learn Archives - Page 2 of 7 - Love to Laugh and Learn

Teaching Shapes to Preschoolers: An Overview of Fun Learning Activities

April 28, 2013 by Mama Carmody 15 Comments

When I taught preschool, I always introduced colors before shapes. I did the same thing at home with my own children. Looking back, it makes sense. Children seem to notice colors first. So, I followed their natural curiosity and used it as a guide.

Just like with colors, our first lessons on shapes weren’t formal. My kids learned about them during everyday routines—like getting dressed or playing with toys. I made a habit of talking to them throughout the day. Throughout our routine, I would point out circles, hearts, or stars and describe what we saw together. Sometimes I’d say, “Look at those colorful stars on your socks,” or “This strawberry looks like a heart!”

Whether your child is just a few days old or a curious three-year-old, talking to them consistently helps. It builds vocabulary, observation skills, and a strong foundation for future learning. Their understanding of the world will grow faster than you expect—especially when it’s grounded in love, play, and shared discovery.

Learning Through Play

Most early learning should come through play and conversation. Read books together, do simple crafts, play on the floor, and talk about what you’re doing. These small moments are powerful teaching tools.

In the posts below, you’ll find shape-themed book recommendations, craft ideas, fun snacks, and hands-on activities that introduce common forms in playful ways. You can explore one shape a day, mix and match, or follow the full series—it’s completely up to you. Just remember: the most important thing is to have fun. When children are having fun, they’re learning!

Teaching Your Child Colors

November 6, 2011 by Mama Carmody 20 Comments

Teaching Your Child Colors

Learning colors is a concept that can start at birth. Just by talking with your child you are teaching them. As you get them dressed you say things like, “Let’s get this red shirt over your head.”

A lot of the teaching of concepts to young children does not have to be in a formal setting. That is one of the things I love so much about teaching preschool. The learning comes through playing and it should be the same way in your home. Don’t stress about teaching formal lessons, just have fun playing and talking with your child. You will find out that they are learning through your playtime together.

A suggestion for a fun time with your child would be to have a special color day. Use part of the day or the whole day and dedicate it to one of the colors. I start with the primary colors. Although I didn’t teach the term “primary colors” until they were in pre-kindergarten, I like to start with the basics so I begin with red, blue and yellow. By the way, always be watching for signals that your child is ready for the next learning concept. For instance your child may ask, “How do you get the color green.” That is your clue that you can introduce the learning concepts of primary and secondary colors.

In the subsequent posts I will give different ideas of activities you can do for each of the colors. Use all of them in one day or use the different activities over several days. Just enjoy the time with your child and the learning will follow.

The Lessons – Overview
A is for Apple: You Can Learn More Than Your ABC’s from Apple
Pumpkins are Orange; and Other Learning Concepts
Learning Activities for the Color Red
Learning Activities for the Color Blue
Learning Activities for the Color Yellow
Learning Activities for the Color Green
Learning Activities for the Color Orange
Learning Activities for the Color Purple

Learning Activities for the Color Red

November 12, 2011 by Mama Carmody 19 Comments

Learning Activities for the Color Red

Here are some learning activities for the color red. Remember to have fun learning and laughing together.

Clothing

Dress you child in something red; a red shirt, red pants, etc. Join in the fun and wear red too.

Toys

Go through your child’s toys and pick out the red ones to play with; red legos or duplos, red wooden blocks, a fire engine, Strawberry Shortcake, Elmo etc. Use these toys for playtime today.

Make or buy red play dough. Play dough is great for sensory play. If you have plastic colored cookie cutters to use with your play dough, just get out the red ones today. Click the words, play dough, to find a couple of recipes to make your own play dough at home.

Craft

Torn Paper Apple Craft

Materials Needed:

1. Red & green construction paper
2. Small white paper plate
3. Glue
4. Foam applicator or paint brush
5. Scissors

Instructions:

1. Give your child a small white paper plate and a red piece of construction paper.
2. Have him/her tear the red construction paper into pieces. (I just used 1/2 piece of construction paper.)

Learning Activities for the Color Red: Torn Paper Apple Craft

3. Squirt some glue onto the small paper plate.
4. Give your child a paint brush or foam applicator to apply the glue to the plate with. (My favorite is the foam applicator. It covers large surfaces quite a bit easier than a paint brush.) Have your child spread the glue all over the plate. Make sure to get the edges.

5. Then apply the torn pieces of red construction paper one piece at a time. Cover up all the white.

6. Have a stem and a leaf cut out and ready so your child can glue them to the top of the apple. If your child is a little older let them cut out their own stem and leaf.
7. Some of the red construction paper was sticking over the edge of the plate so I trimmed that off to give the apple it’s circular shape back.

