Punctuation Posies

Thursday

April 8, 2010

Meara is practicing with punctuation. We found this idea on The Mailbox Magazine website and thought it would be fun. We filled our flower pots with dried beans to help the sticks stand up easier.

Color one side of jumbo craft sticks green and attach a flower, we used foam stickers and cut only the size of the stick out of the sticker backing. On the other side write your sentences (exclamatory, question, and statement) leaving off the puctuation marks. Label your pots with punctuation marks, we used post it notes. Have your child read each sentence and place the flower in the correct flower pot.

Paint Chip Word Family Game

Tuesday
March 18, 2010

I came across this WONDERFUL and free idea at The Snail's Trail blog a while ago but have really been utilizing it lately. Mama Snail has a listing of many different word families(over 500 words). Meara has had fun with it!

Letter A Apple Art

Thursday
September 3, 2009

Continuing with our apple theme Meara made a finger painted apple. It works so much better on the glossy paper plates! She used the Crayola finger paint. I was surprised that it stained her hands. She was a little embarrassed when we went out later in the day with her bright red palms...after 24 hours of hand washing it has finally worn off. I don't remember it doing that when I was a kid. She had so much FUN squishing the paint around and using the foam letter sponge. I LOVE watching her face when she is being creative.

Egg Letter Match

Monday
April 20, 2009

Don't put those Easter Eggs away just yet. I found this great idea in Alphabet Learning Center Activities Kit. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787972991

ABC Egg Twist

Write a capital letter on one half of the egg. On the other half write about six different lower case letters including the one that matches the capital letter. Collect 26 small objects or pictures matching the corresponding letter and place inside the eggs. The object is to match the correct letters, say the letter and then discover the mystery object inside.

Vocabulary Words

Sunday
February 8, 2009

This summer we took advantage of the word of the day on the Scholastic website. Most of the words were way too complex for Meara. I ended up teaching several other "big" words to help her understand what the specific word of the day meant. All in all I think it was a GREAT experience. For each day's vocab word I tried to put the word in action all day long. Out of all the words over the summer two words stick out in my mind as memorable.

1)Boogie- to dance energetically.

I filmed her dancing with my cell phone so we could send the clip to her daddy telling him what the word of the day was. She had the biggest smile on her face because she was having SO much FUN! I found it comical that she came to the conclusion on her own that you had to shake your bootie when you boogie!

2) Decorate- to adorn with something ornamental

She and I discussed what we could decorate. After much debate she declared we should decorate each others hair. This was our result......

Bottle Top Letters and Word Cards

January 22, 2009

We have been collecting coke bottle tops for the reward codes. I wished I had some way of recycling them. Thanks to 1+1+1=1 blog http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/ I found this great idea. I decided to make some for Meara. Below are the complete instructions and pictures to show you how to make your own cards and bottle tops.

Using Microsoft Publisher

Name cards:

Click File-New-Blank Publications-Blank Publications-Tent Card

The program may ask you if you want to automatically insert pages? Click yes

Click Insert picture-from file
Resize photo by clicking the corner and dragging toward the middle
Place the photo in the corner of the blue box using the box to align photo

Click on oval tool then drag a circle next to picture
Double click on circle
Format AutoShape box will appear
Click on size tab- change height and width to 1.3” click ok
Right click on circle and select copy
Right click on page and paste the desired number of circles to complete word

Click on text box
Click on page and drag to create box
Click on arrow then double click on the text box you just created
Click on size tab- change height and width to 1.251” click ok
Right click on text box and click copy
Paste the number of text boxes necessary for the number of circles
Move boxes over circles
Click inside first square

Change font size to 72- type letter inside box
Click center
You may need to move text box on circle to center more accurately
Repeat for each additional letter

Top of Bottle Cap:

Click on a circle then right click and copy
At the bottom of the program click on page 2
Right click and paste circle
Dbl click on circle and change height and width to 1”
Paste the amount needed for corresponding word
Go back to page 1
Click on first text box and paste over circle on page 2
Continue with each text box until all circles are completed w/ their corresponding
letter

Cut the individual circles out and decoupage to bottle cap

The Letter "E"

August 2008

Letter E. I really enjoy looking for resources on the net to use with Meara. I found this site that has some great alphabet worksheets. http://www.tampareads.com/phonics/singleletters/index.htm That's where the excellent elephant worksheet came from that Meara is working on in the picture below.

Reading The Story of Babar...

I bought this great pocket chart at http://www.learningresources.com/ on sale for $8.99. We attach it to a tension rod w/ metal rings in the doorway to the kitchen. I found an elephant image online and made copies of it so Meara could practice counting.

Meara's Letter E peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches.

"P" is for Pirate

January 2008

"P" is for Pirate, mom! So, we dressed up like pirates and had a treasure hunt. I drew a map marking the spot where the treasure was waiting for Meara...a chest full of new legos. After our pirate adventure we put on our pink pajamas, ate popcorn and watched Peter Pan. Our art project was to make a picture using popcorn kernals and glue.