3 (plus) Ways to Use Binder Clips

I love shopping in the teacher stores (both online and brick-and-mortar). I always find lots of resources I'd love to have. However, my budget does not allow me to buy all (or even most) of the things I see. 

Also, because of cost and storage, I need things that multi-task. I like those specialty educational resources but many times I'm limited in how I can use them. A great item that is inexpensive and can be used in lots of ways is the binder clip. Here are three ways we have used binder clips in our room.

Game Pieces - Use binder clips to make stand-up game pieces. This one uses a picture card. But you could use anything that could clip in the binder clip. Use photographs of your kids. Use index cards on which kids have printed their names or drawn pictures. Use letters or shapes from bulletin board sets. You can use anything. Clip it in the binder clip and stand on the table or gameboard. 

Or stick a colored sticker on the binder clip or buy a set of colored binder clips and use the clips themselves for game pieces.

Additional task: Use these stand-up cards for graphing. Ask a question or display items for kids to choose. They can place their clip (with picture, name, or whatever) under their choice.

Book Binding - Use binder clips to attach pages together in a homemade book. Kids could draw pictures and/or write words on sheets of paper or cards. Clip the pages together and turn the pages. 

This book is made from food labels. Cut labels from boxes or cans and tape the labels onto index cards. Clip the cards together. (Use logos that are familiar to kids. They can "read" this book because it uses environmental print, print they recognize.)

Additional perk: These books are easily changed. When kids master the environmental print words or when your emphasis changes, file these cards and bind new ones for a new book.

Homemade Clipboard - Use a piece of cardboard and a binder clip to make a homemade clipboard. Stack paper and align with the cardboard. Clip on the binder clip. Kids now have a portable "desk" to write or draw. I like this because I can change the orientation of the clip. I can move it to the side and use the paper in a horizontal format instead of always using vertical or fighting the clip on the side (like on a clipboard). 

Additional perk: If space is tight, use these to reduce the number of tables in your room. Kids can sit on the floor and work in small groups as needed.

One of my favorite places to find items to repurpose is the office supply store (or the office supply section of your favorite discount store). Head to your favorite office supply spot and stock up on binder clips. Here are a few other quick ideas:

• Use the binder clips as counters or other manipulatives. 
• Add the clips to an activity that allows kids to practice pinching to open the clips, such as clipping onto the sides of a box. (Great for fine motor development) 
• Hang the clips on pushpins to make easily changeable wall displays. 
• Or just clip papers together, as the binder clips were designed to do. (Maybe office dramatic play!)

Easy and Versatile Feel Box

When I think about teaching resources, I like easy ideas...and ideas that are little cost. I like things that can be used in different ways or for different types of activities. That's why I love this feel box.

You need an oatmeal box and a large NEW men's athletic sock. Slide the sock over the oatmeal box -  and the feel box is ready. Put in anything that you want kids to feel--small toys, nature items, magnet shapes, anything.

The box is recycled and the sock can be purchased at the dollar store. The items that go in the box are things you already have. Easy. Little cost. 

Kids reach in through the sock and feel the items. They can easily pull them out.

This is a great activity for all ages of kids. I've used it with one-year-old toddlers and kindergartners. With younger kids, I just put in 1 or 2 items. With kindergartners, put in several items and lay similar items beside the box. 

They can feel one of the items they can see and then find items that feel the same inside the box. 

Another advantage - no peeking! Kids cannot see inside the box, even when they reach inside it.

This box can be used in games in circle time. You can add it to any center, depending on what is inside it. Use it in small groups to feel letters or shapes. Place something inside to develop thinking and reasoning skills - guess what it is by the clues you get from its shape, size, and texture.

When you're done, you can store it as is, or pull off the sock and drop it in the box for storage.

What If Thinking

The other day I was playing a game with a group of 4 year olds. We had cards with animal pictures. We were sorting into three groups - those with fur, those with feathers, and those without fur or feathers. Why were we doing this?

Well, my primary reason was that it was the first activity of the session and I needed something to do as kids arrived. Children could easily join this activity while it was in progress. I could quickly explain what was going on, and kids were immediately engaged in something when they arrived so they wouldn’t be left to their own devices.

