Alphabet

I just found a neat game for kids called Alphabet Marks the Spot. It's like twister, with a twist. It's an alphabet mat. The goal of the game is to run to the beginning letter of the picture on the dice before your opponent.

Hatchet

I was noticing that I have a lot Language arts things for younger kids and not so much for older. It's a little bit harder to find book related activities and games for 5th and 6th graders because they are generally reading novels by that time. With so many novel options games for each one are not possible. Here's a great book and a game to go with it.

Family History

What a better way to learn about history than by talking to those who actually lived through it? I have been working on my other passion, scrapbooking. I love scrapbooking. For Christmas I have taken all the old pictures from my grandma and scanned them into my computer to give my mom, aunts, grandma, and cousins a special gift for Christmas. Their dad, my grandpa, passed away when I was only 8 years old so close to 20 years ago. Many of my cousins don't remember him at all. So I have taken all the pictures I have been able to find of him and am writing a children's book to help them get to know the grandpa they never did. Through this process I have learned so much about my grandpa and where he came from. Things that I never knew before like that he joined the air force so he wouldn't be drafted into the army and that is where his love of air planes came from. Just little things that no one had ever thought to tell me.

Compass and map skills

In my son's Halloween bucket he got a toy compass. He was trying to play with it and asked my husband how it worked. He said he would teach him how to use a real compass. This just reminded me of how important map skills are and how few of us use and teach these to our children. We all own a GPS system and get around that way. I know if I had to find an address without a GPS or step by step directions from the internet I would get horribly lost.

Handwriting

Handwriting is an important part of who we are. Through practice we train our hand to form the letters quickly but practice makes perfect. When I first started teaching I thought handwriting just came naturally to kids and if I showed them how to do it on the board they would get it. Many did and things went well. Then I took a Spalding course. Honestly this was a course I HATED taking but I really did like a few of the strategies I took from the course.