Word Work Wednesday- Write the room frogs

Write the room is probably one of my class’ favorite activities each year.
Who doesn’t like an excuse to get up and walk around while learning? The concept of write the room is so much more than you think. It is a great handwriting practice, vocabulary development, letter recognition, copying skills and much more. The children find it engaging and it doesn’t feel like worksheet work!

Here is how it works and how you can change it up to work for your child.

write the room wall picures

Create a list of pictures and words for your child to find around the house. For this list I used words that go with our frog/toad learning this week. This can be done with any words you want to work on. It is a great way to work on letter sounds just by making lists of words that all start with the same sound. (book, boy, balloon, blueberry, etc on a day you are working on the letter Bb). Cut the picture apart and hang them around the room, or house! Now your child needs to find the pictures and record the reading/writing.

The recording of this work can also be done in a few different ways. In the first example, the child will go around and find the pictures on their sheet and copy the word below. In the second example, the child will go around and find the words on the sheet and create the illustration. These work on two different skills. The first works on copying text and penmanship. The second works on recognizing text and illustrating to match, you will need to watch to make sure your child is not just looking at the first letter as there are multiple words that start with Ff and Ll.

write the word

illustrate the words

Another way to do this activity, give your child a sheet of blank paper and have him/her draw and write! Dividing the paper into 8 boxes will help with organization as well as keeping track of how many words are completed, but not necessary.

Please remember that at this time, we do things to keep children’s minds going. It should be fun. It shouldn’t feel like work, but something that they want to do. So make it work for you and your child.

Topic Tuesday- Frog and Toad life cycles

Children love change, well they love learning about change. This is why they enjoy open ended projects. They love to mix baking soda and vinegar to see the reaction, mixing various colors to see the change. They love to build things up and knock things down. All forms of change.

Teaching life cycles is another form of change, and the bigger the change… the more interested children are in the change. Teaching the life cycle of a butterfly is one way to do this, especially if you can get hold of some caterpillars that are almost ready for metamorphosis. Teaching the life cycle of a frog/toad is another one that children really enjoy.

Here are two stories that teach about this transformation. The top one is a fiction story and the bottom is an informational text. It is important to share both types of books with children. Many children enjoy informational texts because it provides information, so do not shy away from these books when choosing books to share with your child.

Teeny Weeny Tadpole https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHO6S5-5zAU

A Tadpole Grows Up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05bxAO4FU60

It is important for children to record their learning and demonstrate the knowledge they gained. In this case there are a few fun ways to record what they learned about the metamorphosis from egg to tadpole to froglet/toadlet to frog/toad. Here are a few to try!

When I teach, I love to use food to help children in the learning process, who doesn’t love to learn with food… and this is all super healthy foods! Teach Beside Me’s has a blog post on the Edible Frog Life Cycle. This was in my lesson plans before school ended! We were going to have this as a snack and then the children would have recorded what they learned/ate.

This recording can be completed a few ways. As I’ve mentioned in the past, we do a lot of paper creations in school. For this I would have given the children a paper plate, 2 shade of green paper and a small amount of white.

toad life cycle

But, as I have also mentioned in the past, I do not have construction paper here soooo yet again you will have to deal with my own illustrations. I think I have drawn and colored more pictures since March than in other whole school years! (Well at least illustrations that were not on the dry erase board and removed quickly). When illustrating make sure they see the connection between the phases and that it is circular.

Some fun frog and toad facts. Check out Kid Zone’s Frog and Toad Facts

Frogs and toads both lay as many as 20,000 eggs in the water. Frogs lay their eggs in a cluster called a Frog Spawn. Toads lay their in long strands.

Frogs need to live near water, but toads do not

Frogs’ legs look bigger than their body but a toads’ look smaller

Frogs have webbed feet and toads have separated toes

Monday Math- Frog jump addition

There are many different concepts that are taught in the early years to help set children up to master addition. We teach addition concepts without using the words addition, adding or even plus. Children at this age understand the concept of putting together. They understand AND. They do not need to, but often do, master addition facts and enjoy these concepts.

Here are a few games that you can play to work on early addition skills.

frog jumps

Frog jump on a number line-

materials: ruler/yard stick, die (dice), and a frog

Have your frog start off the end of your ruler. Roll the die and have your frog jump up that many spaces. 0 And 3 more puts your frog on 3. Roll again 3 and 4 more jumps lands your frog on 7. (this is the concept of adding on a number line).

So, here is the big thing I want you to work on with this skill…. the most important skill at this age, have your child count on from their start point. Children at this stage of math development struggle with counting if the do not start at 1 each time. They need to work at a skill called counting on. So with the second example, they would say 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. If they are struggling to count jumps and count at the same time, put a piece of paper or other writing device (white board would be great as it can be used over and over) under the ruler. Draw out the jumps, but don’t move the frog. Now, have your child count on as he/she moves the frog forward.

frogs and flies

Frog and Flies

Materials- paper, marker, something to be frogs and flies, 2 dice (two different colors would work best)

Draw a 2 x 6 grid on a sheet of paper.

Have your child roll the dice. Once die will represent frogs and the other one flies.

Have your child add the frogs and flies to the grid based on the number they roll. 2 frogs and 4 flies makes 6. You can easily flip this and compare to see more and less. I have 2 frogs and 4 flies, so I have 2 more flies than frogs.

This game works on a few skills. First it works on one-to-one correspondence. Putting one frog/fly for each number on the dice, then putting them into one box at a time…. AND comparing based on the columns are all levels of one-to-one correspondence.

Remember these are introductory skills and are not expected to be mastered, but played with and experienced

Sunday Topic- Frogs

Last we learned all about pond ecosystems, this week we will learn about frogs. The life cycle of a frog is a great way to show how animals metamorphosis, change over time. Children love learning about the fact that frogs are born as eggs in the water, are hatched into tadpoles, sprout legs as froglet and then again change into frog.

Monday math– frog jump addition

Topic Tuesday– life cycle of a frog project

Word Work Wednesday– write the room frogs and toads

Phonemic Awareness Thursday- rhyming