Grade K-2

How to Take ANY Child’s Interest and Turn it Into a Lesson

At-Home Learning, Grade K-2, Science, Social Studies

Last week, I took my students to the park near their house to do some detective work on plants. I noticed early on this year their genuine interest in nature, as the girls were actively picking wish flowers and blowing their seeds across the grass. I determined a perfect lesson to connect to their interests would dig deeper into discovering plants life-cycles.

The teacher tip here is to observe your child first to find a topic of natural interest. In this blog post, I am going to teach you how to turn that interest into a book lesson to engage your child wholeheartedly in the topic. This set-up works for any interest! Though I will be giving you an example of the framework using the book “Plants Can’t Sit Still” by Rebecca E. Hirsch, in case you want to use this content. There is a youtube recorded version of the book here –> Plants Can’t Sit Still.

  1. Start with a Question

A good question sparks dialogue around the topic you are teaching, without giving the child any prompted “right” answer. A question should be simple, easy to comprehend, yet have a complex or not straightforward answer. Often you can get a question from a picture book by identifying what the book is trying to teach, then asking about prior knowledge connected to the topic. For example, a book about trucks going to the dump for a preschooler might be teaching the child how waste management works. For this topic, you might use the question –> Where does our trash go when it leaves the house?

Asking a question is always my favorite part of the lesson, because it’s truly interesting to hear a child’s opinion. Often, their ideas are logical, and force you as the teacher to think about an idea a new way! But the key is . . . they often are not correct.

For my Lesson: Question –> Do plants move?

I started with asking this question, “Do plants move?” and I LOVED the responses my students gave. My older student in 1st grade was quick to say no. I asked her why to learn more. “Plants don’t move because they’re always in one place and they stay there.” She explained. She was right . . . plants do stay in one place, normally. “But what about the wish flowers?” I countered, they move. “Once we blow on them!”

This was super interesting to me, and lead to more discussion about whether a tree specifically moves. To further engage we could have gone on a tree hunt at this point in the lesson and found baby trees, medium trees and big trees, and considered why some trees are so small and some are really big.

2. Discover Something New

Immediately in the first few pages of the book, there is normally something that counters the child’s original theory or at least gives him or her more information about the topic. The teacher tip here is to identify a new discovery a child can make in the first few pages of the text and ask follow-up questions. Examples for this could be something as simple as in the text there is a line that gives new information, or maybe for the dumpster truck example there is a picture that shows a dump truck driving down the street but doesn’t mention the truck yet. This would be a great time to ask your child what he or she sees in the picture and how they think that might connect to trash. Can trucks carry trash? etc. Look at both the text and the pictures for a new discovery.

For my Lesson: Discovery through Text: “Plants don’t have feet or fins or wings, yet they can move in many ways. Look closely and you’ll discover that plants can’t sit still.”

After reading these opening lines of text, my older student was outraged. “That’s not true!” so announced. All they do is sit still. She was not convinced by text alone. We brainstormed reasons why the author might be saying that. What could the author mean? To get a better understanding of what we already knew about plants. Then we flipped the page with anticipation . . .

3. Read until you Finish the Text

Since the purpose of this lesson is to learn more about your child’s interests, I’d advise you to not spend too long on the text for this lesson and spend more time on the next step. Because of this, consider picking a short picture book that will only take you about 5-10 minutes to read. This way, once the text is done, your child is still energized and eager to learn more about this topic rather then tired from sitting in one place.

4. Turn the Book to Life

This is the essential step for this lesson. It’s about experiencing what is in the book! This will look a little different depending on the book you have selected and the topic of discovery. But the goal here is to give your child a better understanding of the text by bringing the text to life. For the truck dumpster book, this might mean visiting the local dump. For a book about bugs this might mean going outside and counting how many different types of bugs we can find outside. For a book about something more fantasy based, like fairies, this might take a little research on your part. I recently went on a family trip to ME where we visited a botanical garden with a fairy-garden designed for children that would be perfect to bring out that creative imaginary side. Often we think that that learning about an interest has to be about something real, but theres truth to even imagined things! At the fairy park you could talk to your child about why they think the park build the fairy-homes out of wood? What else could fairy homes be made out of? or why are there so many bright flowers planted? What kind of feeling do bright flowers bring out?

For my Lesson: Dandelion or Wish Flower?

