The sounds of C

My son has been struggling with the sounds of C. He has had a hard time remembering when to use the soft sound (s) and when to use the hard sound (k). So this morning I have put together a quick little game for him to practice with.

Download this game for FREE!http://www.hslaunch.com/mypage/file/4865

Please do not copy, sell, or host on your site. If you would like to share this file please be kind and link back to my blog....not the download page. Thanks!

Happy Day!

Preschool Phonics

Animal Talk:

A way to learn letter sounds.

The following activities are meant to be a fun way to learn letter sounds. From birth our children are subjected to the sounds that animals make. From their little stuffed animals to adults pointing at pictures or real -life animals and imitating the sounds they make.  Animal sounds are among the first "words" that a baby speaks.
Learning that letters make sounds is hard to grasp when you can't "hear" the letters speak.  That is why I created these cards and the following activities . These activities should help  beginning readers to understand letters have sounds like animals have sounds.  The child does not need to know the names of the letters to play these games, so you could do these activities with the very young. It is not important at this stage of learning to have a goal of mastery, Only a basic understanding, preparatory to beginning reading skills (although, these could also be used as a review game for children who have already begun other phonic and beginning reading programs or lessons). I recommend using only one or two letter cards in the activities at a time until the child can handle more. A good place to start is the letters in their name.

Download the Activity ideas HERE!

Next you will want to get these adorable Animal Talk cards:

Download for FREE!

If you don't have lower-case alphabet cards, or you are like me and like things to match, you will want to get these next:

Lower-case alphabet cards

\Download for FREE!

Aren't you glad I learned how to share files? 

Happy Day!

My BIG word PROJECT

Our Word Wall

Whew! I feel like I have been working on this project for months when in reality it has only been a couple of weeks, but it was in my thoughts some time before I actually began.

In our home we have more beginning readers than advanced readers. Actually we only have one advanced reader, and that is my oldest kiddo: Lyllian. She doesn't even need to be told to read during the day, because she always picks up a book at some point. Since I have so many in the beginning stages I have been trying to come up with a way to display the words they are working on, but still be able to separate their reading levels. After some internet searching I finally came up with our customized version of a word wall (pictured above). I have labeled it "The Word Worm Wall", and used several cute worms/bookworm clipart to decorate it. I was going to try to make it fancier (i.e. magnetic, velcro...something) but ended up going for simple: a poster paper glued to a piece of cardboard box (we have plenty of those around). Then I decided on the categories I wanted to display for them, and how I could also put something up for my advanced reader so that she wouldn't feel left out. I decided on these: (from left to right) Sight Words, Build a Sentence (tips for checking: capitals, spacing, punctuation and also commonly misspelled words), Letter Sounds (for phonics lessons), New Words to learn (Vocabulary), and Parts of Speech (yes... I spelled "speech" wrong on my poster. Everybody makes mistakes I will change it before they notice I promise! ).

This was being created at the same time that I created the Pirate Word Work activities and word cards for my son. Boy O Boy did that open up a flood! It inspired me to create similar activities for my girls...each with a different theme (of course) and make it into our own tailored Word Work curriculum. This also allows each to know which "word cards" belong to them on The Word Worm Wall. 

When God sends me blessings in the form of inspiration on how to teach my Kiddos....I just can't stop until I get it done! I spent many late nights either working or laying awake thinking about working!

Now I get to share these blessings with you!

I don't think I will be able to get it all in this one post. But I will begin now and hopefully post the rest throughout the week. 

(If you don't want to wait you can go to hslaunch, the link is on my left side bar, and find my freebies there!)


Warning: I am not perfect (as seen above with my spelling errors). I try to proof read and give correct information, but sometimes I get it wrong. So if you find mistakes...just ignore it  or send me a kind note so I can fix it. Also, I am no perfectionist and there are a lot of crooked and uneven things in my work. There comes a point when I say "That's good enough". If it will get the point across and looks appealing, I call it good. After-all, I have made these primarily for my family, but choose to share them. If you do like what you see-EXCELLENT- save it or print it for use in your home or classroom!


