Literacy

Apple Themed One To One Correspondence

Last week I shared how to make your own “Apple” book using a cute, thematic note pad and some basic facts about apples. Today I’d like to share some ways to use this same apple themed note pad (shown below) to build number skills.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Show How Many Apples

I created this activity a few years ago to help build Andrew’s understanding of numbers and the amounts that they represent. I decided to begin by combining the numbers with concrete items, in this case, red cotton puff “apples.” I wrote out the number and included the word “apple” on a page and provided the “apples” for him to distribute. At first we did this in order to build number sequencing and then I changed it up by only including some of the pages, not necessarily putting them in order from least to greatest. This allowed me to see if he understood what the numbers represented by showing me without needing to have intelligible speech to do so.

Note: I had a 6th grade teacher who was a stickler on labeling what it was we were referring to. If we didn’t state it as part of the answer, she would say, “5 what? Chickens?!” Her insistence on this has stuck with me I guess :).

P1010269 — Red apple puff one to one correspondence

P1010267 — Red apple puffs matched with numbers.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Match the Sticker Card with the Correct Number

I like to start building math concepts with actual objects that he can physically manipulate to demonstrate his knowledge. Once I have a sense that he gets it, we move on. For this concept, we moved on to cards I made that had specific amounts of stickers on them. His job was to match up the sticker card with the number card. This would require him to count accurately in order to match them up properly.

This was so fascinating for me because I got to see how he approached counting – Was he pointing at each sticker or doing it in his head? Did he have a systematic approach or was it more random? Did he start from the top and move across or from the bottom and go up and around?

There were times when he would double count or skip a sticker and match the card up with the wrong one. Sometimes I would ask him if he was sure or ask him to count again but other times I would let him figure it out when he wound up with two sticker cards at the same number. If needed, I would bring out the “apples” for him to place on the stickers to see what the correct answer was. What started out as a really basic one to one correspondence activity turned out to give me a great deal of information and taught him some analyzing and problem solving skills.

This is an activity that takes no more than 10 minutes to create with a pad of paper, a marker, some puffs and/or stickers yet helps build some fundamental math skills.

Modification:

If this activity is too basic for your child, you can adapt it by writing equations on some and sums/differences/products/quotients on other pages for them to match up. I would also begin building these skills with items like the “apple” puffs that your child can manipulate to demonstrate their understanding of what they are being asked to do. I know that fact memorization is part of learning and I am glad that I don’t have to carry around puffs with me to figure things out as an adult (now picturing that cracks me up!) but it is really important that children have a good understanding of what equations mean.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Make Your Own Apple Book

This is a super easy fact book you can make at home to go with almost any theme. It can be made with themed note paper (if you can find it), index cards or just sheets of paper – whatever you have around your house. It really is so easy to make something that can build basic literacy skills as well as provide information – in this case, information about apples.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Homemade Book About Apples

I used my apple themed note pad (came in very handy for this theme!!) and wrote some basic facts about apples. Nothing fancy but Andrew loved it and even brought in to share with his class!

Some general facts about apples:

apples grow on trees
apples have a stem
apples have 5 seeds
apples are fruit
apples can be big or little
apples can be red, green or yellow
apples can be eaten
apples are used to make applesauce, apple pie, apple juice, and apple cider

This was made and used when Andrew was 4 so it is very simple but if you look at non-fiction books for that age group, this is what they are – lots of repetition to build word recognition and reading confidence.

Note: I used some clear contact paper to “laminate” the pages and clipped them together. I did not want to staple or bind them because I wanted to be able to use them more like cards, even including them as part of a “crawl and get” activity – ex. crawl down and get the next page for us to read.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Sports Themed My Obstacle Course Idea #3

Enchanted Learning Website – Sports Theme

I have mentioned this website before (click here for previous Enchanted Learning post) because I love how easy they make it to be thematic while building academic skills. It is a subscription site with some free materials but I have found it to be worth the fee for what I do with Andrew and My Obstacle Course.

