Sight Word and Letter Pounding

From I Can Teach My Child:

Here’s what you’ll need:  a piece of styrofoam, golf tees, a permanent marker, and a toy hammer.  

 1.  Begin writing letters or sight words (or even numbers & shapes) on your piece of styrofoam.  I chose to do capital and lowercase letters for Little Brother.  He didn’t recognize many of them but it was an opportunity for me to work with him at identifying these letters.

 2.  Gather your mallet/hammer and golf tees.  Set the styrofoam in front of your child.  Please note:  If your styrofoam isn’t very thick, I would recommend putting a foam placemat (or some type of protection) underneath.

 3.  Give your child the mallet/hammer and ask him/her to say each word (or letter) as they place the tee into the foam.

Psst…this is great for fine motor control as well!

Alphabet Class Book

Our Class Alphabet

1.          Cut construction paper in half.

2.          Use one half page for each child.

3.          On each page glue the photograph of an individual child.

4.          Under the picture print the first letter of the child’s name.

5.          Under the first letter print the child’s first name.

6.          Repeat for each child in the class.

7.          Arrange the pages in alphabetical order.  It is all right to have a number of children with the same first letter in their names.

8.          Determine which letters are missing.

9.          Use the magazine or toy catalog to find colored pictures of objects that start with the missing letters and make a page for each letter, so that each letter of the alphabet has at least one page with either a photograph of a child or a picture of an object that starts with that letter.

10.      Read the children their “Class Alphabet Book” during circle time.  Encourage the children to “read” the book aloud: “A is for Allison, B is for Bill, etc.”  Make the book available for them to look at during playtime.

Placemats

From: The Mailbox

Here's a simple way to reinforce skills during snacktime and lunch. Every month have each student make a placemat. Laminate the placemats and then use a permanent marker to program each placemat with letters, numbers, or personal information such as the child's address and phone number. Throughout mealtime, ask youngsters questions about the information on their placemats.

Make several placemats.  On each one, include a different skill: letter, numeral, color, or shape naming, patterning, student's name, sight words, objects of different sizes or lengths etc.  Before giving a student a placemat, instruct him/her to name the letter/numeral/color/shape, what comes next in the pattern, read the sight word, name the biggest/smallest or shortest/longest object etc.

Match Letters to Words (animals)

From: Pre-K Pages

Setting: Small Group, Literacy Centers

Objectives: Sight words or animal names

Materials: Carson Dellosa Barn notepad, Sharpie marker, lamination film, magnetic letters

Instructions: Write a different focus sight word on each page of the barn note pad with a Sharpie marker. Laminate the note pad pages for durability. Place a basket or tub of magnetic letters in the center of the table. Students will spell the sight words out on the mats with magnetic letters.