Update

It's been some time since I wrote in this blog. I been actively participating at my daughter's school, working, planning my wedding, and online classes to get my Master's in Education. I plan to upload some templates when I get access to my laptop. That's where everything is at.

Mini-Books Can Inspire Learning

QUOTE FOR TODAY

There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.

Edward de Bono

My daughter and I make mini-books a lot. We have made mini-books of fruit, vegetables, family, and about her journey as a preschooler. We got to the library about twice a month to get books. We have the option of checking out 50 books maximum, but we only get about seven.

Mini-books are small books that are made to help reading. There are very few words on the page and usually are repetitious. I don't use top-notched materials.

Materials:

construction paper (cut in half if using anything above legal size)
coloring pages from books, magazines, or websites
glue
scissors
marker
crayons (so the kids can color the pages if using blank coloring pages)

Normally there's a theme depending on what you are using... Here's a word list of Words To Introduce to Preschool-aged Children. My daughter's teacher gave me this list. It is one she uses.

a, and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you

In our mini-books, we try to incorporate these words in them. Some ways you can introduce these words and mini-books is simple...Just Do It. Gather the supplies listed above and use your imagination. Get creative!

Take a few of these words (one, two, three, red, blue, red, yellow, ball, Balls). Come up with a nice title and write it big with a marker. Here's an example: Balls. On page one you can say: One red ball, One yellow ball, One blue ball. On page two you can say: Two red balls, Two yellow balls, Two blue balls. On page three you can say: Three red balls, Three yellow balls, Three blue balls. On page four you can say I can count how many balls there are. (Have all three colored balls and in range of 1 to 3 balls). Make sure on all pages you have those number balls on the page and in those colors)

I will add how to do more mini-books later. I have a lot of them in mind.

Templates

I am in the process of extracting information from all the templates that I have created so that I can post them here for others to use. Here is a Book List template that I use on the regular. Since this blog is specifically geared towards education, I think this one is appropriate. However, I have many templates that deals with all the areas of a person's life (i.e. finances, movie lists, measurements for weight loss, etc.)


Book List

AUTHOR BOOK
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***Since I hadn't discovered how to input the templates you can type those words in any spreadsheet or word document/

12/13/2009

(My Inspiration)

Kids are something special
This I know to be true
The more you think you are teaching them
The more they are really teaching you

Learning doesn’t stop when you graduate school
It keeps on going through your life
You learn a whole lot from the happy times
And even more from the ones that cause you strife

It’s easy being a kid
I didn’t ever want to grow up
I loved interacting and being carefree
I just couldn’t get enough

But I had to grow and learn
Live and mature
With the knowledge I have learned
I know I can endure

Through new life and challenging experiences
Living and loving life I will continue yearning
At least I know the older I get
I will never stop learning

My Passion

My name is Shanita. I have a B. S. in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Cellular/Molecular Sciences. I am not doing anything with my degree at this point. However, I have realized that my passion lies in teaching others. I love reading and interacting on an educational level with those who are open and receptive to learning. I am a substitute teacher. I mostly sub for Pre-K, but I have substituted for other grade levels. There is a great need for qualified teachers. In my years of schooling I have learned that not a lot of teachers are as passionate as they use to be about teaching. No one is encouraging kids to learn. They say boys are slow learners. Well, I disagree. I believe that a person's "smartness" lies in their upbringing.

Currently I am starting a program to get my Master's in Education. I am really excited and look forward to learning something new.

11909-the Beginning

Blogging is nothing new to me. I love writing about things that matters to me. I am the mother of a 4 year old Preschooler. She is my inspiration. I love teaching her new things. My goal here is to show and educate all mothers about the importance of education.