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The Traveling Spark Station:Kids learn some lion facts & crafts

by Mary Ann on April 5, 2011

Ezril’s lion, age 2

Fridays my Spark Station goes traveling. I have started working with a family each Friday, a grandma school of sorts. So my Spark Station goes traveling.

I have 3-6 children depending on the week. They range in age from 1 to 4. The challenge in working with this age group is that they need lots of help and engagement. You really have to be present. Their interest is greater if you are talking and working with them. You also have to give them fewer options and it works best to all stay together. That is what makes Family Structured Learning Time work for these ages.

Keeping that in mind I structure my traveling Spark Station to meet those needs. I thought it would be fun and helpful to make a report each Monday on what went on at Grandma School on Friday and what was in the Spark Station. I’ll update you every Monday. Now that I have parent permission, next week there will be more pictures or maybe even a video. So here goes.

We all choose a hat and then sang our welcome song so everyone would know that grandma school was starting. Then…..Roarrrrrrrrr. We talked about lions and learned some interesting facts about lions.

Lions books

I went to the library and got about 8 books on lions. They ranged from very simple to large adult coffee table type books. We poured over the pictures together just talking about what they observed. We learned that lions do not live in jungles. Nope. They live on the savannah where there is plenty of grass to hide in and plenty of room to run, run, run after dinner!

We also learned that a lion’s family is called a pride. We saw what the lions eat for dinner(in the wild), zebra, water buffalo and very ugly wart hogs. YUCK! We learned who the lions enemies are. They have only two enemies, other lions and man. We saw that mommy lions and daddy lions do not look the same.

We had a very cool atlas and talked about that word. We could see that Africa is a very big continent (we talked about that word) with lots of different countries in it. Did you know that you can fit the whole United States into the African continent three times!!

When the littlest ones began drifting away we moved to our project. We made a wonderful lion head craft to hang on the wall. What

Look at all the different expressions!

made it so fun was seeing all the different expressions of the lions when we were done. See the directions below.

Just a side note, the 1 year old needed help with the paint. She was mostly content to watch the others. The same is true for the 2 year old. They did manage to put a bit of paint on the plate and loved sticking on the eyes.

For lunch we had lion sandwiches which the children put together. They really thought that was fun and we all made a big roarrrrrrr as we took the first bite. During the construction of lunch we reviewed facts about lions such as: “Do lions live in the jungle.” There was a resounding NO. “Do lions eat grass?” “NO.” “How do we tell the mommy lion from the daddy lion?” “The daddy has more hair around his face.” “What is that hair called?” “A mane.”

During lunch we read two stories from Africa. One was about a little girl who was supposed to watch the family goat. There was a lot of interaction with that book, “Catch that goat!!!” The other book was about a water hole on the savannah and who came to drink. Poor monkey had to wait all day! You can get pretty thirsty on the savannah while waiting for a safe time to get a drink.

How long did grandma school last. Not as long as I thought. We spent one hour; pretty typical for children under 4. Then we sang our good bye song. It was a fun morning.

It was also good to have another mom present because the 4 ½ year old is special needs and in order for her to participate she needed lots of help. That was much easier with two moms than one. It could be done with one mom but her ability to participate is greatly enhanced with two moms.

When 4 year old Oaklan’s mom came I asked him if lions live in the jungle. He rolled his eyes as if to say “Don’t you know anything”. “No”, he said “they live on the savanna!”

Paper plate lion head

Paper Plate Lion Craft

What You Need:

Paper plate
Yellow and brown construction paper
Black marker
Pencil
Scissors
Glue
Large wiggle eyes

What to Do:

Paint the center of the plate yellow.
Paint edges of paper plate orange. Let plate dry. (While we were constructing our lion lunch we dried the plates in the oven, set at 200 degrees)
Cut small triangle from black construction paper for nose.
Add mouth, whiskers, etc. using black marker.
Glue on wiggle eyes.

Using scissors, cut border of paper plate to just short of yellow circle, about 1/2″ apart all the way around and curl up for mane. (The 1 and 2 year olds needed an adult to do this but the 3-4 year olds could do some of it. It was hard on little hands so we helped them out a bit)

Leo the Lion Fun Finger Sandwich

Lion sandwich

What You Need:

2 slices white bread
Coarse shredded cheese
Orange pepper
Radish slices
Small carrot slices
Olive slices
Chives
Cucumber
Sandwich filling of your choice

What to Do:

