F-I-V-E!

From little baby boy…

 

Literally, the first picture we took of him – and he’s sticking out his tongue at us!

 

 

 

   

one                                           two

    

three                                   four

… to a big five year old!

Look out kindergarten; here I come!

What we’ve been doing during the blog hiatus–post #2

Aikman celebrated his preschool graduation!

 

 

Aikman and his two best friends – Jenna and Dale – saying their lines in the program.

 

 

 

 

 

Showing off his diploma!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aikman and his teacher – Ms. Rachel.

What we’ve been doing during the blog hiatus–post #1

While my computer was having issues, we were busy with school and other things… one of our field trips was to the Bledsoe Fort Colonial Fair.  It was a wonderful learning adventure – both for Aikman and myself.

 

 

The militia started the festival off with a bang!

 

 

 

 

 

This French guy is recruiting kids to make lace for him.

 

 

 

 

 

Holding a baby sheep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent to the stockade!

 

 

One of my favorites from the Colonial Fair was the two people dressed with “hobbies.”  These were costumes that the people wore during this timeperiod so that they looked like they were riding a horse (or in one case – a pig).  I wish I would have taken a photo of this, but unfortunately, it was near the end of our time… and I was a little tired of taking photos.  Next time…

Review: Word Wheels

 

I recently was given the chance to review some of Montessori Print Shop’s products.  Since I’ve been working hard on revamping some of my language materials, I chose to review their new Word Wheels.

In the downloaded file, you will receive 15 different combinations of word families for your child to practice, primarily that correspond with the Montessori pink language materials or CVC words.  They include:  -ad, –an, –ap, –ar, –at, –ay, –en, –in, –ip, –it, –og, –op, –ot, –ug, and –un.

Each word wheel contains two circular parts – a circle with a single letter wrapped around the edge, and a second circle that has the designated family (with a clue picture for one word in that family) on the front.  The wheels are held together with a brad. 

 

The first wheel that we used was the –at family wheel.  The words that are included on this wheel are:  bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, rat, pat, and sat.

Here you can see Aikman spinning the wheel and saying each word.

This is also great practice for determining rhyming words that could also be included on this wheel.

What I really like about this e-file is that there is a variety of words that are included on the wheels, including some that my son was not familiar with.  This gave us an excellent opportunity to talk about additional vocabulary words, such as pug and lad – not commonly heard words in our household.

After completing the first couple of wheels, Aikman needed more incentive to return to the wheels and repeat some of the word families.  So, I came up with several extensions to go along with the wheels….

1. Matching – I brought out items from our sound boxes that matched the CVC words on a particular wheel. When he sounded out that word, he would find the object and show it to me.

2.  “Go get it…”  In this game, he would spin the wheel and then stop on a word.  He would have to sound out the word, and then “go get” that item.  This was a wonderful extension, as it involved him processing the word and then physically moving to find the object (a wonderful extension for a kinesthetic learner!) 

3.  “Say and write…”  Again, Aikman would spin the wheel and stop on a word.  He would sound out the word, and then write it on his dry erase board. 

4.  “Good or silly word?”  This is how I actually determined with which he was unfamiliar.  He would spin the wheel and stop on a word.  He would sound out the word.  If it was a “good” (aka “real”) word, then he would state that it was a good word. If it was a “silly” word (ie a word he had never heard of), he would write it down.  I did not correct him whether the words were real or not; rather, I just noted them and made a point to take about these words in terms of vocabulary.  For instance, I would ask him, “Can you think of different words for ‘boy’?  Did you know that ‘lad’ is another word for ‘boy’?”

My thoughts:  I have truly enjoyed using these word wheels with Aikman.  It is a nice alternative to the sliding word family activities that I had previously made for him.  Plus, for the bargain price of $2.99, you get 15 different word wheels that are fun, and with a few simple extensions, they encourage language activities that your child will repeat over and over again, even after the new-ness of rhyming the words has worn off!

(Personal note: in the photo at the top of the post, the actual size of the word wheel is approx. 7 inches in diameter, which is the –at word wheel on the left. To conserve paper, I printed the second wheel using the 2-in-1 option on my printer; however, several of the letters are difficult to see due to the reduction in size; I would not recommend printing using this format.)

Thank you MPS for allowing us to review these fabulous word wheels!

Disclaimer:  I was given this product free of charge from Montessori Print Shop, in exchange for a review.  I am offering my honest opinion of the product, as a part of the review.