Remember Learning doesn't have to take place in a classroom. It can happen right in your own living room!
Get ready, get set and learn!
January 6, 2006
Travel Bingo
Think of the number of hours you and your children spend in a car each week. Travel to and from school. Travel to after-school activities. Travel to the grocery store, church, community activities, family activities. Why not use this important time to teach your children basic reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills? A good activity to address these learning areas is Travel Bingo. Much like traditional Bingo, Travel Bingo uses cards that are filled with words you may see in your travels. You can either create your own cards, or you can download sample cards from www.pbskids.org/buster/games/travelbingo. Provide each of your children with a copy of the same card to encourage some friendly competition to find the all of the words. Affirm the child's successful location of a word by asking them to say the word out loud and then spell the word. You can even ask them to use the word in a sentence – all a part of the Travel Bingo game! Another great way to strengthen your kids' writing skills is to create a travel blog. You can check out a sample one at the PBS Postcards from Buster Website where each week Buster blogs his way through the country. Visit www.pbskids.org/buster.
Resolving to make a better relationship with your child's teacher:
Each New Year, adults around the world make resolutions. They resolve to eat better and lose weight; to exercise more; to spend more time with family. This year why not resolve to develop a better relationship with your child's teacher? Here are some simple tips to help you in the process:
• Find the right time to speak with the teacher
• Write short and effective notes
• Make sure the message gets to the teacher
• Come prepared to conferences
• Discuss what matters most.
For more information on these topics and for suggestions on how to address problems with your child's teacher, visit www.pbs.org/parents/goingtoschool/talking_teachers.html.
Book Selection
Postcards from Buster: Buster Plays Along
by Marc Brown
January 13, 2006
It's a Big Big World!
In celebration of the launch of the new hit PBS series, It's a Big Big World, today we're focusing on science activities for young children! The series is set in a lush rainforest and the World Tree. The show teaches children that science is an exciting process of discovery. The show focuses on all types of science, nature, geography and topics like the weather!
Become a Weather Detective!
You can become a weather detective by thinking about the weather, looking for clues to what the weather is and collecting information about the weather around you. By making observations, you can find clues to what the weather is, without even being in a place! Look for clues in pictures to guess what the weather might be like. Ask yourself: What are people wearing? Do you see any umbrellas? Is it sunny or cloudy? What kind of plants do you see? What other things do you see to give you hints about the weather? With all of these clues, what do you think the weather is like in the pictures? You can ask these same questions when you are looking at pictures in books or magazines.
Collect Data!
Collecting information about what is going on around you can teach you more about the weather where you live. Rain is one piece of weather that we can easily gather data about. You can measure rain and then observe its effects. First, measure how much rain falls. Take a container that is straight up and down (not wider in some parts) and set it up outside in an open place. After it has rained, take a ruler and measure how deep the water is in the container. Then look for other effects of the rain. Does the ground look wet? Does the ground feel wet! Are there clouds in the sky? The next time it rains, do the same activity and start a chart. Was there more rain or less rain on the different days? Were your observations the same or different?
Not only have we learned about the weather today, we've also learned some very important scientific terms. We learned how to observe, how to compare and how to measure. For other activities and to meet Snook and the cast from It's a Big Big World, visit www.pbskids.org/bigbigworld. The show airs twice a day on WQLN – once at 8:30 AM and again at 3:00 PM.
Book Selection
A great book to use this activity with is a Reading Rainbow pick: Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie.
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbieg
by Peter Roop, Connie Roop, Peter E. Hanson (Illustrator)
January 20, 2006
A Trip to the Zoo
We're all waiting for winter to be over so the Erie Zoo will open again and we can visit. If you're a parent who takes their child to the zoo, we're going to give you some great tips on how to continue your zoo visit right in your very own home. No, you don't have to bring home a giraffe, but you CAN continue to learn about them long after your zoo visit is over. Before we get to that though, it's important to help your child prepare for their visit to the Erie Zoo ahead of time. One easy way to do this is to have your child make a list of every animal they can imagine living at the Zoo. Then have them pick one or two specific animals to be "their" animals for the visit. When you arrive at the zoo, have your child spend more time with their specific animals for that visit. If you do this each time you visit the zoo, your child will be more likely to learn more details about the animals and then remember what is learned. You can get your child excited about return visits to the zoo by having them pick out their "special" animals for their next visit.
Earlier this morning, we learned how to prepare your child to get the most educational benefit from a visit to the zoo, when we come back we'll learn how to bring those animals alive right in your very own home.
