ofamily learning together

Using Activity Village for homeschooling

Posted on August 18, 2015 by ofamily

I know lots of people already know about the Activity Village website but most people think of them as a website with colouring pages and craft ideas. And yes they have lots of great craft ideas and we have actually used some of their colouring pages as templates for fun Maths activity – our butterfly doubling. But their website actually has a number of educational pages which are great to use with young homeschoolers.

We are still getting to know the website but these are my current top Activity Village pages to use in your homeschool. (UPDATE – when I first wrote this post all the pages I used were Free to download but they are now all included in the Activity Village membership deal)

Yellow lined writing paper. Yes yes I know this is just a lined page but if one of your kids has ever battled with their handwriting you will appreciate how finding the right lined page that helps them can be vital. For my daughter this page was just that.

Letter Doodle tiles. Love these. I think these are great for kids to use when they are learning how to spell their names or learning sight words. The kids can decorate the letters however they want (what about some letter mosaics ?)

Word tracing pages. They have a bunch. So far we have used the word tracing pages for the colours, numbers, days of the week and months of the year. My son really likes using these pages to write his letters but he also likes using his magnetic letters to copy the words.

We also really like these colour worksheets.

Word Searches My daughter loves doing word searches and I have to admit they have a massive selection on the Activity Village website. My son is just starting to join in, he looks for the pattern of letters.

Story starter pages. I am always on the look out for ways to encourage my daughter to write more so I am glad we found these. We are going to be giving some of these story starter pages a try in September.

Maps. They have a large selection of maps and some lovely around the world pages which go really nicely with a country study.

Times table posters. Theses are simple and not too overwhelming for the kids. We actually have this 5 times table hanging up in our kitchen at the moment. They also do a version of this with the words included – Times table poster with words.

Their templates. Yes you can use these for arts and crafts but you could also use them for making stick puppets or the simple flower template as a way of revising number bonds. My daughter did this and really enjoyed the activity.

There really are so many great pages on the Activity Village website I would love to hear which ones are your favourites.

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Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged activity village, foundation stage, home ed, homeschooling, ks1 english | 2 Comments

Letter and Sound folder part 2

Posted on August 16, 2015 by ofamily

I have been collecting more resources to go inside my son’s Letter and Sound folder. If you missed the first post where I shared links for all the FREE resources that I am planning on using here it is – Letter and Sounds folder part 1.

This blog post I am going to share some of the resources that I have downloaded from the Twinkl premium packages and a few examples of how I plan on using them.

I love this I spy alphabet (Twinkl Classic) page. I have laminated ours as I already have a few different ideas on how we can use it and I want to make sure it lasts.

I think it will go nicely with a letter hunt using our Letter sensory tub. The idea being that they search for a letter in the tub and once they have found a letter they use a magic pen (white board marker) to circle the same letter on the sheet.

My daughter is also in the process of making some Capital letters for her brother using her Hama Beads. I was thinking we could also use these Hama Bead letters with our I spy alphabet sheet to match the Capital letter with a lower case letter.

And we could also hide either the Hama Bead letters or his magnetic letters in a small bag (pillow case will also work) and then get him to find a letter, guess what letter it is based on how the shape feels and then find the letter on the I spy sheet. And maybe we could combine some letters with some Maths and make our own tally sheet counting how many of each letter they can find on the I spy alphabet sheet. The opportunities for using the I spy alphabet sheet are endless.

We have already used some of the confusing letter pack (Twinkl Classic) before but it is one of those activities that I do like to repeat a few times as it is something that you want to make sure they understand so I am including these aswell. My son likes using his Dot marker pens for these (Bingo markers) but you could also use round stickers or the kids could colour them in.

As anyone who reads my blog knows we love our peg cards. We actually have a small container on our bookshelf which always has different peg cards in it and the kids can get it down whenever they like. My kids also really like using their “magic pens” (white board marker pens) on their peg cards so I normally laminate ours.

So since I know peg cards are always a hit I had to include these two, the missing letter peg activity and the rhyming matching word peg activity ( both Twinkl Classic)

My son is already loving these letter formation posters (he started doing some while I was busy laminating them) so these are going to be reappearing in his folder. I know that printing out each letter on a single piece of paper and then laminating them seems like a lot but after watching my daughter really battle with her handwriting I think it is worth it. I really like the way these show how the letters work (and my son has been doing them over and over again so I do think it is worth it). Oh also Twinkl Classic.

But you could also print out this large letter formation poster where all the letters are on one page if you wanted to save paper and ink.

I also think I might re-include the Bertha on the Bus activity. We did it a while ago and actually both my kids enjoyed playing with it so I think we might try it again.

I am sure that I will adding more resources to our folder as we progress but for now I do feel like I have at least done some planning.

If you would like to see more ideas for the letter and Sounds folder please do let me know.

Please note – all links/ references to Twinkl were correct at date of writing this post.

Posted in foundation stage | Tagged alphabet, home ed, homeschooling, learning letters and sounds, Letter and sound folder, Twinkl | 2 Comments

Making more Maths peg cards

Posted on August 13, 2015 by ofamily

Stuck inside all day waiting for two separate repair guys to come and fix items in the house. Not my favourite way to spend a whole day but I suppose a good excuse to get some more prepping work done. I wanted to complete part 2 of our Letter and Sound folder but the colour ink in my printer is complaining saying I have used too much (how could that be I never print ??).

