Letter & number activites

During the summer I have been trying to do an hour or two of Summer school. This is just to keep the juices flowing in my boys brains and to give us fun ways to do activities together.

I am NOT a fan of activities that

A. Make bid messes,

B. Require lots of stuff, and

C. TAKE LOTS of TIME to PREPARE!

I have gotten all these ideas from, books magazines or heaven help me, my own brain (can you believe it?) or at least I had not thought of them before but I'm sure someone one else has already :)

Well I wanted to post them because

1. I am a forgetful person, and I will forget these by next summer when I will still have little

kids that want to do fun simple activities.

2. "Someday" by kids will look back on there scrapbooks and see that yes, mom did spend time with me.

3. thought it wouldn't hurt to share the ideas. (although I'm sure you thought them already)

YARN Activity!

this activity is supper easy, all you need is yarn, pencil, paper and glue. I cut the paper into quarters for Aaron and picked letters to practice. He knows the names and sounds but is working on his writing, I read that having kids trace with there finger helps them remember the shape to write it.

For Ethan I but the paper into strips, and he spelled a couple spelling words.

I wrote the word or letter in pencil, then they used scissors to cut the yarn the right lengths, then traced it with the glue. Then added the yarn. Once they dried these have been great flash cards the boys use to help with there spelling and writing. (you could also do this with numbers/math if you wanted)

Science Fun!

This is an easy fun science activity. All you need is paper, kids washable paint, straws, and markers. You take the paper and put a small blob of paint (you might need to water it down a little if it is to thick, it depends on the brand of paint you have) Then have the kids blow air through the straw pushing the paint in different ways. Making funny looking splotches. You can talk about how the air is pushing the pant, you are making the air, (or how ever much details you want etc) Once they are dry (we did ours the next day) use markers to make them into silly looking monsters. (you can also add google eyes, but we did not have them on hand so... we just used markers)

Play-Dough

I picked up these dry erase white boards at target in the $1 bins and they make great mats, (but you could do this on a cookie sheet or just your table if you want)

all you need is PLAY-DOUGH let the kids pick what color the want, then have them roll it into a long snake, Ethan then used his spelling word flash cards to spell out different words with the flash cards (we only do about two or three) Each time he says it and then sound it out, says the letters, and traces it with his finger.

Aaron worked on making his shapes and tracing them with his finger. You could also do this with numbers, letter or whatever you wanted to work on.

Math Train

since my boys are train freaks I liked this idea, all you need is construction paper, glue, markers, and a circle punch and or scissors. I took the construction paper and cut it into different size blocks (not even, not equal) Then punch out a bunch of wheels from black with the circle punch. I only did a few a head of time, and did this more, as they made their trains. They made an engine (L shaped piece) with very uneven hand but smoke stack. (I cut these for them) They glued wheels and wrote their name on them. Then they made more cars for their trains but assembling the box and wheels, then writing a number on them.

Ethan is doing math, so he made +, -, and = cars. Aaron is still learning number names (past 10) and sequence (past 10). We worked on these over time, making a few more each time, then we use them to do simple math problems or for Aaron to put numbers in order. For example I would give him a set of 3 or 4 number and he puts them in order in this train. (you could do with with letters and spelling if you wanted - but it would require more cars!)

counting Fun

I use this for Aaron to count, and learn what numbers represent, and Ethan uses this for helping to visualize his math problems.

all you need is an egg carton, and buttons or small pebble type things

write numbers 1-12 in the inside bottom of the egg carton, and lets the kids put that number of little item is the matching whole. easy, and my boys like it :)

Well, that is all for now, when we do more I will post more. I have really had lots of fun, and I notice that I enjoy my time with them more when things are easy to do, and do not require a lot of prep, planning or stuff. AND having these little things makes learning fun, and is does not feel like learning, and they seem to learn better, and are not board.

origonaly done 7-18-2010