Junk Drawer Learning

If there is one thing I love doing the most, it's making art from items that would normally be thrown away, something else I love to do, is to make learning manipulatives! A few simple ingredients that we had around the house and 1 hour of Criminal Minds and I had a Color Spelling Game!

This game is perfect for a literacy center for kids to work on quietly alone or in a group. All you need are:

1. Used File Folder
2. Water Bottle Caps
3. Circle Labels (But you can use a sharpie right on the labels if you want!)
4. Dark Marker
5. Crayons

Once you have gathered all your items, just make up the alphabet on labels or righto on the caps and then add in the extra letters you will need for colors that double letters in their spelling. My game is for color spelling, but once you have the caps made, you can just make multiple file folder games using the same caps! Use your folder as your game mat and add on whatever you need to do and then draw circles or lines, so they know how many letters are in each word!

The caps can be used with the game or alone as an alphabet game or even for use with some spelling list words, to spell names and numbers as well!

Use cardstock or cut down an old file folder to make self checking cards with the correct spelling and the same picture that you used on the game mat. These cards can be used alone or with the game mat.

Pop everything loose into a baggie and staple it to the back of the file folder, now it all stores neatly and together.

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Thoughtful Thursday...

Here it is Thursday already and I have rudely left you all hanging! We have been out of town on a marathon field trip, shopping, visiting and driving spree. Our homeschool group has left the local area to hit up big cities and take classes, tours and a variety of other things. We are finally headed home tomorrow to prepare for our big Winter Wonderland party!

Traveling does not stop the learning, it just has us bring it on the road with us. One thing I love to bring is a floor mat of the USA that allows the kids to play on it and then we made up popsicle stick states on one side an abbreviations on the other. Pick an abbreviation and find it's state. It's large enough for all 3 kids to fit on the mat but portable enough that it all folds into a gallon size ziploc bag. We also have USA puzzles in a variety of types so that when they build them, they are not bored by what they are doing! We LOVE State Learning as you can see HERE!

As I sit here enjoying my cuppa, I always seem to notice that no matter how old my children get, they seem to always gravitate towards the same toys. Yes, interest in cooler and more mechanical things will always arise but when told to bring things when we go out of town, I realize that the basics of books,crayons, pencils and paper always make it and if we are there for an extended time, blocks and cars make the list too. These tree branch blocks my husband made them always seem to be along for a ride and their montessori style sound and color blocks as well. They are 7,8, & 9 and yet they are still my babies...

LEGOLAND is one of our very favorite homeschool hot spots. They have great classes, awesome employees and their customer service before you even arrive is top-notch. The kids always have such a blast at these classes that I decided to mention the latest one to our homeschool group and many people made the 1.5 hour trek with us and what fun we all had! LEGOLAND Schaumburg is out of this world in our book!

Crazy Charlie is up to his old antics as he too comes with us when we travel! Sometimes he is already in the hotel room when we arrive and sometimes we arrives at our destination some time the next day. Silly elf made a swing of the Ceiling fan! Good thing no one turned it on!! See what else Charlie has been up to in 2014 HERE!

Enjoy every minute my friends!!

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Tic-Tac-Spell!

It's Wednesday! That puts us right in the middle of the week, which is usually the middle of our spelling lesson. Here is my youngest son's week 3 spelling list. On Monday, I posted about Spelling Test Success HERE, today we will discuss an alternative or what we do in addition to the notecard daily works.

Start out with a large tick tac toe grid and place it in a protective sheet cover or even a transparency like I mentioned on MONDAY HERE! Now, this board can be used over and over again as a dry erase game. Have the 2 players each pick out a spelling word (Can be played with children of different age levels as well, since each just picks one word from their own list). 

Begin play as though playing regular TTT, but this time use your spelling words, saying each letter aloud as it is being spelled. Winner is chosen the same way! What a fun way to bring in games to learning!

Before spelling comes learning! Here was a great way that I taught my kids upper and lower case letters. We used this worksheet paired with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Get your own copy of the sheet HERE!

