Back in January I decided we would do a 1500 Book Challenge. The goal was to read 1500 unique books within a year, and this past weekend, we finished! We actually read much more than 1500 if you consider all the re-reads. I am so glad we decided to do it. We found some great books that we probably would not have otherwise. At the same time, I am glad we are done! It is more challenging than you would think to keep track of which books you have read and which you haven't. I will still probably keep track til the end of the year, just to see how many we end up reading, but will definitely be relaxed about it.
It is also amazing to me to think back to January. I still had a pretty young little guy to read to. Now he is two and reads a lot of the words with me! Before I know it, he will be reading the books to me (maybe we should do another book challenge then!). Now I just have to figure out what we should do to celebrate. Any ideas?
We are currently working on our Mommy & Me ABC units. This was the second week of the letter E and elephants. You can see last week's trays and activities here. Unless otherwise specified, all of the elephant printables are from my Mommy & Me ABC Printables, which are free as we complete them.
Xander got this Scholastic Magnetic Pattern Block Zoo Set for his birthday. I used the elephant template with our regular magnetic pattern blocks. It was just a bit tough for him to do on his own, so I think next time I will trace out the individual shapes for him.
Sight Word Zoo
I introduced the Sight Word Zoo game last week. This is just the second sheet with different words.We used some animals from his Toobs and I would ask him to put a specific animal on a cage with a sight word. He likes the game and is learning his sight words quickly. You can download them here.
Elephant Action Cards I printed these action cards form Training Happy Hearts. Xander would choose a card, read it, and then do the action. It was probably one of his favorite trays.
Showing me how he can balance and lay.
Case Sorting
Case sorting trays are always kind of hit or miss. We did it a couple of times this week.
Letter Clipping Always a favorite with Xander, I was just happy our clothes pins survived the week! He is a master at breaking them and loosing the little metal pieces.
Lacing
Some bulletin board letters and some printables made into lacing cards. (The strings are from Oriental Trading).
Bottle Cap Letters
This tray had one of the bottle cap matching sheets and the his bottle caps letters. He thought it was funny that the elephant was sitting.
As you can see, he sometimes gets a bit goofy while playing his "games."
Alphabet Sensory Bin
Fun Extras
A safari puzzle.
Coloring. You can see that sometimes he holds the crayon correctly, and other times, not so much.
Last week I posted some of the memory games we have been playing. To go with next week's activities, I made a Thanksgiving version of the memory game. I will show him a card for 5-10 seconds, give him the loose cards, and have him arrange them on a blank grid. You can download the game grids and pieces here.
We are currently working on our Mommy & Me ABC units. This was first week of the letter E and elephants. Unless otherwise specified, all of the elephant printables are from myMommy & Me ABC Printables, which are free as we complete them.
"E for Elephant" magnet dot page and some pom pom magnets.
Elephant Number Cards
I put out his elephant number cards from 0-5 and the corresponding number tiles.
Elephant Size Sorting
Play Dough
He always loves the play dough trays. It had his letter E dough stamper, a couple E cookie cutters, some elephant cookie cutters, a play dough mat, and some dough.
Sight Word Zoo While Xander loved his shape and color animal games that are in the printable packs, they were getting too easy for him. I decided to make these Sight Words Zoos to reinforce some of the sight word sets, which we just started flashing. Then I added some random animals from his Toobs. I would ask him to put an animal on the cage with a certain sight word on it. For just starting them, he did a great job and really enjoyed it. You can download them here.
He wanted our elephant hand puppet to give the animal a high five every time he got one right.
Puzzles One tray had a bunch of puzzles for him, including some printable elephant puzzles, the earth from A to Z Puzzles, the elephant from his Who Lives Here Game, and an alphabet puzzle set from Michaels. He also did his safari chunky puzzle.
Reading
I finally got around to making a Thomas themed Little Reader lesson, which of course, is his new favorite. He can actually read almost all the words I have on the list, but there are so many trains I will probably have to make a second. I will post a link to it as soon as I have it exported.
Xander has made it into the final five for the Sparkabilities video contest to win an iPad. We need your help to win! Each view on YouTube counts as a vote. Voting goes through the end of the month and you can vote multiple times (although not from mobile devices). I would absolutely love to have an iPad for him because I think it would be a great resource for educational apps and I wouldn't be able to afford one until I finish grad school. Please take the time to watch, it is only 37 seconds! THANK YOU!
