Fall: Apples and Pumpkins, Oh My!
In New England it is a tradition to go apple picking, and we definitely take the opportunity to enjoy this tradition. We think that it is really important that the kids see how apples grow and experience picking them on their own. We love the beauty of the foliage and the apple orchard, too. We wouldn’t miss the chance to make memories like these! If you can, try this out with your family.
Since I knew that we were going to the orchard, we started talking about apples and pumpkins a few weeks ago. In anticipation of our favorite season, we attempted to grow pumpkins in our garden this year. I’m not sure that we will ever get pumpkins, but the flowers on the plants did bloom. We have great plans to follow up on this trip, too.
Apples:
- We will bake an apple pie together. All of that measuring, pouring, peeling, and cutting is great for kinesthetic and tactile learners to learn about math and science.
- We’ll cut an apple in half along the equator. There is a star shape in the middle of the apple. We’ll use that as a stamp with paint.
- We will learn about what oxidization is by cutting an apple and watching the color change.
- We will also read the book, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, and make a lapbook to go along with it.
Pumpkins:
- Of course we will carve our pumpkins. This is a great kinesthetic and tactile learning experience. We will learn what the seeds are like inside the pumpkin, and see if one pumpkin has more seeds than another. After we’ve cleaned the seeds, we will group them by 10’s to count them. We’ll roast them, too.
- We have the book called Pumpkins by Ken Robbins. It has beautiful photographs of pumpkins. It tells how pumpkins are grown and gives some information about how they tie into the season.
- We will bake pumpkin pies with fresh pumpkins. (Pies made with roasted pumpkins are so tasty!) This is another opportunity to teach math and science.
If you have never gone to an orchard during the fall, I encourage you to look into it. It is worth the experience!
Filed under Lesson Plans | Comments (3)A Snapshot of Kinesthetic Learning
I’ve been writing a lot lately about how to meet your kinesthetic learner’s needs. I thought it would be worth giving an example of what teaching to these needs looks like. Here is a snapshot of what kinesthetic learning looks like in my home school.
Recently, we went on a hike with our adventure bag to the Garden in the Woods to see the art installation of big bugs. The bug sculptures can be found along the one mile hike, and the signs next to them have information about the bugs. We took some time to read the information in between running and enjoying the scenery along the way. One of the signs gave us a comparison of damsel flies and dragon flies, and in order to explain the comparison better, I had the children act it out. Apparently, damsel flies hold their wings behind their backs while dragon flies hold their wings along their sides. So we pretended to be a dragon fly and a damsel fly by positioning our arms as if they were the wings.
We also spent time using or magnifying glasses to make observations of the bugs on the ground, the plants, and around the pond. We tried to find the bugs that were in the sculptures in the art installation. They were especially interested in finding damsel flies and dragon flies and were proud that they were able to identify them. The kids drew their bug observations in their journals.
At the end of the hike we reviewed a few of the things that we learned, and surprisingly, the kids remembered that particular fact about dragon flies and damsel flies. They were even able to correctly identify a damsel fly sculpture that was for sale at the gift shop and proudly demonstrated the difference between the two bugs to a naturalist there.
So why did this work? The hike itself gave the children the opportunity to run, walk, climb, and touch things in a productive way. Using their bodies to explain what the two bugs looked like allowed them to get a clearer picture in their minds of the description of difference between them. The big sculptures also gave them the chance to really see what the bugs look like. After all of the movement, the kids were able to focus enough to use magnifying glasses and write in their journals, an activity that requires a fair amount of concentration.
I hope that this example helps you as you plan your school work.
Filed under Lesson Plans | Comment (1)“Moving” a Homeschooled Kinesthetic Learner
If you are homeschooling an active child who finds it difficult to sit still, I have a few tips to help you out. Hopefully, these ideas will help you and your child feel a little less frustrated with learning.
Kinesthetic children sometimes need to move before they start doing fine motor work like writing and cutting. If you have a project planned that will include a lot of concentration and that may require an extended period of sitting, try some movement activities before starting. Here are a couple of things you can try out:
• Use an exercise ball. Your child can roll on it, sit on it, bounce on it, or even roll up and down the wall with it.
• Do calisthenics, like jumping jacks, together.
• Go for a jog together first thing in the morning.
• Try out a few yoga poses like “downward dog” and “proud warrior”.
• Play a game of tag in the back yard.
• Play balloon volleyball in the living room.
Sometimes being able to fidget while doing an activity or listening helps a child to focus better. Have you ever seen Akeela and the Bee? She used movement, jumping rope, to help her remember how to spell words. There a few things similar to what Akeela did that you can do to incorporate movement during a learning activity.
• Let your child squeeze a “koosh ball”, a “hacky sac”, or a stress ball.
• Let your child chew gum like “Bazooka” because it offers a lot of resistance.
• Have your child sit in a rocking chair or on an exercise ball while doing work or listening, or let your child stand up while doing work.
• Let your child doodle while you read aloud.
• Try to incorporate some kind of movement task into the work. For example,
- Toss a ball back and forth while reciting math facts or something that needs to be memorized.
- Make cookies in the shape of the different states and construct a map of the United States with them.
- Have your child act out a story or use puppets before trying to write it down.
- Have a scavenger hunt to find examples of things that are the same color, shape, length, start with the same sound, etc.
Sometimes, even though you have tried these other strategies, a kid still needs to move. This child needs the work to be broken into smaller chunks of time. Work for a short period and reward your child with a movement break. Your child could go check the mail, go get a snack, or maybe let the dog out. Then get back on track with your project.
I hope you and your kinesthetic child can learn together more harmoniously with these tips. Happy learning!
Filed under Lesson Plans | Comments (3)Mallard Math
We have practiced our math skills in a variety of ways through Make Way for Ducklings. There are a few mathematical possibilities in this particular book that you might find helpful if you are also working on this particular lapbook.
Since there are eight ducklings in the book, we have practiced counting the number eight. Since my kiddos are kinesthetic learners, I need to incorparate manipulatives into our math work, and a great manipulative for this particular lesson is plastic Easter eggs. First, we sorted the eight eggs by color and counted how many eggs there were of each color. We compared which color we had more and less of. We also dabbled in addition and subtraction by adding one more egg and removing one egg. After all of that manipulative work, we made a counting book with the numbers 1-8. It’s a graduated page book. On each page the children drew the amount of eggs that correlate with the number on the page. Creating this book is also a great way to address the unique the needs of kinesthetic learners since there is a lot of interaction involved – turning the pages, drawing the eggs, counting the eggs, and coloring the eggs. My children needed a bit of guidance with staying focused on the task, but overall, this was a hit!
We also used the song “Five Little Ducks” to talk about counting backwards from 5. We used it as a finger play while I a read a great picture book of the song, Five Little Ducks illustrated by Ivan Bates. They really love this song and adding a kinesthetic piece to it just makes it more engaging. Having the visuals (pictures) also makes the song more interesting. Lessons are so much more dynamic when you weave multiple disciplines together.
Get cracking on your math skills, homeschoolers!
Filed under How to, Lapbooks | Comment (0)