Monday Spelling Prep!

It's Saturday and you know what? I'm ready to rush the weekend! My children are off at a sleep over and I wish they were here with me. I finally get that peace & quiet that I desire and yet here I am complaining. How sad! Anyway, today I wanted to share how Roman prepares for his First Grade Spelling Tests!

On Monday, I hand him a typed up list and we read it together. After that we write the flashcards together while saying and spelling the words. Once we have finished that I hand him some stickers and he moves to the reading bench alone. Once he can read a word, he puts a sticker on it. If he can spell the word, he adds a second sticker to it.

On Tuesday, he takes his list words and uses water to 'paint' them on the wall as he searches for each letter and spells the words. This is a fun game that he gets to play as he learns. More information on this HERE!

Wednesday brings Barrel of Monkeys time! He takes his flashcards and our barrel of monkeys and works on spelling each word out. Once it is spelled, he takes our classroom camera (an old digital phone) and photographs his words. This allows him to work alone and me to grade his progress later.

Monday-Wednesday he has to write out each spelling word 5 times. I made the 3 columns right on the back of each flashcard, which makes it easy to keep in 1 place and for him to study as well.

On Thursday he takes the quiz in his notebook and any that he gets wrong, he must rewrite on a new page and copy them 5 times. Friday is TEST day & by this day he is usually more than ready! If he does get any wrong, he just writes it 3 times, to reinforce the word.

Enjoy your week my friends!

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3 Letter Sight Words

As I sit here and notice that Summer is flying by, I cannot believe it. How did it disappear so quickly? It must have been the very few hot days we had and the more balmy weather. Not that I'm complaining, I'm ready for Apples and Pumpkins and Orchards and Patches! This week I made up a worksheet for Roman to reinforce his 3 letter sight words. I do this every now and then, to keep them refreshed in his head. As he learns more difficult words, I don't want him to forget the other words. If you would like to print this one out (it's the first of the school year), go HERE!

Have a wonderful day my friends and remember to enjoy every single minute!

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Busy Binder

Happy day my friends! I hope you all are doing very well! We took off last week for a mini vacation to the waterpark capital of the world, Wisconsin Dells and had an absolutely fabulous time! Now we are back and ready to begin the new school year. Can you believe how quickly time flies? This year I have a 5th grader and 3rd grader that are going to need a lot of my time in the morning as I introduce new things and concepts. As this is happening, I created a BUSY BINDER for my youngest who will be in 1st grade. 

This binder is housed in Roman's School Bin (will share these in another post) and he grabs it as soon as he enters the classroom. Each paper is in a page protector so that it becomes an instant wipe board. A square of fabric can be easily used as an eraser, but we use a small eraser from the Dollar Spot at TARGET!! 

Store your dry erase markers, pencil & eraser and any other supplies your child will need for the binder in a pencil pouch that easily clips right into the binder. Having everything in 1 place makes it easier for your student to just grab and go in the morning.

The first 2 pages will help him work on spelling out months and days of the week, along with writing down numbers of which day it is.

On the calendar page he writes the name of the month again and circles the day that it is today. On the printable pages for you, I left the numbers off for you to fill in, so that you can print it up multiple times, instead of having months where day 1 may not begin on Thursday.

Next, is his address. He works on writing it in. This is also great handwriting practice, since he needs to stay in the lines. For Roman, I filled in parts of the address and he has to fill in the blanks. As he gets better, I remove some of the parts I filled in until it gets completely blank like this.

Next, is a phone number page where he fills out his phone number. Roman knows many of these pages from Kindergarten work but it's good repetition, to stay in his brain!

The binder also holds 2 different types of paper for handwriting improvement. The child lined paper helps Roman work on straightening his letters and keeping his words clutter free.

Regular student paper is perfect for him to start practicing his writing. This also allows him a place to doodle if he has some free time.

A 100s chart allows him to work on counting to 100 while crossing off the numbers as he goes. Sometimes I will put blue painters tape pieces on multiple numbers to have him fill in the blanks. (I use painters tape, because it will peel off easily)

I created this document of Sight Words that every First Grader must know from a reference book that I use. I just typed them up and put it in this book. On this page Roman reads the words that he can and puts a line through them if he knows them. I also take 5 words a week from this list and they are his spelling words for that week, that way he is tested on them as well.

Using Baseball card sleeves (still can be used as a wipe board), I inserted the flashcards that came with our reading program. He fills out the missing letters in each word. These start out easily with just 1 letter missing and then get more difficult as he progresses through them. Missing 2 letters, missing 2 letters and finally missing all letters and just containing the photo.

The last section just has all his sight word flashcards for him to work on and cross off the words that he knows as he goes. He pretty much knows all of these, but it's good reinforcement for what he knows.

The final section of our Busy Binder holds addition and subtraction flashcards. Our normal sized ones did not fit in here, so I printed some on card stock FROM HERE. I wish I had colored card stock to make them prettier but alas, no such luck. I am trying to figure out a way to laminate his number line and pop it in there too, so that he can use it if needed as he gets more familiar with memorizing.

I hope that you can find use for these things that I have shared with you, please feel free to use them, just link back to me if you use them online. HERE IS WHERE you can find these sheets to print out on your own! If you have questions, please feel free to ask! If you add anything else to your binders please share in the comments below! I love this binder because it is so portable and can even go on vacation with us, plane rides, Dr. office and car trips!