For this portion of the lesson, we looked at both Dandelions and Wish Flowers and noted their similarities and differences. One thing we found, was that the leaves were actually the same for both flowers which was fascinating. Going back in the text, we noticed that the inner cover of the book actually showed us both the flowers we were looking at in greater detail. It appeared that the flowers both grew from the same seed, and in fact the dandelion actually turned into the wish flower. Woah! This was exciting because we learned that not only do plants not sit still, but actually plants can change appearances completely from one stage of their lives to another. Imagine if humans could do that! Nature is pretty cool. 🙂

As a reflection writing this now, I also realized that another really neat experiential portion of my lesson could have been to go to a sunflower farm. Last week was the end of sunflower season and one of the plants this book focused on was how plants start small and grow tall to reach for the warmth of the sun. This could have been another really cool investigation for this book!

In Conclusion, I hope the ideas from this post serve you well. Remember, you can use any book or any interest for these lessons, so you can easily plan from books and materials you already have at home!! These lessons can even be broken up into two parts to fit busy schedules, perhaps reading during the school week and the “Turn the Book to Life” part happening as a family activity on the weekends. The more connections you can help your child make between school tasks and real world life the better! Enjoy, and get creative 🙂

Become your own Word Problem!

At-Home Learning, Grade K-2, Math

Ah Word Problems.Everyone’s favorite kind of math problem! I remember absolutely dreading whenever one of these written horrors showed up on one of my school work pages. Luckily, there’s a way for you to do a word problem with your child without them even making the association . . . how? become the problem!

It was my student’s birthday this week, so to celebrate I bought her a container of fluffy paint! This fun activity had a little secret though upon unwrapping, it was the base component of a hands-on mathematical afternoon adventure. My word problem went like this-

Painting on Rocks or our Hands?
  1. a. B and E went to the park and collected 20 rocks. When they got home, they decided to paint 6 of the rocks E’s favorite color! How many rocks were left unpainted? (20-6=?)
  1. b. After they painted the 6 rocks, the girls decided to paint 3 more rocks B’s favorite color. How many rocks are now left unpainted?

When disguised as a walk to the park, math becomes just that! We gathered 20 rocks from the outdoors, excited to bring them back to the kitchen to paint. Then we got a little messy, discovering all the joys (puffy paint is puffy!) and horrors (puffy paint is very sticky) associated with the project. Eventually, 6 rocks were painted and ready to dry before we were able to complete the problem.

Although this version of math took a lot longer then your typical work sheet, it was memorable, interactive, and enjoyable by all parties involved. Math was conveyed as an avenue to solve a read-life problem, rather then some characters on a sheet of paper. And even better, this kind of math fit into fun activities my student truly wanted to do during her birthday celebrations! A double win 🙂

So how can you replicate this technique at your house? Get creative. It’s not always about the rigor of the problem, sometimes its about the connections your child can make between math and real life. I challenge parents to use word problems in their child’s everyday routines to get the most out of an ordinary day.

Other examples you could use:

Doing math at bed time:

________ has 18 stuffed animals. _________ brings 5 stuffed animals to bed with him. How many stuffed animals sit in mom’s rocking chair?

Doing math at breakfast:

_______ gets 17 cheerios in his bowl. He eats 11. How many cheerios are left in the bowl?

Doing math when getting dressed:

_______ has 5 dresses, 3 pairs of pants and 4 shirts to choose from when getting dressed. How many clothing items does she have altogether?

How to use what you already have at home to teach!

At-Home Learning, Grade K-2, Literacy, Math

COVID has brought about unprecedented challenges to parents across the globe. One of the largest challenges and areas of debate has been the current role and duty of parents as homeschool teachers for their children. Every school district has been enacting different policies and routines for students to return to school safely, and every child has been put in a unique situation out of their control for how learning will take place this year. I am not a parent, and therefore I cannot frame a post writing from this perspective. I am baffled by how much this is to juggle. That’s why I decided to create this section on my webpage, offering advice, lessons, and tips to current parents struggling to find ideas for easy, hands-on, supplemental activities for their little ones at home. Preschool- 2nd grade is a critical time for development of baseline academic skills! I hope these posts can be helpful 🙂

As a certified elementary and special educator, currently homeschooling a 1st grader and preschooler, my goal is to post lesson ideas that are simple, logical, hands-on and play based for inspiring minds away from the formal classroom. This first post focuses on using things you already have at home to teach academic content more creatively, in a way that will excite your little learner.

