A month ago I shared these free little math books with you. They came about because I was gathering ideas for a word family series and thought the little books were too cute not to share. Well… I’m still working on creating hands-on word family activities for kids and this week I decided that a […]
How to Choose Interactive e-Books for your Child
Why use interactive e-books with young children? They can be a highly engaging and enjoyable learning experience for both adult and child They introduce children to technology and encourage early computer skills through exploration and experimentation To learn new skills and literacies not present in printed books, such as interpreting audio and visual cues for […]
2015 Free Monthly Calendar for Kids
Edit: January to December 2021 calendars are available HERE. I was looking around Pinterest this week and found some terrific printable calendars. I was intending to compile them together to show you all the different options, but instead I ended up making my own. I wanted children to be able to colour or trace the numbers and to […]
CVC Words When You Only Have A Minute
I’m really enjoying creating these monthly …when you only have a minute… posts. Student learning doesn’t have to happen only in our longer dedicated teaching blocks, there are plenty of opportunities to squeeze in reinforcement activities at other times – especially if they literally only take a minute. These make great hands-on activities for doing […]
DIY Tools to Create the Alphabet
I love learning stations that get little ones playing around with letter formation. This activity combines play dough (yay) and letter shapes or symbols. Instead of providing the full alphabet only the trickier letters have been added along with the shapes necessary to create the rest of the alphabet in lower case. This way children […]
Battling for Sight Word Treasures
When young readers gain confidence with sight words it gives them a tremendous boost. The trick, of course, is getting them to practice without making them feel like they’re working. Making it FUN is the key here! Learning, and being able to remember the words later on, is all about being fully engaged in the […]
Halloween Spooky Sounds Poster
It’s October and that means…. HALLOWEEN! I will admit that being Australian meant I was quite oblivious to the enormity of Halloween until I moved overseas and was ‘enlightened’. After 20 years abroad working in international schools in Asia and watching the amazing lengths Americans (and others) went to in celebrating this event I admit […]
Talking about Feelings with Five Little Ducks
Learning to recognise and understand feelings is an important skill to develop in early childhood as anyone living or working with little ones will know! We want to encourage children to: Recognise and label their own emotions Learn how to manage their feelings productively Understand that other children and adults have feelings too Activities that can […]
Let’s Unearth CVC Words
There are many wonderful (and super fun) ways for our little ones to practice putting letters together into CVC words. This activity is for budding archeologists and explorers who must not only uncover letters, but guess what each word might be in advance. One of the benefits of guessing, and hopefully writing, CVC words is […]
10 Research-Based Tips for Reading With Your Child
Research has shown that the level of a child’s vocabulary in the home before heading off to school is an important indicator for school-readiness as well as predicting later academic achievement. Of course, this is not set in stone BUT, if we as parents want to ensure the best start possible we can’t go past […]