Learning Activities for the Color Red: Completed Torn Paper Apple Craft

Red Foods for snack or meal time

Strawberries, cherries, watermelon, raspberries, red pepper, apples

Finger Play

Ten Red Apples

Ten red apples growing on a tree
(hold both hands up and out to make a tree)
Five for you and five for me
(shake one hand, then the other)
Help me shake that tree just so
(act like holding tree trunk and shaking it)
And ten red apples fall down below
(lower hands while fluttering fingers)
One, two, three, four, five
(count fingers on one hand)
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
(count fingers on other hand)

– Author Unknown

Story Time

“Apples Here!“ by Will Hubbell
Reading Level: Ages 3-8
I would encourage you to read this to your child before you do the Torn Paper Apple craft. It gives a very simplified story of how apple trees and apples grow. The simple theme is that “there are apples here”; whether looking at buds or blossoms or tiny little knots on the branches, there are apples growing there.

“Clifford The Big Red Dog” by Norman Bridwell
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Several generations of children have fallen in love with Clifford the Big Red Dog. Norman Bridwell has written many different adventures for Clifford and Emily. I’m sure that you will find plenty of adventures that you and your child will love.

“The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear (Child’s Play Library)” by Audrey Wood and Don Wood
Reading Level: Ages 5-8
The Little Mouse wants to save his strawberry from the Big Hungry Bear. Do you like strawberries? Maybe you can help the Little Mouse. Read this cute story for some smiles and expect to have a craving for strawberries.

Music and Singing

Little Red Caboose

Bumping Up And Down In My Little Red Wagon

Colors – Overview
A is for Apple: You Can Learn More Than Your ABC’s from Apple
Pumpkins are Orange; and Other Learning Concepts
Learning Activities for the Color Blue
Learning Activities for the Color Yellow
Learning Activities for the Color Green
Learning Activities for the Color Purple
Learning Activities for the Color Orange

Learning Should Be Fun

October 7, 2011 by Mama Carmody 22 Comments

Learning Should Be Fun

“A joyful heart is good medicine…” -Proverbs 17:22

I love exposing children to new learning opportunities. I believe that learning should be fun and hands-on.

Children’s learning activities should be enjoyable and interesting. Repetition of a concept will help secure it in the mind of the learner. I do not suggest repetition as in using flash cards over and over in some sort of old school torture. I mean using the same concepts in several different learning environments.

I share, through this blog, many fun learning opportunities that you can experience with the children in your life. You will find detailed ideas as well as general concepts that you can mix and match in different learning situations.

At first most of my concepts will be for younger children. Although, I did teach 4^th, 5^th and 6^th graders for a couple of summers, most of my expertise comes with young children.

Along with the different learning concepts, I want to research and post different attractions with family friendly activities that are going on in our community. At first these activities will be centered around Indianapolis because that is where I currently reside but my dream is to expand the resources well past Indiana. Although I will be posting specific activities that are going on in the Indianapolis area, I will also suggest general activities that make good learning opportunities that you can look for in your area.

My real vision for this blog is that it can help families have fun learning together but there will be information that will be interesting to teachers too. I am so excited about having this opportunity to share with you.

Most Sincerely,

Mama Carmody

Pumpkins are Orange; and Other Learning Concepts

October 26, 2011 by Mama Carmody 22 Comments

Pumpkins are Orange; and Other Learning Concepts

I thought I would take another object of the season and give you different learning activities that you can do while you are enjoying this time of year. Yes, some of the ideas are very basic and may seem obvious but sometimes when we are busy with house cleaning, cooking, baths, homework and may even work outside the home, a little extra help coming up with fun educational activities can be quite useful.
Learning Concepts: colors, senses, math concepts: size comparison, measurements, fine motor skills, biblical, reading

Colors

A lot of learning comes from simply talking with your child and challenging them to take a look at their surroundings. When you go to pick out your pumpkins this year discuss with your child the colors they see. The obvious color they will mention, when looking at a pumpkin, is that it’s orange but there are probably other colors on it too. Some of them have green spots or possibly dirt stuck on it. What color is the stem? Is it brown or is it still green? If you are in a pumpkin patch, the vines may still be laying around. Are they still green or have they turned brown? Possibly some of the leaves on the vines have turned yellow. Just keep talking and encouraging your child to take in the sights that surround them.

Pumpkins are Orange: Learning activities that include pumpkins.

(top)

Arts/Crafts

Click here and you can get a template of a pumpkin to print out and have your child color or paint it. After your child has applied the color, cut out some eyes, noses and mouths. Let your child decide what kind of facial features they want to put on their pumpkin. If you have children that cover a wide age span, let the older ones cut out the facial features for the little ones.

