If you have a preschooler or a kindergartner chances are you've heard the terms phonics, phonemic awareness and decoding before. What do they really mean? This week as part of our Get Ready for K Through PLAY series I'm going to explain! Some of my longtime readers (thank you!) may know that I have my Master's in Reading and am a trained Reading Specialist, but you don't need a background in education to figure this out. I promise. All you need is … [Read more...]
Writing Comics with Kids
Writing comics is a great way to kids to work on both reading and writing skills. It's also a lot of fun! Kids get to practice working with the elements of a story--characters, setting, plot, conflict and conclusion--in a fun way. Not having to fill a blank page also helps motivate reluctant writers. Before beginning any prewriting I chose a comic template for each of my elementary school age kids from Printable Paper. There are a bunch of free … [Read more...]
It Looked Like Spilt Milk Kids Activities
I am so excited to have Jillian from A Mom With a Lesson Plan here to guest post today. Make sure to pop over to her blog to check it out when you are done reading the post--you'll love it! One of our favorite books is It Looked Like Spilt Milk. We've read it over and over since my kids were really little. As my kids are getting older (8 and 7), I've been looking for more grown up activities to pair with it. I found some really fun ways to play with … [Read more...]
Sight Word Basketball Activity
Spring is here and instead of sitting inside doing homework we are ready to get outdoors and move while we learn! This week we practiced both sight words and dribbling with this simple sight word basketball activity! Sight Word Basketball Activity flat surface (drive way, basketball court, parking lot) sidewalk chalk sight word list (or math facts or spelling words) I wrote a bunch of sight words on our sidewalk and got out our … [Read more...]
Letter Matching with Hearts
Playing games with letters makes practicing so much more fun--especially when kids get a chance to move and learn at the same time! That's why we love these lower case letter games so much. A couple of years ago my sister sent my kids a set of red and a set of pink lowercase letter cards. She made them by printing each lower case letter on pink and red paper. Then, being the superstar that she is, she cut them into heart shapes and even … [Read more...]
Sight Word Stomp Practice Activity
Practicing sight words doesn't have to be boring--you make it fun by turning it into a game! One of our favorite ways to move and learn with sight words is to play Sight Word Stomp! Sight Word Stomp Game: sight word cards a kid Yep. That's it! It is a very low prep activity that makes it perfect for all of us with kids. I spread the sight word cards around the floor and called out a word. My kindergartner had to find it and stomp … [Read more...]
Find and Write Letter Scavenger Hunt
We are always looking for fun handwriting activities! Writing letters and words over and over again can get boring so we decided to turn letter writing into a move and learn activity. Letter Scavenger Hunt How to play: letter cards paper clipboard or washi tape crayon, pencil, etc. My preschooler went all around the house finding letters and then writing them on her paper. It's simple to set up and can be played over and over … [Read more...]
Sight Word Snowball Fight Activity for Kids!
Make sight word practice fun by turning it into an indoor snowball fight! This has to be one of our most fun move and learn activities yet! Sight Word Snowball Fight Instructions: Write the sight words you want to practice on different sheets of scrap paper. Choose a mix of known and new words to keep it fun. Scrunch up the paper into "snowballs". Divide the kids into two teams. We played boy vs girls. Throw the paper snowballs at … [Read more...]