Scramble! Sight Words and more

This activity is a fun way to practice sight words and other skills. We printed the sight words on lots of colored cards (circular) and scattered them around the room. Then I would call out a sight word and they would race to that word. 


You can do this with vocabulary, rhyming words, homonyms, synonyms & antonyms, math, States and Capitals, and so much more. 


Older children love it as much as younger ones do, but it gets a little more intense, and they have to be a little more careful or you may have some serious wipe outs as they race to be the first one to the card.

Sight Word Twister

Although we used this game for sight words, it could be adapted to any subject and any grade level. You could use this activity for vocabulary words, parts of speech, math, States and Capitals, and the list goes on.


How to make the Twister mat
Buy a large piece of heavy vinyl (at least 4x5 feet -- the larger the better). Then print out large cards (we used circles) with the sight words or other words for the subject you want to review. Place them under the vinyl so they are apart from each other in a regular pattern as shown in the picture. 


How to Play
Call out one of the words under the mat. Then the child has to place a hand or a foot on the correct word. As shown in the picture above, we printed each word twice, so more than one child could play at a time. You could use a twister spinner so you can tell them to use their right or left hand and foot. 


This was a favorite game to play and made reading sight words lots of fun.

Feather Writing

Here is a great way to practice writing or to learn about the art of writing as they did in the days of the feather pen. You need long feathers that can be purchased at a craft store, or found on the ground where large birds like turkeys are. 


You also need to cut the end of the feather at a slant, and make sure the end is hollow so it will hold the ink when you dip it. 


This was a pre-writing activity I did with my girls in their Kindergarten year. We used beet juice from a can of beets. It's been a long time since we did this activity, so I don't remember if we added anything to the beet juice. I've heard that adding a little vinegar helps the color to be brighter.It would probably be good to protect the table and clothes.  So, next time you want to do some writing, don't grab a pencil, grab a feather and some simple ink -- it's a fun way to write.

Body Boggle Spelling

This is such a fun way to practice spelling. We used a Body Boggle game mat, which has all of the letters of the alphabet. For 4 and 5 letter words, the child would place hands and feet, and even a head on the correct letters in order, to spell the word. An alternative way to play or for longer words, have them jump from one letter to the next as they spell the word.


This game is available on eBay, or you could make your own with a shower curtain liner or large piece of vinyl.

Finger Writing Fun

One of the funnest ways we have practiced writing the letters is using fingers in flour, cornstarch, or pudding. All you need is a plate, cookie sheet or tray. Then add a little flour or cornstarch and let the fingers do the writing. The letters showed up really well when we used a colored plate. 


This is a fun activity for beginning writers, but it is also a fun way to practice cursive as they get a little older. It will be so much fun they will probably want to make other designs as well. 

Can you find the cursive letter Z
and the name "Lisa?"

We used pudding in this picture, and one daughter practiced cursive letters while the other practiced printed letters and even wrote her name. Anticipate a little mess as well as tasting if you use pudding. 

As you can see this is definitely a "hands-on" or "hands-in" activity.

Vocabulary Spelling Game

This is a fun way to practice spelling and vocabulary.

What you need for two players:

A set of small double-sided letter cards for each player

(See how to make them below),

10 vocabulary word definition cards

10 skittles or other candies for each player

How to Play

Divide the definition cards face down in two piles of 5 cards each and place them in front of each player. Each player should also have one set of letter cards in a pile or on a plate next to the definition cards. At the word "Go" the players turn over the top card, silently read the definition, and determine which word it is. Then, they find the letters that will spell that word and put them next to the definition card. When they finish spelling that word they turn over the next card. When they have spelled all the words, they should double check their spelling. Then they get a skittle candy for each one they spelled correctly. If they misspell a word, you can give them a second chance to spell it correctly to get the skittle. Players switch cards and do it again.

To make the letter cards, write each vocabulary word on one side of a strip of cardstock with a space between each letter so you can cut the letters apart. Write the same letters on the other side of the strip so when you cut them apart, the same letter is on the front and back. Then put all the letter cards on a paper plate or in a pile. You can also print them on the computer in this way: Make columns (I used 8 columns). Type each word vertically, one letter per line, with a space between. Add extra letters if you have room. To print the same letters on the other side, you will need to copy and paste each column in the opposite order on the second page. Then cut the letters apart.



This is the vocabulary book we have used.



Jigsaw Words (Dividing Words Into Syllables)

Print ten 2-syllable words with the same syllabication rule on a piece of colored cardstock. Cut the words into cards and let the child determine what those words have in common. Then talk about what the rule is for dividing those words into syllables. Then give the child a pair of scissors and let them cut the word into syllables (encourage them to cut them in fun creative ways). Do the same with words with other syllable rules, but print them each on different colors of paper. Store them in a bag and let the child spread them out and find the matching syllables. In the rules below letter V means vowel , letter C means consonant.

Basic Syllables Rules

VC/CV – Separate two consonants!
Trum-pet, sel-dom, plas-tic, sis-ter,
num-ber, pub-lic, con-test,
con-tent, prob-lem, won-der
V/CV – Leave the vowel!—
Divide after a long vowel
Hu-man, pi-lot, fe-male,
de-mand, se-lect, ho-tel,
de-mon, be-cause,
ba-con, pa-per,
VC/V –Close in the vowel!
Divide after the C (consonant)
Sev-en, pan-ic, lem-on, com-ic,
trav-el, drag-on, sal-ad,
plan-et, van-ish, ped-al
C + final y = ee – Never leave Y alone –
Divide before last C
Hap/py, mes/sy, can/dy, cra/zy, mis/ty,
mum/my, mis/ty, bo/ny, jol/ly, tru/ly

Act It Out-- Four Sentence Types

This was a fun way to learn the four different types of sentences--declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. First we learned about each kind, using an illustrated poster to help us remember what each kind was. Then we picked a sentence card and determined which kind of sentence it was, and then read it in the dramatic way described below.

