Letter Themed Activities and Learn & Play Link Up #2

Vito and I has started our letter sound of the week activities.  I guess most of you are already familiar with it.  It’s basically a curriculum wherein you introduce and focus on one letter sound a week.  It’s a famous curriculum used for ages 2 – 4 years old (or below).  I used this with Mavi and was totally effective, so I decided to do it as well with Vito. 

I’ve gathered fun letter activities from our previous linkup and you can try any of these to your kids.  They are fun, engaging and easy to prepare!   You will find the links after the image.

Featured Posts for Spring Flowers this Week:

B is for Boat from Every Star is Different

T is for Transportation Unit from Study at Home Mama

U is for Underground, Montessori Inspired Homeschool for Toddlers Star Themed, Dog Themed Unit  from Golden Reflections Blog

F is for Fire: Teaching Phonic Sounds from Study at Home Mama

For this week on The Pinay Homeschooler, I am featuring Vito’s Letter ‘a’ Sound Activities.

 

Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!

Now it’s time for this week’s link party! This is a BRAND new link up for all blog posts that include learn and play activities and hands-on education for kids. We are excited to read your blog posts and to see what you have to share! Please link up below and grab our button to display on your blog.

If you are a blogger, share your family friendly posts here. We are looking for things which include:

• Montessori Education
• Homeschool
• Sensory Play
• Tot and Preschool Trays
• Fine and Gross Motor Activities
• Kids in the Kitchen
• Healthy Recipes for Kids
• Arts and Crafts
• Natural Living
• Free Educational Printables
• Family-Oriented Activities
• Healthy Living

Your post will be featured on each of our blogs where we will pick our favourite posts every other week. That means there is more of a chance that you will be featured!

Everyone, please meet our link party hosts:

Christian Montessori Blog ~ Please visit our CMN FB group!

Vanessa from Mama’s Happy Hive~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jennifer from Study at Home Mama~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Marie from Child Led Life~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jae from Pinay Homeschooler~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Heather from Golden Reflections Blog~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Renae from Every Star is Different~FB~Pinterest

GUIDELINES FOR LINKING
Please link up 1-3 posts
Follow each of the hosts on social media
When you link up, please add our button and place it at the bottom of your shared posts or link back with text link.
By entering a link, you’re giving us permission to feature an image on our blogs. Proper credit & links will ALWAYS be given.
Please visit a couple of shared posts and leave a comment for them
Remember that you must link back in order to be featured

Grab This Button:

<div align="center"><a href="http://christianmontessorinetwork.com/category/learn-and-play" title="Christian Montessori Network"><img src="http://www.christianmontessorinetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/learn-and-play-link-up-150-150.png" alt="Christian Montessori Network" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Please follow

Follow Pinay Homeschooler's board Pinay Homeschooler on Pinterest.

I can't wait to see what you're sharing this week!

An InLinkz Link-up

Top Five Favourite Books (April)

*** Contain affiliate links ***

I asked Mavi for his top 5 favourite books for this month (he keeps on brining these books in school for show and tell) and tell me why.

 

1. Follow the Drinking Gourd 

   "Winter's story begins with a peg-leg sailor who aids slaves on their escape on the Underground Railroad. While working for plantation owners, Peg Leg Joe teaches the slaves a song about the drinking gourd (the Big Dipper). A couple, their son, and two others make their escape by following the song's directions. Rich paintings interpret the strong story in a clean, primitive style enhanced by bold colours. The rhythmic compositions have an energetic presence that's compelling. A fine rendering of history in picture book format."--(starred) Booklist.

   "I like it because Peg Leg Joe became a hero by saving the slaves and bringing them to Canada for freedom".  - Mavi

2. Grandfather’s Journey

   Lyrical, breathtaking, splendid—words used to describe Allen Say’s Grandfather’s Journey when it was first published. At once deeply personal yet expressing universally held emotions, this tale of one man’s love for two countries and his constant desire to be in both places captured readers’ attention and hearts. Winner of the 1994 Caldecott Medal, it remains as historically relevant and emotionally engaging as ever.  - Goodreads

   "I love it because the he and his grandfather loves to travel, just like me." - Mavi

3. The Story of Ferdinand

   A true classic with a timeless message, The Story of Ferdinand has enchanted readers since it was first published in 1936. All the other bulls would run and jump and butt their heads together. But Ferdinand would rather sit and smell the flowers. And he does just that, until the day a bumblebee and some men from the Madrid bullfights give gentle Ferdinand a chance to be the most ferocious star of the corrida—and the most unexpected comic hero. This cherished hardcover is perfect for those who love Ferdinand, and those who have yet to meet him. - Goodreads

   "The part where he sat on a bee makes me laugh, and because everyone thinks he's super strong but actually not.  All he ever do is smell the flower and he's really funny." - Mavi

4. Marvel Storybook

   Life stories of Spiderman, Thor and Ironman.