My intention is to provide you with some alternatives for what would typically be worksheet, pencil/paper activities. If your child is into that, than by all means go for it! I have just found that with Andrew, the more engaged he is, the more willing he is to put time and energy into building skills in all areas.
I will often cut the pages apart to create crawl and matching stations or combine them with Scrabble letters to get him more involved with actually making words.

Based on the activity sheets that they have on the page I’ve linked to above (there are lots!), these are some ways I would incorporate them into a sports themed My Obstacle Course:

Matching pictures with words from the “Sports Word Wheel” or the “Match Sports Words with Pictures” pages (I would cut them apart and combine with clothespins)
Combining syllables to make sports words (combine with crawl and match station)
Filling in missing letters to form sports words (I’d use the pictures and combine them with Scrabble letters)
Unscrambling letters to form sports words (I’d use the pictures and combine them with Scrabble letters)
Using the sports question page, I would cut apart the words, set them out and use it as a questioning station where I ask him the question and have him choose the correct word.
ABC order page, I would cut apart the words and have him actually put them in ABC order. If this was a challenge, I would include a written out alphabet to use as a reference.
Compound words – I’d either cut them apart or use this sheet as a sample and write out the word parts on small index cards or Post-It notes so he can combine them to form the words.
There are also a ton of anagram activity pages, which use the letters from one word to create another word. I would use Scrabble letters with something like this and would only do a few anagrams at a time as a station, starting with some smaller, easier words to introduce this to him.
I would use the “Sports Alphabet Code” page as is.
I would cut out the words at the top of the Venn Diagram page but would keep the bottom section as is and have him sort the words into the correct section.

Note: I do not have any affiliation with Enchanted Learning. I discovered their site while teaching 3rd grade, loved using it with my students for research purposes and found it to be extremely helpful when working with Andrew at home.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!!

Gone Fishin!

Andrew was always taken with the fishing game sold in stores, the one where the fish go around in a circle while opening and closing their mouths while you try to get the end of the fishing line in their mouths. He got one and was extremely frustrated. I tried it and got extremely frustrated. The mouths close so quickly and with the fish moving around, I’m not sure how he could be successful with this. I decided to make my own fishing game, adding a bit of a My Obstacle Course twist on it (of course!).

Make Your Own Fishing Rod

I know they sell fishing rods with magnets on the end of the line, but I wanted to see if I could make my own. I went to Michael’s and bought some small dowel rods, red string (red is the easiest color to see), corks, sturdy needles (to go through the cork),Â circle magnets that would fit on the corks and glue. I glued the magnet to the narrow end of the cork and let it sit overnight to dry. Then I used the needle to attach the cork to the string and wound the other end of the string around the dowel (towards the end of it, without being too close to where it could fall off).

Note: This is one of those things that would be awesome to purchase and make with a group of other people since the materials were all sold in packs.

What’s Biting?

The rod was complete and now I needed something to fish. I had some fish calendar cutouts and attached some paper clips to them. All I had to do was think about what I wanted to work on with Andrew and write that on the cutout. Below you will see just some of the possibilities for things to put on the fish.

Number Recognition

P1010075 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Fishing for numbers (to build number recognition skills)

Shape Recognition

P1010080 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Fishing for shapes

Word Recognition or Vowel Sound Identification

P1010083 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Fishing for words (This particular station is working on the difference between long and short vowels words.)

Addition – Finding the Sum

P1010147 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Fishing for sums.

During the station, he would use the fishing rod to “catch” the correct fish. He had a ball with it and was able to work on steadying his hand, lowering the cork down to the correct fish and “catching” it on the paper clip. So fun, much more motivating and no batteries required!!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Beach Themed My Obstacle Course: Station Activities Using Shells

I know that it is now August and people are probably in “back to school” mode but we just returned from a vacation at the beach and I got lots of ideas for a beach themed My Obstacle Course to use with Andrew before school starts again. Don’t worry, I have LOTS of ideas for the fall but since it is still summer I’m going to try to remain in the present and enjoy the rest of the season, even if a chill in the air would be a dream come true!