How true this is my friends, especially as a homeschooler, I am with my children 24 hours a day and I seem to hardly see a change and then I look at photos from just the previous year and I am astounded by how much has changed! Let this be a lesson to us all to just enjoy every minute!

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Learning with Dominoes!

Happy Tuesday my friends! How is it that these days are just flying by? Oh yes, the old adage that when you are having fun time flies! I wanted to share some more learning fun that I made up for the kids as they were learning to count. This could easily be adjusted to adding and subtracting as well as multiplying and the like!

Step one is to cut out each domino, unless you want to preserve this game, then print out and laminate before cutting. You can get your dominoes HERE! Once you have cut out each individual domino, you are ready for step 2. Keep in mind you can use these dominoes alone as teaching tools. Have your child count each dot on each domino and you have a simple counting game.

For example -

In counting from L-R: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7.
When using as an adding game: 1 + 6 = 7
Rotate for Subtracting: 6 - 1 = 5
Multiplication: 1 x 6 = 6
Rotate for Division: 6/1 = 6
You can also use real dominoes if you so choose, they even have them at the dollar store!

This domino parking lot is perfect for your beginning counters, have them count up the dots and park them in the correct spots. After printing, you could easily white out the numbers and then fill in with the numbers that fit whatever way you are teaching. 

Make sure you remember to enjoy every minute my friends! It's so easy to want to complain or get down on ourselves, spouses, children, significant other, but if we took the time to remember that this could be the last day we had with our loved ones...well we might just rethink our attitudes.

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ABCs & 123s

It's so easy to want to sing the alphabet song and just keep repeating the numbers 1-10 and call it a day, but why not take a few extra steps to make learning FUN?! That is one thing I try to bring to our every day lessons. Smiles and giggles make a hard day so much easier!

Foam floor tiles with numbers on them can be a fun game when placed like hop scotch tiles and as the kids jump on each number they say what number it is. Put them in mixed order to change it up and then just take them all apart and have them around the room, tell the student to jump from tile to tile and say the number they are on. Make it grow with the child by having them jump from one to another and ADD the sum of the 2 numbers!

Take the learning outdoors with jumbo foam letters! Get that case of the ants in your pants outdoors with learning fun. Toss jumbo letters on the ground and have them put them in alphabetical order, spell their name, shout a letter and have them find that one, have them spell spelling words or sight words...the games are endless!! Remember, you can be creative for pennies!!

Clothespins are something that can always be found in my classroom! They are easily transitioned from the laundry room into the school room. In this game I have put the lower case letters on the clip and have them matched up to the upper case letters. This is an easy do, but also keep the kids entertained as they work. Have extra space? Hang rope in the room and make it a laundry line game, the kids will love it so much more, just place the flashcards in a basket and tell them to hang the laundry on the matching clip that is already on the line.

Enjoy every minute my friends!!!

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Learning to Read and Loving It!

Happy Saturday Readers!! I love to read, even that is an understatement. Barnes & Noble is my heaven, I can seriously be there from open to close and just look at the covers, smell the pages and feel the written word in my hands. As a child I would be shooed outside to play and would spend the entire time under a tree reading. The books were often larger than I was and I would be so lost in the story that I would lose track of time. I was the kid at recess with a book and at lunch reading. I bring books to parties, read in the car and even while waiting in line at the bank. I have a Nook and yet still purchase books like crazy. My home is bursting with books and I have this innate desire to keep purchasing more. It's an addiction, but a good one. My daughter is the same way and it makes me smile! My son is getting there and the youngest is just learning. I know with my enthusiasm for reading, it rubs off on them, but my husband only reads a magazine hear or there every now and then and I have to make sure he doesn't influence them too much! Hahaha!! This post is all about how we work on falling in love with reading!

For my youngest that is still a beginning reader, I HIGHLY suggest the BOB books. I've spoken about them here before, but I wanted to let you know how great these are again. My son is on Set 3 of 5 and he really enjoys feeling as though he mastered something when he completes a book.

