Education Cubes

We used our Education cubes for some Geography!  Using the state words inserts from www.education.com.  I picked 7 states that we have talked about so far, and Maryland and Virginia (b/c he is already familiar with them).  And put them into 2 cubes.  We used the LeapFrog Adventures Across America 41 pc Wood Puzzle.  I removed the pieces that corresponded with the cubes, and they would roll the cube, then find the state and put it back on the puzzle.  You could easily play the other way around as well. 

C pulled out our Melissa & Doug USA Map 51 pcs Floor Puzzle and so after putting it together we grabbed the cubes again.  We rolled the cubes and then placed a little people person/animal onto that state.

Some other uses we found for the cubes this week:

Kumon and Scholastic are doing a book giveaway, and one of the worksheets for the 5yo was a counting bingo, so we used the cube as a dice, using the dot inserts.

And we used it with our farm themed sensory bin, with animal nomenclature cards and the blank inserts (though the cards were too big, and covered the blank ones up), roll and find the animal.

Math Monday

Dinosaur Roll-a-graph Pictograph.  I used the blank templates from educationcubes.com, and printed the dinosaurs from here.  I printed the large ones, which were too big for the template provided at that site, so I made my own and pieced it together.  He then rolled the cube and glued on the dinosaur that came up each time. (I glued the initial one in each row before giving it to him).

This was graphing dinosaur fruit snacks, I used the fruit loops graph from here, we have used it for much more than fruit loops!  He then graphed the snacks by colors.

 

 

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Education Cubes

We used the continent pages to play a game.  We printed this continent hop game from SPELL OUT LOUD Blog, then we would roll the cube to see which continent to hop to.  (we ended up having to move to the hardwood and tape them down)

We also used the cubes for sorting animals by habitat.  We used the blank template, and I made some habitat squares to glue on them, as well as some larger habitat pages to sort the animals on.  We used TOOB animals from various places, as well as other animals we had around the house.   You can download my sorting cards and habitat squares here.

We also played a body part bean bag game, using the body parts page and the colors page.  You roll a body parts cube, and then a color cube to know which color bean bag to put on which body part.  Try to keep them there while you roll again!

Education Cubes

MATH

I used the cube for graphing, using the rainforest roll and graph from 2TeachingMommies.com, but I attached the pieces of the die to the blank template to fit them in the education cubes.  He would roll the cube and mark the graph for each animal he rolled.

HANDWRITING

I used the Capital Letter sheets to review the letters C has learned to write up to this point.  He rolled the cube and then wrote that letter.  We then did our writing practice on the windows, the window panes made the perfect surface for writing a letter, since HWT (Handwriting without Tears) uses a rectangle surface for beginning writing (such as a mat, a chalk board, or a gray box on the worksheet). We also did the same thing for writing on the practice workbook page.  (forgot to mention, we used window markers for writing on the windows!)

Education Cubes

Rainforest Animals Matching Game

I used the blank templates and printed 3 Rainforest Animal Sheets from HERE 

I cut one sheet up and attached them to the blank template for the cubes

The other two I put in sheet protectors to use as game boards (1 for each child)

Then they rolled the cube and placed a marker on the animal that came up, first to cover their sheet won!

Shape Matching Game

I used the red shapes with words card (circle, square, rectangle, triangle and oval) and made an additional shape of hexagon.  I used attribute blocks, you could also use pattern blocks!!  

They rolled the block and then matched the shape...we were focusing on the color red this week, so I tried to have him find the RED shape to match both characteristics, but if he found it in another color, that was fine too, we just talked about the differences.  

More Education Cubes

We started using the education cubes more this past week.  So I wanted to report on it!  The kids really enjoyed it, and I def plan to start incorporating it weekly.

First off, I realized I had not been printing the inserts correctly (I thought they looked small), and this was posing a problem, since they would move around and fly out when my children kicked and tossed the cubes around.  But I figured out that the printer was printing them in portrait mode instead of landscape mode....problem now solved!   Thank goodness, b/c it was getting frustrating!

I used them this week for two different activities.  The first was for colors with my 2yo.  We used one cube, and a container of vehicle shaped counters.  He would roll the cube, and then find a vehicle that matched the color.  We got the color templates from the Education Cubes Member Only Site.

 For my K we put his Chinese flash cards into the cubes, and the kids rolled, kicked, etc... them and he would say the chinese word of the card that was facing up

Definitely more fun than normal old flashcards!

Workbox Wednesday - 2 year olds (& Education Cubes)

So I was very determined to get more planned stuff in my 2yo workbox this week, so I really started racking my brain (getting back to my preschool teacher years, and reached for that wealth of knowledge that got me my degree).  I took a small trip to the local Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, and dug through supplies I have had for years.  I looked over a bunch of blogs...and was quite pleased with the stuff I was able to come up with.

Right now he only has 6 bins, but I just got word from my mom that she has mailed me more shallow bins for our work box towers!  YEAH!  So soon he can have more!

Workbox Ideas for a 2yo:

pom-poms, salad tongs and a bowl

Lettter of the Week - any of their items are great! Here is a picture of a few for the letter F

Pom-pom magnets

Do a dot (I don't have the dot painters, so I used circle stickers)

Lacing Card (fish)

Education Cubes (large variety of games to choose from)

F words/pictures

Other Ideas:

Large buttons and pipe cleaners

Handwriting without tears - the laminated letter cards with wood peices, the laminated playdough cards

Tactile Letters Kit 

Counters and a veggie tray with each tray marked a color (I put index cards with a color block and the color word written into each tray, you could also do numbers, if they are counting).
Animal figures (or pictures) match mommy with baby
Pegs and pegboard
play dough with letter cookie cutters, shape cookie cutter, child safe scissors, rolling pin, etc... (I loved this play dough idea from Fumbling through Parenthood Blog, she has lots of ideas for what she calls "tot trays", similar concept to work boxes)
File Folder Games - Get free ones here and here
rice, 2 bowls and some measuring cups and spoons
color and letter collages (using stickers, pictures cut out of magazines, 3-D objects, etc...)
Matching pictures of any kind (the same, go together, etc...)
Cutting, gluing and or pasting activities
Painting (finger paint, water colors, etc...)
LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Alphabet Set
Child Size Masterpieces of Steps 1, 2, 3  - Matching, Pairing, and Sorting - Level 1 Easy

Some more pictures:

This week our letter was O, Color : Blue, Shape:  Circle, Number: 1

*More on Education Cubes*
We also used them for spelling words for my K

We had a lot of fun using them and will def be using them more!  (These two instances were our first time).