  1. Addition and Subtraction with Toys

When I told my 1st Grade student last week that it was time to work on some subtraction she groaned. “But I want to keep making bracelets” she countered. “Okay!” I said, “bring your bracelet stuff with you!” Learning addition and subtraction is already a part of your child’s everyday life, so look for ways you can use it 🙂 Beads are great because your child can easily count out and count on. I gave her subtraction problems and she counted out how many beads she needed to start with. 14-3= meant starting with 14. Since all her beads snapped together, she was quick to note that she needed to use counters that were all the same size to make it easier to count correctly. Each time she removed beads she was able to easily count the remainders. Also since her bead set had the unique feature of snapping together, we were able to end our play time by making groups of 2 out of our 20 beads. She discovered that 10 groups of 2 beads make 20 beads total. Nothing wrong with a little preview of multiplication in 1st Grade! We used her beads for subtraction problems between 1-20, but you could do the same thing for addition with your Kindergartener or multiplication with your Third grader, especially if you have a bead set that snaps together.

Don’t have beads at home? Don’t worry! Beads are simply what I used because it was of my student’s immediate interest. Maybe your child has a dog set at home with 20 dogs. Play doghouse and make it a game- Oh no, 6 dogs ran away, how many dogs are left at the house? Or to have your child practice subtraction by counting up- oh no! There are only 14 dogs at the house? How many are missing!! We used to have 20 dogs! Turning learning into a mystery or using hands-on materials is what kids LOVE and is the base to inquiry-based hands on learning techniques.

Other way to use toys as a counter-

  • Marbles (how many of my 17 marbles went down the marble run?- subtraction/. How many green marbles are there?- Number sense/. How many total marbles are there if there are 3 pink marbles and 4 blue marbles?- addition.)
  • Dominos (Have your child pick the a domino. Use the 2 numbers on the domino to practice addition or subtraction. Make it a game and see who can do the most number of domino subtraction problems in 1 minute!)

2. Transform Reading one of your child’s favorite books into a Sight Word Scavenger Hunt!

Not all kids love to read, but most kids at least have one book that they enjoy for one reason or another. Instead of introducing a new book to your child of which he or she has no interest in, instead use a book your child LOVES in a new way. (This is not suggesting you shouldn’t introduce new texts to your child, OF COURSE, you should be doing that! Instead this is suggesting that for certain literacy concepts, questions, or writing skills, it could be better to use a text your child already enjoys)

One thing I did with my 1st Grade Student is we used a sheet of common 1st Grade Sight words that she needed to know to go on a book scaveneger hunt. I read one of her favorite picture books to her and she sat with the list actively looking for words that matched what she had on her paper. (I had to help her a little to find all the words!) Once we found a word that matched we stopped where we were in the book. I asked her to repeat the word, and spell it looking at the spelling in the text. She then wrote down the word in her notebook. (Later in the year I would have had her also right down the phrase it came from, but we aren’t there yet). We then circled the word on her list so that we could keep track of how many words we found! By the end of the book, we had found, read, written, and circled 16 sight words- a huge accomplishment.

Other activities with your child’s favorite picture book-

  • Read through pictures! Instead of reading the words to your child, have your child read the pictures to you. This will create a whole new interpretation of the text, and you both might discover something about the story you never knew existed. Make sure to ask clarifying questions to your child about the characters, setting, and major events based on what he or she “reads.” When you’re done reading the pictures, go back through the text together and discuss how the pictures compare to the words on the text. Ask your child- Why do you think the author included certain ideas in the pictures?
  • Question brainstorm- Read your child their favorite story but go slow, stopping on each page. Ask your child to come up with as many questions they can about the story on each page (or each full-page spread). You could do this for the whole book, or only a couple favorite pages. Once you’re done with the book, go back through and see what questions you can answer! Maybe your child asked a plot question on page one that they now have the answer for! Maybe your child asked a scientific question about why the tree has orange leaves and it’s time for you to do some research together to learn about why leaves change colors. The options are endless for this activity 🙂

In conclusion, learning is about engagement. Unfortunately, with zoom calls and google classroom being the go to strategy for most remote learning school plans, it can be hard to get kids curious about learning and active in academics. My hope is that this blog post gave you some ideas as a power parent and educator about how remote learning can be something as simple as a bed-time book turned scavenger hunt 🙂 The goal is not to add more to your plate, but change your mindset around what learning looks like. So that any parent, full-time supermom or dad, will be able to add hands-on learning to their child’s day.