Scott Adcox

Doing More With Less Since 1972

Tag: Pre K (Page 2 of 2)

Odd One Out – Lesson Idea # 38

June 6, 2008 / / 0 Comments

This simple activity is great for helping your child develop discriminating skills as well as working on rhyming to improve phonemic awareness. You’ll need some picture cards or pictures cut out from a magazine.

  1. Put together some sets of picture cards (3 in each set) of things that rhyme and one that doesn’t belong. For example, you can have pictures of a bone, a phone, and a cat – or a tree, a ring, and a bee.
  2. Lay the pictures out for your child (1 set at a time) and tell them that they will have to tell you what the things in the pictures are and to find the one that doesn’t belong. Bonus points for them if they can tell you why the picture doesn’t belong!
  3. After they figure it out (or if they need help), tell them that you’re working on how the words sound and that the goal is to pick the two that rhyme. You can choose to tell them this before the activity if you want to or see if they can figure it out on their own. Do whichever you think would be most fun for your child!
  4. Repeat with the other sets of pictures.

ABC Nature Hike – Lesson Idea #37

June 5, 2008 / / 0 Comments

This is a great way to get your kids to reinforce their letter recognition while playing outside in the wonderful summer weather! You’ll need some letters (either paper, foam, magnetic, or other plastic letters) and a safe outdoor space (backyard, familiar trail, park, etc.)

  1. Take some letters and hide them around different areas of the outdoor space where your child can safely hunt for them. You can choose what letters to hide depending on what you want to work on with your child. For example, if you’re working on just one letter or reviewing a few, then just hide several of those letters. Or you can do the whole alphabet and have your child hunt for the letters in sequence – it’s up to you!
  2. Give your child a bag or basket to fill up with the letters they find. Be sure to tell them how many letters there are for them to find, so they know when to stop hunting! Go through their bag with them when they finish so they can tell you all about the letters they found.
  • This can be easily integrated with any unit study or special interests your child may have by being a little creative. Have fun and enjoy the weather!

Who Let The Letters Out (song)

May 21, 2008 / / 4 Comments

Ok, so clear your pipes and get ready to sing. Don’t worry if your voice isn’t that of a songbird, I promise you your kids won’t care. This is a fun song to sing that will reinforce the letter sounds and possibly get your kids (and you) dancing and moving around. It’s sung to the tune of ” Who Let The Dogs Out”. Now before you roll your eyes and say “no way”, give it a try. Kids love this!

If you’re looking for a CD that has this song on it, the only one I’ve been able to find is on Kiss Your Brain, available at Amazon.

[amzn_product_inline asin=’B000CMPWM2′]

  1. Here is the basic line of the original song: “Who let the dogs out…woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!”.
  2. Replace this with “Who let the A out… short /a/,/a/,/a/,/a/,/a/!”; “Who let the B out…/b/,/b/,/b/,/b/,/b/!”, and so on and so on with each letter of the alphabet.
  3. You can add clapping and stomping to this to work on rhythm and movement at the same time.
  • Take this opportunity to really emphasize the correct pronunciation of each letter sound. Try not to add the schwa sound (uh) after certain letters like b, g, k, m, etc. I know it’s easier to say /buh, /guh/, and /kuh/ – but it’s important that you keep the sounds as true as possible so that your child can learn the sounds correctly.
  • You can easily turn this into a phonics activity that reinforces letter-sound correspondence  by singing along with letter cards or by using an alphabet chart to point to the letters as you sing their sound.
  • Or if you want to take this activity outside and get your child really moving, you can draw the letters on the ground using sidewalk chalk and have your child jump from letter to letter as they sing each sound. It’s really funny when they make up little dances while they sing about the letter before jumping onto the next one!

