Word Family book and more

I'm back!  Did you miss me?  I've created a new kit for Teachers Pay Teachers.  This past school year I tutored at Blake's school two days a week.  Many of the students I tutored needed help seeing word patterns.  A great way to do this is teach word families.     

Word Family Book and More

I created a word family book for you to use in your class. Each child can create their own word family

book. Each page focuses on one word family (_ack, _ap, _at, _eep, _en, _et, _in, _ing, _ock, _og, _ool,

and _ug). I left the sheets open enough that you could either have the children draw pictures and/or

write the words for the word family.

For each word family you will also find a worksheet to go with each word family.

I created a web map for the _ap, _et, _ing, _ock and _ug families. I gave them a word and picture in the

middle of the web. The children then need to write and illustrate six other words that go into the

family.

For _at, _en, _in and _og you will find a fill in sheet. The children are given a picture that goes with the

word family. They then have a word box with the ending filled in, and they have to provide the

beginning sound. They then have to write the whole word on the line.

The _ack family sheet is Jack and the Beanstalk. The children need to cut out pictures and match them

to the words on the beanstalk.

For _eep they have a word box filled with _eep words. Below they have a set of jeeps to write the

words.

The _ell family sheet is a well. In the top of the well is a word bank. On the bricks at the bottom you will find pictures from the _ell family. The children need to write the word next to the correct picture.

For the _ool family, the children need to cut out the pictures to put into the correct tool box.

Below you will find a few sample pages that are available in the free sample kit.  The whole kit which is 30 pages is on sale for $7.

Meeting Time meet Journal Time

As a kindergarten teacher two times of my day were very important in the learning process, meeting time and journal time.

If you call it meeting time, calendar time or circle time it doesn't matter, we are teachers recognize the importance of the learning that takes place at this time in the day. It is jam packed with math, literacy and real world learning experiences.

This is what my meeting time looked like: *Review the question of the day *Read morning message *Review days of the week (today is, yesterday was, tomorrow will be) *Calendar (month, date, year as well as pattern on the calendar pieces) *Weather graph *Days in school (180 chart, 180 number line on adding machine tape [this is a great visual of how longggg you've been in school]) *Review days schedule *Story time *Songs *Introduce learning stations

One thing I always felt was that the students needed a more hands on approach to meeting time. They get to participate, but wouldn't it be even better if they had their own calendar, weather chart, and days in school chart? I think so! My students kept their writing journals in three ring binders... so why not add the calendar and weather chart to their journals to divide the journal into months? You could copy the calendar and weather graph back to back on colored paper and use it as the divider? They would then have it for when they write the date on their journal page too. You can also copy the weather graph for your meeting area so the students can see it every day. Each month hang the used graphs for the student to see so they can compare the weather month by month and see the changes in the seasons.

I would copy the 180 chart and put it in the front of the journal too. If you have a poster maker, you can copy this chart as a poster and laminate it. I always did this and then used sharpies to write on it. If you then clean it as the end of the year with rubbing alcohol you can use it for a few years before you'll need a new one.

Another great teaching tool is the word wall. It is the place to have all those key words which you expect your students to know how to spell and use in their writing. So, why not put a word wall right in their journal? As the year goes on each child would then have the words you expect them to spell correctly in their journals, in their journal.

Since I taught kindergarten the journal changed through the year as the children's writing improved. I provided three styles of journal pages for your students. The first only has a space for the date. The second has just straight lines and the third has dotted lines.

Check out my Meeting Time meets Journal Time kit on Teachers Pay Teachers if you want the blank calendar, 2 versions of the weather graph, 180 chart, word wall pages, and the three journal pages.

And, here are 3 posters that you can print out with the weather words.

If you use this with your class, let me know what you think!

Easy Reader book reports

There are so many easy readers out on the market today. One nice thing with them is they are written on varied levels. You can find book simple enough for a beginning reader and ones that have longer paragraphs and even chapters. The other really good thing is they cover a wide range of topics. This is a great way to introduce your child to non-fiction books.

One thing that I did as a kindergarten teacher was to send home these leveled readers to my students who were reading. I would send home an easy reader and book report in a gallon size zip lock bag and have them return them a week later.

