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!

SMMART TIME-OUT FOR TIDBITS

I think that this would be a fun idea for a birthday party...all different colors of crazy straws (names written on their water bottles with a permanent marker or tear off the label and tape on your own).

Poke a small hole into the top of a water bottle cap (The Costco Kirkland brand little water bottles have a cap that allows for easy poking). You can use a small screw driver, ice pick, meat thermometer...just be careful.

The hole should just be big enough to squeeze in the crazy straw...and instant FU N !

Lisa

SMMART READING: LETTERS READY AND AVAILABLE

Whatever method you choose, it is a great resource to have letters readily available and OBVIOUS for your child to play with.

You can have magnetic letters on your fridge or on a whiteboard.

You can post letters up on your child's door or wall with tape. Make sure that the letters are easily reachable for your child to explore and play with.

You can keep foam letters out and about.

My husband purchased this Leap Frog Alphabet/Number learning toy. We keep all of the letters and the audio player on the side of our fridge within reach of our children. This toy is great because it engages little minds and is fun to play with. Put a letter into the audio player and: "P says 'puh', P says 'puh'. Every Letter Makes a Sound. P says 'puh'." I often ask my youngest to bring me the letter "X" and she'll run right over to the fridge and bring it to me...she loved this game even before she could speak!

Whatever the method, be sure to have letters available so your child can become familiar with their shapes and sounds.

Lisa

WATCH for SMMART ART on "GOOD THINGS UTAH"

Tune in on JULY 3- "Good Things Utah" at 10:00am on abc4

for some SMMART ART ideas!