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My Obstacle Course: Engage, Encourage and Empower

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Literacy

How Many Words Can We Make?

Scrabble or Bananagram letters are great for playing word games, the most obvious being a Scrabble type game where words are built off of other words. Another fun way to use them is to play, “How Many Words Can We Make?” This presents itself as a purely a game but is also helpful for building spelling pattern awareness and how changing one or a couple of letters can make so many different words.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: How Many Words Can We Make?

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: How Many Words Can We Make?

I randomly choose a certain number of letters (15 seems to work well) and then look and see how many different words we can make using those letters.

Here are just some of the words we came up with using the 15 letters above:

"Bat"
"Bat" becomes "hat."
"Hat" becomes "fat."
Switch out some letters to make "dark."
"Dark" becomes "shark."
Switch out some more letters to make "short."

Such a simple, yet fun way to build word building skills requiring no set up other than to choose some letters from a common game of Scrabble (or Bananagram). This is something that is easily portable so it can be taken along and used as a beach house/lake house/grandma’s house activity.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

Beach Towel Reading Station

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Summer Reading

A fun way to make a reading station more inviting – set out a beach towel! So easy and basic but provides a specific location for the reading to take place, makes it a bit more fun and adds an element of pretend as you pretend to be lying on a beach somewhere, soaking in the sun and reading.

Beach Towel

I incorporate summer themed books, either fiction or non-fiction depending on what Andrew is into.

A perfect reading station!

Since this is a station activity, I would recommend choosing a short book or just reading a portion of a book.

I also suggest looking through the book and making an earlier station activity one that includes some words they may across. This could be through a word memory match or matching up a word with a clue about its meaning.

Ex. We read the Frog and Toad story “Cookies” from Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel. I had Andrew use letter beads to string together the word “cookie” as well as used the pictures from the story to make a sequencing station to help with comprehension (this could be done as a pre-reading activity to give context or afterwards as an activity to see if he understood what happened in the story.).

Picture sequencing
Choosing a word or theme from the story to string with letter beads.

These are just two basic ways to incorporate literacy skills into other station activities in addition to a reading or listening station.

Building Reading/Listening Stamina

Reading or listening stamina needs to be built just like other skills (speaking from experience here!). I have spent a good deal of time reading out loud while Andrew runs around the room. We started with small “plug-ins” where he would have to come over and point at something in the picture while I read aloud. Once I knew he could read something, we would take turns reading pages (slowly extending his time) and now he is able to read a few pages in picture books before he needs to get up and move.

While building reading and listening skills, don’t be afraid to take turns or bookmark the page and end the reading/listening station on a positive note. Doing this as a My Obstacle Course station is perfect because they know it will be quick and there are other stations waiting for them when they’ve completed this one.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Find It! Toy

I was doing a “treasure hunt” around my house to see what we have to include in a summer themed My Obstacle Course. I went into Andrew’s closet to look for some summer books and my eyes fell upon the shelf where this “Find It” toy he had received from his grandma was sitting. This is a great item for car trips or lazy summer afternoons but it also makes a great, super easy (no set up required at all!) station activity.

“Find It” is a cylinder filled with colored rice sized beads that hide thematic items (kind of like a sensory bin without being able to touch). There are several different varieties that I have seen for sale in toy stores (Brilliant Sky is one I know for sure that carries them).

toy

Twist and turn the toy to expose different items, trying to find items that are listed at the top.

Item list

I really like this toy because it includes items that are quite common as well as some items that are not as familiar, giving us an opportunity to build vocabulary.

Sand dollar up close.

We don’t have a lot of “sand dollars” where we live so when he comes across it and wonders what it is, I can help give it a name while pointing out some unique characteristics.

I like that the items are not too simple. I always say that intelligibility and intelligence are not the same thing and it is nice to have something for him to play with that doesn’t insult his intelligence.

Close up of some items

When using this as a station in My Obstacle Course, I will have him either find 10 items or have him choose from the list which 10 items he will be hunting for. From there, I may have him practice writing a few of those words (maybe 3 or 4) at the next station to work on his handwriting skills. This could be done with Magnadoodle, Aquadoodle, pencil/marker/crayon and paper, dry erase markers and white board, or chalk on a chalkboard.

Note: While I haven’t done this myself, I am going to try to make my own using a tennis ball container (label removed), dried rice and some small items from Michael’s. I tried this around Christmas time with fake snow and it didn’t work very well so I’m thinking that rice or something like it might move better. I would love to know if anyone has done this already! Definitely thinking some duct tape around the cover once it’s been completed so little hands don’t open it up all over the living room! 🙂

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Calendar Numbers With Story Starters

I recently found these calendar numbers at the teacher store and thought they were perfect for summer. In addition to being great for working on number recognition and number order, these also include “Story Starters” on the back to encourage creative writing.

Calendar Days with Story Starters by Teacher Created Resources

Each calendar number has a story starter on the back which makes them perfect for either independent journaling or writing together with your child on the computer, depending on what works best with your child.

Story Starters

I am going to include this as a My Obstacle Course station activity to use with my laptop so we can write and print out the short stories or paragraphs that he comes up with. I probably won’t do this daily but will set out 3 or 4 numbers, have him choose a number and that will give us the story starter for that day.

