Learning Letters With Rocks!

 

Little M is 2.5 & has been so interested in letters lately that I thought I would make a fun game for her to play!

 

I took some rocks that we had collected yesterday while at the park and wrote some letters on them. I chose A, B & C for the letters because M is really just beginning to recognize them.

 

I bought the little containers from Dollarama (I looked for the kind that had the snapping lids) and then I added a strip of masking tape on each container and wrote a letter on each one.

 

 

 

Little M right away dumped all the rocks into one container.

 

 With the first couple of rocks I showed her how to sort them into separate containers and then she took it from there!

During this activity I kept mentioning the letters to her and coaching her on 1-2 words that go with each letter just to introduce her to the connection of letter & words. She has a great memory and she really enjoyed playing with this activity! 

 

Here are the words we used:

 

A is for apple/alligator

B is for Bro Bro & Brother

C is for cat

 

 

If you look closely at the labels you will see I drew little pictures after a few minutes to help sort them a little easier...she really liked that ;)

 

She then asked me if it was OK to take off the labels & play around with them, switching them to different containers.

This activity lasted about 30 mins. which is great for her age/attention span & she also played with it the next day as well for another 30 mins or so....I call that a success!

THE LETTER A HOUSE PRINTABLE

 

Little M had lots of fun working on her "Letter A House" printable!

She needed lots of help with the cutting because she isn't very good with the scissors yet ;)  She is able to hold the paper & cut little slits into the edges but she is not able to cut circles out yet. She did an excellent job with her gluing though!

During this craft we talked about the Letter A & what sound it makes. We also sang "the letter A says A (making the sound loudly) the letter A says A, Hi Ho the Derry-O the letter A says A!" We have sang this song before & it always seems to stick ;)

Here she is with the finished product....so proud!

If you'd like to do this fun printable with your little one feel free to download it  for FREE here:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/THE-LETTER-HOUSE-PRINTABLE-914517

Don't forget to leave some feedback in my store!! Thanks :)

FREE EDUCATIONAL WEBSITES

If you are looking for some fun FREE educational sites for the kids to use feel free to check back often as I will be adding to the list.
There are some great sites out there. Sometimes they can be hard to keep track of/find so I am making things easy for you & I both by listing them here :)


This site is great because you can choose the grade & subject level. It has a wide variety of fun games to play
http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/

This site is the site that I have started both my kids on as toddlers because it is easy for them to use & they love it.
As toddlers they loved watching & listening to the songs. They also LOVE the games!
http://boowakwala.uptoten.com/kids/boowakwala-home.html

This site has some great games.
www.pbskids.org

This site is also great for little ones learning to use the computer. It teaches little ones the alphabet through song. It has some great games as well & stories for kids to read (or have read to them).
www.starfall.com

This site has some really neat games and it is divided by grade level & the games are lots of fun.
My sons favorite is sight word bingo playing against others online...pretty cool!
http://www.abcya.com/

This site is great for playing online math games. Lots of variety here & varied ages.
www.coolmath.com

This site is not a gaming site but it has been really great for practising math!
www.xtramath.com


This site is great for kids grade 4+.  It has games that promote critical thinking like engineering, performing surgery, simple machines etc.
http://www.edheads.org/

This site is a favourite of ours! My 12 year old step son still loves it & has been playing it since he was 9 yrs. old. My son who is 6 loves it as well.
The website has made a recent change that you no longer need to have a code (obtained when you buy a stuffed animal) so you are now able to play on the site for free!
The games are so much fun that even I enjoy them! I also love that they are taking care of pets & learning about $ with Kinzcash.
www.webkinz.com

This site is really cool!  We are still checking the site out as it is really new to us but so far we really like what we see. In addition to fun games there are also "live cams"  so you are able to watch animals. The kids think this is great!

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/games/

This site is fairly new to us as well. There are games, mad libs, online stories to read. This site seems really cool & we plan to do a lot more explore on it :)

http://www.funbrain.com/

This site is really cool! My son is very visual so this site is right up his alley! You are able to choose pictures on the site (great quality BTW) & create stories to share with friends & family via email or Facebook.
My son is thrilled by this!
 www.storybird.com


If you have any fun & educational free websites that you think should be added to the list please feel free to let me know in the comments section!

Nature Scavenger Hunt

Last week K was into being a "spy" & these days that is ALL he talks about...LOL

It sparked an idea for me to make up an outdoor scavenger hunt....and of course I needed to sneak in some learning opportunities as well.

 

I thought I took a picture of the list but I can't find it so I will write out what I remember:

 

O  Find something red

O Find something that rhymes with "sock"

O Find a blue car

O Find something that starts with an "D"

O Find something that rhymes with "free"

O Find something that starts with a "G"

O Find something that starts with a "C"

O Find a robin

O Find an insect

 

I had him check everything off as he found them. I also had him write out the items he found that started with a certain letter & that rhymed.  I got a little sigh when I asked him to do this (He HATES writing!) but he did it with no argument ;)

 

For the letter D- this one took him a while but he finally found "door"

Letter G- garage

Letter C- cat

For the word that rhymes with sock he found "rock"...this one was super easy for him.

 



Little K had a lot of fun with this!   There was so much learning here with him reading the list (repeatedly) & thinking of rhyming words, as well as the items that started with a certain letter.  Even Baby M had lots of fun helping her brother (she loves insects!)  & we will definitely be doing it again! :)

Picture Word Bingo

 

All the kids got into this game!  I picked it up from "Winner's"  for $5 & it`s called ``picture word bingo``. 

  I compromised with K & told him of he played it once with the word only side that he could then play it with the picture side.  He was fine with that & did a great job recognizing every word.  Even Little M had a great time with it and recognized all of the pictures she had on her card (although she didn't want to keep the stones on the card ;)

 

 

I wish I could share the pics. with Little M in them but there are daycare kiddos in them.

The letter G

 

  Each week I introduce Little M (and her 4 year old daycare friend) to a new letter. This week we are learning the letter G .  Little M is still fairly young for learning the alphabet  but  I am happy that she is getting familiar with her letters.

She loved adding stickers to her Letter G:

When it came to her letter G craft though,  she had other things in mind....like putting stickers all over her legs & feet! :)

My 4 year old daycare girl worked on her Letter G craft (giraffe) for at least half an hour!

 

 

She loved it & was so excited to add it to our "Alphabet Binder". I think it turned out adorable!