Kid Friendly Letter Writing Center

This has been on my "to do list" for over three years now.  We have always lived apart from our families, and I thought having a special place set up for the kids to write letters to their family and friends that live far away was essential.

I have always been a letter writer.  I have so much stationery that I could probably write a letter a day to everyone I know for a year and still not be out of it.  We rarely buy cards. I encourage the kids to make their own, so for the little ones that can't spell yet, I am constantly telling them what to write and how to spell it.

Last year, when shopping for homeschool stuff, one of the main things I wanted to buy for my second grader was a book of letter writing etiquette.  I searched online and went into a few teaching stores, and such an item was not available.  I had the idea to make my own basic templates, but never sat down to do it.

I am currently taking an e-course at Playful Learning Spaces to help me create playful spaces for my kids throughout the house and as a major motivator to unpack.  My first week was very successful because it motivated me to finally create this letter writing center for the kids.  About two weeks ago, I saw a similar idea on pinkandgreenmama blog, which made me want to make mine even more.

The idea is to create places the are fun and inviting to the kids where they want to sit and create.  This is great because they have all the things they need to do it on their own, while I'm cooking dinner or changing the baby ;)

In the letter writing center, I included normal and very small sized notecards.  The very small ones are for our Valentine's mailboxes that I posted about earlier in the week.  The kids are SOOO excited to use them and get mail.  The normal ones are for sending to family and friends.  We love getting mail, but so do other people- sometimes if you want to get mail, you've got to send it.  We love supporting the US Postal Service because we have a lot of family members (a lot) that work for them !

Here's a quick tour:
In the top left, I hung a calendar, family and friend's birthdays are marked down so the kids can decide if they want to send someone a card.

I used a five drawer organizer that I had from homeschooling, you can get them at Target, Michael's, JoAnn's for around $12.  I used adhesive velcro to attach the labels to the drawers.

Here's a close up of some of the drawers:
Stickers- we use them to decorate homemade cards and the outsides of envelopes.  For the time of year, I only put out Valentine's and Birthday stickers:

Mini notecards:

The top drawer houses our Addresses.  I created a 4x2 table in power point and put a picture and the name of the people in the picture in each grid.  After I printed the pictures, I turned the paper over and printed the addresses on the backs.  (If you do this, when creating the tables, whoever is on the right in the picture table, their address would be typed in on the left in the address table, remember it will print on the opposite side when printing on the back).

I cut the pictures out and laminated them.  I placed them all in the top drawer, now readers and non-readers can identify who they want to write to.  There are family and friends new and old included.

On the top of the organizer, I put laminated letter writing templates.  Sorry about the shot, I tried to rotate it and it was making me sick to look at it.  I didn't have time to take another photo.   There are templates for birthday, thank you, miss you, congratulations, and a general letter.

An envelope guide:

A caddy full of writing and coloring supplies:

A box full of pretty blank cards.  We reused a cardboard box that our garbage bags came in to make this from scrapbook paper and ribbon.

The front white cards are homemade from my kids' artwork.  I scan in the pictures, save them as jpeg, then I paste them into power point to make the cards.  In the bottom right hand corner of each, it says "from the desk of...." The kids have been eyeballing these all week! (These would also make great homemade gifts!)

Under the table where the writing center is, I put a basket of books about mail:

Dear Mrs. LaRue
Millie Waits for the Mail
The Jolly Postman
Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type
The Post Office Book

I hope this inspires you to create something great in your house too.

Gratitude Journals

The other day I was talking with some friends about whether or not our kids really appreciate things they have.  One friend suggested starting a gratitude journal.  I thought that would be an excellent activity for my kids.  As soon as I left the house, I went straight to Barnes and Noble to look for some cool journals.

All the day planners and calendars are 75% off right now!  Hello!, can they be more perfect, there's a space for every single day of the year, most of them even have lines.

Here's the idea:  each night, to keep the kids occupied while I'm getting dinner on the table, they will write two things from the day that they are thankful for.  I even got one for Dave and I.  Not only is this giving them an opportunity to really think about things large and small that they might be thankful for, it helps them practice writing, it is a conversation starter when they read them aloud at dinner, and it gives me a little peace while I'm getting the food out.

Actually, yesterday I was also challenged by another friend to really listen to people and figure out what they need without just assuming you know.  Seeing what they are thankful for versus what I think they should be will be an interesting way for me to learn more about my family.

Last summer, I started the name journals with my kids.  These would also make excellent journals for practicing name and phone number writing on a daily basis.  For the price I paid, you can't beat it.  If you miss them this year, write yourself a note to hit up the sale next year.

