Syllable Sort

I found this activity on my new favorite teacher blog, Mrs. T's First Grade Class.  She posts lots of great, and cheap, ideas, many of which can be adapted to the single-child homeschooling format.  Go check her out!  Beware, though, you may find yourself pinning every other post of hers.


It's important to do lots of practice identifying syllables, because in doing so you're helping your child hone her auditory processing skills.  Auditory processing is a key element to becoming a proficient reader.  AP practice includes things like rhyming (did you know all the Mother Goose nursery rhymes help build that section of your child's brain?!), identifying the beginning and ending sounds in words, syllables, differentiating between voiced and unvoiced consonants ('f' and 'v', 'd' and 't' - go ahead, say the sounds, your mouth makes the same shape, just one is voiced and the other isn't.  Cool, huh?)


Another plus to this activity is that the child creates a pictograph at the end.  Sophie immediately identified it as a pictograph when questioned, because we've been talking about them all week.  

Lesson:  Syllable Sort

Objective:  Child will identify syllables in words, and practice her auditory processing skills.

Materials:  Printout (found here).  Glue.  Scissors.

Process:
1.  Spend some time practicing finding the syllables in words.  As you will see from the video below, this was difficult for Sophie.  We spent a lot of time 'playing' with words.  A great way to do this with a beginner is to have them put their hand under their chin and slowly say the word.  Count the number of times your chin drops. That's how many syllables are in the word.  Also, you can 'clap' out the syllables.

2.  Instruct child to cut out the pictures in the printout.  Have her identify each one, find the number of syllables for it, and glue it in the corresponding column.

3.  The completed product.  I let Sophie identify the pictures, and didn't correct her when she 'incorrectly' identified the picture, as long as it made sense.  After all, if a wolf looks like a coyote to a desert child, who am I to argue?

Spider Unit - Spider Facts Flip Book

Two of the mainstays I stuck with while teaching public school were:  1) If you can, no matter the subject, share a book, and, 2) If you can, no matter the subject, have students demonstrate their knowledge by making a book.  This way, no matter if you are in science, social studies or math, you are integrating both reading and language arts.  One of my favorite ways for students to publish their knowledge (especially in nonfiction areas of study), was a flip book.  Flip books can be as simple or complex as you need them to be. They can be used for sequential information (life cycles, how to's, relating the scientific process), and for lists of facts, as we did here.

Lesson:  Spider Facts Flip Book

Objective:  Child will be able to identify the number of body parts, legs and eyes a spider typically has.

Materials:  2 sheets of construction paper.  1 sheet lined writing paper.  Pencil  and crayons.  Scissors.  Stapler.

Process:

*Note:  At this point, I had already spent a while reading several nonfiction books about spiders with Sophie.  We looked at different pictures of spiders, and identified the 2 body parts, 8 legs and 8 eyes over and over again, until she was secure in this knowledge.  Then, the next day, we reviewed the books and information, then proceeded to create the flip book.  We kept one of the books open while we completed the activity, to reference when we needed to.

1.  First, make the flip book.  Offset one piece of construction paper about 2 inches from the other.  Fold both pieces, creating four flaps (see picture below), and staple twice along the top to keep the papers together.

2.  Set the flip book aside.  On a piece of writing paper, have child write the facts about spiders she learned from the books.  In this case, we talked about spiders having two body parts.  Then I wrote 'Two body parts' on a separate sheet of paper, and she copied onto her own paper.  I wanted her to practice her handwriting, which is why I didn't just write it for her.

3.  Child cuts out each fact she wrote on the paper.  I drew a dotted line so she would know where to cut.

4.  Child glues one fact on each flap of the construction paper flip book.

5.  Child illustrates each page.  Be sure you point out that in books, the pictures always match the words.

6.  The finished product!  Don't forget to write your title on the top flap.

Reading the 'K' Sound

This lesson should be done after 'c', 'k' and 'ck' have already been introduced to the child.  You can modify it for any group of phonemes that all make the same sound.  For example, 'o', 'oe', 'ow', 'ough'.  In addition to reading, it also promotes the science skill of sorting and classifying.  A great way to encourage critical thinking!

Lesson:  Reading the 'K' Sound

Objective:  Student will read and sort words that have the 'k' sound.

Materials:  Cards that have words with 'k' sound written on them (I got mine with a curriculum I use, but you can easily make your own.  See the list below)  Post-It notes.  Writing utensil.

Process:

1. Instruct child that today she will be finding all the different ways to read, 'K' (say the sound, not the letter name).  
2. Show her the first card, 'cat'.  Instruct her to read it, and then ask, "What makes the 'K' sound in this word?"
3. When she identifies the letter C, have her write a C on a Post-It note, stick the Post-It note on the table below, and place the word card beneath.
4. Show her 'back'.  Instruct her to read it, then ask, "What makes the 'K' sound in this word?"
5. When she identifies the phoneme, 'ck', have her write CK on a Post-It note, stick the Post-It note next to the one already on the table, and place the word card beneath.
6. Show her 'kiss'.  Go through the same process as above, making a label for the 'K' and place the card beneath it.  
7. Now go through the rest of the cards, identifying the 'K' sound in each and sorting them beneath the appropriate Post-It notes.  
8. Sophie chose to put 'kick' and 'clock' between the labels, because they include multiple 'K' sounds.  Let your child lead on this one.  

List of 'K' words (but I'm sure you can come up with more on your own!):

• clock
• lock
• can
• cab
• shack (don't use if you haven't introduced 'sh' yet)
• kick
• sock
• cat
• duck
• sick
• luck
• tick
• kit
• kiss
• tuck

Folder Fun

This morning's post is by a friend of mine, Stephanie.  She writes two blogs, and has been a huge encouraging force in my own!  Stephanie was a fellow elementary / special ed major at TTU with me, and we dated and married our husbands at around the same time.  I love (and am humbled by) her amazing mercy heart.  She just made the choice to stay home and home school her kids, stepping down from teaching special ed in a public school.  Her ideas for home educational activities are amazing, and I recommend you check out her blog!  She has written a great guest post about 'folder work'.

filefolderfun.com
- awesome site for pre-made activities

File folder games are great for all abilities and ages. The are customizable to whatever you are learning about and whatever skill level your child or student is at.

So far we have:
-3 addition file folders
-lowercase/uppercase matching game
-matching colors
-sorting hot/cold
-sorting even/odd
-matching sound to letter
-prepositions
-biggest to smallest

In the works:
-put your name in order for the 2 year old
-matching numeral and number work
-matching amount to number
-matching basic words to pictures

The possibilities are endless. It doesn't take much to whip up vocabulary and spelling folders. It would also be easy to label things like the body, insets, spiders, whatever you are working on. Any type of sorting activities (vowels/consonants, 5 senses, animal kingdom) would be simple to put together.

The only downside is that they are a little time consuming to make, but they last for a while.

Some tips:
-if you can afford it, have them laminated. I used contact paper. It takes a little more time.
-velcro dots. Cutting and peeling off the backing of strip velcro is annoying. If you peel a big piece and cut, you end up with stick scissors.
-make one set of numbers and letters. You can use them for multiple games.
-I store my pieces in an envelope taped to the folder

Here is my 2 year old matching his colors:



In this game, I would tell him various prepositions and he would put the dinosaur there. To make it, I glued a flap down using a piece of card stock. Then, I put contact paper over the folder and used an exacto knife to slice through the contact paper.





Here he is ordering smallest to biggest.



And finally sorting hot and cold.



Here is my 5 year old matching upper and lowercase letters.



All done!



Here she is matching letter to the beginning sound. Note the same letters from the previous game.

From 2011-08-29

Here is my 6 year old working on his addition facts. This is a lot more fun than calling out math facts. He was very excited that he didn't have to write all of his answers down.



He told me he was mediating to find the answers. Who knows? You can see his fingers out, counting. I told him we would keep practicing each folder until he could do them quickly.



Here he is sorting even and odd numbers. This was a new concept for him, so we kept out the 100 chart. He caught on quickly.



Folder games take a little work to get started, but you can't beat the variety. It's a great way to get worksheet practice in with out having an actual worksheet.

'B' Book

One of the things I want to do with this blog is share what other people are doing with their kids.  This is a guest post by my wonderful friend Ami (visit her blog here).  Ami is mom to an ever-increasing brood, now numbering at 8, with four of those kids at home.  Whew!  She also lives a double life, as her alter-ego, our town's children's librarian.  Shhhh!  Don't tell.   