On Teachers Pay Teachers, I have posted 7 sample book reports for you to buy. I also enclosed a sample parent letter. This is one of those reports. You can get 2 if you download my free sample then the other 5 if you buy the kit for $2.00.

Do you know your phone number?

Last night at basketball practice one of the families was running late. I thought it was odd, but I knew that the little girl's older brother had flag football practice first so I thought maybe that ran late. When they got there the mother told me the story of why they were late. We will call the mother C for the sake of the story.

As they were leaving the football field, C heard a little boy crying hysterically. She couldn't leave him there, so she walked over to ask what was wrong. Well it turned out that his parents had come to practice in two cars and both had left... without him.

Well C then proceeded to ask him if he knew his phone number. Nope he didn't. She then asked if he knew his address and he did. So luckily C thought to do a reverse phone look-up and found the phone number and called them. She got hold of the father who was home and told him that the boy was left at the field. He told C that the boys mother would be there soon to pick him up.

As C is telling me this story I realized that this family lives in my neighborhood and I knew exactly who they were. Even more frustrating to me was the father was closer than the mother since she was at a store when the father called. But, that's not the point of this post.

C then proceeded to ask both of her children 6 and 4 if they knew their phone number and address and realized that they didn't. Her 6 year old knew the street, but not the house number. When she asked him what he would tell someone if he couldn't find her, he said he wouldn't talk to a stranger.

Now, while I can't fathom leaving my sons anywhere... but, it could happen and there are other reasons for them to know this information. I know that Blake knows the address and the house's phone number because they work on it at school. I need to work on teaching him my cell phone number. I also really need to work on these skills with Colby.

One thing that baffles me about FL is how the number their houses. In MA the first house on the street is 1 and on the other side is 2. I lived at #10 and next to me was 8 and 12 and across the street was 11. Not so much here. We are the second street on the house and have a 5 digit house number. So my boys need to learn a 10 digit phone number, or 3 if I teach them the house and both of our cell numbers and an address with a 5 digit number. That is a lot of information for then to memorize and not use on a regular basis. Oh well... time to work on these important life skills!

What's the next number?

As a teacher, I realized that experiential learning was the best and most effective learning method for most children. While everyone learns in different ways (auditory, visual, kinesthetic or a combination of those), when you live the learning, you own the learning. I tried to provide my classes as many real life experiences as possible.

This is one area the most stay-at-home moms are good at providing for their children. I found that many children who were in daycare settings missed what we called "mom skills". They often didn't have someone sit with them on their lap and point to words while reading. They often didn't have someone bring them into the kitchen and teach kitchen math skills. They often didn't see people reading to read and writing to write. But, I digress... this isn't a post against daycare, those children develop a whole other set of skills that children of stay-at-home families don't always develop.

There is one more factor that is often overlooked for at home learning. That is the learning between siblings. Often the younger children are exposed to many skills because they observe their older siblings practicing these skills. Or the skill comes up in play and they learn it through the play experience.

Blake has known how to count pass 100 for months now. Today at lunch he and Colby were discussing birthdays. They decided to figure out how old Abby would be on her next birthday. This meant starting with 11, her age and going up one. They figured that out quickly then kept going back and forth counting. Blake had the even numbers and Colby the odd ones. This worked out well because Blake had to figure out the transition of the 10s, and Colby worked on the pattern of adding on from there. They counted from 11-110 with little help from me or each other. Colby got confused a few times and Blake helped him out. So in essence Blake taught Colby to count beyond 29 which is where he can count on his own.

So in this interchange of maybe 3 minutes they worked on: counting up (basic counting), counting on (counting starting at a point other than 0 or 1), number patterns (saying the odd and even numbers, change of 10s place), listening to numbers, counting to 100 and beyond, and many other higher level math skills.

These interactions are great learning experiences and will help them with their future math skills.

Inventive Spelling (post 2 of 2)

I talked about the stages of writing yesterday. Many parents see inventive or phonetic spelling and think their child is doing it wrong. They want to correct what their child has written, but this is not the right approach.

