New McKenna Things and Quick Summer News...

Hello everyone! I know it's probablly a little late to announce, but I thought I would anyways...

THERE'S A NEW McKENNA GAME OUT! It's called McKenna's High Spin, and McKenna is on the bar! The goal of the game is to try and go as high as you can and collect points as fast as possible. It's a timed game, but you can earn more time by collecting the time symbols. It's a rather simple game, but I found myself really enjoying it! It's something you can play when you have a spare five minutes or so, or just for fun anytime!

http://www.americangirl.com/play/girl-of-the-year/mckenna/#page=home&popup=featuredgame

Since we're talking about McKenna, I thought i'd mention there's a trailer out for the new movie! Looks good! I'm not gonna be able to see it on T.V. opening night, but I'll rent it when I get home and for sure let everyone know what I think!

Last but not least, the Apple Store has released a new game featuring McKenna! It's similar to the online game, except McKenna is on the beam and not the bar. I haven't played it yet, but as soon as I finish downloading it I will tell you how it is! It looks pretty fun!
The game is free and available in the App Store. I don't know if they'll be coming out with a version for the android market, but I'll be sure to post if I hear anything!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gymtastic/id518773610?mt=8

That's it for now! I'll be posting in the beginning of June most likely, but won't be able to post again until late August/ early September! If I don't post until then, have a great summer!! See you in the fall!!! And keep looking for things on www.americangirl.com!! I'll do a major missed-it-over-the-summer update when I can post again!

Bye!!! :)

Doll School

Hello guys! I know I'm only posting like once a month, and I feel bad about it, but I'll try and post more often if I can! I've just been SOOOOO busy! Thank goodness school's almost over!

Anyways, just wanted to tell you about a little (well, actually pretty big) craft/project/doll play I came up with last night. It's like American Girl's book, Doll School, only I found a BUNCH of free printouts for teachers and home-schoolers online (www.abcteach.com) and decided to save a bunch of them, then copy and paste them into Microsoft Word, and make them smaller, and therefore doll sized!

It took a bunch of paper, and a bit of time (31 pages and about an hour), but they just printed and I'm so excited! I also got some blank Facebook-style pages that I can fill out with my dolls information and hang up!

This is perfect for anyone who wants to play teacher, but doesn't want to spend tons of money on craft kits! After you cut everything out, you can organize by subject, per student (I used two copies of each- two students) and keep in an envelope.

When you want to play "school" you can take out a specific subject and choose the lesson you want to teach. Also if you want, you can have your dolls sit around a computer while you read them facts about what they're learning. You can even give them a quiz on it!

For instance, I copied a paper with questions on volcanoes. I went to google.com and typed in each of those questions. When I found the answer I wrote it into a word document and "presented" it to my dolls. They then took a quiz on it, with the paper I got the questions from.

Another thing they have on www.abcteach.com is papers with a picture at the top. The object is to write a paper about whatever the picture is. (i.e. picture of a butterfly= write about butterflies/insects) You can google "Kids fact sheets about _________________" and find whatever you need to about that subject to teach it and write a paper about.

TIPS:
Print things like awards for reading, completing units, doing community service, or having a birthday. You can then give them to your doll when they "complete" these things! You can even take pictures, upload them to your computer, and print them out with the certificates! (These can be found at www.abcteach.com)

Find small "teacher reward" stickers at a local drug store or dollar store. The next time your doll does super on a paper, give them a sticker to show them you're proud!

Hope you guys all love the new teaching idea!