My Education Junction

Yes,  I am 2 days late. But shouldn’t everyday be Earth Day?

I wrote up a post several days before Earth Day, but the weather has been beautiful. Consequently, I have been weeding in my backyard rather than spending time online. Believe me, I’ve got a lot of weeds! Just remember you don’t need a special day  to pay tribute to our planet:)

Earth Day is celebrated officially on April 22nd, but there is no reason you can’t make everyday Earth Day at your house.  We’re are our children’s biggest role models. If you demonstrate a conscious concern for the conservation of our planet, your children will follow in your footsteps.

Introducing your children to Earth Day is as simple as reading a book. One of my favorite books is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. It is about  a young boy who  over the course of his life benefits from all a tree has to offer, until finally he has depleted all of the tree’s resources. The  young boy, now an old man, returns to the tree finding the tree  nothing more than a stump. The old man gladly takes a seat to rest his weary bones. You see, the giving tree continues to give even when it has nothing left.  This is a wonderful book to read to your children. Consider reading it and then follow up by planting a tree or a small flower garden.  Container gardens are a wonderful option for those lacking space.
Other Earth Day Activities

Create a Backyard Weather Station

Create a Backyard Habitat

Create a Bird Feeder

Did you know that the National Arbor Day Foundation offers 10 free trees with its membership? Check it out!

Happy Earth Day Everyday!

Filed under: Holidays on April 25th, 2007 | No Comments »

I love Dine Without Whine, because they a offer some great recipes and tips that make life in the kitchen a little less hectic. Here is a Free Dine Without Whine Mother’s Day Ebook filled with crafts and recipes. Thank you Dine Without Whine. You’re awesome!

Dine Without Whine- Mother’s Day Ebook

Filed under: Holidays on April 24th, 2007 | No Comments »

After seeing The Greedy Triangle listed on a number of math concept reading lists, I decided to go to the library and check out a copy. Written by Marilyn Burns, The Greedy Triangle introduces children to polygons by recognizing shapes found in their environment. For example, a triangle is so much more than a three-sided shape. It is a piece of pie, a half of a sandwich and the roof of a house. The triangle is greedy because he is never satisfied with his shape and continually seeks the help of a “shapeshifter” in order to get more sides and more angles. It is through his quest to find the perfect shape that children are introduced to quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons and more.

After reading the book I gave my son a bag of Twizzlers. Here are some pictures of the polygons he created.

Polygons -A closed plane figure made up of several line segments that are joined together. The sides do not cross each other. Exactly two sides meet at every vertex. To see more examples of polygons visit Math is Fun.

Filed under: Math on April 19th, 2007 | No Comments »

What child doesn’t grow up with Dr. Seuss books? We have quite a few of them lying around the house. The kids love the silly characters and the rhymes. The Dr. Seuss inspired recipes and activities that I’m about to share with you have been a great hit in our house. Of course the famous green eggs and ham are included, but there are also quite a few other snack and meal ideas. Create a fun Dr. Seuss inspired afternoon with some of these recipes and of course don’t forget to read a few of the books with your kids. (If you don’t own any, enjoy a trip to your local library.)

Green Eggs and Ham
This has to be the most famous Dr. Seuss inspired dish. Scramble a few eggs, add a couple of drops of blue food coloring to the mixture and cook as usual. You can serve a warmed up slice of ham with it, and if you want to go all out, brush the ham with a little green food coloring.
My kids love either biscuits, or mashed potatoes with this dish. Add a little food coloring (either green, or a complimentary color like red) to the biscuit dough or the finished mashed potatoes for even more fun.

Cat in The Hat Snack
Make the Cat’s Hat for a fun snack. All you need is a few Ritz crackers, gummy lifesavers (preferably in white/clear and red) and a little vanilla frosting. Put the Ritz cracker on a plate. Use a little bit of vanilla frosting to glue the first lifesaver on the cracker. “Glue” more lifesavers on top of the first one alternating between red and white.
These snacks are so cute; you may want to take a picture of your child’s creation before it is devoured.

Wiggly Fish
This snack was inspired by “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”. Prepare several different colors of Jello according to package directions and pour each flavor into a shallow pan. Use a fish shaped cookie cutter to cut the Jello into fish shapes. (If you don’t have a fish shaped cookie cutter you could also just cut fish shapes with a knife.) You can also add small pieces of fruit to the Jello mixture before it cools. This is a great way to sneak an extra serving of fruit into your child’s diet.

Pink Ink for The Yink
The Yink in “One Fish, Two Fish” love to drink pink ink. Make your own version by combining a few strawberries (either fresh, or frozen and thawed) and some milk in a blender. Add a few drops of red food coloring if the “ink” isn’t pink enough.

A Fruity Hat For The Cat
How about this for a fun Sunday breakfast? Whip up a batch of silver dollar pancakes and cut up some fresh strawberries. Grab some whipped cream and let the kids assemble the Cat’s hat by stacking pancakes, and strawberries on top of each other using the whipped cream as “glue”.
Enjoy a few of these Dr. Seuss recipes and activities with your family, or invite a few neighbor kids over for a Dr. Seuss party. Either way they are a lot of fun and a great way to bring some of the Seuss stories to life.