(top)

Size Comparison

Do you have more than one child in your house? Did you purchase more than one pumpkin for your front porch? Take the time to talk about the different sizes you have. Have your child point out the biggest one and the smallest one. Is there a middle size one? Even some of the fast food restaurants don’t realize that you can’t have a middle size if there isn’t a large and a small one.

(top)

Biblical

There are many interesting ways to incorporate biblical lessons in the fun activities you are doing. Here is a fun one that you can do while carving your pumpkins this Halloween.

Materials

Large pumpkin and a carving knife.

Object Lesson on Prayer

{cut off top of pumpkin}
Lord, open my mind so I can learn new things about You.
{remove innards}
Remove the things in my life that don’t please You.
Forgive the wrong things I do and help me to forgive others.
{cut open eyes}
Open my eyes to see the beauty You’ve made in the world around me.
{cut out nose}
I’m sorry for the times I’ve turned my nose at the good food You provide.
{cut out mouth}
Let everything I say please You.
{light the candle}
Lord, help me show Your light to others through the things I do. Amen
Inspired by the children’s book, “The Pumpkin Patch Parable”, by Liz Curtis Higgs

(top)

Sensory Play/Fine Motor Skills

While you are busy carving that pumpkin, let you child have some fun with sensory play. Believe it or not squishing the slimy inside of a pumpkin and picking out the slick seeds are great for their senses and fine motor skills. Why is sensory play so important to children? As Amanda Morgan explains on her blog, NotJustCute, children are wired to use their senses from the day they are born. Amanda says, “The senses are their most familiar, most basic way to explore, process, and come to understand new information.”

(top)

Measurements

Is there any better way to learn about measurements than by cooking with your family? And just think, when you are done with this math lesson, you get to eat the results!

There are many types of math skills involved in cooking. If your children are younger, just having them count is good for them. If you need 2 cups of flour, have the child count along. If your child is older, then cooking is a good way to introduce and strengthen their skills with fractions. If you need one cup of sugar, ask your child how many half cups would equal one cup.

The following recipe is one that my niece brought home from school when she was in the second grade. It became a family standard and we call it Stephanie’s Sweet Pumpkin Bread.

Stephanie’s Sweet Pumpkin Bread

4 eggs
½ cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup cooked pumpkin
2 tsp. nutmeg
1 ¾ cups molasses
½ tsp. ground cloves
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. baking soda

Instructions:
1. Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl. Beat well.
2. Add the water, oil, pumpkin, molasses and brown sugar. Beat well.
3. Sift in the flour, salt, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
4. Stir all the ingredients well.
5. Grease two loaf pans. Pour the batter into the pans. Be careful not to fill them more than 2/3’s full
6. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 350°.
7. Let the bread cool in the pans for at least 15 minutes before removing.

(top)

Great pumpkin books:

Speaking of great pumpkin books, how about the book about the Great Pumpkin:
“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” by Charles M. Schulz
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
This is a wonderful book that should be shared from generation to generation.

Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Rebecca Estelle hates pumpkins because she had to eat tons of pumpkins when she was young. She doesn’t even want to look at a pumpkin. So how does she end up with a yard full of pumpkins and what does she do with them? Read this fun little book and find out.

Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
This is a light-hearted look at the life cycle of a pumpkin named Jack. The plant’s cycle throughout the seasons is told in a simple, easy to understand, way.

Dr. Pompo’s Nose by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
This is one of my favorite pumpkin books. I read this to my preschool classes every year and they loved it. It is written in rhyme, which I love. The way Freymann and Elffers carve facial features into the pumpkins, to give them personality, is absolutely adorable. Your child will enjoy helping Dr. Pompo figure out what the lost stem might actually be.

(top)

How to Eat a Pumpkin : A Lesson From a 3 Year Old

How to Eat a Pumpkin, Part 2

Pumpkins are Orange; and Other Learning Concepts
Thanksgiving Learning Activities
Thanksgiving Fun with Turkeys

Zombie Zapper Brain Boost Smoothie

Teaching Shapes to Preschoolers: An Overview of Fun Learning Activities

Learning Through Play

Teaching Your Child Colors

Teaching Your Child Colors

Related Posts:

Learning Activities for the Color Red

Learning Activities for the Color Red

Clothing

Toys

Craft

Red Foods for snack or meal time

Finger Play

Story Time

Music and Singing

Related Posts

Learning Should Be Fun

Learning Should Be Fun

Pumpkins are Orange; and Other Learning Concepts

Pumpkins are Orange; and Other Learning Concepts

Colors

Arts/Crafts

Size Comparison

Biblical

Sensory Play/Fine Motor Skills

Measurements

Stephanie’s Sweet Pumpkin Bread

Great pumpkin books: