word building

learning during read-alouds: oral language development

September 12, 2011

Sometimes, simple is better.  Sometimes, more choices make us more confused. If Maddy, Owen, and Cora were shown an amazing pallet of face paints and were able to choose anything in the world they wanted designed on their cheeks or arms, I’m betting they’d all balk. Either it would take 30 minutes for them to [...]

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back-to-school shopping with three crazy-cool kids

August 15, 2011

After our crazy-successful Smart Summer Challenge, I needed a little week-long offline vay-cay to say the least! Our Smart Summer Challenge was a smashing success (woo-hoo!), but blogging daily for six straight weeks had me just about nutty by the time I hit day 42.  So a quick trip to Florida to do some work [...]

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playing with numbers: counting, matching, spelling, and more!

May 10, 2011

My Owen has been enamored with numbers from the time he was teeny. He’s got a brain for numbers, he’s got a thing number puzzles, and he’s got a way of looking at numbers that I cannot understand. But I do understand that though his math skeeeels will far surpass mine most likely by the [...]

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building words outside, on the fly, WordWorld-style

April 26, 2011

Cora and I were just hanging around out front last night, relaxing in the breeze and getting some fresh air while Maddy, Owen, and my husband hit the driving range. We were  chatting about the trees, about Brady, and about our neighbor’s new puppy when she found a sick on the front porch. LOOK MOMMY!!! [...]

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word building, name building (and crossing the line)

April 6, 2011

I try really hard to mix things up for Owen and Cora during homework time; some days they just color.  Some days they paint.  But at least 2-3 times each week I sneak in some specific literacy or math-related activities. And if they express an interest in doing something fine-motor related, I’ll certainly let them [...]

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lunchbox notes: valentine’s day knock-knock jokes

February 2, 2011

Yikes! Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and although we’ve been busy over here planning our Valentine’s Day cards, I’ve been sneaking around making more lunchbox notes. Our family’s still on a knock-knock joke kick, so I ran with that again for our Valentine’s Day-themed notes. Really, I’m of the notion that any way [...]

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building words with letter lids

March 24, 2010

We have been rockin’ it out with our alphabet letter lids since we made them a few weeks back, and occasionally I’ll throw in some word building when the kids are in the mood. I had a bunch of bigger lids that were just waiting to find a new life outside of their ole lid [...]

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boot camp and backyard learning

March 6, 2010

Today, I will be enjoying a day away at Baltimore Bloggy Boot Camp, learning a bit about SEO, PR, and Social Media while meeting some new local bloggers and hanging with some of my old pals. I’m very much looking forward to it, but I know I will be missing one of our first warm [...]

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help with letters b and d

March 4, 2010

As I’ve said very recently, letter reversals are quite normal for emerging readers and writers. But there’s absolutely nothing wrong with helping our kiddos remember the tough ones. Back in January, I saved a Word World episode because I thought that the way it handled the tricky letters b and d was really awesome. Every [...]

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white board writing

February 19, 2009

For some reason, all of the students I have ever worked with have always loved using dry erase markers and white boards, and the same has proven true with my own little students, right here under my roof. Maybe it’s the novelty, maybe it’s the ease with which the letters and marks erase with a [...]

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S.T.A.M.P. D.A.Y.

February 1, 2009

At a garage sale years ago, I paid a woman $5 for what seemed like every single stamp that had ever been made; she was moving, was tired of stamping, and wanted them out of her house. So I lugged them home to my teeny-tiny apartment thinking that one day I would put them to [...]

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