Monday Morning Musings...

The weather in northern IL is chilly, it calls for a fire to be burning constantly, because I like to keep the thermostat at 65*. Yikes! I know, I know that's chilly but it saves us money and we all get to snuggle under warm blankets whenever we sit down! What do you keep your temp at if you are in a cold zone?

Remember earlier in the month I mentioned my goal of drinking 1 gallon of water a day. Whoa, this has been such a wake up call for me. I am LOVING the water, but not loving the bathroom trips. It's still too early for me to notice much, except that I am not snacking as much nor am I craving too much in between meals. 

Are your bookshelves exploding? Mine are! One thing that I am doing to solve this is to get a group of people together in my home to swap and sell our books! I am setting up tables throughout my home and we will be set up to swap books for other friends or sell them if we cannot find a trade. I am very excited about this and will keep you posted on how it turns out! 

Teach the alphabet & letter sounds in no time!

A great way to teach letter sounds and/or the alphabet is with coloring pages, get yours HERE!!
1. Day One: As each letter is colored, have them sound out and say each letter. 

2. Day Two: print out a second copy and do the same. 

3. Day Three: Laminate the colored pages and cut out each letter combo evenly from 1 of the pages. (Saying each letter and letter sound as you cut it out to make flashcards)

4. Day Four: Repeat Day Three!

5. Day Five: You now have a set of Memory Game cards. Play with a few letters at a time and build up to playing with the entire alphabet. As each card is turned over say the letter and the sound.

Enjoy!

Are you a thrifter? Flashcard collector? I am using a mug tree to hold flashcard collections. This makes them easy to find and also keeps them out and on display. I change them out monthly and I notice that they are always being thumbed through! 

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Literacy & Learning Fun!

Tuesday came rather quickly! When that alarm went off this morning, I certainly wanted to curl back up and keep sleeping comfortably. Sometimes I often wonder what would happen if I decided to spend the day in bed? They could fend for themselves for a day, right? Hahaha...ahhhh, the dreams of a mother that is on the job 24 hours a day. Today is a post on what we have going on in the classroom in regards to literacy and learning!

I have a beginning reader that makes me prouder than words can say, as he begins his launch into the reading world, I like to build his confidence. He often time wants to give up when he opens a book and identifies just ONE word he does not know. To prevent that, I slip the book into a page protector and hand him a marker. I have him circle the words that he knows by sight alone and then sound out the others. If he still does not know it, he just crosses it out. Seeing everything he knows, makes him realize that there is more that he does know than does NOT know. This is one of his favorite things to do!

My baby reading his first book all the way through! You know those moments right? They bring tears to your eyes, you can even hear me sniffling in the background. I have each child reading their first book on video and it's amazing to see them all then and compare it to now.

One tip I can share with you, is when you get workbooks super cheap like these from TARGET's Dollar SPOT, pick up multiples. They allow you to use any good pictures for cutting out and using in poster boards when the kids have to do a report. They are also great for fact sheets if you are making a subject notebook, instead of the kids using their own handwriting in every single page.  

Reusing games is huge in my book. I get so much more out of them when they can be used for multiple things. These frogs come from a Cranium Game that we have and I just pulled them out and placed them on the floor with some sight word cards. This way he would flick the frogs and whatever card they landed on, if he could read it, he could keep it! He loved this game and wanted to play it all the time. It's amazing how kids will be drawn to learning if you just keep it fun! If you don't have that Cranium Game, head on over to Oriental Trading for a total STEAL on these frogs! 

What's Gnu is a FABULOUS game that my children LOVE! When I had the opportunity to purchase just the slider and 72 letter tiles for .25, I knew exactly what to do with it! This became our new writing center for my youngest. He slides a word and then he sounds them out. Next, he says the word and then writes it out as he spells it! Fun for him and perfect for me!

My children also love working with Geoboards. Something fun that they enjoy doing is making their own cards for their siblings to be challenged by. These are some designs that they started making on the computer. I also just keep the plain paper printed out at the center, for them create their own as they play.

Everything can change in an instant. Enjoy every minute that we have!

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