20 Best Tips

Spring Theme Vocabulary Read, Build, Write Cards

Mar262012
March 26, 2012 by 3 Comments

Since spring has sprung in our area, I pulled together some spring-themed word cards to go along with the Read! Build! Write! Mats.

Spring Theme Read, Build, Write cards

To download the set of cards, just visit the Read! Build! Write! Mats page and click on the ‘Spring’ text link in the center column. You’ll also want to download a set of the Read! Build! Write! Mats and laminate them before using.

More Spring-themed Printables for Preschool and Kindergarten

 

If you are looking for a few more spring-themed printables and learning fun, be sure to check out the following links:

~ Garden Printable Pack for preschool and kindergarten {this is a HUGE bunch of printables!!}.

Garden Printable Pack

 

~ Bird Theme Printable Pack for preschool and kindergarten

Bird Theme printable pack

 

~ Pond Life Printables for preschool and kindergarten

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~ Pond Life Tot Pack from 1+1+1=1

 

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All About Spelling ~ The Story Behind the Program

Aug62010
August 6, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Marie from All About Spelling sent me a link to this video the other day that tells the story behind the start of the program. If I wasn’t already using the program…well, I’d buy it all over again after watching this video!

I will honestly tell you that this spelling curriculum completely changed my perspective on how I teach my children and what I look for in ANY curriculum that we use as a family ~ and I am so thankful for that!
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Preschool Corner ~ Playdough Mats

Mar252010
March 25, 2010 by 27 Comments

This week has been a little ‘off’ at our house and I didn’t figure out why until early this morning when Zachary complained that his ear was hurting. One lovely ear infection diagnosed.

Fortunately I brought Kaleb along for the visit and our doctor checked him out too ~ and he has one in both ears. Why I’m so slow to catch onto these things is beyond me sometimes…

Since both boys were really in rare form, we spent much time ‘playing’ and learning rather than doing our actual work. Our toy of choice?

Playdough!!

I put together some playdough mats for both of the boys to use {and to share with you all, of course}. I just printed them off onto cardstock and rather than laminating them, I slide the sheet we are using into a plastic page protector. Then we can change it out as we want to!

playdoughmatsb

Kaleb’s playdough mats are all alphabet based. Each one is 8 1/2” x 11” and has both the uppercase and lowercase letter on the sheet along with a picture of something that starts with that letter/letter sound.

alphabet playdough matsalphabet playdough mat
 

We tried rolling the playdough, but Kaleb preferred snipping, snipping, snipping it instead. Needless to say, we had chunks of playdough everywhere and that is how Kaleb filled in the letters. We talked about the letters, traced them with our fingers, made the letter sounds together ~ and just had fun!

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Zachary’s playdough mats are actually tied into our All About Spelling lessons {I’m sneaky like that}. He said he was ‘too big’ for the letter mats and wanted his own to use. :)

spelling playdough mats

Since we’re using All About Spelling with him, I put together some spelling word mats to go along with most of the lessons in Level 1. Nothing fancy, mind you, but it has been great reinforcement for him on the phonics rules that he is learning each week. Each mat has the lesson equivalent in the bottom corner {i.e. 1.15 is level 1 lesson 15}.

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! The updated guidelines can be found here if you need them.

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Filed Under: Early Learning Printables, Preschool Corner, Preschool Printables, spelling 27 Comments

Cobweb the Cat ~ Beehive Reader {Review}

Feb142010
February 14, 2010 by Leave a Comment


image For the last two months I have been using the Cobweb the Cat with Zachary {our recent 5 year old} to go along with the All About Spelling Level 1 program. Cobweb the Cat wasn’t available when our older two were learning how to read, otherwise I would have been kicking myself for not having owned it sooner!

Cobweb the Cat is the first book in the All About Reading program. It goes hand in hand with the Level 1 Spelling program, so as your child is working through their spelling and learning the spelling/reading rules they can put it into practice using the Beehive Readers. Even though it goes along with All About Spelling, it can be used independently as a reader for any child.

There are ten short stories in the reader. To give you an idea of what the stories are like, Zachary recently read the short story “The Pond” and we’ve been working our way through the other stories in the book a little at a time ~ here’s a sample of a page from “King Sam and the Bat”.

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Great features of Cobweb the Cat:

  • Hardcover {making it rather durable in the hands of a certain 5 year old}
  • The pictures in the stories are all ink sketches that are beautifully done ~ yet don’t always reveal the storyline, so children don’t use the pictures to predict the story.
  • There is a handy chart {and I love charts} showing you what spelling lessons correspond to the different stories in the Reader
  • Underlining of text {it looks similar to a notebook page} helping children track the words and read more easily.
  • Wording layout encourages children to read in phrases rather than reading word-by-word
  • Short stories that are realistic {and enjoyable for adults to listen to}
  • There are more coming!! Four more readers are scheduled to release by the end of 2010 along with a teacher’s manual ~ the books are being illustrated right now!

Find Out More

Cobweb the Cat {$19.95} is available through the All About Spelling website. Shipping has been fast in my experience and Marie is always helpful in answering any questions that I might have. While you are browsing the site, be sure to also check out the great spelling program that we are using with all of our children.

Click on the Homeschool Crew banner to read other reviews about this product.


This product was given to me for review purposes, and I do not have to return the product to the vendor. I was not paid for this post. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.

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All About Homophones

Jan262009
January 26, 2009 by 2 Comments

A few months ago I reviewed a program All About Spelling by Marie Rippel. One that I will be using for years to come with our kiddos.

I am that much in love with the program.

Needless to say, I was thrilled beyond measure when they sent me a second product of theirs to review called All About Homophones: Your Complete Tool Kit. This is an amazing resource to help teach your children homophones quickly and easily (homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently…be/bee, sea/see, etc…).

All About Homophones comes with homophone worksheets, games and activities, and includes over 200 pages of teaching tools and resources for you to help teach your child about homophones. The graphics alone in the book are wonderful and the curriculum itself is even better!

My girls have loved playing card games such as Go Fish!, Pig, Old Maid and more to help in learning the different words and their meanings. The information is presented in such a fun and interactive way that the girls forgot we were doing school – and to me, that’s what learning is really all about!

Everything that you need for All About Homophones is included in the book you receive: reproducible pages for the card games, worksheets, graphic organizers, crossword puzzles, student record sheets, grade-level lists, teaching plans, and more! You can purchase a softcover printed copy ($19.95) or an ebook version ($17.95).

And if you haven’t heard about All About Spelling, check out my earlier review about their curriculum. The All About Homophones Tool Kit comes with a money-back guarantee too – 30 days, no questions asked. I’ll leave you with this fun translation from the homophone machine:

“Awl About Homophones is a grate tulle

two ewes inn you’re school thyme.”


See? Even I am having too much fun with it!

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Filed Under: Opinions and Reviews, Reviews: My Favorites, spelling 2 Comments

All About Spelling Review – Homeschool Spelling Tool

Dec42008
December 4, 2008 by 9 Comments

We received this product at no cost in exchange for our honest review. All opinions expressed are solely mine.

I thought we were perfectly fine with the spelling program that we were using until I started using All About Spelling with the girls. Now I’m hooked on this homeschool spelling program and thrilled that our kids look forward to spelling time and we love doing it together. We have worked our way through level one and will be starting level two soon.

Each lesson book in All About Spelling comes with a materials packet that includes: flashcards, index card dividers, tokens, progress charts, a completion certificate, and other tools to help you teach. The program also uses letter tiles that can be used in all six levels. The letter tiles are not included in the material pack of each level (so that you wouldn’t have six sets). They can be purchased separately for $12.95.

All About Spelling teaches “phonograms” – letter combinations that are the base for building words (a cd-rom of the sounds is also available for purchase if you would like to hear the exact sounds of each phonogram).

What I am loving about the program:

  1. The lessons are amazingly easy to follow: Step-by-step directions are given for each lesson in the level, including all the materials that you will need for the lesson.
  2. You can customize each lesson to your children’s needs. We went through the early lessons rather quickly and then paced the lessons at a rate that was comfortable for us.
  3. Review: Each lesson includes a way to review the steps and rules that have been taught in previous lessons, along with reinforcement for the lessons that were learned during that lesson.
  4. Hands-on materials: The program uses letter tiles that you can make magnetic to spell out the words and sounds that you are practicing. There are also flashcards included in the set along with the teacher’s manual. This hands-on aspect has really helped in our learning.
  5. Clear/direct spelling rules: All About Spelling teaches clear rules (and notes any exceptions if there are any to the rule) – even I’m learning a thing or two!
  6. It will be a complete curriculum from preschool to high school. It’s a one-stop spelling curriculum, and I LOVE that!
  7. Price!! Both the level one and level two sets are only $29.95 each and can be used in the years to come with younger children since the materials are not consumable (a HUGE plus for me!). Levels three and four are $39.95. If you are teaching more than one student at a time, you can order additional materials packets (for around $12.95 each).

There is nothing that I haven’t been pleased about with this curriculum – seriously! If you are interested in learning more about how to teach using All About Spelling, know that they a 100% learning satisfaction guarantee. This is definitely a program that we will be using through the years with our kids!

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This All About Spelling Review was written based on our personal use of the program. I was provided the program to review in exchange for my honest opinion.

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Filed Under: Opinions and Reviews, Reviews: My Favorites, spelling Tagged With: 9 Comments