busy hands

sorting objects by their beginning sounds
a, f, c, m, p

turkey matching

grading colors
from darkest to lightest

apple slicing

making a Montana animal book

something we think is really fun...

building a "campfire" at line time


Here's our favorite campfire game:

Lying in my sleeping bag, I couldn't fall asleep...
the wind began to blow and the bugs began to creep,
so I roooolled to the left {roll hands and point to the left with thumb}
and I rooooolled to the right {roll hands and point to the right},
and I heard every sound you can hear at night! {we whisper this last part}
{from Chants, Fingerplays, & Stories by Bev Bos}

Then we take turns saying what we've heard
and repeating the sound that whatever we've heard makes.

A sampling of what we've heard:

wolves
bears
the campfire crackling
grasshoppers
mice
volcanoes erupting
deer
tigers
sharks

Our campfire is made out of stones, sticks and tissue paper.
{A flashlight tucked underneath creates the glowing effect.}

Sometimes we lay by the fire and read books like

'Til the Cows Come Home
and
Cowboy Small

Oh, and did I mention it snowed?
A lot?!

{enough said, right?}

a short vowel word game

Who lives in the house of "at?"



Why, bat, hat, mat, rat, and cat, of course!

When doing this lesson,
the child puts all the "at" cards on the house first.
Then she puts the beginning sounds in place,
sounding out each letter combination as she goes.
If she's a writer, she can make a book with the words she's built.

The children can choose from several sets of cards...

"an" {c, p, f, r, m}
"ap" {c, m, n, s, t}
"et" {j, n, p, s, w}
"en" {d, h, m, p, t}
"it" {s, f, m, h, p}
"in" {b, f, p, t, w}
"og" {b, d, h, j, l}
"op" {b, h, m, p, t}
"ug" {b, h, j, m, r}
"ut" {c, g, h, n, r}

I bet you can think of even more short vowel combos, too!

The house part of the lesson is made from felt,
and the cards are hand-written on squares of paper, then laminated.

Someday, when I have a little more time and motivation,
{oh, if only!}
I'd love to post some tutorials on the felts we use for language lessons.
Not only are they useful, they make the lessons so appealing
to little hands!

busy hands

painting at the easel

tracing a name tag
{The children usually use their name tags to "save"
lessons for more than one work period,
but they're nice to trace, too!}

baby washing
{This lesson has been irresistible to the 3 & 4 year old girls!}

twisting nuts onto bolts

building sentences
{Read more about this lesson here.}

making a number stamp book

shoveling snow
{at my house}

Wooo hoooooo!!!
{I heart snow!}

sink or float

A classic experiment...

Will it sink,
or will it float?

Some of the objects we've been testing:

ping pong balls
sea glass
beads
lava rocks
playground rocks
corks
plastic ice cubes
marbles

When the child discovers whether an object sinks or floats,
he puts it in the "sink" section or the "float" section of a laminated chart.

As you may know, I'm a right-brained kind of gal, and honestly,
I don't blame you if the thought of a laminated chart sounds lame,
BUT it's not lame!

It provides the child with experience in
sorting AND graphing,

AND it leads to comments like,
"Hey! More things sink than float!"

AND everyone, even the non-readers,
are exposed to the words "sink" and "float."

How swell is that?!