Thursday, September 6, 2012

Phonics Fun!

Here are some fun and hands-on phonics activities :

Lesson 1 :   Using a dry erase board or paper/crayons,  state a letter sound and have your LO draw a picture that corresponds to the letter sound dictated.   If your LO do not yet know their letter sounds, then you can simply state the letter itself and have them draw a picture that begins with that letter.  This is a great activity for kids that love drawing.   I even did the reverse and had my LO draw a picture and I had to guess the letter/letter sound.

Lesson 2 :   Put toys/toddler friendly items in a brown bag. Have your LO reach into the bag and pick out one item. Have your LO state the beginning letter/beginning or ending letter/sounds of the item theyy picked.
After all the items are out of the bag, have your LO group  the items according to the same letter/sounds/syllables.

Lesson 3 :   Have a phonics lesson at the grocery store or use food toys you may have at home.  "Mommy/Daddy needs something that is red, juicy and grows on trees."    (apples).    "Mommy is looking for something that is long, bright colored,  is a vegetable, and rabbits sometimes eat it."  (carrots).

Lesson 4:   Do a scavenger hunt/I spy game of toys/toddler friendly items.  "I spy something that is begins with a "b",  is blue and has legs."   " Find me 3 toys that begin with the "b" sound or begins with the letter b. "

Lesson 5:   If you have letter stickers, use them for spelling lessons.  You can be challenging and spell c a _ and have them find the missing letter using the stickers.  

Lesson 6:  Fold the paper to make 4 boxes.  Right a letter in each box.  Have your LO find a sticker that matches the beginning or ending sound of the letter in the box.   For example, I put the letter "O" and I asked my son to find a sticker that had the same beginning sound.  He found an octopus.

Enjoy and have fun!!!

The Basics and having fun with it!!

These are some fun activities you can do with your preschoolers/toddlers to help teach and reinforce shapes, colors, numbers and abcs!!


Lesson 1 :    Create a counting book.  If you have stickers at home, have your LO create their own counting book.     On the first page, your LO puts one sticker and have them write the number 1,  on the second page, two stickers and write the number 2.   When they are done, they can read their book with you.   You can do this with the alphabet as well especially if they have trouble remembering a particular number/letter. 

Lesson 2 :    Create a shapes book.  The dollar stores and CVS have shape stickers in the "dollar section".     Have your LO put different colored/sized triangles on one page,  different colored/sized circles on another page and so forth.  Label them or have them practicing counting how many shapes they have.    You can have your LO practice opposites as well.  Small/Big, Short/Tall,  In/Out, Up/Down using stickers as well.  

Lesson 3:   Have your LO practice motor skills with cutting by having them cut out different colored construction paper. They can use their imagination and create artwork from the scraps of paper using glue sticks.   Have your LO talk about their picture.

Lesson 4:    Create a shape book with construction paper.   Have your LO practice cutting out shapes (draw the shapes beforehand for them) and glue what they cut out on each page and label.  
They can cut out different numbers of shapes on each page so when they read it to you, they can say "3 red triangles," or " 5 Orange circles" etc.  

Lesson 5 :  Create a homemade board game.  Cut out different colored squares of construction paper.   Create a diagonal line (like a snake) using the squares on a long piece of construction paper and paste with glue.   Have your LOs write 1-5 or 1-10 (If you have a longer/wide piece of construction paper) on some rectangle cards.   Have your LOs color some rectangle cards (matching the colors of the squares that were pasted on the construction paper to make the diagonal line).    Use foam stickers, pebbles, rocks, stones, what not as markers.  Mix up the rectangle cards and face them down on the game board.   Each player takes a turn and picks up a rectangle card. If  you pick a number, you go that many spaces. If you pick a color card, you advance to that color space on the game board.      

Lesson 6:   If you love play dough just like the kids, use it to create letters and shapes for the kids.  Spell out their name !!   Spell out sight words ! 


Enjoy and have fun!!