Learning the 50 States!

Kids can learn almost anything when you put their learning into a song!  We are gearing up to learn the 50 states and I had to share this fun video with you.

It is always a good thing to encourage kids to work their brain with a little memorization.  We have been practicing the 50 Nifty United States song for about 2 weeks now and we almost have it!  Even the 3 year old has learned it...well at least up to Nevada :)

50 Nifty United States...

Here is proof that kids pick up on this song VERY quickly.  We stop at Nevada, but they are close;)

Warning:  This song is such a GREAT way to learn the states, but after 2 weeks of singing it constantly , it can drive you a little nuts!  

I also like this one because it teaches both the states and capitals. 

Yakko also has a cute one on the Nations of the World...

I hope this helps make learning geography a little more fun!  If you have any other great resources to share, please leave a link in the comment section below!  This will help all of us!

Winter Color by Sight Word Sentences (Primer Edition)

I am super happy to say that I finally finished our Winter Color by Sight Word Sentences (Primer Edition) Pack!  Nearly every kid LOVES to color and that is exactly why I created our Color by Sight Word Sentences!  My kids would color all day long if I would let them:)  The great thing about these "coloring pages" is that they are practicing sight words by coloring in the pictures according to the sight word code and then using those same sight words to read a sentence!  That's what I call coloring with a purpose!

Winter Color by Sight Word Sentences (Primer Edition)

  I do place a healthy amount of importance on sight words because kids need to learn and practice sight words in a balanced literacy program.  

I also like to keep these sight word statistic in mind:

*12 Sight Words make up 25% of those we read and write.

*100 Sight Words make up 50% of those we read and write.

*About 300 Sight Words account for 75% of those we read and write.

We also have the pre-primer pack available!

Stay tuned....FREEBIE coming soon!

Mental Blox GIVEAWAY!

GIVEAWAY TIME!

I am very excited to be giving away a set of Mental Blox by Learning Resources!  As you know I LOVE Learning Resources because their products are both fun AND educational.   I seriously wish I had 100 of these to giveaway because Mentall Blox are AWESOME!  As soon as I took the Mental Blox set out of the box, the girls knew exactly what to do!  I get excited over resources that involve PLAY with a PURPOSE!

How Does it work?
There are a total of 20 blocks, 20 double-sided cards and two ways to play!  There are many different ways to use this brian-boosting game that really makes you think!

* Teams: Divide students into teams and let them see the building card for a set amount of time.  Remove the card and let them use teamwork and memory to build the set they remembering seeing.  How fun is that? 

*Just Build it: Younger children can just build what they see on the card.  This worked GREAT for my 3 year old and she LOVES it!   What I really love about the cards is that they range in difficulty from simple to more difficult building and listening skills. Although the recommended age is 5-13, it can easily be adapted to meet the needs of various ages.


*Listen and Build: In this game you will have one caller and 1-2 builders.  The builder uses their listening skills to build what the caller is saying.  The caller is using verbal skills to say what they want the builder to build!  This actually meets Common Core Standards for listening skills!  WOW!  When kids can clearly convey their thoughts, they also become better writers!

Learning Resources has graciously offered a set to one of the Moffatt Girls readers!   

Like I said, I wish I had 100 sets of Mental Blox to giveaway!  If you don't win this set, I highly recommend getting one for yourself!  We are in love with these!!

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Daily Journal Prompts for February!

I am so happy to say that our January Journal Prompts have been a HUGE success!  I have a little girl who loves to write and draw, so these journal prompts have been PERFECT!  Daily journal prompts are great way to give students an opportunity to practice many skills such as grammar, spelling, and writing.   Most importantly, journal prompts gives a creative outlet for writing!

Here are the February Daily Journal Prompts...

For right now, I am just using the journal prompts as an opportunity for her to write and to get her thoughts out on paper.  Sometimes she writes only 1-2 sentences and other times she really gets excited and fills two pages.  We begin by brainstorming and talking about the topic.  We talk about how she can start and I model for her what I might write in the journal.  If she needs help sounding out words then we do it together.  Sometimes we have a more structured format, other times I just let her write whatever she wants.  She typically wants to respond to two journal prompts a day!  That makes me super happy:)  The best thing about these daily journal prompts is that we are writing every day.

We get our journals spiral bound so that they become a keepsake for years to come.  I love that these journal packs are made for K-2 students, so we can use them again next year.  However, I am sure that our writing will improve over the next couple of years and it will be exciting to see the changes and growth!  This helps me keep her writing in one place and it is a perfect way to meet many Common Core Standards for writing!

I hope you enjoy these too!

Easy Borax Snowflakes!

We live in California and we don't have snow.  I like our weather, but I also like snow!  The other week we went to the mountains to visit our very good friends...they have snow!  The girls played in the snow and just LOVED it!  They went sledding, they stomped in the snow and had snowball fights.  It was so much fun!

At any rate...we decided to make some snowflakes with Borax.  Easy peasy stuff and SO MUCH FUN!

Supplies: Borax, tablespoon, hot water, pipe cleaners, pencil or string and container large enough to hold the snowflakes

Begin by cutting and twisting pipe cleaners into a snowflake shape. Since all snowflakes are different, we didn't really worry about making them perfect.  We used colored pipe cleaners to make our cute and colorful snowflakes, basically because we didn't have white pipe cleaners :)

 Then, fill your jar or container with boiling water.  Add 3 Tablespoons for every cup of boiling water.  Next, you can tie a string to one of the snowflake arms and tie the other end of a pencil to let it hang in the jar.  We simply kept one of the arms longer and hung that from the pencil.

Finally, let the Borax snowflakes sit overnight.  When you pull them from the water, you have the most AMAZING snowflakes!  The girls went nuts overs these and examined them over and over again.  We hung them from our window and pretended that we had snowflakes!  We talked about how each snowflake is different and beautiful, just like all of us!

We also used this experience to write in our January Journals!  Audrey did such a great job so it turned out to be a science experience AND a writing experience all in one!  Her journal prompt for today was, If I were a snowflake...."  Writing in our Journal prompts on a daily basis has really helped improve her writing!  You can read more about our January Journal Prompts {HERE}.

We made these gorgeous snowflakes from a Pinterest tutorial, which you can find {HERE}.  They are so easy that anyone could be successful!

That wraps it up for some fun snowflake learning! 

Teachers Notebook Sale and Tablet GIVEAWAY!

Are you ready for a SALE?  Teacher's Notebook is an incredible sight which is FULL of AWESOME teaching resources, both paid and free.  I am definitely a Teachers Notebook girl for many reasons!  Teachers Notebook is the only teacher resource place where teachers keep 100% of the profits!  The co-founders of Teachers Notebook are so generous in many ways!  They are even having a Tablet for the Teacher Sweepstakes! I {HEART} Teachers Notebook!

For 2 days only all of The Moffatt Girls products will be on SALE on our Teachers Notebook shop!

Teachers Notebook SALE!

Here are some of our newest products...

You can also enter to WIN a TABLET of your choice!!  I would LOVE to win the mini-iPad for the Moffatt Girls!!  If the winner comes from our blog, we win one too!!

Enter to WIN!