Catch & Do

This is a great game to learn names, get kids moving, and have a lot fun. It's also simple to do. Just buy a small ball. (I got one with a picture of a dog on it, but you can always get a plain one.) Write several tasks on the ball:

Throw Under Your Leg
Sing
Wicked Laugh
Roll the Ball
Close Your Eyes
Stand on One Leg

First, pick someone to start the game. This person will say his/her name and read the task on the ball. If it says, "Close Your Eyes", the person will close his/her eyes and throw the ball to someone. If no one catches the ball, it goes to the person closest to it.

Because the ball I purchased has a dog on it, if the ball lands with the dog face up, the person has to make an animal sound. Fun, right?

This is a great game for introducing a new group of kids and breaking the ice. Plus it is pretty funny to watch!

Biscuit Short-Cake

Ingredients

 

1/4 cup sugar

2 1/3 cups Bisquik Gluten Free mix

3 tablespoons canola oil

3/4 cup lactose free milk

3 eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp vanilla

diced canned peaches



Ok, so I just discovered I have Crohn's disease. That's some seriously bad news for a sweet tooth junkie like me. I didn't have anything sweet in my pantry, so here's what I scrounged up.

And when I mean scrounged, I mean dug through all the corners, nooks, and crannies. This isn't the best recipe, nor is it the sweetest, but it's the best I could do given the circumstances. :)

So, first I mixed all the ingreidents in a bowl, then greased up a cookie sheet, and added spoonfuls of batter onto the sheet just like I would chocolate chip cookies (Did someone say chocolate and cookies?).

I cooked them for 425 degrees for 10 minutes and let them cool a little.

Then I added some peaches and a drizzle of honey on top.

Word Wheel

What You Will Need

Construction paper

Laminating paper

Multi-purpose paper

Fastener

Pencil or Pen

Scissors

Round Lid

First, I laminated two pieces of construction paper for the front and back of my word wheel. Then I used a round lid to trace a circle on both pieces of paper.(I used a lid from a tupperware bowl but a cereal bowl would work as well.)

 I then cut a small hole in the circle that would be the front of my word wheel.

I also cut out white circles of the same size to write the sight words on. I used pencil, so I could erase the words as my son learned them and add new words. But you can use permanent marker and laminate all the circles. 

     

Finally, I used a fastener to connect all the circles. Now my son can spin the wheel and learn new words. He's obsessed with basketball, so on his I drew lines to make it look like a basketball vs. a wheel.

Happy Learning!

Out of Sight

Out of Sight

To make your own sight word game you will need the following:

Poster board

Markers

Index cards

Computer paper

Printer (with colored ink) 

Bottle cap

Dice 

Stickers or Stamps

Pawns (coins, erasers, toy cars)

First fold the poster board in half, and then open and cut along the line. On the top corner of the poster board place an "A" and write "Start" beneath it. On the bottom corner opposite the "A" place a "Z" and write "End" beneath it.

From the starting point, draw circles using a large bottle cap for tracing. Make your pattern from start to finish. I varied the colors, but maintained a pattern, i.e. orange, aqua, green, yellow, red, purple, and blue. Also on the board, I traced an index card on either side. One for the "sight words", and the other for the "word families". On the sight words I drew a big eye and face. On the word families, I drew a stick family.

I coordinated the circles to match, so that if a student lands on an aqua face, he/she has to draw a card from the "sight word" pile. If a student lands on a red stick figure, he/she has to draw from the "word families" pile. 

Also in the circles, I placed several other obstacles such as "go back 2 spaces" and "go back to start". Another circle is a reward which says "go ahead one space."

On the "sight word" index cards, I wrote words my student was having trouble remembering. Words like: "what", "he", "she", "where", and, "this".

On the "word families" index cards, I wrote the ending of words: "ack", "an", "ig", "ub", "ug", etc.

I also printed out letters from the alphabet A-Z. The letters are to be given to each player at the beginning of the game. When a player lands on a "word families" space, he/she will draw an index card and then will be required to add a letter from his/her alphabet to make his/her word.

