How to Use the LEARNING STYLES Hints on the Charts

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You will notice that the game charts have a column labeled LEARNING STYLES.  If you have Discover Your Child’s Learning Style, you will understand what the notes mean.  If not, here is a brief key:

Modalities:

Print means that most content is in print.

Picture means there are a lot of pictures or other graphics.

Visual means that both print and pictures are used in the game.

Verbal means there is some to quite a bit of talking involved.

Listening means that listening is involved.

Auditory means that both Verbal and Listening skills are used in the game.

Hands-on means that there is significant hand movement of cards, pieces, etc.

Whole Body means that the whole body is moving.

Writing means that writing is involved.

Dispositions:

Move means that there is significant physical activity.  These games are great for the very active child who hates to sit still.

Produce means that there is a clear (to the student) and quantifiable learning objective.  These children like to have a game labeled “educational” whereas that adjective is the kiss of death to most of the other dispositions.

Invent or Discovery means that there is discovery and/or experimentation involved.

Interact means that there is significant social interaction.  This learning style enjoys most games so it is only listed it when the group interaction is above average.

Create means that the game requires significant thought and/or creativity.

There is another vital element of learning that is important in regard to physical movement or what schools like to call Physical Education.  This is explained in depth in Smart Moves by Carla Hannaford.  Therefore, we have included the notations Vestibular and Proprioceptive to help you pick out P.E. games and activities that give your child reinforcement  in these sensory areas.

Vestibular refers to awareness of body balance and movement.

Proprioceptive  refers to the relative position of different parts of the body and the strength of effort used in movement.

Most games combine multiple elements, so we listed only the salient ones.  Likewise, any one child’s learning style is far more complex than these simple definitions and each child’s personality includes a combination of several modalities and dispositions.  Watch for the elements in games that your child likes and look for those or similar elements in other games

We found a large print Bible helpful for our daughters and now for our grandchildren.  With easier to read print, they read more eagerly.  A bible map or small Bible Atlas is a good resource too.

Most children are learning the multiplication tables at this time.  Math It is excellent but some children need a more interactive approach.  Wonder Number Game and Math Facts Fun Packet provide a fun alternative.  Or, you may wish to choose from some of the other games mentioned or use the memory materials listed in the math section of THIRD GRADE.

We provided a large selection of games in part because it will be boring (and thus, NOT fun) to play the same one or two games day after day and in part because children have different learning styles.  Games like Race Around the Clock and Driveway Deals have great graphics, which appeal to children who like colorful pictures.  Prime Pak and Quick Pix Multiplication appeal to children who don’t like to take turns and want to move quickly.  Wonder Number and Goose Egg are for kids who are still learning the math facts.  This selection includes games for math facts, money, word problems, time, fractions, decimals, mental math, spatial organization, grids and sets.  Choose the ones that will be most helpful to you or use the ideas here to find substitutes that work better for you.

Always look for practical ways to use math. If the children have savings accounts, show them how simple interest is computed and added to their accounts.  Use the gasoline prices to show them how decimals are important. There is math all around you.  Once children understand the concepts and have the basic facts at their command, they can learn to use it in their daily lives.  Children need to know why it is important to learn something.  Show them.  Here are a few books that show how math is used in everyday life:

• Basketball Math: Slam-Dunk Activities and Projects for Grades 4-8
• Baseball Math:  Grandslam Activities and Projects for Grades 4-8
• Football Math:  Touchdown Activities and Projects for Grades 4-8
• Olympic Math:  Gold Medal Activities and Projects for Grades 4-8
• Racing Math:  Checkered Flag Activities and Projects for Grades 4-8

Remember to show your children how math is used in cooking.  The kitchen is the perfect venue to teach about temperature, weights, measuring (both dry and liquid volume), fractions and more.  If your children learn to use these in cooking and can double or halve recipes easily, they will not need as many paper and pencil math problems to become fluent in basic arithmetic.

If your children like to draw and color, they might like these books from Mindware:

• Multiplication Mosaics by Evelyn B. Christensen & Stephen M. Christensen
• Division Designs by Evelyn B. Christensen & Stephen M. Christensen

HELPFUL BOOKS:

You Can Teach Your Child Successfully – Grades 4-8 by Ruth Beechick

•               English From the Roots Up by Joegil Lundquist
•               World of Language books by Ruth Heller (see list under THIRD GRADE)
•              Shakespeare Can Be Fun Series by Lois Burdett (listed under THIRD GRADE)

Dr. Ruth Beechick’s You Can Teach Your Child Successfully – Grades 4-8 will give you a more detailed guide to teaching writing to your child for the next few years.  Don’t try to hurry the process.  Children need to read a great deal before they will be able to write well.  The Tell Tale games (there are two additional titles: Tell Tale Fairy Tales and TOY Story) will provide fun and creative practice in developing stories.