Want more family friendly recipes and crafts ideas? Visit Dine Without Whine for a sample weekly menu plan your entire family will love and www.kinderinfo.com for tons of craft and activity ideas that are sure to keep your little ones entertained.

Filed under: Rainy Day Recipes on April 18th, 2007 | No Comments »

Sure it’s cold outside, but that doesn’t mean it’s too cold to find butterflies. You just need to know where to look. Below is a list of Ohio Butterfly exhibits.

Butterflies & Blooms
March 17^th thru September 3^rd
Franklin Park Conservatory
Columbus, OH

Butterfly Festival
July 21^st and 22^nd
Cox Arboretum
Dayton, OH

Butterfly House
Opens April 1st
Whitehouse, OH

Butterflies in Flight
May 11^th thru October 7^th
Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens
Akron, OH

Butterflies out of Africa
May 12^th thru June 24^th
Krohn Conservatory
Cincinnati, OH

You don’t have to leave your home to see butterflies. In fact, you can raise your own. It is incredibly simple to do. There are many places on the internet that sell butterfly kits. Last year we bought a kit from Insect Lore. After waiting approximately 3 weeks we had 8 beautiful butterflies. I allowed my son to keep them for 3 days before releasing them. It was a bitter sweet experience that gave him a small taste of parenthood.

If your children are interested in learning more about native Ohio butterflies check out this guide by the Ohio Lepidopterists: Ohio Butterfly Species

Filed under: Science, Summer Break on April 14th, 2007 | No Comments »

What are Dolch Sight Words? Dolch sight words are high frequency words found in children’s books. Below is a list of 220 sight words grouped by grade level.

Pre- Primer	Primer	First	Second	Third
A	All	After	Always	About
And	Am	Again	Around	Better
Away	Are	An	Because	Bring
Big	At	Any	Been	Carry
Blue	Ate	As	Before	Clean
Can	Be	Ask	Best	Cut
Come	Black	By	Both	Done
Down	Brown	Could	Buy	Draw
Find	But	Every	Call	Drink
For	Came	Fly	Cold	Eight
Funny	Did	From	Does	Fall
Go	Do	Give	Don’t	Far
Help	Eat	Going	Fast	Full
Hers	Four	Had	First	Got
I	Get	Has	Five	Grow
In	Good	Her	Found	Hold
Is	Has	Him	Gave	Hot
It	He	How	Goes	Hurt
Jump	Into	Just	Green	If
Little	Like	Know	Its	Keep
Look	Must	Let	Made	Kind
Make	New	Live	Many	Laugh
Me	No	May	Off	Light
My	Now	Of	Or	Long
Not	On	Old	Pull	Much
One	Our	Once	Read	Myself
Play	Out	Open	Right	Never
Red	Please	Over	Sing	Only
Run	Pretty	Put	Sit	Own
Said	Ran	Round	Sleep	Pick
See	Ride	Some	Tell	Seven
The	Saw	Stop	Their	Shall
Three	Say	Take	These	Show
To	She	Thank	Those	Six
Two	So	Them	Upon	Small
Up	Soon	Then	Us	Start
We	That	Think	Use	Ten
Yellow	There	Walk	Very	Today
You	They	Where	Wash	Together
	This	When	Which	Try
	Too		Why	Warm
	Under		Wish
	Want		Work
	Was		Would
	Well		Write
	Went		Your
	What
	White
	Who
	Will
	With
	Yes

Here is a great site for creating Dolch flashcards and worksheets. CLICK

Filed under: Reading on April 13th, 2007 | No Comments »

My son loves to cook. It gives him a great sense of accomplishment when he is able to make something his whole family will enjoy.  Here are two fun recipes to make with your kids.  As always, cooking requires adult supervision

English Muffin Pizzas1 pkg. English muffins
1 can pizza sauce
1 (8 oz.) pkg. Mozzarella cheeseToppings- let your children design their own pizza. Cut veggies, pineapple or pepperoni into small pieces and place into individual cups or bowls, allowing them to be creative.

Split the muffins in halves. Spoon pizza sauce over muffins so the surface is thinly covered. Sprinkle cheese on top. Add any additional toppings. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Mini Fruit Pizzas

1 package of refrigerated sugar cookie dough
8 ounces of Philadelphia cream cheese
1 cup of confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla
Assorted fresh fruit cut into bite size pieces
Strawberries, kiwis, bananas, grapes, pineapple, oranges, blueberries, mango, peaches, pears, etc.
½ cup of fruit preserves- any flavor
1 tablespoon water

Cut the cookie dough into 1 inch slices. Places slices evenly across a ungreased cookie sheet. Bake as directed on the cookie dough package.

While cookies cool mix together cream cheese, vanilla and confectioners sugar.  In a microwave safe bowl combine fruit preserves and 1 tablespoon of water together. Heat in the microwave for approximately 30-45 seconds. Stir mixture and set aside (to be used as glaze).

Once cookies have cooled, spread cream cheese mixture generously on each cookie. Decorate the top of each cookie with fruit(s) of your choice and spoon glaze over the fruit topping. Enjoy!

Filed under: Rainy Day Recipes on April 11th, 2007 | No Comments »