Grace and Courtesy - Bilingual Families

As a parent, I have always struggled with holidays that focus on getting rather than giving. I want my children to show grace and courtesy and when you encourage children to literally go door to door asking for candy and treats, how do you teach children to use proper etiquette and have gracious hearts?Living Motessory has a great post about using and teaching manors for the holiday. She encourages parents to demonstrate the use of good manors and to make sure to use smiles, pleases and thank-yous. Russians do not celebrate Halloween and her post got me thinking about how different languages / cultures show grace and courtesy

Culture
Many families that are raising bilingual children are doing so because of a personal connection to a particular culture. Language is just one aspect of a culture. Traditions, celebrations, and beliefs are also part of raising Bilingual children. If we as parents neglect these other parts, than we are neglecting essential parts of raising bilingual, biliterate children. We must teach a language infused within a culture. If you are choosing to raise your children to be bilingual, (and even if you are not) then I would encourage you to take a moment today and think about how your culture shows grace and courtesy.
Language
I have traveled to Russia many times and have met many Russians. I have taught classrooms of children abroad from ages 8 - high school and every Russian I have had contact with has been polite, kind, respectful and courteous. They look at your eyes when speaking, smile, and say pleased to meet you when introduced. One aspect of the Russian language however is that directly translated, Russians may sound rude or demanding. Here, we ask our children to say, “Please may I have a piece of candy.” The acceptable and courteous way to ask in Russian could be translated as, “Give me candy.” This difference must be considered if you are teaching children of Russian background or are staying with foreign family or friends. What may appear at first to be rude is actually culturally courteous. Russian students in US classrooms, may need to be taught the courteous way to ask for things. My husband and I (pre-kids) led one week of training for high-school students coming to study abroad. Being courteous and expressing gratitude was a major component of the week. On the flip-side, My children always receive compliments in Russia on how polite they are. Many acquaintances have commented on how often we say please and thank-yous. When I apologized for this “mistake,” our friends laughed and commented on how polite and grateful the children sound when they use those words so often.

Celebrations
The Russian celebrations that I have attended have mostly centered around a beautiful spread of traditional dishes of food, produce, and drinks. Toasts are given to family, to health, to happiness and much more. Laughter and good conversation is usually had by all. Halloween , however, is not a commonly celebrated holiday in Russia. In fact, my Russian family was here one year for the festivities and carved a pumpkin for the first time (my father and mother-in-law were 56 years old at the time) Pumpkins do grow in Russia, but people use them for eating and feeding the animals.

What you can do:

• Teach children to say please, thank you and your welcome in a second (or third language)
• Make sure to learn the courteous way to ask for something in that language and a gracious way to say thank you.
• When in doubt, teach your children that if they do not know the words to expess their gratitude in the second language, do not hesitate to express their thanks in the language they know best. A grateful heart can be translated into any language.

The Humbug Witch - a reading and listening activity for K-2

I believe that a good teacher not only does great activities with children, but also shares these activities with others.  The following is an acitivty that has outlasted the printing of the book, Humbug Witch, by Lorna Balian, and has been done by many teachers for many years.  At one school, a team of first grade teachers rotates the book between classrooms as they only have one copy and all the children have a chance to create their witch.

The students are given a large white sheet of paper with a pre-glued oval on it.  They are told,

"We are going to be reading a story about a witch.

Before we read, I am going to tell you what the witch looks like and you draw what you think she will look like. I will NOT show you the illustrations until our drawings are done. (Make sure the students cannot see the illustrations)

She has a large nose. (pause and let children draw after each sentence)

She has beedy eyes.

She has 2 crooked teeth.

She has on a black pointed hat that is slightly scrunched.

She has LONG red hair.  So long that it touches the ground.

She has on long white and red stripped socks.

She has funny looking black shoes.

She has on a plaid dress (explain what plaid is)

She has on a black home-made shawl.

She is wearing orange gloves.

She has a broom.

She has friend that is a black cat named Fred."

