Bang! for Sight Words

Macy has all of a sudden become interested in the words on the pages in books, and, oh, the teacher is coming out in me!!!  When I taught 1st - 3rd grades special education, my favorite thing to teach was reading, and my students loved working on their sight words.

Our favorite game to play with sight words was called Bang!

• Make lists of the sight words you want your kiddo to work on
• Break the lists into groups of 10.  Each set of 10 is a different color.  So, you have 10 red words, 10 pink words, 10 blue words and so on.
• Write the 10 red words on red construction paper and cut them up.
• Put the 10 words in a coffee can...we decorated ours.
• Also, put 2 pieces of paper in the can that say, "Bang!"  You can change the word, if that word leads to violence in your world, but it was just a fun, silly word for us.
• Pass the can around to each child.  (back and forth between child & parent works fine, too)
• On your turn, draw a word and try to read it.  If you read it correctly, you keep the card.  If you miss, put it back in the can.  If you draw Bang!, then you must put ALL of your cards back in the can except for Bang! which goes in the lid of the coffee can.  (Each Bang! is only chosen once and never put back in, so that the game will end!)  
• Whoever has the most words when the can is empty is the winner.

As your children get better at the words, add 10 new words of a different color along with a couple more Bang! cards.  This is a great game to play, because even if you know all the words, you may still not win.  Therefore, no one gets discouraged.  Enjoy!

Precious Childhood Collections

Does your kiddo like to pick up everything on walks from leaves to sticks to rocks and everything in between?  Well, Macy sure does!!!  We ALWAYS have to take a basket on our walks, sometimes even if we are just walking to the mailbox!

Lately, she has been really into collecting rocks.  We pick them up everywhere.  Heck, we have even pulled the car over to score a good rock or two!

So, to make a long story short...I bought this book to help with all the questions about the different types of rocks, and, well, just to make a Teachable Moment out of our basket of rocks!  This momma might know a lot about literacy and mathematics, but put a rock in front of me, and, well, it's just a rock!

We are planning to go on some really big rock hunt road trips to find even prettier rocks and then learning a thing or two together while matching our rocks to rocks in the book.

It should be a great Teachable Moments' Adventure for the whole family!

We are also enjoying a little hopping with...

A Different Kind of Teachable Moment

As a special education teacher, I guess I was under the false impression that my child would grow up automatically accepting other children with disabilities or differences.  Sadly, I was very mistaken.  I wanted to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to take time with your child discussing differences that other children might have.  Assure them that they also have many things in common with children with disabilities, one being feelings.  Everyone can feel acceptance and sadness...everyone has feelings.  

My favorite poster to keep up in my classroom...

If you don't typically come into contact with children with disabilities, you might look at some websites with your children such as http://www.specialolympics.org/  or search for children's books about disabilities. 

Remember that before you automatically tell your child to stop staring, that looking, learning, and being curious about differences is not only natural but a good thing.  We just have to teach our children compassion and acceptance.

I'm sure that parents of children with disabilities get tons of questions, but the main one I get as a teacher is, "Does he/she understand what's going on?"  The answer is, "Yes!"  

True story...

A boy with severe disabilities, not able to talk or walk, scoots over to watch another child play.  The typically developing child yells out, "Ooo, I don't want him over here!"  The boy with disabilities lowers his head, scoots away, and doesn't try to interact with another child all day.  Another teacher says to me, "Wow, it's almost like he knew 'Joe' was scared of him.  Do you think it really hurt his feelings?"  I was almost speechless.  Of course, it hurt his feelings!  Everyone has feelings!

I know it won't be easy, but try to make a great Teachable Moment out of this with your children, before any more precious children get hurt.  Let's all try to see with our hearts instead of our eyes!

     

Early Literacy Skills ~ Phonemic Awareness & Rhyme

Down by the bay...Where the watermelons grow...Back to my home...I dare not go...For if I do...My mother will say...Have you ever seen a pig wearing a wig...Down by the bay

Author Unknown ~ Traditional Children's Song

I loved this song when I was little and now Macy does, too!  It is such great fun!  This song is an easy way to work on rhyme with children.  When reading or singing this book, just leave off the last part of the rhyme about each animal and see what words your children will come up with.  For example, Have you ever seen a moose, kissing a _________?   Maybe your child will say, "Goose" or maybe "Foose!"  

