Hands On Materials for Kindergarten

Old MacDonald manipulatives

I love using manipulatives.  In previous posts, I have mentioned hands on materials.  Teachers are taught about using items that are to be held in hand.  Tactile learners benefit from hands on materials.  Here, I have pictures of different materials I've accumulated for the kindergarten age children.

A sampling of manipulatives

Closeup of ABC Bingo game

"Opposites" and "feelings" in flashcards

Handmade flashcards in index cards

Shapes in flash cards from different sources

Baggies hold manipulatives by type and subject

Booklets and sight words taken from a workbook

Puzzles combined with flash cards teach numbers

Die with pictured coins

Closeup of money die

Manipulatives out of baggie

Wheels that teach word families

Hands on flip book for word families

Closeup of flip book

Target words of a given book

Dr. Seuss book with target words to teach

I think you'll agree with me: there are many types of manipulatives.  Hands on materials can help teach a kindergarten child.  Even though it can be time-consuming to create hands on materials, it is worth it.  If you have more than one child to teach, it is definitely worth it to make and/or accumulate these materials.  Over the years, I have also bought some of these flashcards, workbooks, and puzzles either from a store and/or other homeschool moms.

Thanks for reading this entry and viewing these pictures.  I hope it has given you some ideas for teaching Kindergarten.

How about you, my readers?  Have you every used hands on material with your children?  Do you have children who are hands on learners?  Your children can benefit from using manipulatives to learn their subjects.  Even teenagers can learn through actual lab experiments, by dissecting and combining chemicals.  It's definitely something to think about.

I hope your children have enjoyed their learning time; Kaelyn has learned by using hands on materials.

May God bless you all with His wisdom and peace.

This has been an entry for Thorough Thursdays.  Hope you liked it.

My Kindergarten Checklist

Kaelyn working hard

I have seen great strides in Kaelyn, my beautiful, smart six year-old.  She is already reading.  Having my children learn to read lets me know that I am doing a good job.  I do have to say that she has learned to read the quickest out of my four children.  It's not that she is brighter than the others.  It is because she has lots of teachers around her in the form of siblings.   

Kaelyn has been finishing up lots of her workbooks.  I've been wanting to pinpoint her progress.  How do I figure it out?  I'm turning to World Book's (an online encyclopedia) website.  It has a webpage devoted to showing the typical coursework for each grade, starting from preschool to 12th grade.  You can find it here:

Typical Course of Study for each grade.

The following list is a sampling of the Kindergarten list:

Social Studies

__holidays
__cultures
__family,
__home
__school
__community
__work
__safety
__human needs
__awareness of self and other

Science

__five senses
__animals
__plants
__seasons
__weather
__seasons
__hot
__cold
__light
__colors
__sun and moon
__planets
__Earth
__measurement
__experiments

 

Language Arts

__phonics
__reading along
__listening to different genres
__familiarity with fairy tales and fables
__drawing
__role playing
__following directions
__brainstorming ideas
__retelling stories
__beginning writing process
__printing

 

Health 

__cleanliness

__choosing right foods to eat
__body parts
__exercise

 

Math

__count to 20

__count items

__more than

__less than

__same amount

__first, second, third positions

__basic sets

__simple addition 

__simple subtraction

__number line

__approximating

__shapes

__calendar 

__clock 

__money

__problem-solving

__charts 

__graphs 

I will print out the above checklist.  I'll quiz her, verbally, on some of these concepts.  Whatever we haven't covered, I will address during the summer.  The great thing about homeschooling is: we can extend the teaching/learning time.  

I cannot claim credit for finding this website.  It was long ago that I was directed to the Typical Course of Study at the World Book Website.  Another homeschool mom informed me about the website.  I recommend that if you do not have clear direction of what to teach while homeschooling, this website will at least give you a list of what needs to be taught.  Admittedly, some topics are covered several times throughout a child's learning career. 

How about you, my readers?  How do you assess your children's progress?  Do you look for progress based on their activities?  Or do you use a formal test to find out how much your children have learned?  If you want to skip expensive tests, you can always visit Typical Course of Study.  You can also use that website to plan for the teaching content for the next year.

I hope your children have enjoyed their learning time; Kaelyn has clearly loved learning with her fun workbooks and worksheets.

May God bless you all with His wisdom and peace.

This has been an entry for Thorough Thursdays.  Hope you liked it.

Organizing My Kindergartener's Home Learning Space

Kaelyn's desk and red pouches for her assignments.

In late March, I had cleaned out my children's rooms.  I had asked the girls to get rid of clothes that they had outgrown.  We had placed all the winter clothes in a plastic box.  My oldest son was ready for his own room so that meant some of the furniture and educational material would have to be shifted out of his new room.  I had to condense a few things.

