5 Outdoorsy Activities for Spring

GeorgeLouis at English Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

It’s spring and it won’t last, even if it’s not warm enough as yet in some parts. Let’s make the best of it and spend time outdoors. Get the family out and more importantly get the kids to play outside. Here are 5 outdoorsy activities for this spring:

1. Take a walk in the woods. No woods? No problem. If you live in a city, check out the urban wildlife. There are always those plants and critters which brave the concrete and crowds in our cities. Spot them. Observe them. Take pictures.

2. Try a new outdoorsy sport. Hesitant? That’s not unusual. Perhaps you should try it with a friend? 

3. Have kids? Well, get them to sit outside in a nice shaded area and try a craft. It’s the outdoors – clearing up messes is easier! 

4. Have a picnic! Yes, a nice old fashioned picnic. Make some simple food and carry it to a place where you can have it at an unhurried pace. Hey, don’t forget to carry some water or other fluids. 

5. Meet family and friends. It’s a good time to catch up with family and whatever’s been happening in their lives. Put a table out and enjoy something cold to drink, snacks and chit-chat. It’s important for both you and your family to socialize, don’t overlook it.

 Well, that’s a short easy list to follow. Go on, enjoy your spring!

English Games to Practice Phonics with Kids

For the time-strapped parents, here are 4 5-minute English games to practice phonics with your preschoolers at home.

Alphabet Cookies

This is an English activity that will taste good too! Employ kids to make the cookie dough. Have them measure 2 cups of softened butter and 1 ½ cups of caster sugar in a bowl. Give them a plastic ladle with a blunt and comfortable handle to mix the ingredients. Help them fold in an egg yolk 2 tsp vanilla extract and briefly beat until it’s of a firm texture. Sift 3 cups of plain flour and give them to the kids to mix with the dough. Have the kids use their hands then to mix and press the dough. Begin the lesson with them when the cookie dough is ready. Dictate letters and have them make the letters with the dough on a pre-buttered and pre-heated baking tray. Bake them then and you will have alphabet cookies to go with your coffee and milk for the kids!

The Name Game

After learning single syllabled words, it’s her own name that the child learns to write. Here is an English game with names. Cut out a few more squares from white paper than as many letters in your child’s name. Write a letter each from her name and a few more random ones on the squares and tuck them away in an envelope. Hand over the envelope to the child and ask her to form her name from the letter cutouts in the envelope. Praise her performance at the end of it.

The Spring Game

Besides practicing syllables with your child, this English game will help them practice reading too. Find out 10-20 spring related words. Take an A4 sized white paper and fold it into half lengthwise. Write the second syllable of the spring words on the left fold and the first syllable on the right. Have them choose the correct syllable from the right and write it on the left fold to complete the words.

The ‘E’ Game  

Besides practicing phonics, you child will learn new words while playing this English game. Give her several cutouts of the letter ‘e’ and write down a list of words that will make complete and meaningful words with ‘e’ in the end and another set that will not make words with ‘e’. Have her glue ‘e’ next to the words that she feels make sense with an ‘e’ in the end.

Have fun exploring the funny world of the English language!

5 Essentials in a Virtual Pet Game for Kids

Your child is interested in owning a virtual pet, and you’re wondering which game to introduce him to. Out of the hundreds of virtual pet games out there, it isn’t easy to predict which ones he is more likely to enjoy. However, you can certainly make an educated guess based on the popularity of the pet games available online.

“Healthy Foods” by Kevin Jarrett is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Of course preferences vary from one child to the next, but there are certain features that most kids seem to enjoy in an online pet game. Here they are, listed in no particular order.

A virtual world

It’s all very well to feed your virtual pet and play a couple of games with it for an hour or two, but after that things get repetitive. On the other hand, kids find great pleasure in exploring a whole new virtual world with their online pets. In some games, the virtual world mirrors the real world. Pets run around in parks and visit restaurants or splash in water. In other games, the virtual world is an imaginative one with places that you would never be able to visit in real life. You may be able to explore arctic islands, visit lands from the past or journey to the center of the earth with your virtual pets. Either way, these virtual worlds add a great deal of fun and adventure to the pet games. While most popular pet games have 3D virtual worlds that you can walk through, Neopets was one virtual pet game that did extremely well in spite of only having a 2D version of their virtual world.

