Time To Review

So, we are back to the daily grind, less than 3 weeks after our newcomer, Riley, has graced us with his presence.  Our first week back was pretty much review of a few things we've worked on in the past.  Since we hadn't done any school for a few weeks, I figured this was a good way to slide back into the school stuff.  And here is what went down that first week back:

Sawyer worked on matching up lowercase letters using an egg carton and some stickers.  This was something I found back at the beginning of the school year in a book about making use of egg cartons and boxes, etc.  It's been so long now that I don't even remember the name of the book (it was an old one in the educational section at the library).  We've also used these egg cartons to match lowercase to uppercase letters with the uppercase being written on popsicle sticks that fit into slots right above each lowercase letter.

ABC matchup

Hayden worked on sight words using several different activities throughout the week.  One activity was a really cool idea that I found through this website.  One of many paint chip ideas that I've discovered using Pinterest.

Paint chip samples for word families

Using magnet letters to build high frequency words of the week

One thing that Hayden is having trouble with right now is differentiating between lowercase b and d, a common issue with kids learning their letter sounds and identification.  He can't seem to remember the word "did".  When he tries to sound it out, he always sounds it out with a "buh" sound either at the beginning or at the end of the word....sometimes both.  It stumps him every time.  So, I need to find a way to help him with that challenge.

Math review was about money and then shapes and fractions.  For the money, Hayden put together mini money booklets - one for each coin.  With each coin, we talked about it's appearance, value, and how many of them it took to equal one dollar.  Then we lined up the coins underneath the dollar bill to have a better visualization of the concept.

For shapes and fractions, we used the chalkboard.  Sawyer's job was to identify the shapes.  Hayden's job was to draw a line to divide each shape in half equally.  A couple of them, we divided into fourths as well. I would write out the name of each shape as Sawyer identified it correctly, and I would write out 1/2 or 1/4 as Hayden named the fraction appropriately.  After that, they each got to color in a fraction of each of the shapes.

Sawyer pointing to the shapes that I call out for him to identify.

Coloring in 2/4 of the square

We also read a few books and read through the flash fluency cards (although this is losing it's charm with Hayden and I'm having to find more interesting ways to keep up with this).  Both boys also worked on the Reading Eggs program.  Sawyer just started his own account, and he is figuring out the use of the mouse quickly.  He no longer needs my assistance to complete a lesson which is really cool.

And that was pretty much the first week back.  It was minimal, but we got through it, and Hayden even read through two more emergent readers.  He is two books away from earning a trip to Barnes & Noble to buy his first book!