   "Spiderman is in it and he is my favourite superhero." - Mavi

5. The Glorious Flight

   "This book...recounts the persistence of a Frenchman, Louis Bleriot, to build a flying machine to cross the English Channel.... The text is succinct, caption-like in its directness and brevity....The paintings...add the necessary testure and tone to this marriage. This is vintage Provensen" – School Library Journal

   "Because it is the story of the first airplane to fly in France and England. The pictures are so funny too" - Mavi

You can also get these books from Book Depository.  They ship anywhere for free!

Letter ‘a’ Sound Activities

We've started our letter sound of the week activities a few weeks ago. Vito is 18 months and based on my observation, he is ready to learn letter sounds as he started to say a few words and can mimic letter sounds as I say it to him. 

This letter of the week curriculum is basically not new.  There are a lot of variations out there on teaching one letter a week.  However, I have come up with my own activities and method of implementing it.   I have used this curriculum with Mavi and it has worked for us so I am using it again with Vito.  The order of the letter sound that I am going to introduce to Vito by default is from a to z (with emphasis on the small letter) but of course it may change as we progress depending on his needs, interest and availability of materials.

For those who are new to this, the basic idea is to focus on only one letter sound at a time (a week or more). Instead of having a specific theme that corresponds to a letter sound, we will try to use all the objects in our Letter Sound Basket in our activities to add variety. I also added tray works that introduce basic concepts like colours, shapes and numbers.

Okay some of you might ask me how we do this? Well on a daily basis here’s our schedule we work most of these in the morning, after reading books.  One to two activities a day for about 15 minutes in the morning and if he’s into it in the afternoon, then we do another one.  Afternoon activities are sometimes skipped, as he prefers playing with big brother. What is mostly achieved in the afternoon is reading books as we do it all together, while cuddling in bed.

*** I added links to all the materials we are using here so you will have an idea where to get it.  They are affiliate links, no extra cost on you if you decide to purchase them. ***

Letter ‘a’ sound basket.  Contains the objects we used and the letters.  In here you see an ambulance, alligator, apples, big letter A from Munchkins, magnetic letter A/a from Melissa & Doug (this was Mavi’s and an all time favourite!) and my homemade sandpaper letter.

Letter ‘a’ craft.  I made a small letter a on a piece of cardstock and have Vito stamp it with Do-a-Dot markers.  Once dry, I cut it out and form it into an apple.  I pinned this in our learning wall.  By the way, these markers are really really good! We’ve used them in so many ways and they were still Mavi’s! Can you believe that?? It lasted for so many years without drying!

Note:  Vito enjoyed this activity so much.  He can stamp more letter a’s than I could have imagine LOLApple 1:1 correspondence.  Using the IKEA Ice Tray and Learning Resource Fruit Counters, this 1:1 correspondence teaches little ones basic math concept.  I count as Vito places a green apple in the moulder.  

Note:  This is one activity that stayed in the shelf for two weeks. Vito loves putting the apples into the moulder and putting them back again in the container.  Sometimes he would spill them and put them back again. We do this activity almost every day to introduce counting.

Alligator peg board.  Because alligator have sharp teeth, we use this FantaColor peg board to practice fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination.  Can Vito really insert the pegs in the hole? Well it is a hit or miss! And that’s what’s good about it, he keeps on trying :D  Our version is the portable one that comes with a bag and with different peg sizes.  I chose this so both Vito and Mavi can use it.  The alligator is from Schleich (oh he loves this!).

Note:  As mentioned, this activity is a hit or miss. There were times he loves doing this because he can easily pin the pegs… but he gets impatient and lose interest when he can’t pin them in the hole.

