notes on the bottom. It was a simple, but several-step gift.

Whether it be cooking or making a gift, re-modeling a room, or anything, kids feel a real sense of pride when it's time to hand it over a gift like this to the recipient. I know that Maddy, Owen, and Cora could hardly wait to give their special pots to their Nana, Grandma, and Nanny, and when they see the daisies at their houses the next time we visit, they'll really smile!

the skinny on important early literacy terms

Originally posted on ABC & 123, 4/05/10:

We, as parents and our children's very first teachers, can begin to support early literacy development as soon as our kiddos are born. Many of us do this already and don't even realize how much we are helping to build a solid foundation of learning for our children.

Talking our way through diaper changes and feedings, through trips to the park or the grocery store, we give our little ones their first unwritten lessons on language and learning. By reading books, reciting rhymes, and playing games with our toddlers, we take this learning a step further, and the possibilities for sneaking in lessons here and there are endless.

I thought I'd provide ABC and 123 readers--and now teachmama readers--with a list of Literacy Terms That Every Parent Needs to Know as their children approach reading and step into preschool. This list is hardly complete, but it includes the basics without the Reading teacher jargon that is sometimes tough to get through. In the next few weeks and months, I'll spotlight these topics and more in greater detail and provide ways that parents can support their children's learning in these areas.

Literacy Terms Every Parent Needs To Know:

• Comprehension: a complex process in which a reader interacts with a text in a specific context in order to construct meaning. Specific comprehension strategies should be taught and can be taught even before a child can read. Such strategies include making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring, determining importance, and synthesizing.
• Decoding: the process of figuring out a new word in a text. It's really just deciphering text into understandable words.
• Fluency: the ability to read orally with speed, accuracy, and expression while comprehending a given text.
• High Frequency Words: are the words that appear most often in texts. Thanks to Drs. Dolch and Frye, we have age-leveled lists of these words beginning from the simplest in Kindergarten to the more difficult in upper grades.
• Phonological Awareness: the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate sound units in words. It is one component of a comprehensive reading program and the precursor to solid literacy development.
• Phonemic Awareness: one component of phonological awareness. The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words.
• Phonics: an approach to teaching word identification that emphasizes letter-sound correspondences and their application to reading and spelling. The goal of phonics is to help children learn and apply the alphabetic principle--the understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken words.
• Sight Words: are words that do not often follow phonics rules, so emerging readers should learn them 'by sight' in order to read them quickly and accurately.
• Vocabulary: a term used to describe the words that one must know in order to communicate with others, both orally and through print.

Want to have this sheet handy? Want to learn a little more?
Feel free to download the Literacy Terms We All Need to Know as a pdf to use as an easy reference. It includes these definitions, some in more detail, along with a few other words to know.

Want to know how to take these terms a step further?
Check out 'teachmama topics' on the sidebar for activities and games that to develop these areas with your little ones!

Still have questions?
Email me! I'm happy to help in any way I can!

And that's it for today--we had a busy Mother's Day weekend, and we have a busier week ahead, so I may pull out some oldies but goodies this week!

teacher appreciation--finger print note cards

As a Teacher Appreciation Week gift for Maddy and Owen's teachers this year, I wanted to do something that would be easy (okay, and quick) for us to create, useful for them, but that wouldn't break the bank.

Note cards, note cards, note cards. Note cards!

Embellished with thumbprint animals, a shiny bow, and a little love, these ended up being pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.

• Thumbprint Note Cards: I didn't even buy blank note cards to do these; I know those sets are crazy expensive, and I wanted this gift to stretch a bit further.
  

Instead, I cut cardstock into halves and folded each sheet to make two cards per page. With a big box of invitation-sized envelopes, our blank note cards were ready.

thumbprint cards waiting for some life. . .

Next, I grabbed Maddy's tiny fingers and started stamping. We used blue and red ink from one of our Melissa & Doug sets, and I followed one of our favorite books to determine where to put her teeny prints. (These awesome, awesome mini-Klutz books on drawing thumbprint animals and drawing thumbprint things arrived in Christmas stockings this year, and they've proven to be a big hit. Maddy and Owen absolutely love them, and so do I!)


She picked a few animals--elephants, fish, ladybugs, pigs--and we ran with them. Once the ink dried, I threw on faces, legs, noses, and antennae, and we were finished.

I cut a tiny rectangle and stamped 'to' and 'love' and Maddy and Owen signed them in the morning.

With a little shiny bow, they turned out super-cute, and I'm hoping the teachers can use them for something. I seriously don't think they could be any more adorable. Kiddos' teeny-tiny finger prints made into animals? What a riot!

Again, we're in under the wire but such is life with Mother's Day approaching, with three kids, with a puppy, and with life in general.

Next year, I'll plan a little bit better. I hope.

fyi: I say this all of the time, but one of my most faaaavorite magazines in the world featured these thumbprint cards in their May 2010 issue and initially planted the note card-seed in my brain. Thanks, Family Fun, for once again inspiring me. (And no, I don't work for them but still wish I did. . . )

Happy note card crafting!

teacher appreciation week--water bottle notes

As many know, it's Teacher Appreciation Week this week, a time to really let all the teachers in our lives know how grateful we are for their hard work.