First up is.....(drum roll please)......................


The cutest preschool worksheets EVER! (okay, I have seen many cute things out there....probably on your blog.)

My little preschool girl is the girliest of girls if you have one of these then I am sure they would love for you to make them a workbook with these pages.  

I have printed off several of these pages (front to back) that she will use each week to practice the letter we are on. Currently I am starting with only the letters in her name. She is so excited to be learning to write her name! I am focused more on letter recognition and being able to write it. We are going over the letter sounds too, but not too focused. I just want her to begin to understand the importance of letters. Once she has that we will be moving into our phonics program. 

Since she is learning her name I made this page to go in the workbook as well:

Download these worksheets here for FREE!

For extra practice and games I made these little blank cards to match:

Download these blank cards here  for FREE!

These are for writing letters, words, or numbers on as needed for flashcards and learning games. So far I have just made some with the letters of her name on them. Since there are two of each picture card I made two of each letter in her name (she has 6 letters in her name so it worked perfectly). We laminated them and she cut them apart. Now she can play: 

Memory Match- turn over one card at a time to find all the matches

Letter Search #1- Scramble up the cards face up. I ask her to find a letter.

or

Letter Search #2 - Use an alphabet strip or poster (we used our strips that came with Happy Phonics)

Mix up the cards and place them face down. Have her draw a card, identify the letter, find it on the strip (or poster), and then place a marker to cover it up (we were using some little Easter erasers). I had all of her card in the pile so there were of each letter. She had to find the matching lower-case letter when it was drawn the first time, and then when the same letter was drawn she had to find the matching capital letter.

I would love to hear about what kinds of "name games' you play with your girly girl!

Bonus

To help us remember what she needs to practice everyday I created this Daily worksheet to put in her work binder. I have just slipped it into a page protector so that I can write the letter of the week in the box. I wrote her name at the top so she can see it everyday, and use it as a model to spell it with her letter cards.

You can get it here for FREE!

And that's all Folks!

Well, at least for today. I have two more Word Work themes to share with you. One is geared toward 1-2 grade and the other toward 5-6 grade. Plus a few extras. I already shared the 2-3 grade level with the Pirate Word Work in an earlier post (go here to read about it in the posting and get the links for downloading). One of the extras is a cover page for the Pirate Word Work!

Have you created something super special for your preschool girly girl? Leave me a comment and tell me about it or give share the link!

Happy Day!

Ahoy Matey!

Who doesn't love pretending to be a Pirate?

My Kiddos are always having fun with it. Especially when we go down to our park that has a ship themed playground!

My son struggles with spelling and phonics. I have been working on making some activities to enrich his spelling and phonics programs so he can get more exposure. My grand plan is to make a fabulous word wall (or something like) so I can post up the words he is struggling with.

I was inspired when I came across some other freebies themed with pirates, to make a little something of our own to add.

Pirate Phonics (Long A sounds)

Pirate Vocabulary Worksheet and Sight Words

I am so happy that I have finally taken the time to learn how to share some of our creations with you! I hope you enjoy them. Please remember that these are for your personal and classroom use only. Thank You!

Here are some links to some other great pirate themed freebies!

Pirate Word Wall

Read, Build, Write (lots of themes!)

For this one, I have just linked to her blog. You might have to do some searching to find it. She has just recently moved over to members only website....but membership is free and the printables are still free! Lots of great finds from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom!

Lego Pirates of the Carribean  Activity book and Compound Word Worksheet

The Following are NOT free, but still very affordable!

Talk Like a Pirate 

($1.00 download at Currclick)

Punctuation Pirates

($1.99 download at Currclick)

Happy Day Matey!

Valentine Activity

I created this little activity for my Kiddos today. Thought I would share.

