End of School Year Treat!

This week I reviewed dozens of homeschool portfolios for my homeschool group. I like to leave them with a small end of the year treat after I assess their work, so this year I chose give them Smarties. I taped a packet of Smarties to the back of the cards that I printed off on cardstock.

You can {Click Here} to print off your own. And a BIG thank you to my blogging buddy who created this for me, Leslie from KindergartenWorks. She's the best!

Enjoy!

 

Reading strategies that work!

I have used many different reading strategies while teaching in the classroom, tutoring, and homeschooling my five children. Here are some terrific strategies to use with your child during your reading time together.

RED- Parent reads
GREEN- Child reads

Echo reading- The parent reads and the child mimics the parent. This is super for beginning readers who need to learn to read with expression.

The dog ran down the street.
The dog ran down the street.

Cloze reading- The parent reads and randomly stops, so the child has to read the next word. The parent continues to read and stop again.

The dog ran down the street.

Word train- The parent reads a word, and the child reads the next word.

The dog ran down the street.

Flip-flop reading- The parent reads a sentence, and the child reads a sentence. As the child reads more fluently, the parent reads a paragraph, and the child reads a paragraph. Slowly progress to the parent reads a page, and the child reads a page. This responsive reading technique can continue well into the middle school years. It is a quick way to assess a child’s reading ability, and it keeps the child actively involved.

The dog ran down the street. The boy chased the dog past his neighbor’s house.

Stop-and-go reading- The parent and the child take turns reading after commas and punctuation marks at the end of the sentences. This is great for reading with older children. It really keeps them on their toes!

The dog ran down the street. The boy chased the dog past his neighbor’s house, around the corner, and into the woods.

Enjoy making reading FUN!

For additional reading ideas, refer to How to Teach Your Child

The Images of Mother

Image source

The Images of Mother

4 YEARS OF AGE: My Mommy can do anything!
8 YEARS OF AGE: My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!
12 YEARS OF AGE: My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.
14 YEARS OF AGE: Naturally, Mother doesn't know that either.
16 YEARS OF AGE: Mother, she's hopelessly old-fashioned.
18 YEARS OF AGE: That old woman, she's way out of date!
25 YEARS OF AGE: Well, she might know a little bit about it.
35 YEARS OF AGE: Before we decide, let's get Mom's opinion
45 YEARS OF AGE: Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?
65 YEARS OF AGE: Wish I could talk it over with Mom once more.

License Plate Game

I love playing the "license plate game” with my children! It is such a fantastic way to teach map skills. We live in Florida and see many different license plates from other states during the winter months. If you live in an area that does not have a lot of tourism, play this when you are on road trips. (If traveling on the interstate, you can usually see a variety of license plates regardless of where you live.)

The goal of this challenging game is to find all of the United States’ license plates (excluding Hawaii & Alaska). Sometimes it can take weeks or months to complete, which keeps the suspense going.

Make an outline map of the United States with just the names of the states labeled or click HERE to print one. Place the U.S. map on a clipboard, and leave it in the car. Use a highlighter or a light colored crayon to shade in a state when your child sees the corresponding license plate. Work as a team to see how many states’ license plates you can find.

My family has found all the states, excluding Hawaii and Alaska. Your family will have FUN learning geography!

Enjoy!

Fun math dice games!

If you have a pair of dice, then you are set for the following learning activities. I love using dice because children automatically relate dice with playing games and having fun.

There are many outstanding math games to play with dice. You can play an addition game by rolling two dice and adding up the total. The first player to one hundred wins. You can later add a third die to practice adding three numbers. You can play a multiplication game by rolling two dice, multiplying them to get your product, and adding up the total. Remember to have your child keep score with tally marks since children often do not get a lot of practice with this concept.

"Circles and Stars" is the best game I have used with children who are beginning to learn multiplication. Roll one die and make that many circles on your paper. Roll another die and make that many stars on the inside of each circle. Write out the multiplication sentence to go with that problem. Have your child count the stars in each circle for the total. For example, two circles with three stars in each circle equals six stars. (2 x 3 = 6) Take turns rolling the dice and illustrating the number sentences. Have your child add all the products (total amount of stars) each person has with a calculator to see who wins.

2 x 3 = 6

If your child takes a long time drawing stars, you can use small star stickers or substitute Xs for stars, and rename the game “Xs and Os.” There are a variety of dice you can purchase to add some spice to your dice. There are large dice, foam dice, colored dice, fuzzy dice, and dice that have many more sides than the average die.

I recently found a dice game on-line to practice addition and multiplication facts- it's so cool! CLICK HERE to play.

Here is a video clip on playing games with dice.

Enjoy!