Free Book for your kids!

Hey whats more reinforcing for a kid then a brand new free book.  Nothing like motivating a kid to read and his parents to get him to do so.  C'mon just admit that you love the fact that you can get your kiddo something for free while motivating them to do something they should be doing anyway!  Borders has this great summer reading program.  Check it out and get started.  Look for other similar programs at your local books stores and libraries!  Enjoy!  Settle in with a good book!! Thanks thrifty and thriving for the heads up!

Wall Work Series 4

 Here is another poster in the Wall Work Series.  This one helped students develop and practice pre-reading skills.  Once students can match objects that they are familiar with or are larger images, they should practice matching items that require a little more discrimination-Such as letters or lines that are similar.  My students had fun with this one!  It was very easily created using a basic word processing program.

 This poster uses velcro as well. (gotta love that stuff)  At first it was difficult for some of my students and they would need to be guided to look at specific parts of each picture.  Then they were able to identify the similarities and differences on their own. 

I got this idea while using a reading program called Edmark. This program was appropriate for some of my students at the time and the pre-test included similar matching items.  Some of my students did not pass the pre-test and so I set this up in this large format to help them learn the expectation.  Another in between step that is sometimes easily forgotten.  Gotta have some stepping stone between matching pictures and reading words and this is one of them! 
Other Ways and Simpler Formats:  This could also be eaily done on a piece of paper or white board.  You could have lines or words on one side and their matches scrambled on the other and you could have the child draw a line between the two matches.  (Best accomplished for children who have some fine motor skills.)  But never allow a lack of fine motor or verbal communication skills to come inbetween a child and reading if they are cognitively ready.  Edmark was a nice program for students who were non-verbal to learn to read and have it documented without them even needing to utter a sound.  I am glad there is stuff like that!!  People are so on the ball.

A great site!

So lately I have been thinking about things I used as a teacher that I want to use with my children....which is pretty much everything I used as a teacher but thats beside the point.  I realized that I am forgetting so much and bit by bit something reminds me of something I have forgotten or pushed to the back of my mind.  While trying to remember starfall.com I kept saying in my mind shutterfly.com and saying wait thats where I do my photobooks, whats it called again?  I finally remembered and decided that in order to not forget I should post it to this blog to see at a later date.  I hope it can benefit someone as well.  Heres why I like it:
Its Free- lets be honest free stuff rocks! My students loved it!  They enjoyed playing the games, singing the songs, and learning the letters and sounds.  They talk about lots of different holidays and have activities for each one.  The songs really are hard to get out of your mind once they are there (Which isn't such a bad thing).  One of my students loved them so much that I decided to memorize a few so I could reward him for good behavior by singing one of his favorite songs.  I love that they are catching and teach something as well.  This and the song at the end of the letter z (in the ABC section) were two of his ( and my )favorites.  There  are all sorts of games include sorting and matching.  I also really liked that the site was easy to use.  There are little stars that twinkle around the button you need to push when you need to push it and it really only requires the use of the mouse.  The site was perfect for all of the children in my class, each one could find something they could work on.  Even the students who were on the lowest end developmentally loved the pictures and songs-they would usually require an adult to help at times but eventually were able to do a lot on their own.  I would sometimes set the computer up on a certain book or letter that matched something that student had been working on.  I would have them complete the task and then allow them to explore on their own.  It was a very motivating site.  It also helped English Language Learners a lot. If you have children old enough to begin learning letter sounds and/or need to get some basic computer use before they head to school then go on over.  Its pretty fun.  It can help with those fine motor skills and reinforce previously learned letters, sounds, chunks, or basic reading skills.
Head on over to starfall.com for your own fun time!!