Kaelyn's books are now within reach in her white bookcase.

I wanted to also make a few efficient changes for Kaelyn, my five year-old.  I had to move more educational material, like age-appropriate books, for Kaelyn into the girls' room.  I had a few challenges.  I had limited space in that room.  I had to think about putting things on walls.  I had the word wall to consider. 

I had to be frugal and shop within my own house for furniture.

There is one important fact I must confess: I stuffed the girls' dresser into their closet.  

Since the girls had less clothes, that freed up one side of the large closet.  That allowed the dresser to go in there.  I also removed a flimsy wood-colored shelf that was really for DVDs and replaced that with a white bookcase that I moved out of my bathroom.  It is white and sturdier for Kaelyn's books.  I wanted for Kaelyn to reach her books safely rather than have them fall on her.

White and light-colored furniture and accessories keep the room from looking too small.

It's better to see this lighter color.

 ...when you walk into a room than...

the objects against this wall, which are darker.

I placed Kaelyn's desk, since it is a dark color, next to the doorway so it wouldn't be the first thing you see when you walk into the room.  We already had the large bookcase that you see when you walk into the bedroom.  I saw some clutter there so I helped the older daughter remove it. We used baskets on a white wire roll away shelf.  The baskets include one for the DS game system with games and accessories; one basket has Kaelyn's puzzles; one has Iris' DVD collection; and the top one houses oldest daughter's special colors and pencils.

The blue wall has the calendar, vocabulary, and sight words.

The word wall also contains word family mini-books.

I decided to pin the blue word wall on a wall behind the door.  The word wall had been on a flimsy stand. The legs stuck out too much. This way, it takes no space at all.  Also, when the door is open, you cannot see the darkness and clutter of  Kaelyn's work.

I had to tweak Kaelyn's work containers.

I remembered that I had a red pouch organizer, which had many slots.  I had been having problems figuring out if Kaelyn had been doing her work.  I was now too far away from her to tell if she was doing her work.  Her desk had been placed in her room, too.  I already had my oldest daughter loaded with teaching Kaelyn; Iris couldn't remember to tell me when Kaelyn had finished a workbook.

This box was holding Kaelyn's work in condensed form.

Often, the folders nested too close to each other.

I pinned the red pouch next to Kaelyn's desk.  I found some neon green sticky notes.  I wrote the names of each subject.  I taped one onto each pouch.  I was then able to place each workbook and/or folder in their appropriate slot.

The red-pouched organizer allows one to see Kaelyn's subjects.  We had been working with three boxes for Kaelyn's work.  One was the plastic one for her immediate work (pictured above, which is now for the impending work).  Another one was a cardboard box for impending work and hands on material, like flashcards with sight words.  The last one was a cardboard box for work already finished and archived. 

It would often happen, with the old system, that Kaelyn would finish a workbook and then go a whole month without doing anything for a given subject.  Then, I would realize and pick up where we left off.  We had wasted precious instructional time for that subject.  Tsk!  Tsk!  

Misc., Chores, Calendar, PE, Math sections...

 and...

Science, Social Studies, Phonics/Spelling, Reading, & Language Arts.

Now, we can all see at a glance if she finishes a workbook.  She comes to me with the finished book.  I find a new one and place it in the slot for the given subject.  For example, she just finished a science workbook.  I found the manilla folder containing pre-copied worksheets.  We placed the old science workbook in the archive box and the new folder in the appropriate slot on the red pouches.  

Well, that's one segment of our spring cleaning/ reorganizing of our homeschool.  I hope I explained it well.  I am sorry that I do not have before pictures.  I was just happy to see my efforts have been paying off.  The girls' room feels more airy and purposeful now.

How about you, my readers?  If you homeschool, how do you organize your children's work areas?  Do you use cubbies, bookcases or desks?  I hope you have been rearranging whatever hasn't been working for you.  A more efficient learning environment leads to better learning.

My readers, may God bless you all with wisdom and peace as you organize your homes this spring.

This has been an entry for Thorough Thursdays.  I hope you enjoyed it.

Pocket chart organizers: (manipulatives can also be found at these websites)

Really Good Stuff website
 

Amazon.com search for pocket charts

My Responsible Five Year-Old

My five year-old acting responsibly.

In light of it being a Friday, I thought I would take this chance to create a light-hearted entry about a wonderful family member.

