Sight Words

I've been working more fervently with my older preschooler on sight words now that "mommy school" has started again.

Here are a few of the things I have done to help him learn his sight words:

 Dotting each sight word with a different color.

 Playing tic-tac-toe with the sight words.

 Parking lot - cars cover the sight word.

 

Coloring - I found a black and white clip art from My Cute Graphics (it's free) and printed it off. Then I wrote his sight words in the spaces to color.

National Geographic FREEBIE

When I taught I used to use Scholastic News in the classroom. The kids and I both loved it, but it was a little pricey. So I was thrilled when I ran across this website. National Geographic has their past issues online that you can read online. This would make a great listening center/computer center with a science theme - I'm just sayin'!  :)  Besides having the issue online, there is a link to it for teachers to have a study guide and print off worksheets and such...for FREE!! 

I ran across this while studying Insects with my preschooler. He loved listening to the insect stories that were in a few of the issues.

Be sure to check out this great resource! Below is a screen shot of the website. Enjoy!!

On a side note, I do have a Facebook page now, so "like" that for more updates and freebies of what is going on in my "country world".

Back to School - Insects in PreSchool

Today my oldest went to 1st grade which left me with my Preschooler. We did not do much as far as pencil paper learning this summer, so I was ready to go today. I had everything printed, cut out, and ready.

Even my normally obstinate preschool was ready to learn. He even wanted to do MORE. All I kept thinking was ok, and who is this child!?!? (He's very smart, but won't let on...stinker!!)

This is the unit we began today. He had a great time, especially since he knew the 3 parts of an insect (head, thorax, abdomen) and his older brother didn't.  Nothing like a little sibling rivalry to boost his learning desire!

 Click here to see this unit at Teachers Pay Teachers.

We have done almost all the alphabet letters so we will be finishing those off our list first. After that, I'm not sure what we will do. I guess I better get cracking on what to do next.

Here are a bunch of the books I pulled for us to use with this unit.

Here is my favorite link for drawing your own bug and also coloring pages. Click HERE. It's free! This was his favorite activity we did together. He designed his own insect using the download from the website above.

Below is another activity we did. My son was REALLY into cutting this week, so I had him cut some little marks on a green strip of paper. We then used that strip of green to make an outdoor insect scene. Thankfully, I had some insects stickers on hand to embellish it!

 

And one more activity.

Magnetic Letter Organization

Here is a little teacher tip to organize your magnetic letters. I used to use these in the classroom for guided reading or other lessons. Instead of a jar and dumping them out each time to find the letters I needed, I did this. All this is a fishing tackle box from Walmart. You can adjust the compartments sizes as needed and it will help you to save precious seconds and minutes searching for the right letter.

Tall Tales Freebie - Listening Center QR Codes

Last night I was up late because I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd do something productive. No, I did not work on the months and months of digital picture files...instead I created this QR listening code center on tall tales (I did think about needing to mop my floors for a nanosecond. That makes up for it right??)

Anyway, I'm so excited by my facebook response so far (and it isn't all my best friends either) that I decided to add this tall tales page to dropbox so you can download it for FREE only here on my blog.
I do have it listed in my stores for a price. But, You can click HERE for your free Tall Tales QR code Listening Center. Oh, and don't forget to swing by my new facebook page and "like" it to get updates and news about freebies and sales.

 

Story Books included are:

*Paul Bunyan by Steven Kellogg (read by yours truly on my YouTube page).

*Pecos Bill by Steven Kellogg (once again read by me).

*Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg (me again)  :)

*Video Disney clip of John Henry (This is a short video by Disney- I think it is 8 mins long).

These books I FINALLY read and uploaded to YouTube. I used to have links to other people's stories, but then they'd delete them and then the code didn't work. So I made my own which will always be there. 

Who knew 4 codes would take me weeks. Acquire the needed books, buy a tripod for my camera, many takes to video me reading...and the worst. HOURS to upload to YouTube. Sometimes technology is a big pain in the tushy! But I'm so pleased they are done for you to enjoy...without all the work. :)

 

Summer Fun with Numbers & Letters

One way to reinforce letter and number skills is to use shaving cream. My kindergartener is still having trouble with number reversals and my preschooler needed practice writing his name and letters. We headed outside (to the shade and picnic table) and had some fun and secret learning time.

Note: I suggest having them in their swimsuits so you can hose them off when you are done.

World Cup 2014

My nephew is a HUGE soccer fan!! (And that is a major understatement). He even was in Rio de Janerio and brought my boys back special soccer jerseys.

To get ready for the World Cup I made a little beginner powerpoint to explain the games...along with a little help from my nephew. 

To download my powerpoint from Teachers Pay Teachers click here.

Don't forget to click on the "powerpoint" tab at the top of my blog to see a list of all my powerpoints.