C is for...Caterpillar Word Family Chart

I began this Blogging Through the Alphabet journey a couple of weeks ago, and I am determined to stay faithful this time around. I might not always post on the same day of the week, but I have every plan to post something each week.

Cristi from Through the Calm and Through the Storm and Meg from Adventures with Jude are hosting this weekly party. All are welcome to join in. You don't have to be a Schoolhouse Review Crew blogger or a homeschooler, but you do have to keep your posts family-friendly.

Here is how I decided my "theme" for this round of Blogging Through the Alphabet. As I was going through old blog posts recently, I noticed I have some neat ideas for activities and crafts that I did with in the past. Unfortunately, I always included them in my weekly wrap up posts or more recently in Poppins Book Nook posts, so they sort of got buried. I can't really share them as individual activities or create pinnable images to promote them and share my ideas, which is why I started this blog in the first place (to share my ideas with others who work with children). So, I am going to make new posts for these ideas.

One of the benefits in doing this is, I am remembering these ideas that I had forgotten, which means I can now do these activities with the younger children. I will be sharing the old pictures and possibly sharing new pictures of the younger children participating.

Several years ago I created a fun way for the girls to work on their word families. We were doing Letter of the Week, and were up to the letter C.  Caterpillars were quite popular while we were doing that unit, which is what led to this activity.

C is for . . . Caterpillar Word Family Chart

First I made the background by taping together some blue and green construction paper. I then made the caterpillars by tracing a circle onto the green grassy area. I made some short and some long as you can see. I then used different colors of construction paper to make the caterpillars heads. I cut out more circles in the same colors as the heads and wrote the words on the circles. Each caterpillar focused on one word family. These were used to word on C-V-C words. Lastly, I attached Velcro to the caterpillars and to the backs of the word circles.

The girls enjoyed building the caterpillars as they read the words on the circles.

Time to go cut out some circles so Hannah and Harold can start building caterpillars.

You could laminate the circles to help them last longer. I usually use clear contact paper for lamination purposes. This is a trick I learned while working at the Montessori. I didn't laminate these as I figured it wasn't that difficult to cut out more circles.

Littles Learning Link Up: Guest Post- Making Read Aloud Time Fun For Little Ones

Welcome to Littles Learning Link Up. Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (at the beginning of the month)
• A guest post featuring crafts, activities, tips, snack ideas or other early childhood topics. (toward the end of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children (with the occasional free printable).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child.

Today I am excited to introduce you to Leah Courtney from As We Walk Along The Road.

Leah Courtney is a homeschooling mom of four. Her days are filled with being a mom, homemaker, and teacher. In her (very rare) free time, she enjoys blogging, reading, and reviewing books and curricula. These days she’s learning the joys of being a mom of teens. You can read about her family and homeschooling life at As We Walk Along the Road.

Making Read Aloud Time Fun For Little Ones

Many children love being read to. Cuddles before bed as you read a favorite book; sitting on mom’s lap in the middle of the day for a good book and some down time-reading aloud can be a treasured part of your daily routine. But if you happen to have a little one who doesn't enjoy sitting and listening or if you’re just beginning to establish some regular read aloud times with your little ones, how can you interest them in read aloud time? Here are a few ideas.

Choose good books.

Some children’s books are just not very well-written. Often books that are written about cartoon characters or popular children’s toys are just so-so. And even though your child may pick up the book because of the popular character’s picture on the front, the quality of the book won’t be good enough to hold her attention. Choose books that are well-written. Look for recommendations for living books and then ask for those for gifts or visit the library to find them.

Give them some choices.

Have a basket or low shelf with books you want to make the “read aloud books.” You may be looking to include certain books or want to choose living books or picture book classics. Put those books into a specific place, and then let little ones choose from that area. Young children like to have choices. You can limit their choice by defining the area, but when you give them a choice, they are more likely to want to listen to the book they chose.

Expect and allow movement.

Most young children won’t sit perfectly still while you are reading. Some will plop in a lap and stay happily. Others will get up and down several times. Some may listen to a story better if they’re coloring or building with blocks. Although you can (and often should) begin teaching young children to sit for short periods, don’t assume they don’t like the book or don’t want to hear it just because they begin to fidget. Find ways for them to move and still listen. Practice sitting by reading short stories or only part of the book at first.

Make reading interactive.

Some books are naturally interactive. Books with flaps to lift or tabs to pull out can hold the interest of a young child who wants to play with the book and see what can be found. But even if the book you’re reading doesn't have these features, you can make the reading interactive. Have your child count items on a page or look carefully to find a person or an object on each page. Giving the child something to do as you’re reading together will help hold his interest in the story you’re reading.