Use English From the Roots Up to expand and clarify the Latin and Greek roots learned in Rummy Roots.  Look for words using these roots and “collect” them.  When you run across an unfamiliar word, check to see if it contains a root you know.  Get a good college level dictionary or even better, an unabridged dictionary (check used bookstores and websites) to look up word origins.  This can be really interesting if you don’t run it into the ground.  Start collecting other roots that you find in the dictionaries.  Put them on cards and make games with them.

The best and easiest way to increase vocabulary is to read lots of good books.  These can be read- aloud stories or books the children read alone.  Newer children’s books are usually not quite as useful for this because the vocabularies have been dumbed down.  Reprints of older (at least 50 years since first publication- 100 years is better!) books contain many more words.  The older the books, the richer are the vocabularies.  Read children’s classics aloud along with good biographies and historical fiction.

Traditional games like jacks, yo-yo, marbles, jump ropes, etc. provide much more than mere play value.  They are important for hand-eye coordination, spatial relationships, large motor coordination and development, dexterity, balance, etc.  The lack or underdevelopment of these skills has been linked by some to the enormous surge in learning disabilities.  Whether or not this is true, playing jacks is certainly a more productive use of time than watching television.  I know I’m beginning to nag, but remember that children need an extraordinary amount of physical activity as well as unstructured playtime.  All the research in child development confirms this.  More activity and free play equals more learning.  Check it out if you don’t believe me.

http://www.steviewilsonlpc.com/the-biology-of-play/

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/opinion/sunday/let-the-kids-learn-through-play.html?_r=1

THEME:  Animals and Ecosystems

HELPFUL BOOKS:

•               Lewis and Clark Songs of the Journey Companion by Kindra Ankney                                                                    
•              Backyard Bird Watching for Kids by George H. Harrison

Make up guessing games to fill small bits of time when you are riding in the car or at the dentist’s office or whatever.  One person can describe an ecosystem and the others must think of animals that live there.  Or you can start at the bottom of the food chain and each person must name in turn the animal that would eat or prey upon the last animal named.  The object is to avoid being the one who ends the chain at the top.  Another game we liked to play was to decide on a category (like flowers) and then go around naming (in turn) as many items in the category (rose, lily, daisy, etc.) as possible.  You can also play “20 questions” with animals, habitats, etc.

THEME:  U.S. AND STATE GEOGRAPHY

* GeoDerby USA and GEO DICE are out of print but can be found on Amazon and other online sites.

HELPFUL BOOKS & CDs:

• Songs of the Journey CD                                                                                                          
• Songs of the Journey Companion by Kindra Ankney
• Lewis & Clark for Kids: Their Journey of Discovery by Janis Herbert
• United Tweets of America by Hudson Talbott                                                                    
• Scrambled States of America by Deborah J. Short                                                                                
• They Call Me Sacagawea by Joyce Badgley Hunsaker
• American Tall Tales CD by Jim Weiss

The Holling C. Holling series:    

• Pagoo                                                                                                                                                 
• Paddle to the Sea                                                                                                                                    Seabird                                                                                                                                               
• Minn of the Mississippi                                                                                                                         
• Tree in the Trail

If you’re on a tight budget, get GeoDerby U.S.A. and States & Capitals Songs.   GeoDerby will continue teaching you and your children for many years.  The best part is that a detailed map of the United States is included which has 90% of the answers on it.  This encourages the children to search for the right answer on the map.

If you play the States and Capitals Songs CD, they will learn them in order of the borders and they will know the capitals.  Mad Dash is amore advanced game and will be too frustrating for children who are not already familiar with the U.S. map.  Use Scrambled States and puzzles for beginners.

A great complement to the Lewis & Clark Card Game is Songs of the Journey CD and the book that was created as a unit study of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Songs of the Journey Companion.  The music is beautiful and tells the story of the highlights of the journey.  The book gives more detail about everything from recipes to plant and animal life they encountered.  Add a good book or two and you will have a very complete study for this grade level.

Fourth grade is when most children study their state, so we included the California Games.  If you are in another state, the game for your state is available.  Call us if you can’t find it locally.

Geo Dice is a fun and easy way to begin to learn about world geography.  If you play it now, your child will begin to develop sense of the continents and even capital cities of the world. No prior knowledge of geography is necessary as all the answers are on the map! Play Geography Songs in the car or at home while you are cooking or doing art or building forts in the living room.  Soon your children will be recognizing places on the Geo Dice map that they heard about on the CD.  You can also put a large map under a clear piece of plastic on the dining table and every meal will be a “lesson.”  Hint:  Don’t tell the kids it’s there to teach them!  One mom I know of looked up where foods came from and made a game of finding the origin of lunch items on the map.