Airplane Sight Words

Feb. 6, 2014

Another sight word game--this time I scattered them around the room and Seth used his jet to swoop down and pick up the correct word. 

Co-op Sick Day

October 28th, 2013

Our kids came down with a mild case of Hand, Foot & Mouth which we decided not to share with our co-op. Since we were missing a day of learning about plants, we headed outside for a nature scavenger hunt.

We saw lots of great plants, leaves, rocks and bugs, but this was the highlight: we now have TWO Catherine the Wooley Bear Caterpillars. One for each hunter. 

For Halloween I changed up the "Roll a Pumpkin Game" we played last year. Instead of one die, we used two. Seth would have to add the two dice together to find out what to draw. Great addition practice and fun watching Seth's pumpkin get covered with all kids of crazy things. 

I decided to use the white board to help Seth practice reading some of his sight words in context. He's really good at reading them off a list but tends to stumble over a few of them when they're in a sentence. I tried to make it fun for him, but he still doesn't really enjoy reading for school. I'm learning to kind of back off and just give him lots of chances to pick things up on his own. Comic books are great for that (we love Tiny Titans), and we also love the Fly Guy books. 

Squirt Gun Sight Words

August 7th, 2013

Possibly Seth's favorite way to practice sight words!

First, get a squirt gun:

Then write your sight words all over the sidewalk: 

When Mom calls out a sight word, find it and shoot it!: 

Counting To 100

July 10-August 1st, 2013

Here are some of the ways we learned to count to 100:

Putting gems on our 100s chart:

Counting 100 beads: 

And putting the 100 beads on a "snake" (or a necklace, if you're a girl): 

We also decided to kill two birds with one stone and make a reading chart.

First we cut out 100 strips of paper:

Then we wrote a number and the name of a book Seth has read on a strip: 

And then we hung the strips up in a chain! 

We'll get to 100 eventually, but not for a year or two at the rate we're going, which is perfectly fine.

To celebrate him being able to count to 100, I let him count 100 jelly beans:

When he finished, he got to eat them! Yum!

Jump On It!

June 26th, 2013

I found this idea on Pinterest and adapted it for Seth.

First, I placed his sight word cards on various foam blocks on the floor:

(I actually made a second copy of his sight words for this game because I knew they'd get mangled)

Then I called out a word, and he had to jump on it:

Action shot:

I think we ended up playing this for about 40 minutes (his choice), which meant he went through all his sight words at least four times. This game would be really easy to adapt for lots of different kinds of practice (math facts, etc.). 

Flashlight Sight Word Hunt

June 13th, 2013

I found this awesome idea on Pinterest and figured Seth would love it. I was right! He was so excited to see the flashlights in his school drawer. 

Heading to the basement for the hunt

VERY excited to find all the words

Shining the flashlight on the word.

Once he found the word, I removed it to make things easier (and to keep track of what we'd already done). But for more of a challenge you could leave them all up!

Parking Lot Sight Words

I've seen versions of this all over Pinterest and decided to do my own version. I write all of his sight words on blank index cards, which makes them very portable for different games.

I used sticky tack and stuck them to the floor, then pulled out a bunch of his cars. I would call out a word, and he would have to "park" the car on top of the word. He loved it!

After all the cars were parked, he requested that the cars crash (of course).  I would call out two sight words and the two cars on those words would have a tremendous crash. Great extra practice!

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!

Reading/Writing Resources

Happy Phonics
Explode the Code
Institute for Excellence in Writing

Phonics Learning Games Kids Can’t Resist by Michelle Ramsey

Word Smart Junior by C.L. Brantley
Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne (these also work for history/science)
http://www.magictreehouse.com/

www.janbrett.com/games/jan_brett_dolch_word_list_main.htm

Contemporary Discussion

Purchase a magazine such as TIME or Newsweek. Read articles that will interest your child and discuss with them.  This is a good way to analyze content and to discuss real-world issues.

Reading Activity

Read aloud while the child colors.  Once they are older, have them illustrate something from what you're reading.