Reader Guest Post: The Number Race

Hands On As We Grow https://ift.tt/2qMBt4K

Click here to read Reader Guest Post: The Number Race on Hands On As We Grow

---

For reference, her original email to us (maybe add a snippet as a quote?):

Hi Jaime,

Your sight word activities inspired me to try a variety of activities with my daughter’s sight words and addition and subtraction flash cards. I would love to share her favorites (like the number race)!

Thank you.

Michelle

 

———– ARTICLE BELOW ———-

My daughter’s kindergarten homework includes sight word and addition and subtraction flash cards. The teacher encouraged us to find creative ways to work with the flash cards. I found some inspiration from these posts {https://ift.tt/2qLZkl8} and then developed a few of our own ideas.

The Got-it-right Race
One day my daughter moaned and groaned about doing her sight word flash cards. I thought it might help to get her up and moving. I had her stand across the kitchen from me. I held up a card and when she got it right she could run across the room to grab the card from my hand, then run back to her spot. This simple change in position changed her from moaning and groaning to asking to do it two more times!

The Number Race
We lay out all of the addition and subtraction cards, equation side up. We stand together on the other side of the room and take turns calling out a number from 0-5. Then we race across the room and collect as many cards as we can that equal the number that was called out. When we have collected all of them we race back to the other side of the room and call out another number.

Alternates:
– Lay out only addition or subtraction cards, not both, in the early stages with the cards.
– Collect one card at a time (running back and forth between) for a more intense activity.

The Hiding Game
The point of this game is for me to find the sight words that my daughter hides. Step 1 is to write out all the sight words so that we make sure we find them all. Next, I busy myself while she hides the flash cards. Then, as I find the sight words, she says each word and crosses it off of the list until we have found them all.

Alternates:
– For a quicker game eliminate the list part and just count how many cards you have to make sure you find them all.
– Or make a master list to use each time you play the game.

The Question Game
This game was inspired by Guess Who. First we lay all the sight words out on the table. She picks a word (without telling me what it is). I ask questions like:
– Does your word have 3 letters?
– Does your word have an a in it?
– Does your word begin/end with a d?

Based on her answers I flip upside down the cards that are eliminated.

Once I’ve guessed her word we reset and switch places with her asking the questions.

Alternate questions depending on what they are currently learning and what words they have could include:
– Does it rhyme with ______?
– Does it include an “ah” sound?
– Does it live on a farm?
– Etc.

 

PHOTOS OF “THE NUMBER RACE”

 

PHOTOS OF THE “GOT IT RIGHT RACE”

BIO to include at the bottom:
Can be formatted like this one: https://ift.tt/2q56OjI

(Note: I am just getting my blog up and running but it will be officially launched before you publish this. Let me know once you have a publish date so I can set a target launch date.)

Michelle is a busy mom to a three year old and a five year old. She is the founder of Passion for a Cause (passionforacause.com), where she helps busy moms discover an outlet for their grief.

Mother’s Day Craft for Kids to Make: 3D Flower Cards

Hands On As We Grow https://ift.tt/2qIak38

Click here to read Mother’s Day Craft for Kids to Make: 3D Flower Cards on Hands On As We Grow

---

Build a 3D flower card in this fun Mother’s Day craft for kids! This is a great way to give flowers to Mom or Grandma and get creative, too.

I am totally loving these flower cards the kids made for a Mother’s Day craft for kids to make. It’s a great gift for Grandma (and myself!).

In previous years, we’ve made bouquets of flowers for Grandma. We could have totally made these into a bouquet too.

Instead, we made homemade cards this time. This Mother’s Day craft for kids is really easy, and fun, to make.

Here are 10 more cute flower crafts to make for Mother’s Day!

The boys ask to paint all the time. Usually, it doesn’t turn into much by itself, especially when I leave it completely open.

This time I just had them paint on bright, pretty, colorful scrapbook paper in coordinating bright, pretty colors. Pinks and oranges mostly.

They painted them however they liked, smeared it around, made prints with cookie cutters, and ended up finger painting most of it.

With those painted papers, I cut out three sizes of circles. As many as I could fit on there.

Henry could have helped out with cutting because the circles don’t have to be anywhere near perfect, but he was super excited about getting PVC pipes for his birthday. He didn’t want anything to do with the cutting.

So I cut all the circles out myself.

When we got to the next step, the boys were very interested again!

Now that we had three sizes of circles, the boys crumpled each circle up and then kind of flatten it out again.