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      Exotic pets

If your child could choose between a pet dog and a pet dragon, which do you think he would choose? For many kids, part of the excitement in owning a virtual pet comes from the range of options available to choose from. Without worrying about the amount of space available at home, the kind of food the pet would require or the kind of care the pet needs, kids can opt to adopt dolphins, tigers, griffins, dragons and even monsters. Some games take the action one step further by allowing players to ride on the backs of their winged pets.

      A creative outlet

Everyone has an innate desire to create something of their own. Many times, all one needs is the right opportunity. Virtual pet games that offer such an outlet are a big hit with kids. Kids delight in customizing their virtual homes, adding rooms and furniture as they deem fit. By allowing players to visit each other’s homes and putting well-designed homes in the spotlight, many virtual pet games encourage kids to think big and get creative with their virtual homes. However, not everyone is good at interior decoration. For kids who would rather write a story, create cartoons or design webpages, there are pet games that encourage these creations as well. Typically, the creations revolve around the theme and characters of the pet game, and are viewed by fellow players.

“A neopets faerie” by L. Whittaker is licensed under CC BY 2.0

            

      Mini games and quests

No matter how extensive the virtual worlds are, there’s bound to come a time when you’ve explored it all. You’ve visited every nook and corner and you know the lands inside out. What do you do next? Kids love it when there are mini games inside the virtual pet game. Rather than offering generic mini games that kids can just as well play on a gaming website, the good virtual pet games have mini games that tie in with the theme and characters of the larger world. The points earned in these games contribute to the in-game currency and allow kids to buy more items for their pets. The greater the number and variety of mini-games available, the happier your child is likely to be. Kids also love solving quests, and greatly appreciate it when they are available in a pet game.

      A strong community of fellow players

When you have a virtual pet game that you are really excited about, you would naturally want someone to share that excitement with. Many pet games allow players to do this by letting them socialize with each other on the website. Through multiplayer games, chat options, user profiles and forums, players can get to know each other and form good friends online. (If you are considering a pet game with social networking options, make sure the website has safety controls in place and that your child is aware of the best practices in socializing on the internet.) Such a community, bound by common interests, is often close-knit and contributes to the players’ love for the game.

Talk to your child and discuss which of these features are important to him. You can also find out what he expects from each feature. Based on his responses, you can find a virtual pet game that is most suited to his unique tastes and preferences.

5 Best Learning Games from 2014

2014 saw a plethora of learning games taking the educational gaming market by storm. From online learning games  to board games, the variety available is already impressive, with many new additions being made to this list. While some fizzled out, the others managed to stay on and make a long-lasting impression on parents’ and children’s minds. Here are our 5 favorite learning games for kids from the year gone by.

Small World (ages 10 – 14)

This is a learning game for kids with cards. 2-5 players can play this game at a time, all of whom will vie for control of the board, which is the ulterior motive. Simultaneously, players must pick the right combination of fantasy races and unique superpowers to expand empires and defeat neighbors at the expansion. Live with dwarves, wizards, amazons, giants, and orcs and go on conquering lands and territories.

Aristotle Number Puzzle (ages 7 – 15)

Image Credit: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085JRADS

Raise the little Aristotle in your child with this learning game! Finished with an antique touch to give the puzzle an aged look, it is inspired by the great Greek philosopher Aristotle. The hexagonal wood puzzle has tiles numbered from 1-19. The challenge is to arrange the tiles, whether 3, 4, or 5 in each row, in such a way that each row adds up to 38. There are 15 rows to complete, each row made up of 3, 4 or 5 tiles.

Gravity Maze (ages 8 – 15)

Image Credit: http://www.amazon.com/Think-Fun-1006-Gravity-Maze/dp/B00IUAAK2A

If you’re looking to sharpen your reasoning skills and visual perception, then this is the learning game for kids from 2014, which will be an absolute fun exercise for your brain. The challenge is to build a path with visually stimulating gravity cubes and create a path for a marble to reach its target successfully. There are 60 levels of the challenge, ranging in difficulty, which will give you plenty of exercise to plan the creative mazes in your head!

