Month: February 2011

Creative List

One of the grade level expectations for young children is that they can write for different purposes or to different audiences.  In one of my earlier posts, I encouraged you to allow your child to write a survey to collect information.  In another to write a letter, and in other posts I have provided other means of giving your child meaningful writing experiences.

Today I am going to ask you to get out your child’s clipboard and pencils and tell them that ya’ll are going to go on a pretend trip to the make-believe grocery store.  Tell your child at the make-believe grocery store you can buy whatever groceries you want for free. 

Ask them to help you come up with a list of all the items that they hope might be on the aisles.

Each time they name something, get excited for their idea.  If they name something that isn’t a grocery item say “hmmm….we’ll have to put that on our make-believe ______ (pet store, mall, -or whatever it applies to – list.” 

As they name items say “Hmmm…I wonder what letter would make the sound at the beginning of that word??” If they say something like “Popsicle Candy” you might say “/p/ /p/ /p/ Popsicle candy…do you know what letter might make that sound?” 

If your child is beyond beginning sounds ask them to “pull out” other sounds they hear in the word.

You should have a clipboard out too, writing down each item.  Guide, model, share, but don’t overwhelm your child with technique.  If your child is writing well, this can always be a “draft” and you can go back the next day and ask them to make it super neat so you can put it in their Fun Work Binder.

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I Spy

Everyone knows the game “I Spy” where one player says “I Spy something….” and names something specific in the area and the other player has to find it.

Well, I am going to put a Phonemic Awareness spin on it which just means that I am going to make it a listening activity where your little one is listening to the “play on words” to identify the object.

If you read the post “What is Phonemic Awareness?” then you know that there are three phases to this game because there are three different skills to be mastered.

PHASE ONE:
First you are going to play the game by focusing on the parts in the words. So you will say “I Spy a pic -(pause) ture”
This is to get your little one to focus on putting syllables together to hear a word.
If you are confident that your little one can hear and combine syllables then move on to phase Two. If not, practice this game a little each day in different locations.

Phase Two:
This time you are going to focus on the initial sound and the rest of the word so you are isolating a sound but you are still including the bigger chunk of the word.
So you are going to say “I spy a /p/ – /en/”

Phase Three:
Finally, you are going to focus on segmenting all the sounds so that your child has to listen carefully to figure out the word.
If your child cannot figure out the first two simple words PLEASE don’t force it, spend some time working on the earlier skills first.
So you will say, “I spy a /p/ – /e/ – /n/”

This entire activity is meant to build your child’s familiarity with sounds in spoken language, but make sure you have fun with it. Give a pep talk “Let’s play I Spy, it is a fun guessing game, but I’m going to be tricky and hide the word I Spy. I wonder if I will stump you.”

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Letter Order

I over-heard some moms talking about teaching their child to write his/her name before a screening test and I couldn’t help but give an idea for this. If your child is capable of writing their first name, you can also do this same activity with their middle/last name, OR with simple words like sight words your child’s grade level may require that they learn.

In earlier posts I have tracing activities for children to practice writing their names, but this activity is a simple way to jog their memory recall and order their thinking.

1. I want you to search your house for some magnetic letters, foam bath letters, puzzle piece letters, or any loose alphabet pieces you can find.

*If you don’t have any letters or enough to make up their name, you can type their name in large font, print it onto cardstock (so it will be sturdy), and cut it apart.

2. Invite your child to play a game with their name!

3. Write the child’s name on a sheet of paper and go with the letters in front of you ask your child to name and find each letter and put it aside. (This step can be skipped if you had to print your child’s name from your computer).

3. Place these letters (the letters that make up your child’s name) into a brown bag or a small container. Shake it up to mix all the letters (lor shuffle them by throwing them in the air and flipping them over wherever they land).

4. Show your child how to put their name (or whatever word you choose) in order.

5. Put the letters back in the bag, shake again and this time put the letters in order WITH your child.

6. Finally, repeat but allow your child to attempt this on their own.

****Another activity extension is to place ALL the letters in a bag to shuffle and place the letters in ABC order.

Below is an example of the name and sight word letter order activity. I used post it notes and a black marker.

       

And don’t forget to make learning fun!

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