Basically to play the game, each player will roll a dice, the higher number goes first. The player will then roll the dice and move the appropriate number of spots. If they land on "sight words" or "word families" they will have to draw the corresponding index card. If they get the word right, or can make a word, they can stay on that spot; if not, they have to go back to the circle they came from. The person who makes it to "Z" first wins!

This is what the completed game board will look like. So I wouldn't get the index cards mixed up, I put stickers on the top of each of the "word families" index cards and stamps on the top of each of the "sight words" index cards.

Of course, you can vary your board and decorate it anyway you like. I bought a Winnie the Pooh and Cinderella figurine at Dollar General to use as pawns, but you can use coins, erasers, play cars, etc.

Like I always tell my students, "Get Creative!" 

Oh, and happy learning. :)

Christmas Heart Cake

                                                                         Ingredients                       

                                              1 box Funfetti Holiday Cake Mix (Pillsbury)

                                              1 Funfetti Frosting (Pillsbury)

                                              2 eggs

                                              1/3 cup vegetable oil

                                              1 cup water

                                              heart shaped cake pan

                                              toothpicks

                                              miniature marshmallows

                                              Peppermint Hersey Kisses

We got lazy and bought a cake mix from the store. We love Funfetti from Pillsbury. I was going to turn this cake upside down and cut off the ends and decorate it as a Christmas tree. My son saw the heart shaped cake pan and insisted we keep it that way. Why not? A heart for Christmas. Thinking about it, Christmas is the holiday for giving, for family and friends, and joy.

After we let the cake cool and iced it, we added the Funfetti sprinkles. Then we decorated it with peppermint Hersey Kisses. Lastly, we made snowmen by sticking three marshmallows onto a toothpick and sticking the toothpick into the cake. ( My son used 4 or 5 marshmallows.) I almost wished it snowed here, so we could try that with the real version. Ha ha.

Okay, so this isn't the prettiest cake and no one will want to eat it (my son put the frosting on it, which meant he repeatedly tasted the spreader before adding more icing), but we love it.

It was a lot of fun to make.

~It is with peace, love and joythat all good things are made.

 



Fun with Words

Reading Flashcards and Reading Strips

My son is one of those learners that does not want to learn anything unless it is his idea. So everyday, I let him choose a word he would like to learn. He chooses a lot of animal words, i.e monkey, lion, tiger, dog. This concerned me a little. I thought there is no way he's going to learn these words, but he picked them up no problem. (I added a few words that every beginner reader needs to know, like "and" & "the".) These were much harder for him to master.

Everyday, I add one new word because he is a fast learner. Since every child learns at their own pace, some children may take days to learn a new word. This is normal.

In additon to the flashcards, I make little strips in which I string a few of the words together to make a fragment sentence. This not only introduces him to the early stages of reading, but helps him understand the correlation between words.

We make a game out of learning new words. Sometimes I will hold up the word and say "don't let it disappear" as I start sliding it away, so he has to guess quickly. Sometimes we make a "good" pile which are the words he knows, and a "bad" pile of words he doesn't know. He came up with this idea.

Today he wants to add the word "zebra".

Happy reading!

 

Peek-A-Boo Halloween Decorations

Halloween decorations that slide to reveal a secret surprise.

It's a pumpkin.

It's a pumpkin with a scardy cat inside.

 What You Will Need

Scissors

Paper clips

Glue Stick

Card stock

Halloween patterns

Fastener

1. Cut out the Halloween pattern or patterns you want to use.
They can be found and printed out online, or you

could use Halloween shaped cookie cutters and trace them onto the paper.

2. Attach the pattern to two pieces of card stock. I like to use two different colors for contrast. Using a paper clip will help keep the pattern in place as you cut.

3. Cut the paper to the pattern's shape.

4. Decorate one or both pieces of paper. (See my examples below)

5. Attach both pieces together with a fastener.

You now have a secret Halloween surprise. Boo!!!