We had a lot of circles to do!

The crumpling is to give the flowers a little bit of a 3D effect and to look a little like flower petals.

The boys stacked up the circles by size. One large, one medium and then a small.

Then, we glued them together. We used Washable Mod Podge, (affiliate link) because we had some leftover from the L we made for Louis’ room.

This part was definitely tricky for George. He wasn’t quite ready to do this on his own and needed quite a bit of help.

There’s 10 more stunning flower crafts for the kids to make! They’d be perfect for homemade gifts or cards!

For the middle of each flower, we glued on a button. George was super excited to do this part and he wanted to put that on right away for each flower!

And repeat, repeat, repeat until we made all the circles into very colorful flowers.

Henry and George both drew stems, leaves, and grass onto folded scrapbook paper.

I first had them draw in green crayons, but they were barely showing up. Later, I had Henry retrace his (and I retraced George’s) with green Oil Pastels (affiliate link).

Now, those showed up bright! Perfect!

And then with a dab of glue to attach the flower to their stems to finish off the cards!

As Mother’s Day comes up, I’ll have Henry write a quick note to Grandma inside!

I seriously just love these flowers and this Mother’s Day craft for kids!

And the whole cards turned out pretty dang cute too, I think! I just love their colors!

A gorgeous Mother’s Day craft for kids to make!

Bonus: Mother’s Day Craft from the Kids!

We had so many flowers left over, that both George and Henry got to make a piece of art to hang up in the playroom, too!

More Mother’s Day crafts for kids to make:

• 10 Flower Crafts for Mother’s Day
• Non-Flower Crafts for Mom or Grandma

Mother’s Day Craft for Kids to Make: 3D Flower Cards

Hands On As We Grow https://ift.tt/2qIak38

Click here to read Mother’s Day Craft for Kids to Make: 3D Flower Cards on Hands On As We Grow

---

Build a 3D flower card in this fun Mother’s Day craft for kids! This is a great way to give flowers to Mom or Grandma and get creative, too.

I am totally loving these flower cards the kids made for a Mother’s Day craft for kids to make. It’s a great gift for Grandma (and myself!).

In previous years, we’ve made bouquets of flowers for Grandma. We could have totally made these into a bouquet too.

Instead, we made homemade cards this time. This Mother’s Day craft for kids is really easy, and fun, to make.

Here are 10 more cute flower crafts to make for Mother’s Day!

The boys ask to paint all the time. Usually, it doesn’t turn into much by itself, especially when I leave it completely open.

This time I just had them paint on bright, pretty, colorful scrapbook paper in coordinating bright, pretty colors. Pinks and oranges mostly.

They painted them however they liked, smeared it around, made prints with cookie cutters, and ended up finger painting most of it.

With those painted papers, I cut out three sizes of circles. As many as I could fit on there.

Henry could have helped out with cutting because the circles don’t have to be anywhere near perfect, but he was super excited about getting PVC pipes for his birthday. He didn’t want anything to do with the cutting.

So I cut all the circles out myself.

When we got to the next step, the boys were very interested again!

Now that we had three sizes of circles, the boys crumpled each circle up and then kind of flatten it out again.

We had a lot of circles to do!

The crumpling is to give the flowers a little bit of a 3D effect and to look a little like flower petals.

The boys stacked up the circles by size. One large, one medium and then a small.

Then, we glued them together. We used Washable Mod Podge, (affiliate link) because we had some leftover from the L we made for Louis’ room.

This part was definitely tricky for George. He wasn’t quite ready to do this on his own and needed quite a bit of help.

There’s 10 more stunning flower crafts for the kids to make! They’d be perfect for homemade gifts or cards!

For the middle of each flower, we glued on a button. George was super excited to do this part and he wanted to put that on right away for each flower!

And repeat, repeat, repeat until we made all the circles into very colorful flowers.

Henry and George both drew stems, leaves, and grass onto folded scrapbook paper.

I first had them draw in green crayons, but they were barely showing up. Later, I had Henry retrace his (and I retraced George’s) with green Oil Pastels (affiliate link).

Now, those showed up bright! Perfect!

And then with a dab of glue to attach the flower to their stems to finish off the cards!

As Mother’s Day comes up, I’ll have Henry write a quick note to Grandma inside!

I seriously just love these flowers and this Mother’s Day craft for kids!

And the whole cards turned out pretty dang cute too, I think! I just love their colors!

A gorgeous Mother’s Day craft for kids to make!

