Okay, so I fully realize that it's not ACTUALLY summer yet. But, as soon as we hit the 80's or so, and we can run around outside all the time, it's practically summer in my book. So, yesterday I created a new Word Box for my little ones.
I LOVE word boxes. I buy the little black cardboard boxes at the Dollar Store. I have several of them, but you can easily just buy one, keep one theme in the box at a time, and store the various other themes in baggies until needed.
Word boxes are great for children. Here are a few ways I use them and what they are good for:
Letter Recognition: My younger, not-yet-reading children like to hunt for letters they know on the word strips.
Tracing: If you laminate your cards, your children can trace with an expo marker over the letters, which helps them develop and practice handwriting skills. Your child can also simply trace over the letter with her fingers.
Reading/Vocabulary: Older children can use these to practice reading and learning new vocabulary.
Counting/Graphing: Older children also love to count and graph things. Why not use the cards and have your children count and graph the number of letters they find on each card?
Journals/Writing: Children who are able to both read and write can use these to help them construct stories or journal entries. These can be both open ended or a guided topic.
Here are the words in our Summer Word Box:
- bathing suit
- Lake Tahoe (or other bodies of water that your children are familiar with; we live near Tahoe)
- hot
- warm
- BBQ
- swim
- sunscreen
- summer
- play
- outside
- popsicle
- beach
- water
- sun
We like to do word boxes for different seasons, themes, holiday, etc. Here is a post for my Valentine's Day one: Valentine's Day Word Box.
No comments:
Post a Comment