Sight & Nonsense Word Roads

My boys LOVE anything on wheels.  Recently they got to go to a monster truck rally and have been pretending to be monster truck drivers night and day since then.  I decided to capitalize on it with...

Using an 11x17 piece of photo matting I had leftover from a Christmas project, I first drew three winding roads and then colored in the "grass" all around them.  The top two roads include sight words and the bottom, longer road is filled with nonsense word combinations.  

Let me tell you, the boys were EXCITED!!  With a timer set for 1 minute on each road, they sped through the sight words in about half the time.  Then a road block.  Nonsense words are harder, obviously, and as Beck began to realize that he wasn't going to make it through the entire nonsense word course in the allotted time, he got frustrated and started giving up.  But that was the whole point!  Because next time the words will be a little easier and make a little more sense and his truck will driver further on the path.  It took him three tries to finish the nonsense words road and he was jumping up and down when he did. 

The Sight & Nonsense Word Road Course quickly became less of a challenge and now we use it as a great diversion when regular school is getting a little boring.  Maybe I'll flip it over and create a race car speed track on the other side!

What ways do you have 

for helping your children learn the nonsense words?

Mail from...Massachusetts (Happy Thanksgiving)

My first job away from home was on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, south of Boston.  While there I fell in love with New England.  Fortunately I still have all my photos from then because we haven't received our Massachusetts postcard.  It was fun this week looking through them with Beck.  And, of course he wanted to know if I saw a Black-Headed Chickadee (the Massachusetts State Bird) while I was there.  I can't say that I remember specifically that I did...

Sorry I'm not posting my own photos here,
 my scanner is being temperamental

Plymouth Rock
Have you been there?
 It's one of the most disappointing landmarks I've been to,
but still a cool part of history.

Since the 1st Thanksgiving took place in this great New England state, I decided to go ahead and study it without a postcard to go along with it.  Somehow I am always too slow to get the fun popular seasonal books at the library, but this time it worked out okay.  Instead of silly picture books, we ended up with three non-fiction books that tell the real story of Thanksgiving.  Beck & Peyton have been so quiet and patient while we look through them, and I've caught them pretending to be Indians that help the Pilgrims find fish and food and arguing over whether there was turkey at the 1st Thanksgiving.  This time being to slow at the library has worked out for me.

To go along with our stories, I printed out some Thanksgiving printable crafts at artistshelpingchildren.org.  I've provided the links to each one below...

Pilgrim Boy Foldable Paper Craft

(They also had a pilgrim girl)

Indian Boy (and Girl)

Turkey

(This one was not worth the stress, 

and now I can't find the link, so I think it must be a sign)

Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Interesting Kids Through Story

One of the best ways to intrigue a child is by reading them a story.  Each turn of a book page draws them further into a world of make believe (or reality) and wraps them in interest to see how it will end.  Here are a few of my children's favorites:

The Pout-Pout Fish

The Runaway Bunny

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

The Little Bear Series

The Jungle Book

Charlotte's Web

What stories are your kids loving?