Teaching Stones

Stones are a great concrete manipulative that are a must for some learners and a nice novelty for others. They are a great sensory material, as they are smooth to the touch. Stones can be purchased at the dollar store or craft store.

You can create many learning activities using stones. You can match upper and lower case letters, count, make words, etc. Today I am going to share a Spelling Activity.

Materials
stones ( dollar store or craft store)
multi-surface paint
a fine paint brush
clear sealer (optional)
basket or container for holding stones
clipboard, paper, and pencil (if recording)


Directions for Making Teaching Stones
1. Paint your stones if you wish. Let dry for at least an hour.
2. Then paint your letters, numbers, etc. on each stone. Let dry another 45 minutes - 1 hour.
3. Spray or paint with clear sealer if desired.
4. Place stones in basket.

Taken from No Time for Flashcards

Thanksgiving Spelling Stones

Lay out the stones to spell the word Thanksgiving. Explain the challenge. How many words can be made with the letters in this word. Take the stones and make a word. After making a word with the stones, write the word on the recording sheet. Put those stones back and make another word using the stones. Continue until all words have been exhausted.

Feature Friday: Word Family Activities

This week I want to feature a website with some fabulous ideas - The Differentiated Kindergarten.

I found this website as I was searching for word family activities. The author explains how she introduces word families to how students independently practice word families. Great resource so check it out.

Thoughtful Thursday

People who have accomplished great things in this world often cite someone early in their lives who had a major influence on what they became (a message which should be heartening to all early childhood teachers and providers).  One example is the story of Thomas Edison as related in Mental Floss (September 2010)."In 1862, at the age of 15, Edison got his first job as a newspaper boy at a train station in Mount Clemens, Michigan.  One day, while hawking newspapers, Edison noticed a 3-year-old boy playing on the tracks, right in the path of a runaway freight train....  The quick-thinking Edison jumped on the track, swooped up the boy in the nick of time, and then dove away from the speeding train.

"The action not only saved the boy's life, but it changed Edison's as well.  The boy's father happened to be the station's telegraph operator.  He was so grateful to Edison that he took him under his wing and trained him in telegraphy, sparking the inventor's lifelong love affair with all things electric."

Who inspired you to become who you are today?

Dollar Tree Orange Loofah Activities

Ideas taken from kathygriffinteach@blogspot.com

Orange Loofahs make perfect learning activities for students.  Keep several different colors on hand to teach letters, sounds, phonics, and math skills. You can cover the orange loop at the top with green masking tape to make it look like the stem on a pumpkin. Or you can color regular masking tape green with a marker.

PASS THE PUMPKIN - LEARNING GAMES

These games can be played whole group, small group, or individually.  If playing individually, the child can toss, catch, and say instead of passing around the circle.  If playing with your partner, the child can pass it back and forth between you.

For whole group and small group, begin with passing the pumpkin.  When they have learned this procedure, you can teach the children how to gently toss the pumpkin to the next person to help work on gross motor skills while playing the games too.  The bath loofah is easy to catch because the children can grip it more easily.

1.  Pass the Pumpkin Letter Sounds - Pass around during circle time. Children say a word that begins with the letter p.

2.  Pass the Pumpkin Rhyming - Pass around during circle time.  Say a word.  First child says a word that rhymes with it and then passes the pumpkin to the next child.  Game continues until you run out of rhymes or you can choose a new word and keep going.  Words given can be nonsense or pretend words too as long as they rhyme.

3.  Pass the Pumpkin Phonemic Awareness Segmenting - Pass around during circle time.  Say a word.  Children segment the word that was said.  For example, the teacher or adult says cat.  The child would toss and catch the sounds "c" "a" "t".

4.  Pass the Pumpkin Phonemic Awareness Segmenting - Pass around during circle time.  Say a word.  Children will segment the word using the pumpkin as a prop.  Pumpkin on head for first sound, pumpkin on shoulder for middle sound, pumpkin on knee for last sound.  For example, the teacher or adult says cat:  Child puts pumpkin on head and makes the sound of "c." Child puts pumpkin on shoulder and says "a." Child puts pumpkin on knee and says "t."  Child puts the pumpkin in both hands and says the word - cat,  then passes the pumpkin to the next child. Each child can segment the same word all around the circle (practice, practice, repeat) or you can give each child a different word.  I usually give the same word as we are learning to segment.  This helps reinforce the skill.  Children can retain the word in their head if they see the picture of the word.  Use CVC words with picture clues to help children that are struggling with this activity.  CVC words are consonant-vowel-consonant words such as hat, cat, bat, pig, dog, top, mop, etc.