When your child begins drawing pictures we all gush over the pictures even if they look like nothing. For some reason we understand the process of drawing progresses from scribbles to actual drawings. We do not feel the need to tell a child they are drawing a picture wrong. Well the process of writing is the same thing. Children have a natural progression of steps to learning to write. They goal is conventional spelling, but going through the steps will help your child gain confidence as a writer.

When your child writes something ask him/her to read it to you. I always say "you wrote it, you read it". I'm not saying there is never a time to spell a word for your child, I spell it when they are writing to others. If they are writing for homework, on a picture, or just for fun I do not spell for my sons (or the children I taught). I will help them stretch out the word to hear the sounds. This means saying the word slowly but still stuck together as a word. Focus on the consonants and do not correct them if they skip any. The process is on what they hear.

When I taught children to slowly sound out words I told them to pretend they are pulling an elastic. They pull it out slowly then "snap" it back together. Remember to always say the word slowly then again correctly. (tttabbbblll, table)

A great way to work on this is to help your child sound out words without writing. We do it a lot in the car. With Colby I focus on the beginning sound, what does the word dinosaur begin with? Blake does it all with writing now. He is able to sound out the words himself, with some help from time to time.

When children insist in spelling it correctly it means they've either been corrected too many times or are afraid of spelling it incorrectly. Once they've mastered spelling phonetically and begin to read more fluently they will begin to want to spell it as it is in books and can either find the word to copy, or will begin to develop their written vocabulary. The first step of this is teaching children to spell sight words, but this typically does not happen until kindergarten.

When you work on writing for the writing process you should not focus on the process of penmanship. This needs to be addressed at a different time. The process of learning to write neatly (don't get me started on correct form and doing it by the book, that's a different post), should be separate from learning to get your thoughts down on paper. When children write their brains work a lot faster than their hands so they will most likely not write as neatly as if they were copying text for penmanship practice. At this stage in life it is two very different skills. You should also not panic about letters written backwards, upside down or incorrectly in other ways as this too is developmental. (Dyslexia can not be diagnosed until second grade) If you want your child to write their sentence neatly, have them do it as an edit. We teach children to go back and read their work and edit it if necessary. You could have them go back read it and edit for error and then copy it over neatly for "publishing".

Any child can write. You just have to help him/her to see that their functional writing is acceptable. So next time you do a coloring project with your child, encourage him/her to write about what they drew and then read it to you. You will be surprised to see how proud they are of their own work.

Inventive Spelling (post 1 of 2)

I haven't posted a how to help your child post in a while. My last few focused on reading, but just as important as reading to learn to read is learning to write.

Children go through functional levels of writing.
The first time you see your child write most likely you will see a bunch of scribble lines. This is the first step in seeing that writing is connected to words.

Then you will often see your child make shapes or letter approximations. This shows they they understand that symbols have meaning.

Then next step you will often see is random letter that have little to no connection to the picture. This show that your child has learned that letters are connected to words.

The next you will see them string random letters together. This show that they are understanding that there size and spacing of words.

The next step typically is to go back to single letters, but this time the letter should be in the word they are "writing". As teachers we encourage the beginning sound, but when they do it on their own some children write the ending sound. This shows that your child understands that the sounds they are saying in the word is connected to the letters they are writing. In this step they typically just label the picture.

The next step is to string together the phonetic sounds they hear in words. For example if your child is writing the word table they would write it as "tbl". Children will typically add the ending sound then begin to hear the middle sounds. Vowels are usually absent unless they are the beginning sound. They also typically continue to just label the pictures at this stage.

The next step, which has to be encouraged a bit, is to begin writing in sentences. They typically squish all the words together and have to be shown how to add spaces between the words. But this is the big step into transitioning to conventional print.


Tomorrow I will continue with this post by showing you how you can help your child progress through the stages. So next time you see your child writing random letters, realize they are writing.

"I can't read"

As a teacher, I always had children tell me "I can't read". Now at 5 many children understand that the reading of words is the actual act of reading, but they don't have to believe they can't read. I always told children that if they can tell the story by the picture that they can read "like a kindergartner".

The other day I asked Colby if he wanted to help me read his book and he told me that he can't read. I went on to show him that he can read. Colby has a lot of books memorized, now yes this is not "reading" but it is a true understanding of book knowledge. If your child can recite books and know what words go on what pages they are on the path to learning to read. They will soon begin to realize that what they are saying matches the text on the page. When I read these books to him (the easier less words ones) I will text match while I'm reading. This is the simple task of pointing to the words while I'm reading.

