Fun Way to Practice Spelling Words

Have you ever heard of Spelling City? It's this great and FREE website where you child can play games with their spelling words. We used it the last year and are utilizing it again this year. I love it because not only are the kids practicing their spelling words, they are becoming familiar with the keyboard and learning to type in the process.

At our school, the kids have to practice spelling words every night. We have to log the practice and send it back to the teacher each week. You can actually print out some of the games and activities to show your work.

It's a great resource. I have lots of fun sites like this that we use. My kindergartner uses Starfall every day. It's a great learning to read resource.

What are some of the websites that you use? Let's share and make learning a lot more fun!!

File Folder Games

I'm on a file folder kick. I googled file folder games and tons of sights popped up, but I weeded through them and found some of the best one's available. Here are some great site's with free games.

File Folder Fun: Lot's available here! You can search by theme or by age.

Giggly Games: This link will take you to the freebie page, which has some awesome games. Including the one pictured above. They also have some great ones you can buy for cheap.

Child Care Land: This is a goldmine of goodies! Lots to choose from.

Check out this previous post, full of great links and ideas for recycling workbooks.

File Folder Games and How to Recycle Work Books

** For the next week we are going to repost some of our favorite posts from our archives. This was one of the very first posts I did and it is also one of the most searched for in google! Please enjoy our oldies but goodies!**

I love file folder games. I have a love affair with contact paper. The stuff is dang useful. I went through a phase where I made tons of them. I fell another of the phases coming on as Tyson goes into preschool! All of the ones pictured here are one that I made for J.D. several years ago.

This is my favorite one that I have ever made. I actually found it on a church website, Sugardoodle. J.D. loved this one to. You could use any colorful candy, but you have them sort them, obviously, into color. There is also a place that older children can write the number of each group. Dry erease markers are another favorite have to have item in our house. The best part of this game is that I let the kids eat the M&M's afterwards. But this kid, Tyson, he's weird. Note that he is holding a bag of lemon drops in his left hand. He passed up the chocolate for lemon drops! Piper and I happily ate his M&M's.

This is also a fun one. You can practice addition with goldfish! This is a good one to take to church because we take goldfish every week.

Mormonchic ~ Large variety of games.

Tons of LDS themed File Folder Games

Sugardoodle Educational Lesson Plans ~ To get the two games above you have to actually go into the gospel themed lesson plans. For the Goldfish one, you will want to go here and then scroll down. For the M&M sorter, go here and scroll down.

This is a great idea! I actually got this at a yard sale and have since done it with other books. Gradelevel workbooks are expensive. Why not reuse them? Tear pages out and put them into sheet protectors and use a dry erease marker for writing! This is another thing that goes over well at church.

Hopefully this gave you a few idea's that you can do at home! I love that all of mine are being well loved by many kids!

Educational You Tube Video's

You Tube has some great video's that you can find to help your teach your kids anything from letters to numbers, to nursery rhymes. My kids watched a bunch of silly video's today and had a blast. We love this Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Video! Also check out this link for tons of ideas on teaching Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to your kids! Great ideas!

We loved this video of Swallow a Fly. The kids really had fun rocking out to the fun music and they love to watch video's of the computer. For some reason, that is extremly cool. We also love to look up vintage cartoons. Especially at the holiday's. You can find things on You Tube that you can't find anywhere else!! It really is a great resource for summer entertainment and education!!

Educational Links

Lot's of links for you to visit! There are so many great resources on the web for prinable worksheets and activites for your kiddo's. Mandee and I have compiled a list of websites that have online activites and also a list on links with printable worksheets and activities!

First School is full of great activites for your preschooler. They have great printable alphabet sheets in many diffrent styles.

Mommys Little Helper is another great sight for preschool aged children. Ton's of lesson theme idea and schedules.

Sugardoodle!! Melanie is not only an awesome mom, but an awesome teacher! She has some of her summer themed lesson plans available on her sight. Each theme is for preschool but totally adaptable to older children.

TLSBOOKS Free educational worksheets for early childhood through fifth grade.

Writing Wizard allows you to make your own handwriting worksheets and they also offer math worksheets!

Starfall is an amazing interactive sight that starts kids out learning their abc's and offers interactive books and activites for early readers.

KidZone offers a variety of activites for kids up to grade 5.

PBS Kids and Nickjr are full of fun interactive activites. My kids could play on these sights all day long and never get bored. Scholastic is another fabulous website that is full of great ideas.

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/math.html is a great place to find fun games for every subject. This site also has stuff for older grades.