Bonus: Mother’s Day Craft from the Kids!

We had so many flowers left over, that both George and Henry got to make a piece of art to hang up in the playroom, too!

More Mother’s Day crafts for kids to make:

• 10 Flower Crafts for Mother’s Day
• Non-Flower Crafts for Mom or Grandma

Music Art : Tin Can Drums

Hands On As We Grow https://ift.tt/2J28Yrw

Click here to read Music Art : Tin Can Drums on Hands On As We Grow

---

Upcycle your soup and vegetable cans into tin can drums with this super fun art activity!

We’ve been on a tin can binge, so Henry and I had to make these drums from tin cans, too!

DIY Upcycled Tin Can Drums

During my hunt for balloon ideas, I adapted this tin can drum idea from both Quirky Momma and Mini-Eco.

Play with balloons with this fun balloon science activity!

Since Father’s Day is this coming Sunday, and his Dad used to be a drummer, I thought these would make a perfect gift from Henry!

I may fill the tin can drums up with some goodies before Sunday, too! They make a great gift box.

As always, working beside Henry usually proves to be more productive than just watching and telling him what to do.

Henry started painting with green paint. He covered the entire can with paint, inside and out!

No worries on a sharp edge on these cans, these came from Grandma. We had to raid her recycling bin because her can opener creates a nice, smooth edge!

He added a splash of orange and blue to his tin can for a little color. He only painted the one can, but I was impressed with the amount of time he spent to cover it completely.

Once the paint dried, I cut off the end of a balloon and slipped it over the top of the tin can drum.

If there ends up with a little bubble in the middle of the balloon, take it off and snip a little more off the end and try again.

I added a second layer of balloons to two of the tin can drums and snipped holes in it like Quirky Momma did with her tin can drum activity.

I also had added rice, pasta, and some rocks to each of the tin can drums to make shakers! Henry shook them to hear their different noises.

He also drummed them loudly, having lots of fun!

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!

Love,

Henry & George

Our other tin can activities:

• DIY Windchimes
• Tin Can Forest

Featured on:

Music Art : Tin Can Drums

Hands On As We Grow https://ift.tt/2J28Yrw

Click here to read Music Art : Tin Can Drums on Hands On As We Grow

---

Upcycle your soup and vegetable cans into tin can drums with this super fun art activity!

We’ve been on a tin can binge, so Henry and I had to make these drums from tin cans, too!

DIY Upcycled Tin Can Drums

During my hunt for balloon ideas, I adapted this tin can drum idea from both Quirky Momma and Mini-Eco.

Play with balloons with this fun balloon science activity!

Since Father’s Day is this coming Sunday, and his Dad used to be a drummer, I thought these would make a perfect gift from Henry!

I may fill the tin can drums up with some goodies before Sunday, too! They make a great gift box.

As always, working beside Henry usually proves to be more productive than just watching and telling him what to do.

Henry started painting with green paint. He covered the entire can with paint, inside and out!

No worries on a sharp edge on these cans, these came from Grandma. We had to raid her recycling bin because her can opener creates a nice, smooth edge!

He added a splash of orange and blue to his tin can for a little color. He only painted the one can, but I was impressed with the amount of time he spent to cover it completely.

Once the paint dried, I cut off the end of a balloon and slipped it over the top of the tin can drum.

If there ends up with a little bubble in the middle of the balloon, take it off and snip a little more off the end and try again.

I added a second layer of balloons to two of the tin can drums and snipped holes in it like Quirky Momma did with her tin can drum activity.

I also had added rice, pasta, and some rocks to each of the tin can drums to make shakers! Henry shook them to hear their different noises.

He also drummed them loudly, having lots of fun!

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!

Love,

Henry & George

Our other tin can activities:

• DIY Windchimes
• Tin Can Forest

Featured on:

Science Experiment: Make Music with Water

Hands On As We Grow https://ift.tt/2JRuFf1

Click here to read Science Experiment: Make Music with Water on Hands On As We Grow

---

Learn how to make music with water in this super simple classic science experiment from Rachel.

All you need for this classic science experiment is a few matching glasses, a spoon and water. It doesn’t get much simpler than that!

Check out these other super easy set-up activities!

I don’t know about you, but I remember doing this experiment when I was a kid, both at home and in school. It is a really fun and easy way to explore the science of sound!

How to Make Music with Water

It’s honestly super simple. Grab a few glasses.

Make sure they are the roughly the same size. It makes everything work a little better.

