Salute: Quick, Fun Card Game to Practice Math Number Bonds

It's back-to-school time and children's math skills have become rusty. Try Salute, a quick, fun card game to practice math fact families, sometimes called number bonds. It's a game for three: a caller and two saluters. The caller deals cards out face down to the two saluters. When the caller says, "Salute," the saluters each pick up a card without looking at it and hold it face out on their foreheads. The caller looks at the cards and calls out the sum (or the product if you want your students to review muliplication/division fact families). The first saluter to say the card that is on his or her own forehead wins the round. Students can review a lot of math facts quickly with this game, and they are quick to confirm each other's accuracy.

Salute can be played with regular playing cards by treating aces as ones and either considering face cards as tens or culling them out of the deck. I prefer to play it with Uno cards, because the numbers are more prominent and there is no counting of hearts, clubs, spades or diamonds. Just cull the reverses, skips, and wilds.

Salute with Uno Cards

For more math card games, check out How to Teach Math with UNO.

Question: Other than worksheets, how do you practice math facts with your students?

Don't Turn That Page!

Here's a simple habit I've developed for reading picture books to little ones, especially my littlest one.

I don't turn the page until the child has interacted with the story in some way.

Usually he asks a question about the story or picture. Sometimes he makes a comment. Occasionally he traces a picture or runs his finger underneath some words. Only rarely does he want me to turn the page right away. Taking our time as we read stories makes the time more special for us and helps him to acquire the skills of a good reader.

Cowboy Small is in heavy rotation with my four-year-old.

Pine Cone Animals

Pine Cone Triceratops

My kids went to the science museum today and made these great pine cone animal sculptures. What a wonderful way to use found items for art! If you've read my blog before, you know I am interested in fine motor skills activities for older children. Well, holding a glue gun with one hand and attaching all of these little parts with the other is wonderful exercise for the small muscles of the hand. As with all of the best exercises, I'm sure making these cute pine cone animals didn't feel like exercise at all!

Pine Cone Dogs

Check out the acorn birds' nests the kids made the same day.

Question: What fun crafts do you have in mind for the fall?

How Much Attention to Give a Book

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.” --Sir Francis Bacon from his essay, "On Studies"

"Pile of Books in Prague Library" by Callum Scott

With the explosion of available reading material, Bacon's words are more relevant than ever. I am pondering how to teach my students to read discriminately (in the good sense), and how to make it fun.

One piece of that for me will be reading Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books by Tony Reinke. I recommend his blog too. In fact, that's where I got the Francis Bacon quote above.

Question: How do you decide whether a book is worth your (or your students') time, and how much attention to give it?

Catch the Match: Fun Pattern-Recognition Game for All Ages

Catch The Match is a deceptively simple card game that develops observation, pattern recognition, memory, and concentration skills. In the  box are 15 sturdy, colorful cards, each with pictures of the same 15 objects. The objects are in different places on each card and the colors (red, yellow, blue, and green) are mixed around. Any two cards has one and only one pair of the same object in the same color. The goal is to be the first to match that pair.

As a parent and educator, here's what I love about Catch The Match:

• Everyone plays all the time. Unlike other memory games, there is no taking turns. All players have an opportunity to make a match at any moment.

• Age doesn't matter. In my family, our nine- and eleven-year-olds hold their own against their mom and me. Our four-year-old, is less likely to be the first to make a match than the rest of us, but he still enjoys the game.

• It's fun for preliterate or ESL players. No reading or vocabulary skills are required. In fact, players who speak different languages, can learn some new vocabulary words.

• The rules are easy to adapt. Adjust the competition level by playing in teams or deciding whether or not to keep score. Add difficulty by matching items with opposite colors  (a blue airplane with red wings matches a red airplane with blue wings). You can even play Catch the Match alone against the clock.

A game similar to this one but more complex is SET, which I haven't played yet, but would like to.

Question: What is your top pattern-recognition activity for kids?

50 Fine Motor Skills Activities for Older Children

Fine motor skills are crucial for everyone, but focused practice on them usually ends in preschool or kindergarten. Older children often need a little more work, especially to increase the legibility of their handwriting, but just practicing penmanship is boring. How can working on fine motor skills be fun?

Here are some fun activities to improve fine motor skills. Of course everyone has different different likes and dislikes, so to make sure there are at least a few choices to suit everyones interests, I present fifty fine motor skills activities for older children.

Crafts for Fine Motor Skills
Improve eye-hand coordination with crafts

Origami Blue Bird by Jacque Davis

1. Stringing beads

2. Origami

3. Cloth or paper embroidery

4. Crocheting or knitting

5. Fusion beads (tip: use tweezers for even better fine motor skills practice)

6. Paper cutting (the art form, not the preschool activity)

7. Aqua Beads (like fusion beads, but you spray water on the beads to make them stick together instead of an iron)

8. Basket weaving

9. Sewing

10. Pottery

Games for Fine Motor Skills
Add some competition

Jenga Tournament by Tom Rolfe

11. Operation

12. Jenga

13. Make 'n' Break (see my review)

14. Yahtzee

15. Foosball

16. Rush Hour

17. Marbles

18. Darts

19. Play dough charades

20. Video games (hate to admit it, but they do improve eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills.)

Puzzles to Help Fine Motor Skills
Engage the brain too

Playing with Brain String Advanced

21. Mazes

22. Jigsaw puzzles

23. Rubik's Cube and other similar puzzles

24. Crossword Puzzles

25. Brain String Advanced (see my review)

25 More Fine Motor Skills Activities for Older Children
Something for everyone

26. Enjoy coloring (not just for kids)

27. Practice a musical instrument

Use Chopsticks for fine motor skills

28. Use chopsticks

29. Tie flies

30. Go fishing

31. Try writing Japanese or Chinese characters (see my ideas for learning Japanese)

32. Learn how to tie cool knots

33. Practice typing/keyboarding

34. Play with Wikki Stix (see my Wikki Stix review)

35. Learn sign language

36. Sculpt with clay

37. Do paper mache

38. Make plastic models

39. Play with gears

40. Braid hair

41. Build with Lego

42. Decorate cakes

Magnetic Sculpture by Tamra Hays

43. Make magnetic sculptures

44. Play paper football

45. Make designer lattes and cappuccinos

46. Play with a tilting ball maze

47. Do a connect-the-dots puzzle

48. Learn calligraphy

49. Make a mosaic

50. Write with a fountain pen

Question: Do you have a favorite fine motor skills activity for older children? Please share in the comments!