Something like this is difficult for Andrew (and lots of other children) since it requires him to think beyond what he is doing in the present moment so I’m not going to pair it with something else that he struggles with – handwriting. I am going to work with him, type as he talks, start sentences for him to finish, perhaps guide him back to the topic if he gets distracted or starts chatting about ceiling fans. (I can just hear his response to the story starter shown above – “I think people should take more time to…photograph and videotape their ceiling fans. It would be great for them to email them to me or post them on YouTube so I can watch them.” This really could be his response! I’ll let you know what he actually says 🙂 .

If you have a child that can do something like this independently, I suggest allowing them to pick out a special summer journal notebook or if this is something that you will be helping them with on the computer, perhaps a binder that they can decorate. I think something as simple as this could make it more meaningful, especially if you have a reluctant writer. Andrew is always more motivated to do something if he gets to run to the printer to see his work printed out. We will definitely be decorating a binder for him to collect the work he does this summer!

If your child has difficulties getting started with the writing process, go slowly! Work with them on brainstorming first, looking at the topic to see if there are any personal connections that they can make.

Sample conversation for the story starter “If I had my own robot…”:

Well, what do robots typically do? Help make work easier or do things that people don’t want or like to do. What are some things that you don’t like to do but have to do? Oh! Make your bed? Wash your hands? Brush your teeth? Put your clothes away? So, if you had your own robot that could do whatever you didn’t want to do, what would you have it do?

  • This could be expanded to why they don’t like to do the task or what they could do with the time saved by not having to do what the robot does. It doesn’t have to be perfect! Just have fun with them, maybe share your responses with them. What is important is to encourage them to make connections and think about how to relate topics to themselves.

After brainstorming, start out with encouraging them and helping them write a few sentences about the topic. From there, move to picking a sentence (topic sentence or main idea) that they can expand on or describe with more details to create a paragraph. Writing is difficult for many children and by progressing slowly and giving the process meaning within their own lives, they will begin to translate the process to things that maybe they don’t have personal experience with.

Note: You don’t need these cards in order to do an activity like this. I just saw them and looked like they would be great for a My Obstacle Course station. You can make up your own or even google search story starters. When I did that, I found this Story Starter Machine from Scholastic. Pretty cool and free!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Lightbulb Pattern Pieces

This package of fun Lightbulbs Mini Accents from our teacher store are probably meant for bulletin boards in the classroom but when I saw them, anyone who knows Andrew also knows that I had to have them!

Package of Lightbulb Mini Accents by Edupress.Â

Checking out a new colored lightbulb he had earned. So happy and excited!!

Andrew’s love of ceiling fans is second only to his love of lights and light bulbs. One very consistent phrase of his before he was speaking was “uh uh u-uh!” which translated to “lights are on” with the “on” being drawn out a bit. He can walk into a store, a house, anywhere and determine which lightbulbs need to be replaced, which ones are brighter than others and if he’s been there before can tell you about any changes in wattage. Amazing, especially when I think about how quickly he does this – almost like laser vision as he scans the place. Anyways, look how cute this guys are!

Six Different Lightbulb Characters

There are 6 different lightbulb characters which make them perfect for a station of sorting, patterning, graphing and could easily be paired with a clothesline and clothespins to help build fine motor skills.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Use the lightbulbs to make or continue a pattern

Basic ABAB Pattern

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Use the lightbulb characters to create a story

As I was looking at these again, it also occurred to me that they would be perfect with children who are ready for a bit of storytelling. The expressions on their faces and the hand gestures got me thinking about incorporating them with story starters.

Sequencing them for a story based on their facial expressions and hand gestures.

Example story with each line “spoken” by the lightbulb characters in the order they appear above:

  • Oh shoot! I forgot my lunch!
  • Wait a minute, I have a great idea! We can all look in our lunches to see if we have anything to share.
  • Let me think, do I have anything to share that you would like?
  • I know that I do!
  • My mom must have known because she packed me a ton of food today.
  • See, problem solved. Friends helping friends! What could be better?

Super, basic story but hopefully you can see how you can use the facial expressions and gestures to go through and create a story.

Another sequence for story telling.

Keep in mind, they don’t all have to be used at the same time, but even using 3 or four of them could create a nice little story complete with characters (who), setting (when and where), conflict/problem (what) and resolution (how).

This sort of learning material just goes to show you that there is a ton of stuff out there that can help motivate and engage your child, even if you have a child who isn’t into the typical things like sports or cars. Who would have thought that our thing would be lightbulbs and ceiling fans? Not me but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

Building Letter Recognition – Letter Sort

This is another really basic station activity to reinforce letter recognition. I love to use the concept of sorting because it gives a lot of reinforcement in a short amount of time. If you are looking for something more challenging, it could also be done with word families, words with common vowel patterns, or beginning blends.

I took some colored index cards, cut them in half and wrote the letters I wanted to work on. I made 4 cards per letter and shuffled them up so they wouldn’t be in order. That is it!

At the station, the child will pick a card, identify the letter and match it up with the letter that is the same. These cards can be mixed and matched with others later on to create very specific sorts depending on letters that may confuse them, especially with lowercase letters like “b” and “d”!

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sort the Uppercase Letters

Sort completed!

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sort the Lowercase Letters

Sort completed!

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Match the Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

A station activity really can be this basic while building and reinforcing literacy skills. Just think about what your child needs to work on (letters, vowel patterns, or word families they need more exposure to) and see for yourself how easy it is to make a sort to reinforce it.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

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