Strong or Weak: A Nutrition Game

*This post does contain Amazon Affiliate links.

Life has been very busy here at the Creative Family household, so I've been very pleased to have been able to provide you with some fabulous guest posts. Today, I'd like to welcome Malia from Playdough to Plato. Take it away Malia!

  

Several years ago, my oldest son was at the beginning of his first picky eater phase. Hoping to make dinner time more enjoyable, I asked a parent educator to share her favorite survival tips. One of the simplest suggestions she mentioned was the one that helped my son the most: she taught children to call healthy food "strong" and junk food "weak". By using words that explained how the foods would make them feel when they were finished eating, kids were motivated to eat healthier.   I immediately decided to make the vocabulary switch in our home too. That night, I placed my son's plate in front of him and pointed out all of the strong foods he'd be eating. We had a nice, two-year-old conversation about the difference between "strong" and "weak foods" and then, to my surprise, he picked up his spoon and started eating. No complaints. No food on the floor.   We have been using those same words ever sense and I'm convinced that they have saved us from countless picky eater tantrums. I thought it would be fun to share the trick with all of you by creating a simple, kid-friendly game to help make the learning curve move quickly.   To play Strong-Weak, I first gathered a few supplies:

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar book (optional)
• A pile of strong foods and weak foods
• A long piece of tape
• Two signs: One that says "strong" and one that says "weak"

  My now 3.5 year old son and I cozied up to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar together. It was the perfect introduction to our game because the caterpillar feels so sick after eating the cupcake, lollipop and other weak treats.

Then, I invited him over to our play space. The pile of food was spread out on a tray. Directly in front of it was a piece of tape sandwiched between the signs "strong" and "weak" like this:

It was time for my son to get to work sorting. He raced from the food pile to the labels, laying each item in the right spot. Most foods landed either on the right or left side, but he decided to place a few (including this box of macaroni and cheese) smack dab in the middle since it was a little of both.

Strong-Weak was a perfect combination of fun and nutritional learning. I hope your family will enjoy this picky eater trick too!

Meet Malia

Malia is a former kindergarten teacher turned stay at home mom who shares hands-on reading, writing and math games at Playdough to Plato. Stop by to download a free set of alphabet tracing cards and follow the blog by email.

   

   

Read more »

Posted in: In the Kitchen,preschool corner

Explore the World One E-Book at a Time

You may have already heard about my e-book series or you may have not. Either way, I want to tell you about them again and share some great changes. The big change is that I've changed my selling platform to TeachersPayTeachers. I'm hoping to get more eyes on the books from teachers, homeschoolers, parents and grandparents. It's easier for both me and you to navigate, pay, and download the books. It's a win-win all around. Oh, and the best part - Project Around the World: New York City is now free. Yep, you heard right, FREE!

Go quickly and grab your copy!

What will you find? You'll explore New York City through crafts, math, and writing projects. You'll find cityscape printmaking, subway acrostic poems, and more. In addition, you'll find many resources to plan your own exploration of New York City.

The projects are perfect for elementary-aged children and can also be easily adapted for preschoolers. They are easy to do and you should have most of the supplies needed at home.

And if you enjoy it, I would greatly appreciate a rating at TeachersPayTeachers. Spread the word. Pin it, share it, and tell all your friends. 

While you're there, you can also grab your copy of Project Around the World: Alaska for only $5.00. Why the price difference? There are more projects, including some that I created exclusively for this book. I've created projects to help you explore the culture and geography of Alaska. Learn about the state animal, the moose, and the state fish, the salmon, through fun projects. Create a family totem pole and learn about the Native culture in Alaska. Or practice your storytelling skills with some Alaska-themed story starters. Oh, and there are even more projects, seven in all, plus a fun-facts section, and an extensive resource section with books and websites all about Alaska. 

You'll find it here at TeachersPayTeachers!

I'm very excited about this e-book series and plan on creating even more. I have a stack of books all about Washington DC ready to work on. Yay! I'm also planning a book about China and one about Australia. And, that is just the tip of the iceberg! We love learning about different cultures and it's been difficult to find crafts and activities to help us learn. So, I started creating my own and want to share it with others.

Thank you so much for supporting this endeavor and I hope you find it valuable!

