Long and Short Of It - Vowel Sorting Cards

Spiderman has mastered the short vowel sounds. He consistently identifies the beginning sound, is nearly perfect at the ending sounds, and is getting quite good at the middle sounds...

I thought it might be fun to introduce him to the long vowel sounds, although it is a lot to remember for a 3.5 year old!  I explained to him the concept of long and short vowel sounds. Then we decided to sort the cards by their sounds. Control cards made the column headers. If the vowel says its name, it goes in the column for the long sound. I was quite amazed that he took to the concept so quickly.

 My most rewarding moment was Batman trying to teach Spiderman the concept of Bossy E. How the Bossy E makes the vowels say their name. It was hilarious, and quite rewarding...

                
For Batman (5.5), sorting the cards according to their vowel sound, long or short, was not much of a challenge. He wanted to make his own cards. So this set has empty cards for those who are up to the challenge. Batman was  quite happily occupied drawing, coloring, and then figuring out the spelling of the words.

With 110 cards and 20 blank cards, it is sure to keep the kiddos engaged!  There are 22 cards for each vowel, with 11 each for the short and the long vowel sounds, along with one card for each vowel sound. The cards have the vowels on them in the bottom left hand corner for easy sorting.

But the fun does not end there. There are over 20 cards with CVC words, great for beginning readers. There are some blend words, and plenty of bossy e/magic e words as well. It was a great exercise for Batman, trying to read the labels. 

The set is great for pre-readers, because although the labels are there, you don't need to read them. Just say the word out loud, decide what vowel sound you hear, and sort!!

Check out the cards here.




I share at these great places.

Count, Rhyme, Repeat with Free e-books

Or rhyme, count, read, repeat!!

One of Spider-man's current favorite is "Ten Little Ladybugs".

And recently, he has been reading "Ten Rubber Duckies" a lot as well!

They are really are a lot of fun, with tactile critters, magical countdowns, and rhymes all thrown into the learning mix...

Batman, inspired by the books, decided to come up with his own. Of course, he chose to do count-ups, and skip count.
This is all his effort, I only added the clip arts! Amazing how a good book can inspire us :) And what a great way to get ready for KG over the summer. Some of his rhymes are here as images. He started from 1, skip counted by 2, and stopped at 11. Simple. For this one, he decided to rhyme with the number. Start with 1, add 2, you get 3. So what rhymes with 3 that makes sense in the context of monkeys, forest etc, and off he went...

With its predictable ending, and repetitions, this makes a great simple reader.

Feel free to download the book here - Skip Count Up and Rhyme with Monkeys . 

Come up with your own rhymes and combinations. Count up, down, or skip count.
Spiderman soon joined us, and in collaboration, we came up with three more books, which were a hoot. All three are available  for free download as well - just click on the images.

Batman wants to share these with all his friends. I would appreciate if you 'like' us on FB, or follow our tweets, or subscribe to more of our fun ideas, or do them all - so the sharing circle is complete!

Take a peek at our other combinations...


Count up with spotted cows..

Count down with buzzing bees...

Skip count down with little fishies...

 

I would love to see if you have done something similar. Please leave me a comment. Have fun with rhymes!

Sharing at:
Tot School Gathering Place, Montessori Monday, Summer Fun for Kids, The Sunday Showcase, Link & Learn, Stress Free Sunday, Mom's Library, Artsy Play Wednesday             

Things That Go Together Printables

Spiderman loves our collection of miniatures. See this post for his comments and observations about pre-reading fun with matching objects.

I decided to mix it up a bit, and created some "mostly" new cards for more matching fun...

This is a great problem solving and matching game. It encourages your pint sized learners to develop critical sorting, categorization, thinking skills, all the while extending their vocabulary. 
And all this when they are having fun!

I made  26 pairs of cards on a boatload of topics. So it is guaranteed to keep them engaged. 
This set is Batman's and Spiderman's fave.

 This next set gave them both a moment of pause! I could hear the gears turning :)

 The set is free, and available for download at my TpT store here.A big shout out to the wonderful graphics at My Cute Graphics! I adore them. They are cute and free!

Shared at
It's Playtime, Artsy Play Wednesday, Mom's Library, Link & Learn    

Toddler Style Montessori Object Boxes

There is no reason why "big kids" like preschoolers and kindergarteners can't play and learn with these, of course, but these are geared more towards toddlers, and beginners. Both my super-heroes still use these for a variety of language work. But they are at a stage where they are more attracted to miniature ones.

