Hocus Pocus - Making -op Words (with a free printable)

(4 1/2 Years)

We are just beginning week three of pre-K (long, deep sigh).  Our incredible teachers informed us that they are now going to be delving into their curricula this week, and with that is HOMEWORK!  I've never been so happy to hear that homework is coming.  We can now get back to learning through play, while incorporating what they are learning in the classroom.

My inner-teacher came bounding out when I printed out the homework packet (all of their homework is optional, but encouraged).  A few of the worksheets were about the CVC - op family.  I love word families- there are so many cute, playful activities we can do.  I knew right away we'd use our magic wands that we just got at The Dollar Tree this summer!  They love playing with them.  I set out Wild One's magician shirt and a fairy Godmother gown for Little Miss - and then we sat down ready to preform our magic.

Wild One and Little Miss had fun waving the wand and saying, "hocus pocus" or "bippity boppity boo" while creating new words.  I loved how surprised they were that they could turn the letter "b" into "bop" by waving the wand and placing it after the "b".  The smiles say it all!

Are you ready to play?  You don't need a magic wand. You can use a craft stick, a pencil or even a spoon.  Below is the link to the free printable, when you click on the picture you will be able to download the activity sheet.  Don't you love when most of the work is done for you?

Have fun learning!  

Lightning McQueen + Sight Words = Learning Fun

(4 Years)

Lately the kids have been asking to practice their magic words (that's what we call sight words).  Their favorite way to practice is to Soak the Sight Words from the pool, they don't even know that they are learning or practicing or working.  To them it's all a game, it's all fun, and that's why it works!   This morning Little Miss asked to play the game three times  She said that she wants to win, and answer more words than her brother.  She actually said that!

A few days ago I found a sight word parking lot on Pinterest from A Mom with a Lesson Plan.  It looked perfect for us.  Easy set up, I have everything that's needed in the playroom already (a roll of easel paper, crayons, cars, dice with sight words on them).  So... during nap time I drew up a four-foot roadway and parking lot, wrote down some sight words in the parking spaces, grabbed all of our cars, and invited the kids to draw the landscaping.  Little Miss sat right down and began drawing trees and flowers.  Wild One decided to get dressed as Santa Claus, because it's July and one must dress as Santa in July, and June and May.

We used our giant die from the the Sight Words Race game, grabbed our basket of cars and we were off!  Little Miss rolled the die, rolled on was, said the word (yay!), revved up her little car engine and raced (wildly, not the the typical controlled and precise driving that her personality is known for) down the windy road, past the green trees and white flowers to the parking lot and easily parked in the was parking space.  She didn't even get her hand off of her car, when Wild One was jumping and saying, "my turn, my turn".

This couldn't have gone any better!  We were laughing, we were racing, we were taking turns, we were learning!

Look at learning through play in action.  Look at his concentration.  Look at her smile.  Look at Grandpa watching carefully.  I love homeschool preschool!!!!

Are you looking for more sight word games?  Just type sight words into the search box on the right.  I'll show you what's worked for us and at what age we started working with it.

Soak the Sight Words

(4 Years)

We've been playing in the pool a lot lately, a lot!  It's just too hot or humid, or hot and humid to do anything that does not involve a pool, a sprinkler or being inside.    Wild One and Little Miss, like most kids - and adults, like playing with water shooters.  Instead of ME being their favorite target, I decided that we would soak some of their sight words.  The chalk gets a quick dunk in the pool to make the writing a deeper color, and off I went writing down sight words (we call them magic words, it's more fun!).  As soon as they saw me writing, I was bombarded with "What are you doing?  Mom, what are you doing?  Why are you doing that?  Is that for us?"

When I asked if they wanted to play a water shooter game, they were bouncing "I do!  I do!".  They quickly grabbed and filled their water shooters.  All they needed to do was be the first to pronounce the word that I pointed to (with a pool noodle, just in case their hand-eye coordination and aim wasn't as good at words as it is at me!).  That's it!  Let the game begin and they had a BLAST!

We played two rounds and then it was time to come in for lunch.  As they were drying off, they asked if we could do more words tomorrow.  Hmmmmm, yes!

Look how easy learning through play is!

Popcorn Magic with Lesson Ideas

(4 Years)

Me- Do you want to see magic?
Little Miss- I do, I do!
Me- What do you think these are?  (I poured out a handful of popcorn kernels)

Little Miss - Beans, tiny rocks, seeds. (I had her feel a kernel and describe it).  It's tiny, hard and yellow.
She poured 1/2 cup of kernels into a brown lunch bag.

