Simple Scissor Practice

I bought this alphabet bulletin board border at Dollar Tree about a year ago.  They probably still have it or something similar in the teacher/school section though.  S likes to cut the letters apart.  It makes for a great tray activity and when he is finished, he has fun using the letters to build words. 

Sticker Word Matching

Here's a new tray activity that both S and I love...

Step 1:  Get a sheet of stickers (I cut this one in half because it repeated the same animals).
Step 2:  Write the words for the sticker pictures on a sheet of paper (I used the back side of recycled fliers to save paper).
Step 3:  Let your child match the sticker with the word.

I like this because it's so fast and easy, but it also develops good literacy skills because S has to use a variety of strategies to determine sticker placement (beginning letter sound, final letter sound, decoding, pictorial context clues, elimination, guessing).

I think this would also be easy to prepare several in advance for a flight or road trip.

Focus Word: Dog

Now that summer is here and S is home more, I am in the process of getting more organized with home learning activities.  S's baby brother, M (Has he even been mentioned here yet?  Poor second born!)  is now 8 months old and so I have been wanting to include him in our activities.  A great way to teach multi-age kids is to use themes.  

While I have always used themes to organize our activities in the past and probably will return to them when school begins, I decided to try something different during the summer because I felt like it might be a good fit for both boys at this point.  We are going to have a "focus word" each week. 

This week's word is DOG.  M is playing with dog toys (ones meant for children, not dogs), is seeing lots of photographs and illustrations of dogs from books, and is learning the sign for dog. 

S on the other hand has shown lots of interest in reading lately ("How do you spell ______?" "What does __-__-__ spell?").  Since he loves identifying initial letter sounds and is so interested in learning how to read, I am going with it even though he's still very young. This could be a passing phase and my plan is abandoned mid-summer, but so far it's working well and S is loving "learning to read."

Since our focus word is dog, we have been doing activities using the -og word family:

• made an -og flip book
• played the -og game on Starfall
• dog and frog dot art pages
• spelled -og words using Pringles lids, magnet letters, tub letters, letter tiles, linking cubes, etc...
• completed page 3 of this printable packet  (I got this from Word Way and plan to use the site more in the future as a word family resource)
• printed out and read "Frog and Dog and the New Friend" (also from Word Way)
• used our Spinny Speller to make -og words
• read Jog Frog Jog

We have also been reading lots of books about dogs and frogs and finding the word dog and frog in them:

• Dog and Bear
• From Tadpole to Frog
• The Tiny Tadpole
• Hot Dog

Other focus words I plan to use this summer (though they may change) are fan, hat, dad, pig, hot, bug, nap, and car.  I chose these because they are good baby signs and also lend themselves to CVC word family words.  I also like this site for word family printable books and this site for nursery rhymes, but didn't use them this week as there is no -og.  

We also used our old dog carrier to set up a vet center for S (and M) to pretend with. I also plan to do some math activities later in the week using little dog counters, and still need to come up with a dog craft. 

Summer Reading!

To keep track of all of our forms, I taped them to the outsides and insides of a file folder. 



Just a reminder to check your local library, new and used bookstores, grocery stores and Pottery Barn Kids for Summer Reading Programs.  Your child is typically rewarded with a free book.  I have very fond childhood memories of Summer Reading Programs! 

I hope to post what we've been doing this week and our summer plan soon.  It's a long one...

Go Fish

S has finally fallen in love with games and I love to play them with  him.  "Go Fish" is a favorite.  We have this version and I like it because it reinforces upper and lower case match-ups for him and it also teaches the names of baby animals, but it got me thinking that there's nothing special about this deck that makes it "Go Fish".  You could also use any deck of flashcards that has pairs in it (colors, shapes, letters, numbers, etc.) or you could buy two of the same deck of flashcards to create an educational "Go Fish" game.  Dollar Tree usually has a selection of simple flashcards. 