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills-6th-mathbuilders.htm Is another great place for educational games for all ages.But I have a 6th grader and the things on here for him are great. He is learning but it is still fun.

http://www.gamequarium.com/index.htm is a really cool site for grades 3-6. I actually played on it for awhile. It has games and also has printables.

http://www.crayola.com/ is a great place for art ideas, printable activities and online activities.

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/ We have spent alot of time on this website because my son has HUGE interest in science. I just have him look for something to prove and we do it.

Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program

I am so excited about this. The 2009 Barnes and Noble Summer Reading Program is open for participation for children in grades 1 though 6. This is a great opportunity for your kiddo's to earn free books!

First thing you need to do is help your child pick out 8 books to read. As you read each book, have your child write down their favorite part of the book in the Summer reading journal, which you need to download and print from the above link. Then you bring in your completed Reading Journal to a Barnes & Noble bookstore between May 26th & September 7th, 2009. Each child will be able to pick a fantastic paperback novel of their choice from the list provided in the Summer reading journal!! Each grade has several diffrent books to choose from and there is a great selection available! From the Barnes and Noble website - "* Eligible books will be listed on the coupon. Choices must be made from available stock. No special orders. Limit of one (1) form per school-age child (grades 1-6), please. Incomplete forms will be ineligible for free books."

Also, each journal that is turned in, will be entered for a chance to win an autographed novel from Percy Jackson! Pretty cool, huh?

We are defiently going to do this!! Kids love being able to work on goals and to see what they have accomplished! This is just a great activity all around! Happy reading!!

Teacher Appreciation Week

I'm sure that we all have teachers whom we remember. I have several who shaped and influenced my life in way's I don't think they even knew. Mr. Bagley was one of my favorite teachers! He inspired a love of good books and writing. He was also very patient and unjudgemental. He realized that we were just teenagers and that we needed a chance to learn from our mistakes and to grow up. I also loved Mrs. Seegmiller. She lived in my small town and influenced me not only as a teacher but as a person of influence in my community. She started a youth council in my hometown and encouraged us to have pride and to participate in our community.

Teacher Apprecation Week is a week which is dedicated to all of our teachers around the world. It is a time to say thank you to our teachers for all of their help and show our gratitude for all the time and effort that they have put in our education.Make sure to say thank you to those who educate and care for your children. They help us as parents to shape the lives of our children. Their influence can last a life time!

With that said, what do you give that special teacher? It doesn't have to be anything extravegant. A card, a picture from your child, an apple and a thank you note! You don't have to go crazy to let them know how much they are appreciated. I know that Mandee likes to do something each day of the week. Her parents are both teachers and she has felt the profound influence of that in her life and has a deep appreciation for those who choose this career path.

There are so many idea's out in the blogging world. Here are a few that we've found.

Sugardoodle, has an amazing list of ideas! From super simple to super cute to super fun!!!

Skip To My Lou, has compiled a great list. She alway's has great ideas!

Little Birdie Secret's has some darling idea's!

Family Fun is alway's full of great ideas!

Here is a great article, written by teachers about the best gifts they have recieved. Some of the ideas are so inventive!

Stranger Safety

We rented this movie from the library, the other night. I had heard a lot of good about it from other parents and had seen an advertisement on TV for it. OH MY GOSH!! It makes you laugh out loud. For all you parents out there, it can be a little bit over the top and sometimes obnoxious, but your kids will love it. Mine laughed their butts off!! They make it funny and the present realistic situations and settings, that your children may find themselves in. The Safeside Superchick is funny and she makes her point. I think they make it silly and fun and bright, so that the images will stay with the kids. If it was boring, what is the chance that they will remember it?

I have talked to my kids many times about safety and strangers. I have a situation in my neighborhood that warrants it. I thought this would be a great way to reinforce the talks that we have had and it was. I would recommend to any parent that you watch this movie with your child.

You can also check out The Safe Side, for more activities, downloads and tons of ideas for keeping your children safe. If your interested in ordering the video, they sell it on their sight. Check your local library, though. You might just get lucky!!

Has anyone else seen this dvd and if you have what do you think???

Real Hero Posters - Book of Mormon Heroe's

This is the coolest thing I have seen in ages!! My friend, Nicole called me tonight and told me to go check it out the web sight, Real Hero Posters. They have 12 amazing posters which feature hero's from the Book of Mormon. Each poster has a scriptural reference to go along with the picture. I am in awe at how cool these posters are! I love this top picture. It's called Daughters in the Wilderness. How often do you hear about the women in the Book of Mormon? I think I am going to have to order some of these. Go check them out. They are absolutely amazing!