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Saturday School Round-Up

Happy Saturday friends, for some reason I keep feeling as though it were Sunday already! This week has absolutely sailed by, so much so that I feel as though I have accomplished so much. It was a fabulous week in the homeschooling world and I know it will only continue to improve. My children are finally somewhere that the Lord has led us. They are HAPPY, HEALTHY and SAFE! Let me share a few things that my youngest and I worked on this week. 

Dominoes are so awesome for math in learning. They can be used in so many ways. First, I took a sheet of printed dominoes and handed them to my Little. I told him to match them up on the paper when he found the matches. Once that was done, I had him use the white line as an addition sign and give an answer.
0+0=0
4+6=10
6+6=12

We use a learning clock for more than just the normal activities that it was intended for. I took a set of time flashcards and have him make the time and then tell the time. It's fun for him to use the colorful and fun cards and play with a clock that he made! Making it fun, makes them think that they are playing and not really learning! LOL!

Sight Word Learning! One of our literacy centers has sight word flashcards alongside a wipe board with dry erase markers and an eraser. He has to sound out the word, write it and try and say it alone. He struggles with this one,but he loves the dry erase so he enjoys doing it.

Sight Word Spell! Roman absolutely loves this one! He uses a Boggle Game to spell the words on his sight word cards and then attempt to sound out the word as he adds letter by letter, blending as he goes.

Pipe Cleaner counters make counting by 10's so much fun! Especially when he is the one that made them. He also uses them with his math work.

Homeschooling space is at a premium here and I use every.single.inch.of.space! Here I attached a pocket chart to the side of our mobile classroom cart. I set up a beginning sounds game for him to sit on the floor with and match on the chart. It challenges him just enough to keep him occupied while I help the older children.

100 is such a big number to a little guy and our 100 chart game is a favorite. He learns to count that high and at the same time has fun doing it!!! We take our 1-100 flashcards and if we are playing together, I call out a number and he puts a little 'chip' on that number. If he does it himself, he picks a card and searches for it. Both ways are necessary to learn because he needs to learn to HEAR the number and find it but he must also learn what the number looks like and searching to match it up. He must also learn to work independently .

With Roman moving right into the heart of addition and subtraction, he is loving using counters to get himself familiar with the process. He is learning that he can use anything as a counter! Every morning he enjoys finding what he will use as a counter and then getting to work with it. It gives him something to look forward too but also allows him to have a say in what type of learning he will be doing.

More telling time! This is a simple game and as you can see in the photo, there are actually many more pieces but the key to successful learning, is not to overwhelm the child, where they think the task is impossible before they even begin!

Playing, Spelling, Reading and Writing!!! Puzzle cards are so much fun to my Little. He loves searching for the matches and then putting it together properly! I added more to this simple activity by having him sound out each word and then write it down, saying each letter as he writes it!

Sight Words and Magnets! Same as the writing, but varying it up! He spells the sight words using the magnets and it's so simple but he loves digging through the bin for the right letters. He calls it fishing :)

This is the same game that I mentioned above on the pocket chart but instead it's played with 2 players. You use a sand timer and each person gets the allotted time to get as many matches as possible.

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Organizing Spelling Words!

When my daughter started kindergarten at the beginning of the year, she started coming home with spelling words daily that she needed to be tested on the next day. I started out saving the words and tests and realized that this could quickly get out of hand! I decided to put the words into a binder on looseleaf paper with divider tabs inside. This way every single word she learned would go inside along with any words that the kids asked for help spelling. This has become a great go to guide when learning how to spell a word.

As each word comes in, I write it in as my daughter or son spells it to me from their list of words and in it goes! If we are working on writing letters to family, and they need help spelling a word, we get out the Spelling Word dictionary and flip to the first letter and then I write it in as they sound it out. It is a longer process than just telling them, but I feel that they are learning a bit.

We also keep track of the definitions on a separate sheet of paper in the binder! This now keeps everything together for us to look up in the future and helps with the memorizing of words.

I also put her daily words on card stock and a binder ring so that she can flip through them after school whenever she needs a refresher and also in the car ride on the way to school! This has been the greatest help to her. It's not a waste of paper, as we only use paper from our scrap bin!

I purchased the 100 Words books at the beginning of the school year (Grades 1-3), just to see how well she was staying on target and at the end of Kindergarten, she has worked her way all the way through the 2nd grade book and about 60% of the 3rd grade one! I love these books as they have fun activities inside and also have lists of words, to just go through as a quick review. I keep these books in the front pocket of the binder.

Share what works for you with school papers!

Love to Spell!

As my kids grow, I notice how much they love to learn new things! Sometimes doing everything the same way gets a little old and boring. I try very hard to keep the writing manipulatives fresh and fun. We often times make them, so that the kids get even more of a letter work out! Every now and then I will introduce some here! Our latest ones are the ones shown above! I found coasters on clearance at Michaels for .50 and my brain got working right away! These are large letter tiles once I added on the vinyl letters (Leftover from Autumn's Science Fair project)! We sometimes string a rope in the living room and use large clothespins to hang them and spell out words or we just write out Spelling Words on the floor crossword style. Learning can be fun!!

I made a game up for Roman, my youngest (He is 3)! Together we stamped the letters of the alphabet on clothespins and I laid out the clips on the floor in groups of 5,6 or 7. I handed him a letter tile (made above) and told him to match the letter as he says it out loud. Once he matches it, he has to clip them together and make a pile of completed ones. He loved it and kept playing over and over again!!!