Spelling Notebook

A (my 6 year old) is in 1st grade.  She now has daily and weekly homework, including spelling tests.  Because A is reading at a higher level her teacher sent home the 2nd grade sight word list to have her practice spelling them.  In 2nd grade they have to be able to read these words and spell them.  So I created a notebook for her to use at home to practice these sight words on her own time.  I didn't want it to be something she had to do, but rather something she could do when she wanted to (since she is in school all day).

Making great use of my label maker!

Inside (I did have to remind her how to use the lines on the page so that her words weren't so big!)

These are the different ways she can practice the words. There are numerous other ideas out there, these are just the ones I chose for her.

1st list of words-she chose to "hug" her words.

How this works:

Each day I taped a list to a page-I used the same list for one full week (or 5 days).  She practices the words each of the four different ways the first four days, and then on the 5th day she can choose her favorite way.  Then I left one page blank (without a list taped to it) so that I can test her on those words. 

This is an activity for grade school students and reinforces handwriting, reading, and spelling.

Pre-K Practice Sheets

L is now attending preschool 4 half days a week.  I have decided to make some practice sheets for him to do at home when he wants to do schoolwork.

Materials:

1) card stock
2) contact paper
3) wet or dry erase marker

Numbers and Number Words

Color Words

Lowercase Letters (o-z on back)

Uppercase Letters (O-Z on back)

First and Last name

Side note on the first and last name-I taught L how to write his name with all capital letters.  Which is fine, they are usually the easiest to form.  But the second he stepped into his new classroom his name was written with the capital "L" and the lowercase "andon".  I'm thinking I should have done this to begin with.  Also, his school has adopted the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, which is okay because I taught him using Zaner Bloser handwriting, not D'Nealian.  I would suggest finding out which handwriting curriculum your student's future school uses and try to teach that.

Create your pages, print on card stock, cover with contact paper (or laminate them) and use a wet or dry erase marker to practice forming the letters, words, and name.

This activity reinforces letter and number formation, number word recognition, color word recognition, fine motor skills, and writing skills.  This is such an easy and cheap activity to make! My next thought is to punch holes in them and store in a 3-ring binder.  Then L will have a binder full of dry erase practice pages!

Other variations could be:

~ a page with shapes to trace (with the names)
~ a page with random dotted lines to trace
~ print any tracing page off your favorite website 

Once your student is reading:

~ sight words
~ family names
~ days of the week
~ months of the year
~ print any practice page off the internet (laminating reduces the wasted paper-although we have wasted our fair share of paper)

The possibilities are endless!  See my favorite websites for more ideas of pages to print and laminate!

By the way, all of my kiddos LOVE having their own activities and places to keep their activities.   When I make a new activity and we find a place for it I make sure to reinforce ownership of it (meaning they are to take care of it, use it correctly, and put it away correctly).

Do-a-Dot Color Recognition

N is working on recognizing her colors by:

1) picking the color I tell her to choose
2) picking a color and telling me which color it is

Such a cute student to have! :D

Picking her colors.

This is N painting "quietly".  She would dab the paint softly.

Dabbing her dot paint.  I had to show her how to hold the bottle correctly.  It takes talent to be able to take the lid off and turn the bottle upside down.

The finished product-not too bad for a 2 year old! And she stayed on the paper, too!

This activity reinforces fine motor skills, color recognition, and self-control!!  Keeping a 2 year old in one place to do an activity for at least 5 minutes can be challenging!  But I believe it is very important to have them practice at home before they enter the school setting (whether at home or in school).  Once they get into the classroom they will already have an understanding that they are there to learn/work and not just play.  Just my own opinion! :D

Cutting Straws

N (2yrs)  is concentrating on using her scissors and holding the straw in between the blades-2 very tedious tasks. 

The hardest thing for her was letting the blades open back up.  We have a pair of right-handed spring scissors.

I may have to invest in a pair of left-handed spring scissors because she kept switching hands and they won't cut that way.  

This is one of the easiest and simplest activities that really does help kiddos develop their fine motor skills! With the added bonus of seeing how far they can make the straw pieces fly!