Hazel is the most excited about hers.  It came with a bookmark, stickers, note paper, and photo pockets.  She was absolutely thrilled (and I love the Japanese theme):

I write the words, then she copies:

Nathaniel is very interested in elements, could this be more perfect?  A different element a day:

Addison can write in sentences:

and Owen is almost there:

And today I'm thankful for a caring and helpful husband and five healthy kids.  What about you?

Busy Learning: Name Book Journals

I'm participating in Smart Summer Challenge and one of the blogs I discovered from it is Teachmama.  I love her simple ideas!  I've had simple ideas, but never wrote about them before because I thought they were too simple.  It is really nice to see them written out and with pictures- it helps motivate me to want to do them, and I hope I help you want to do them too.

This name book is such a great idea and is something very simple to do with your child every day!  I went to the store, bought a blank journal for each of my kids and had them write their names on the front:

Then, I told them that everyday, they would open to the next page and practice writing their name, birthday, and my cell phone number.  Going through security one time, my youngest son was asked his birthday, and he couldn't recall the year, so I feel like this is important information.  My hope is that by writing these three things every day, by the end of the summer, it will be committed to memory.

When we lived in Japan, my son's teachers had all the kids' names written on small strips with their mom's cell phone numbers under them in the writing station.  My son would come home with about ten each week and guess what?, he knew my number and sometimes I wasn't even that sure of it (11 digit number over there!).  Lately, my two youngest kids have been humming a commercial 1800 (xxx) LUNA, and they asked me can they call it and one day, I caught my 3 year old trying to dial the number.  They had no idea what it was for, but the TV told them.  So, I hope by the end of the summer, they will all know my cell phone (and my two oldest will also be writing my husband's)- in case of emergency, you just never know.

Speaking of the LUNA commercial, sometimes when we are driving in the car, I sing my cell phone number to my kids to the tune of the song that is my cell phone ring tone.  I think that is beginning to catch on too.

For my three year old, I wrote her name across the top in capital letters.  She can write one or two, which is fine by me, the rest, she draws circles.  I didn't write her birthday or my phone number.

For my five year old, I wrote his name, birthday, and my phone number.  He is practicing properly forming/sizing his letters and using lower case when needed:

For my six year old, I had to spell out his birthday month, February, but besides that, he could do it all himself. He is working on using lower case letters when necessary, writing the letters the proper size, and allowing for the proper amount of space to fit the word on the line.

For my seven year old, he is just trying to write neatly and will be using cursive by the end of the summer.

For the six and seven year old, I might change it up a bit a few days a week and say write it in rainbow letters, write your name in the shape of a question mark, write it in a spiral, or use only one specific color.

We are keeping all of the books on the floor under our tiny table, so they are easily accessible. They are free to doodle or draw at the bottom of the page after they finished their writing for the day.

Happy writing!

Bird Unit Activities

Here are some other bird themed activities we've been doing during this unit.

I made a chart with photos of twelve different backyard birds (I found the pictures on the internet, and made the chart in power point).  I made two copies of the chart, one has the birds' names on it and one just has the pictures only and I laminated them.  I made separate strips with the birds' names on them.  The 3 and 4 year old can use the chart with pictures and names on it to help them properly label the picture only chart.  They match a name on the strip with a name on the chart and place it under the correct bird.  The kindergartener and second grader label the blank chart with the name strips by memory and then use the other chart to check their work when they are done:

I found coloring pages on the internet (by searching in google) of the same twelve birds.  I saved them to my computer and shrunk them down to 1/4 page in power point and made a small "My Bird Coloring Book" for each of my kids.  They could use the bird charts from above or our Bird Field Guides to color the birds the appropriate colors.  I also left a line on the bottom of each coloring page for them to write the bird's name in.

I printed out another chart with names of the birds only.  I am using this for the kids to draw their own pictures of the birds:

I bought small decorative birds, eggs, and nests, and put them on a tray for patterning and free play:

I bought a copy of Backyard Birds magazine and typed up some question and answer sheets for my second grader to fill out.  Here is an example of the one from the Hummingbird article.  It helped him to recognize important facts from the article and he even helped my mom make new nectar for her feeders.

I have a Charley Harper Coloring Book of Birds (I love it so much, I am photocopying the pages for the kids to color so we can keep it around longer), I put pages out for them to choose to color:

We have a DK Backyard Bird sticker book too:

My mom found a bird's egg in the yard a few weeks ago.  My second grader was very interested to find out what type of bird laid the egg.  It prompted me to print him out a chart to fill in about various birds we have spotted around the yard, with one category being a drawing of the bird's egg.  He spent several hours on the computer reading about birds and their eggs.  If we hadn't found the egg, I never would have thought to teach him about identifying birds by the eggs they lay.  They finally identified it as a sparrow's egg.