The next step is to read the first part of the sentence and have your child finish your thought. Most kids will naturally do this on books they have memorized if you stop reading. When your child is reading continue to point to the words as he/she says them. This will help them learn to follow text while reading as well as see that the words they are saying is connected to the text on the page.

Another great way to show children that they can already read it to point out "environmental print" that your child knows how to read. Environmental print is words that your child sees within his/her environment. Can your child read the name of his/her favorite cereal or snack? Does he/she recognize the names of stores you visit often? Can he/she read a stop sign? These are all beginning stages of reading. When I had struggling readers I often made them books of these types of labels so they had at least one story that they could read on their own. When you are done with a box, cut the name off and glue it on sheet of construction paper, you can group words into categories and put the name of the category on the top of the sheet this will introduce yet one more word to their visual vocabulary.

The next time your child tells you that he/she can not read, don't agree with them... prove them wrong!

learning at all times

People often ask me what I do to teach my sons. My usual answer is "nothing, I don't teach my sons". Yes, now the do workbooks every day, but that really is more of a review. Blake is learning a few new skills through them, but it is stuff he has already taught himself in a lot of ways.

But, the thing I don't always say is there are so many moment in the day that can be turned into a learning moment. I'm always talking to the boys about letters, numbers, colors, shapes, science concepts and so much more.

If you stop and think about your day, there is so much learning that can easily be incorporated into what you do. If your child asks for something to eat, have him tell you what the food is and what sound it begins with. We often then jump off to other words that begin with the same sound. Colby: "Mommy can I have popcorn please" "Sure, what sound does popcorn begin with?" "/p/" That's right, what else starts with the /p/ sound?"

When playing with toys, have them count the object they have decided to play with. If you take away 1 how many do you have now? If you got one more how many would you have?

If your child draws a picture, ask him to describe the picture to you. Then write what he says on the page. Then read it back to him. This allows him to see that his words and the words on the page match.

As I've said many times, getting kids into the kitchen is a great way to teach math and science concepts too.

I do most of these things without even thinking about it now. Try to get in the habit of making every situation one where some learning can occur.

Process vs. Product

So often as adults we are afraid to try art projects. We worry that the outcome will not look like the vision in our heads. We look at what the "masters" are capable of and realize that our best is a fraction of their worst.

This often deters parents from doing projects with their children. They are afraid of creating something that is "sub par". Guess what?? Kids don't care!

When children do art, or for the most part anything, it isn't the end product that makes them happy it is the process of doing. Don't believe me? Hand children a car and some paint and let them paint with the car. They will LOVE it. Will it look like anything... nope! It just looks like lines on a paper, but I bet your child will have a blast doing it.

When children think of art project they think about the process of doing the art. When I was a kindergarten teacher I almost NEVER showed the children a sample art project. Why you ask. Because, when you show a sample many children feel that they HAVE to make it exactly the way you made it, colors and all. Where as if you do not show a sample they will enjoy the process and make the project their own.

I do often do project where the shapes are already cut out (or in school where they children had to copy and cut from a template). But other than that the rest is on their own. I recently made suns with my sons. I gave them a circle, orange and yellow rays and glue. They could make it however they wanted. Blake's sun had 6 orange rays and 2 yellow ones going around the sun. He then drew a face on his. Colby had 3 orange and 3 yellow going every which way. He too drew his interpretation of a face. Did they look the same...nope! Now if I'd made a sample sun both boys would probably have had a pattern of yellow and orange rays going around the circle with a sun face. They would not have had fun trying to decide how they wanted their suns to look.

Next time you do a project with your children, make it open ended. Put out the supplies and see what happens. Even if you give a suggestion of what they could make, don't tell them how to make it. You might just be surprised at the results!

Oh and don't forget to sit down with them from time to time and just have fun yourself. It doesn't matter what the product is, just enjoy the process.