Reading aloud with little ones isn't always easy. But it can be a fun time together. And it can help to build your young child’s love of reading from an early age.

Now It's Time For:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 8 wonderful posts linked up. I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on post.  

This week's randomly selected post is:

Tricia from Life With Boo and Gator shared Activity For All Ages: Finger Painting With Yogurt.

The following post had the most clicks:

Renae from Every Star is Different shared Sunshine & Reactive Attachment Disorder.

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on my Toddler Ideas or other relevant board, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Sunday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

<a href="http://totsandme.blogspot.com/search/label/Littles%20Learning%20Link%20Up"><img alt="Tots and Me" src="http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt58/kewkewphoto/littles%20schooling%20b%20small%20Collage_zpsefibifom.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a>

Link up your wonderful ideas for working with young children.

1. Learning the Alphabet with The ABC Bunny	2. Really Great Free Rain Activities for Pre-K	3. Signing With Miss Steph: Family Time Saturday	4. S is for Smiling Sunrise - an ABC book	5. Shopping for Letters Learning Game for Kids
6. Super Fun and Educational DIY Game for Young Kids	7. How To Make A Pirate Ship Out of Cardboard	8. A is for Airplane-letter A craft using recyclables

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

Teaching Children to Read (and a Giveaway)

Welcome to the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop, where over 50 of my fellow bloggers from the Schoolhouse Review Crew are going to be sharing various posts on the subject of homeschooling. As I have been spending the last month sharing different products in my Back to School/5 Year Blogiversary Celebration, I am going to be sharing with you some of my favorite products, ideas and resources for different subjects. These aren't written in stone, but I plan to share some ideas on:

• Teaching to Read
• Online Learning
• Hands-On Learning
• Science
• Math

In honor of today's Back to School/5 Year Blogiversary Celebration review of The Reading Game, I would like to focus on what I have done in the past and plan to do in the future to help my children learn to read.

For many years I had been a strong supporter of learning to read using phonics, and only phonics. This came about because of my strong dissatisfaction of the way my older children were taught to read in public school. They all struggled through school because they did not have a strong foundation in reading. I was then introduced to teaching with phonics when I was teaching at the Montessori. The head teacher was able to teach our preschool age children to read short books in time for our Ladies Night at the end of the school year. These children went into kindergarten already knowing how to read. I was quite amazed at the results!

I knew I wanted to implement some of the techniques that were used at the Montessori with my children.  I also did quite a bit of researching to see what others were doing and saying about teaching children to read, and literacy. Now I would like to share some of the resources I used.

Books I Read:

Native Reading by Timothy D. Kailing

Mommy, Teach Me to Read by Barbara Curtis

The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

Phonemic Awareness Activities for Early Reading Success by Wiley Blevins

Activities I did with the girls:

The most important thing I did with the children was read, read and more read. 

We played with letter magnets, letter blocks, felt letters, and foam letters, learning the sounds and using them to form words.

We played the Beginning Sounds game. We try to think of words that start with a certain sound. For example, I'd say, "I hear 'mmmm' when I say 'mmmmommy,' 'mmmmouse,' 'mmmmmoon.'" As the children got older they were able to add their own words. 

I made lunches where the foods started with the letter we were focusing on. A cutout of the letter was made in bread or cheese and added to the lunch.

We made letter/sound collages and letter/sound books.

We made crafts in the shape of letters.

We played with sandpaper letters, learning to form the letter and focusing on the sound. 

I made a movable alphabet that we could use to form words, starting with C-V-C words.

I had Tabitha sit on my lap as I typed out words and had her sound them out.

We used printable books from Progressive Phonics where I read the majority of the story, but Tabitha read the words highlighted in red. 

Videos and Shows The Children Watched:

Leap Frog Letter Factory

Leap Frog Talking Words Factory

Leap Frog Talking Words Factory 2: Word Caper

It was after Tabitha started watching Talking Words Factory that everything seemed to click. She was only 2 1/2 and suddenly she was blending words together. Shortly after that she was reading The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss with me. They also watched Super Why! on television.  As Tabitha started to read more, she read Hello Reader books, Step Into Reading Books, and Abeka 1st Grade Readers. We have not used any specific curriculum to learn to read, just lots of fun games, activities and crafts. Here are some of my old posts where I share what I have done with the children to teach reading.

• Teaching Toddlers Reading Readiness explains some of our activities and crafts in more detail.
• Getting Ready for Reading is a post I wrote 4 years ago to help explain what I had done with Tabitha to help her learn to read.
• What Have I Done to Help Tabitha Learn to Read was written a year later and mentions some other activities.
• Working on Beginning Letter Sounds with "The Great Phonics Hunt" shares a hands-on sensory tub I created.
• Word/Picture Card Details and Caterpillar Word Families is a post I wrote to share how we use the word and picture cards for Letter of the Week, plus how we sounded out words. I also liked to work on word families.