Phonemic Awareness is learning about sounds, so if your child said a made up word like, foose, they are doing a marvelous job learning about sounds!  Made up words are even part of phonemic awareness testing at some schools!  

After your kiddo gets the last word being left off down pat, then leave off the entire last part of the sentence.  We have tons of fun with this activity!  Have you ever seen a bear dancing at the fair?  Then, we will write our own verses to the song and illustrate them to make our very own book.  

Another fun book to make your own verses and illustrations for, is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?  by Bill Martin. 

You could do... 

Leprechaun, Leprechaun, what do you see?  I see a green clover looking at me.  

Green clover, green clover, what do you see?  I see a black pot looking at me.  Etc.

or 

Pink rabbit, pink rabbit, what do you see?  I see a blue egg looking at me.  

Blue egg, blue egg, what do you see?  I see a brown basket looking at me.  Etc.

I'm sure you and your child will enjoy many Teachable Moments while making your very own picture books!

Also join me in the Welcome Wednesday Blog Hop!!!

Ten for Tuesday ~ Our Favorite ABC Books

1. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault
2. Arf! Beg! Catch! Dogs From A to Z by Henry Horenstein
3. Shiver Me Letters:  A Pirate ABC by June Sobel
4. Animal Antics:  A to Z by Anita Lobel
5. The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst
6. Dr. Seuss's ABC
7. Hooper Humperdink...Not Him!  by Dr. Seuss
8. The Alphabet Book by P.D. Eastman
9. A was Once an Apple Pie by Edward Lear
10. Alphabet Soup by Scott Gustafson

Indoor Carnivals

Ever since we attended a couple of Fall Carnivals at churches this past year, Macy has been totally into designing carnivals at home.  It has been quite fun.  She makes her own tickets and prizes, and we have put together some great carnival games in our living room with just some stuff from around the house.  Believe it or not, carnivals are great places to share some Teachable Moments with your children!

Angles 

Turn Taking

Counting

Length

Chance & Probability

Following Directions

Here are just a few simple games to make at home ~ the possibilities are endless!

• Pour beans or rice into socks, then tie a knot in the end to make bean bags.  Cut holes in a large box or even just find some buckets or bowls for target practice.  Each hole, bucket or bowl can be worth different amounts of points to practice addition.  
• Find some shoe boxes and stick pencils in them to where they are sticking up out of the boxes and through the lids.  Use children's plastic bracelets to have a ring toss.  If you don't have bracelets, cut the inside of butter tub lids out and use the outside of the lids for rings.  Again, you can work on adding points. 
• Use some rubber duckies or anything else that floats to learn about probability.  Put diamonds on the bottom of some ducks, hearts on others and a star on only one duck.  Float the ducks in a large pan of water and see how many times you pick a diamond versus a star.     

I'm sure your children will think of many more carnival game ideas...our carnivals have gotten quite extravagant, and are so much FUN!!!

Speaking of carnivals, check out the giveaway at Kara's Party Ideas!  She is giving away a carnival birthday party set...fun!

  

Weekend Extension ~ Jellybeans

We borrowed this book from the library 2 weeks ago and just HAD to recheck it.  Macy loves it!

It's a cute, little story about 4 friends who are all different but go well together...just like jellybeans.

Now for the extension activities and some bonus Teachable Moments...

1. Graph a bag of jelly beans by sorting them by color.  Then, put each color in a line to see which color has the most, least, same, etc.
2. Have your own "Big Book Bonanza."  If your child is too young to give an oral report like in the story, you might have them draw a picture of their favorite story or find pictures in a magazine to cut out that remind them of the story.  For even younger children, a book report could just involve you asking questions about the story and your child pointing to the correct picture in the book.  Ex.  Where is the yellow dress?  Point to the apple.
3. Visit the library!
4. Fill different sizes of containers with jellybeans.  Have your child guess which container contains more jellybeans.  Then, have them estimate how many jellybeans each container holds.  Finally, count the jellybeans in each container to see how close their estimations were to being correct.  
5. Spell "jellybeans" with glue.  Let your child place real jellybeans on top of the glue to make jellybean letters. 
6. In the story, the friends wear shirts that each have a different letter, B-E-A-N.  Cut out a shirt shape for each letter.  Then, let your child make a collage of things that begin with that letter.  They could go on a word hunt and actually write words that begin with each letter on the corresponding shirt, or they could draw, cut out pictures, use stickers, or glue small objects.  Don't forget to let them try to make a shirt with the first letter of their name on it!