Activity ideas

ABC Hopscotch For Your Active Learner

It finally feels like Fall here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana! Although it will probably only feel like this for one more day before the weather decides to melt us again, it is the perfect day to get outside and get your little one moving. If you are like me, you like to get moving too so you might join your little one for this letter-naming activity.
I have noticed two mistakes on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to teaching letters: 1) we teach too many letters at one time 2) we stop reinforcing letters when our little ones “know” them all.
Today, I want you to do this activity with your little one EVEN if your little one already “knows” all their letters….this is a GREAT activity for active learners to practice their concentration on a few letters at a time, AND their fluency (how quickly they can identify the letters that they know).

 Draw a hopscotch court with chalk or tape one down on the concrete if you want it to last longer and fill it in with letters of the alphabet instead of numbers.  HOW you write the letters and WHICH letters you choose should cater to your little one’s knowledge of letter recognition.

*If your little one doesn’t know their ABC’s then write the letters in alphabetical order so that your little one can use the abc song to figure out which letters he/she lands on.

*If your little one knows 4 letters then write those 4 letters and 2 more letters that you can focus on teaching for that particular “court.”

*If your little one knows all the letters, pick upper and lower case letters AT RANDOM and place them out of order on the court and then erase (wet the letters with water) after playing a few rounds, and write new letters for them to practice naming them quickly.

For other ideas of how you might accommodate this activity for your little learner…contact me 🙂

 

Creative Writing

Just a few days ago, I re-discovered my creative writing folder from my childhood and I LOVED this:

Rebus books that use pictures in place of words are usually for beginners to focus on a minimal amount of words on each page and use pictures as well as words within the print so that a beginner can see that words and pictures BOTH communicate meaning.  That is one reason why I loved this creative “stamp story” (as I call it) because I was trying to tell a story using the stamp characters I had.

This would be such a fun writing activity for you to work on with your little one!  If your little one is not yet “writing”  –  allow them to dictate the story to you and help you “write” when they can.  You can substitute stamps with whatever you have in your house…..stickers, pictures (cut up double of family members and pets), magazine cut outs, etc.

This activity has so many possibilities that I would love for you to SHARE what you and your little one come up with on The Mommy Teacher Facebook Page

 

What’s in the Bag? Wait-Time Fillers

Teachers are usually prepared, or over prepared, for every minute of their day…because wait time can drive anyone and everyone involved to their breaking point.  So, most teachers have a bin (or two) of time fillers just in case they need a backup plan.

 This backup plan is a concept that needs to be transferred over into the “on-the-go bag” you carry with you on a daily basis because you WILL end up in a waiting room, a mess of traffic, a long line at the store (eh hem, hobby lobby), or who even knows where else.

I submit to you a few ideas worth considering other than the commonly used technology accessories: books, sketch pad + crayons, an activity book, and a mommy teacher time filler book.

I know this “time filler book” sounds silly, but I recommend taking the time to make one and here is how:

Make a word document of all the songs, finger plays, and stories you love:

1) Find, copy and paste from websites that provide all the lyrics.

2) Print and cut them out. (Click here for a starter I made you)

3) Tape them into a spiral bound index card pack.

4) Throw them in your purse or murse (“man purse” for all you daddy teachers)

** If you want to get fancy you can color code them (songs-red, finger plays-blue, stories-orange, etc.)

Then when you need a time filler, give your little one a choice!  “Do you want to read a book, sing a song, listen to a story, color, or act out a story with our fingers?” I think you will be surprised how much more quickly the time passes with your little one engaged.

So today I ask you….What’s in your Bag?  Share ideas that you have found helpful in your time of need!  Share pictures on the Mommy Teacher Facebook Page!

Don’t have a bag?  Enter the giveaway!

Uses for a Picture Dictionary

Lately I have been staring at my little one’s picture dictionary and deciding that I am not going to let it collect dust when there ARE plenty of uses for them….no matter your child’s age!

In case you don’t believe me, I was sitting in the back seat with my 15 month old the other day and the only book I had in the back to get him out of his cranky mood was a picture dictionary that I bought at a garage sale.  SO, I decided, let’s practice his oral vocabulary and build on it a little. * I know I know….only a mommy teacher would think this way.  I picked it up, opened to a page with a few familiar images (ball, balloon, banana, etc.) and I started pointing and naming the images he knew with clear enunciation of each word – giving him enough time to repeat me.

He is really articulate for 15 months and has a great memory; so, I thought, hmm…I wonder how long I can make this last if I make a game out of it.
Starting with the pictures he knew, I asked him “Where is the ball?”  I watched his eyes search the page, and then, a light bulb went off!  He pointed to the ball and said “baaaaaaaaawwwwww” in the long, dragged out way he always says ball.  I was so proud, as every biased mother would be! We did this same routine for several other pictures that he knew, for about 10 minutes, and every time we repeated this process on a new page I would introduce one unfamiliar picture.

For those of you cheering “more more!” here are some more ideas:

1)   Have your little one use it as a research tool when they want to find out how to spell something “let’s find the picture under the letter that it starts with and see how it is spelled in a book!”

2)  Play “I spy” a picture that is made up of the sounds /b//e//d/ or /b/ /ed/

Or I spy a picture that has that word “at” in it’s name “bat!”

3)  Get ideas for a letter study….help your little one make a “B” (or any letter) poster and get ideas of what you might draw on the B poster from the picture dictionary.

4)  With your little one’s eyes closed, open the book and randomly place their finger on a picture, see if your little one can sound it out without looking at the word and then check the word beside the picture to see how many sounds “matched.”

Bowling with Puffs

I haven’t been bowling in a while, but every time I go I really have a great night.  Some time ago I noticed that the “graduates puffs” containers for babies look like bowling pins without the wrappers…as a teacher my mind was always turning when I threw things in the recycle bin.  Save 10 of those cans and you have your very own bowling lane for your kids.

Bowling is a GREAT way to teach subtraction.  Always ask your little one to count the pins to find out how many pins you have to start with, then count how many were taken away, and finally ask how many are left?  These three questions will ingrain in your little one’s mind how subtraction works in a concrete way….even if they can’t figure out the abstract concepts of subtraction just yet….you are showing your little one the process of subtraction in a hands on way.

Sean Patrick opens puff cans with his teeth haha

And when he is finished I take the wrappers off and there you have it….bowling pins!

If you dont have kids…I used to collect these from my sister before I had kids, but if you don’t know anyone who has them then collect something that you might buy for groceries (pringles cans, soda liters, etc.)  Make it work for you!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

1 13 14 15 16 17 20