With Ashlyn, who is 6, I have been giving her spelling tests and letting her make the words instead of write them.  We work on this each week and I wanted to switch things up a bit from the old school pencil and paper.   She liked it!  I also do making words activities with her.  I used to do this daily with my 1st graders when I taught in the public schools.

Yesterday we were talking about the rule about dropping the e and adding ing to a word.  I had her use the letter tiles and make the word take.  Then I asked her to turn it into taking.  She of course kept the e so I taught her the little rhyme.  Making words activities teaches tons of great phonics skills.  It gives kids the chance to manipulate the letters to see how letter sounds and rhyming go together to make words.  After doing ing words I asked her to make the word night.  Then I had her change it to light, sight, fight, flight, and then sigh. It really helps her recognize the patterns that many words have.

With Emil, who is 3, I have her spell out her sight words by copying them from a list that I make her.  Then I have her find those words in a book that I have just read to her.  Many kids know sight words in isolation but have a harder time reading them in a sentence.  This activity helps with that.

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The other day while I was giving Ashlyn a spelling test, I gave Emily a sight word activity as well.  I wrote out 7 of her words and then gave her some letter stickers I found in the Target dollar section.  The only problem is they are all up case but it made for a good teachable moment.  She had to find the letters to make her words.  She loved it!

So proud of herself!

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 Here are some other sight word activities.

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We spent the day taking the girls to the zoo, painting a bird feeder, and hanging out at home.  After dinner the girls wanted to play outside with their new polka dotted chalk.  It only took a couple of minutes before Emily was bored with the chalk so I made up a game to keep her interest.  I wrote a letter with the chalk and asked her what letter it was.  I continued this with several letters and we talked about what sounds each made.  Then I asked her to jump on a certain letter.  She loved it!  I would change it up and say, “Can you jump over the A?”  “Can you step on the R?”  We did this for about 15 minutes until Ashlyn wanted to play.

I thought letters weren’t challenging enough for her so I made a hopscotch board.  Instead of using numbers I wrote some of her sight words in the boxes.  She had to throw a stick and read the word it landed on, then hop to it.  I kept thinking of other things you could use.  Shapes, color words, numbers that aren’t in order, and sight words were some examples I thought of.  It was a fun way to spend the evening without them even realizing they were learning.

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While these are a great learning activity, they are a pain to store.  When I was teaching I found that a tackle box was perfect for this.  They have 24 little square compartments so I combine the letters w and x together and y and z.  it’s much better than stuffing them all in a ziploc bag.

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Last week I wrote one for Ashlyn-4 and she loved it.  She has asked my if I could write her one every morning.  I have for the past week and it’s been great.  It lets her know what is going on that day, what we are doing and where we are going.  I also get to tell her how excited I am about spending the day with her and that I love her.   After she reads it to me I ask her to circle or underline certain things that I am looking for.   I have her circle capital letters, punctuation marks, and her sight words.  She loves this part.  She finally gets to write on a white board!  Now, she is asking if she can write a message to me.  Here is her first one.  I will let you try and guess what it says!  Mouse of the picture to see if you’re right.

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