My five-year-old started Kindergarten at the local two-room schoolhouse this week. Eleven kids in his class - which covers kinder, first and second grade! Not quite home schooling, but in some ways the best of both worlds. I still miss home schooling sometimes, though – especially at this time of year, when parents are coming in to the library where I work, happily discussing there plans for the year and selecting materials for their first big projects.

Fortunately, I have a 5yo excited about school, and a precocious 18mo who is already counting and naming colors (the wrong ones, usually, but they are color words), so I can continue the fun at home without having to worry about burn-out.

Kinder at the moment is all about letter sounds, with the class spending 2-3 days on each one. That lends itself so well to a million different activities that I had to rein my thoughts in a bit. My goal was to reinforce the letter sounds as well as letter recognition, and to keep things personal and fun. We (meaning I) decided to make a ‘book’ for each letter – just printed pages put in a 3-ring folder – and then incorporate the letter into our regular activities as much as possible. Here is a bit of my son’s “B” book:

big boy reading a book

baby brother

blonde-haired, blue-eyed beast with bruises, bumps and blood (nice of her to help us out this way, wasn’t it?)

brains and beauty

Batman!

For our first book, I did a lot of coaching while we walked around the house looking for “B” items. As we go through the year, I’ll expect him to come up with all the examples himself. For right now I want to give him the general idea and make it fun, not work. He did come up with the blood for his sister, and I suggested the rest of the caption. I couldn’t resist!

Of course, it needs to become as much his work as possible, as soon as possible. He wrote the title on the cover (simply, “My B Book”), and circled all the b’s on each page. Last night, when we did the letter “C”, I also had him pick one word to copy. Eventually I will just print the pictures and have him write the words himself.

The book completed, we sat down to supper:

BBQ beef on burger buns with baked beans

That night at the fair at the fair, then, we looked for things that started with the letter "B" (bunnies, babies, boats, and our friend's black bull), had the letter "B" on them, or were brown, black, or blue.

I have to warn you, this can easily get stuck in your head. Daddy and I kept stopping suddenly to point and exclaim to each other, "Backpack! Big ball!", or to tell our teen, "Bad boys are banned!" (She was less than amused. Or should I say, she finds our babbling boorish.)

Some other simple letter activities:

• Cut out or draw a large version of the letter, and see what you can turn it into with a little artistry.  For example, the open part of the capital "A" can become the mouth of an alligator. There are lots of websites such as enchantedlearning.com with templates to steal. 
•  Make a separate shopping list of items that start with that letter, and put your little learner in charge of finding those in the store.
• Take a letter walk – as we did at the fair, look for things that might start with that letter. Bring a camera and take pictures to add to your book. Adjectives can be helpful here!
• Go through an old magazine and cut out all the “B”’s. Glue them on a paper at random, or into an outline of the letter.
• Write the letter in shaving cream foam, sand, the dust on the back of the car, wherever.
• Glue beans, macaroni, whatever, to an outline to create a tactile letter.
• Blow bubbles for the letter “b”. Make a marble maze for “m”. Try to find one surprise game or activity like this for each letter – maybe end with it, and keep them guessing as to what it will be each time (their guesses may give you inspiration if you are stuck!)
• Check out starfall.com – fantastic free web site that starts with the alphabet and moves up to reading stories, with activities included. Easy to use for those just learning to maneuver the mouse.
• Play with your food! In addition to eating things like alphabet soup or Scrabble Cheeze-Its (love those!), you can push your corn into an “L” shape, or bite your sandwich into a “C”.

Don’t try to do all of these with every letter, though, or your learner will burn out. Find one activity you do with each letter at the start (like the book), then throw in different other things each time to keep it new. Don’t feel like you have to go in order through the alphabet, either – consonants with only one sound (b, d, m, etc.) are of course easier to learn. If you are sounding words out, you won’t want to wait two months to get to the letter “t”! You also don’t have to teach every sound of a letter – short vowel sounds are fine to start with, as well as the ‘hard’ sounds of “c” and “g”.

Speaking of burnout, I’m always looking for more ideas, so I’m hoping to see some good ones in the comments. Let’s brainstorm together!