Shells

This was our third trip to the beach but the first time that Andrew was willing to walk a little bit in the sand. One of the ways we gave these walks some purpose was to gather up some shells. In typical Andrew fashion, he began by wanting to know exactly how many shells he had to get before he could go back. He would then grab that number of shells as quickly as he could get his hands on them and run back to our spot. We learned and then gave the beach walks a certain length of time or a certain distance, such as walking to a specific house before turning back. This helped a bunch, knowing that there was an end to something he wasn’t really crazy about (a familiar theme for us!). He eventually became VERY interested in finding shells because he learned that they could be glued together to make shell ceiling fans (thanks Tina!). He was not only able to gather up shells but was really focused on finding ones that were all a similar size and shape to give the fans similar blades. These shell ceiling fans are now hanging from the pull chains of his bedroom ceiling fan and are a prized possession of his.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sorting Shells

Now, my station activity idea is not to create shell ceiling fans, unless your child is crazy about ceiling fans like mine is, and if so, go for it! I was thinking more about using shells to work on skills like:

Sequencing the shells by size (smallest to largest)
Sorting the shells by shape, size or color

I did not bring any shells back from the beach because my suitcase was packed so I am going to check out Michael’s to see if they have some, which I’m sure they do, perhaps even at a discount because they probably have Christmas items out on display!! I digress – back to My Obstacle Course station ideas.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Shell Description

This is a really basic station activity using one shell and working together to see how many words we can come up with to describe that shell. This is aimed at increasing vocabulary and descriptive language regarding a single object.Â I would do this activity with a dry erase board or sheet of paper and I would probably do the writing since that is not my objective, however, if your child is ready for that and is still able to come up with ideas, go for it! You can always take turns if it ends up being an issue.

Some examples:

smooth
curved edges
has ridges
round
flat
sharp
pointy
brown
speckled
striped

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Shell Creations

Another fun activity is to gather some shells and see what you can create using them. In the bunch of shells I found at the beach, I was able to make a dolphin, turtle and queen, complete with hula skirt :).

Have fun, get a little creative and help your child build skills using something a little out of the ordinary!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

My Obstacle Course Kit Item #2: Scrabble or Bananagram Letters

Kit Item #2: Scrabble or Bananagram Letters

This will probably come as no surprise to any of you who read my posts, but item #2 that would definitely go in My Obstacle Course kit would be either Scrabble or Bananagram letters. I love them because they are so versatile. They can be used on their own or paired with a wide variety of things (sensory bin, flash cards, word clues) to helpÂ make building basic literacy skills fun.

Their small size also makes them perfect for building fine motor skills.Â Like dice, they are easily stored in a plastic bag or container and require nothing more than you choosing how to use them as a station activity.

P1030997 — Bananagram letters (which look just like Scrabble letters without the little numbers)

Note – If these letters are too small for your child and you worry about them putting them in their mouth, use something bigger like magnet letters. These can be found in most grocery stores, pharmacies as well as department stores like Target.

Uses:

letter identification (ex. Find the letter __.)
letter sequencing (ex. Put the letters in abc order.)
choosing the letter that goes with a spoken sound (ex. Choose the letter that makes a /b/ sound.)
building words
word families
make the same using flash cards
sight word building

Click here for a link to theÂ “Scrabble” searchÂ of my past posts to see some of the ways that I have used them with Andrew.

Sample Station Idea:

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Letter Sequencing

P1040223 — Station set up for putting letters in the correct sequence.

P1040226 — Letters A-G in the correct sequence.

Another Activity Idea:

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Fill in the missing letters

P1040227 — Another variation - putting out every other letter for the child to fill in the missing ones.

If this is a skill that your child struggles with, provide them with a reference sheet. Remember that these activities are for reinforcement or building skills, so if they need something to refer to or check their work, provide that for them. This is as easy as writing this out on a sheet of paper or printing it off.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

« Previous Page