Letter Inspector – Lesson Idea #24

May 13, 2008 / / 0 Comments

This is a fun pretend play game that reinforces letter recognition while getting your child active around the house or at the store. You’ll need a couple of pipe cleaners and a print rich environment (make sure there are lots of things with words around)

  1. To make an instant inspector – make a “magnifying glass” out of a pipe cleaner by twisting it into a loop shape that has a hole big enough to place over the hunted letters.
  2. Tell your child that you need their help in searching for as many (target letter) that they can find around. For example: You can lead by saying “I’m searching for the letter ‘b’”, while looking through your “magnifying glass” as you walk around. When you find one, you can say “Here’s a ‘b’!  Let’s see how many more you can find.”
  3. Have fun investigating throughout the place for as many letters as you can both find!

Extension ideas:

  • You can also incorporate some math in by having them keep track of how many target letters they can find.
  • You can use this as a review activity for several letters at once and keep track of how many of each letter is found. Incorporate math by having your child compare which letter was found more often, find how many more ‘f’s did you find than ‘b’s, etc. They can even make a graph!

I Spy – Lesson Idea # 20

May 9, 2008 / / 0 Comments

An oldie but a goodie. You can play this with the focus being on sounds or letters. This helps develop their ability to match sounds and/or letters with objects and reinforce their knowledge of word meanings. Play at home, in the car, at the store, at the mall, or anywhere!

  1. Pick some random object in your surroundings that begins with the sound or letter that you’d like to work on.
  2. Say “I spy with my little eye, something that begins with the sound/letter ____.”
    You can have your child repeat the rhyme when giving you the answer. Then they can even take a turn asking you to find an object!
  • Take this opportunity to discuss meanings of words they don’t know by choosing/pointing out objects they may not be familiar with.

Sound in A Sack – Lesson Idea #19

May 8, 2008 / / 0 Comments
  1. Get a sack or bag large enough to hold several items.
  2. Have your child search the house for things that begin with your target sound.
  3. Go through the items and talk about what they found to further develop their vocabulary and understanding of things around them: Does it match the target sound?, What’s this used for?, What color is it?, Who uses this?, Where does it go?, etc.
  • You can make this more challenging by changing the location of the target sound. Instead of finding things that begin with a certain sound, try having them find things that end with the sound – or have a certain vowel sound in the middle. They’ll have lots of fun hunting!
  • Extension activity: You can work on the comprehension skill, classifying and categorizing, by having your child sort the items into categories. For example: things that go in a drawer, things used to cook, things people wear, things we eat, etc. Or you can reverse it by assigning your child the categories and they must find items that match the category and the target sound.

On My Way… Lesson Idea #18

May 7, 2008 / / 0 Comments

A fun and educational way to spend some time…

  1. Tell your child that you will pretend to go somewhere (park, beach, store, etc.) and see lots of things that start with the letter /(target sound)/ sound.
  2. Practice words that start with the sound you are working with. For example: /p/ – porcupine, potato, pants, panda.
  3. Then you can start by saying or singing, “On my way to the store, I saw a panda, that starts with a /p/.”
  4. Then they can take a turn saying it once they get the hang of it. This game is great in the car, while you’re waiting for an appointment, or where ever. The sillier the answers the better!

Fill In The Rhyme – Lesson Idea #17

May 6, 2008 / / 0 Comments

1. Say these sentences, stressing the words that rhyme:

  • The cat wore a hat.
  • The ball rolled down the hall.
  • Your shoe is blue.

2. Now tell your child that they’ll have to finish your sentence with a word that rhymes. You can get as silly as you want just as long as the words rhyme. You’ll be amazed at some of the responses you get!
3. Sample sentences:

  • The hog chased the ________. (frog, dog)
  • Let’s look at a _________. (book)
  • The pig wore a _________. (wig)

Let’s Read It This Way – Lesson Idea #15

May 1, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Big books work well for this, but you can use any book with large print. Try to use a book that you’ve already read with your child and one that has a good amount of dialog in it.

