Punching Patterns

Fiskars Butterfly Paper Puncher

I like to be resourceful and reuse materials materials if I can.  For this activity I used the paint chips that N previously cut and used my kid-friendly Fiskars butterfly paper puncher (that I found on clearance at Wal-Mart) and punched out some butterflies.  I say "kid-friendly" because all N has to do is push down on the white knob with her hand.  Most paper punchers this small require using mostly the thumb- which can be quite a task.  I also like using the paint chips because they are sturdy and easier for little hands to pick up.

Gluing Patterns in N's Notebook

I decided to use an easy ABAB pattern with N.  I placed the glue dot and N placed the butterfly in place.  We had to say the pattern over and over, but she eventually understood. 

Other Creative Ideas:

~ use more colors
~ ABCABC patterns, ABBAABBA patterns, AABBAABB patterns
~ find a variety of paper punchers (Micheals usually has a dollar section somewhere with small paper punchers)
~ create patterns with different shapes (not the colors of the paper)
OR
...when they are ready...
~ create patterns using alternating colors and shapes

Cutting Paint Chips

Cutting Paint Chips

Using scissors correctly is one of the skills most preschoolers have not developed before going to school.  Don't be afraid to put a pair of scissors in your child's hands- with supervision, of course!

Teach them how to:
1) hold the scissors with correct placement of thumb and fingers
2) open and close (cutting straws is great practice for this)
...and when they are ready...
3) cut along a straight line

Paint chips are excellent (FREE) resources for this kind of activity.  They provide a thick, solid, straight line AND they are sturdy enough for little hands to hold without too much bending.  Some paint chips are tall and slender so it wouldn't take too much effort to succeed at the task.  As your child masters the opening and closing of the scissors you can give them the longer lines.  Success is very important to your child-especially at this age.  The littlest thing- like cutting a small straight line, can give them such a sense of independence.   

Do A Dot Name Painting

Dot Paint Name

N loves to use the dot paints! Such a simple activity that keeps her attention.  Simply write your child's name in large letters (upper or lower case-they need to learn to recognize both) and let him/her start dabbing away!  N likes to drag the dot painters so I had to show her again how to dab them. 

Other ideas for this activity:
~ large shapes
~ individual letters
~ curvy or zigzag lines
~ print off alphabet pages from
http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2012/12/a-z-do-a-dot-worksheets.html
~ search for other great do a dot pages

Eraser Math

This activity reinforces lots of different skills.  Once you have your eggs (or whatever object you choose), put the eggs in a basket/bucket. 

Materials:  lots of little erasers, something to stuff them in (we used Easter eggs)

 Little Learners Activities:
1.  Sort erasers into groups
2.  Count each group
3.  State which has more or less
4.  Use erasers to make lines or shapes

Be creative with how little hands and minds can use these little erasers.

 PreK Eraser Activity:
1.  Pick one egg
2.  Sort/group/count erasers
3. Add each group for a total number
4. Repeat with another egg
5.  Now add the two total numbers together

This activity reinforces:
counting, sorting, addition, one-to-one correspondence

Fruit Loop Rainbow

N is working on two skills with this activity.
1.  Color recognition and sorting
2.  One-to-one correspondence

What to do:
1.  Draw the rainbow lines with corresponding color marker.
2.  Place glue dots along each line
     (I spread the glue dots out myself for two reasons- so the activity wouldn't take too long as N has a
       short attention span, and so that things wouldn't get too messy.  Let your child do the gluing if
       you think he/she is ready, though!)

Now you have a rainbow!

Other ideas for gluing with cereal:
~shapes
~letters
~name

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).