Lucky one of things on my list of goodies to make only required Black ink so new Maths peg cards is just going to be the stuck indoor activity for the day. I have made number recognition peg cards and money peg cards before and they have always been a success with the kids. I like using these peg cards as my kids always prefer doing activities like this instead of worksheets and they end up strengthening their little hands while they are using the pegs so all in all it is a win-win situation for me.

The first set of peg cards was these cute Adding One cards for my son. I used the FREE blank peg card template from Twinkl and I used some existing stickers out of the kids art and craft supply. The peg card template prints 3 cards onto one page, I find it is best to print on card.

I think the stickers are a combination of Tesco’s and Yellow Moon. I like these foam stickers as they are slightly raised but it does mean I could not laminate the cards. Now that I have finished these Adding one cards I am thinking about making another set as I do love the end result.

I also made a few Tally mark cards. I just drew the tally marks onto the card with my black sharpie. Very simple but it does the trick.

And lastly I made these word recognition cards in Afrikaans for my daughter. When I prepare activities for one kid it is almost a guarantee that the other one comes and asks me to do the same or similar activity. So I am hoping that when my son does his Adding One peg cards my daughter will then give these Afrikaans word recognition cards a go.

And this evening as I was finishing up the cards I had a little visitor who just could not resist having a go.

After having a go with this adding one cards he got out his old number recognition cards but as these ones are laminated he choose to use his “magic pen” to circle the correct answer. (The number recognition peg cards in the photo below are FREE to download from Twinkl).

So now I am thinking that maybe it would be better to use normal stickers and not raised foam stickers so that I can laminate them, that way he has the option of using the cards with pegs or with his “magic pen” (white board marker).

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Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged adding one, Afrikaans, foundation stage, home ed, homeschooling, maths, numbers, peg cards, Twinkl | 2 Comments

Letter and Sound folder using FREE Twinkl pages

Posted on August 9, 2015 by ofamily

While the kids are enjoying a bit of a summer break I am trying to get a few goodies prepared for our new learning year.

My son is desperate to read. So in line with his strong desire to read I thought I would set up a Letters and Sounds folder for him. The idea is that I will include one or two activities in the folder for him and then as he completes them I will rotate the activities. I am trying to get as much of the laminating and cutting etc done now so that the cards and pages are ready and I can just slot them into the folder as I need to. I thought I would divide the activities that I am preparing for his folder into the ones that are FREE to download and the ones that are part of a premium package. So all the activities that I am including in this blog post are the FREE pages and I will do another separate blog post later on in the week showing which Premium pages I also planning on using.

I am starting off with this alphabet mat.

I have laminate it and I am going to stick it onto his folder so that no matter what activity he is doing he can always refer back to it if he needs it.

He already learnt most of his Upper case letters (capital letters) when we did the penguin folder earlier on in the year but I like redoing basic letter activities a number of times with the kids to make sure we have not missed anything. So I am including this Ice-cream Upper and Lower case matching activity for him.

My son has used these road letters in the past and loved them so I am going to reuse them again. I printed ours so that there were 4 letters on each page and then I laminated them so he can trace over the letters with his “magic pens” (white board marker pens).

I have also laminate these What’s in the box cards. I plan to just use a few of these at a time. The phase 2 cards contain lots of really simple words which will be great for little ones just starting to read basic 3 letter words (CVC words). My daughter has already been using these cards to teach her toys how to read (she has a very clever pooh bear).

And I really like these missing sound cards (phase 2). Great for using with a white board marker.

And lastly I am planning on using these CVC word frame cards a bit later on in the year. I really like the fact that the block for each letter indicates to the kids if it is a tall, short or tail letter. I know my daughter would have found these useful when she was just beginning to write.

I really like this idea and fingers crossed my son will enjoy using his letter and sound folder.

Posted in foundation stage | Tagged english, home ed, homeschooling, Learning to read, Letter and sound folder, Twinkl | 2 Comments

Water colouring paintings using felt tip pens or marker pens

Posted on August 8, 2015 by ofamily

I do not know where my daughter got this idea from but I think it is great. We have been doing a lot of water-colour painting lately but today my daughter used her felt tip pens (marker pens / Kokies) to draw a picture and then she used a paint brush to add some water and voila she had a brilliant water-colour painting.

One of the things that I love about these pictures is that you only need a basic picture to start with. This means young kids can create a really great looking picture. This was a big plus with my son. As soon as he realized he could make one he sat down and ended up doing three different pictures.

This is the very first one my youngest tried. He asked me to do a tree outline for him and then he did the rest.

Once he had completed this one he actually did the next one all by himself

I can not actually remember when I last saw him sit for so long doing page after page.

My daughter has already noticed that some of the leaves in our garden are starting to change colour (so she informs me) so she did an autumn tree.

And I know I am biased but I do just love the end result.

I am already thinking I might suggest we try this method for a few birthday cards that we need to make soon.

If you try this at home it is best to use card or water colour paper. For the felt tip pens we used some no-name brand ones and some Crayola markers, both worked really nicely. Don’t use the Ikea markers for this, their colour does not run nicely when the water is added.

A later note – after doing this a lot more we have discovered that our favourite marker pens for this activity are these – Carioca Jumbo (affiliate link).