Cut white bread slices into a large round circle. (We used wheat) Fill with desired sandwich filling. (We chose turkey and cheese. Kids generally like that and it’s not too messy to manage. We used a cookie cutter to pre cut the bread, turkey and chicken into circles. If more of the children had been older we would have had them do those themselves.)
Spread cheese on plate, into a circle to form the lion’s mane.
Set sandwich on top of cheese. (We put the sandwich on the plate and then the children sprinkled cheese around the head.)
For ears, use a radish slice and small carrot slice. (We used cucumber slices)
Make eyes from olive slices. (We used black olives)
Cut a nice size nose from orange pepper, or other veggie of choice, and set in place.
From a cucumber slice, cut in half and then scoop out center to form the mouth.
Use short Chives sections for the whiskers. (We used red pepper strips)
Serve with Gatorade, another savannah animal. : )

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Good books for young adults/teens

by Mary Ann on April 4, 2011

The Lost Da Vincis

I read kid books and young adult books. I freely admit it. I read them because they are fun, easy to understand, often say more than adult books and they are fun. Oh yes, I said that.

When ever I am really stressed, tired, worn out, angry, sad or in need of a really good pick me up I read a young adult book or read a book to a child. Well, the Forum just ended and believe me I was stressed and I needed a good pick me up so I read a young adult book.

It is called the Lost DaVincis. I saw it at my daughters home after the Forum and I borrowed it so I could go home, take a long soak in the tub and read, read, read.

I was probably on chapter three before I noticed that this really good book was written by someone I know, Aneladee Milne and her

Don and Aneladee Milne, authors

husband Don. Wow. I was so surprised and then the book was even better. It was just so fun to read something written by someone I know.

All the time I was reading I was saying to myself, “What would I think if I was eleven?” I decided that if I was eleven I would really like this book and would be waiting with baited breath for the sequel. So what is this book about?

It is about homeschoolers! Yup, a book about those strange, unsocialized, odd people called homeschoolers. Four very delightful and resourceful children lose their parents and have to solve an intriguing mystery to get them back. They have all sorts of experiences with the adults who inhabit their lives.

So here is what I liked best about the book – it has some very funny banter. It would make a perfect read aloud book. I guarantee your children, preteens and I’ll bet teens will be drawn right in by this language and the way in which the story is presented.

I liked the plot and wondered which of the writers is the scientist. I liked that there were some scary parts and some funny parts. I liked all the references to home school dilemmas and what the neighbors had to say. Homeschooled kids will love that about the book.

I checked out their website and one of the comments perfectly outlines my sentiments:

“We want to know when the second book is coming out! Who is Aunt Brenda really? And how are they going to get Uncle Albert back? And what was it like for the lost DaVinci’s when they track shifted? We loved all the homeschool/commonwealth culture references in the story! Thanks for a fun book!”

Yes, thanks Don and Aneladee for a very fun book. I feel rested!

Here are some good books to read to children, or for teens/young adults that I have really enjoyed, and which you will enjoy too.

Good books for children: Baby-Preschool
If You Give a Pig a Party

If you give a pig a party

Good books for children: Ages 4-8
Farmer Boy (Little House)

The Seven Chinese Brothers (Blue Ribbon Book)

Stellaluna – Oversize edition

Books for children 4-8 years

Good books for children: Ages 9-12
A Wrinkle in Time

Onion John

Queenie Peavy

Sing Down the Moon

Books for children 9-12 years

Good books for young adults/teens:
A Lantern in Her Hand (Puffin Classics)

A White Bird Flying (Bison Book)

Bridge to terabithia

Jo’s Boys

Good books young adults and teens

Nightjohn

Red Scarf Girl

The Giver

Good books for young adults and teens

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Want to get your kids into college? Let them play

by Mary Ann on March 31, 2011

Intriguing title isn’t it. The article I read was comparing play based curriculum with skill based curriculum but what I found interesting were the points it made about the value of play for all children and the benefits of play based curriculum, for those children who are in the public school realm.

In the world of leadership education there seems to be a bit of controversy about letting children play, when, where, how much, and with what. Not so different from the mainstream world is it. I think that is partly due to the end driven results that we adults seek. We let our children play but what is the end result, what is the purpose. No willy nilly free play for our children. And for goodness sakes don’t play too long or too loud or too messy or too…

Coming from a far different era I am often just amazed at this thinking. I cannot tell you all the days that I spent aimlessly playing, by myself and with a gaggle of friends of mixed ages. No one ever thought a thing about it.

I wrote an article about the power of play in helping a child build complex, skilled, responsive, socially adept and cognitively flexible brains. I loved this quote. “For most of human history, children played by roaming near or far in packs, large and small. Younger children were supervised by older children and engaged in freewheeling imaginative play. They were pirates and princesses, aristocrats and heroes. But, while all that play might have looked a lot like time spent doing nothing much at all, it actually helped build a critical cognitive skill called executive function.”( Executive functioning skills in children)

That describes my era perfectly and the value we gained from this free wheeling play.