WQLN and the Erie Zoo worked together on a great project, called "Q-Crew at the Zoo." You may have even seen Scott Mitchell on WQLN with all of his furry and hairy friends. You can use Q-Crew at the Zoo to reinforce what your child learned during her visit to the zoo. And, it's all right on the web! Just visit www.wqln.org/qcrew to view videos with Scott and your favorite Zoo animals. You can also download activities related to specific animals from the zoo. And, if your child picked some "special" animals to focus on during their recent trip to the Zoo, the web resources are a great way to strengthen what your child learned during her visit. In fact, our interactive online quizzes can test your child's knowledge of animals at the zoo in a fun and entertaining way!
Book Selection
My Visit to the Zoo
by Aliki
January 27, 2006
Early Math Made Easy
Some of the key aspects of early math skills, especially for preschool and kindergarten children include sorting and grouping. This activity will help you work on these skills with your child long before she enters school. These activities will also help develop early science skills with your child. The ability to group by number, shape, or measurement helps develop your child’s mathematical and critical thinking skills. Grouping by color or hardness will introduce your child to scientific classification. To develop these skills, help your child practice organizing objects by similar attributes. In the supermarket, encourage y our child to organize the purchases in the cart some way of her own choosing. In fact, the child can create their own “rule” for grouping things (all things green, all things in boxes, all things in bags). Test your child’s ability further by actually making a mistake – add the wrong type of item to the group so your child can catch you, correct you and then have fun showing you the right way to group things.
After your visit to the supermarket, continue the learning as you and your child put away the groceries. Allow the child to group items in the refrigerator or in the cupboards. For children in first or second grades, you can extend this activity to include charting and graphing. It’s simple to do. Take a sheet of paper and create and simple graph. One the X axis, list the numbers 1 through 10. On the Y axis, list the names of items purchased at the grocery store. Have your child count the number of same items and then graph the results on the chart (6 cans of soup, 2 bags of cheese, 3 boxes of cereal). This activity will give your child experience collecting and displaying data – a great skill to get them on their way to mathematical greatness.
Book Selections
Cheerios Counting Book
by Will Mcgrath, Barbara Mcgrath
26 Letters and 99 Cents
by Tana Hoban (Illustrator)
Get ready, get set and learn!
January 6, 2006
Travel Bingo
Think of the number of hours you and your children spend in a car each week. Travel to and from school. Travel to after-school activities. Travel to the grocery store, church, community activities, family activities. Why not use this important time to teach your children basic reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills? A good activity to address these learning areas is Travel Bingo. Much like traditional Bingo, Travel Bingo uses cards that are filled with words you may see in your travels. You can either create your own cards, or you can download sample cards from www.pbskids.org/buster/games/travelbingo. Provide each of your children with a copy of the same card to encourage some friendly competition to find the all of the words. Affirm the child's successful location of a word by asking them to say the word out loud and then spell the word. You can even ask them to use the word in a sentence – all a part of the Travel Bingo game! Another great way to strengthen your kids' writing skills is to create a travel blog. You can check out a sample one at the PBS Postcards from Buster Website where each week Buster blogs his way through the country. Visit www.pbskids.org/buster.
Resolving to make a better relationship with your child's teacher:
Each New Year, adults around the world make resolutions. They resolve to eat better and lose weight; to exercise more; to spend more time with family. This year why not resolve to develop a better relationship with your child's teacher? Here are some simple tips to help you in the process:
• Find the right time to speak with the teacher
• Write short and effective notes
• Make sure the message gets to the teacher
• Come prepared to conferences
• Discuss what matters most.
For more information on these topics and for suggestions on how to address problems with your child's teacher, visit www.pbs.org/parents/goingtoschool/talking_teachers.html.
Book Selection
Postcards from Buster: Buster Plays Along
by Marc Brown
January 13, 2006
It's a Big Big World!
In celebration of the launch of the new hit PBS series, It's a Big Big World, today we're focusing on science activities for young children! The series is set in a lush rainforest and the World Tree. The show teaches children that science is an exciting process of discovery. The show focuses on all types of science, nature, geography and topics like the weather!
Become a Weather Detective!
You can become a weather detective by thinking about the weather, looking for clues to what the weather is and collecting information about the weather around you. By making observations, you can find clues to what the weather is, without even being in a place! Look for clues in pictures to guess what the weather might be like. Ask yourself: What are people wearing? Do you see any umbrellas? Is it sunny or cloudy? What kind of plants do you see? What other things do you see to give you hints about the weather? With all of these clues, what do you think the weather is like in the pictures? You can ask these same questions when you are looking at pictures in books or magazines.
