Summer Fun and Learning Games

Here at our house, summers are a time to relax, unwind and be spontaneous. School work is not really part of our summer. I do this intentionally because I feel that we work very hard all year long and we all need time to just relax and have nothing too structured to do. Mom needs down time too!!

At the same time, I want to make sure the kids don't completely forget what they learned throughout the year. So for me, summer is about finding balance. We have lots of free time, with some structure thrown in, and a little bit of fun summer learning too.

I came up with these fun learning games with all of that in mind. Since we like to be outside a lot during the summer, I incorporated some learning fun in your everyday outdoor activities, like playing hopscotch. I've never met a kid who didn't like to play Hopscotch. It's simple, fun, and the kids will get a little exercise out of it too!

Here are some ideas:
1) Hopscotch to practice word wall words. Using my Words out of a Hat game, write one word wall word in each hopscotch square, for a total of 10 words. Mom or kid can then pick a card out of a hat (or bowl) and follow the instructions. For example, if the card says "Find a word with a long vowel sound", then the child will hop to a word that has the long vowel sound and hop back.

Some suggestions to write on the cards (or strips of paper):

• Hop to a word with a long vowel sound
• Hop to a word with a short vowel sound
• Hop to a word that's a verb
• Hop to a word that's an adjective
• Hop to a word that's a noun
• Hop to a word and name its synonym
• Hop to a word and use it in a sentence
• Hop to a word and define it

2) Hopscotch to practice word blends. Write a beginning blend on each hopscotch square, leaving a couple of free squares. To make it more interesting, write "take one hop back" and "take two hops forward". Ask the child to toss a stone or bean bag randomly on a square. Then, the child can hop to the square and name a word that has that blend in it. For example, the child hops on -CR, then they can say the word CRY or CRAFT or any other word they can think of.

Some beginning blend suggestions:

• CR-
• BR-
• DR-
• FR-
• GR-
• PR-
• TR-
• BL-
• CL-
• FL-
• PL-

3) Hopscotch to practice word families/rhyming words. Write a word from a different word family in each square. Then ask the child to toss a stone or bean bag randomly on a square. Ask the child to hop to that square, read the word and name another word within the same word family. For example, if the word is "tree" the child can say "bee".

Some rhyming words suggestions:

• Cape/Tape/Ape
• Chick/Stick
• Book/Hook/Look
• Goose/Moose
• Boat/Note
• Egg/Leg
• Heart/Cart/Part
• Nose/Rose
• Box/Fox
• Corn/Horn
• Yarn/Barn
• Snow/Bow
• Hat/Cat/Mat

4) For younger kids, hopscotch to practice the alphabet. Write a random letter in each square. Toss a small stone or bean bag, hop to the square and name a word that begins with that letter. For example, if the letter is "C" the child can say car, cat, or can.

5) If your child is learning a foreign language, hopscotch to practice vocabulary. Write words in the language your child is learning in each square. Then the parent can say the word and the child has to hop to that word. This is great listening comprehension practice. For example, if the child is learning Spanish, the parent can say the word "Nombre" and the child has to listen, understand and hop to the correct word.

6) Another foreign language practice idea is to write the words in English. Child then tosses a small stone or bean bag on a square, hops to the square and says the word in the target language.
For example, the child is learning Spanish and hops to the word "Thank you" in English. The child should then say "Gracias".

How do you incorporate traditional summer fun with learning?

Happy Homeschooling Adventures!

Ideas for working with Word Wall Words

 So, as a homeschool teacher I think it's important to have certain routines in our classroom. One of the things my daughter loves to do is the Word Wall.

We start the week by playing Word Bingo on Mondays. We do this every Monday and it's our first activity of the day. I have a set of 12 words that we will be working on throughout the week. I print them randomly in 3 columns (I don't actually used a bingo board, although you can). Then, I give my daughter a bag of pennies for her to mark the words as I read them.

When one column is completely filled in, she yells Bingo! As an end to the activity, I will write each word on an index card and my daughter will pin them on our Word Wall. It's a great start to our week and we both enjoy this activity.

Here are some other ideas for working with Word Wall Words:

• Word Pyramids - I give my daughter a sheet with blank lines (in the shape of a pyramid), and she has to spell out the words, letter by letter. We do 3 word pyramids at a time (more than that would get boring!). Depending on the level of difficulty of the words in a particular week, we may do word pyramids a couple of times a week.

• Alphabet word order game - My daughter takes the index cards down from our Word Wall and she places them in alphabetical order. This is a great activity for practicing alphabet order, especially when there are several words with the same first letter. The kids really need to think about alphabet order to place the words correctly. Again, another simple activity, but for some reason, Buttercup loves it.

•  "Words out of a hat"  - This is a game I created to practice sentence parts (Not a very creative name but it works). I wrote down a set of language related directions and Buttercup will randomly pick one out of a hat! and she has to follow the instructions on the paper. For example: Once card reads "Choose any word with a long vowel sound". Buttercup looks at the Word Wall to find a word that fits the requirement. I have included this activity in My Printables, so feel free to print out the directions and try them out. I would suggest playing this game once or twice a week. In my house, we play it every day and Buttercup goes through all of the cards because she loves this activity as well. I think it might be her favorite.

• 
  Writing practice - Sometimes I'll just ask Buttercup to pick 3 words and write sentences in her notebook.

• Word Scramble - Towards the end of the week, when Buttercup has pretty much mastered all of her Word Wall words, I give her a word scramble. I usea free website called Superkids that allows you to plug in your own words and it scrambles them for you. Word scramble is a more challenging activity which is the reason I reserve it for the end of the week. I want to make sure Buttercup has a good grasp of the words (imagine trying to unscramble words before you really even know how to spell them; that could be very discouraging for the child).

We end the week with a "test" (in quotes because we don't really do tests in our homeschool). I will read the words from the week and she will write them down. There is a reward for spelling all 12 words correctly! That is a huge incentive and makes the "test" more of a challenge. My daughter will usually be able to spell them all. If she still has trouble with a word, we will work on it the following week.

Here is a complete list of our Word Wall activities and games:
-Word Bingo
-Word Pyramids
-Words out of a hat
-Alphabet order game
-Word Scramble
-Sentences
-Dictation

Try out these activities and let me know how they work out for you.

Happy Homeschooling Adventures!