Sight Words and Base Ten Practice

We had such a focused day today in preschool.  All the kids are working on their own set of sight words so I pulled out our iPads and set them up on TeachMe: Kindergarten.  I LOVE this app.  As the teacher or parent you can select what topics you want the kids to practice and how many correct answers they need to earn a reward.  I always choose 9 correct answers (the highest amount) and adjust the topic according to what we are working on.  Today I made it so they were only practicing the sight word list that was appropriate.  The kids LOVED having their turn practicing their sight words and it made it super easy for me to work with the reading groups.

We are still learning about tens and units and how they represent written numerals.  Today the goal was to play a matching game for the numbers 1-12.  It is so important to remember that different kids pick up ideas in different ways and at different speeds.  This game was fun for some but boring for others.  Some kids sped through it and others needed to take their time.  However, all were successful.  I was excited to find that three of our kids today were ready to work on the full set of numbers 1-20.  I sent home the cards to practice, but please send them back because we'll be working on them on Thursday!

My, I, Indians and Pilgrims

Today we started learning the sight words "my" and "I".  After doing some whole group reading we worked on the Color By Number Sight Words from the Moffatt Girls. 

 We also did some pre-writing practice.  We did some Thanksgiving themed pages as well as the letter I pages from Raising Rock Stars from 1+1+1=1. The Thanksgiving pages came from these three places:
http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/ {here}
http://homeschoolcreations.com/{here}
http://mamasmonkeys.blogspot.com/ {here}

 Next we did a Do-A-Dot Sight Words page with the sight words we've been working on : the, I, my, a
To download a copy of this printable click {here}.

 We also did a cut and paste sort from Carissa's Thanksgiving Pack.

 I thought it was interesting that R put the puzzle together sideways.  It's a puzzle from my Thanksgiving Math Pack.

 A and R were the first ones to dive into putting together the geometric solids.  I cut them out, laminated them, and then put Velcro on all the "glue" sides.  (I tried magnets, but FYI magnets don't work for this).  The Velcro enabled them to take them apart to lay them flat and re-build them. Find the Geometric Solids in my Thanksgiving Math Pack.

 Singing Time today was a hit with these awesome Indian headbands we made!  It also turned out to be a great skill building experience as they had to find their headband with their name written on it.

I introduced the "Hop Along the Path" game today for the first time.  We started by simply making it a game to hop on each of the footprints all the way to the refrigerator where they could put the magnetic turkey feathers on the Turkey, take a new feather, and then start again.  Some kids started counting their hops.  We're still working on one-to-one correspondence, and correct number order.  These videos are so cute!

Just a little video about the geometric solids.

Also, did you notice that our blog was featured on Our Little Monkeys?  Thank you Dawn for all your kind words!  Considering that this blog hasn't been around for all that long I am so thrilled that so many people are finding us and enjoying what they see!  Comments and feedback make it all worth it, and connecting to another blogger is a wonderful new type of friendship.  Thanks again Dawn!

Sight Word Caterpillar

This week we learned about caterpillars on Monday, and once I got more ink for my printer I went ahead and printed out this cute site word caterpillar.  Annie over at The Moffatt Girls blog created this and I hope it will be a big hit on Monday when all my preschoolers return.  I drew a new head for the caterpillar to match our room decor a bit better than the one provided.  Find Annie's Caterpillar {here} and download my caterpillar head {here}.  I only put up the sight words we've talked about or will talk about on Monday, there are many more in the download, and we'll be adding to it all year.  Thanks Annie!

I'd highly recommend that you let your little one trace the words as you add them to your wall.  I went ahead and traced them myself with a permanent marker since I wanted them to be read clearly from across the room by all students, but if it was just C and me I'd let him trace the words for ownership purposes.

Pumpkin Day

Today's theme is Pumpkins.  We're also working on recognizing and pronouncing the word "the".  We had to cancel Little Adventures Preschool due to a possible case of chicken pox in our home, but I went ahead and completed some of the activities with my three by ourselves.

Here we are working on a color by number of the word "the".  I love the Moffatt Girls Blog.  To download and print off these pages follow the link here:

http://moffattgirls.blogspot.com/2011/02/color-by-number-sight-word-printables.html 
This was the first activity where I dictated how something should be colored.  It was T's (4 yrs) first experience trying to stay "in the lines".

 EMan (13months) loved taking the lids off and trying to put them back on the markers.

 C (34 months) is very precise about his coloring and focuses to make sure he colors in the lines.

 My finished product.  Remember to check out the Moffatt Girls blog - follow the link on the right to see what they're doing.

 We also used a pumpkin book from Can Do Kinders.  I turned it into a cut and paste activity.  Check out this link to find the book to download and print for yourself.
http://candokinders.blogspot.com/2011/10/where-is-pumpkin.html

 The book teaches positional words.  The boys glued the pumpkins into their correct location.

 Then we got out or magnifying glasses to see if we could find any words or letters that we knew.  We searched for the word 'the' specifically.

C finds words he knows.