How Sound is Made

Supplies needed:
*bowls, canisters, empty cans
*drumsticks/plastic spoons
*balloon skins or plastic wrap
*rubber bands
*scissors
*rice, beans, marbles, etc.

Watch the videos here: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/youtube-playlist-pages/youtube-playlist-sound/

Another great option: Magic School Bus! http://www.schooltube.com/video/605c2bbb5582479ca4b4/Magic%20School%20Bus%20-%20Haunted%20Mansion

Activity here: http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/14753/teaching-kids-how-sound-is-made

First Day of Kindergarten!

June 3rd, 2013

Here's what we did on Seth's first day of kindergarten!

We started by putting his phonics flashcards into alphabetical order. No issues here besides the classic mistake of thinking "LMNO" is all one letter (note to self: work on that one):

Then we played one of his awesome Happy Phonics games: I Can Spell!

(This is my favorite learn-to-read program ever. HIGHLY recommended).

This was the original plan:

Pick a picture, use the cards to spell the word.

(Sorry for the weird stretchiness--Blogger is being stupid at the moment).

But he decided that was too much effort and took to writing the words instead.

No complaints here:

And since we were already writing, I threw in some lines for practicing writing on:

Not bad for a boy who hates writing because it "makes my hands hot."

Then it was on to money identification!

(I found the money posters here, and the poem here--I edited the poem slightly to fit my needs)

I also made up my own little sorting game, where he had to use the posters (now up on the wall) to sort the coins correctly by name. Once he had sorted them all, he had to match the cards with the correct values to each pile. He had to check the posters several times, but he seemed to enjoy the whole thing!

After a short break, we headed outside to practice writing upper-case letters in the sandbox. We made it through half the alphabet. He still needs some work on B, D, F, G, I, J, K, but he's in much better shape than I expected.  

Then it was on to piano practicing (which he can't do independently--I sit by him and give him a mini-lesson every time). For the record, Seth was the one who wanted to start lessons. I would have waited another couple of years! 

We ended the day by having Seth read aloud some BOB Books, and then listening to me read some books about children around the world (social studies) and magnets (science--we'll be playing with magnets later in the week).

He would still rather play with cars all day, but I'm hoping to help him understand that school is not optional now. I'm just glad I've done enough research on teaching little people (especially boys) to realize that he needs to take breaks from school in order to process everything. 

Day one, done!