Jennifer Lambert

A Sacred Balance

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Rain Painting

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March 31, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert 2 Comments

It’s still quite cold and cloudy here. We had a short reprieve of sun, but it was still windy and chilly.

I had hoped we could time it to have the paper and paint outside and real rain mix the colors, but it just hasn’t been warm enough and the rain won’t cooperate anyway.

Perfect on a windy day to take paper and spray bottles outside to represent rain and mix powdered paints, right?

Rain Painting - Mixing Primary Colors

The kids had fun watching the colors run as they sprayed the powdered paints.

We pretended we were rain as we mixed primary colors on paper.

They compared the types of raindrops from the sprayers to the drops and drizzles from the bowl and cup.

Spraying Primary Colors

We sprayed water on our powdered primary colors to mix into secondary colors. They loved watching the wet swirls blend and run together.

Alex knew that red and yellow make orange and yellow and blue make green. He even knew that red and blue make purple.

One of our pages had mostly reds and another was predominantly blues and the other was more yellow. They all turned fun shades after mixing.

I brought the papers inside to dry and the kids really love their rain paintings.

We extended the lesson by reading Mouse Paint and discussing the color wheel. We looked for pretty colors around us and determined which primary colors were mixed to make them.

We just bought raincoats so we can go out to explore all the lovely spring buds popping up, even when it’s foggy, cloudy, or rainy.

Another fun color book that Alex adores is The Day the Crayons Quit. We read it every week while we wait on his sisters in their music classes.

And we love the book Press Here. It’s a fun book for active little boys.

We love OK GO and this fun stop motion video about primary colors:

We loved learning about colors and blending.

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Art Journals

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January 14, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert 16 Comments

I got the kids supplies for art journaling for Christmas.

They’ve been DYING to try it out!

Amazing how some notebooks and stamps get kids so excited.

Getting Ready to Make Art

Kate had asked me a couple months ago: “What’s scrapbooking?”

I seriously felt like a failure. I need to turn in my girl card, y’all.

I have failed as a woman.

My girls didn’t know what scrapbooking is.

So, of course I showed them some examples on Pinterest.

They picked out some complementary papers and got to scrappin’.

Making art journal pages

My son, Alex, wanted an art journal too. So I relinquished the one I bought for myself.

Sacrifices, people.

And he wanted a flower sticker on his cover page.

Of course.

Cover Page

Alex really loves the shaped scissors that cut in pretty designs. He LOVES the paper punch outs for stars.

The hibiscus paper was his very favorite since he was born in Hawaii.

First Art Journal Page

Katherine loved the letter stickers.

And of course, there’s no pattern. That’s how she rolls.

Inside Cover Art Journal

I am very impressed with her pattern pairing. She also loves the stamps and paper punch-outs.

She won’t need much guidance with art journals as we work along. I won’t even try.

First Art Journal Pages

Tori used a flower sticker for her letter O.

I’m surprised she didn’t get a ruler to line up her letter stickers or something. She’s my perfectionist and I hope that art journaling will help her confidence.

Dotty Inside Cover Art Journal

I love love love Tori’s paper choices.

She said the blue was like water so she stamped swimming animals.

Layered and Stamped Art Journal Page

I plan to be more diligent with arts and crafts this year.

I will get out of my comfort zone and allow my kids freedom of expression. And messes. Maybe even glitter glue.

Baby steps.

Art is good for the kids and for me.

It will help my kids express their individuality and have some fun yet productive downtime.

It’s good for me to embrace a mess and realize it doesn’t matter as much as the process.

Check out my art board:

Famous Artists & Picture Study Notebooking Pages
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Impressionist Art Study

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August 21, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

So, a big benefit to living in Europe?

We study Impressionist art…

We drove up to Frankfurt to the Städel Museum. It’s only about an hour away.

Along with some lovely Iconic art and some weird contemporary stuff, there was a lovely Impressionist gallery with Degas, Monet, Manet, Renoir, and some others.

We have been reading about how the Impressionists mimicked the new invention of photography – and the perspective in this Degas shows that style, with the viewpoint from the orchestra and cutting off some of the other ballerinas in this picture:

Degas - Orchestra Musicians

Here, I taught the girls about the perspective and showed them how Degas made this look like a snapshot, focusing on the foreground of the orchestra and making it look like the artist is in the orchestra pit, looking up at the ballerinas, who are too ethereal to be on ground-level, and are therefore on a grand stage.