5-A-Day is still another thing that we enjoy doing together. On Monday we pick 5 books that we read throughout the day all week long. This helps familiarize my son with certain words as we reach each.word.slowly.

You will ALWAYS find Sight Word flashcards in my purse. This is so that no matter where we are, we can create a game of some sort with the cards and learn all while having fun! Here we are playing on an ice cream date!

I make up fun worksheets for him too, I took words used in the Bob Books and put them in a chart-type sheet. I then had him say each word, then spell it with alphabet stickers and finally say it again. This is an activity that he can also do on the go or while waiting somewhere. It's perfectly portable and fun to do.

Even if you do not have alphabet stickers, you can do the same thing with colored markers and as they spell it, have your child use a colored marker to trace each letter and then a crayon to color the box when mastered! Get your sheet HERE!

We keep the learning love going and even involve Daddy with a BOOK CLUB! We have a family book club that meets once a week. We have snacks and games and spend quiet unplugged time in the classroom chatting. It's so easy to do this, because we pick up multiple book copies at thrift stores! For less than .60 a book, it works out even cheaper to do this for all the books we buy than just buying 1 book new! The kids love Book Club day and the youngest cannot wait to join us when he is reading on his own and not having Mommy, Daddy or his siblings read the book to him!

Enjoy every minute my friend and keep smiling!!

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Around our Home...

Saturday is welcome here any day! We have been taking it easy this week at school and just enjoying nature as it happens all around us. We are still getting our studies in but spending more focus on the weather. We are experiencing some serious flooding on our area and in 1 day we had rain, snow, hail and then back to snow. So crazy.

A favorite in our home for awhile now are these bookshelves that we put next to each child's bed. They each hold their bank, books they are reading and a few prized possessions. The rules are that they have to keep them neat and clean and my kids are absolutely doing so well with this. 

How do you organize your games in the playroom? We have a shelf for kids games (here) and another shelf for older type games that we all play as a family more often (upstairs near the fireplace). These 2 shelves hold oversized toys on the top shelf and then games for kids on the bottom. Our Ikea Expedit holds more large toys along with a small microwave for them to have popcorn when they are watching a movie in the playroom. On top there are fun books that don't really belong in the classroom, because they are most loved! Markers and our favorite Globe Lamp!!!! I also have a little reading nook tucked into the corner, where the kids can often be found curled up in pairs reading.

Have your students decorate a tongue depressor with some markers and you have an easy reading pointer. This allows the child to stop and read each word, only focusing on one and not the entire sentence. They are also flat enough to serve as bookmarks! Inexpensive and fun.

Enjoy your Saturday my friends! It is 2:30am, so I will bid you goodnight!

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Homemade Literacy Centers!

My youngest Little is learning to read right now and I like to change up his literacy centers, so he doesn't always get bored with it. I try to create as much as I can at home, to keep costs down and we also borrow videos from the library! The photo above is a letter flip book to work on word families. You can do this with any of them, but this one is for the -OY family.

I made this wheel with a simple brad and 2 pieces of paper for the -AT family.

This game is made from a Target Brand Crystal Lite Container & some letter tiles. I cut a hole in the lid and he has to hunt for the vowels and put them in the box. Hunting and saying each letter to see if it is a vowel helps so much with letter recognition. 

Letter tiles again with flashcards and his phonograms cards make a game that has a few more steps. As he studies a sound (SH shown here), he finds the matching flashcard and then spells it out with the letter tiles, sounding out the letters as he goes. 

Sight Words Parking Lot is his favorite. I saw a sight word and then sound it out slowly. He then drives his car to the proper parking spot. If he needs to play this alone, the little pocket on the right holds photos of the words and he just puts the photos in the proper slot. I made this game using worksheet pages from his schoolbooks. I find it such a waste to just throw away those colorful pages after he has written on them. 

Are you reading 20 minutes a day with your littles? It is so important but also so fun! I incorporated the use of a pointer when reading with the youngest. As I say each word, the pointer follows along, so he can visually identify where we are and the sound of that word. 

Keep a reading log, so that your children can see just how much they are reading and you can keep track of how long!

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