Now, fill the glasses with different amounts of water. You could get super accurate here and measure the water if you want to try to create specific notes/pitches.

I just filled a pitcher and had Hannah help me pour a little in one, more in the next, etc.

Last, I gave Hannah a spoon and showed her how to tap it on the glass. If you have a really young child or a very enthusiastic one, I would use a plastic spoon to minimize the risk of breakage.

I knew Hannah would be fine, so we just used a metal cereal spoon.

Make Music with Water Science:

Tapping the spoon on the glass creates a vibration sending a sound wave through the water in the glass. Each glass makes a different sound because the sound wave travels at different speeds through the water.

The speed of the sound wave depends on the amount of water in the glass.

The glass with the most water makes the lowest sound because the sound waves travel the slowest. The glass with the least water makes the highest sound because the sound waves travel the fastest.

An older child might be really interested in a simple explanation of sound waves and how they work.

For Hannah, we compared the sounds each glass made and the amount of water in each glass. I knew she wouldn’t understand what a “high” or “low” sound was, so I called the low sound “big” and the high sound “little.”

Not scientifically accurate, but much more in her realm of understanding.

What Happened When We Made Music with Water

We went through the experiment several times, tapping each glass, looking at the amounts of water, and comparing.

She was able to see the connection between the amount of water and the sounds pretty quickly. The glass with lots of water made a big sound, and the glass with a little water made a little sound.

After that, she went to town! I showed her how to tap the glasses randomly (up until now we were tapping them in order) to make music with water.

She took over and played her glasses for much longer than I expected.

At this point, if you do your research and measure your water accurately, you can play actual songs.

We were going for the exploration, so I didn’t worry about this, but older kids especially might love learning to play a song they know.

It’s been a long time since we did any experiments in our house. This reminded me how much the kids and I both love them!

We will definitely be turning the kitchen into a lab again soon.

What activity from your childhood have you done with your kids?

 

Science Experiment: Make Music with Water

Hands On As We Grow https://ift.tt/2JRuFf1

Click here to read Science Experiment: Make Music with Water on Hands On As We Grow

---

Learn how to make music with water in this super simple classic science experiment from Rachel.

All you need for this classic science experiment is a few matching glasses, a spoon and water. It doesn’t get much simpler than that!

Check out these other super easy set-up activities!

I don’t know about you, but I remember doing this experiment when I was a kid, both at home and in school. It is a really fun and easy way to explore the science of sound!

How to Make Music with Water

It’s honestly super simple. Grab a few glasses.

Make sure they are the roughly the same size. It makes everything work a little better.

Now, fill the glasses with different amounts of water. You could get super accurate here and measure the water if you want to try to create specific notes/pitches.

I just filled a pitcher and had Hannah help me pour a little in one, more in the next, etc.

Last, I gave Hannah a spoon and showed her how to tap it on the glass. If you have a really young child or a very enthusiastic one, I would use a plastic spoon to minimize the risk of breakage.

I knew Hannah would be fine, so we just used a metal cereal spoon.

Make Music with Water Science:

Tapping the spoon on the glass creates a vibration sending a sound wave through the water in the glass. Each glass makes a different sound because the sound wave travels at different speeds through the water.

The speed of the sound wave depends on the amount of water in the glass.

The glass with the most water makes the lowest sound because the sound waves travel the slowest. The glass with the least water makes the highest sound because the sound waves travel the fastest.

An older child might be really interested in a simple explanation of sound waves and how they work.

For Hannah, we compared the sounds each glass made and the amount of water in each glass. I knew she wouldn’t understand what a “high” or “low” sound was, so I called the low sound “big” and the high sound “little.”

Not scientifically accurate, but much more in her realm of understanding.

What Happened When We Made Music with Water

We went through the experiment several times, tapping each glass, looking at the amounts of water, and comparing.

She was able to see the connection between the amount of water and the sounds pretty quickly. The glass with lots of water made a big sound, and the glass with a little water made a little sound.

After that, she went to town! I showed her how to tap the glasses randomly (up until now we were tapping them in order) to make music with water.

She took over and played her glasses for much longer than I expected.

At this point, if you do your research and measure your water accurately, you can play actual songs.

We were going for the exploration, so I didn’t worry about this, but older kids especially might love learning to play a song they know.

It’s been a long time since we did any experiments in our house. This reminded me how much the kids and I both love them!

We will definitely be turning the kitchen into a lab again soon.

What activity from your childhood have you done with your kids?