  1. Tell your child that you’ll be reading xyz book, but that you’ll be hunting for different things this time. Write, or show them what an exclamation mark (!) and question mark (?) look like.
  2. Tell them that you’ll be hunting for these in the book and that they should let you know when they see one because you’re going to have to read it differently.
  3. Begin reading the book (maybe with less expression than you normally do) until your child lets you know that they’ve spotted one of the marks. Say “Oh, thanks – that’s an (!), that mark means that we have to read this sentence with a lot of expression. Listen to me first and then we’ll try it together.”
  4. Reread the sentence modeling good expression and then have them read it (or repeat after you if they can’t read yet) with you. Try to have them imitate you as much as possible so that they get into the habit of learning to change their voice when they see these marks.
  5. Do the same with question marks – Teach them that our voices sound different when we ask questions and that they should sound like that when we read questions too.
  • This is one of those easy activities that you can do to lay a strong foundation for good reading habits and fluency. It can be done whether your child can read or not because all they have to do is practice sounding like you (a good reader)!
  • Change this up for older kids (2nd grade and up) that need help with expression by skipping the “hunt” and just calling their attention to the marks when they read. Having them listen to you, reread it with you, and then again by themselves will give them the practice they need to improve their fluency.

Show Me How – Lesson Idea #14

May 1, 2008 / / 0 Comments

You’ll need a book that’s on the bigger side of normal and your “dunce cap” on for this one.

  1. Tell your child that you’re getting ready to read a book and get into a position where he/she can clearly see the book. Hold the book upside down and announce that you’re ready to begin. Hopefully your child will look at you funny and tell you that’s not how you hold a book.
  2. You (in total disbelief) ask him/ her “Why not?” – they give you an answer and you say “Oh, ok, I got it”. Then you fix it by holding the book sideways and telling them that now you’re ready. They’ll laugh and point at you and tell you you’re doing it all wrong!
  3. Do this a couple of times in different ways until you “give up” and say “Ok, show me how to read this book the right way”. See if you can get them to explain to you why it should be read that way. You’re looking for them to tell you things like: the front cover needs to be right side up, the title should be on top, we can’t read upside down, you need to open the book up this way, we need to turn the pages in this direction, the pictures can’t be upside down, the words can’t be upside down, etc. If you need to, point these things out to your child.
  • This simple pretend play can be very beneficial in helping your child understand the concepts of print. Kids love to be right and they’ll have fun telling you that you’re wrong! Don’t we all?

Rhyme Toss – Lesson Idea #13

April 28, 2008 / / 0 Comments

You can play this with 2 or more people, but the more the better. So get some friends, siblings, or dad involved and have fun!

  1. Sit or stand with players in a circle and have something ready to toss (bean bag, ball, etc.)
  2. Say a word like “cat”, and toss the bag to the next person who has to say a word that rhymes like “hat”, then toss to the next person and so on. Switch to a new word when players run out.
  3. Sample word lists you can use: (ball, wall, tall, hall, mall, call, fall, all); ( blue, shoe, two, new, who, boo, flew, drew, etc.); (pit, bit, hit, fit, lit, mitt, sit, kit), etc.
  • You can make this more challenging for older kids by making the words harder. Sample words: (plate, eight, freight, berate, date, mate, bait, gate, hate, etc.).

Missing Letters – Lesson Idea #8

April 28, 2008 / / 0 Comments
  1. Lay out some alphabet cards in a row from A-Z. Remove a letter (random or your target letter) and be sure to leave the empty space where the letter goes.
  2. Have your child start pointing to and naming (or singing) each letter. When they get to the missing letter, ask “What letter is missing?”
  3. After they guess correctly, you can repeat with different letters.
  • What makes this really fun for them is when you get silly and “play dumb” like you really don’t have a clue. It cracks them up!

Alphabet Cereal Game – Lesson Idea #4

April 23, 2008 / / 0 Comments

You’ll need some alphabet cereal and a simple grid that has the letters of the alphabet separated into individual boxes.

  1. Give your child the grid and a cup of alphabet cereal.
  2. Have them sort the cereal by putting the cereal letters into the letter box on the grid that matches.
  3. Let your child eat the letters when done!
  • This is an excellent hands-on activity that teaches and reinforces letter recognition. It makes a yummy treat too!
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