Skip to main content

Turtle Helps at the Alphabet Hotel

Earlier this year we were gifted with a Geosafari Phonics Pad (sometimes it's REALLY nice that Jackie works at a school supply store!). I put it aside after deciding to use it for Jathan's "school" this year. Starting in August we started using it during our study of phonics for pre-k and it's been a lot of fun.



Part of what I love about it is that it's a complete system. It comes with worksheets that you use as pretests and post-tests before and after playing the game. It also comes with a sort of lesson plan book that gives you suggestions for extended activities. One of the extended activities was making an "Alphabet Hotel."



I drew a simple hotel on half a poster board tracing around a memo note pad to make windows. I wrote the capital letters A-N inside the windows then wrote lower case letters a-n on the sticky notes.



Since Jathan had just gotten a new toy turtle and it hadn't left his hands in 24 hours, it joined us for phonics time. The little letters were cry out (in my best helpless letter voice), "Help, help! We can't find our big letters! Can you help us find our room?" The turtle would reply, every single time, "Why, of course. I'm a friendly turtle. Watch my trick...and I can go inside my shell!" And so that the turtle wouldn't get too carried away the little letters would cry out, "No, no don't leave me! I'm lonely and want my big letter!" So then the turtle would walk the little letter to its room. = )



When we had helped all of the little letters find their big letters, Jathan said, "I want to play it again! That's my favorite!" I admit EVERYTHING enjoyable is his "favorite" but he definitely did enjoy this simple, fun alphabet game.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

5 Reasons I Should Stay Off Facebook

1. TMI So, I remember the weirdest things but one brief conversation I had over 10 years ago stands out to me. It was high school and like all high school girls I had friends, enemies, and frienemies. One of my then-frienemies (we've grown up since then!) was friends with one of my enemies. Standing by the lockers one day, frienemy walks up and says in reference to enemy something like, "She shares too much information. Sometimes it's almost like, 'Hey, guys. I just farted.'" Of course, at the time I ate this up and laughed at her expense but over the years it's been a little reminder that more often than not I need to shut up. Just shut up. I've often been tempted (and have too often given in to the temptation) to over share. I think the Internet feels far safer than it really is. I need to remember that. 2. Friends...or Stalkers? Speaking of "friends", I have 321 of them. I know that number is much higher for many of you, but ...

I Turned Down a Large Sum of Money.

In Alaska there are lots of homeschooling options. The state has a statute which basically says that if you are a child’s parent or guardian you can educate them. The end. No other requirements, no tests, no reporting. You are their mama and in control (as it should be!) Along with having a private tutor or being a part of a religious private school, one option is to homeschool as a part of the public school system.  Because Alaska is so large and areas can be so remote, homeschooling used to be quite the neccessity. It meant schooling out of a box—correspondence school. Now things have changed and homeschoolers have an entire plethora of options. Here you can join a group (sort of extension of the public schools) and if you meet the requirements, you get money to support your students. A LOT of money. Around $2,000 a child.  I have only homeschooled in Louisiana and Alabama both of which give parents a good bit of freedom. I was nervous about joining a group in which I had to...

Why We're Moving to ALASKA

8 years ago at around this time Jackie was graduating from seminary after 5 years of being in New Orleans. We were excited and full of hope. It felt like after years of preparation our lives were now going to REALLY begin!  The seminary had hosted a sort of ministry fair for students to meet with representatives from across the United States. Jackie talked to me about which state representatives he’d like to talk with as we planned our perfect life out in our heads (HA!). He mentioned Alaska which I quickly vetoed; we thought it would be lovely to live near the mountains somewhere out west—maybe Colorado? Montana? However, I went back and told him to talk to the Alaska guy if he wanted to because I didn’t think it was right that I should tell him no. I don’t remember all the states he inquired about that day. I remember him bringing home a memo pad that said West Virginia on it, and I remember him talking ALL ABOUT ALASKA.  Now when God speaks to me I unfortunately do not have...