After making our drawing I showed her the cover and we read the story!  My 5 year old was able to find some similarities and differences in her illustration verses the witch in the story. 

My 5 year old really connected with the character, exspecially at the end when it is revealed that the witch is really a little girl playing dress up.  "That's why her broom wouldn't fly and her majic didn't work,"said Elly. 

This activity is great on so many levels.  It improves listening comprehension, activates prior knowledge and gets children thinking about the character before reading the story. It also is a great way to discuss an illustrators job, character development, describing words and much more.  

If you don't have this book, you could adapt this activity to any book that meets the following requirements.
1. The illustrations are simply drawn.
2. The main character is somewhat creative in visual appearance.
3. Your children have NOT seen any part of this book or a picture of the character ever before.

Happy Drawing and Reading =) Amanda

Baby Time: Snuggle Up And Read

Set aside time for reading every day with your baby — even if it's only a few minutes. 

Babies love books with bright colors, baby faces, flaps, textures or simple activities.  You might find yourself reading the same book over and over, which is normal and good, they learn from repetition.  Babies love when you add facial expressions, sound effects and voices for various characters.  My advice is to set aside a special time every day in your schedule for storytime as early as you can! 

I have a few book baskets within easy reach at our house so my baby can explore books whenever the mood strikes her.  We has a Book Basket in Baby's Room, My Room and the Family room.  I just grabbed some cheap containers at the Dollar Tree to keep them in. 

Now the question is where to get all these books?  The local library is a great resource for all kinds of book, even Board Books.  That way you don't have to invest money in a lot board books.  I just give them a quick wipe down to ensure they're clean.  We have a few fabric books too that my daughter enjoys too.  Of course having your own book collection is recommended too. We rotate books from her closet too so that she doesn't get bored of the same books. 

Karen Katz is probably one of my favorite authors.  We have collected most of her books over the years and even my 5 year old enjoys going back to them and reading them to her baby sister.  Her's her website,  There's just something special to me about her illustrations and stories that kept my daughter and me wanting more and more. 

Teacher Tip:
The benefits of reading to your baby are so important.  It helps them to build their communication, vocabulary, memory and listening skills, as well as help them learn new concepts and help their imagination grow.  It's a special bonding time with you as well focusing on emotions and expressions.  Here's a great site with Reading Advice  for babies. 

From our Readers:
I would love to hear what your Baby's Favorite Book is!  Post a Comment! 

Bilingual Babies: Diwali

Happy Diwali!

 

 

Learning about the cultures our parents come from is part of a bilingual family.  My husband and I both try our best to expose our children to both our faiths, Hinduism and Christianity. My husband is from India where they celebrate Diwali along with many other festivals.  Diwali , the Festival of Lights, is one of the most significant holidays in Hinduism. 

 

 

I created a very simple handout for my daughter to make so she could learn some of the significant details about Diwali. We shared it with her class at school.  Both her and I dressed up in our Indian clothes and brought Indian sweets for the children to sample.  It was a lot of fun.  

Here's a Printable of the Diwali Handout

Some of the vocabulary words we introduced and showed examples of...
Diyas
Fireworks
Rangoli 
Sweets
Lengha
Kurta
Sari
Bangles

 

Diwali Resources for your Hindi Bilingual Babies

I found a great website called Gnaana  for seeing the helping children understand the steps to prepare for Diwali including decorations and about Diwali Puja, which my daughter started learning about last year.  Here's a photo of the offering she prepared all by herself.

 

• Here is a Diwali Toolkit to teach others about Diwali. 
• Here are some adorable coloring sheets and cards to create for Diwali!  
• My daugther enjoys this video about Diwali in India.  I love that they have real clips from the markets getting ready for Diwali. 
• Here's a cute clip of Mickey and Donald getting sweets ready for Diwali with Minnie Mouse!   Diwali with Mickey Mouse! 
• Diwali information on Kid Citizen World
• Even President Obama extends his Diwali wishes too here! 

I think it's a great idea to relate things to your child with people or characters they may already recognize.  It's a great way to make them feel connected to another culture.

