we had a sunny day today!
the kids and i were outside for some good long hours around midday, cutting kindling, straightening up, picking up the stray garbage that blows in from who knows where, holding chickens (not me - the kids), watching the chickens enjoy fresh, cold water (they are so funny when they drink), imagining, laughing - it was so, so nice!
i didn't take a single picture outside, but i did take some inside while playing a game that i found inspiration for here (otherwise known as i-did-some-sneaky-teaching - my kids thought this was too fun to be school work.)
we each made a game board, we dumped out a jar of change, rolled our BIG (1 inch) dice, and worked toward 4 quarters.
the way it works: roll the dice, pick up that much change (if you roll a 4, pick up four pennies), put them in the right column. if you can trade up on your turn (say you have 6 pennies and want to trade 5 for a nickle), do that before you pass the dice. the first person to 4 quarters wins! (or you could play to 6 or 8 quarters. we just chose 4, it made for about a 15 minute game with three of us playing.)
we played a game with one die (which would work for pretty young ones), then we played a round with two dice (there's a little more math to that). both ways were fun, and both maddie and isaac appreciated the challange of the added die.
this is excellent for adding the numbers in a dice roll, then translating that to coins. it also helps teach counting by 5's and 10's, adding money, and using the fewest coins to equal the amount of money you have on your board. we'll be playing this again! (probably tomorrow . . . )
have you done any sneaky teaching lately?