What?
We took a look at Kidspirations today. We played around in making our own activities and also look to the formats of activities already created ready for children to learn from.

So What?
I am in elementary ed mathematics right now and we have been learning countless ways to teach children how to understand math. One way we talked a lot about is using the blocks of one's, ten's and hundreds and then breaking them down or building them up to add and subtract. I love that Kidspirations has many games using blocks that take students through the process. I will be able to use this as a guide for my class even now to see how others would teach a child using blocks.

Doing this activity also helped me a little in my study for taking the Praxis today. It was good to be taken back and be asked questions that you were taught in elementary school. I was surprised at the things that I had forgotten. I am sure if I played some of the games with an elementary student they would do much better than me on every game. I found though that the basics that I looked at in Kidspirations opened my mind up to know how to study and prepare for the praxis, it allowed me to recall many things that I have forgotten.

Now What?
I will definitely use this tool in my classroom. I am just hoping that the school that I work at will have good access to computer so that my students can benefit from all the wonderful things we are learning about. I like that now only can I use the created activities to teach them but they can go on themselves and create their own activities and presentations and all about me boards. They can use their imagination to make learning fun.

I played many of the math games using clocks and blocks and even learning more about the different symbols. I did a game on healthy eating and another about different animals and species. They had cloud games, and holiday games and much more. What a great tool to use universal design in the classroom. What a great tool to cater to all learning types. It makes learning practical and fun and hands on. We made diagrams to be able to connect things and categorize things and I think that is what kids need the most. They need to see how one thing connects to the other. With this, I also like the Venn Diagram idea, so that they can really see the relationship one thing has with another. All together it was a wonderful learning process!