DECLARATIVE

A Declarative sentence declares something. It is a statement. To help my girls remember this, they would use a Southern Belle voice and say, “Well, I declare!” before reading the sentence. They would also use appropriate mannerisms, like fluttering eye lashes and walking with a swing.  They could even wear a shawl or carry a parasol as well.

INTERROGATIVE

An Interrogative sentence is a question. To help my girls understand what this word means, we talked about how in World War II the Nazis would often interrogate their prisoners.  So for these kinds of sentences, my girls had to read the question in a German accent and use a very stern voice, clicking heels together or pointing fingers, etc., using the “z” sound instead of “th” and “V” instead of “W”. For example, they would say “Zis is an interrogatory sentence. Ven vill ve go?”

IMPERATIVE

An Imperative sentence is a command. To help my girls understand what this word means, we talked about how kings and queens would give commands, so with this kind of sentence, they would pretend to be a king or queen and put on a crown, if they wanted, and say their sentence in a commanding voice, beginning with “It is imperative that you do this.”

EXCLAMATORY

An Exclamatory sentence has an exclamation point, so it invites a lot of dramatic gestures and expressions, kind of like in silent movies where they were over dramatic. So for these kinds of sentences, the girls were encouraged to be over dramatic in their gestures and expressions and voice like they are on stage. They could even faint at the end.

Sentence Cards

Print out examples of the four different sentence types on cards. Then, after you have learned about them, pick a card, decide what sentence type it is, then act it out as described above.

Here are some sentences we used.

When can we eat?

Can we have ice cream?

Do you like green eggs and ham?

Oh, where is my hairbrush?

Why is your hair purple?

Can we play now?

Look at this stuff!

Your face is frightening the baby!
My shoe is on fire!
We’re on the wrong planet!
The monster is attacking!

I'm so excited!

I had the strangest dream last night.

I can’t get up. I have to finish my dream.

I like to eat apples and bananas.

I wish it was Saturday.

I left my shoe at the park.

No, I do not like to eat fish.

Stuff it in the closet.

Shut the door.

Get me a drink of water.

Tell Daddy to come here.

Don’t tell Lisa.

Verb's Tents (Verb tenses)

 In this activity, we set up Verb's tents. We folded 6 cards over to look like a tent and wrote "past," "present," and "future" on three cards, and did the same on the next three cards.   

Then we added campers. The girls cut out and named/labeled their campers as follows: camper 1: Will, camper 2: had, camper 3: have, camper 4 and 5 joining hands: Will and Have.  Here's how the tent assignments were made.

Will sleeps in the future tents (He will go). The other campers will only sleep in tents that are absolutely perfect. So as we figured out which one they slept in we added "perfect" to the present, past, or future written on the tent. Have (Short for Havenshire) sleeps in the present perfect tent (I have gone). Had (short for Hadley) sleeps in the past perfect tent (He had eaten), and Will and Have both sleep in the future perfect tent (They will have finished by then).

  

The girls cut out another camp leader (Jennifer cut a dolphin, Jessica cut a flower with the sign "ing" attached). Well, this camp is a very progressive camp with a progressive leader (the new camp leaders they cut out) that wakes everyone up by shouting "Wake up! You need a little Zing in your life (saying "ing" instead). This is a progressive camp!" This leader goes up to the perfect tents and wakes them up and makes them use a progressive perfect verb for their tent. She makes them add "ing" onto the end of their verb. For example, for the Future perfect tent, they could say "John will have been going . . ." For the past perfect tent, they could say "He had been staying. . ." For the present perfect tent, they could say "We have been eating..."



Past and Present Participle Verb Popsicles

We created paper popsicles to help us remember past and present participles (popsicles) for verbs. One each popsicle was a flap at the top. For the past participles they wrote the helping verbs under the flap at the top. Then they wrote the correct form of the past tense verb as it would be used with the helping verb (like "smiled" to be used with the helping verb "had"). For the present participle popsicles, there was also a flap to the right of the words where the ending "ing" was written. So for those words, they wrote several present tense verbs and then "ing" under the flap. Then they wrote the appropriate helping verb under the flap at the top (is, are, am, etc.)

  

Prep Position Freeze Game

Turn on some lively music and move around. When the music stops, you must freeze in a prep position. Then you must tell what your preposition is. A prep position is any position that shows a preposition and includes an object. Here are some examples:

        Under the table

        Over the rug

        On the chair

        Against the wall

        Inside the box

        Beside the piano

        At the door

        With a friend

        Near the bench

The Monster Trivia Pronouns (Demonstrative Pronouns)

To learn the Demonstrative pronouns, we used Monster pictures to help us remember the name. Each monster held a sign of one of the pronouns. Then, to remember which pronouns are the Demonstrative pronouns, we just had to remember which ones the monsters were holding.

Pretty Kate Naming Natives (Predicate Nominatives)

Predicate Nominatives rename the subject, and usually follow a form of the word "is." We substituted an equal sign for the word "is." To help remember what preticate nominatives are we imagined a pretty little girl named Kate (Pretty Kate)who liked to rename Native Americans (Pretty Kate Names the Natives) by saying their name, and then saying "equal" instead of "is," and then saying another name for them.  We used this illustration to help remember.

Then we learned about Preticate Adjectives, where instead of renaming the subject with another name or thing, an adjective is used in the same way, and instead of the equal sign, we used a variety of passive verbs that are used in predicate adjectives. This is the illustration we used for Pretty Kate's Adjectives. It shows the verbs we used.