Friday, January 13, 2012

Cough up a Ground Hog or Ditch it

Ground Hog's Day is quickly approaching. 

PUT DOWN the xerox copy of a ground hog, put away the styrofoam cups and popsicle sticks! 

GET OUT the sheets, pins and lamps!!

Learning for children HAS to be MEANINGFUL!!  Coloring a picture of a ground hog, attaching it to a popsicle stick and popping it out of a styrofoam cup is not meaningful!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Catalyst for Imaginations

According to dictionary.com, some synonyms for the word "catalyst" are:  MOTIVATION, SPARK PLUG, STIMULANT and WAVE MAKER.  There are three different definitions, but the one that stuck out at me the most was "A person whose talk, enthusiasum or energy causes others to be more friendly, enthusiastic and energetic"

Take the following photo for example....it's a catalyst....I'm thinking it is sparking some amount of curiosity in you?  Keep reading....you will see that the picture makes complete sense!


How we talk, how we imagine, how we express our enthusiasm COMPLETELY affects a child's blooming imagination.  We have the ability to be catalysts of imaginations!  Whether we ourselves motivate imagination, or something we plop down for discovery, we can motivate valuable imaginations!