Teaching Perspective

We admired the brushstrokes and color of landscapes:

apple orchard
building

Fascinating white landscapes that were quite lovely and looked like photographs with amazing details:

winterscape
river

A fun scene of two couples playing croquet. I love the blending of blues and greens contrasted with the light clothing. And the one lady in blue. Tori loved her.

Manet - The Croquet Party

A pretty Monet and we noticed the open windows of the house don’t reflect in the water. The sky is quite lovely and there are a couple figures in the distance by the trees.

Monet, Houses on the Bank of the River Zaan

We had studied Renoir pretty extensively and were ecstatic to find these. Did you know he was trained as a porcelain painter? Look at the china cups and carafes. Such skill!

Renoir - After the Luncheon

Renoir was famous for painting flowers, and you can see the lovely colorful flowers in the hat and vase and book: Renoir - girl with hat

Of course, we got yelled at and followed around by one of the guards. Apparently they have video cameras everywhere and he said we touched and he showed us we had to stay back at least an arm’s length. We certainly didn’t touch anything. We were pointing things out to the kids, you know, educating, and Tori pointed to a blank square in one of the altarpieces to ask why it was missing. We stayed behind the ropes. We are careful and respectful. It was very upsetting. The guard made me want to eat a sleeve of Saltines, but I didn’t want us to get thrown out.

Another guard was super sweet and she wanted to make sure we knew there was an outdoor exhibit and she got an English speaker to explain to us how to get there. The kids had a blast at the Städel.

Some of the main impressionist artists are Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt, and Edgar Degas.

Resources:

  • We’ve also viewed art at the D’Orsay, Louvre, Netherlands, Dayton, and more
  • How We Do Art
  • Guide from The National Gallery
  • Impressionism Guide from Khan Academy
  • FREE Resources! Famous Impressionist Artists from Practical Pages
  • Impressionism Lesson Plan from Art Class Curator
  • Printables and Mini-Books for Art History – Impressionism from One Bright Crayon
  • FREE Impressionism Lapbook from Homeschool Helper Online
  • FREE Printable Impressionist Art Cards by Layers of Learning
  • Impressionist Artists Famous Artists Degas Matisse Monet Renoir Van Gogh BUNDLE from Magic Spells for Teachers
  • Life Beyond the Lesson Plan: Monet
  • Kitchen Table Classroom: Monet
  • Table Life Blog: Monet
  • Peanut Butter Fish Lessons: Monet
  • Monet Projects for Kids by Artsy Craftsy Mom
  • Make a Monet by Kinder Art
  • Artist Notebooking Page from Homeschool Helper Online
  • Monet Notebook Page: Intimate Impressionism from Harmony Fine Arts
  • Water Lily Pond Monet Art Lesson from Making Art Fun
  • Renoir Art Project for Kids from Teach Beside Me
  • Montessori Inspired Renoir Printables and Activities from Welcome to Mommyhood
  • Mary Cassatt – A Charlotte Mason Picture Study  by Art Curator for Kids
  • Fun Mary Cassatt Art Projects for Kids by Happy Homeschool Nest
  • Edgar Degas for Kids- Printable Resources and Books from Kitchen Table Classroom

We like to narrate and notebook with these pages:

Famous Artists & Picture Study Notebooking Pages
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Filed Under: Germany, Homeschool, Travel Tagged With: art, Frankfurt, Germany, Impressionism, unit study

Spring Pastel Art

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April 3, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 2 Comments

I love these pastel art books. This is not a review. I bought the whole collection because they’re so well-done and easy for my kids to complete with very little help. They love making pastel drawings!

A Seasonal Start in Spring Chalk Pastels

We drew the field of flowers and learned about perspective.

Alex drew straight lines. He did amazingly well following directions.

drawing straight lines

Tori layers greens for her field.

drawing a field

Kate blends her three greens for the field.

Spring pastel art with Hodgepodge

Tori blends the sky.

skumbling a sky

The kids found a bird’s nest and – perfect timing! We have art and science.

found bird's nest

The kids watched the tutorial through and we plan to complete our drawings next week.

watching the birds nest tutorial

The kids and I love the tutorials in these pastel art books:

Chalk Pastels Through the Seasons
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Linking up: The Life of Jennifer Dawn, We Made That, Crystal and Co, Craft Moms Share, Teach Beside Me, Enchanted Homeschool Mom

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Celebrating Chinese New Year

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January 29, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 2 Comments

Chinese New Year celebrations traditionally end after 15 days, starting on Chinese New Year’s Eve and continuing till the Lantern Festival. 