Pyramix – The Three Sided Strategy Game (ages 8+)

Image Credit: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JRGG3ZE

This is a strategy game for kids where they need to pull apart the pyramid by taking turns to move one cube at a time from the stack without toppling it. As the cubes are taken out, the others will slide down to the base. Every move has to be planned carefully as the bottom-most cubes are worth the big points. Watch out for cobras that may come and eat into your score.

Robot Turtles (ages 4+)

The learning game provides crucial brain development and computer programming skills to kids aged 4 and upward. Kids will have to dictate the movements of their Robot Turtles on the game board by playing code cards that say forward, left and right. The player will win if the Robot Turtle successfully reaches the end point. Bug cards can be used to undo a move but for a limited number of times. The game continues till all the players have reached the end point which means every one is a winner! 

How to Observe ‘Read across America Day’ in the Class

‘Read across America’ is a fairly recent phenomenon in the history of America’s literary movements. In 1997, the National Education Association came up with the idea of creating a day to celebrate reading. Dr. Seuss being one of the most widely celebrated children’s writers in American literature, it was only befitting to commemorate his birthday as ‘Read across America Day’. Thus, March 2 sees the largest celebration of reading in the history of the United States of America.

It is important to motivate children to read because reading is undoubtedly one of the best educators and companions for life. Research has proved that children who are motivated to take up reading as a pastime do better in school than those who consider reading to be just another chore. Reading opens up a world of possibilities and fans the desire to know more. So how can ‘Read across America Day’ be observed so that children are motivated to love reading?

Reading by Moyan Brenn

Classroom Activities

Three to nine are the formative years in any child’s life. It is during their kindergarten to 3^rd grade that they have to be motivated to read and take up reading as a hobby. Activities and worksheets can play an important role in motivating them. Browse the online space to download suitable reading activities and worksheets for 1^st to 3^rd grade kids that will introduce prominent authors and books to them with a fun approach. Here are a couple of activities that will encourage the kids to read.

Kindergarten-1^st grade activities to encourage reading

Get plenty of clothespins and distribute them equally among the class. Have the kids write a consonant each on the clothespins they got. Vowels will eventually fall short so you get as many clothespins as the number of students in your class and write a vowel each on them. Collect the clothespins and distribute the consonant clothespins equally among the class. Give a vowel to each student. Put up a clothesline from one end of the classroom to another. Call one student after another and ask him/her to form a word using any of their letters. Have them clip the clothespins arranged as their word on the clothesline and make way for the next student. 

The words they make may not necessarily be meaningful, but they must have a proper pronunciation, an example being chank, teck, feg, bord, etc. Have the students read all the words aloud in unison after everybody has finished clipping their words on the clothesline. Though this is an activity for kindergarteners, it can be tweaked to make a great 1^st grade activity if you challenge them to use all the letters they got or ask them to make a synonym of a certain word (this can be asked only when you’ve studied their letters carefully) or a word where the vowel is placed last (such a word may not sound coherent always), etc. Improvise on these activities further to make them suitable for higher grades.

Reading activities for 2nd-3rd grade

How can we write an article on ways to observe ‘Read across America Day’ without having an activity based on the man himself, Dr. Seuss? Inspired by Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham, this is a classroom activity that’s just right to observe the Day. Divide the class into two groups and give them a magnetic sheet each along with markers. Have a group write 20 random verbs on the magnetic sheet while the other group gets to write 10 random common nouns and 10 adverbs. Cut out the words and distribute the words equally among each group – 10 verbs, 5 adverbs and 5 nouns. Challenge the groups to make a story using the words they got. To increase the difficulty level, challenge them to use all the words. They will have to arrange the words on any magnetic surface and form their story. Isn’t that a fitting tribute to Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham which consists of just 50 different words?

Other Miscellaneous Ways to Observe ‘Read across America Day’

Reading Across America in Milford by CT Senate Democrats

• Invite athletes and actors to issue challenges to students of your class/school
• Invite an author/poet to read to your class
• Read to your class
• Take your class to any literary figure’s house that has been converted into a museum
• Arrange a ‘book donation’ drive for the needy

Learning without learning

Many kids don’t like mathematics, because they believe they are not good at it. But you watch them do math while maximizing their pocket money or adding points playing a game, and you will be surprised at how very good they are at math. As babies grow, they learn language by primarily listening to others speak the language. It’s far more difficult to learn a language when it is taught. It is obvious that learning something without actually learning it is the best way to learn it. Might sound confusing, but learning via play is the best way to learn.