I primarily used phonics to teach Tabitha, but I have also added in sight words occasionally. We have two of the Sight Words DVD's from Rock 'n Learn which the children enjoyed. Currently I am using The Reading Game with Hannah. This is something new for me, as it does not focus on phonics, but on memorizing sight words with phonics added in at the end. You can read my full review here. (Just to let you know, you can earn bonus entries into the Back to School/5 Year Blogiversary Grand Prize Giveaway by commenting following the directions at the bottom of the post.)

Speaking of The Reading Game, at the end of the post you will find this week's Back to School Celebration Giveaway. This is the last weekly giveaway before next week's Grand Prize Giveaway.

There will be a wide variety of homeschool posts shared this week by my fellow Crew mates on the Schoolhouse Review Crew. I hope you will find some time to stop by and see what wisdom you can glean. There are always wonderful posts by these great ladies. Here, check out today's posts: Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break shares My Back to Homeschool Checklist: School Scripture Tara @ This Sweet Life shares 25 Back-to-School Oatmeal Recipes (and a Giveaway) Laura @ My (re)Viewpoint shares Avoiding the Homeschooling Comparison Trap Alyson @ Family Style School shares Wow Is It Really That Time Kemi @ Homemaking Organized shares Our Methods (and Madness) Anne @ Upstate Ramblings shares Back to Homeschool - 10th Grade Curriculum Julie @ Nurturing Learning shares Our 2014-2015 Curriculum Choices Beth @ Acorn Hill Academy shares Making History Relevant: Century Chart Also check out the main post on the Schoolhouse Crew Blog, for all the participating blogs and a chance to enter the huge giveaway worth $1300.
And now for this week's Back to School Weekly Giveaway There will be 2 winners again this week! Each winner will receive a copy of The Reading Game

All you need to do is enter in the Rafflecopter form below. There are only 3 simple mandatory entries, with the remainder of the entries being optional. Remember, you do not have to do the extra entries, but they will increase your odds of winning.

This giveaway is open to US residents 18 and over.

The giveaway runs August 11th through August 17th.
All entries are subject to verification.Thanks for stopping by, and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received The Reading Game for free.  I received no further compensation. This did not in any way influence my reviews. As with all my reviews, the Back to School reviews reflect my own honest experience and opinion.  I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. All opinions are my own.

Perpetual Pinners April 30, 2012

I am thrilled to be joining in with Nykki over at Another Day in Paradise to bring you Perpetual Pinners. Do you get obsessed with pinning on Pinterest? Would you like to share some of your favorite pins? Well, create your blog post and then stop by and link up below.  Or, if you don't want to create a post, you can always link directly to a board or pin you want to share.

This week I would like to share some of the great early literacy ideas I have found recently. Ideas for letter recognition, spelling, sight words and even poetry.

Source: playdoughtoplato.com via Karen on Pinterest

Source: something-like-life.com via Karen on Pinterest

Source: makedoandfriend.com via Karen on Pinterest

Source: classifiedmom.com via Karen on Pinterest

This will go perfectly right now as the girls are learning about sight words from the Rock 'N Learn DVD I was reviewing called Sight Words.

Source: learnwithplay.blogspot.com via Karen on Pinterest

Source: mrstsfirstgradeclass-jill.blogspot.com via Karen on Pinterest

<a href="http://www.anotherdayinparadiseblog.com"><img src="http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n599/nobryan1/button-2.png"></a>

Working on beginning letter sounds with "The Great Phonics Hunt"

Today I decided to get out the bean tub we used a while back. Originally this tub was for "The Great Bean Hunt" and the girls were to hunt through a tub of navy beans for 12 kidney beans. They were then to count them into the enclosed egg carton. I removed the smaller egg carton, added more beans, and added an 18 count egg carton into which I had placed 6 letters/sounds.  Then I hid 12 small items, 2 for each beginning sound.

The girls worked together, taking turns to find an object, say what it was and find the letter it started with.

Then they played with them for a while. After mommy thought they had played enough, I had them hide the objects again and they each had their own time to find all of the objects. 

Then they hid them for mommy and I tried to find them all with my eyes closed. Not the easiest task. As I had my eyes closed the girls still had to be the ones to match the object to the correct letter. They both did really well. I told them next time there would be different objects/sounds.

Then I took six objects, each beginning with a different sound, and put them on the lid of the tub (i.e. make shift tray). I had the girls close their eyes and I took away one of the objects. They had no problem telling me which one was missing. I think next time I will take away two at a time. We used to do this with our picture cards for letter of the week.