We were doing this because our focus for this year is the world God made and thinking about animals relates to that overall focus.

We were sorting animals because grouping things into sets is a good math skill. And thinking about similarities and differences is good foundational thinking for literacy comprehension and science/social studies thinking later on.

And we were doing it because it’s a fun thing to do together, building community and camaraderie.

As we were going through the activity, I heard myself asking questions, not preplanned questions just spontaneous ones. The questions started off helping clarify thinking as kids sorted: “Does a bear have feathers?” Then the questions sharpened a little as some differences of opinion came up: “Does a zebra have fur? What is on the outside of a zebra’s body? Is that smooth hair a kind of fur?”

When things came to these types of fine distinctions, I let the child who drew the card decide. A cow has a hide but is that fur? Does the cow picture go in the fur column or the neither column? In the spirit of compromise, we decided to put the card between the two columns.

This seemingly simple sorting activity began to generate some higher level thinking skills, some refinement to the this, this, or this nature of what we were doing.

I began to ask other questions as we went along: “If a fish had feathers, would it be able to swim under the water easily?” The kids giggled at the thought of a feathered fish. But they thought about and talked about what might happen if there were feathers on a trout.

After we sorted all the cards, the kids wanted to go again. This time we sorted into two groups: “I would want one” and “I would not want one.” A more subjective sort. The child drawing the card would decide if he would want one of those animals living at his house or not. I didn’t really ask questions (except would you want one of these or not) but I did narrate as we played. “He would not want a lizard. She would want a cat.”

But thinking was still going on. When a boy placed the cow in “would not” column, I said, “He would not want a cow.” A girl spoke up: “But if you lived on a farm….”

“Yes,” I said, “if you lived on a farm, you may want a cow. But if you live in a regular house it would be difficult to have a cow there.”

I’ve seen this type of activity in worksheet format. Students draw lines or print words to sort categories. I’ve even seen where the items are cut out and glued into the appropriate space. Is it the same activity? Would the same type of learning and thinking occur?

It could. After all, most of the thinking occurred as a result of our conversation not the activity itself. Those conversations could still take place while kids are doing a worksheet. But in playing our game, the focus was on one animal at a time and everyone was thinking about the same one at the same time. In worksheets, even in directed practice, some kids are thinking about the current one, others are lagging behind, and still others are racing to be done. The same dynamic would not be in play.

I can see how play - the game - leads to better thinking and learning than the worksheet. But the most important factor is engagement. Teachers and kids working together, thinking together, talking together. Often there is too little of this in the classroom.

Inspiration from the Blogosphere - Making Me Think This Week

I always get inspiration from the blogs, tweets, and posts I read. Here are a few things I read in the past week (or so) that have me thinking.


How to Get Kids to Clean Up (Pre-K Pages)
I work with Vanessa, helping out on her blog. On of the perks is watching some of her videos for posts. (She hosts live videos each week on her Facebook page. Check out the great topics there.) What I like about this video/post is that most of the tips focus on preparing the environment so kids are successful in cleaning up. I'm thinking about what other ways I can make the environment more successful for the kids in my classroom.


Valuing and Enjoying the Process of Learning (Studentcentricity - BAM Radio Network)
Speaking of an environment that makes kids successful....listen to this podcast with Rae Pica and Amanda Morgan (of Not Just Cute). The discussion focuses on process over product - and not just for art activities but for the entire classroom. Great stuff! (And lots of thinking!)


The Tragedy of Emotionally Abandoned Children (EdWords - BAM Radio Network)
This post by Debra Pierce discusses the effects on children of living in a neglectful home. A lot to think about here - and to wonder and worry how children can cope with these types of internal monologue. But, as Debra points out, we as teacher can give hope and perspective by the way we interact with them. You may never know the impact of your kind words and loving attention.

The Rules of Counting (Erikson Early Math Collaborative)
I love math play and encouraging children to play with math concepts and build ideas through exploration. This article helped me think about the "rules" that young children need to learn and can begin to learn about counting. And challenged me to think of ways I can encourage counting play in my classroom.