Collect Data!
Collecting information about what is going on around you can teach you more about the weather where you live. Rain is one piece of weather that we can easily gather data about. You can measure rain and then observe its effects. First, measure how much rain falls. Take a container that is straight up and down (not wider in some parts) and set it up outside in an open place. After it has rained, take a ruler and measure how deep the water is in the container. Then look for other effects of the rain. Does the ground look wet? Does the ground feel wet! Are there clouds in the sky? The next time it rains, do the same activity and start a chart. Was there more rain or less rain on the different days? Were your observations the same or different?
Not only have we learned about the weather today, we've also learned some very important scientific terms. We learned how to observe, how to compare and how to measure. For other activities and to meet Snook and the cast from It's a Big Big World, visit www.pbskids.org/bigbigworld. The show airs twice a day on WQLN – once at 8:30 AM and again at 3:00 PM.
Book Selection
A great book to use this activity with is a Reading Rainbow pick: Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie.
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbieg
by Peter Roop, Connie Roop, Peter E. Hanson (Illustrator)
January 20, 2006
A Trip to the Zoo
We're all waiting for winter to be over so the Erie Zoo will open again and we can visit. If you're a parent who takes their child to the zoo, we're going to give you some great tips on how to continue your zoo visit right in your very own home. No, you don't have to bring home a giraffe, but you CAN continue to learn about them long after your zoo visit is over. Before we get to that though, it's important to help your child prepare for their visit to the Erie Zoo ahead of time. One easy way to do this is to have your child make a list of every animal they can imagine living at the Zoo. Then have them pick one or two specific animals to be "their" animals for the visit. When you arrive at the zoo, have your child spend more time with their specific animals for that visit. If you do this each time you visit the zoo, your child will be more likely to learn more details about the animals and then remember what is learned. You can get your child excited about return visits to the zoo by having them pick out their "special" animals for their next visit.
Earlier this morning, we learned how to prepare your child to get the most educational benefit from a visit to the zoo, when we come back we'll learn how to bring those animals alive right in your very own home.
WQLN and the Erie Zoo worked together on a great project, called "Q-Crew at the Zoo." You may have even seen Scott Mitchell on WQLN with all of his furry and hairy friends. You can use Q-Crew at the Zoo to reinforce what your child learned during her visit to the zoo. And, it's all right on the web! Just visit www.wqln.org/qcrew to view videos with Scott and your favorite Zoo animals. You can also download activities related to specific animals from the zoo. And, if your child picked some "special" animals to focus on during their recent trip to the Zoo, the web resources are a great way to strengthen what your child learned during her visit. In fact, our interactive online quizzes can test your child's knowledge of animals at the zoo in a fun and entertaining way!
Book Selection
My Visit to the Zoo
by Aliki
January 27, 2006
Early Math Made Easy
Some of the key aspects of early math skills, especially for preschool and kindergarten children include sorting and grouping. This activity will help you work on these skills with your child long before she enters school. These activities will also help develop early science skills with your child. The ability to group by number, shape, or measurement helps develop your child’s mathematical and critical thinking skills. Grouping by color or hardness will introduce your child to scientific classification. To develop these skills, help your child practice organizing objects by similar attributes. In the supermarket, encourage y our child to organize the purchases in the cart some way of her own choosing. In fact, the child can create their own “rule” for grouping things (all things green, all things in boxes, all things in bags). Test your child’s ability further by actually making a mistake – add the wrong type of item to the group so your child can catch you, correct you and then have fun showing you the right way to group things.
After your visit to the supermarket, continue the learning as you and your child put away the groceries. Allow the child to group items in the refrigerator or in the cupboards. For children in first or second grades, you can extend this activity to include charting and graphing. It’s simple to do. Take a sheet of paper and create and simple graph. One the X axis, list the numbers 1 through 10. On the Y axis, list the names of items purchased at the grocery store. Have your child count the number of same items and then graph the results on the chart (6 cans of soup, 2 bags of cheese, 3 boxes of cereal). This activity will give your child experience collecting and displaying data – a great skill to get them on their way to mathematical greatness.
Book Selections
Cheerios Counting Book
by Will Mcgrath, Barbara Mcgrath
26 Letters and 99 Cents
by Tana Hoban (Illustrator)
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