Go grab your free copy of Project Around the World: New York City. 

Then read it, share it, pin it!

   

Read more »

Posted in: Alaska,Around the World,blog business,ebook,New York City

10 Ways to Play This Weekend: Week 41

1. Create with homemade ice chalk from Reading Confetti
2. Play in your own DIY backyard water park with Learning 4 Kids
3. Make pretty pinwheels with Red Ted Art
4. Go on an outdoor alphabet treasure hunt with B-Inspired Mama
5. Build a craft stick chain reaction with Frugal Fun for Boys. Awesome!!
6. Play a fun movement game, Move Like a Gymnast, with Creative Family Fun (No special skills required!)
7. Play math bingo with Teach Mama
8. Make a mini pond in your garden with Sunny Day Today Mama
9. Make DIY dancing bells and dance, dance, dance with Rainy Day Mum
10. Make your own pipe cleaning bubble wands with Life with Moore Babies

How are you going to play this weekend?

   

   

Read more »

Posted in: ways to play

Hands-On Flower Diagram

I'd like to share another fabulous guest post today. Please welcome Ashley from Me & Marie Learning.

With Spring in full swing, we are seeing flowers everywhere!  

I wanted to help my young learners visualize the process of how a flower grows.  Among many other activities, we created a Hands-On Flower Diagram.  We talked about what a diagram is and how it helps us learn.  The best part about this diagram is that it uses materials you most likely already have on hand!

Start by gathering the following materials:

Straws

Brown yarn or string

Cupcake liner

Seeds (You could use sunflower seeds or any seeds you have.  I only had lima                   beans!)

Leaf cutout or real leaf

Diagram labels (You can print them off here.)

Construction paper

Glue and tape the materials to create a diagram, just like in the pictures below.

Help children understand the function of each part of the flower.  For example, just like a straw, the flower's stem sucks water up from the roots.  Work through each part of the flower and add labels after discussing the functions.

Now, when your children see real flowers within pots or in the ground, they will know exactly how the parts of that flower works!

***********************************************

Thank you Ashley for such a fun project!

Ashley is the owner of Me & Marie Learning, a blog all about early learning.  She has taken some time off teaching in a traditional setting to be at home with her young children. Ashley is now an in-home childcare provider, teaching her own and other children in her preschool room.  Ashley has a degree in Elementary Education and Early Childhood Education with a Master’s Degree in Reading and Literacy.

   

   

Read more »

Posted in: afterschooling,Exploring Nature,preschool corner,Science

All About Monkeys: A Learning Basket

**Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Thank you for your support.*

Recently my girls decided they wanted to learn everything they could about monkeys. And not just monkeys, all primates. We went to the library and checked out books about monkeys, chimpanzees, and gorillas. We got both fiction and nonfiction. Then we settled in for a day all about monkeys.

I filled a basket with all the supplies we would need for our projects and wrote down all the projects we were going to try. We started by reading. We read as many books as we could handle, then we moved on to our projects. (See Amazon carousel below for book recommendations.)

Next, we made little books to remember what we learned. We drew pictures of what monkeys ate, where they lived, and even traced our hands since monkeys have similar hands to ours. The booklets were simple. I cut pieces of brown construction paper in half, and then folded each of those halves in half. I sandwiched two together and then stapled them along the folds. 

We also did a fun hand print craft that I found on Red Ted Art. They turned out so cute!

Next we made monkey masks. I was inspired by this paper plate craft on Learn Create Love. Here's what we did.

Supplies Needed:

Paper plate

Brown paint

Brown construction paper

Glue 

Scissors

Large craft stick

We painted our paper plate brown. While they were drying, we cut our mouth and ears out of brown construction paper. We traced a sour cream lid for the mouth circle and the lid to one of my spice bottles for the ears. After the paint was dry, I helped the girls by cutting out the eye holes.

The girls glued their mouth and ears onto their paper plates and used a black marker to add the details. They also glued a craft stick onto the bottom of their masks so that they could hold it up to their face. Then it was time to run around and act like monkeys - OohOohAahAah!

We had lots of fun learning about monkeys. You can see some of books we used in the carousel below.

   

   

Read more »

Posted in: afterschooling,Crafts,Get Crafty