My daughter, Kaelyn, is such a delightful five year-old.  As you can see from the picture she likes peanut butter sandwiches.  From having raised her older sister with a set of responsibilities, I realized that a hungry child can be encouraged to feed herself.  Her siblings and I have equipped her with the instructions on how to create a sandwich.  It has been satisfying to know that Kaelyn can fend for herself.

The way I see it, if you don't allow a child to make her own sandwich (or some such responsible skill) then you are handicapping him/her.  What would happen if you didn't have time or weren't available to make her a meal?  Would she go hungry?  Would she figure out what to do?  Or would she nag you until you dropped whatever you were doing to feed her?

I'm not saying that a parent should neglect her children.  I'm just saying that one of the best things you can do as a parent is to let them have pride in learning how to do something for themselves. 

Of course, a child at the age of five can also do other things.  She can change out of her pajamas, put on some fresh clothes, and throw the dirty ones in the hamper.  I think that if my child can do those chores for herself, then I have done my job in equipping her to later run her own household.

Yes!  I am thinking ahead.  My children have shown me what they are capable of doing.  I thank God that He has given me the wisdom to direct my children in this area of learning. I am even more glad when He has encouraged me to step back from intervening.

How about you, my readers?  What about the children in your life?  What do your children do, young or old, that make you proud?  It's fine if your children can make music or art.  Can they clean up after themselves?  Can they manage a household?  I encourage you to examine whether your children are capable of fending for themselves sufficiently, in an appropriate proportion to their age.

God bless you all with His peace, my beloveds.

This has been part of my Family Fun Fridays  series.  I hope you enjoyed it.

Word World Website to Teach Reading

Word World Website teaches Reading.

A dear friend of mine in the homeschooling community told me about a wonderful website that I wanted to share with you.  You can find it at:  

http://wordworld.com/index.php

Word World is an educational website that teaches reading.  I especially like the vibrant colors and picturesque view of the world of words.  I enjoy watching the stories as the characters, which have their names written on their bodies, interact with each other.  This certainly is a great website for kindergarten age children.  It is based on a cartoon series that has appeared on Public Broadcast Station.

The following are sections within the website:

Ebooks- A child can view books like The Big Race, Totally Terrific Duck, Duck's First Sleepover, Snug as a Bug, and A Smile for Crocodile.  Each story has a synopsis, with the educational target areas in the fields of phonics, comprehension and vocabulary.

My daughter enjoyed reading The Big Race on Word World.

(My daughter viewed the Ebook, The Big Race.  It read the story, highlighting each word as it was said; she had a little bit of time to create the word.  That portion went a little too fast; however, the story was fun to watch.  This is akin to the website http://www.starfall.com/.)

Videos- A child can watch an episode or have a sneak peek; again comprehension, phonics, and vocabulary are explained on the right hand side.

Duck's Alphabet- This is a game that a child can play to learn letters and their sounds.

For Kids- This area includes the following:

--Activities Sheets-coloring sheets, activities, games

--Episode-Related Activities- list of episodes with a particular game

--Birthday Supplies- invitations, banners, thank you notes, and certificates

Parents & Teachers- This area includes the following:

--Introduction- There is a welcome page to teachers and parents.

--Educational Philosophy- There is an explanation of the use of phonics and words to teach reading based on research, with an emphasis on using the print awareness and letter recognition to aid comprehension; also emphasizes social side of the stories.

--Department of Education Funded Study- According to Education Week, about the selected children viewing the cartoon on PBS during school time-- "the gains the program viewers had made in expanding their oral vocabulary skills and in reading and recognizing words significantly outstripped those of their counterparts in regular classes [who did not watch the show during school time]."

--Parent Viewing Tips- Listed are activities parents can do while and after watching the show.

--Teacher Viewing Tips- Listed are activities teachers can do before, during, and after the show.

--Episode Descriptions- Listed are episodes with a short description of the plot for each one.

Workbook on Word World ties in with The Big Race.

Finally, I was fortunate enough to have a workbook featuring the cartoon Word World.  I found this page that ties in perfectly with the Ebook The Big Race.  

I believe the PBS cartoon, website, and workbook related to Word World are wonderful ways to show a child how to read.  The more a child is exposed to a theme that he/she enjoys, the more likely they are to learn from it.  In our case, I knew that my daughter had been watching the show.  I had bought her the workbook because of that.  Finding the website was a bonus, thanks to a fellow homeschooling mom.

Thanks for reading about our reading fun!

How about you, my readers?  How do you encourage the children in your life to read?  Do you have oodles of books in your home?  Do you let your children read from educational websites?  I encourage you to give this website, Word World, and others like it, a try.

God bless you all with His peace, my beloveds.

This has been an entry for Technology Tuesdays.  I hope you enjoyed it.