Terri Thompson

K-5 Learning Review

March 21, 2014 By Terri Thompson

*Disclosure: I was offered an extended free trial of K5 Learning

in exchange for my fair review.

This post also contains affiliate links.

My girls love using the computer and they’re always asking for computer time. So, when K5 Learning contacted me to see if we wanted to try their service, I jumped at the chance.

K5 Learning was designed for after school (and home school) use to help kids in grades K – 5 with reading and math. The lessons are short and fun. They recommend beginning with an assessment, which we did. In doing so, we ended up with lessons that were just right for my 1st grader. She wasn’t bored with lessons that were too easy, nor was she intimidated by stuff that was too hard. I also appreciated the chance to see exactly how she was doing in math and reading. She was a bit ahead of the game and enjoyed having the extra challenge after school.

K5 Learning is entirely online, but it is safe. The lessons open up in a new window and the kids can’t navigate out. There are no ads, chat functions, or external links. It’s easy to navigate. My 4-year-old had no problem navigating her way around the program.

What did I like about it?

I loved that it was customized to my girls’ abilities and not their grade level. My 4-year old worked on her ABCs while my 1st grader worked on reading comprehension and vocabulary.

I loved that parents have access to assessment reports. You can find out where your child excels and where they need extra help. You can even assign specific lessons for those things that they need extra help with.

I loved that my girls enjoyed it. They had fun. It was educational, but they didn’t care. They giggled. They learned.

I loved that my girls learned A LOT. I was amazed at every thing they learned during our 6-week trial.

Do you want to learn more?

Check out the K5 Learning informational page at this link.

So, how much does it cost?

You pay $25 a month for the first child and $15 a month for each additional child. You can also pay a year at a time $199 for the first child and $129 for each additional child. You do get to try it out before entering in a credit card number. K5 Learning offers a 14-day free trial with no obligations. Try it and see if you like it.

Is it worth it?

I think so.

If you’re interested in trying K5 Learning, click on the banner below to learn more and sign-up for the free trial.

Making Lists: After School Writing Practice

March 20, 2014 By Terri Thompson

I’ve got a reluctant writer. I’m sure I’m not alone. Miss First Grader is usually very confident when it comes to school. She loves math and thinks it’s fun. She’s a voracious reader. But writing… well, she’s just not feeling very confident with her abilities. Writing is so important for school success. It crops up in just about every subject. I want her to feel comfortable with the process.

In order to boost her confidence, I’ve decided to start adding a little bit of writing work into our after school learning. I promised her I’d make it fun and it wouldn’t be a big chore. I want to ease her back into the world of writing.

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The first thing we’re tackling is lists. Lists are fun! (Or at least I think so.) I decided to begin with lists because they only require words. She doesn’t have to construct sentences yet. We’ll get to that later. My goal is to get her thinking and brainstorming.

I created a simple list template. The lists are small and not too scary. I also brainstormed a list of topics. Some are imagination-heavy. Others are based in reality. Choose whatever you think will spark your child’s interest.

Example lists:

Flavors to sell at [your child’s name]’s ice cream shop
Animals to see at the zoo
Things I want to learn how to do
For sale at [your child’s name]’s toy store
The best pizza toppings
Rooms in a castle
My favorite foods
What I need for school
These are a few of my favorite things…

These are the ideas that work best for my daughter. Think about the things that get your child excited. You might choose such topics as: items to take on a camping trip, Rainbow Loom bracelets I want to make, favorite vehicles, favorite sports teams, etc. Really, anything works.

My goal is to get her to stretch her brain a little. We don’t spend a lot of time on this now, just one list a day. Eventually we’ll move on to other writing activities. But for now, this is the perfect warm-up exercise.

Do you want your own list-making sheets? I’ve uploaded the one I created for your convenience. Click the link below to download a copy. It prints as one page (landscape) with three lists on each page. Cut them apart and start creating lists.

Download your list-making page here

Shamrock Smoosh St. Patrick’s Day Craft

March 13, 2014 By Terri Thompson

Do you do a lot of St. Patrick’s Day activities?

We don’t do a lot., but we’ll dress in green, read some awesome books, and make a St. Patrick’s Day craft or two.

Earlier, I shared our pretty shamrock rainbows and today we’re going to be doing a bit of smoosh painting. (Yes, I made up that term! It’s a fun word for a fun process)

Try some fun smoosh painting to create this pretty St. Patrick's Day craft for kids. The process is fun and the results are pretty with this sensory painting idea.

