Teaching Ideas for Parents

1.  Cubes

**Numbers on Cubes:  Roll the cube; have child name the number it falls on.  You can also count objects out by the number rolled (i.e. cube falls on 5, the child counts out 5 buttons, beans...)

**Letters on Cubes:  Name the letter it falls on; Name an object in the house that starts with the letter rolled.

**Sight words on Cube:  "on, the, at, boy, girl..."

2.  Old Game Boards

**Tape letters, numbers, sight words, shapes, colors onto the board; roll dice & have child name what they land on.  Free turn if they get it right.

3.  Paper Plate Spinner

**Divide Plate into sections & put spinner in the middle (do a small hole punch in the middle of spinner, put a tack through it and onto a flat eraser).  You can put colors, numbers, letters, shapes, or sight words in the sections.  Spin it & have child name what it lands on.  You can also help them find pictures in magazines of something that starts with the letter landed on. (We have spinners if you need one).

4.  Die Cut Hearts

**Write Upper case letter on big heart & lower case letter on smaller heart.  Have your child match upper & lower case letters.

5.  Die Cut Trains

**Write the alphabet or numbers on train & have your child practice putting them in order.  You can also practice patterns with this; for example:  ABABAB   or   AABBAABBAA.  Teacher stores have die cut patterns.

6.  Measuring at Home

**(Do not use rulers; they do not understand this object yet).  Pick 2 objects in the house (i.e. couch & table).  Have them guess which is longer.  Using hands, or pencils, or books, etc. have them count how many (hands) it takes to get from one end to the other.  Was their guess correct?  They can guess how many of their feet it is from one wall to another.  Have them count it out...

7.  ABC Memory Cards

**Individual cards (squares of paper) with Upper Case & Lower Case on them (Example:  Aa,  Bb,  etc.).  Cut pictures from magazine that begin with the matching letter; glue picture to another square of paper.  Lay 5 to 6 letter cards facing down and the matching picture facing up.  Flip over a letter & match with picture.  Or, Flip both letter & picture over & play memory.  They keep flipping over until they find the match.  As they improve, lay down more cards down.

8.  Number Paper Plate

**Take 2 paper plates; on one write numbers 1-10 on the ridged outer rim of plate.  Place the 2nd plate on top of the numbered plate & cut out a square from the plate that will reveal the number underneath.  Also on the 2nd plate cut another square directly across from first square but more towards the center.  This square will reveal the matching number of dots with number on the outer rim.  (We have examples of this in our class!)

Always remember to reward, encourage, & compliment your child!!