Seat of my pants

When you are learning to be a teacher, they tell you that the best lessons are thought out thoroughly. You needed to decide what skills you were going go focus upon, how it integrates into your students prior knowledge and how to increase upon that knowledge base. Is this a lesson that introduces a new skill, practices a known skill or remediation for a skill that many are struggling with. The best lessons have modifications up for more advanced students and remediation for struggling students.

Are you bored yet? I sure was! As a kindergarten teacher, I found that my best lessons were taught "off the seat of my pants". They were lessons that I thought about on my drive to work. Or while setting up a totally different lesson. They were ones that came out of something a child mentioned that day or the day before.

When I taught kindergarten, I always taught monthly themes and utilized the themes to teach all the core learning needed, while teaching higher level concepts. Don't get me wrong I had a set curriculum that had to be taught. There were skills that ever child had to master. It's the how you get there that I tweaked each year.

With my sons' new schedule we now have project time once a day. This week we worked on using air through straws. (I'll share the projects with pictures on Friday) I allowed them to push this activity where they wanted it to go, while still having in mind some simple facts I wanted them to learn.

Often parents say to me "but you're a teacher you know what to do to help them learn." You are their parent, you know what they WANT to learn. When they get to school they will have enough activities that are not geared specifically towards what they like, why not focus on their likes at home and go from there. Make things fun. See where they go with the activity. Nothing says that every activity has to be a lesson and/or that it has to go according to plan. Some of the best lessons learned happen by mistake.

--Do you do projects with your children? Why not try a simple project together today? You might be surprised how much fun you have together.

Let me tell you a story

I recently decided to bring out all my books on tape for the boys. I actually have a tape player in my car... which is sort of shocking since it is only a 5 year old car. I started by playing them on our drives. The boys LOVED this. My parents then bought Colby a new radio for the playroom with a tape deck. This has brought both boys loads of joy. They get so excited putting in a new story, but even more excited about putting in a story they've heard over and over.

At this time I do not have the books out with the tapes. I have done this for a variety of reasons. I didn't take the books out for the car because I didn't want them fighting over who got the book. I haven't brought them into the playroom because... well there are too many of them to pull them all out. I have been choosing a few of their favorites to put in the pile for bedtime books.

Blake has blown my mind lately with his ability to recall these stories. He can recite many of them with and without the books. He even tells you the author and what noise you hear for the page turns... hahaha!

The other night I heard Blake reciting Caps for Sale as he settled himself down for bed.

Colby has also learned many of these stories. He knows bits and pieces of each one and exactly where his favorite lines are said in the story.

But, the thing that really peeked my interest was the fact that the other day while they were playing in the playroom Blake was using imaginative play. Now you might say... what's unusual about that... nothing. Butttt, while he was playing he was talking in the way that a book is written. "Oh no Thomas is stuck. 'I'll help you' said Percy." Yes... that is a direct quote from Blake. And no it is not a quote from a story he heard. This went on for a good 10 minutes different scenarios, but still written in book style... hmmm maybe he will be an author when he grows up??

Proud Momma!

When Blake was beginning to focus on clearing up his speech issues we started by focusing on the letter sounds in isolation. The teacher in me said that the best way to do this was to teach him this in a way that would help him later with reading. At the time, he already knew most of the letters names by sight so I decided to teach him the sign for each letter. We focused on correctly articulating the letter sound when I showed him the sign. We then began adding a word that began with that sound. Blake learned this quickly and has been fascinated with letters and sounds since.

In the last few weeks he has really be focusing on seeing words and trying to sounds them out. He says each letter sound and tries hard to figure out what it says. Sadly our language makes this hard unless you are looking at simple words, but it doesn't stop him from trying!

Last night the boys and I got out markers and paper and decided to draw some pictures. I was drawing a picture of a flower and Blake asked to help. He colored in some of the petals and I was actually surprised at how well he did at coloring in the lines (ok almost in the lines). Blake doesn't color very often so I didn't know he was working on mastering that skill all on his own. When we were done I asked him what flower started with. He then told me "F says /f/ for flower". He then wrote the F on the paper. I asked him what other sounds do you hear... he told me /a/ and /r/ that is the word you see at the top of the picture. He then spelled and wrote "Mommy" (I helped him write the lower case "m"'s and the "y").