School Time Week 39: Uu Concluded (plus finishing up July 4th craft)

As we hadn't done much last week I decided not to post. I had just found out we are pregnant again, expecting in February, and I have not had a lot of energy.  We had our Patriotic Stars and Stripes Muffin Tin:

Then we made the first part of our American flag picture.

1/2 sheet white construction paper

blue rectangle 

1/2 inch red construction paper strips

I laid down lines of glue one at a time and had them put their own strips on.  Then I put the glue on the paper for the blue rectangle.

Then I made little pen marks where the stars are to go and the girls made white finger prints.

Steven helped Hannah.

I could not find the energy to finish this project until this week.  I found this idea over at Crafts and Things for Children.  I put blobs of paint on black paper and had the girls drag a craft pick through the paint to make fireworks.

I didn't really want to deal with the paint with Hannah, so I let her color with chalk.

Then I thought it would be cool to put the flags over the top of the fireworks.

Now, onto the rest of this week.

I wasn't sure what to do for muffin tin Monday this week as we were still trying to finish up our U lessons and I had exhausted my U muffin tin ideas (You can see them here and here). So we just had breakfast in a muffin tin.

Even Hannah had a muffin tin again, I just chopped her foods up.

Then the girls spent some time on puzzles.  I had found this Strawberry Shortcake puzzle at the thrift shop, but was sure Tabitha wasn't ready for it because it has 63 pieces in it.  She found it and started putting it together.

While she was doing that puzzle, daddy was helping Amelia with the Alphabet Train Puzzle.

Then Tabitha helped sing the alphabet.

Then daddy helped Tabitha finish her puzzle.  She had done quite a bit more by herself or with some hints from me, but the big strawberry house was a bit much for her.

I found this Cheerios book at the thrift shop and thought I could keep Hannah busy a bit while we did lessons by having her put Cheerios in the holes (and eating them of course).

I found some U worksheets in my folder that I hadn't used last year.  They filled in the u in each word, read the word, drew lines to the correct picture and then colored them.

I had been wanting to make some construction paper umbrellas and raindrops of matching color to do "u" word families, similar to my caterpillar "a" word families.  However, I just couldn't get up the energy.  So I decided to use the chalkboard.  I drew the umbrella and then the raindrops.  I wrote the "ug" in the umbrella first then had the girls think of words that rhymed with "ug."

They needed some help thinking of another word, so daddy came over and gave them a "hug."

Then we did the same thing with "un." Then we needed a break.

I had the girls color umbrella pictures.

Tabitha likes making patterns.

Hannah insisted on turning her paper upside down.

Then we made our own umbrella pictures.  I had them cut out umbrellas.

Then we glued them on blue paper and painted on gray clouds.

Tabitha insisted on drawing some people under her umbrella.

Then we put drops of glue on the paper (after the paint had dried) 

And let the rain come down.  After a few minutes I set them on the table to dry. I found this idea over at La-La's Home Daycare.

Two books we enjoyed with our U lessons were

and 

 

I have really begun to enjoy Jan Brett's books.  At first I felt the pictures were too busy, so much to see.  But now I love the little hints you get on one page in the sidebars.  In The Umbrella a little boy named Carlos is going into the rain forest to see if he can find some animals.  But he can't see them, so he climbs a giant fig tree, leaving his umbrella sitting upside down beside the tree.  As he heads up the tree animals gather in the umbrella one by one, each animal being told by the umbrella's current occupants that there is no room.  I love that the tree frog always says something different in Spanish and that it is always translated.  Of course Carlos misses all this while he is up in the tree.

In Under My Umbrella, another Sesame Street alphabet board book that we love, Prairie Dawn loves that it is going to rain and talks about all the joys of the rain and how it helps, while most everyone else is not liking the rain.  The story is told in rhyme, which is always a plus for me.

I also borrowed a book from the library called, What Makes a Shadow by Clyde Robert Bulla.

This was a great beginning science book in the Let's Read and Find Out Science series.  The book discusses how the sun shines on the earth, but it can't shine through objects so it makes a shadow.  I love the different ideas, that are given in prose form, for demonstrating shadows.  I took the girls into the bathroom with my little reading light and we made shadows on the wall, showing how the shadow gets smaller as the object gets further away from the light.  

Of course we had to make some hand shadows.  The book has some I would like to try along with some other activities we didn't get to yet.

Tabitha has been taking us into the bathroom at different times since to teach us about shadows.

We also measured our shadows at different times of the day, seeing not only how they changed in size, but in direction.

This was all in relation to our Interlock lessons this week.  We talked about how God made light on day one and that it causes shadows and also reflects.  

I am linking to:

Smart Summer Challenge


Also linking to:

No Ordinary Blog Hop