Amelia is Reading!

Well, sort of. She is finally reading some short vowel words. She was playing with the letters on the refrigerator (what few are left) and suddenly she was sounding out "bat." We kept changing the first consonant and she would sound the word out and when I asked what it was she was able to explain the word. Just making sure she was comprehending. I am so proud of my big girl.
Edited to add:
She then started changing the last letter instead. Not that all the words she made were really words but she was sounding them out. And I would tell her when her letter combinations were not words. I was especially impressed when I found another vowel-e- and she started to put it at the beginning, but then quickly moved it to the middle of the word.
She was so excited and mommy was tearing up.

She credits Super Why!

Easter Basket Phonics Hunt

I had this brilliant idea (okay, I think it is a brilliant idea) for a new phonics hunt game. A while back I shared with you our Great Phonics Hunt. The other day I was looking at an Easter basket and thought that the grass would be fun for some sort of sensory activity. But what could I have the girls hunt for. That was when I remembered the Phonics Hunt. This is what I came up with the

Easter Basket Phonics Hunt!!

What do you need for this fun activity?

An Easter Basket filled with grass

12 plastic eggs with letter stickers

12 small objects to represent those 12 beginning sounds

Label the eggs with the letter stickers.

Here is a close up of objects.

I then hid the objects in the grass:

And the girls got to find them.

First I reviewed the letters on the easel, making sure they could tell me the name and the sound. I figured they could, they went beyond what I was asking for by adding a word to go with each sound.  Then I showed them the eggs in the egg carton.

They took turns reaching inside the basket for an object.

They told me what it was.

And found the correct egg to place it in.

After we filled all the eggs the girls put the objects back in and they told me what to find (with my eyes closed). I had to tell them the letter and the sound. I tell you, some of those things are hard to find in that grass, especially when you are searching for a specific one.

The girls seem to think it is a great new activity. The were upset when I had them get out their workbooks because I couldn't keep looking for objects when the baby needed to nurse.

Linking to:

 

Word Family Pizzas

One of the reasons I wanted to continue our pizza unit was because I wanted to make these Word Family Pizzas. I came up with the idea while we were doing the unit back in January. Unfortunately, with my lack of energy and motivation I never got it ready. Suddenly, last week, my energy level and motivation were both back up. So, I made these to go with our second pizza week (which I will post more about at the end of the week).  

In order to make these I took brown construction paper and cut out 8 pizza slice shapes. Then I took white paper, cut in the same shape but with the crust cut off. I then colored a tiny bit red for the sauce and the rest yellow for the cheese.

I knew I wanted to start with the short a vowel family words so I decided to cut out some pink paper to represent ham (short vowel word). Then I made a list of words for each family (at, am, an, ap, ack, ab, ag, and ad) and wrote them on the ham pieces. 

I placed them in a bowl and grabbed a die out of a game we have.

In order to play the game we took turns rolling the die and counting out the number of toppings rolled. Then we sounded out the words one at a time and placed them on the pizza. The first ham piece got placed on any pizza slice. Then for the following pieces we would see if the word rhymed with any that were already on the pizza. If they rhymed they got placed on the same slice. If they didn't rhyme they got placed on a new slice.

As there is no winner or loser in this game it is fun for the children. They get to listen for rhyming words and because the rhyming words are all on the same slice the children can see the similarities. 

Next I am going to make toppings to go with the other short vowels.

Short e-pepperoni

Short i- olives

Short o- broccoli

Short u- mushroom

Also linking up to:

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.