Supplies Needed:

White paper
2 – 3 shades of green paint
Plastic wrap
Scissors
Glue
Thin cardboard (we used a cracker box)

How to make this fun St. Patrick’s Day craft

To begin, tear off a piece of plastic wrap for each child.

Next, squirt a little bit of each shade of green paint onto the plastic wrap. We were using three different paint colors, but any amount more than two will work.

Next – and this is the best part – turn the plastic wrap paint side down on your paper and start smooshing.

Smoosh all over.

Smoosh the colors together.

Then smoosh, smoosh, smoosh until most of your paper is covered.

This part of the process turned out to be a lot less messy than I anticipated.

To contain the mess, I had covered the table with an old sheet so the girls only ended up with a little bit of paint on their fingers.

The messiest part of the whole process was throwing away our paint-covered plastic wrap.

While waiting for the paint to dry, cut a shamrock from your cereal box.

Shamrocks are not as complicated to draw as you might think. Draw three hearts with their point meeting in the middle, add a stem, and you’re done.

If you’re still not confident in your drawing abilities, do a quick Google search for a shamrock to trace.

Cut out the shamrock and brush glue all over it. We used a watered down glue (one part glue to one part water) to easily get coverage over the entire shamrock.

Put your dried painting on top of the cardboard cutout, painted side facing out.

Then, press down until it’s stuck good.

We ended up putting ours under a heavy book for awhile to press it down and make sure our edges didn’t curl.

Once your glue is dry, use your cardboard as a guide to cut the paper.

And, you’re done!

I love how these turned out… and I really loved the smooshy process we went through to make these fun shamrocks.

Have fun decorating with this awesome St. Patrick’s Day craft!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar DIY Board Game

March 10, 2014 By Terri Thompson

Now that my girls are older, we’ve given away many of the board books we had when they were babies and toddlers. We’ve only kept a few, a few well-loved books that we still love to read.

One of the favorites that we kept was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

So, when Penguin Kids contacted us and asked us if we would like to help celebrate the 45th Anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by creating an activity, we jumped at the chance.

Create a simple DIY board game based on a classic children's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It's a fun book activity your kids will love.

Once I asked the girls if they would like to help create a project based on the book, immediately began brainstorming.

My first grader was practically jumping out of her chair in excitement.

You see, she’s a big fan. BIG. She’s always loved Eric Carle books, but she’s become an even bigger fan of Eric Carle ever since they learned about him and his illustrations in art class.

My super-fan took over this project and my preschooler and I became her helpers. We were going to create our very own The Very Hungry Caterpillar board game.

After much discussion, the girls came up with the concept for the game.

You would begin on a big green leaf and your caterpillar would travel through all the yummy food until he reached a cocoon at the end.

Once that was figured out, we set to work making our game board.

The girls created the different food. My preschooler was in charge of the fruit and my first grader created all the junk food.

We then made a few little caterpillars to use as our game pieces.

After the paint dried, we cut out all of our food and our caterpillars.

We found a few rocks for our game pieces and used Mod Podge to secure our caterpillars to our rocks.

How to use Mod Podge

To use the Mod Podge, just brush an even coat over your rock.

Stick your caterpillar down and smooth it out.

Finally, brush another even coat of Mod Podge over the caterpillar and your rock.

The Mod Podge needs to dry for at least an hour.

It’s an easy process and my preschooler was able to do it all on her own.

If you don’t have Mod Podge, you can also create your game pieces by painting a caterpillar directly onto the rock.

Making our Very Hungry Caterpillar game board

After we cut out our food pieces, we arranged them on a sheet of 8-1/2 x 14 inch paper.

I had drawn the the leaf and the cocoon directly onto the paper.

We then laid out our food to make a path from the leaf to the cocoon. We started with the fruit and moved onto the junk food just like The Very Hungry Caterpillar did in the book.

Once we were satisfied with our arrangement, we glued each of the pieces of food down to our paper.

We grabbed a dice from another game and got ready to play.

Game play is simple

We kept the game play simple.

Each person starts on the leaf.

Throw the dice and move that many places.

The person who gets to the cocoon first wins.

It’s simple. It’s quick. And, it’s fun.

But, really, playing the game wasn’t what mattered in this project. What mattered was using our creativity to create the game and paying homage to a very favorite book at the same time.

Thank you Penguin Kids for extending the invitation to participate!