Valentines Special

Yes its valentines, a day we show love and affection to those dear to our hearts. I do understand that some people do not believe in Valentines; however this does not negate the celebration. If you do have young ones at home, here are a few things you could engage them with to celebrate this occasion.

Craft….for the artistic Mums and Dads, why not make cards together, let them write about their feelings. The spelling doesn’t have to be necessarily right, what matters is the thought it conveys.

Cooking……food is a great way to the heart. You and your little one can bake delicious cookies and cakes just for the fun of it. This is also a great way to enjoy quality time together and as for the parents that do not like/enjoy arts, it is a good alternative.

 

Have a fun celebration!!!

Letter sound formation

As we progress, we shall be discussing letters; how to form them, easy and fun activities to do to help the children remember the letters. Allow me to give us some tips on how to form the letters

Letter Formation Tips

1) Shapes and patterns before letters and numbers! If your child has not yet mastered drawing shapes and patterns, then work on these first before attempting numbers and letters.

Tracing and drawing shapes and patterns will help your child master the diagonals and curves necessary for letter formations

2) The order of mastery is to first trace the letters, then to copy them, then to write them with a starting point cue, then to write them completely independently without cues.

If your child can not yet copy a letter with the correct formation, then write the letter and have your child trace it. You may even find it helpful to guide your child’s hand as they trace the letter as in the picture above).

3) Start with the letters of your child’s name. So often, preschoolers learn to write their name by copying it any old how – and poor letter formation habits become deeply entrenched. Help your preschooler master the letters of their name correctly, and you will have laid a good foundation for learning the other letters.

4) Teach letters in families. Similarly formed letters can be taught together – for example c, d, o. Make use of a good handwriting program such as Handwriting Heroes  or Handwriting Without Tears. 

5)  Make sure your child starts the letter or number in the correct place, and that he/she forms it correctly. Some kids are very good at getting their letter to LOOK correct, but their strokes were perhaps bottom to top, or right to left – so pay careful attention to HOW your child forms the letter, not just what it looks like at the end!

6) Use a multisensory approach. As well as the fun ideas, try stories about each letter, rhymes or songs that will help your child remember where to start and stop each letter.

7) Do letter formations as part of a gross motor activity. For example, have your child crawl, hop or jump to each letter and trace it, whether on a floor, a table or a wall.

Now that we have our tips, let’s learn simple ways to form our letters

N.B   we shall be starting with lower case letters

s……slither down the snake

a………..around the apple, down a leaf

t…………down the tower, across the tower

p………..down the pirates plate and around his face

i……….down the body and dot for the head

n………down Nobby and over his head

Here’s how far we shall be going for our first set of letters. Special valentines treat coming up on Thursday!!!!!

Understanding the World (Pt 2)

In continuation of our scope (UW), we shall be progressing with activities to teach Parts of the body……..

Teaching body parts like “arm” and “hair” is very common in young learner classrooms, and justifiably so because:

• Conversations about body parts (“I bumped my head”, “Ha ha ha, I can see your belly button!”, etc) are very common in everyday life for young and (especially) very young learners
• That kind of language is also needed for classroom instructions like “Put your hands on your head” and “Put up your right hands if… and your left hands if…”
• There are many good games, books and songs for teaching body parts

Some of those great activities are described below (check previous post for 1-3);

4. Use Visual Aids

The visual perception of kids is the highest and they glean a lot of information from what they see. Use large posters of a human body or even cartoons and use those to tell him about different parts of the human body. As your child grows up, you can make the activity even more interactive. Get a large paper and draw the outline of a human body on it. Let your toddler then draw eyes in the right place, fingers on the hand, and so on.

5. Riddle Me This

You don’t learn much the first time as much as you learn when you need to recall it. Do the same with your kids as well and engage them in simple activities where you ask them questions related to their body parts. Simple things such as “wipe your nose” accompanied by your act of wiping your own nose, can help him understand what needs to be done.

6. Bring on the Music

If nothing else helps, memorisation and repetition can break the barrier that’s holding your kid back from understanding body parts. If your kid likes a particular nursery rhyme or any popular song, replace the words with parts of the body and dance to the rhythm while pointing at those body parts and saying the words out loud in the tune of the song. You don’t need to be a lyricist to make it sound good. The aim is to use the tune as a tool of memorisation and recall of various actions and body parts.

