Telling Minutes with Math U See Manipulatives!

Are you tired of reading me saying of how much I wished Math was this fun and easy to understand when I was in school? If the answer is yes, I'm sorry! I'm being honest!

When we got in this lesson, I was so excited and so was Little V. She loves using the blocks and I thought it was awesome to use them to help our little ones to better understand how the clock has 60 minutes, and how we can also count the minutes by 5s.

The picture below show Little V practicing telling the minutes by 5's using the manipulatives. We worked enough so she could feel confident, and it was no problem because she was having fun! I felt intimidated to teach time when she was in pre-school, I was however able to teach her to identify full hours and half-hours, but when I saw Math U See using the manipulatives, boy was I happy!

Because we didn't have enough 5 blocks (light blue color), we combined 2 (orange color) and 3 (yellow color) blocks, and also 4 (yellow color) and 1 (unit block, green color) blocks to be able to complete the full 60 minutes.

At this point, we only worked with telling minutes by 5s.

This post is not sponsored by Math U See, I really like their curriculum and method of teaching, it really makes Math easy to learn and to teach. If you  would like to learn more about their products and method, visit them at Math U See. You can download a sample lesson and have a better idea.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Paper Plate Penguin - Craft Activity!

I try to make our art classes as diversified as possible, we study about the Greatest Artists and the curriculum we use have great activities as well, but I want more fun out of the arts. I want Little V to learn to use different materials, experiment different techniques of making art projects, so I do a lot of research on Pinterest and I came across many great websites, one of them was at huppiemama.com. As we were still in the winter, I thought it would be a great idea to make a penguin made of paper plate. If you check her website you can find more detailed information, however I will post today how we made it and what materials we used. 

Se we started by, setting up what we needed:

- paper plates
- brushes
- black acrylic paint (because it dries faster)
- art smock
- construction paper (black, white and orange)
- paper to cover the surface area where you'll be painting.

You can see Little V is ready to start painting, but before that we had to fold flippers.

Below, you can have an idea of how we folded the flippers, now Little V could start painting her penguin. I highly recommend using paper plate that is not coated, we had only coated paper plate because it's my choice for the house, but it was hard to fold and keep it folded, we had to use glue to keep the flippers down. 

While the painting was drying, we had time to cut the eyes, beak and feet using the construction papers. Once all parts needed were cut, the flippers were dried, we started to assemble our cute penguin!

Cute, right!?!?

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Math Curriculum Progress!

I did mention a few posts ago that Little V is already done with the Primer Level of the Math U See Curriculum, but I forgot to show you her certificate. So, I thought I would dedicate this post to keep all of you up to date with our fast-paced math curriculum.

On March 4th, Little V completed her last lesson of the Primer Level, and the week after she started the Alpha Level. We were very pleased with the Primer and so far have been enjoying the Alpha level as well.

There are still many activities that I wanted to share from the Primer level, but I really wanted to keep you updated with her progress.

If you would like to know more about Math U See, click here. (This post is not endorsed by Math U See, I'm just sharing because we really like it).

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

All About Reading - Word Flipper Activity!

I decided to talk a little more about our READING curriculum and show you some of the activities we had done in weeks past. I must say we are really happy with our choice and the results are great, Little V gets lots of compliments on her reading.

We started the "CK" consonant team lesson by reviewing the sound for CK = /k/ with the help of the Phonogram Sounds App, then we use the Phonogram Card (that comes with the curriculum), so Little V can practice the sound when I show her the card.

Once I felt that she was able to say the sound properly and without  hesitation we moved on with the activities and it happens quickly with the help of the app mentioned above.

Today, you'll be able to watch a short video of Little V practicing her reading. She will be reading the "Word Flipper" activity that I assembled, it is the lesson 33 of the All About Reading Level 1.

At times, I do have to remind her the sound of the "SH" consonant team, as she can pronounce it as an "S".

Glad to be able to share a little more about this great curriculum. If you would like to learn more about All About Reading visit their website. You can also find in there tons of great information to help your little ones with reading.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Fun Art Activity with Masking Tape!

I've used masking tape before to create fun background to my greeting cards, and thought it would be a fun activity for Little V to try it!

So we started by putting the masking tape on a card-stock, both horizontally and vertically, so we could create squares! You can try for other shapes as well.

Then, Little V used her oil pastels to create some art and have fun!

Once, her creation was done, she gently pulled off the masking tape. 

After all the tape was pulled off, we got another piece of art!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Follow us by e-mail and a Special Invitation!

Hello everybody, I do apologize for being absent lately, but it's for a very worthy cause. Little V and I are deeply involved in a worldwide campaign to invite as many people as possible to the most important event to any Christian - The Memorial of Jesus Death. For this reason, until April 3rd we will be concentrating our efforts in this campaign and I'll try my best to publish at least 3 post a week.

If you do not want to miss a post, please feel free to subscribe to follow us by e-mail, this way every time I post a new article you will be notified. It's very simple, just enter your e-mail address on the space shown below (with the bright red arrow), and soon you will receive in your Inbox an e-mail to confirm your subscription! How easy is that?

As I mentioned earlier, we are trying to invite as many people as possible to attend to this special occasion! We are over 8 million Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide and last year almost 20 million attended to the Memorial of Jesus Death - proof that our efforts aren't in vain!

If you live in U.S.A, this is how the invitation looks like:

As I mentioned it's a worldwide campaign, and chances are that you already receive your own invitation, if so, inside of it you'll find the date, time and the address to the closest to you. If you haven't received it yet and would like to know asap where to go, click here and you can find the location closest to you, while you are visiting our website, grab a cup of coffee and browse through it and you'll find out more about us, who we are, why do we go from door-to-door, what our beliefs are and much more. Just enjoy the visit!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Beijinho Doce Recipe - aka Coconut Balls Recipe

Today's post is a huge treat to my readers! These coconut balls have been a hit here in the house and also whatever gathering I bring them to. It's easy to make and boy... too easy to eat them all in a day. I'll give you the recipe with enough ingredients to make a small amount of them, so in case you haven't heard of them or haven't tried them you can make a small amount at first. Now if you want you can also double, triple the recipe...

Ingredients:

- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
- 1 tbsp of butter
- 6 oz of sweetened coconut flakes
- coarse sugar (makes it look better) or white granulated sugar (that's what I used because I ran out of the coarse sugar)
- cloves (for decoration)

How to Prepare:

1. In a sauce pan (medium heat) add the butter and the sweetened condensed milk, let the butter melt and mix into the condensed milk.

2. Add the coconut and let it cook, stirring constantly. It takes about 15 minutes when you can actually see the bottom of the pan while stirring. I know it's a lot of work, but believe me it is totally worthy of it!

3. Once it's done, spread it on a plate and let it cool down (I'm always in a hurry to eat them, so I put them in the fridge).

4. Add the coarse sugar or white sugar to a small bowl and set it aside.

5. I use the 1/2 tbsp measuring spoon to scoop the "dough". Spread butter in the palms of your hands, scoop the "dough" and roll it into balls with your buttery hands.

6. Roll the coconut ball into the coarse sugar and add the clove on top for decoration,

7. Place the coconut ball in a mini-cupcake liner.

8. Keep it in the fridge until you'll serve it!

If you have any questions regarding this recipe, feel free to leave a comment or send me your question by filling out the contact form on the side bar. I'll try my best to answer asap.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Solving Math Problems with Manipulative Blocks!

I can make a list of the many things I like about the Math U See Curriculum we are using. It's approved by me, by Little V and Dad too! I'm so grateful that I found it and that it's working out well for us. I never thought Math could be this easy and this fun both to teach and to learn.

If you would like to learn more about the curriculum and the other levels, please feel free to visit their website, Math U See. We recently started the Alpha Level but today we will be sharing what we did on lesson 21 of the Primer level.

Little V used the manipulative blocks to solve the unknown problem and we had so much fun, to this day we practice it, just for fun! Sometimes when we are in the car (which happens a lot), we play it to fight the boredom. Do I carry the blocks with me all the time? Nope! She memorized the blocks and it's respective colors, so she can mentally make this exercise! Another plus of this curriculum!

Let's take a look, shall we?

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Sequencing Activities!

Today, I'm sharing some really fun activities I found for little V. Sequencing is a very important skill for our little ones both for reading and for everyday skills.

Here you can see little V working on an activity sheet from  1+1+1=1.

We have also these sequencing cards from Lakeshore Learning, that she can actually practice reading the events on the back of the cards as well. 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

North-East Region Review!

A few weeks ago, we finished studying the states from the North-East Region of the U.S.A in our Road Trip Curriculum. The curriculum itself has fun activities to use for review, but when I found these dot-to-dot sheet, I knew I had to do them as little V loves this kind of activity! If you want to check out the dot-to-dot pages for the 50 states visit Making Learning Fun.

Cool, right? We thought so!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Road Trip USA - Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont Fun Activities!

I never thought learning about Geography could be this fun! I feel really blessed that I found the Road Trip U.S.A curriculum, it has lots of great info, the activities are great, and there's also recipes from each state so you can have a "taste" of the State! Another great feature is the abundance of craft activities and today I'll be sharing all the fun we had while learning about Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Pennsylvania

While we were "visiting" the "Keystone State", we had a chance to learn that those delicious Hershey's chocolates are manufactured in Hershey, PA. Of course, we had to taste some of them... so we picked some of our favorites!

We also learned a few facts about the Liberty Bell, that was created in 1752 to commemorate liberty throughout all the land and that it was cracked on Washington's birthday in 1846 thus it doesn't ring anymore and now the bell hangs in the Liberty Bell Center in Pennsylvania. On the fun side, we had a chance to make our version of the Liberty Bell, much smaller but it rings!

A few things were needed:

Wrap the plastic cup with the foil sheet, add the bell:

Color the paper towel tube:

We even created a crack with black sharpie!

Rhode Island

We had fun also in our "road trip" to the "Ocean State". This is the smallest state (37 miles across and 48 miles long) and also has the longest name "The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations". For this unit we were supposed to make a sailboat craft but we opted for a paper boat instead. 

If you have Netflix, there's a documentary "America Aerial"from Smithsonian Channel that you can watch it. We did and how gorgeous that state is!

Now we all now that kids + water = fun, right!?!?

Vermont

Our "trip"to the "Green Mountain State" was very delicious indeed! While we watched the Vermont episode of the America Aerial (available on Netflix) we had some Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream!

We enjoyed very much wrapping up our trip to the North-East region of the country! Hopefully someday we can make the real road trip!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Snowflake Pattern + Sheet Response!

On February 16th, I shared some snowflake patterns that I had found at PreKinders webpage, and a few days later I found some sheet response activity at MrsWillsKindergarten that I decided to add to little V's activities. What I liked about it is that she can also do a little bit more counting, work more on recognizing the different shapes and also she can create her own stuff and she will have a way to record it (like what she created and how many of each shape she used to create it).

Here little V used the pattern from PreKinders to make a different snowflake.

Here, you can see her working on the response sheet.

Hope you'll find these resources helpful.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Learning a Second Language!

Does Little V learn another language? Yes, she does! As many of you know Portuguese is actually my mother tongue, so I teach her Portuguese! As required by the state I have to teach her in English, but I do however make Portuguese an everyday subject in her learning schedule.

All material used for the Portuguese lessons I have to make, so I create lots of flashcards and lots of activity sheets.

Here you can see little V working on her color (cores):

We also use some letter tiles so she can spell the words:

Here little V is working with animals (animais):

Spelling with tiles

Practicing writing in Portuguese

Hope you enjoyed seeing little V learning a second language.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki