Calendar Binders

Make a calendar binder for your child to learn about the calendar. Use the routine here, or one of your own to go along with the binder.

Items to put in binder:

1. Monthly Calendar. Print out a calendar page for each month. Have your child write the correct number each day. Practice counting the days of the month each day.

Blank 2008 - 2009 Calendars (for those children who can write their numbers)

Dotted 2008 - 2009 Calendars (for those who are practicing writing numbers)

2. Place Value Chart. Add a 9-pocket sports card (or business card) insert from Wal-Mart or office supply store. They can be found in the 3-ring binder supply section. (see picture above for example) Use 3X5 index cards cut in half to write ones, tens, and hundreds and place in top row. The second row is where your child counts the number of days as they pass. One sticker is added to the “ones” card for each day. Once a card has 10 stickers, it is moved to the “tens” column. On the 100th day, the 10 cards in the tens column packet get bundled together with a paper clip and are moved to the “hundreds” column. The Third row is where the child places the number cards for each day. (Your child will need three #1 cards, and two cards for the numbers 0,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and 9.

3. Monthly tally sheets. Place a blank sheet of paper for each month in the binder for a monthly tally mark page. Your child will add a tally mark for each day of the month. Circle groups of five. Practice counting by fives.

4. Monthly weather graph page. Print out one weather graph page per month. Your child will determine what the weather is for the day and graph it. Ask math-related questions about the graph such as "Which one has the most?" - "Which one has the least?" - "How many more ___ than ___?"

Weather Graph Page

5. Tooth Loss Tally Chart. Print out one tooth chart page for the entire year. Your child will keep track of lost teeth by keeping a tally.

Tooth chart

Dr. Seuss Printables

If you are doing a unit on Dr. Seuss, you will love these worksheets:

Word Search (positional words, here, there, etc.) (K-3)

Dr. Seuss Addition

(one digit, use colored gold fish crackers or multi-colored Swedish fish candy for this activity for yummy hands on fun!) (K-1)

Dr. Seuss Subtraction (one digit) (1-2)

Greater or Less Then (1-3)

Sam I am Fill in the blank #1

Sam I am Fill in the blank #2

(Read the sentences, and use one of the words to fill in the blanks) (K-3)

Cat in the Hat ABCs

Print these out to make a fun file folder game, or play concentration and match-up the upper and lower case letters (K-1)

Cat in the hat wordsearch (1-3)

Kindergarten Assessments

If you need to see where your child's strengths or weaknesses are, here are a few assessments you can use. These would also be great for your child' portfolio to highlight their accomplishments!

Kindergarten Portfolio (cover sheet along with some sample pages - name,birthday, age, family members, etc.)

Letter sound and formation

(Child looks at pictures,identifies beginning sound and writes upper and lower case letters)

Kindergarten Letter Recognition

Concepts of Print

Writes first name assessment

Number formation

(Call out random numbers for your child to write down)

Number Identification

Positional Word Assessment

(test your child's knowledge of positional words such as on, up, under, etc.)

Kindergarten High Frequency Words

Scrabble Spelling

Looking for a fun way for your child to practice their spelling words? Have your child use the scrabble pieces here to spell the words on their spelling list. See how many points they can get.

Five-Word-Rule

Wondering if a book is right for your child? Have him open it to any page. If there are five words he doesn't know, it's too difficult.

Science Up Close

Science learners will love the interactive Science lessons found on Harcourt's Science Up Close site. The site has interactive explanations and demonstrations covering a variety of topics in Science for grades 1 through 6. The graphics are amazing and the explanations are very clear and easy to follow.

The site is organized by grade level and contains multiple topics for each grade. For example, Grade 3 contains 16 interactive resources covering a wide-variety of topics including photosynthesis, fossils, water cycle, lunar eclipse and even how a door knob works.

Number Matching Game

Here's a fun game to work on number recognition with your child. This can also be made into a file folder game.

Number matching game
Print on cardstock and cut out to create the puzzle.

Alphabet Matching Game

Practice letter recognition with this fun activity.
Alphabet matching game
Print on cardstock and cut out to create the puzzle.

Can also be made into a file folder game.

S-A-N-T-A

Here is a great way to work on letter recognition with your child while singing a fun song. Write the letters : S, A, N, T, and A on 5 band-aids using a sharpie or black marker. Stick the band-aids to the tips of your thumb and fingers to spell Santa. Wigggle the labeled fingers to match the letters as you sing this song:

S-A-N-T-A

Saving Money on Workbooks

Homeschooling Doesn't have to be expensive if you are inventive! Gradelevel workbooks can be expensive. Why not reuse them? Your child can practice their skills by re-using the pages, and younger siblings can use them later. Tear pages out and put them into sheet protectors and use a dry erease or wet erase marker for writing! I use wet erase markers and wipe them off with either a baby wipe or a spray bottle with water and a paper towel.

Balloon Blow Up

Introduce your child to the world of chemical reactions with this fun experiment.
Combine two common household ingredients to cause an exciting, safe, chemical reaction.

How Long Can The Ball Stay Up?

A blown column of air will suspend the ball in mid-air… but for how long? Find out with this fun experiment!

1000 Wins Math Game

Grab a deck of cards, and practice your childs addition skills! Adding 3-digit numbers gets easier with this easy-to-learn and fun-to-play card game.

Click here for instructions.

Schoolhouse Rock

Many of us grew up with school house rock - and now our kids can too! A rocking fun way to learn about parts of speech, American history, government, science, and multiplication tables too.

A Noun is a person, place or thing.
Verbs
Prepositions
Zero, my Hero
Conjunction Junction
Them Bones
Mother Necessity

Suggested Book List By Age

Wondering what books your kids should be reading? Head over to this site for a list of suggested books by age.

Airtyper

If your child is working on their typing skills, then head over to Airtyper for a fun challenge!

Spelling Sites

Whether your child is ready to enter the national spelling bee, or struggles to spell, here are a few great spelling websites for you to check out:

• Get the 28 Rules of Spelling - Free!
  
• Scripps National Spelling Bee - Free resources, study suggestions, spelling word lists that include parts of speech, language origins, pronunciations, definitions, and sentences for thousands of words.
• 
  2009 Spell It! - The official study resource of the Scripps National Spelling Bee from Merriam-Webster.
• Free Homeschool Spelling Course - 30-lesson homeschool spelling course for students in grades 6- 8. includes printable spelling rules and step-by-step lessons.
• 
  Free Spelling Worksheets - Free spelling worksheets for elementary grade and remedial students including spelling rules like "silent e", consonant blends, plurals, suffixes, prefixes and even word search games to reinforce spelling.
• Spelling Hangman - This classic kids game helps hone spelling in a fun and engaging way.
• Word Safari Game - Practice spelling while playing a fun online video game.
• Alphabet Soup Spelling Game - Try this arcade style game that will challenge your spelling skills.
• Spelling Games - Play and learn with these games based on the Dolch Sight Words list.
• Catch the Spelling - Players use the arrows on their computer keyboard to move "the catcher" to catch falling letters in the correct order to spell out a designated word. Younger children and non-readers will need parental help.
• Scrabble, Boggle, and UpWords - These terrific board games from Hasbro improve spelling skills. Click on the link to play the games online for free.
• Funbrain: Spell Check - Need a little drill and practice work? This site offers an easy and hard spelling test. There are 20 sets of 4 words offered in each test. The Spell Check game is designed for 4th grade through Middle School. Younger children may find the Spellaroo version of the game on this site a little less difficult.