Bundled Q-Tip Fall Tree Painting (Pinterested Parent)
No inspiration post would be complete without at least one activity! When I saw this post - using bundled cotton swabs to paint - I began to think of all the different types of painting experiences I could encourage: use yellow/white paint on black paper for a starry sky; use green shades of paint to make grass or hills or mountains (or, yes, trees); cut shapes to lay on paper and paint around the shapes to create negative space pictures; and so forth. A cool new painting idea (at least new to me!).


And one more thing I saw...this book by Rae Pica!
Active Learning Across the Curriculum: Teaching the Way They Learn!
I haven't gotten it yet, but it's on my list to get soon.


What inspired you this week?

Play = Math

Sorting, matching, grouping, classifying

Counting, moving spaces, patterning

Exploring symmetry, exploring volume, exploring shape

Check out these posts:
Hands-on Graphing
Math Play
How Many Blocks Long?
Rocks and Scale
Add a Little Math
Lids as Counters
Life Sized Board Game
I Detect a Pattern

Math Play from the Blogosphere

I love when children explore and experiment with math concepts through their play. In fact, check out this quick list of math concepts and play from Deborah at Teach Preschool.

Here are some ideas and ways to engage young kids in math play from around the blogosphere---

Measure Your Body with Blocks (Pre-K Pages)

I wrote this post for Pre-K Pages. It's one of our most successful math play experiences. We also did a similar activity in first grade when we measured with adding machine tape. Your children may enjoy measuring other things with blocks...or measuring their bodies with other nonstandard measurements.

Teach Math with Children's Photos (Prekinders)

Karen uses photos to play with all kinds of math concepts--classification, counting, and patterning are just a few.

Playing Cards Math Activity (Busy Toddler)

Use buttons and playing cards to create a fun counting/quantity game. I'd like to put these materials out and see how the children would explore math with them on their own...before adding any of my own ideas.

Math Bags (Teach Preschool)

One of my all time favorite ideas is from Deborah. She and her kids use math bags - bags that the children take home to gather things to use as counters and in math play. I think this makes the math play more personally meaningful...and you get a variety of things to use as manipulatives or counters. (Also check out the other links on the page about Deborah's math bags.)

This Is Not a Problem with People or Math (Teacher Tom)

Check out Teacher Tom's thoughts about "teaching" math and math play. Tom always makes me see things in a slightly different way.

Geometric Shapes Activity (Little Bins for Little Hands)
This activity has lots of possibilities for math play and exploring shapes. I could see my kids enjoying lots of exploration and experimentation.

And a few posts here:
Homemade Board Games
Hands on Graphing
Do I Detect a Pattern?
Exploring Weight
Sorting

5 Ways to Use Pompoms

Pompoms are standard tools in an early childhood classroom. While you can use them for art in lots of different ways, you can use them for other learning, too. Here are five ways to use pompoms (other than gluing them on paper).


1. Build those fine motor skills.
Working the small muscles of the hand is an important early childhood skill. Pinching and manipulating items helps build skills that will be used in writing (and other important life skills).

Use chopsticks to move pompoms - Or use tongs or clothespins or or tweezers or just index finger and thumb.

Transfer them into an ice cube tray. (Pre-K Pages)

Or scoop and pour them - for those younger or less developed muscles. (Buggy and Buddy)

2. Use air to move them.

You can do this with a squeeze bottle. (Mom Inspired Life)

Or blow them with a straw. (Lemon Lime Adventures)


3. Use them in water play.

Drop pompoms in your water bin. (Fantastic Fun and Learning)
Squeezing the water from the pompoms is great fine motor play, too!


4. Stick them on Velcro.

Stick a strip of Velcro to the wall or on a stand-up. Stick the pompoms on. (Teach Me Mommy)
Make patterns, count them, or just play with them on Velcro.
For older kids, create Velcro in shapes or letters or numbers. Stick on the pompoms!

5. Play number and counting games.

Roll the cube and fill numbered bags. (Pre-K Pages)

Or count them in a game. (Learning 4 Kids)


For lots more great ideas (including magnetic pompoms!), check out this post/video on Pre-K Pages.


