Peckin’ Along

We are almost halfway through our MFW material and it is amazing to see the progress this little girl has made.  When I ordered the curriculum in the fall, I decided to order the Kindergarten resources knowing I would pick and choose, and also adapt the material to make it more preschool level.  When I was reading through the teacher’s manual I made mental notes of things that I just would not include in each lesson…things I didn’t think that she could handle.  For example, after lesson 6 the teacher manual suggests introducing a  “blend ladder”.  On this ladder are “textured letters” and vowels.  This activity does just as it suggests:  helps the student blend letter sounds into words.  I had decided that this is one activity that I didn’t think that she would be able to handle until much later in the year, if at all.  Well, she proved me wrong this morning!  We got through our regular material quite quickly this morning, so I decided to just try the blend chart activity.  She was doing great!  So, I went back to lesson 6 and pulled out the reproducible (worksheets) for lesson 6 and she proceeded to sound out/read all the words on the worksheet.  She read “Sam” “sun” “Ann” “man” and “sat”.  You should have seen her eyes light up when she realized she had just read words.  No wonder  Kindergarten teachers claim they have the best job in the world.  I am beginning to think they do!          

Here they are practicing their letters in “sand” (finger Jell-o powder).  This is one of their favorite activities.  We have also used pudding, shaving cream, and rice.  She loves to spell/write all of our names...now she needs to work on spacing:) 

Yeah, it is mostly just playtime for her.  She does know how to draw a “U” and “O”.

On to patterns!  Somebody is not so sure what a pattern is.  Either that, or she just doesn’t care.  Unfortunately, I think it might be the later of the two suggestions!  I’ll have my work cut out for me with the next one!