SMMART MATH: PUDDING MATH

Make up a batch of pudding with your child’s assistance. Have your child pour the milk into a bowl and whisk at it for a while...

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...I just discovered the easiest way to make boxed pudding mixes! Take a plastic salad dressing tumbler and fill it with the needed amount of milk (so easy, since the measuring lines are right on the plastic tumbler-I picked mine up at a dollar store). Empty in the powder packet and SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE! The directions said to stir for about 3 minutes or so, but I only shook for a little over ONE MINUTE and tah-dah! Done! One container that got messy...no messy utensils and now just pour out the pudding into serving dishes or onto a cookie sheet for this activity.






Let your child smear the pudding over the surface of a cookie sheet. Encourage your child write numbers into the pudding with her finger and then smear the pudding surface smooth again with the back of a spoon. You can even write the pudding numbers and let your child trace your numbers with her finger, if she needs a little direction. Works great for letters too!


Help your child become familiar with math notation. Write math problems into the pudding and help your child solve the problem and write the answer.

“1+1=2”

Lisa

SMMART SCIENCE: 40th Anniversary of Neil Armstrong's Moonwalk

What a great topic to share with your child this week. I'm sure you'll see some media coverage, but here are a few sites to watch together...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINSD7MmT4

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090716-1969-moon-landing-video.html


Check out these sites for some fun moon activities:

http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/the-moon/moon-activities-for-kids/

http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/education/activities/index.htm

"One small step for man...One giant leap for mankind."

-Neil Armstrong 1969 (At 02:56 UTC on July 21 (10:56pm EDT, July 20)

Lisa

SMMART TIME-OUT

Boy do I need a time-out! Wouldn't it be great to send yourself to time-out for a few minutes just to sit down and take a breather...and then continue on.

We just had our new arrival, so I'll be taking a breather for a few weeks, but I'll be sure to post soon...so stay tuned!

SMMART SCIENCE: FOOD GROUP SORTING GAME

This activity will help your child learn about the foods their bodies need to consume from the basic food groups (http://mypyramid.gov/pyramid/index.html).

Write the name of each food group onto paper plates. Talk about what foods belong to each food group and let your child draw foods onto each plate that corresponds with the correct nutritional food group.

Gather several food items from around your home and place them on a table next to the food group plates. You can even gather the exact number of food items to show how many servings we need to eat every day from each food group. Help your child sort the foods by groups and place them onto the corresponding plates.

If more than one child is participating, make two sets of food group plates. Your children can compete to see who can correctly sort the foods the fastest, while pulling from the same food supply.

Alternately, you can use a stopwatch to time each individual child as they sort the food and compare their times to see who is the winner.

Lisa

CHECK OUT THE SMMART Art Segment on "Good Things Utah"

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Be sure to link onto:

http://www.abc4.com/content/about_4/gtu/featured_on/story/Colors-and-Shapes-Recognition/3Df4uT3n006QZSEMofeX2g.cspx

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...to check out the SMMART segment video that abc4 has posted for a limited time. You can also find details about the segment on this link. I'll be posting the actual activity on my blog later this month.

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Thanks for your support and for reading this SMMART blog!