Make your Own Diya for Diwali
My daughter and I decided to make our own version of Diyas for Diwali.  Diyas are places outside of homes on Diwali to light up the night.  We simply used some recycled baby food jars to create our candle holders.  We also used glitter paint and sequins with adhesive.  It was great fun to sit with my inlaws and create them.  My daughter is more into repetitive designs when she does her art so detailed Indian Art Work is right up her alley.  It was also a great way to take about symbols of Diwali with her Dadi Ji and Dada Ji (name for grandparents on Father's side)

 
Here's what our diyas looked like as we lit them on Diwali! 

As the holy occasion of Diwali is here and the atmosphere is filled with the spirit of mirth and love, here’s hoping this festival of beauty brings your way, bright sparkles of contentment, that stay with you through the days ahead. Best wishes on Diwali and New year. 

To Learn More About India Click Here

Or Check out our Diwali fun with Playdough Below

  

 

Afterschool Express: Halloween Story Writing

 

I loved Amanda's Afterschool Express Post last week about teaching writing with beginning writers.  Her little one expresses herself so freely in writing, I love it!.  My daughter is also in Kindergarten but is more reserved with her writing and needs a little encouragement.  She really wants us to help her spell  the words and we're working on her writing independetnly by sounding it out.  I encourage her to use a little alphabet chart with sound pictures when she writes to refer to when she isn't sure about a sound a letter makes, although she knows all her sounds it's a great reference instead of an adult. 



Source Mrs. Wills Kindergarten

I found a great post from one of my favorite sites.  Mrs. Wills Kindergarten about what the stages are for beginning writers that I think you'll find useful too.  I shared it with my husband, parents and my inlaws so that they'd understand more why I wasn't correcting her spelling at the stage of beginning writing. 

   

With beginning writers, it's best to just encourage them to write just what they are hearing.  Over time they become more confident in their writing and words will begin to look just as they are read due to phonemic awareness and sight word memorization.  However a very important part of the process is to have your child write what they hear.  Since my little one is a good reader this skill is hard for her since she kind of knows it doens't look quite right.  A typicaly conversation with me and her is "Mom is this how you spell ____?"  My response is usually "Write what sounds you hear when you sound out ______." It's taking patience but I know she will master this skill and love writing soon enough.  I can't wait to see how she progresses throughout Kindergarten.  

Halloween Story Writing
I am so excited to share this quick as easy way to create a Halloween Story Book.  At times it's useful to be able to spend more time writing then coming up with the pictures.  Thanks to Amanda's find, I bought this adorable sticker books at Target in their Dollar spot to help give us a good story prompt.  She decided what it would be about and started putting down stickers and writing her sentences immediately! 

I sat beside her to talk with her about her ideas as she was writing.  I was really proud of how she sounded things out on her own.  She even added her own self into the book in her butterfly costume for Hallween.  When she was all done she couldn't wait to read it to the rest of the family, her very own book.  She even has another idea chosen for her next story with the same stickers. 

 

 Here's her book she wrote all by herself! 

Fright Night 

A haunted house showed up. 
The bat sees pumpkins. 
A ghost was in the air. 
A cat and witch were there too. 
The sun see smiles. 

Hope you get inspired to have your little one try their own Halloween story! 

On the Go Tip

The best part about stickers is that they are also great to travel with on airplanes and restaurants. Simply fold over a three pages and staple and now you have a premade book ready to be filled.  I try to keep a few out in her craft station so she can always have a place to write when she wants to.  

Sticker Books make Great Story Prompts!   

 

Afterschool Express- Little Bird Tales, melted crayon pumpkins and more!

We started off the week with a trip to the pumpkin patch!  The kids had fun finding all sorts of pumpkins of different size, shapes, and textures.  I think next year I will make a little scavenger hunt for them!  This year we just talked about the similarities and differences of the pumpkins.

 Of course, we couldn't wait to carve our pumpkins and roast the seeds!  My friend Keri helped us with the recipie! We let the pumpkin seeds dry  overnight, then lightly coated in olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt in an oven set at 350 degrees F for around an hour, turning every 10 minutes.  They were YUMMY!

 We made some pumkin crayons and then got inspired by this post at Sense of Wonder and melted crayons ON the pumpkin.

 FUN!  When it was dry, my 5 year old said, "Now we have crayon pumpkins AND a pumpkin crayon!"  Then, the kiddos spent the next 20 minutes coloring with their pumpkin crayon.

We also brought out the food scale and talked about tools to measure weight with a focus on lbs and oz and how to read the numbers on the scale. 

Last, and not least, my in-laws were in town and I had the wonderful opportunity to volunteer in my daughter's kindergarten classroom all day.  Some of the parents came in for a pumpkin decorating station during the morning learning centers and after lunch, I helped the class make their first published book on Little Bird Tales.  In between, I photographed each pumpkin and uploaded the pictures to the site.  Then, the students told me a sentence about their pumpkins using the sentence frame, "My pumpkin is ___."  They then read the sentence aloud and the program records their voice.  When all 18 students had the chance to do this, we played the entire book back to them.  Parents were sent a link to read / watch the book with their kids at home.  It turned out so cute (here is my daughter's page) and I can't wait to help them make another one!

We'd love to have you join us!

 Mouse Grows Mouse Learns, MamaSmiles, Just Playing Around, Little Wonders' Days, The Educators' Spin on It, What Do We Do All Day, and Superheroes and Princesses

Mouse Grows Mouse Learns is hosting this week's Blog HOP!

Acorn Marble Painting, Acorn Counting, Acorn Color Matching and More - Tot School

 

This week was Acorns Everwhere.  Both my kids thought this book was funny.  They both just laugh out loud when the little squirrel cannot find his very obviously hidden acorns in the book and the of course have to point them out for him!  I made some activities to spin off this book for each kid.  We are working on counting with my 23 month old and I thought he may like to help me put acorns in these numbered muffin tins, but I guess the numbers were not important to him, because he really just wanted 1 acorn in each muffin place.  I would say, "This is the number three, so I put 3 acorns in here. 1. 2. 3."  He would say. "No no" and take 2 out.  I found it a little humorous =)

 

 

We also tried to match the caps to the acorns.  He was in a tool mood, so I asked if he would be willing to help me "fix" the acorns.  And if you haven't seen any of my past tot-school posts like this one or this one about using a sensory bin, he is a big fan of dumping.We use the sensory fin to talk about vocabulary words such as color and texture words.  As my little one loves to dump - my bin has big things like feathers, leaves, and fabric squares that are easy to pick up.

 

 

 And, since marble painting (like this one at Nurturestore  and at Mess for less ) is SO much fun.  We did it with acorns.  I've seen some posts like this one and someone made into beautiful leaf cut outs and strung in garlands

 

 

If you haven't done this one yet, I recommend heading outside and gathering up some acorns =)  It is a blast! When you are done, send us your pictures and we will post them in our From Our Readers tab!

 

 

Baby Time: Make your Own Blocks

It’s block time at our house!  One of the best investments you can make with toys is to invest in blocks for your little one.  Fabric ones are available for the youngest of babies that makes fun noises for them to enjoy.  Lighter plastic ones are a good choice as they are easy to pick up.  Then there are all sorts of Peek a Boo blocks available that are fun to stack and also to shake and rattle and look inside.  Nesting blocks are a great choice to help your little ones begin to about varying sizes.   

 By around 12 months your little one should be able to start stacking the blocks on top of each other.  Playing with blocks can help both your child’s brain and body.  It also helps foster creativity.  By playing with blocks your little one will naturally start to learn to organize, balance, and stack.  These skills help to build their hand eye coordinating and fine motor skills.   We started around the time my little one was sitting with the fabric blocks and lighter plastic blocks. 

Activities with Blocks

            Up and Down

My daughter is having so much fun right now at 10 months watching Mommy stack up blocks and then she knocks them down. 

            Fill and Dump

She also enjoys helping Mommy fills up the Bowl with blocks and then she dumps them all out

            Sorting

As she grows older we will start sorting them by colors and by what is inside

How to Make your own Eco Friendly Baby Blocks

My little one loves pictures of people right now so I decided to make blocks out of photos.  We had so much fun making Blocks using Magazine photos and Family Photos.  She sits and touches the pictures and talks to them, it’s so cute.  Here’s a tutorial of how to make your own baby blocks. 

Materials you will need

            Cereal boxes or cardboard

            Photos from Old Magazines or your own photos

            Glue stick

            Packaging Tape or Contact Paper

 Trace Pattern onto cereal box...I just traced a post it note, the size I wanted

Cut out the pieces, making sure to leave the tabs

Glue block all together

Select your favorite photos or themed photos from a magazine or personal photos.  Using same size that you created your squares out of.

 

Attach your photos with glue. 

Now cover the block with contact paper or packaging tape

to make it more durable and baby friendly.   

Now's time to have fun and play with!!!

You can create all sorts of designs with the block design. 

Here are some ideas for designs...  Family Album, Baby's First Year, Letters,  Numbers, Favorite Character, Birthday Party Themes, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Fourth of July!  Have Fun and ENJOY!

Using this Printable create your own blocks.   

  

(Homemade toys are meant to be played with an adult present at all times and at your own risk)

Need more Baby Time Ideas? Check out our Baby Time Activities! We'd love to hear from you and see your own Baby Block creations.  Send us an email at theeducatorsspinonit@gmail.com. 

The Educators' Spin On It Activities are suggestions to play with your child with together. 

Please use at your own risk and provide adult supervision at all times. 

You know what's best for your child and are your child's first and most important teacher. 

Little Hands that Cook with Books: Let's Bake a Cake

Here's what our cooking class looked like today before the fun began...thought you might like a peek!

It was my birthday during cooking class this week so I thought it was fitting that we learned how to make a Cake.  The girls were so excited to bake their very own cake in their very own bowl and baking dish.  We read this adorable book about Max and Ruby making a cake called Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells. 

Once we got started we took a look at the recipe and noticed that there was lots of measuring involved in baking a cake.  Any simple cake recipe will work for this lesson. We talked about the fractions that we saw in the recipe, something that was knew to them.  I used a cupcake as an example and we broke it into half and labeled it with 1/2 on each side.  Then we cut it again and labeled it 1/4 on each piece.  Then we took another cupcake and cut it into three pieces and labeled it 1/3, we saved those pieces to make cake pops for tomorrow J.  We took about the measuring cups and spoons and labeled them so we knew which ones to use. 

The girls were in charge of their own measuring and mixing.  They even got to use the real hand mixer.  We talked about how to hold the bowl with your other hand so it stays.  During the recipe we had to mix quite a few things and we talked about how each was different in texture.  

 

While our cakes were baking we decorated our own cupcakes so that we could sample all our hard work.  We created our own butter frosting and then decided what colors to make it.  The girl’s chose orange, pink and purple so we had a quick science lesson on how to make those colors.  Purple of course was the big hit.  We decided to use purple frosting to learn how to pipe frosting onto our cupcakes.  We explored how to make polka dots, flowers, and swirls.  Then they had a sprinkle fest!  It’s so fun to see how each child is unique in their creativity and there is no one way to do it.   

 

Once the cakes were complete the girls enjoyed decorating them to share with their family.  Although a few chose to take them home to create cake pops out of then, can’t wait to how they turn out.  I see a future cooking lesson in the making. 

Our follow up activity was to create a book about how to bake a cake.  Here’s a FREE printable for you to make at home. I cut the words into sentence strips and have the kids glue it onto the pages.  That way they are working on sequences events too.  Then have them illustrate the pages to match the text.  

Hope you enjoy baking a cake with your little ones as much as I did.  What a special way to spend your birthday J A little tradition that I’ve been doing with my daughter the last few years, we bake her cake together and she gets to decorate it.  She LOVES it!  

Just for fun!  Here's my daugther's creating her cake for her 5th birthday.