The Snail's Trail

Friday, May 27, 2011

What's In The [work]BOX? Handmade Word Family Game

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What's in the [work]BOX: Handmade Word Family Game

This is the first post in a series I am calling, "What's in the [work]BOX?" To see an overview of our system, Click Here. Today I am going to share with you a word family game that I just whipped together with paint chips. If you don't have a paint chip collection, it is time you started one! Paint chips can be used for all kinds of things. I got these paint chips, with precut holes, at Lowes. You can also find them at Home Depot and WalMart. You need aprox. 13 "long cards" for consonants, blends, and diagraphs and 34 cards that have the hole cut out...12 if there are three colors to the card.)

To make this game, you need two kinds of paint chips. The first type of paint chip will have three colors. Each color will have a square cut out of the side. You will be cutting these into three separate cards. The other kind of paint chip is a super long one with lots of colors.

Note: To help your child, keep the same kind of diagraphs and blends on the same card. See how I have them?

Here is a list of the phonograms that I used. The Phonogram Page is a great site that lets your child hear the phonograms correctly. All About Spelling has a list of Phonograms and how to teach them.

I wrote these on the cards with the square cut out on them. These are commonly called word families.

ag
ab
ail
ain
ack
ake
am
an
ank
ap
all
at
ay
eed
ell
est
ew
ick
ight
ill
ine
ing
ink
ip
ob
og
ore
ot
out
ow
uck
um
unk
y

The following consonants, blends, and diagraphs are all written on the long paint chip that has a lot of colors.

Consonants:

Blends:

Diagraphs:

How many words can you make? (there are over 500+ words in this set)

--ab cab, lab, blab, crab, flab, grab, scab, slab, stab

--ack back, pack, quack, rack, black, crack, shack, snack, stack, track

--ag bag, rag, tag, brag, flag

--ail fail, mail, jail, nail, pail, rail, sail, tail, snail, trail

--ain main, pain, rain, brain, chain, drain, grain, plain, Spain, sprain, stain, train

--ake bake, cake, fake, lake, make, quake, rake, take, wake, brake, flake, shake, snake

--am ham, Sam, clam, slam, swam

--an can, fan, man, pan, ran, tan, van, bran, plan, than

--ank bank, sank, yank, blank, crank, drank, thank

--ap cap, lap, map, nap, rap, tap, clap, flap, scrap, slap, snap, strap, trap, wrap

--at bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, rat, sat, brat, chat, flat, spat, that

--ay day, may, pay, say, clay, play, pray, spray, stay, tray

--eed feed, need, seed, weed, bleed, freed, greed, speed

--ell bell, fell, sell, tell, well, yell, shell, smell, spell, swell

--est best, guest, nest, pest, rest, test, vest, west, chest, crest

--ew dew, few, knew, new, blew, chew

--ick kick, lick, pick, quick, sick, brick, chick, click, stick, thick, trick

--ight knight, light, might, night, right, sight, tight, bright, flight, fright, slight

--ill fill, hill, pill, will, chill, drill, grill, skill, spill, thrill
--in bin, fin, pin, sin, win, chin, grin, shin, skin, spin, thin, twin

--ine fine, line, mine, nine, pine, vine, wine, shine, spine, whine

--ing king, ring, sing, wing, bring, cling, spring, sting, string, swing, thing

--ink link, pink, sink, wink, blink, drink, shrink, stink, think

--ip dip, hip, lip, rip, sip, tip, chip, clip, drip, flip, grip, ship, skip, strip, trip, whip

--ob knob, mob, rob, blob, slob, snob

--ock knock, lock, dock, rock, sock, block, clock, frock, shock, stock

--op cop, hop, mop, pop, top, chop, crop, drop, flop, plop, shop, stop

--ore bore, more, sore, tore, wore, chore, score, shore, snore, store

--ot got, dot, hot, knot, lot, not, plot, shot, spot

--out grout, scout, shout, spout, sprout

--ow cow, how, now, brow, chow, plow

--uck buck, duck, luck, cluck, stuck, truck

--um gum, hum, drum, plum, slum

--unk junk, chunk, drunk, shrunk, stunk, trunk

-y by, my, cry, dry, fly, fry, shy, sky, spy, try, why

(word list taken from http://www.literacyconnections.com/Phonograms.html)

Have fun with What's in the [work]BOX: Word Families and encourage your child to make their own games with the set of cards.

You might also like these other ideas that I have done:

Birthday Gift or Teacher Gift: Mickey Mouse paint chips from

Home Depot in a peanut butter jar, decorated with vinyl letters cut from my Cricut.

Birthday Gift or Teacher Gift: The Build A Word Game I invented here,

in a sushi rice jar, decorated with vinyl letters cut from my Cricut.

And oh, yeah...
you need aprox 13 "long cards" for consonants, blends, and diagraphs and 34 cards to cut (12 cards if there are 3 colors per card to cut like suggested).

Monday, November 1, 2010

We Finished Our NaNoWriMo Novel! What's that, you say?

