by Charlene Cook Word hunts are a fun and active way to get your child excited about learning new vocabulary. Word hunts can be used while reading books or as an interactive game around the house. Nothing is needed for word hunts except familiar children’s books, post it notes and a list of new vocabulary words. A book I have used to introduce this activity in the past is called, “The Word Collector,” by Peter Reynolds. The book talks about a boy who loves to collect words just like others collect stamps. He also loves to share his new words with those around him. To begin, it may be helpful to create a list of vocabulary that your child already knows. From there, have your child read through books with you. As they read, you can send them on a word hunt to find other words with the same spelling pattern as a word they already know. For example, if they already know the word smart, they can hunt for other words that also have the -ar spelling in them. Any children’s book can be used for this activity, but a fun one is called, “Here Comes the Garbage Barge!” by Jonah Winter.
0 Comments
by Shannon Albright Are you looking for a fun and engaging way to teach letter and sight word recognition skills? You should try a multi-sensory approach! Research has proven that young children are more likely to retain information when all of their senses are activated. Therefore, this hands-on approach integrates all of your senses while teaching early literacy skills. All you need is some sort of a tray or pan, and then you can choose what sensory resource you would like to use. Possible ideas include: rice, beans, sprinkles, slime, salt, shaving cream and more. Feel free to add food coloring to make it colorful, and even Kool-aid packets/cinnamon/etc. to make it smell yummy. After putting the materials in your tray, you are ready to get started. Your child can begin by writing his or her name, and you can provide visual supports and hand-over-hand cues as needed. If your child is not yet ready to write his/her name, that’s okay. This approach can be differentiated for children who are at different stages in their letter and word recognition abilities. For children who are learning letters, you can provide visuals of letters for them to copy on their writing tray. This can be adapted to whatever your child needs.
Have fun learning letters, words and other print concepts, and don’t be afraid to get messy! |
Archives
November 2020
Categories |