School Time: Week 10 (Tt continued)

I have started something new with Tabitha.  After I put Amelia down for a nap, Tabitha and I come back downstairs for Reading Lesson Time.  I am using the first reader I have from the ABeka program called Fun With Pets. As Tabitha has already shown that she can read some phonetic words (from our word cards every week and from the Progressive Phonics online program) I decided to start with this book as it starts with the "at" words, moving on to the "ad" and "am" words.
I gathered our magnetic letters, our cookie sheet with a piece of computer paper, a spiral notebook (so Tabitha can have her own Reading Lesson notebook), a pencil and the ABeka reader Fun With Pets. I started out by having Tabitha tell me the sounds /a/ and /t/ while showing her the A and T magnetic letters.  Then she blended them for me.  I then went through the alphabet, having her sound out each new word formed and then writing it in her new notebook.  Then we read the beginning of the first story, "The Fat Rat."  It introduces four "sight" words: is, on, the, a.  Technically she can sound out on. The first part of the story, three sentences on two pages with 2 brightly colored pictures, introduces 8 words only.  This is all I had her read the first day.  The remainder of the story introduced the "ad" and "am" words.  We built as many of those as I could think of with the magnetic letters and she wrote them in her notebook.  The story introduced 9 new words.  We don't do this every day, but both Tabitha and Amelia have had some special school/review time with daddy this week.

Amelia and daddy working with the number clothespins from the activity table while Tabitha works on her words.

I just wish I had lower case letters.

Daddy tried a more complicated word. With a little help Tabitha worked it out.

Daddy demonstrating the word's meaning using the line from The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock about the foolish man "and the house on the sand went splat"

Tabitha writing the word.

Amelia taking her turn.  She knows the names of letters and some sounds.  Daddy thought he'd work with her.:)

She made pretty designs!

And, yes, Hannah had some floor time too.

Last week I shared the beginning of a project.  This week the girls finished the project.

I stapled the tubes that the girls painted last week into the shape of a T.

The girls crumpled up tissue paper squares

and glued them onto their letter T's

She was excited that she was finished.

I was trying to think of something new to do with our picture cards.  We still read the words and match the pictures and play the game to match the picture to the word with out looking at the picture side first.  This week we played "Which one is missing?"  I laid out three cards at a time, pointed at each saying the word, then had the girls close their eyes.  I told them not to peek and took one away.  Tabitha was able to figure it out quite easily.  Amelia copied her most of the time.  In fact, the second day we did this activity, Tabitha wanted me to add cards.  She did okay with 4, struggled a bit with 5 and 6.  Granted, even I had to think really hard to figure out the missing card when there were 6.  Tabitha insisted I had to close my eyes so she could take one away.  In fact, I just remembered I need to let Amelia have a turn quizzing me.  

I was so pleased a couple of days ago when Tabitha and Amelia started playing the game by themselves, Tabitha quizzing Amelia.  It's the activities that they initiate themselves that I know were a success.

I also realized that "touchdown" starts with the letter T.  I made a Touchdown File Folder Game

The blue blob is supposed to be a helmet and represents the defense.

The football represents the offense.

The children take turns spinning the spinner (from Chutes and Ladders).  The person with the football goes first and the first spin is the kickoff spin.  The football gets placed on the number spun.  Then they take turns spinning and moving the number of  yard lines indicated by their spin.  The person with the helmet has to try to stop the football by landing on the same yard line with an exact spin.  If the football gets to the goal line or beyond they get a touchdown.  If the helmet passes the football that person gets to go backwards to try to catch the football on the next turn.  Each time one of the girls got a touchdown they got a penny.  I was going to turn it into a coin exchange lesson, but Amelia got tired of the game after just a few rounds (it doesn't take that long to get a touchdown because you don't need to get an exact count, but she was just a little too young for it I guess.)  Tabitha didn't get tired of it, so daddy and I took turns playing with her.

The girls have been using their sign language quite a bit lately.  In fact, I found another cute educational signing video for them to watch besides Signing Time.  The girls have been watching Sign-A-Lot: ABC Games.  A group of kids go to Sign a Lot and meet up with their adult friend.  In this episode (the only one our library system has) it is game day.  The children play a game going through the alphabet and signing a word for each letter, having to remember each word that came before.  There were quite a few games and the girls really seemed to enjoy this DVD.  With the older children being featured I thought they wouldn't be as interested.  I really liked that the signs they used were inserted naturally as the children conversed just like I do at home.  I wouldn't say this DVD would be recommended for a beginner, Signing Time is still great for beginners because they do repeat each sign they are trying to teach.  But the girls requested this DVD this time, we had watching it a few weeks ago, and seem to enjoy it.

Here is Amelia signing cat:

And Tabitha trying to teach Hannah butterfly:

We have started our T craft with a book tie-in.  I will share it next week.  We are spending a third week on T seeing as I decided we would make lots of turkeys next week.  So stay tuned for those as well.  

Here are some pictures of some Tiny Tot time:

I'm am linking up to

Patricia over at My Tot Learning Time has started a new linky celebrating the special time our children spend with their daddies.  

I am also linking up to