 
Look how small the astronaut and anchor are compared to the wooden apple. I have all 3 and some more for "A", but that is another post :)









Here is a snapshot of what Spiderman played with till 2.5 years or so. You are the best judge of your child. You would know best when to introduce them, and when to graduate from these to something smaller, and more complex! These are all sturdy, does not need delicate handling, can't be swallowed, and can even take some gumming and chewing (mostly!)

.

A-M Toddler Object box

A - wooden apple
B - ball (from a b'day goody bag)
C - caterpillar (came with the Very Hungry Caterpillar book)
D - wooden duck
E - plastic or wooden egg
F - feather from craft stash
G - glasses from Dollar Store
H - straw hat
I - wooden Iguana
J - jar (of baby food)
K - wooden kangaroo
L - plastic leaf
M - wooden monkey


I started with one object for each letter.  They should be the short sounds for the vowels, and hard sounds for consonants like C or G. C as in cup, not as in city. G as in gum, not as in giraffe.

Once the kiddos know their letters, and are beginning to learn the sounds, you are ready! 

As a side note, both the kiddos learned their letter sounds by watching the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD!!
They love the catchy song, and I love the painless way they learn the letter sounds. 

The letter cards shown here came with the DVD. These were already familiar to my kids, so I used them. You can let them match uppercase or lowercase letters to the cards, and then introduce one or two object with that sound, or let them choose the object. We also use the sandpaper letters occasionally, so they can trace the letters.

The toddler version of the object box I stored in the cardboard memory boxes, one with the letters A-M (shown here), and the second one with letters N-Z. I would take out a few at a time.

For smaller miniatures, you could use a metal box, like this one, one for every letter, or combine a few and label them.

Storing your miniatures

You will be amazed at how much stuff you already have lying around the house - from every day objects like clip, or spoon or whisk - for sounds ending in -sk, or fake flowers and fruits and veggies, toys, more toys, birthday goody bags, especially the ones that comes from pinata (we got alien, surfboard, maze-tiny plastic ones that don't work very well, but works great for silent e work, fake finger with nails - use it for finger or nail lol, putty, ninjas, rings from cupcakes, tiny erasers....). Raid the dollhouse, or tree-house for more miniatures. Grab a few of their vehicles. I could probably make a whole alphabet object box just with all the transportation themed stuff lying around the house (hmm...).... You just need mindful searching and pilfering...

Linked to Link & Learn, Living Montessori Now, Tuesday Tots, TGIF Linky Party, Show-and-Share Saturday, Weekly Kid's Co-op

Miniatures for language work

I love doing language work with miniature objects, perhaps even more than the kids!

You can read more about using miniature objects here
Making Language Work More Exciting 


The boys use them for a variety of work, not just language:

• Go together objects (what goes with this - great for pre-reading)
• Category objects
• Making compound words 
• Rhyming objects

• Use the objects in sensory boxes and bins
• Alphabet object boxes (not just for the beginning sound, but middle and ending sounds as well) 
• Grammar work with the farm
• Singular Plural work
• Pink, Blue and Green series work 

• Noun object box (and other similar boxes for adjective, articles)
• Use them in continent boxes
• Math work (counting, addition, subtraction)
• Sorting work (like magnetic and non-magnetic, living and non-living, sink or float)

The possibilities are endless!! Do leave me a comment if you have found more uses for them.

I will follow up with posts and pictures soon.

Great places for scoring miniature objects: Tubes like the Safari Toobs, Hobby Lobby,  Factory Direct Craft, Michaels, Dollar Store, stores that sell doll-house miniatures, Etsy stores like HighPie, toy bins at home (you will be surprised at how much you have at home already)!

Find more about where to get miniature objects at my Pinterest board Language Arts

Montessori pre-reading activity for preschoolers with miniatures

But McQueen is not missing a tire!!

Allow me to explain. My 3 year old (Spiderman) and I were doing some pre-reading activities. We were playing "what goes with this?"

So dog-bone, leaf-tree, bird-nest, so forth! What could be the controversy in that? Right? Plenty, if you are working with super-heroes!! 
Check out the comments from Spidey!

Hey, I thought the umbrella is for when it is raining!

But McQueen is not missing a tire!

 That milk carton is way too big for the cow, Mommy!

Is that my old pacifier, from when I was a baby? Can I put it in my mouth? It's too big for the baby!

That is a cool helmet, can I have one like that?

Can I please play with the mail box? And the iron? And the easel? Our paintings are all on the wall, not the easel! I won't break it, I promise!! Any guesses on what happens next?

The good news, he was able to do most of the associations by himself, although he needed some help from his 5- year old "older" brother Batman! But that's a whole new post altogether!!