Chocolate Chip Cookie CH, CH, CH

I am often asked how I teach certain skills. My answers vary according to the topic or skill being taught. Most often teaching a skill involves a game. Some I buy. Some I create.

Lately my children have enjoyed a game I created called Chocolate Chip Cookie CH, CH, CH. Several rounds later, my girls had a pretty good handle on decoding words with CH in the initial position (words starting with CH). Here is a sampling of how the girls (ages 5 and 7) used my Chocolate Chip Cookie (could be pancakes if you'd rather) game.

For the first game we dealt out the CH cookies and put all the "ending" cookies face down in the middle. I drew a card and said the ending. If it was a two-letter ending (-at, -in, -um) I handed it to the younger player. If it was a three-letter or four-letter ending (-arm, -ant, -ess, -eese, -eat, -eap, -est) I handed it to the older player. The player said the ending and then added the CH sound, reading the word.

For the second game we dealt out the CH cookies and again put all the "ending" cookies face down in the middle. Players took turns drawing an "ending" cookie, joining it with a CH, and saying the word.

For our third game we followed the directions above but included the additional requirement of making up a silly sentence with the word. This was especially fun, a great way to end our lesson.

Later, the younger player decided to match the CH cookies with the "ending" cookies and "spell" them on the white board.

CH, CH, Chocolate Chip Pancakes

What do "CH" sounds and CHocolate CHip pancakes have in common? Yummy learning!

This morning I ventured to the local grocery for a bag of grapes. Fast forward fifteen minutes into my shopping journey and I found myself dreaming up an engaging learning activity, sure to spark the young ones' curiosities.

Arriving home, I was greeted by three youngers and one older all wondering what was tucked in the grocery bags. To their utter surprise, mom had purchased buy-one-get-one chocolate chip pancake mix. Not the healthiest breakfast choice, but a grocery bargain as well as a catalyst for a morning of learning fun.

We read the box, followed directions, and mixed the ingredients. As I "wrote" in the pan, three pair of eyes gazed eagerly.

"MOM, you wrote a 'C'!"

Yes, indeed! Encouraged by her excitement, I "wrote" another letter.

"MOM, you wrote a 'H'!"

Yes, indeed! We now had two letters bubbling away.

"What sound do they make together?" I inquired. We all made the "CH" sound.

After making a batch of pancakes, we sat to eat. As we enjoyed our yummy CHocolate CHip pancakes we thought of more CH words.

Later in the morning, as I helped the olders with math and language arts, a younger learner cut CH words from the weekly grocery ad, creating a CH meal on a paper plate.

A productive morning indeed!

One Potato, Two Potato

The fresh smell of spring and the heat of summer bring gardens of plentiful learning activities. Seems like every time we turn around we are enjoying another experience involving fruits and veggies. Here's a sampling of our fun, with a few extras tucked in for good measure. (For readers who heard me speak at the FPEA-Florida Parent Educators Association-Convention, some of these will sound familiar).

Math

• Estimate the weight of a watermelon. Weigh on a bathroom scale. Figure out the price per paid per pound.
• Purchase a five pound bag of potatoes. Compare the quantity with a five pound bag of onions. Why the difference in quantity per pound? Younger children can weigh potatoes and arrange from lightest to heaviest.
• Buy a basket full of veggie. Sort according to what part of the plant is eaten: stem, leaf, seed, root, flower. Eat vegetables and dip for snack.

Language Arts

• Read Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert. Make veggie soup for dinner. (Dad will love eating what the children learned.)
• Read the Farm Alphabet Book by Jane Miller. Make your own fruits and veggies alphabet book.
• Play Garden Match to learn beginning consonants.
• Read Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z by Lois Ehlert.
• Read Stone Soup by Marcia Brown (a traditional tale).
• Read Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens (a trickster tale).
• Make a growing vegetable soup lapbook.
• Read The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.

Spanish

• Learn the Spanish words for common fruits and vegetables

Social Studies

• Tour the produce section of the grocery store.
• Visit a working farm, garden store, orchard, or greenhouse.

Science

• Plant a garden.
• Build a grow box and grow herbs.
• Spout seeds. Discuss vocabulary: seeds, seedlings, cuttings, sprout, germinate.
• Read The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons
• Read Green Beans, Potatoes, and Even Tomatoes by Brian Cleary
• Read One Bean by Anne Rockwell.
• Sprout an avocado seed.
• Grow or purchase a pie pumpkin. Open. Clean. Bake. Puree pumpkin and make bread.
• Read The Life Cycle of a Bean by Linda Tagliaferro.
• Read Foods from Farms by Nancy Dickmann.
• Read Plants on a Farm by Nancy Dickmann.
• Read Farming by Gail Gibbons. Discuss farming around the world.
• Read From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons.
• Read Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert.
• Read The Victory Garden Vegetable Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta.

Arts

• Make prints using tempera paints and fruits and veggies (potato, cabbage, celery, corn, and oranges)
• Read Linnea in Monet's Garden by Christina Bjork.
• Make a seed collage.
• Sing Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow. Act out the song with motions.
• Read How Are You Peeling? by Joost Effers and Saxton Freymann. Discuss the illustrations. Children may also enjoy Fast Food by the same authors.

Movement

• Play Hot Potato (hand-eye coordination)