Weekly Highlights: March 8-12

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

This week, check in with our teachers for some great highlights, outdoors photos, and a Learning Made Fun tip for blending spelling and fishing!


TWLS kids at play in the snow.

From Sarah Trout:

We are centering our activities around a camping theme.  For letter/sound correspondence lessons, we pretended to fish from a raised beam, swat bugs, water ski, canoe, and star gaze.  Everything this week focused on building tactile awareness, balance, and vestibular and proprioceptive movements.  We are practicing writing the letter N, and recently added C and W.

We are also going to make an arts & crafts project of a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly.

Here’s an example of what we did for our water-skiing adventure, to make it both fun and educational.  There were paper bugs with letters on that that were stuck to a board.  Each student would stand on two scooters and get pulled around the room to the board.  Then, I’d tell them which letter to swat with the fly swatter.  As they swatted each letter, they would say its sound.  After practicing, they’d switch pulling and water-skiing.

Fishing for the proper letters.

We’ve caught a “D”!

Next week will be all about St. Patrick’s Day!

From Katherine Taylor:

We had a blast last week doing the Dr. Seuss Read Across America Day.  I was so proud of everyone’s participation and expression in their reading – just like they display in class every week. We all made French Toast, as well as Green Eggs and Ham in honor of Dr. Seuss. Take a look at all the kids cooking (with a little help from Ms. Trout)!

From Kim Gallant:

This week in the Sensory Integration classroom, the theme is camping.  We are continuing to focus on counting by 5’s, time telling, money identification and value, addition, spatial concepts, and rhyming.  Our activities have a fun outdoors twist that provides the necessary sensory stimulation to help the children organize and prepare their bodies for learning. 

This week’s “Learning Made Fun” idea:
Go Fishing for Words. 

Purpose: A new and fun way to practice sight words, spelling words, the alphabet, letter sounds, number recognition, math facts, and hand-eye coordination.

Materials Needed:
• Fish made from colored construction paper
• Paper clips (large)
• A magnet
• A stick/pole
• String
• Bucket

Directions:
Cut fish out of colored construction paper.  Write a spelling word, sight word, or letter on each of the fish.  Clip one paper clip to each fish. Attach a string with a magnet tied to the end to a short stick or pole.  Scatter the fish on the floor. 

Take turns dropping your line into the “pond.”  When your child catches a fish, have her take it off the hook and read it.  If she correctly reads the word, it’s a keeper and the fish is collected in a bucket.  If the word is missed, read/sound out the word for your child and throw the fish back into the pond for another try.  When it’s your turn, encourage your child to help you read/sound out the words.  At the end, count up your fish to see who caught the most or the biggest word. 

For spelling practice, turn the fish upside down in the pond.  As your child catches the fish have her hand it to you to read.  Have her spell the word out loud or write it down.  If the child spells the word correctly, she gets to keep the fish.  If she misspells the word, have her look at the word and spell it out loud/write it in the air.  The fish then gets thrown back in the pond to try again.   You can practice letter identification, number identification, letter sounds, and math facts.  This is an exciting way to make learning fun and memorable!

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.