Alphabet Boxes

Our current ongoing project is finding items to fill our new alphabet boxes.  I used plastic babyfood containers with alphabet stickers on the lid.  We are keeping an eye out around the house, in stores, and in nature for tiny objects that begin with that letter.  S loves opening, closing and resorting these little treasure boxes. 

Thanks, I Can Teach My Child!

Activity Sheets with Emergent Writers

I do not rely on activity books to teach S, nor do I give him many, but for me they still serve a supplemental purpose because S enjoys them.  Here are two ways a toddler/young preschooler can still answer "worksheet" questions:

1.  Use dot markers for selecting choices.  It's hard to see in the pic, but S used an orange dot marker to choose the matching pictures instead of circling the answer (this was completed when he was about 24 months, but he started using dot markers around 18 months).



2.  Write answers on small sticky notes and let your toddler or preschooler match the sticky note with the correct answer on the page.  This is a favorite of S's because he loves stickers.  You can also cut large sticky notes to make small ones or cut up white mailing labels to make your own "stickers". 

Our New Hallway Library

Made from Ikea Ribba Ledges.

FREE Reading Resource

You can download these early reading resources from All About Reading.  I am looking forward to trying the story sequencing with S from Safari Stories.

Thanks, 1+1+1=1!

STOP!

S likes stop signs, so we made one.  It has nothing to do with anything we're learning about right now, but he likes them and I thought of this after making our color wheel.

How to make an octagon:
1.  Using a straight edge, divide a paper plate into eight sections.
2.  Cut straight lines around the edge connecting each of the pencil lines you drew.
3.  You now have eight sides! 

We painted it red and used another paper plate to cut out our STOP letters.  This turned out to be a great simple activity because it involved painting, math skills (an octagon), letter recognition/reading the word "STOP", the color red, and he likes to put on his police hat and vest and "direct traffic" with it. 

FREE Tag Junior or Tag Book

This is a deal that has been offered before, but I thought I'd pass it on because we now have both copies.  Leapfrog is offering a free Tag Junior (ABC Animal Orchestra) or Tag (Ozzie and Mack) book when you link your Leapfrog toy (You probably own one and you may not even know it!) on their Learning Path site.

Even if you do not own a Tag Junior or Tag, the books can still be read as regular books.  I haven't gotten a chance to read the Ozzie and Mack book, but I really like the Animal Orchestra book.  It makes a great alphabet board book even without the Tag Junior.

Mini Alphabet Books



S loves these printable mini alphabet books from DLTK.  They aren't very printer/paper/ink friendly, but he has really enjoyed them so I'll continue to print one each week.  There's so much more on this site you can check out as well!

I'm (maybe) back!

No commitment or promise.  Let's just see how this goes.  It's been almost a YEAR since I went "on hiatus" and while we have been busy the past year, I'll just catch you up to what we've been up to in the past WEEK...

I is for Igloo.  Since the start of the school year, we've been working on a letter each week...or two weeks...or four when a new baby is born :)  My mom got us the cardboard letters from Lakeshore (can't find an online link), but you could easily cut your own out.  After S paints them we cover them in stickers that begin with that letter.  S looks forward to this each week and wants to race through the whole alphabet.  After we finish these, I plan to do these cute alphabet animals, but wanted to wait until S's cutting skills were stronger for these. 

This past week, we were on "I" (Does anybody else get frustrated with the whole uppercase I that looks like a lowercase l thing?) and since we are also learning about ice, snow, igloos, penguins, polar bears, etc, we made this igloo from a styrofoam bowl and "iceblock" Avery labels.  We also used some packing peanuts as snow.  I plan to add penguin and polar bear figurines to our little play scene. 

We've also been reading two bible stories each week.  When we got this bible, I went through the table of contents and marked which months we would read certain stories, using Easter and Christmas as guides which puts us towards the beginning of the Old Testament right now reading "Miracles of Jesus" stories.  I haven't gotten very creative with these yet, but S is enjoying these coloring pages for each story (the second page of each link). 

