wild flowers

My oldest daughter, Gracelyn, loves to pick flowers and give them to me. Everytime I look at the little bouquets, I'm reminded of how great it is to be a mom!

word families

I'm already in the process of making things to use with Gracelyn next year. My mother in-law got us some great word family readers and I made a word family game to go along with each book. I will focus on one word family at a time and offer a few different activities for her in her workbox.



materials -
wordfamilies.docx - copy the beginning letters on a color and copy the endings on another color, cut and laminate for durability
velcro dots (have I mentioned that I love velcro dots?)



educational benefits -
1. teaches word chuncks so they don't have to sound out each letter
for example: cap - sound out the c and add the chunk ap forming cap

2. encourages children to find patterns in words

3. helps with teaching spelling
for example: if the child knows how to spell cap, they will only have to replace the first letter to spell tap

learning styles -
visual (the chunk is one color and the beginning letter(s) are on another color
tactile

beginning blends sort

materials -


(click on the thumbnail to download the file)

file folder
velcro

learning styles -
visual
tactle/kinesthetic

directions -
1. download the sort. cut and laminate for durability.

2. place velcro on the beginning blends cards and one velcro dot at the top of each side of the file folder.



3. choose 2 blends to do at a time.

variations -
pre-readers: use only the picture cards with the beginning blends cards
readers: match the word cards to the picture cards

* The downloadable sort is different than the sort pictured above. The sort above was taken from a book I have and the downloadable sort is one that I made.

boom!

Here is another fun math game called "Boom!". This is a great game to reinforce learning and have fun while doing it.

materials -
BOOM.docx
large craft sticks
small or large envelope
sharpie

directions -

1. on as many craft sticks as you wish, write basic math problems.

2. on one or more of the craft sticks, write the word "BOOM!".

how to play -

1. players take turns drawing a craft stick and giving the answer to the problems written on them.

2. if the player answers correctly, he/she may keep the craft stick. If he/she answers incorrectly, he/she must return the craft stick to the envelope and play continues.

3. when a craft stick with "BOOM!" is drawn, the player must return all of his/her sticks to the envelope and play continues.

4. the winner will be the player with the most craft sticks either after a set period of time or after all the craft sticks have been captured.

educational benefits -
mixed operations
basic facts practice

letter magnets

One way that we practice spelling is with letter magnets. I got the magnetic boards at The School Box and I love that they have lines on them. Here are a few ideas on how to use letter magnets for spelling.



To practice "writing" their name, I place the letters to their name in a plastic bag and give them a sentence strip with their name on it. I think this is a great way for preschoolers to learn how to spell their name!



In one of their workboxes, I like to write a word that goes along with our letter of the week. I write out the word and draw a picture of the word.




Another idea is to get a set of flashcards and punch a hole in the top left corner. Place the set of flashcards on a loose leaf ring and your kids can pick a card and spell the word.




For more advanced spellers, you can use the ring of flashcards and have them spell the word on the magnetic board and then flip the card over to see if they spelled the word correctly or not.