Math Smart: Measuring Fun

June 27, 2011 in 5-8 Beginning Readers, 9-12 Tween, Literacy Tips, Math Smart, Tip of the Week

Expose your children to practical math through fun, creative ways:

• Make cookies together and have your children measure and put in the ingredients
• Create a height chart on an empty wall in your home and measure how your children grow
• Put different amounts of water in glass bottles and experiment with the different tones you can make with them

For more measuring fun ideas visit this website:

Check out this booklist for books about measuring, and other interesting ways of classifying things.

-Lauren Bangerter, BYU Student, Department of English

Play Smart: Teddy Bear Picnic

June 20, 2011 in 5-8 Beginning Readers, Play Smart, Social Smart, Tip of the Week

The end of school is typically an exciting time for kids, but can be a somewhat worrisome time for parents. When weather does not cooperate or children find themselves reluctant to find entertainment on their own it can be stressful trying to keep them busy. A fun idea that can be implemented outside, or in, is a Teddy Bear Picnic.

Encourage your little one to find their favorite stuffed bear (or animal in general) and choose some friends to invite to do the same. Prepare a picnic together using teddy bears as your theme. Cut sandwiches with bear shaped cookie cutters, pack berries and maybe some homemade biscuits to eat with honey from a honey bear, and you can even buy teddy bear shaped graham cracker, gummies or crackers.

With your child and their invited friends, stuffed and human alike, layout a picnic blanket at a park or on your floor and enjoy your meal. Once you have eaten you can then enjoy story-time with your guests by asking each child to bring their favorite book about a bear or the type of stuffed animal they brought.

–Lauren McMullan, BYU Student, School of Education