How do you use pompoms in your classroom?

Pumpkin Inspiration and Activities

It's fall and I see pumpkins everywhere. Well, not so much in my neighborhood but all over the blogs. Pumpkins make great teaching tools. Here are a few ideas I've seen recently that look fun and will encourage exploration.

How Does Your Pumpkin Measure Up? (Pre-K Pages)
Measure pumpkins in several different ways. This is a great math/science exploration and could lead to even more exploration with pumpkins.


Pumpkin Water Play (Educators' Spin On It)
My kids love using water. Adding pumpkins and other fall-related items could add some fun seasonal play.


Shake It Up! Pumpkin Painting (Sunny Day Family)
We love to paint - with anything and on just about anything. Painting on pumpkins is a fun activity but this one is no mess. I don't mind mess but I like the way these turned out!


Pumpkin Car Tunnel (Little Bins for Little Hands)
Okay, this is just cool. I love it! If we get a pumpkin in our room, I want to do this. Driving a car through a pumpkin just seems like something my kids would enjoy.


Pumpkin Seed Play Dough (Teach Preschool)
I like using the seeds with play dough. Just seems like all kinds of possibilities for exploration and creating.


Still Life Painting (Brick by Brick)
We're experimented with still life painting and drawing with pumpkins. It's interesting to introduce new ideas for painting with kids.

5 Ways to Use Rocks

Rocks make great resources in the classroom. Now when I say rocks, I mean all kinds of rocks and gems. We regularly use medium river rocks, small river rocks (like gravel), and floral gems/marbles. Whatever you use, you can use them in different ways. Here are five ways we've used them.

1. Count them.

Put rocks with other items and counting mats. My kids love to stack different items on the counting mats, including rocks.

Or count them as you play a counting board game.

2. Build with them.

I think that you can use just about anything in the blocks center. We add rocks (and sometimes other nature items) at times. My kids like to incorporate rocks in their buildings.

Or you can build with them with no blocks, too. Here we're building rivers.

3. Spell with them.

Print letters on paper or make letters with tape on the floor. Use rocks to outline the letters. You could even challenge kids to look at the letters and make them on a table or floor beside the printed letter instead of on top of it.

4. Investigate them.

Use rocks in your nature/science center. Include a scale, magnifying glasses, rulers, paper, and pencils. Kids can investigate the rocks. They can look at them, draw or write about them, weigh them. Hands-on science is great!

5. Use them with play dough.

Add small rocks and gems to your play dough center or activity. Kids can choose how to use them. (They may ignore them, too.) Our kids enjoyed exploring and creating by mixing the rocks in with the play dough. We created pizzas and mountains and all kinds of interesting things.

We've used rocks in all kinds of ways. These are just five of our favorites. How do you use rocks and gems to explore and learn?

Math Play

I've written a lot about literacy play recently. Kids play with words and letters and reading. They love to rhyme words and write letters. They love to hear books read and to explore books on their own, too.

But math is also full of play opportunities. Check out these pictures of math play that I've captured in our classroom.

Making patterns - you can make patterns with anything. These strips were have twelve spaces; we were counting to twelve for a while but then began to make patterns.

Coins - we made pattern with coins, too. But using coins in the classroom encourages other math play, too. We can talk about value of money and quantities (in fun ways and not too didactic). We also use coins and play money in dramatic play to shop in play stores or to use in our wallets and purses.

Sorting - We sort all kinds of things, too. Encourage kids to determine what criteria to use for sorting (color, use, kind, etc.). Sort objects, pictures, anything. You can also count and compare quantities of different groups, too.

Shapes - we use magnet shapes and wooden blocks of different shapes. As kids play, they can investigate the relationship between shapes and begin to explore symmetry, composition, similarities, and differences.

Measurement - we use nonstandard measurement (such as measuring by blocks). We explore using rulers and tape measures in our play. We include measuring tools when we draw or when we use tools. We play with measurement and think about in different ways.

Numerals - We talk about numerals and write them. These were written by the child spontaneously. We talk about how many, how many more. We talk about what comes next or what comes before. Thinking about these symbols of quantity helps kids make connections between the concrete and the abstract in math.

Counting and games - We play games that use number cards or numbered cubes. We count spaces and we count objects. We count the number of boys and girls, and how many together. We think about the numbers we count and the numerals that represent that quantity. We learn to subitize (recognize quantities without counting) as we use numbered cubes or dominoes to play games.

One-to-one - Setting the table helps us understand one play per space, one cup per space, etc. We are learning that one number goes with one object (and helps us count correctly to get a quantity). Playing in these ways builds math understanding in the background of other play.

Grouping - We learn that a group of 10 is always 10, no matter how it is arranged. This game has different cards with ten spaces in different configurations. We also begin to learn that if we put 10 lids on 10 blocks in the spaces, we get 20 objects. If we add 10 gems, we now have 30 objects.

We play with math all the time, without stopping to have a "math moment." We talk about quantities or groups or sets or patterns naturally. These spontaneous play and conversation times help build math skills in the course of our natural day. Kids build math understanding into their lives easily.

Math play is fun! Math concepts help us prepare for more complex math skills later in life. (And we may even play with some of those in our classroom, too.)

(Check out the math pages on Pre-K Pages for more information about math play.)

Favorite Things: White Boards Again

A while back (actually a long while back), I wrote that our small white boards are one of my favorite things to use in the classroom. In recent weeks, I've been reminded how great these tools are.

These boards have been the source of some of our recent literacy play. They allow children to explore and experiment without the "stress" of being permanent. Mistake? Erase and go at it again. The boards can be a great way to relieve stress - just scribble away for a few minutes.

I have enjoyed watching children use the white boards for their versatility. Here's one of my friends working recently. He stayed working at the table for 30-45 minutes. (He did little else that morning.)

He drew a picture of someone. He told me a brief story about this person. He colored in all the open areas. (Developing narrative skills.) Then he erased.

He began to print words. He printed some of his favorite words. (I know they are his favorites because he writes them frequently.) I was nearby, talking to another child and working with them.

"Mr. Scott," my friend said, "I don't know how to spell entertainment." We talked about that for a minute. I asked if he wanted me to write in on another white board and he could copy it. He agreed. I slid the word over to him.

"Hey," he said, "it has 3 Ts!" I replied, "And it has 3 Ns." He looked again. "And 3 Es," he continued. "And 1 R, 1 A...." He continued through the rest of the letters that we not mentioned. (More literacy play!)

He added the word to his board. He drew around the words for a while. He erased one word, then another, then another. (Developing more control over his fine motor skills.)

I had to move to other places in the room. I noticed my friend still sitting at the table working. His hand was moving back and forth, like he was scribbling. I walked over. He was coloring in his latest work.

I watched. He looked up. I said, "I have seen that before. Are you drawing something that you've seen before?" He said yes. I left him alone to work.

Later I was back at the table where he was still working. I noticed that he was writing numbers. He had started at 1 and was writing them in order. He noticed me and began saying the numbers as he wrote them. (Developing numeral and sequence skills)

He continued to write. Sometimes he said the number. Sometimes I said it. Then a I made a mistake. I said the wrong number. "No," he said. I corrected myself. We continued in this way for a while. Sometimes I would say the wrong number (out of sequence). He would giggle and I would correct myself. Sometimes I would say a nonsensical number (forty-eleven, seventy-J). He would giggle and tell me no. I would correct it.

At one point, the board was full. He flipped to the other side (also writable surface) and continued.

We reached 100. He continued. He wrote to 109. Stopped. Sat for a moment, thinking. He wrote 10 and thought. I said, "One hundred ten." He wrote a 1 in front of the 10. (Huge surprise for me. That's good thinking!) He continued to 113. The board was full. Both sides.

We showed Mrs. Cindy was he had accomplished. He erased the board. (Sorry, no pictures. I was too involved in what we were doing.)

"Now what will you do?" I asked casually.

He wrote 114 and continued on for a while. Then we had to clean up.

I love following a child's lead in what to do. That's not always feasible or possible. In many cases we must redirect or refocus.