Valentine Shake and Find

There are lots of little hands around here that need to be kept busy. I am always saving containers and trying to find a use for them. Today it was a peanut butter jar that inspired me. Enjoy!

Print two of the Valentine Shake and Find game board. Cut apart the pictures of one and place in a clear lidded container. I taped some pennies to the backs of some of my pictures to add weight because they were all wanting to stay in the same place. Then fill the container with rice, beans, sand or whatever else you can think of. I used rice for this one, and we even colored it by mixing in a couple of drops of red food coloring! Now we have fun red and pink rice!

Have student Shake the container and Find the pictures. When they find a match, have them put something on the game board. Tomorrow I am going to set out a bowl of heart candies for them to use. How ever many pictures they find is how many they will get to eat! 

If you would like further instruction and ideas go here for my Shake and Find Instructions.

Happy Day!

p.s. I am new at sharing documents....so please tell me if my method did not work out! I will try and get it to you another way if it doesn't! Also please respect that I have made this for personal or classroom use only. Thank You!

What's your Name?

Did you know that today is "Change your Name day"? 

In honor of this the Kiddos and I have changed our names.

Mrs. Giggle-pants 

 I have five children named: 

Dr. Rock, Ling, Crayon Ella, Kayla-Lisa, and Juicey. 

We are all wearing paperclip necklaces  and when we get a name wrong we have to give them a paperclip. At the end of the day, the one with the most WINS!

So far my name is most often mistaken....saying Mommy is a habit that is hard to break! I think after lunch I will have to give away 2 paperclips when I get a name wrong. This should even things up better.

FUN FUN FUN!

Did you get a new name today?

Happy Day!
P.S. It is a GREAT day to read the classic story Rumplestiltskin!

The Three Sounds of "A"

I saw a great idea on pinterest the other day that I of course had to add to my board. You just never know when you might need a great idea!


The idea was to create a parking garage for toy cars on a poster paper. In each space have a word that is being practiced (i.e. sight words).

My lil' miss HanaRose  has been learning phonetic blends. We are using the Happy Phonics program for this. Yesterday we read the 3 A's book that came with the program. HR really responds to the game portion of this program. It does have one game that is to go with this lesson, but I felt she needed a little something else. So I created The Three A's Parking Garage.

(sorry it is upside down.....maybe if you stand on your head you can read it!)

It took me about 10 minutes to make (that's my kinda project!). All I did was divide a piece of cardstock into thirds (the hot dog direction) and I labeled them with the 3 A's and level 1,2,and 3. Then I drew lines for parking spaces. In each space I wrote a word from her word list putting in the appropriate level.


Ta Dah!

We now have a 3 sounds of A game!

I had Ephraim gather up all of his hotwheels and then play it with her. They divided up the cars for their playing pieces. I pulled out a deck of cards (these ones were from Phase 10, but any numbered cards would work)  and removed the 1, 2, and 3 numbered cards along with the wilds and skips.

(Hmmmm. this one wants to be sideways, Oh well, I don't have time to try and fix it)

How to play:


Youngest player goes first.
Take turns choosing cars for playing pieces.
Each player then draws a card. The # 1 tells the player to choose a parking space in level 1 (the first sound of "A" as in "cat"); the # 2 tells the player to choose a space in  level 2 (for the second sound of "A" as in "cake"); the # 3 tells the player to choose a space in level 3 (for the third sound of "A" as in "ball"). Once the card is drawn and space chosen the player must then read the word in that space before parking. The wild and skip cards are used the same as in any other game.
The object is to fill the parking garage. If you want to play for winner, you could say the first to run out of cars, or the person with the most cars parked after it is full.

(even Lyllian had to come and check it out!)

I think my Kiddos had a good time with this simple game and will want to play it again.

I have a Top level on the other side of the paper that just has spaces around the edges, labeled with A's 1-3. I plan on having HR write her words on note cards tomorrow, then she can draw the words and park the cars in the correct "A" sound space.

Happy Day!