This new year usually coincides with the spring equinox.

We usually try to celebrate the first evening with crafts and yummy food – either takeout or homemade.

Each Chinese year is associated with an animal sign according to the Chinese zodiac cycle, which features 12 animal signs in the order Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.

Chinese New Year traditions include: putting up decorations, offering sacrifices to ancestors, eating reunion dinner with family on New Year’s Eve, giving red money envelopes and other gifts, firecrackers and fireworks, and watching lion and dragon dances.

Lucky food is served during the 16-day festival season, especially on the New Year’s Eve family reunion dinner. Fish is a must as it sounds like “surplus” in Chinese and symbolizes abundance. Dumplings shaped like Chinese silver ingots are shared as a sign of the family unit and prosperity. People eat Niángāo (glutinous rice cake) to symbolize a higher income or position as it sounds like “year high.” 

Don’t lose the luck!

  • Don’t sweep up on New Year’s Day, otherwise you’ll ‘sweep all your luck away’.
  • Don’t eat porridge for breakfast, otherwise you’ll ‘become poor in the upcoming year’.
  • Don’t wash your clothes and hair (on New Year’s Day), otherwise you’ll ‘wash fortune away’.

So thrilled about how these Dragon Puppets turned out for Chinese New Year!

Dragon Puppets:

  • Paper bag
  • Construction paper for head
  • Construction paper for eyes and nostrils
  • Streamers for the tail
  • Glitter and Sequins (optional)

What to do:

  1. Fold sheet of construction paper in half and glue to top of paper bag (where it folds up) to make the head of the puppet
  2. Attach streamers under the back of construction paper head for the tail
  3. Cut out eyes and nostrils in desired shapes – semi-circles for eyes and teardrops for nostrils
  4. Draw lines for mouth and nose with dark marker
  5. Glue eyes and nostrils
  6. Draw on eyeballs in dragon shape
  7. Draw on eyebrows and facial expression (optional)
  8. Glue on glitter and/or sequins to make pretty patterns (optional)
Drawing Dragon Faces for Puppets

(I think it would be fun to attach an accordion tongue with a strip of red construction paper so it pops out of the fold…)

Kate preferred to make hers look like a lizard.

Dragon Girl

Tori asked me to draw cool eyebrows on her dragon.

Dragon Puppets

Alex used TONS of glue stick. Then he asked me draw his dragon face and I really like how it turned out and his compliments made my day. Then he pretended to fly around with it.

We’re preparing to celebrate Chinese New Year with lots of red and gold, horse pictures and crafts, yummy food…and I searched my files and found pictures of the Chinese New Year celebration we attended when we lived in Hawaii.

And I get a clean house out of it after I told the kids that tradition. Score!

We cleaned out the library of all the Chinese New Year storybooks. Liz really likes having Big Sister Storytime. Karen Katz is a favorite author. Love her illustrations!

Chinese New Year Storytime with Sister

Resources:

  • Mask crafts from Better than Mummy
  • Learn more of the Chinese language with Mango Homeschool
  • As my kids get older, we watch movies in Chinese and about Chinese culture and history
  • Eat Chinese Food: We’ll explore flavors, colors, shapes, and the aesthetic beauty of Cantonese cooking. My kids love Chinese food and we like to try new recipes and techniques. Our Asian turkey wraps are always a hit! I need to break out my bamboo steamer and try to make some steamed dumplings…Also easy recipes are lo mein and fried rice. Slow cooker Asian ribs are a crowd pleaser.
  • The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop 
  • Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes by Nina Simonds
  • Lunar New Year by Hannah Eliot
  • Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas by Natasha Yim
  • How to Catch a Dragon by Adam Wallace
  • Lanterns and Firecrackers by Jonny Zucker
  • Hiss! Pop! Boom!: Celebrating Chinese New Year by Tricia Morrissey
  • My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz
  • Bringing In the New Year by Grace Lin
  • Dragon Dance: A Chinese New Year Lift-the-Flap Book by Joan Holub
Chinese Feast

I will try my hardest not to watch Mulan. Seriously.

