Tag: homeschooling

Geplaatst in Brands, Craft material, Development, Fine Motor Skills, homeschooling, Little Brain, TEFL, Toys

Review : Little Brain Paint Sticks

Gepost op door Emine

I love doing crafts, but let’s face it painting often creates a mess. In my lessons that’s why I almost never use paints and at home while homeschooling well how bad as it sounds…. With 2 kids… a 2 year old and a 4 year old letting them paint is a big struggle. Whether is is in the classroom or at home water cups always spills everywhere, pictures need to dry, not to mention clothes that get wet and painted on. I found a great solution…. Little Brain Paint Sticks.

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With the paint sticks there is no need of water and the pictures don’t need to dry. It washes off easily from clothes and the colors are nice and very bright. They also come in a nice metal edition and since we love glitters those are perfect for my girls. They also last a long time and don’t dry out.

My kids definitely are big fans. You can color with them but also use them as a stamp as we did on the turtle that you can see below. You can experiment with mixing colors and without any mess. Believe me my kids love to color next to the paper or on themselves and it cleaned up nicely and easily. According to the website you can also use it on windows, but we didn’t try that (yet).

  • Stamps on the turtle
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Arts and crafts made by my 4 year old

I know that as a TEFL teacher you often don’t have any input in the materials purchased or used, but it might be worth it to try and convince your management to ask the parents to provide these to use in the classroom or to ask your management if they can provide a few sets. I prefer this over pencils, markers and crayons to be honest.

Disclaimer: The reviewed product wasn’t subject to any sponsorship. I purchased it myself. I do am open to sponsorship, but will always mention it when I received a product to review.

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Geplaatst in Development, homeschooling, Math, playset, Pretend play, TEFL, Toys, wood

TEFL Review: wooden pizza

Gepost op door Emine

One of my favorite toys to use in classroom and in drama lessons is this pizza. Also at home in homeschooling lessons it is a very popular toy/tool. Pizza… so that’s a lesson on food? Yes, but also a drama lesson, a math’s lesson counting and but also fraction and all of that are at the same time ….. yes English lessons. I also think it is very important that kids learn mathematical terms in English at a young age.

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As you can see this pizza comes with some condiments. I identified them as salami, mushroom, tomato, spices, pineapple and cheese. With the kids I love to order a piece of pizza with 3 condiments or with just one. I first show how to order food and then they can mimic it. It always lead to fun lessons.

wooden pizza

This pizza is also great to teach fractions and show them visually 1/3rd = 2/6th for example, but at the same way you ordered pizza before you can now order pizza in fraction half a pizza, 1/3rd, 5/6th,…. Even struggling students will love this way of practicing.

For the lower grades you can also practice your basic math skills. We have 6 pieces of pizza and we eat 3 pieces. How many pieces are left? I baked 2 pieces of pizza and you baked 3 pieces. How many pieces do we have? Once they get it with pizza, you practice it with the add and subtract while still showing the pizza pieces and eventually you can leave the pizza away. You will see it will go very smooth.

Now I like wooden toys to use in class because they are sustainable, but you could also make your own paper or cardboard pizza’s and laminate them so you can reuse them.

Disclaimer: The reviewed product wasn’t subject to any sponsorship. I purchased it myself. I do am open to sponsorship, but will always mention it when I received a product to review.

Geplaatst in Brands, janod, puzzle, Toys

TEFL review : Janod Panoramic Puzzle 4 seasons

Gepost op door Emine

This is not a classic review. I will not tell you how much my daughter liked this puzzle or how handy the hatbox is. No I will tell you why I like this puzzle as a teaching tool and how I used it. I will also post a video online in the near future where I use it. You can let your kids watch it and have them practice some English. This is not a sponsored ad like review. I just think it’s a good teaching tool example. As you can see these are also my personal pictures which aren’t very professional.

Janod Hat Boxed 36 Pcs Panoramic Puzzle

So it’s a puzzle you will say, they make the puzzle and you’re done. Well no this puzzle would be great as a one on one activity, but you could even use it as a group activity where the kids make the puzzle together. After that the fun starts.

Janod Hat Boxed 36 Pcs Panoramic Puzzle

First of all using it when homeschooling or giving a 1-1 lesson, in that case most of the talking will be done during the making of the puzzle. You could start by counting the pieces. After that you look at the picture of the puzzle as it progresses. There are several ways of doing this. You can point out that there are 4 seasons on the puzzle and ask if she or he knows the 4 seasons. After that you can ask to which season the part that they pick belong to and why depending on the level of English. Once the puzzle is finished you go over all the seasons and talk about those seasons. Ask about the child’s favorite season, why, etc Ask what they see in each season and practice counting count for example how many people they see or how many sunflowers there are. If you have child with limited language skills you can ask to point out the different season and to find several objects on the puzzle.

Autumn – winter

Using a puzzle in a group lesson is a bit tricky. If the group is not too big you can just do the puzzle as a group, but since there are only 36 pieces it’s a bit hard. You could provide several puzzles to groups of 4-6 students either several times the same puzzle or different puzzles. In both cases you let them first make the puzzle and then discuss among themselves a list of questions that you prepare for them. You go through the classroom and make sure they are using English and not their own language. In the case of all the groups using the same puzzle they can after that all answer to the questions in class. If they all have different puzzles they can all present their puzzle in class.

spring – summer – fall

I always try to use different skills. This encourages the use of different parts of the brain together which is really beneficial for young learners. I would probably do some arts and crafts about the 4 seasons after this activity. I hope I gave you some teaching ideas.

Disclaimer: The reviewed product wasn’t subject to any sponsorship. I purchased it myself. I do am open to sponsorship, but will always mention it when I received a product to review.