Me Too, Woody!

Isaac is reading on a Level 1 in those leveled readers you see at Walmart. I found some books on that level at McKays and turned one of them into a Literacy Bag.



I chose this book because we already have a Little Critter book titled Me Too! on our Nook and I thought Isaac might be able to make a connection.



I typed up the words, added pictures from Goggle Images and Clipart, printed everything and cut them out, and voila!



And everything fits into a pencil case!



He has actually read this so many times that he has it memorized. (much like Aunt Boo had Hop on Pop! memorized) You can hear the twins wanting attention in the background. Well, you can hear Abby wanting attention in the background.

After reading the story, we spread out the story strips and Isaac had to put the story back together. (the video is a little shaky- it's was difficult to film and direct at the same time)


Click on the picture to watch the video!

I didn't film all of it, but Isaac did get it finished! I got the picture of him standing with it, I turned around for one second to tell Abby something and Isaac had already mixed the sentence strips. (I was going to have him read them to Daddy.) *sigh*





I've done this activity with my students and they have a good time with it since it's a Literacy Center that I take a picture of to put on my school blog. I used the sentence strips from 1+1+1=1 for my students, but since it was pretty easy to make my own, I'll probably do more!

You might be wondering what I had the twins doing during all this.



Abby chose robots for her activity. She has the robots shapes page and a pipe cleaner. Her activity was to try to make the shapes with the pipe cleaner. (yes, it is an advanced activity, but she really tried hard!)



She mastered the circle!



I combined Andy's love of pirates with his love of colored pom-poms. His job- match the pom-poms to the circles on the page. Hand-eye coordination.

Here's the problem that I'm finding with doing Delk Homeschool- I can't do all the kids at one time. They all need individual help with their activities. However, wherever Ike goes, so goes Abby. Wherever Abby goes, so goes Andy. If I leave anyone out, they scream and cry. I could send them to their rooms to cry it out, then call them back when it's their turn, but by then they are in bad moods and don't want to do their activity.

For anyone who wanted to know why I don't actually homeschool my kids- that's the reason. They get on my nerves.

Click on the links ( robots and pirates) to see where I got the great activities!

Fun with Food Coloring

I've been on Fall break all week, but this was the first day with the kids. The last 3 days have been cleaning and laundry days- kid free! I love my hubby! (he assured me that daycare was in the budget for this week)

So, today I had children and needed something to do with them. I had thought about going to the zoo, but it was cold and wet outside. I thought about being a good teacher-mommy, but I hadn't printed out and prepared anything yet.

Then I remembered THIS website. I considered this activity to be part of the Crafty Trinity- it was fast, cheap and easy. So, instead of going to the zoo, we made Aquarium Baggies. Great for... well, I don't know. But the kids liked it and now we have sun catchers that are sensory/ tactile oriented.

I collected my items...



I honestly can't remember when I bought that hair gel, but I'm glad I didn't get rid of it!
baggies
multi-colored sharpies
hair gel (the website said it would work with lotion too. but it wouldn't be as see-through for sun catchers)
food coloring to make the "water" blue
the white felt was for Isaac to see where he was marking

I stripped the kids of their shirts so they couldn't ruin them with the markers. I also read them their rights, should a marker find its way to a mouth, other body part, or the wall, all fun would cease for that child.



Abby chose orange and purple for her colors.



Andy chose blue and pink. He did well until I noticed him in his "thinking pose" with the marker tip in his mouth. No more aquarium fun for him!



Isaac had the rest of the colors.

I drew the fish, but they colored them and decorated the baggies as they saw fit.

Hmmmm.... what to do with Andy now that he can't have fun. Cupcakes. Multi-colored cupcakes.

I didn't take pictures as we made them, but we used a white cake mix, prepared the batter according to the box, then separated the batter into 3 bowls. Andy helped me choose the colors for the 3 bowls; blue, green and red.
Then we spooned 2 different colors into the cupcake cups.



You can't tell, but they are different colors on the bottom.



Abby loving her cupcakes. She's not exactly lady-like is she?

Here are the finished aquariums.



I'm so glad I thought to strip them first! Check out Abby's battle scars from the markers.



Ike is so proud!