Circle shape sorter.  The shape for this week is circle, since it is the closest shape to an apple.  We used our Playskool Shape Sorter  (this was Mavi’s) and we only use the circle shape. As I mentioned previously, one at a time.  So here, just the circle shape so he can easily identify which hole and will not be overwhelmed. 

Note: This technique has worked with Mavi and it worked with Vito as well. 

Gluing circles.  I’m hitting three birds in one stone here, sensorial activity while learning the circle and red colour.  We did this a couple of times, first using liquid glue and the other glue stick.  He doesn’t like both LOL But he loves putting the cut-out circle shapes in the big circle. 

Note: While doing this activity, I would say “this is a circle”, “let’s stick the red circles in the big circle”.  Mention the key words like “circle”, “red”, “stick” or “glue”. As mentioned, Vito doesn’t like the feel of blue or something sticky. But that’s okay, Mavi was like that too.  It’s part of learning right?

Eating apples.  Of course, snacks include apples!

Note: What could say? He loves eating!

Green and red colour. I’ve been introducing colours since Vito turned 1, and even though we still work on our red basket, I still include colour sorting in our weekly activities so he can differentiate the two colours.  Here I used craft pompoms to be sorted out. He doesn’t sort, I do most of it.  I’ll try first, showing what to do and let him try a few. 

Note:  Again, hit or miss here.  There were times he’s doing it right, and sometimes he randomly puts them anywhere.  He loves our green and red apples the best though :D

Ambulance prints.  Vito loves paints and we do painting as much as possible.  We are using Giotto Bebe fingerpaints, which I totally love because it doesn’t have a smell! And I love how creamy the paints are. 

Note: Another favourite in the house!  He can do this for around 30 minutes uninterrupted. But be sure to keep an eye on the kids. Even if the paints used is non-toxic and washable, these still are not edible!

Recommended books that will go along with it:

• My ‘a’ Sound Box
• Are you an Ant?
• Baby Alligator
• How to make an apple pie and travel the world.

Now, see them all in action!

Don’t forget to pin this for later!

The Montessori Multiplication Board

Spring break has given us enough time to work on our multiplication.  The next thing we did after introducing multiplication using counters was doing the arithmetic using multiplication bead board. 

To know more about these materials and how to use it, here are some resources I collected for you:

• How to use the multiplication bead board (video)
• Multiplication Bead Board Presentation
• Multiplication Bead Board Worksheets
• DIY Multiplication Bead Board

I made multiplication strips for Mavi to work on.  This is similar to the one mentioned in my resources except that I edited the fonts to fit my paper size.

I followed the presentation based on the Info Montessori and demonstrated it on Mavi.  When it’s his time to do the work,  Mavi chose the table of 6 (his age!).  He loved putting the beads in the hole, though at times, it slips through his fingers as they seem to be tiny.  How I wish the beads were a bit bigger!  As he worked on the table, I told him to mark the last count of the beads so he wouldn’t need to count from 1 again. Say, he’s currently at 6 x 4 = 24. So that’s 24 beads already. Moving to 6 x 5, he doesn’t have to count all over again from the first bead.  All he has to do is add 6 to the last count or mark, that is 24.  Bless his heart, he was counting from 1 everytime he moves on to the next multiplier LOL. 

                      

Again, I pointed out that multiplication is adding similar numbers.  So adding a multiplicand to the last count is a much faster way of doing it.

Now, for the work strips, I printed them out and glue them on a yellow cardstock.  Mavi loved how beautiful they turned out.  As an extension, I also showed Mavi how the table of 6 works when laid out using the decanomial beads.   The laying out of beads was a hit! Mavi was hooked.  Too bad though, we didn’t get to finish the work because Vito was already awake and wants attention.  (PS. We don’t do bead works whenever Vito’s around. He still mouths objects)   

Making Montessori Ours has this amazing printable Multiplication Materials Package made out for you. I suggest you check her out as well!

Don’t forget to pin this for later! You don’t want to miss this!

And that’s about it! How wonderful this method of learning is! So hands-on and visual!  We will work on the rest of the multiplication table both in bead board and decanomial beads one at a time. Anyway, this is just to expose Mavi to multiplication.  Once we’re done with all the tables, we’ll start division and it’s going to be even more exciting!

Want to see what other’s are doing?  Check out my Pinterest board for other Math ideas!