Table Learning

These are some of the other things we do during the day. I call this time of our day Table Learning since the kids are at the table with me to help and instruct them.

Learning Poster I use this teaching poster every morning. On it I have an envelope to stick our home0made letter books, a letter poem, the Awanna memory verse for the week, our nursery rhyme, and a spot for letter flashcards, number flashcards, shape flashcards, and color flashcards.

Letters

We complete a Capital Letter craft for each letter. I print out a block letter and fill it with items that begin with the sound. For letter Nn, we filled it with numbers. Letter Ll we filled with ladybug stickers.

Sounds and Auditory Activities

Here we are sorting itsy-bitsy miniatures by beginning consonant sounds

Writing

Letter hunt from confessions of a preschooler

a coloring sheet from first schools

a d'nealian handwritting worksheet

a learning letter sounds worksheet

a What begins with ___? worksheet

Patterns

Sometimes we do patterns at the table before give it to the kids as a magnet tray.

Thinking Skills

In this activity, we are looking for one that is different.

Computer Skills

Big Brother

/m/ and /o/

objective:
a. to recognize beginning sounds
b. to sort objects according to beginning sounds
points to remember:
1. make sure you review with your child the letter name and letter sound before they begin sorting.
2. use a fun container to hold the objects...today we used an Easter basket since it is close to Easter - it just makes it more fun for the kids
3. Write out the letters on paper for your child to sort...we use sandpaper letters.
Lesson:
1. Use your itsy-bitsy miniatures and gather objects beginning with 2 sounds. Today we did /m/ and /o/
2. One at a time, have your child pull out an object, say the name of the object, and put it under the correct letter.

3. Help your child as needed. Here is a video of Kate (Brooke was not interested in being videotaped so Kate offered to help)

Red Sock, Yellow Sock

objective: 1. listen to a story with competing background noise 2. answer questions about a story 3. repeat a sentence or phase word for word Points to Remember: 1. Using the background noise/music in a story is a step after listening to stories without the extra noise. 2. I am teaching Brooke to repeat entire sentences to work on developing her auditory memory as well as allow me to see if she is typically leaving out certain parts of speech. Lesson: 1. We found the story Red Socks and Yellow Socks here: 2. Listen to the story in English (your other option is Korean if you want to listen in Korean too) 3. Stop the story occasionally to ask comprehension questions. Try to ask questions that your child can not answer visually like, "What is his name?" or "Cousin Kate said what?"

3. After listening to the story, press the Story Repeat button. Here the voice will read a line and then kids' voices will repeat it - have your child join in with the kid voices to repeat it.

4. The Story Alone button will have the voice read a line from the story and then leave quiet time for your child to repeat it.

5. Brooke's favorite button was the chant. They took the story, reduced the word a made a little song. The second time through the song, the voice leaves time for you child to repeat.

Modifications

1. The Green Dragon

2. Time for Sleep are two more options!

Letter S

objective:

a. to recognize the beginning letter /s/ sound

Points to Remember:

1. Even though a word begins with "s" doesn't mean it makes the /s/ sound such as shell, sheep, and ship - they make the /sh/ sound. Do not include these in your Letter Ss bag.

Lesson:

1. Today we introduced the letter /s/ sounds. The girls pulled one object at a time out of the Ss bag. Some they knew and some I needed to give the correct word. We listened to the letter sound and said, _______ begins with the letter S for each object.

2. In the itsy-bitsy miniature bag we have sponge, Santa, soda, spider, spatula, spoon, snail, seal, star, square, stamp, spools, strawberry and snake.

Modifications:

1. I plan to bury the object in a tub of sand for Brooke to dig out and identify.

2. Later in the week, we will sort the object that begin with the letter /s/ and those that do not by adding a few extra itsy-bitsy miniatures into the bag.

Computer Time

We spend a little bit of time playing on the computer each week. It is my opportunity to introduce some computer vocabulary that the girls will need in Kindergarten as well as focus on academic skills. Here are our favorites:
1. Star Fall.

The girls practice alphabet skills as well as stories. This is good practice for moving and controlling the mouse.

2. Nursery Rhyme videos

We watch and listen to Nursery Rhymes at this site and this site. Sometimes we watch them on You Tube as well.

3. Power Points

Letter Alphabet Power Points from 1+1+1=1 are great. Here is a video of the Letter T and information on how to get them.

4. Microsoft Word

Brooke and Kate like to type letters into a document. They have fun finding letters and seeing them pop up on the screen.

Dry Erase Activity Center

We received the Crayola Activity Center Dry Erase board as a Christmas gift and I really, really like it! It comes with 8 activity pages but what I like best is that I can print my own pages or even pull a page out of a coloring/workbook and put it into the activity board. Since I have twins I have to buy 2 workbooks or print 2 of everything, this activity board allows me to print only one and let both girls us it.
I'm not a big fan of dry erase boards since the markers often evaporate as you use them and frustrate the kids. But these markers work great as does the eraser.

Here is the plastic sleeve that you slide the worksheet into before sliding it into the activity center. There is a little green lock that keeps it from sliding out. This activity sheet was printed here

I think this will save me lots of paper and lots of ink....plus the girls think it is cool and like to use the markers and the erasers!

Letter Hunt Worksheets

I found these fantastic Letter Hunt Worksheets at Confessions of a Homeschooler and love them.

They fit right into our Letter of Week curriculum and help the girls to notice the letter in words. Check them out here

Read the story to your child then let your child circle the capital and lowercase letters in the story.