Her brother finally emerged from his room and asked to help.  Then she folded the lunch bag over twice.

 

 
We put it in the microwave.  I pressed the secret POPCORN button.  They said, "hocus pocus!"  I asked what they thought was going to happen.  Little Miss - It's going to get hot.

Then they heard the all too familiar pop pop sound.  Wild One - Popcorn!  Mommy it's popcorn!  Are we making popcorn?  They watched as the bag started inflating and they began to pop up and down like little kernels.

We usually buy Orville Redenbacher's Natural Simply Salted Microwaveable Popcorn.  Yummm!  I've wanted to try popping it in the brown lunch bag for months.  I kept thinking, it can't be as easy as pouring kernels into a brown lunch bag and pop the bag into the microwave.  If it was that easy someone would have told me by now!  Well, it's just that easy.  I like a little butter and salt on my popcorn.  So we melted a tablespoon of butter and mixed in a little salt, then poured that over the popcorn and shook the bag.  So yummy!  How did I not know about this?

LESSON IDEAS
So... the teacher in me feels compelled to tell you that you can easily turn this into a math lesson- compare the volume of the kernels to the popped corn, or compare the weight.  If the kids are ready, you can also discuss the reaction (science) that took place.  A writing lesson can be to describe what happened with illustrations.  You can create a popcorn necklace or even paint with the popcorn (art).  There are even fun popcorn books that you can use for read alouds - Tomie DePaola's The Popcorn Book, Half Popped and Popcorn to name just a few that you can borrow or buy.  Today, we decided to observe and describe a kernel and compare that to the popped corn, ok and have a healthy snack.

Learning with food is so much more fun, isn't it?

Easy (no cost) CVC Wheel

(4 Years)

I love this idea!  I found it on Pinterest, it's from Jaimi at the Stay-at-Home-Mom Survival Guide.   All that you need to do is grab a few of your (or your husband's) old DVDs that he never watches (let's face it, yore going to "borrow" his DVDs, he never wants to put them in the DVR anyway) and two permanent markers (one light, we used silver and one dark, we used black).  That's it.  Now, choose which CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words you want to work on.  We choose _it, _ag and _ad.  If you are just starting CVC words, _at is a great one to start with.

The entire process took five minutes, that's including raiding my unsuspecting husband's DVD collection.

 

When it was time for school, I invited Wild One over.  At first he thought we were going to watch a movie.  Ooops, I didn't think of that.  Then he said, "uh oh, someone wrote on the DVD."  Double oops.

I showed him how the wheel works and he thought it was magic.   "MOMMY, I'M READING ALL BY MYSELF!"  Yes, you are.  I love the confidence boost!

Look at that, he's smiling while practicing his CVC words.  I love this idea!  Thanks again Jaimi!

I love that they love learning how to read.  Have a great weekend!

Giant Sight Word Stomp Board

(4 Years)

Little Miss likes learning activities that are quiet, Wild One always lights up when I make our learning into a physical game (specifically jumping, running, swatting).  It seems a lifetime ago when we were learning our letter sounds.  I remember Little Miss liked pointing to magnetic letters, whereas Wild One was learning letter sounds by playing swat the letter.

Two years later, we are learning our sight words and Little Miss now likes (sometimes, when she's in the mood) to jump and dance and twirl.  I created a gigantic sight word board in the driveway (with each word written twice, so that the three of us could play simutaneously).  Little Miss said that she was going to be the teacher and tell us (Wild One and me) which word to jump on.   I have a feeling that as she grows-up , I'm going to be hearing a lot of Little Miss trying to take the lead and tell us all what to do!

The inspiration for this giant sight word stomp board was from the below hopscotch board.  You see, early last week, we played a game of hopscotch using -at words.  Little Miss was not at all interested.  She wanted to draw with chalk, Grandma and Grandpa bought them a huge box of vibrant sidewalk chalk.  She was all ready to draw, however she asked me not to take any pictures until she finished - and of course it rained. Meanwhile, Wild One kept asking, "are you done yet?  Can I play?".  I didn't think I'd ever finish the hopscotch board, he kept trying to jump on the board as I was creating it.

Oh, those red stains on the collar of Wild One's shirt is strawberry juice.  He ate almost 1/2 of a pound of strawberries!