I've been trying to think of activities I can do with K that will make learning more interesting to her - to engage her on a deeper level. Last week I had the idea to print a picture of her that I'd taken with my phone and use it in an activity. She really responded to seeing her picture, then asked me to take a picture of her that showed ALL of her (head to toe! Plus it had been pajama day at school, so she looked extra cute.) So I printed that picture for an activity this week.
I also like to think of activities that don't take much prep or special materials. Granted, sending the picture to Walgreens could have been out of my way, but I get photos printed all the time. Other than that I just used materials on hand: paper, double-sided tape, pencil, marker, index cards.
In addition to working to strengthen K's phonemic awareness and phonics skills, I've been trying to reinforce that, faced with a new word, we look at the LETTERS first. (Rather than trying to guess by the word's shape.) Some of the words I chose for this activity are beyond being able to easily sound out, but I sounded them out FOR her, while pointing to the letters. (Modeling a skill is a great way to reinforce it.*)
I cut out the 4x6 picture of her and taped it on a piece of white cardstock. Then with a pencil I designated which parts of her body we would label. Grabbing my pre-cut blank cards (3x5 index cards cut to 1/3s), I wrote all the words we'd be using and put those cards in a pile. Then I showed her one card at a time; if it was easy she sounded it out and if not, I talked about how to sound out the word. Then I handed her the card so she could copy the word down on the line (reinforcing the letters that accompany each word, which she had just heard and said and associated with a picture of herself. Multi-sensory learning, friends.) She stayed VERY focused on doing this, which reaffirms my suspicion she'd enjoy working with a picture of herself.
I was very pleased that she told me excitedly about learning in school that two E's together make the /ee/ sound - so she was excited to read "knee." She had also just told me she knows how to spell "know," so I was able to relate that to "knee" also. :)
* Modeling is teaching by example. It's giving the student a very clear impression of the skill you're hoping to teach, while removing the pressure of expectations. Pretty much - watch what I do, this is the way to do it.
* Multi-sensory learning is something I've written about before. Basically, the more senses you experience a concept with, the better you will learn the concept. If someone only tells you the directions to a new location, you might have a hard time getting there. (I would, at least.) However, if they drew a map AS they told you the directions, you have a higher chance of getting there. Or if you repeated back the directions to the person while moving your hands to indicate which way you'd be turning, you would remember the information better.
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