Blake then decided to draw a picture of his own. He decided to draw a picture of Henry, from Thomas the Tank Engine. He told me that the wheels were circles and that the body was like a rectangle. He then went on to add the smoke stack, whistle and face. He asked me to help him write Henry. I decided to see how much he could do on his own so I just said the word slowly, the same way I would when teaching my kindergartners to use inventive spelling. The word at the top of his paper is "Hnre". He then decided to write Thomas at the bottom and as you can see with the exception of the "h" he got the whole word.

I can honestly say I was very proud and a bit surprised. I knew he knew his letter sounds but I had kindergartners who struggled with this concept. I am continually amazed at what he can do and the fact that he does this because he wants to not because I'm forcing him to do school things.

learning process

As a kindergarten teacher, I always viewed myself as a facilitator of learning more than a teacher. I felt that my job was to set up a positive environment for the children to learn. When I was allowed to teach my way, I would teach utilizing a theme based curriculum. This means I would teach the theme and the skills where developed through the activities based on the theme. I would choose one theme a month and incorporate the holidays and necessary skills into the theme I was teaching that month. This also allowed me to make modifications based on what was going on in the world (Olympics, elections and that kind of things) as well as the interests of the students in my classes.

I enjoy watching children learn in their own way in their own time. I know that a lot of parents set time aside each day to "teach" their children. They focus on specific skills that they expect their children to master within a given time frame. I do not do this with my boys, and doubt I will. Now don't get me wrong I do expose the boys to academic skills, but I do not go out of my way to teach them. I have already begun using holidays in our art projects and some of the stories that we read. I switch the books in Blake's room every month (or more frequently). It is through these stories that he has been exposed to alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes that kind of things.

Some of the other ways that I expose the boys to academic skills are the computer, art projects, the toys we have, the tv shows I choose to let them watch and that kind of things. We always have children's music playing in the background too. You would be shocked at how much children can pick up just hearing something over and over again in the background.

I watch my sons learn every day. It amazes me all the time how much they already know and the skills they not only are learning but also can use in their lives. I know my boys are learning through play, which in my opinion as a parent and as a teacher is the best way for young children to learn!

water fun

As a teacher, I often had to step back and look at thing differently. The resources available to a teacher is often limited. But, you realize that you don't need the biggest and best to teach. I can't tell you how many strange items I've collected over the years to use in my classroom (for example: milk bottle caps, bread tags, keys, empty pudding cups, and so much more). Parents often think kids need the newest, best things that are available out there. Yes, my sons have toys, but we have tried not to go overboard on what we get them.

Blake loves to explore and this was evident when we were playing on the porch the other day. I brought out some paint brushes (yes the are fancy ones, but they didn't have to be), a wash cloth and some water. Here are some pictures of his play and tomorrow you will see the video of his play also.






















What kinds of things do you do to help your child explore his/her world??

Learning through play

As a kindergarten teacher, I recognize the importance of learning through play. I realize that children need to explore their world and through this exploration they will learn and grow. Teaching kindergarten in today's society children are not always allowed to play because the standards say they will meet and exceed x, y and z before being allowed to go onto first grade. I used to joke and say I don't teach kindergarten I teach boot camp for first grade!

As a mother, I find myself questioning how much I should be "teaching" Blake and how much he will learn through the exploration of his world. Can I actually prove that children learn through facilitated play by providing a rich learning environment for my own children to play in? Can I mold my children into becoming life long learners without shoving the skills at them at such an early age? Well.... I'm going to try!

It is hard as a mother to hear people talk about their children who are the same age who can copy animal sounds, point to their body parts, know some of their colors, etc... when if you ask Blake any of these questions he looks at you like you have five heads. But, at the same time I know he knows some of his body parts as you tell him to put his arm in the sleeve and he can do it on his own without you touching his arm. He knows to move his hand when you say watch your fingers.

I find it hard to balance the teacher and the mommy and the funny thing is the mommy is the side of me that feels like I need to "teach" him these skills. The teacher in me knows that he is learning, he is making progress and he will show it in his own time. The mommy in me wants to make him learn to clap his hands and give high fives so people will stop looking at him like... why don't you do that. The teacher in me knows that Blake learns what he sees Richard and I doing and imitates our behaviors... how often do you go around giving high fives your husband??