Gong hei fat choy 恭喜发财

Xīnnián kuàilè 新年快乐

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Fall Unit Study

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October 29, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 4 Comments

We celebrated a windy fall day with leaf art.

They collected fallen leaves and the last of the flowers and we brought out some black paper. They formed buildings and animals and people with leaves. They loved it. At least it didn’t involve glitter.

I love fall.

I love the smell of the leaves and an autumn drizzle dampening the browning grass.

I love all things pumpkin.

He who controls the {pumpkin} spice rules the universe.

Here are some random pics of my kids doing printable fall activities:

pumpkin seed counting
pumpkin Educubes
monster mash sight words
leaf art play
leaf creations
leaf art
nature art

We’ve lived in some places where it was mild year-round, so the leaves are special. And the crisp air and boots and hot cocoa or PSL. I love the cycle of dying so there can be rebirth.

Not so much looking forward to the winter and snow and shoveling and slushy muddy mess, but there’s a season for everything.

There’s a season for everything.

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

For us mamas in the trenches of motherhood, we often long for a different season.

We think: when this morning sickness passes, when the baby sleeps through the night, when the toddler potty trains, when the preschooler learns to read, when the grade schooler masters long division, when we pay off this debt, when we get a better minivan, when the tween finally gets through algebra, when we move to a nicer house, when the teen learns to drive, when the house is empty…then what? You pray for weddings? grandkids? freedom? travel?

Don’t wait on a someday. Some Days are death to faith. Some Days may never come. Some Days are the lies we tell ourselves because we are slaves to fear. Live now. Experience life. Do life with your families. You’ll never get those seasons back.

What season are you in? Relish it. Sure, you’ve probably heard that before and it’s hard, Mama, when you’re down in it. But we’ve all been there. We’re all mamas together.

Reach out to another mama in a season you’ve already conquered. Help her. Pray with her. Pray for her and her babies. Don’t wait to be asked for something. Be proactive and offer help: a meal, take her kids to the park for an hour, pick up a few necessities at the grocery store, have your son or husband cut her grass or shovel the snow off her driveway and sidewalk.

Be the nudge.

Shine your light into her dark places. Nudge her to realize that she’s loved.

Don’t listen to the devil’s lies that you’re all alone and no other mama feels like you do, has those scary thoughts you do, wonders if you’re good enough. You are enough, Mama. You are more than enough. Look into the glistening eyes of your babes and realize they see Jesus shine out, even when you just don’t feel it.

And if you wanted crafty fall activities like this post “should” be:

  • Links to some Fall Tot Packs.
  • Here’s our fall sensory bin.
  • Here’s my autumn Pinterest board with lots of activities pinned.
  • Learn about Johnny Appleseed
  • Visit an apple orchard and pick apples!
  • Apple Tasting with graphs
  • Leaf crafts
  • Leaf nature study and art
  • Favorite Fall Book List
  • Leaf Unit Study from The Homeschool Scientist
  • Toddler Fall Unit Study from Untrained Housewife
  • Fall Unit Study from 123Homeschool4Me
  • Fall Unit from Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Fall is a fun time of year!

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Filed Under: Poppins Book Nook Tagged With: art, fall, leaves, PoppinsBookNook, unit study

Global Art Review

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July 29, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

We really enjoyed reviewing Global Art: Activities, Projects, and Inventions from Around the World from Gryphon House.

We love this award-winning art book!

  • Benjamin Franklin Award
  • National Parenting Publications Award
  • Parent’s Guide to Children’s Media
 photo GH_18827_zps7156a47e.jpg

From the Publisher: An ideal way to start children on an exciting, creative adventure towards global understanding! The fun, easy-to-do art activities in Global Art use collage, painting, drawing, printing, construction and sculpture to help children appreciate people and cultures from all over the world. Each activity is explained in step-by-step detail an accompanied by geographic and cultural background to help you make the most of the teaching possibilities.

In Global Art, there are seven chapters that coincide with seven continents. I love how we can use this with our Montessori continent boxes! At the beginning of each chapter, there are suggested books and a little text about the continent. Great for unit studies.

global art review

I can also tie this in with our American history studies and literature! So many crafts to choose from! I’ve ordered beeswax…

Recommended for K-5. But I think it’s great for all ages. Many are simple enough for toddlers or preschoolers and it holds the interest for my almost high schooler. I enjoy the art too and often do the projects along with my kids.

