Dog's Colorful Day

One of Izzie's favorite books is Dog's Colorful Day. It's a cute book that reinforces colors and numbers (1-10). I found the idea to make this interactive board here. At first, while I read the book to Izzie, she would complete the interactive board....removing the correct color and placing it on Dog and then counting the number of color spots on Dog and putting the correct numeral on the board. By the end of the week, she was reading the book and completing the interactive board by herself! I loved sitting back and watching her take the lead.

More Dog's Colorful Day activities...

Learning to recognize and spell the color words with letter tile cards. I've been wanting to buy/create a Montessori style movable alphabet for activities like this. However, I was super excited when I came across the magnetic letters in this case at a used curriculum sale...it's perfect!

The vowels are red and constants are black. It also includes blends and punctuation.

To help retell the story, she completed this emergent reader.

And, for math, she completed these addition cards. She used her magnetic pompoms to help figure out the total.

What's On The Shelf? Colors

This week's shelf theme has been colors.

Pocket Chart Colors

Izzie did this activity each morning. She really liked matching the objects to the correct color.
I found the printables here.

Izzie's Shelf Work

Matching color clothespins to the color wheel.

I'm so proud of her; she's finally able to manipulate the clothespins! Earlier this summer, she was still struggling with this fine motor skill.

Paint chip color shade chart.

This was her least favorite activity on the shelf. She only completed it once and it was a challenge for her. She was able to get the different shades in the correct color row, but she wasn't interested in trying to put them from dark to light.

Scooping pom-poms into the correct color bowl.

Bowls from Dollar Tree (3 pack for $1).

Infantino Color Puzzle, which I found at Target on clearance for only $2.48! I removed the textured pieces, so she would just focused on colors.

Mac was really interested in the puzzle. So, I would give her three at a time and she would try to match the colors too.


Mac's Shelf Work

This was Mac's first week of shelf work. She loves putting objects inside containers, so I tried to focus on that skill, while using colors.

Placing color Popsicle sticks inside an old Gerber snack container.

This was her favorite activity on the shelf! I love the concentrated look on her face.

Once all the Popsicle sticks were inside....let the music begin!!

Placing chenille craft sticks inside old Parmesan cheese container.

Multitasker...brushing teeth and completing shelf work!

Izzie also enjoyed this activity.

Placing spiky balls into paint plate, using tongs. I bought the spiky balls at Target in the birthday aisle for $1.99, paint plate at Michael's for 99 cents, and a four pack of tongs at the Dollar Tree.

Mac enjoyed tossing the balls, while Izzie enjoyed making patterns with the balls.

Homemade Montessori inspired color tablets.

I only put three out for Mac to match-up. However, she had no interest in this activity. So, I'll save it for later.

Homemade Sandpaper Letters

This school year, Izzie will be focusing on writing letters and numbers. I've been wanting to purchase sandpaper letters/numbers for her, but decided to try to make them instead. They were super cheap and easy to make!

I bought one pink and one blue thick foam boards at Michael's (on sale 2 for $5). I decided to go with the Montessori colors (pink for vowels and blue for constants).  The most difficult part was cutting the thick boards with a utility knife. Using Microsoft Word, I printed out lower-case letters in my desired font and size. Then, I traced the letters backward on sandpaper (huge pack at the Dollar Tree).  Finally, after cutting out the sandpaper letters, I simply glued them on the thick board. DONE!! I'm so excited with the way they turned out and I'll be making capital letters and numbers, soon!

Total cost was less than $6.00.

I have thick board and sandpaper leftover for the next two projects!

    

stART: I Wanna Iguana

For Izzie's stART project, we read I Wanna Iguana, which is the cutest book that I've read in awhile! I laughed and laughed as I read the book to Izzie for the first time. Then, when my husband came home, I begged him to read the book with me...meaning he had to pretend to be the little boy and I was the Mommy. With some hesitation, he agreed and within a few pages into the book, he was chuckling too!

She created a capital letter I to look like an iguana. Inspiration from Totally Tots.

To see more stART projects, visit A Mommy's Adventures!

Phonics: Letter I

The letter of the week is "I", so Izzie has been learning the difference between the short i and long i sounds. She has known the short i sound for awhile (thanks to the wonderful Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD....a must have); however, she was just introduced to the long i sound. I was a little concern that she would be confused that letter "I" made two different sounds, but she really caught on quicker than I thought.

We practiced that the short i sounds like "Indian" and the long i sounds like "ice cream". Then, she would say the flashcard picture and decide whether it sounded like the "i" sound as in Indian or as in ice cream. The top cards (Indian and ice cream) are from ABeka, but you can download the flashcards here.

So, to celebrate the different sounds of letter I....

Izzie created the capital letter I...ice cream cone.

And, the lower case letter i...inchworm.

Capital letter inspiration from No Time For Flashcards and lower case letter inspiration from Totally Tots.