String Telephone

String Telephone is a super fun game to play. My son and I played today and we had so much fun calling each other and making each other laugh :))).

To make your string telephone all you need is two cups, string, and a pencil to make a hole in the cup.

1st step: Using a pencil make a small hole in the bottom of the cup.

 

2nd step: Thread the end of the string through the hole and into the cup. Knot the end of the string. I wanted my son to understand how the telephone works. Hence, we used just one cup in our first experience. I tied the free end of the string to a doorknob, and asked my son to walk away from the the door until the string was taut. He held the cup on his ear and I gently strummed and rubbed the string near the doorknob to produce sounds in the cup. The idea was to make him comprehend that telephones have wires, and the sound travels through the wire from one telephone to another.

3rd step: Afterwards we passed the string through the other cup.  This time I explained to him that telephones send the sound of voices. We walked away from each other and we started to converse. When I was talking, he was listening and vice-verse.

 This is a fun and educational game to play; your children will love it. A great idea for rainny and snowy days :))). Have a great day. Thanks :).

Fabiana

Tic-tac-toe

We all love playing tic-tac-toe; it is one of these games that have been passed on from generations and never go out of date. It is a great pedagogical game that teaches the concept of sportsmanship and strategy.

We created our tic-tac-toe using a puzzle box and milk lids, which we covered with wrapping paper to differentiate the players.

 

We had fun playing together. My son was really content playing this game, and learning strategies to win as well as not letting the adversary to win :)))). 

 

This is an inexpensive game to create, and fun to play with your children. Thanks :)!

Fabiana

Playing supermarket

Today my son and I played pretending supermarket to practice counting coins; I was the cashier and he was the customer. The grocery shop was quite small so we had a lot of time to converse :))))!!! I had empty boxes, bottles and cartons of products we find at the supermarket. I put the price tag and gave real coins to my son to pay for the things he would purchase. All the products were less than a dollar as I wanted him to practice recognition of coins as well as being able to count it to give the right amount of money.

My son loves playing pretending games as well as dressing up, thus he enjoyed this games very much. We played this game for approximately 1 hour and we both had a lot of fun. A great and educational game that can be performed with the products you have at home, which will enable them to learn how to count the coins and use it in a real life situation.

Twister

As we already know children need a lot of activities during the day to exercise their body and mind. I read a book called I love letters! by Jean Feldman and Holly Karapetkova, and found an amazing game to practice recognition of words. The book suggested to write letters on paper plates and place six to nine on the floor in order as shown below:

R B Y

I N Q

K W J

However, I reinvented the idea to adapt it to my son's level. My son recognises the letters of the alphabet very well, and now he is learning how to read and formulate sentences. Hence I decided to use words instead of letters to practice recognition of words.

The game is quite simple to play, the child has to follow the teacher/parents directions as you instruct s/he of what to do, for instance: "put your left hand on the word rat". Put you right elbow on the word zip. Put your right leg on the word pig, and so on. Make directions increasingly complex to make it funnier. My directions were:

• Put your left hand on the word is;
• Put your right leg on the word my;
• Put your left leg on the word fan;
• Put your right hand on the word men;
• Put your left elbow on the word the;
• Put your right knee on the word zip;
• Put your right elbow on the word rat;
• Put your left knee on the word pig;
• Put you head on the word dog.

My son had a lot of fun trying to balance his body in order to reach the letters I was asking him to show me.

When we finished the game, he created two new words that he already learnt: dip and tan.

An inexpensive and fun game that develops words and sounds recognition.