There are icons for experience level (1-3 stars) and techniques, as well as numbers (1-3) for level of preparation. I tell ya, prep is often the hindering factor for art time!

I let the kids choose the crafts they wanted to make. They loved having that freedom without mom hovering and planning!

They chose to paint rocks. of course. They’d been begging to do this for weeks! perfect. This is a craft from Egypt.

This was a two-part project and it was so hard to be patient, waiting for that first layer of paint to dry!

Tori follows directions so well.

painting scarab stones

Katie is a little more free range.

painting stones

Alex was so super careful and did such a great job!

painting stone

He really enjoyed doing art with his sisters!

painting a stone

Alex used way too much paint, but he did follow directions and it looked like a beetle! Tori’s are perfect and Kate’s are definitely unique. Even big sister Liz wanted in on the action and painted a stone.

painted scarab stones

Liz helped Alex make a necklace out of a paper plate. Super simple and fun! This is a central African craft.

paper plate necklace craft

He did color with crayons, but he didn’t bear down very hard. I would recommend using markers and gluing jewels or sequins on it to look like a collar.

paper plate necklace

Buy Global Art for $16.95

I can’t wait to incorporate more of these art projects into our studies this year!

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Art Ditto by Birdcage Press Review

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June 7, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

We loved reviewing Art Ditto by Birdcage Press.

art ditto review
Birdcage Press Logo photo Birdcage-logo_zpsa3a9555b.jpg
Art Ditto photo Birdcage-ArtDitto_zps3f1d652a.jpg

The kids examined the collecting cards before playing. They looked at the art and noticed the highlighted image on the other side. Kate read the descriptions of the art in all languages.

playing art ditto game

Each collecting card has a theme: tigers, flowers, music, cats, boats, horses, birds, fruit…

You can see on one side is a close-up detail and the artist and year.

art ditto tigers

On the opposite side is the entire image and the title of the piece in four languages: English, French, Spanish, and German. We practiced our pronunciation and learned vocabulary!

art ditto cats

The game is like a cross between Bingo and Memory. We all loved playing memory match. We did an easy version with just matching a card, then we played a harder version of making a memory match before matching to our cards.

Then ensued the most vicious game of Go Fish the world has ever known. ventriloquism, secret hiding places, screaming and cheering. I was exhausted. It was all in fun. And there was no cheating or crying.

We had to have a bowl of Goldfish crackers to play Goldfish (Go, Fish! They knew that’s what it’s called, but they played it crazy!).

art ditto with Goldfish crackers

Kate hid her cards in the lap desk pocket so her sisters wouldn’t try peeking.

If you had to Go Fish you also had to take a Goldfish cracker.

art ditto game

The girls read the titles of the art so they could memorize artists and titles. Great for Tori to practice reading!

Some of the convo went like this:

“Kate, do you have ‘Fishing Boats on the Beach?’”

Kate flips through her stash. She nods.

“May I have it?”

“Maybe.”

Giggles. And Begging.

Alex only wanted the tigers, cats, or boats cards.

This is Alex doing the “I won! I won! Oh yeah!” dance.

playing art ditto

So, we love this game! It’s so fun, versatile, and educational. I want to collect them all!

Art Ditto Memory Game

48 art tiles + 8 big collecting cards
Museum-quality construction

Play memory games with great works of art and collect your favorites on art collecting cards. As you play, you’ll learn how different artists depict birds, boats, cats, flowers, horses, and more. And you’ll learn words in four languages as you have fun with great art!
Ages 4+

$24.95

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Middle School Art and Music

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May 7, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 4 Comments

Middle school is tough.

Art and music in middle school is really tough.

I like to teach art and music along with history from year 1 and we cycle through every 4 years, digging deeper each cycle.

This unit was our 3rd time through for my eldest.

How I teach art and music:

  • Listening
  • Fundamentals, Theory, Vocabulary
  • History
  • Practicing and/or Performing

We listened to Haydn’s Farewell Symphony.

It was part of our classical history studies with Tapestry of Grace Year 2 and the book was on the girls’ list of reading, but we read it together as a family and was delighted and then I found the whole symphony on YouTube. It is magnificent.


Liz finally broke out her acrylics and painted this as she listened:

middle school art

She loves abstract art.