If you are studying birds with your kids, you might consider:

identifying birds by their song

by their eggs

by their feathers

by their habitats (nests or birdhouses they prefer)

by things they eat

Backyard Bird Songs

I bought my kids a few books about bird songs, one is The Backyard Bird Song Book, another is Bird Songs from Around the World, and the last is A Guide to Night Sounds.  We are staying at my parent's for a while, and they live in a remote spot, so there are a lot of birds chirping, especially at this time of year.  A couple weeks ago, my son came down and said he kept hearing a noise every morning and wondered what it was.  He repeated the sound to me, "heee hoooo".  I knew it must be a bird, so I got out the Backyard Bird Songs and we ended up identifying the bird.

The Backyard Bird Songs book is easy to use and it's a sound book that you won't get annoyed by your child having because it produces sounds you'd hear anyways.  For each bird, there is a page of information, then a color picture of the bird.  Above the picture, there are two numbers, one for the bird's song and one for a call.  After playing the songs in order, we identified the bird as a black capped chickadee (the Massachusetts state bird).  Later that day, we were outside with the book, and as my son played the song, a real black capped chickadee in the yard would repeat the song back, it was really cool.

For part of my second grader's and kindergartener's work on birds, they have a list of twelve birds who they have to learn to identify by their song.

(Yes, I know my daughter has a great sense of fashion ;) )

Potato Stamp Birds

Here's another idea I found on The Chocolate Muffin Tree via The Crafty Crow for our bird unit.  A simple colorful painting using potatoes as stamps.  This was easy and fun and something all ages could join in for, including my mom and I.  Painting is a great way to relieve stress.

First, cut several small pieces of corrugated cardboard of varying lengths from 2-5 inches (for the tree branches), stamp with brown:

Next, cut a potato into fourths, we used a small red potato:

Next, put out lots of colors of paint, stamp the bird bodies with the potatoes:

Use a paint brush and press down on it's side for the tail:

Use the end tip of the paint brush to add beaks, feet, and eyes.

Done by a 7 year old:

6 year old (that purple bird in the bottom corner is my favorite!):

4 year old:

3 year old:

My mom:

Car related activities

One of my sons LOVES toy cars.  These are a few examples of what I find around my house everyday (who needs toy garages, my couch functions not only as a place to sit, but a parking lot):

It was an easy decision last spring to make one of our monthly topics of study cars.  In fact, that month is this month. Unfortunately, with how sick I've been, I ended up enrolling him in the montessori preschool that both his brothers went to.  He is only there half a day, so he still participates in the few activities I've been able to muster up the strength to do with them.  Luckily, Nathaniel isn't that bothered that I haven't delved into the topic as much as I had planned to.  Here are a few things that we've done related to cars.

We bought model cars this summer for the kids to work on with their dad:

We built a car wash out of a cardboard box.  This is something I've had on my mind for a while.  For Owen's birthday, he picked out a plastic matchbox carwash.  The thing has never been properly put together and the pieces are always falling off.  This one we made from all recycled materials, so if it falls apart, I could care less about throwing it away.  This was a project I had Nathaniel work on with his dad on his day off on Monday.  The middle two "twisting brushes" are vitamin jars hot glue gunned onto the bottom of the box (I realized that because they are child-proof, they always twist).  Then, we hot glued some furry sponges around them.  The water is a cut up gift bag from one of the kids' birthday parties, hot glued to the side.

In action:

Next, we made some cupcakes in the shapes of cars.

My brother gave me this pan to thank me for letting him stay here last week:

Admittedly, I thought it was awesome, so did Owen, but I NEVER thought I'd get them to come out.  Look at this:

I had some energy today, not enough for a cake from scratch, but we did have a box of funfetti cake and Hazel has been begging me to make cake.  So, with the help of Nathaniel, we made the batter and baked the cakes.  Of course, I was worried about what to decorate them with so that you could still tell they were cars, and I did not have the energy or patience to do different colors of icing and carefully put it on in the right places.  I just made a vanilla glaze, set up two bowls, like below, and poured icing on top.

The results (they sort of looked like they'd been through a snow storm:

Owen wanted no one to eat them and me to refrigerate them until June for his bday party.  I convinced him I could make more and they finally got to enjoy them, he still wanted to me to turn out the lights and sing Happy Birthday to him.  His favorite thing to do since we got the pan is ask everyone which car they want for his party.

Here they are with tonight's selections: