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Resources For The Teachable MomentsHere’s a list of supplies I think every family should keep in their ‘activity closet’:
Magnets—ones of animals, numbers, letters, or characters like Thomas.
Crayons, markers (washable of course), coloring pencils
Paints (all washable)
Paintbrushes that are big and thick
Sponges to dip in paint
Stamps (not the ones that go on your mail)
Chalk (big and small pieces)
Insta-Snow">Insta-snow (you just gotta try it—it’s amazing)
Paper and tons of it
Stickers of anything and everything
beads">Beads with big and small holes for threading and all different shapes
Puzzles
Play dough or modeling clay
Pipe cleaners
Aquadoodle">Aquadoodle toy
Here’s a list of equipment I think are very useful for working with teachable moments:
A magnetic chalkboard / dry erase board (even the small kind are great)
Sand and Water Table">Sand and Water Table (even Wallyworld has this)
Either the pretend tent with sheets and chairs or a kid’s play tent
play kitchen">Play kitchen of some kind
Sensory toys like squishy balls, flarp, big bean bags, etc…
Here’s a list of various websites that provide activities, games, crafts, printables, videos, magazines, and books for young children. These websites have great themes to tie in the teachable moment to the bigger picture. Themes can work very well when integrated in therapy, home, and school or daycare. You may notice that many of the websites feature information from homeschooling—I added these because homeschoolers are generally very inventive people and come up with some GREAT and almost always INEXPENSIVE ideas. It doesn’t matter that what your opinion is on homeschooling, just look around these sites and get some really fun ideas about some great topics.
Other websites that I have listed may say they are for teachers—don’t let this discourage you from using them. Most of the time, these websites still allow you to register even though you are not teaching in a classroom. You may have to register as a homeschooler but who cares if you get access to some awesome information and activities.
I want to point out that there are two websites listed that have either a yearly fee or a monthly fee. The first one, Enchanted Learning has a yearly fee of about $20 but you definitely get your money’s worth there. The other website is Cosmeo from The Discovery Channel. This site has a monthly fee of $10 and is definitely for the child who likes the nitty gritty details. There are videos and pictures that members can watch or download. If you have more than one child this website would be worth it as the content goes from K-12th grades. The kindergarten videos work well for younger children too. I also have Nickjr listed and Noggin, Disney, and PBS websites because a lot of young children like to watch these types of shows. If you can tie in what they are watching on these shows like Blues Clues and get the printable from the website, it can ‘bring it all together’ for some children.
Agriculture in the Classroom—great site that has virtual tours of farms, lesson plan ideas, with a great kids scene section to talk about where food comes from. www.agclassroom.org
Apples4theteacher.com—great site with activities, themes, crafts, and games for young children. www.apples4theteacher.com
All About Coloring—free coloring pages. www.coloring.ws
A to Z Home’s Cool Site—a homeschool website but it has great ideas for doing activities at home with typical and special needs children. http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/index.htm
Audiosparx—website for sound effects. Great for playing guess that sound game. www.audiosparx.com
Cosmeo by The Discovery Channel—great site that was created to help kids K-12th grade with their homework but helps with teachable moments by getting to the nitty gritty of certain subjects. If you have a child that needs that this site has great videos, articles, games, and pictures. Might be for your older child—not exactly for the 2 year olds—but, hey, you never know. There is a monthly fee but if you have more than one child in the house it might be worth for you. www.cosmeo.com
Crayola.com—not just for buying crayons. This site has activities, ideas, themes, crafts,
and free printables on a variety of subjects. www.crayola.com
Disney—great to coordinate what kids are watching on TV into something more like coloring or themes! www.disney.com
DLTKs Printable Crafts for Kids—great site with tons of printables for holidays, seasons, themes, and concepts. www.dltk-kids.com
Early Childhood Resources—for the preschool aged child but still has great ideas that can be modified for younger children. It has recipes, activities, themes, and games. http://www.earlychildhoodlinks.com/teachers/worksheetspreschool.htm
Enchanted Learning—website that offers a HUGE assortment of printables, including books, for children preK-3rd grade. There is a yearly free of $20 but it is well worth it because of the access to games, crafts, activities, and thematic printables. www.enchantedlearning.com
Find It!">Find It! Games—this is an actual game that you can play with children. It’s a cylinder that has objects hidden in colored sand-like stuff that when you shake it, objects appear. GREAT for use with a scavenger hunt type game. Great for teaching names of objects and what they do. Plus it’s just fun to shake—good sensory toy. www.finditgames.com
FindSounds—another place to find great audio clips for playing guess that sound game. www.findsounds.com
First Gov for Kids—the U.S. Government has a WONDERFUL website for kids that allow a parent (or older children) to search for activities, games, and printables by the government section—science, occupations, government, geography, health, and so on. You wouldn’t think that links would have anything your child would be interested in—you would be wrong. Lots of access to cool information and photographs that are COPYRIGHT FREE. The site is very extensive and may take some time to go through.
First School—preschool activities and printables that are free. www.first-school.ws
5 A Day—great coloring pages about eating, food pyramid, stuff like that. www.5aday.com
libraryvideo.com—a wonderful resource that provides school and library quality videos on just about any subject you can think of. Great series of dvds or videos. www.libraryvideos.com
The Meaning of Food—this site was created by PBS. It’s amazing and gives a great insight into just what eating really means. All about food, families, culture—great for getting the bigger picture about food. http://www.pbs.org/opb/meaningoffood/
National Geographic for Kids—lots and lots of cool stuff. Go there, find cool stuff, and have fun with your kids! http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kids/
National Geographic School Publishing—great access to books and subjects that is for teachers but don’t let that scare you away, parents can register too. www.ngschoolpub.org
NickJr.com—great site to tie in what you kids are watching on Dora, Blues Clues, and many others. Lots of activities, themes, printables, and even recipes. www.nickjr.com
Noggin—another great site to tie in what you the little ones are watching into the bigger picture. Printables, activities, and games. www.noggin.com
Partners in Rhyme Sound Effects—yet another great website that offers sound effects to play games with. www.partnersinryhme.com
PBS—of course I’m going to list them. Don’t forget to tie in the shows and printables from the site. www.pbs.org and www.pbskids.org
Preschool Coloring Book—all types of themes for coloring and talking about stuff and it’s all free. www.preschoolcoloringbook.com
Preschool Education—site with music, songs, holidays, printables, and resources. www.preschooleducation.com
Pre-writing worksheets—great site to find pre-writing worksheets for your older child. Plus they have other neat stuff on the site. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/homeschoolingmommaof4/PreWriting+Skills/
Scholastic.com—the place for books from babies on up. Great ideas, articles, printables, and games too. Parents, you too can sign up for the teacher store, but you will have to do so as a homeschooler. Don’t worry it doesn’t mean you are one and they don’t ask you for any other information other than your address. Register in the teacher’s store section to get great deals on books and for great ideas.
Science News for Kids—If your child ever asks you WHY or they don’t ask but you want to tell them anyway, go to this site to find the answer. Great articles. www.sciencenewsforkids.org
Steve Spangler Science—go, go now and look through this site and Steve’s Blog. The coolest toys and ideas about teaching science in a way that matters to kids. Just about everything they have or talk about can be broken down for young kids. Gives you a whole different perspective about what science really is. This is where you get the INSTA-SNOW. Cool sensory stuff. www.stevespanglerscience.com
Teaching Heart website—WOW, tons and tons of stuff from fingerplays to theme ideas, to well, just about anything. Too much stuff to list individually, they do an awesome job of helping you tie things together into the big picture. www.teachingheart.net
Teaching Tips for Children and Adults with Autism—great article written by Temple Grandin about how children with Autism learn best. I highly recommend this article and anything else she writes. http://www.autism.org/temple/tips.html August.9.2006. - This Child Is Smart
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