Letter Matching.  S has enjoyed matching upper case letters with lower case letters.  We use Fridge Phonics letters and an alphabet chart I made awhile back.  We are also enjoying using these alphabet blocks to match letters on an ABC poster from Dollar Tree. 

I'll stop there for now.  We'll call this a trial period...

Free Music/Story Downloads

Sorry for such a long break.  S and I have been very sick, but we're slowly recovering.  Here are some free music/story downloads for you to enjoy with your little one: 

"John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" and "Yankee Doodle Boy"










The Best of Countdown Kids: 10 very familiar tunes

Use code NAPTIME here to get a PDF of The Original Story of Winnie the Pooh, an MP3 of the story read aloud, and an MP3 of the song "House at Pooh Corner" by Fred Molliin







Thanks, Freebies 4 Mom!

Heart Letter Search

I printed this blank heart mat from a site I just discovered (and love) called Prekinders.  Note:  I am adding it to my resource list.  I then added some letters that S is familiar with to create a "letter search".  We used a different color of dot marker to mark each letter.  I modeled this for him to begin (some of the S's) and then had him point to the letters before he marked them himself.  As you can see, his attention span did not last for the entire activity, so next time I will cut the mat in half. 

Thanks, Activity Mom, for the site!

Alphabet Chart

S has become fascinated with letter identification in last few weeks.  Today we made an alphabet chart out of a file folder with the tab end cut off.  I put sticky sided magnets on the back so that it can hang on the fridge.  I wrote the lowercase alphabet on it and made a "sticker" for each letter (name badges cut in half).  When S can identify and name a letter, I will place a sticker over that letter.  He was so proud today when we covered the letters he has learned.  I do not think we will use the chart for much direct learning though because I don't want him to just memorize the placement/handwriting on the chart.  So far he has learned most of his letters through letter magnets, Leapfrog Fridge Phonics and Letter Factory DVD*, this classroom alphabet, dot letters, and letter matching.  If he enjoys this chart, I will make more (uppercase, numbers, letter sounds, skills). 

*Note: While I love these products because S can already name several letter sounds from playing with Fridge Phonics and watching the Letter Factory DVD, I do have some complaints about them.  The video only identifies one sound per letter and I would prefer they teach all sounds a letter can make (ex. hard c and soft c).  I also have issues with the pronunciation of some of the letter sounds (ex. L does not say "ul").  The Letter Factory video does provide a wonderful visual for remembering letter sounds, however. 

Dot Letters

I have been wanting to print and try this activity with S for a long time now.  MakingLearningFun.com has printable letter magnet pages.  You are suppose to use them with little colored dot magnets, but I used them with our dot art markers.  S has completed "S is for school" and "V is for Valentines".  I plan to bind them together in a book when we finish all the letters.  I like that there are several choices per letter and they also have pages to go with Brown Bear, Brown Bear and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 

Thanks, 1+1+1+=1!

Coloring Pages

My sister told me about http://www.thecolor.com/, an online coloring book.  The pages are broken down by theme and they have lots of themes to choose from.  You can "color" online, but you can also print out blank pages which is what I have done with S.  You could also print out a whole theme and staple them together to make a coloring book.  Here are my favorites:

• 
  
  Numbers
• 
  
  Alphabet
• 
  
  Aesop's Fables
• 
  
  Grimm's Fairy Tales
• 
  
  Nursery Rhymes
• 
  
  Valentine's Day

Thanks, Kelly!

$10 off $30 Borders

You can print a $10 off $30 Purchase coupon to Borders.  The coupon expires 1/18.  You need to be a Border's Rewards member to use it, but it's free to sign up if you aren't already.  Border's doesn't only have a great selection of children's books, but also educational toys (Melissa and Doug, Larui, Alex, etc.). 

Thanks, Saving with Shellie!

Target Dollar Bin Mailboxes

I thought some of you may be interested in these.  Target has these cute little tin mailboxes in the dollar bins.  I bought one for S to give him on Valentine's day with something inside.  But I thought they would also be great for pretend play.

Note:  They are small.  The above photo makes them look rather large.