Mr. Goblin Finds Trouble At The Fair

by Big Snail and Little Snail

Mr. Goblin is a gnome. He is five years old. He has a long, white mustache and beard, a red pointy hat, pointy ears, no glasses, black boots, green shirt, and a black belt. He has a best friend, Mr. Snail. He rides on the back of Mr. Snail. Mr.Snail and Mr. Goblin are best friends. They live in a box right around the corner in the woods. They sleep in their sleeping bags at night when they go to sleep.

One day, they went to the fair. They slid down the giant slide with the clowns. There was a lot of music playing and there were a lot of flashing lights. They stopped to eat a hamburger. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, came Allie the Alligator!!!!

“AHHHH!” screamed Mr. Goblin. Allie said, “You can’t walk around me! If you try to walk around me, I will bite you with my giant, sharp teeth! Why don’t you see if you can pass me or I am going to chomp you up!” Mr. Goblin said, “Okay. How do I get around you?” Allie said, “You have to sing the magic song.”

Mr. Goblin and Mr. Snail said, “How about this?” They started to sing their song, but Ellie The Elephant came by. She had a secret. She had orange juice in her trunk. Allie stretched her trunk way up in the air, and she sprayed orange juice all over Allie the Alligator! “Ahhhh! You can’t spray me with orange juice! Orange juice makes me cough!” And Allie began to cough. And cough. And cough. And cough.

All of Mr. Goblin and Mr. Snail’s friends saw the trouble and began to join them around Allie. There was the yellow Monster Clown, Woody the Kitty, Kari Koala, and Mr. Bear. They all looked at Allie, and Mr. Goblin says, “Oh my, oh my, oh my. You are coughing and coughing and coughing all over me. We have to do something about this!”

And then, some clowns came by in their little yellow bus. The yellow Monster Clown said, “How about we call a doctor? The doctor can give Allie some cotton candy to stop this coughing!” Woody said, “I have some cotton candy to share!” Woody gave the cotton candy to Allie. Allie started to eat the cotton candy and it worked! Allie stopped coughing and said, “I am sorry I wouldn’t let you pass and I said I was going to chomp you up.” Mr. Goblin said, “That’s okay. We can all become friends. Let’s all go down the big slide together.”

So, they all climbed up the giant ladder to the top of the giant slide. They had so much fun racing down the slide. They rode the Ferris Wheel, the fire truck, the roller coaster that goes to the top of the hill, and the spinning bus. They had a lot of fun that day. They were all friends and they learned that when a friend is being mean, you have to help them and be their friend.

The End

We are participating in the National Novel Writing Month Youth Competition. It's still not too late for you to join in! If you don't want to participate, but want a great book that takes your child through the story writing process, I suggest you download the NaNoWriMo workbook. It's great! Have fun storywriting!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Unit Study: Circus

The Snail Family at the Greatest Show on Earth. Do you notice that Little Snail is just about as tall as her brother? She is in the 99th percentile for height. She is a giant!

We have been learning about the circus for the last couple of months. We began our unit with questions asked by Big Snail:

Who is in the circus?
What do people in the circus do?
What do animals in the circus do?
What tricks do clowns do in a circus?

Here is our adventure (in no particular order) in learning about the circus...

The Snail's Trail: All About the Circus

We made and walked on stilts

We pretended to be a clown with a clown mask

We made a clown wig out of paper mache and ribbons

We practiced circus skills to circus music

We made a dictionary of circus related words to use in our story writings

We went to the circus!

This is one of their trailers.

Big Snail got to try on costumes.

He got to meet some circus performers.

Big Snail wanted a hug from one of the main performers, the Tiger Tamer.

Sitting on the motorcycle was really cool, too.

Little Snail was nervous and didn't want to do anything but she was really happy to be there.

Big Snail jumped rope for the very first time in his life! Definitely a moment to remember forever! He also got to be a trapeze artist. This really made his day!

We made a book about the circus

We read books about the circus

We learned clown tricks from CircusFit

We watched some short little circus movies: Clifford at the Circus and Kid Songs: Circus

We listened to Tom and Jerry at the circus, Dumbo, Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and Bozo at the Circus

We watched some experiments on tight rope walking

We will continue to learn about the circus, primarily through dramatic play (or "pretend play"), until The Snails are tired of the topic. When they are older, we will visit the circus again and learn about the physics of the circus and the ethical treatment of animals that perform in a circus.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Outdoor >Not< Challenge: Resources for Summer Learning

We have been participating in 5OrangePotatoes' Outdoor Challenge....except for us, it's not much of a challenge. We are naturally outdoorsy people and spend our days outside. As a Project WILD, Project WET, and Project Learning Tree instructor, I can tell you that you can create an entire nature-based, or environmental education, curriculum from these three resources.

Project Wild

Project WET

Project Learning Tree

Add these nature activities from the National Wildlife Foundation to your list this summer:

And here are the Snail Family's Outside Golden Rules:

1. No whining!
2. If you "pack it in, you pack it out."
3. You can only pick flowers and plants in your own backyard.
4. Watch your step!