My example is on top. They will look much better then the sun is cooperating!
Now Grammy Pat, don't you worry. I'll give Andy another chance tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, while the kids were taking their naps today, I jumped on the computer and printed their activities for the rest of this week and next week.



Abby chose robots for her activities and Andy has been on a pirate kick for a while, so Abby will be working on shapes, and Andy on letter recognition and hand-eye coordination. (matching colored pom-poms to the circles)



Ike chose circus for his theme, and I printed out the ones for pirate too. These are the Read, Build, Write mats from Homeschool Creations.



This came from a teaching blog that I came across. It's a sight word phrase game. Isaac knows a lot of his sight words already, and he's really good about recognizing new words when they are presented to him, so this game should be right up his alley.



I got this idea from the 1+1+1=1 website. I chose a Level 1 book from McKays that I knew would keep Isaac's interest and had words that he could read. I typed each page and added pictures I found from Google Images and clipart. I cut the strips and now Isaac has a fluency game he can play!



And, I love how the book and sentence strips fit perfectly into this 97 cent pencil case! I can definitely see myself doing more of these! (another Crafty Trinity activity!)



Last, but not least, Isaac's new Memory verse. This is for the letter 'C'. Of course, this is also from the 1+1+1=1 website.

I think I have enough to keep the kids busy! :)

Little Einsteins

My kids might be loud (right, Aunt Boo?), and obnoxiously energetic, but they love their school time! They fight in the car over who is going to school, and who is just going to "new daycare". (They still call is "new daycare" even though they've been there almost a year now.) They all love telling me that they have a "smiley face" for their behavior! (Isaac has a behavior folder) I almost feel bad for Ms. Patty, the twins teacher, because she has to listen to Abby talk about Isaac's school all day. :)

Anyhoo- the kids will come running when I say it's time for school. Our classroom is our dining room, and one of these days, I'm going to decorate it and make it look good! (or at least clean.)

Last night I was working on my other blogsite and the twins were wanting to be entertained. Well, ok. Let me turn on my super-mommy powers and come up with a quasi-educational activity that will keep them focused for minutes on end.

Enter, the felt board. This miracle board was given to us by Aunt Beth in a Delk Quiet Bag. I keep this bag in my car for traveling emergencies and pull activities out as needed. Thanks, Aunt Beth!!





Roar!!





Now, I will admit to arranging the pieces, but the kids loved moving them around, making noises, and telling me all about the different dinos!

After the magic board, we got out the puffballs. I bought these the last time I was in M'boro and I didn't know what I was going to do with them. Now I know!



I separated the balls, made some colored circles on pieces of paper, and told them to have at it!





When the finished their paper, they traded and kept going! After a while, Abby put the balls in different circles and said, "Look, Mommy! I'm being silly!"



I know you're impressed. :)

On the Isaac front, I want you to know his teacher is very impressed with his abilities. They sat in circle time, ready to read a big book, and Isaac started reading the book to Ms. Cheri! She told me that she was very impressed and syas he's already doing Kindergarten material. :)
Now if we can only get him to follow directions the first time. *sigh*

Well, hopefully I found a solution. My new favorite website 1+1+1=1 has wonderful lessons and Pre-K packs geared towards our young learners. My favorite part is her Raising Rock Stars lessons. RRS are Bible based lessons that use Bible verses to teach ABCs, writing skills, and critical thinking skills. Perfect for Isaac!

I've downloaded everything I can get my hands on! Most of is is free! (like 99%) So, I've started a binder for Isaac's RRS lessons.



I found this picture when I was printing out his first lesson. Yea, Grammy Pat!



Nice lesson planning pages and separations.



The first lesson- letter "A".

I also printed out a camping Pre-K pack that I found at Homeschool Creations. Not sure why I chose Camping as our first theme, but it looked good! (Jenny- they have a Star Wars theme! If you look at their Read! Build! Write! boards, you'll find them)

I'll keep everyone posted on Isaac's progress!

Check it out!

For the one other person with small children who actually looks at this blog (that would be you, Jenny) go look at the homeschoolcreations blog that I love. Click on the button on the right and see if anything looks cool to you. I plan on checking it out!



Anything that I download will be used for this guy! Doesn't he look handsome and ready for school? This was taken on his first day. :)