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Understanding the World (Body parts)

As we all are aware, juiceboxesandcrayone is an all-around educational blog. In view of this, we shall be reviewing another aspect of our 6 fold key learning area which is Understanding the World (UW). Let’s start with the basics which is “Me and My Environment” with the subtopic “My Body”.

The best tip for teaching young learners body parts is lots of action songs where they sing and touch or move the body parts they mention. Traditional songs with body parts vocab include:

• Head Shoulders Knees and Toes (+ eyes, ears, mouth and nose)
• Hokey Cokey (left/ right + arm and leg)
• One Little Finger (+ lap or any body parts you get students to place their fingers on)
• If You’re Happy and You Know It (hands, feet and head)
• The Pinocchio (left/ right + arm and leg)
• One Finger One Thumb (+ arm, leg and head)
• One Two Three Four Five Touch Your Head Along with Me (+ hands and feet)

In the classroom you could attempt these fun activities;

1. Refer to Animals

Sometimes, kids may not respond to addressing their own body parts or somebody else’s due to repetition. You can opt for using animal soft toys or images and point out that even they have legs and eyes and noses. You can start showing the difference between some animals having a tail but not us. If you have a pet in the house, then nothing like it.

2. Make Use of Props

Give your child a small toy which he can use to point at. So when you say nose, ask him to point at his nose in the mirror or your nose. This can also be combined with a game using stickers. Give him a sticker and ask him to put it on your hand and see if he can do it the right way.

3. Describe Various Functions

Children learn a lot from first-hand examples. Make use of sensory perceptions to help them understand it better. Close your baby’s eyes and say out loud “eyes closed”, “eyes open” and so on. This will help them associate the act of seeing with eyes. Same can be repeated for other senses, especially for the nose, which can help him smell and identify different aromas.

Learning to read (Activities to do using phonics)

Phonics activities can be educational and fun at the same time. Get your kids excited learning about phonics with fun phonics challenges that teach and inspire them at the same time.

Here are 7 fun phonics activities that help your kids learn to read;

1 Hunt for Letters:  Who knew learning phonics could be so much fun? Turn old magazines and catalogues into phonics activities that develop your child's comprehension even further. Pick a letter and spot everything in the catalogue that has the same phonetic sound.

Grab the scissors and cut those items out of the pages. Together you'll make a customized flash card as you learn the letter and its sound.

2. Teach Phonics Through Picture-Taking: Tap into his creative mind when you hand him a camera and send him on a phonics adventure. Help him spot objects that navigate him from A to Z through photos. He can snap pictures of everything from an anthill to a Zamboni.

The lesson continues at home when your child makes his own alphabet book with his pictures. The activity never gets old and can be used to capture a field trip, vacation or regular day with mom or dad through his eyes.

3. Spell Phonetically as He Writes: Help him practice writing skills as you spell words for him phonetically. Once he knows the phonetic sounds of the alphabet (aah, buh, cuh, etc.), he'll be able to spell and comprehend all of those words he sees in his storybooks.

Get him a notebook and help him create lists that cover everything from his favourite toys to games he likes to play. Sound out every letter so he can write the word himself. For example, if he likes cars, sound out cuh so he'll write the letter C, then aah for the letter A and so on.

4. Play Alphabet Ball: Burn some of your child's endless supply of energy. Play phonics activities that teach him letters, letter sounds and words. Alphabet ball is a multifaceted game that grows with him and can be adapted to fit a variety of school subjects.

There are three levels of play—one for toddlers, one for preschoolers and one for school-age children. To get started all you need are a ball, marker and a child who loves to play.

5. Use Worksheets: Print free worksheets from your computer to work with him on each letter and its sound. This is one of the most basic phonics activities your child can do and it's easy to get started. As he becomes more confident with letters, this phonics activity will give you a mini-break because he can sit close by while you're cooking dinner or folding laundry. Since you'll be an arm's reach away, you can ask him questions about the letter as you finish up your household chores.

6. Read Phonics Books: Dig right into phonics books to give him a head start in reading comprehension. Many phonics programs include books that are written specifically for beginning readers. Sit down for some one-on-one time to tackle letter sounds and sight words. You can make reading fun for him, which will make him look forward to sitting down with a good book in the future.

He'll feel a sense of pride and accomplishment as he flips the pages and learns to read each word. He'll become eager to get his hands on even more books, which is a habit that will encourage a lifelong love of reading.

7. Watch Phonics DVDs: He can learn even when you don't feel like playing phonics activities right along with him. His noggin can still get a workout with some of the top phonics DVDs available on the market today.

