Monday, November 17, 2008

Thanksgiving Ideas for Our American Friends

Up here in Canada we celebrated Thanksgiving back in Oct, but for our American friends, here's some quick and easy ways to have fun and incorporate literacy activities for your little ones at Turkey Time.

Aunts, Uncles, Grannies and Grampas love receiving homemade items. Your child can easily make a 'turkey' with some paint, piece of paper and the poem below.

1. Paint your child's palm and thumb brown, and each finger a feather colour (red, yellow, orange etc). Press hand onto paper to create the turkey body.
When dry, paint the tip of the index finger red and put on thumbprint for the turkey’s waddle. Use orange marker to make beak and feet and black marker for eyes. Add this poem beneath the turkey handprint:

This isn’t just a turkey,
As anyone can see.
I made it with my little hand
Which is a part of me.
It comes with lots of love
Especially to say:
I hope you have a very
Happy Thanksgiving Day!

2. Have little ones practise their printing by decorating and printing names on cards for the dinner table. Use stickers, cut out Thanksgiving pictures from magazines or flyers.

3. I am Thankful Turkey
Attach a turkey body to a construction paper background. On the body, write, ”I am thankful I can read these words.” Write words on feathers. Glue on feathers of words they can read. Kids can also (with help) write phrases of things they are thankful for (food, family, shelter etc) and draw a picture.

Some of these ideas are courtesy of http://www.littlegiraffes.com/thanksgiving.html where there are lots more Thanksgiving ideas.

Gobble, Gobble !

Friday, November 14, 2008

FREE HOLIDAY SHIPPING

Consider it our little gift to you - The Little Stamp Co is offering free holiday shipping for Canadian and US Residents. Check out www.littlestamp.com and use the coupon code 'freeship' for your holiday order.

What a great gift or stocking stuffer - teaching a child to print their name in a fun and interactive way with the Little Stamp Co.'s Learn to Print 'My Name' stamps.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Scrub A Dub Dub

Bath time is a great time to introduce literacy activities. You have a captivated, somewhat contained audience and literacy can easily become part of the bath time routine.

Here are some great ideas from www.pbskids.org

1. Keep books and magazines available in the bathroom. Your home should have reading matter everywhere. Show kids that you read and that books are available all around them. Help kids read the words on the toothpaste label and the instructions on shampoo.

2. Sing songs together at your kids' bathtime. Be as loud as you can be! Make up new songs.
Have kids play imagination games and role play with bath toys. Is that sponge really a shark? A mermaid? A pirate?

3. Try bath crayons. They let kids write on tile and it washes right off.

4. Take the opportunity to learn the names of body parts. Can they wash in alphabetical order? Wash that ARM before your BACK or CHIN.

5. Chat to your kids in the bath. Can you think of a better time when they have your attention? Conversation is really important as your kids learn to read, write, listen and speak. You are their primary model.

6. Write with your finger on steamy windows.

7. Use the bathroom mirror to experiment with reading mirror-writing.
Take that one step further, and try to write in mirror-writing so that you can read it in the mirror.


Lee-Ann O'Neill is the mompreneur behind The Little Stamp Co. where big ideas for little printers such as our Signature Stamp for learning to print engage active and curious kids!