First This: CVC words - cat, bat, sat, hop, top, mop, pig, wig, dig, lip, dip, bug, rug, sun

Then This:  CCVC words (working on letter blends) - stop, clap, frog, flag, crab

And Then This:  CVCC words (HARDER to hear the CVCC) - bump, jump, tent, band, hand, camp, lamp

5.  Pass the Pumpkin Vocabulary - Pass around during circle time. Children say a word that is associated with fall.

6.  Pass the Pumpkin Nonfiction Learning - Children name a fact or something they've learned about pumpkins.

7.  Toss the Pumpkin Counting - Have one pumpkin for every two players.  Have the children toss the pumpkin back and forth and count how many times they can keep it going (toss and catch).  You can set a predetermined amount of times they can start over again, give them a sand timer, or play music.

8.  Toss the Pumpkin Counting On - Students toss back and forth counting as above.  When they drop the pumpkin, they start off where they left off (counting on).  For example, they toss and catch to 9.  The next time they start with 10 and count up.

9. Toss the Pumpkin Skip Counting - Students toss back and forth counting as above except they count by 5's, 10's, or 2's.

10.  Toss the Pumpkin Greater Than, Less Than, Equal  - Students toss back and forth counting as above. Children can record each count on a piece of paper.  When the game is over, have them circle the largest number and underline the smallest number. If they write the numbers in a horizontal line, they can go back and put greater than, less than, and equal signs between the numbers.

Listening For Syllables

A syllable is defined as an uninterrupted segment of speech. All syllables have one common element, a vowel. A syllable could be one letter, such as "E" in E-li" or several letters, such as "Gra" in "Gra-cie."
Help children hear the parts of words by using familiar words like their names. Be sure to speak clearly and at a slower than normal pace, but be careful not to make each syllable sound like a separate word. It is easy for children to confuse these two topics. Before starting an activity, take time to model the process and share several samples.

Identifying syllables is a step towards hearing even smaller parts of words called phonemes.
Children need to be able to feel the parts of words as they say them. Coordinate a physical movement with each syllable in a word. Students love to clap, tap, stomp, nod and snap syllables in words. The movement helps make the connection for many learners.  Help children understand that the word "car-pet" gets two claps, one for each syllable. It is more important for children to hear each syllable than it is for them to identify the actual number of syllables in a word. Hearing syllables is a tool that will help children unlock print.

Check out these syllable activities.
Syllable Activities

DIY Halloween Math Manipulatives

Spray paint lima beans and draw on faces to make ghosts, jack-o-lanterns or goblins to use for patterning, counting or adding/subtracting. What a festive way to reinforce math concepts.

Save the Sensory Tables!!

Halloween Sensory Fun

Please do not neglect your sensory tables. This is a serious plea.  Hear me out, before you abandon those lovely tables full of gloriously colorful, squishy, scratchy, soft, hard, pointy, smooth, bumpy and smelly materials.  

Sensory tables allow you to differentiate for your class. Sensory work is not only academic, but it also addresses a student's learning modalities  and their interests!
( . . . and when you're really good . . . you can meet their level of readiness too.) Kinesthetic learners need the movement and feel of the sensory table. Linguistic learners enjoy the dialogue associated with working with other students at the sensory table.  The interpersonal learner loves working with other students.  The spatial learner develops stories and scenarios for play based on the contents of the table. The logical/mathematical learner loves the sorting and classifying of materials. Depending on the materials, the naturalist can even be engaged by a shell collection or different types of rocks added to a sensory table. I think there has been this misguided notion that sensory work is 'fluff.' Sensory table work is not only academic, but it can be aligned to Common Core Standards, address learning modalities, interests and readiness levels of students.  

Now that I have you convinced, check this out!

Materials: 
Colored Pasta
Clothespins
Spider Rings or some other Halloween object
Skills Cards (beginning sounds, upper/lower case letters, word families, etc.)

Directions:
1. Color pasta by placing the noodles in a ziploc baggie with a 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol.  Add a good portion of dye (neon dyes give a bright color) and mix it up.  Let the dye sit in the bag with the noodles for a good 30 minutes to hour.  Dump the pasta on aluminum foil to dry.

2. Hot glue spider rings to clothespins. You can use orange/black pom poms or any Halloween fun object.

3. Gather or make skills cards. This is a matching game so it can be matching upper case letter to lower case letter, beginning sounds, or rhyming pictures. For a more challenging game, make words using word families, e.g. a single letter or blend on one card and the word family on the other card. They clip the two cards together to make a word and then record their word on a paper.

4. Students simply search the tub for two cards.  When they find a pair that matches,  pin them together with the festive little clothes pin (Fine motor practice)and clip it to the side of my tub.  

You could even use this activity with math. Number recognition, counting, 10's and 1's, addition facts, etc.