With my kids being so young, it's hard for me to physically help out in Maddy's school like I wish I could. All I could do to assist with the teachers' luncheon today was to bring a case of water as my contribution. Lame? Sure. Totally and completely lame with a capital 'L'.

But at least it's something, right?

While finding coverage for Owen and Cora may be difficult--or impossible--some days, I still wanted to express my gratitude to the staff at Maddy's school in some way.

Note-crazy I am, so I spruced up the ole case of H2O last night when the kids had gone to bed. And for some reason, I felt a little bit better dropping it off this morning.

• Water Bottle Notes: For those times when you just cannot manage anything else (like me, this busy month of May. . . ), Water Bottle Notes make even the most simple contribution to anything teacher-y a little brighter.
  

Okay, or at least I'm telling myself they're cool because they only took a second to print, cut out, and attach to my lame case of water. But they sure prettied-up our kitchen counter while they sat there waiting for elementary school drop-off today.

our water bottles, all dressed up and ready for their luncheon

Water Bottle Notes are here as a pdf to download if you'd like to put a smile on your teachers' faces this week. . . or whenever you're able.

Maybe this isn't your year to help out at your kiddo's school a ton, either. It's hard to do it all--this is for sure. But sometimes even the little things we're able to do, while we're catching up with our husband for the first time in two days, or when we're sitting down for the first time in hours makes us feel just a little bit better.

And if we can show our children's teachers how very much we appreciate them, I think it's totally worth our while--even if it's a short while.

teacher appreciation week--teacher story card

It's Teacher Appreciation Week!

It's time to let the teachers in our lives know how thankful we are for their hard work!

And what better time to throw in a little lesson on brainstorming than on a day when kids are creating cards to show how much they love their teacher?

Last night, our intention was for Maddy to write a short note to her teacher for Teacher Appreciation Week, but before we knew it, she created an entire Teacher Story Card. . .

• Teacher Story Card: Maddy and I had talked throughout the day about the note that she was going to write to her teacher, and our plan was to work on it before bed. So while Maddy was in the bathtub, I helped her do her brainstorming.
  

I said, Okay, Maddy, you want to write a note to Mrs. -- to tell her how much you appreciate her hard work and all that she does for you. Let's brainstorm all of the things you want to include in your note.

It's never too early to use a web!
Brainstorming is so worth your while.

She said, I want to say that Mrs. -- teaches me.

Right. You want to say that she teaches you things because she sure does! I wrote 'Mrs. -- teaches me' large in the center of the page, and then I said, Okay, so what kind of things does she teach you? Take a minute to think about it and then tell me. I'll write down what you say, and then we'll use this web to help us remember your ideas when you write your note. It's called a 'web' because it looks like a big spider web when we're finished.

So Maddy added a few specifics--'about money' and 'plus stories' and then she said, Oh, and she teaches me to read!

Thankfully she hit on a broader topic so that I could then ask her to give me some details to add. I said, Awesome. She teaches you to read. What kinds of things does she teach you?

We completed the web, rinsed her off, and met in her bedroom to compose her note. The paper I found didn't really lend itself to letter writing, but I knew Maddy loved to use it because of the big space for a picture at the top. She said, Mom, I think I'm going to make a 'Teacher Story' instead of a note. Is that okay? I said it was fantastic and that her teacher would love it now matter what she wrote.

Maddy's Teacher Story Card

Before she started writing, I said, Wow! You thought of a ton of ideas here. I read all of the ideas, and we talked briefly about each one.

Close your eyes and think about what you want to say, how you want to start your story and what you want to say. Say it out loud first, then write it. That's the cool thing about writing stories and notes--sometimes if you take time to think a little bit before you start, you end up writing an even better story.

Maddy and I cooperatively wrote the story like we usually do. Maddy had a pen, and I had a pen, and although she writes on the final draft, I use a blank piece of paper where I write the words that we work through.

For shared, or cooperative writing, instead of me 'giving' her the spelling of difficult words, I'll say, What sound do you hear in the beginning/middle/end of the word. . . ? to help her. I'll write down the letters she knows, and I'll add ones I know she doesn't have yet, like most long vowel patterns, digraphs, some blends, etc.

She took a lot of time to draw the pictures for each page, that we had to make the cover this morning before school. Maddy wrote the title and went sticker-crazy. And then we shoved it in her backpack, and we ran to school. (Nothing like advance planning, right?)

Sure, every teacher I know would love a gift card for a spa day or even a cuppa joe, but almost every teacher also appreciates a hand-written, heartfelt note of gratitude from their students.
And it sure is meaningful learning for our little ones to hear from their parents how grateful we are for their teachers and how much we appreciate their teachers' hard work. It's a win-win!

More Teacher Appreciation Week ideas tomorrow. . . simple, inexpensive, thoughtful.