Let me share some of the insights from the article with you because I think you will find them interesting too. I hope they get you thinking about your children’s need to play, to learn important skills.

“Every day where we work, we see our young students struggling with the transition from home to school. They’re all wonderful kids, but some can’t share easily or listen in a group. Some have impulse control problems and have trouble keeping their hands to themselves; others don’t always see that actions have consequences; a few suffer terribly from separation anxiety. We’re not talking about preschool children. These are Harvard undergraduate students whom we teach and advise. They all know how to work, but some of them haven’t learned how to play.”

“If you want your child to succeed in college, then play-based curriculum is the way to go. Why do this? One of the best predictors of school success is the ability to control impulses.” (Isn’t that exactly what I said in my article on executive function?)

“The beauty of a play-based curriculum is that very young children can routinely observe and learn from others’ emotions and experiences. One randomized, controlled trial had 4- and 5-year-olds engage in make-believe play with adults and found substantial and durable gains in the ability of children to show self-control and to delay gratification. Countless other studies support the association between dramatic play and self-regulation.” (I might mention here that in my opinion child initiated play without adults would cause even more substantial gains than adult directed play!)

“Through play, children learn to take turns, delay gratification, negotiate conflicts, solve problems, share goals, acquire flexibility, and live with disappointment.”

“As admissions officers at selective colleges like to say, an entire freshman class could be filled with students with perfect grades and test scores. But academic achievement in college requires readiness skills that transcend mere book learning. It requires the ability to engage actively with people and ideas. In short, it requires a deep connection with the world.” (In the leadership education world we would say, they know how to think!)

“For a five year-old, this connection begins and ends with the creating, questioning, imitating, dreaming, and sharing that characterize play. When we deny young children play, we are denying them the right to understand the world. By the time they get to college, we will have denied them the opportunity to fix the world too.”

So when you are considering how to let your children spend their time in core and love of learning think deeply about play. Think about what toys and materials actually accentuate play. Observe your children when they play. Consider the effects of video and television on play. Make time for plenty of play. Ask for spiritual guidance as you make your decisions about play. For me, reading this article on the importance of play reaffirmed what I knew as a child.

It seems that play is the stuff of what able adults are made of!

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Toilet paper roll crafts for kids and everyone

by Mary Ann on March 30, 2011

Toilet paper roll Bird feeder

I spent a few months collecting egg cartons, baby food jars and toilet paper rolls for the Love of Learning Center at the TJED Forum in Salt Lake City, UT.

When the two wild, crazy and fun days were over I was out of baby food jars and egg cartons. But my, oh my, did I have toilet paper rolls left; dozens of them. Goes to show just what product we use most in our homes.

So I just started looking around at what can be done with them. This is a blog of self explanatory pictures. You are going to be amazed.

No matter what topic you want to introduce to your child, no matter the season or the holiday, you can find crafts with toilet paper roll creations to match. Really!! Enjoy!!! (These fun and easy crafts can be tried with paper towel rolls too. So these can also be called paper towel roll crafts). : )

These pictures are of toilet paper roll crafts for small children. Even two year olds could manage most of them with help. In the spring your children could make the apple tree, plant a seed in a cup, visit a green house and read a book on what happens in the spring. (Directions for all craft available at the end). This little family of dolls would be a great entry project to family genealogy.

Toilet paper roll Egg holder, Dolls, Apple tree

Then add the materials for the birds and add a book on baby animals. Use your Spark Station as a place to get them started.

Toilet paper roll Vase, Birds, Menorah, Leprechaun

The next few pictures are of toilet paper tube crafts for children who are a bit older. Tie these projects into topics that you want to inspire your children with. For example, if you want to introduce the Middle Ages, get a good book and put the materials for the castle in your Spark Station.

Toilet paper roll Binoculars, Car, Castle, Lantern

Toilet paper roll Rocket

Toilet paper roll Totempole

If you are introducing them to the solar system get a book on NASA and have the materials to make the rocket. If you are studying American Indians choose a tribe that actually used totem poles and then make one.

And wouldn’t it be fun to have an older child make the “Where the Wild Things Are” puppets and then use them to tell the story to younger children.

Toilet paper roll Nativity, Owl, Pen holder

Toilet paper roll Nativity, Owl(Where the Wild Things Are), Pen holder

Now I wouldn’t want you to think that toilet paper tubes are only good for crafts for younger children. Have a family night project and get your older children and dad involved. Just take a look at these amazing things made from the lowly toilet paper roll!!!

Toilet paper roll Diorama, Bicycle, Face

Toilet paper roll Diorama, Faces, Wall hanging

Oh I just can’t resist. The options for Spark Station learning projects with these paper tubes is just too delicious. Why, use them to introduce George Washington and the Human body.