I love her representation of the musicians’ candles. She explained which parts of her painting meant which emotion from the symphony.

Brilliant.

We often create and complete notebooking pages with music and art.

Check out these great Haydn notebooking pages.

Famous Artists & Picture Study Notebooking Pages
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Filed Under: Homeschool Tagged With: art, Charlotte Mason, classical, history, middle school, Music, notebooking, Tapestry of Grace, teen

Math Cards Review

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March 1, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

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We were all very impressed with the Target Vocabulary Pictures, Set 1 from Lone Star Learning. They are brightly colored, laminated for durability, and come with a handy dandy definition card (which I stored in a safe place!). They are high quality and well worth the $29.99 price.
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These ain’t your mama’s flashcards, y’all.

These cards are versatile in the extreme. I don’t think we even touched the tip of the iceberg in all the ways we can use these cards. I look forward to getting creative and allowing my kids to have lots of fun with these over the years!

They’re for multi-age use and we prove it! My son is almost 3. My girls are 5, almost 7, and 12 years old. And I’m an adult {ahem}. We all enjoyed using these cards. The girls requested all the other sets as presents! I have no problem obliging that request.

The cards completely appeal to the visual learner. The teach math vocabulary by using a picture within the word. I am not a “math person,” by any means. These are amazingly enticing to my two highly verbal daughters and me.

Tori is the “math girl” and she really loved using these.

We used these math vocabulary cards in centers, mathbooking, and art!

I set up math centers, kind of Montessori style, on floor rugs and my kids worked on those centers for several weeks.

Here is one where Tori is placing numbers in order. The DEcreasing and INcreasing cards help her to understand this number order concept.

decreasing and increasing numbers cards
place value cards

Then, Tori sorted EVEN and ODD numbers. Look at the little white blocks on the math cards to help visualize that concept.

even and odd cards

Greater Than and Less Than cards with the symbols helping to spell out the words. We also use the alligator idea (he “eats” the number).

greater than and less than cards

And the geometry cards were perfect for Alex to sort his 3D shapes!

shapes matching cards

Liz helps her brother match the shapes all up with the cards and they counted the sides or discussed the shapes and compared/contrasted them.

matching shapes

Here, Tori matches some Montessori 4-part cards and uses the fraction card to help her remember that Denominator is Down and Numerator is North. Gotta love that alliteration!

fraction Montessori cards

Tori fills in a little fraction book with that card to help again. She’s a perfectionist and got very frustrated with herself, second guessing and getting confused by the part=numerator and whole=denominator. She understood which was down and which was north very quickly though.

fraction book

Tori plays a matching game with fractions and uses that Numerator/Denominator card again. I think she really understood the fraction concept after these activities and the mnemonic on the card! Tori narrated to me each match and which number was the numerator and which was the denominator and why.

fraction matching cards

Here is Kate working out a fraction puzzle with the Numerator/Denominator card. She got the concept really quickly. She learns very differently from Tori and doesn’t like to repeat activities once she has mastered them.

fraction puzzles

And here’s our symmetry math art project! This was loads of fun – even I did it!

Alex holds up our card teaching the concept. I gave instructions and we discussed mirror images. We looked at lovely pictures from nature earlier of symmetry in peacock spiders. Love how everything worked out for this lesson!

symmetry math card

Liz and Tori fingerpaint on one side of their papers.

symmetry finger painting

Kate concentrates to get that paint just right.

finger painting symmetry

Alex paints his picture.

painting symmetry

I folded the papers in half and carefully pulled them back apart and voilà! beautiful Rorschach-like SYMMETRY paintings!

symmetry math art

So, we cannot praise these math cards enough! They are versatile, high quality, fun, colorful…they appeal to all my different learners – right-brained, left-brained, the visual, the numbers whiz, the verbal learners, and the kinesthetic. How cool is that in a single product?

From the site: Target Vocabulary Pictures Set 1, 2 or 3 consist of math vocabulary presented visually to facilitate recall. Target Vocabulary Pictures can be purchased in 2 sizes of brightly colored, coated cards for an easy-to-display, colorful classroom presentation. 50-56 cards in each set. $29.99 for each set

Sets are not arranged by grade level. Please view sets to determine the appropriateness for your students.

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Filed Under: Schoolhouse Review Crew Tagged With: art, math, Montessori, review

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