Angry Birds Homeschool!

I don't know about you guys, but my boys are REALLY into Angry Birds.  To the point of obsession.  They'd rather play with Angry Birds on my iPad, than play Wii or any game on the LeapPad.  And the sad part is...my husband and I can get sucked into a game of Angry Birds just as easily.  I repeat:  sad.

So, imagine my surprise and excitement when I came across this Angry Birds Kindergarten Pack that focuses on literacy and math skills.  This blog is AWESOME.  She has so many ideas for different toddler, preschool, and kindergarten mini units, that I am blown away.  This lady has obviously been doing this for a while, and she is my new favorite "go-to" for resources and materials.

The boys and I had a great time this week doing this mini unit in addition to our routine lessons and activities and magnet science unit.


Math Lessons:

Using a number line.

 We used angry birds to cover numbers on the number line, and the boys
had to tell me which number was being hidden by the birds.

Then we created our own number line on the chalkboard.  The boys took turns writing
numbers.  I would tell them to write the number that came before, after, or in between
certain other numbers already written on the number line.

Greater Than/Less Than.

We learned that the hungry alligator always eats the bigger number of angry birds
and how to say the phrase correctly (i.e. 4 angry birds is greater than 1 angry bird)

Then, I put some sets of numbers up on the board for Hayden to put the greater
than/less than signs in between.  Of course, he had to give them alligator teeth.  

....and this is what the chalkboard looked like after both boys decided that
alligators were taking over.  

Identifying coins.

This was a great review for Hayden and a great introduction for Sawyer.  We
talked about the descriptions and the values of the 4 different coins.  Then,
they had to match them to the correct card.  Each time they made a correct
match, I'd reiterate the name and value of the coin and have them repeat it.

Here, they had to count how many coins each angry bird collected, what
type of coin, and how much money total (the last part being mostly for Hayden's
benefit).

Basic Fractions.

This was really a brief introduction to fractions for Hayden.  I made a copy
of this page and cut out the circles/fraction pieces after drawing examples
on the chalkboard and talking about equal parts, whole, halves, thirds, etc.
Hayden had to match up the cut out pieces to what was on the paper.

Then he used a dry erase marker to color in the fractions according to the
amount and the color code given.  After each one, he'd tell me whether he
was coloring in a whole, halves, thirds, or fourths.

Hayden also completed a cut-and-sort activity and ordered numbers 1-30.  I didn't get pictures of those, but if you go to the website I have listed above, you'll see those activities in her kindergarten pack.

Language Arts Lessons:

Color Words.

This was just for Sawyer.  He and Hayden have been listening to this CD
that has a lot of songs about colors, numbers, and letter sounds.  The singing
is atrocious (sp?), but they love it, and because of those horrible songs, Sawyer
could read the words "red", "yellow", and "white" with no prompting from me.

Easy Reading.

While Sawyer completed the activity above, Hayden traced the color words
on an easy reader that he afterwards cut out himself and I stapled together to
make a book.

Rhyming Words.

Hayden colored in the circles with words that rhyme with "pig".

Sight Words.

And he colored in the angry birds of all the words he could sound out on
his own and read correctly to me.

Matching Descriptive Sentences.

With this activity, Hayden had to match the color angry bird with the sentence
that described it.  He did a good job on this pretty much on his own because
like Sawyer, he remembered the songs about the colors.  After we finished this
activity, I laminated all the pieces and glued sandpaper on the backs so the boys
could use it later on the felt board independently.

The last Angry Bird activity we did was an art project.  We made Angry Bird magnets which was great because it also tied into our magnet unit in science.  Sawyer was a bit young for this project, and I wound up doing most of his for him, but he gave me all his input.  Here is what the boys finished up with:

There were several choices of felt colors, but the boys both wanted to do the same thing.  Since there are leftovers, I
definitely foresee more Angry Bird magnets in our near future.  Good rainy day project for sure!

In addition to all the Angry Bird madness, I managed to slip in some other writing/spelling activities as well.  We worked on our Letter W mini books and did some Cheerio Spelling with 'w' words.  Hayden also did sight word spelling with magnetic letters while riding in the car with me on errands.  

Cheerio Spelling - great for snack time!

Science Lessons:

For our magnet unit we learned what magnetic force is, and that it goes through things.  We learned how a magnet can help us if we get lost, and if we don't have a compass, what we can use instead.  We also did some Q&A Magnet Fishing with a follow up Yes or No activity sheet to see what all they (mostly Hayden) remembered from our lessons the past couple of weeks.  We didn't do as much with the lap book this week.  So I plan on finishing it up next week, and posting pictures of the final project.

Hayden uses a wand magnet to move a paper clip around in a wooden box
without touching the paper clip itself.  

Experimenting with compasses and magnets.  Future boy scouts!

Using magnets to discover how we can see something that is invisible.

A horseshoe magnet's lines of force.

Disc magnets lines of force!

Apparently, I didn't get pictures of them magnet fishing.  It was too much fun for me to stop and get my camera, I guess.  I will have to do this activity regularly along with the felt board activities.  They really get a kick out of those types of lessons!

And to end this week's blog, I have to post a picture of a piece of Sawyer's work that I am very proud of but take absolutely NO credit for at all.  Other than large "air letter tracing" and playdoh letters, I've never taught him how to actually write his letters with a writing utensil.  And yet, he can do it.  

He asked me how to spell these words, then he wrote them as I told him:  Mommy, Daddy, Hayden, Sawyer...(and Ema
off to the side there on the right).  I love his letter E.