Kids Playing Monopoly Chicago by Colleen Kelly

Teachers who can get their kids all excited about what they are learning, have accomplished half of teaching. In his article Don’t Teach Math, Coach It, Jordan Ellenberg talks about getting his kids to do math without resenting it. Math is all around us, in everyday life. All we have to do as adults is to get the kids to do math without knowing that they are doing it. The author talks of sitzfleisch, the ability to focus on a complicated skill for the length of time it takes to master it. Gaming is all about that. Wanting to master a game, can get kids to focus and learn enough to win.

Apart from our everyday life where we trip over math in shopping, cooking (proportion), craft making, sport etc. there is a whole world where kids pick up math with ease – play. The old board games of chess, Monopoly, Snakes and ladders etc. use math. The newer world of gaming uses Math in Rush Hour, Dragon Box and a whole bunch of other Games in Mathematical Education.

Learning something must not be a pain for kids. Games are a great way to get kids to learn without learning

Best Online and Mobile Games That Feature Penguins

With the recently released Penguins of Madagascar  catching everybody’s fancies, it’s time to list down the top penguin games of the year that’s gone by. Here’s my list of top 4 penguin games that are widely loved by gamers across the world.

Penguins on Parade by David Stanley

Air Penguin

Jump, fly and dodge through Antarctica in this fun penguin game. Air Penguins will have to journey through the ice-land and save their families from the melting ice caps. ‘Tilt’ (that’s how you have to move your phone) your way out of the hazards of global warming and make the little animals fly by flapping their tiny wings. Critics have agreed that “Air Penguin's hotter than Tiny Wings and top Angry Birds”! The adorable graphics, frills-free gameplay, and an engaging scoring system ensure players go back for more.

Flying Penguins 

This penguin game has proved its mettle on the iOS platform and now finds a place in the Android platform too. Penguins will have to fly swiftly and flap rapidly to escape the evil polar bears that are out to prey on them. Based on physics principles, the game has 3 addicting worlds and 24 racing levels that will improve your finger deftness and problem solving skills. The game is suitable for both girls and boys as everybody adores the black and white animals from the Poles.

Crazy Penguins

Who can resist chubby and naughty polar bears and cute and wobbly penguins? The game’s user base would have multiplied in millions had it been free! This penguin game is heavily inspired by Angry Birds where grumpy polar bears unleash attacks on harmless penguins that disturb nobody. Therefore the penguins have embarked on a mission to restore their peace with a deadly weapon – not a heavy-duty nuclear weapon but the penguins themselves! Keep away invading Polar Bears by throwing brave, little penguins at them with your faithful catapult, a la Angry Birds, and bring down the enemies. The better start you get with the catapult, the better chances you have of bringing all of them down together. With pleasant graphics and sounds, win epic battles and unlock cool penguin power-ups including Ninja, Penguin on Fire, The Twins and more!

Dibble Dash

Join Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private in their adventure in this ‘cute and cuddly’ penguin game.  The secret agents use speed, agility, and lightning reflexes in finding the Cheesy Dibbles that are crucial to take them forward in the game. The mobile game has interesting twists and turns and seems like a boundless quest that will never end. Using swift and reflexive finger movements, players will have to move through a Temple Run-ish path and collect packets of Dibble Dash, cross hurdles, solve math puzzles and quizzes, and avoid being contaminated by the ‘mutant venom’. As Kowalski might say - brains are an important part of this operation.

The free penguin game is a good platform for the kids to practice their math skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The game offers free power ups to escape sticky situations where the Penguins have been affected by the mutant-creating goo. Daily players are rewarded classified Daily Missions. Outrun Paul the Octopus and his Henchmen to reach the climax of the game. The penguin game has special educational Expansion Packs which help players to access more ‘top secret’ files and mission and achieve higher security clearance.

Let us know if you have more exciting penguin games that you like. We would love to hear from you!