Watch the programs with him and talk about them later to test his memory recall. Engaging him in a conversation about what he watched helps reinforce what he saw and includes you in the phonics activity, even though your DVD player helped lend a hand in the teaching department.

Learning to read (Reading with phonics sounds)

So what is phonics, and why is it so important?

Phonics means using letter sounds to help you read words. It is using the sounds made by individual letters and groups of letters to read words.

Phonics teaches children to read by identifying and pronouncing sounds rather than letters through a structured approach, they are taught how to:

• recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes;
• identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make – such as ‘ie’, ‘sh’ or ‘oo’; and
• blend those sounds together from left to right to make a word.

Children can then use this knowledge to ‘decode’ new words that they see or hear. This is the first important step in learning to read. 

The cornerstone of learning to read effectively is learning the letter sounds and acquiring the innate ability to automatically decode and recognise words. However, for a young child or a beginner reader, this is not such a simple process. This is something that requires repeated exposure and practice such that the word decoding process becomes an instant, automatic process. Somebody who is a fluent reader does not put much thought into how much neural effort is required to read and comprehend, especially for new learners.

What will your child be learning, and how can you help?

This section below will offer advice and guide on what children typically learn in preschool, with some ideas for helping them if they get stuck.

 BASELINE: Keep it easy and fun!

Remember the aim of phonics is to get your child reading as quickly and easily as possible, so that they are free to read whatever they like! It’s meant to be fun – and no one wants reading to turn into a chore. So, whatever stage of their school life your child is at, don’t forget:

• Keep phonics sessions short and focused. Aim to stop before your child gets bored! Ten minutes is often long enough.

• Pick a time when your child’s not too tired, and find a quiet place where they won’t be distracted by screens (or by noisy brothers or sisters!).

• Even when your child is becoming a good independent reader, keep on reading to them! Stories and high-quality non-fiction are important – and so is the cuddly quiet time you spend together sharing them!

• If you’re ever concerned about your child’s reading, talk to their teacher. Tell the teacher what you’ve noticed and ask for their advice. This is often very reassuring and it can be a great source of new ideas for supporting your child

FUN FACT

Did you know our language has 26 letters but there are 42 sounds to learn?!

I shall be sharing fun activities to teach phonics on my next post.

Learning to read (5 Activities to introduce letter names)

1. Sing Songs

Singing the alphabet song to your child introduces the letters to them in a fun way. Start singing to them as a baby and as they get older, have them start singing along (which they probably will do naturally!).

2. Read Alphabet Books

Read all sorts of alphabet books to your children, even starting as babies. The repetition will really help your child learn the alphabet at a young age.

3. Sandpaper Letters

Using sandpaper letters is a great way to introduce letters to children. You could use Didax Sandpaper Tracing Letters or School supply Tactile Letters Kit.  This is a perfect prewriting activity because children use their finger to trace the sandpaper letters. I love that the cards tell the child where to start and which direction to go.

Sandpaper letters are part of the Montessori approach to learning how to read. These letters provide a tactile and visual way to help children learn the alphabet. In the Montessori Method, you teach letters to a child in the 3-period lesson.

1^st period is introducing the letter (“this is” period). Show your child the letters. Have them trace the sandpaper letters. The best way to teach children alphabet letters is by telling them their phonetic sound.  So each time they trace the letter, say the phonetic sound.

2^nd period is association (“show me” stage).  Ask your child to follow simple directions with the letters. For example, please pick up the /m/ and set it by the window. Continue to do this with each letter several times to reinforce this. If it is too difficult, return to the first period.

3^rd period is recall (“what is this?” period). Only go to this period when they’ve mastered the other two periods.  Put a letter in front of the child and say “Can you trace this and tell me what it is?” Continue with the other letters in the same way.

When you use these sandpaper letters, you are teaching them 3 things: the shape of letters, the feel of its shape and how it’s written, and how you pronounce its sound.

4. Alphabet Puzzles

I think teaching letters with alphabet puzzles are an amazing tool for teaching the alphabet. There are beautiful wooden puzzle with neat pictures. This is a great way to practice vocabulary and verbal skills, too.

5. Learn with Alphabet Rhymes

This is my favourite way to teach little ones how to write alphabet letters. Alphabet rhymes are a fun way to help children learn how to write the letters in proper formation. Plus the clever rhymes will help children remember the formations!