But small white boards are magical. They allow children to do whatever they choose. They can draw. They can write words and stores. They can practice number skills. They can explore their own ideas.

Best. Tool. Ever.

Inspiration from the Blogosphere - What I've Learned Edition

Reading Twitter and Facebook and blogs, I see lots of things flying around the blogosphere. Some of it makes me a little frustrated, some reminds me of things I knew, some is just wrong. And some brings me new ideas or new ways of seeing things. Or just makes me smile. Here are a few things that I've seen in the past couple of weeks.


Elementary Math Addict - I was cruising through Twitter yesterday and saw a retweet with the first post from this blog. I read all the posts on that blog and came away inspired. I will definitely continue to follow the blog and think of ways we can inspire math learning with young kids. In fact, this makes me want to go to the nearest elementary school and tell them that I want to teach math only to all of their first graders (and maybe kindergartners and second graders). Seriously, go read Jamie's blog.
I learned: Talking less and listening more can be the best teaching.


Fall Leaves Art Activity (Pre-K Pages) - [Full disclosure: I work with Vanessa to edit the posts on Pre-K Pages.] When I saw this post, I was intrigued and now I'm ready to try it out. Leaves, paint, and googly eyes. Let the kids explore and play. I love the pictures in this post...and the ones in my head of the possibilities that kids could create. I love open-ended art explorations and this is one I want to try.
I learned: Mixing up unrelated materials can lead to cool results.


My Son Hates Writing (And What I'm Doing to Change That) (What Do We Do All Day?) - I love the specific idea in this post - use comics or graphic novel activities to encourage a reluctant writer. I also love the generalization that this post triggers - figure out how to engage a kid to develop skills by considering his interests. Learning should be fun and should connect to the learner. This post just reinforces that (without saying it).
I learned: A little change in focus yields great results.


Allowing Children to Bloom in Season (Not Just Cute) - Amanda's writing always inspires and teaches me. This post just hit on all cylinders. Seeing kids as individuals, developing in their own ways and at their own times is so important. This post and its analogy just help us realize that more and more. (You will see more about this post soon.)
I learned: Some people really understand that kids are individuals and should be viewed as such (and so many others don't).


Babies Learn from You Every Second (video on DeLorean Facebook Page) - Just watch this small child. Everything she does mimics what the adults were doing, what she saw. A sobering reminder that they are watching and learning from us all the time.

Babies learn from you every second - both good and bad things....
Babies learn from you every second - both good and bad things. This little one picked up on how to do CPR! #lol #adorableLIKE ----->>> DeLorean For more videos.
Posted by DeLorean on Saturday, April 18, 2015

I learned: Each thing I do matters; each word makes an impression.


And one from my own page: He Wrote What?
I learned: Never underestimate what kids will retain, absorb, or do. Allow them to show it.


(For more things I find and enjoy, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest.)

Inspiration from the Blogosphere - 7/14/14

Here are some things that caught my attention this week. I can see all of these becoming a part of my classroom.

Salt Painting (Jojoebi Designs) - Glue design, sprinkle salt, paint with watercolors. I see lots of opportunities for exploration and creativity.

Forensic Science for Kids (Lovable Learning) - Put together a kit to explore forensic science techniques.

Fine Motor Math Game (Pre-K Pages) - Homemade cubes, beans, chenille stems - counting practice...and maybe finding patterns.

DIY Play Dough Toys (Kids Activities Blog) - It's not often that I want to immediately do what a blog post contains. This one made me want to go to the 24-hour Walmart at midnight to get outlet covers. We're definitely trying this.

Spin Art Rocks for Kids (Meri Cherry) - I've seen using a salad spinner to make paintings - and even paint t-shirts. But I haven't see the rock idea.

I liked each of the above ideas because they repurposed or reused items in new ways. I always enjoy that.

I've also been following the Challenging Behaviors book study, collecting those posts on my book study page. Some great stuff in those posts.

And I saw this post about challenging behaviors, too: Perspective - A Powerful Tool for Challenging Behaviors (Not Just Cute)

Anything that really inspired you this week?

More Uno Cards

Sometimes Uno cards are used to play Uno.