Thinking Outside the Box

One of the great things about being a parent and not a teacher, is that you do not have to stick to the school curriculum. You can do things that are fun, creative, and help your child grow in different ways.

Idea – tooth picks connected by mini marshmallows. See who can build the tallest structure – if you want to be competitive. Allow marshmallows to dry overnight and display crafts on a dark piece of cloth.



Gumdrop Tower

Better idea – Make a Gumdrop Tower to support a candy bar.
- Use tooth picks and gum drops.
- Or instead of the tooth picks, use a bag of spaghetti.
- Give each group the same number materials to begin. See who can make the tallest tower to support a candy bar.
- This was done by teachers at a university.


Find more fun activities to keep you young people busy through the cold months of the year. These activities help grow their brains too! http://pbskids.org/zoom/printables/activities/

Helping Young Readers with Comprehension

Good readers do not just read a text. They think about it before, during and afterwards. They predict, connect vocabulary and meaning to prior knowledge, draw conclusions, see causal relationships, compare, contrast, and visualize.     Wow!

There are things you can do to start good comprehension thinking habits in young children before they can read for themselves.

Anticipate – Before reading, look at the front cover and discuss what you think the book might be about. Then if you want, peek at the pictures inside and guess the story.

Read the story. Discuss words and ideas children might not understand. Help them connect words and ideas to things they already know.

After reading, discuss what you thought the book would be about and then what it really was about.

For beginning to intermediate readers a great exercise during or after reading is to make a diagram (“graphic organizer”) of what the story is about with a circle around the main idea in the middle and spokes around it, representing supporting details.
For free graphic organizers of different types go to http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer.