My kids are having a blast with this SIMPLE and CHEAP number activity. They close their eyes and pick a number (this is a magnetic number from the walmart toy aisle where the playdoh is). Then they pinch that number of dots (which is great for teaching one-to-0ne correspondence) and roll a chunk of playdoh into a “snake” before forming it into the numeral to match the number they selected. I actually let them do this on a laminated sorting mat in my classroom. My sorting mat is one piece of white construction paper and another piece glued together at the end and then laminated. That way they can place the quantity on one side and the formed number on the other.
EASY, CHEAP, DOABLE, and you probably have everything you need at home!
One of my co-workers used this as one of her writing activities and I just loved it! It is simply black construction paper and colorful chalk.
It is so fun because the letters really pop on the black paper and it will spice up your little one’s color / writing time.
I model the way to do it first : making the letters, writing neatly and carefully so chalk doesn’t smear, and switching colors to make the art more vibrant.
Then, I leave the example on display while my little one has a chance to practice whatever skills he/she is learning at the time.
Here is one example of the rebus sentence one of my Kindergarteners created with the words he knew:
I have so many updates to share, but most require pictures that I haven’t had time to take yet. BUT, as I plan weekly activities for my kindergarteners I will be sharing them here…. which means more resources for you at home.
Here is one simple writing activity idea and “I can” printable:
I am teaching the sight words “I can” in my classroom right now, but you can adapt this to whatever you are practicing at home because it is such a simple template.
When your little one is ready to learn words by sight, you will use activities like this to encourage your little one to have fun practicing writing the formation of the letters in the word. Here your little one would write it in each color and then draw a picture of something he/she can do.
If you have a preschooler, you might work on one simple shape like a circle, letter or number. If you have a Pre-Kinder you might work on your little one’s name. If you have a Kinder, you might start working on their sight words when the list comes home from school or work on their middle/last name. You don’t have to put it in a word document either….freehand the color words and model the first row for your little one.
Great learning opportunities do not have to be completely planned out nor do they necessarily have to require much time at all. They do not have to come at a certain time of the day and do not always have to be over-the-moon exciting. Great learning opportunities DO need to have a goal in mind and this one, in particular, needs to be routine.
I give you the every-time-we-leave-the-house-4-second-learning-opportunity…
My kindergartner came home with his first day of homework. He had to trace the word RED three times, color the picture red, and do a word search where he had to find the word 4 times. After, I asked him how to spell RED without looking at his paper… r-e-d. Perfect.
The next day he came home with his homework for the color BLUE. After completing the same tasks as he did with the color red, I asked him to spell BLUE, but he couldn’t remember.
Then I remembered a teaching trick I used to get something to stick in my Pre-K and Kindergartners’ heads: repetition. How can I guarantee that I remember to enforce this repetition? Through practiced routine. And what better routine is there in a classroom than how to enter and exit the classroom? It is, in fact, the most rehearsed and the most repetitive… going in and out and in and out all day long.
I always had a sight word of the week (Kinder) or letter/number of the week (Pre-K) posted on the door frame and any time a student entered or exited the classroom they first had to hit the door frame and say (and spell) the word/letter.
For your beginning reader…
“B-l-u-e! Blue Blue Blue!”
or for your 1-3 year old…
“Big A, little a, /a/ /a/ /a/!”
You can even have just a colored piece of paper and use this repetition to teach colors. Or math facts…
“2 x 3 = 6!”
Or Bible verses! Or pictures of animals for toddlers! The learning opportunities are endless! Keep your one word/letter/color/number on the door for the entire week and any time you and your child leave, make sure to hit it on the way out! Be careful, though, it’s super easy to just remember the SOUND of this repetitive activity without looking at the actual word/letter, so make sure your child is also LOOKING at the card on the door frame to also remember its visual representation as well.
What other things can you teach using this 4 second activity?
I stay up late sometimes….it is 10:30. But it feels much later so maybe I am being a little dramatic. Being dramatic reminds me of my jr. high days of writing bubbly at all times.
And tonight, I got the itch to download a free bubble letter font….it happens. I went to fontspace.com, searched for a bubble letter font, and I downloaded one called “Janda Manatee” because I liked it the best.
I opened the file, clicked “Install”
And then I opened a Word document, changed the page orientation to Landscape, and typed Sean Patrick’s name using the new cute font.
I then clicked “Insert Shape” and filled his name with circles (I copied the circle size I liked and pasted it a lot of times first to make this go by fast!)…
I had to blow it up a little in the “Paint” Program to make it the size I wanted, but tomorrow I plan to do one of three things (if not all three) with this simple activity:
1) Encourage SP to cover each circle with little “poms poms.”
2) Encourage Sean Patrick to stamp the circles with his dot paint markers.
3) Encourage SP to stamp his finger print (ink pad style) on each circle.
This is a great pre-writing skill that develops his fine motor skills while emphasizing letter formation of the letters that are most meaningful to him, with a concentration on lower-case letters at this time. Do you have any other ideas??!? Cover each circle with a sticker maybe? Please share your thoughts!
Update: HOw the lesson went down>
I used two print outs; one to show him ideas and the second to let him explore on his own. I talked to him about the letters. “Look Sean Patrick…mommy made your name with circles in the letters. Can you still read the letters? What letter is this? ” etc.
We explored covering the letters with pom poms but that didn’t last long. Sean Patrick had more fun stamping the letters with his fingers and decorating his name with star stickers.
Then they pinch that number of dots (which is great for teaching one-to-0ne correspondence) and roll a chunk of playdoh into a “snake” before forming it into the numeral to match the number they selected. I actually let them do this on a laminated sorting mat in my classroom. My sorting mat is one piece of white construction paper and another piece glued together at the end and then laminated. That way they can place the quantity on one side and the formed number on the other.
