Finally Finished- Postcard Writing Prompts

I have been working so hard at night trying to get our postcard writing prompts done.  Tyler has been excited to start them.  They have been fun to make but very time consuming.  I am becoming quite the pro at Microsoft Word however.  :)  I wanted to give him some research to do about different places and at the same time give him a variety of writing experiences.  I made 36 postcards all together.  I picked random countries and I tried to pick some from continent.

 

On the back of each is the prompt for that country.  I let him do his writing assignments on the computer or Alphasmart because of his fine motor abilities.

I did purchase a small (little smaller than I wanted) mailbox to put his prompt in each day.

I can then put his little mailbox with prompt inside into his workbox with the flag up of course.  Actually he reminded me of the flag.  Great attention to detail that boy!

I wanted to share the three sets of postcards I made in case anyone else would like to use them.  There are 36  overall so you could pick and choose if you wanted.  I printed each page with the front side first and then flipped the paper and printed the backs.  I printed all mine on cardstock.

Postcard Writing Prompts
Postcard Writing Prompts2

Postcard Writing Prompts3

Hope you enjoy them!  Please comment and let me know if there are any other countries you would like for me to make.

More postcard writing prompts

I just made 12 more postcard writing prompts and I thought I would share quick before I go to bed.

Postcard Writing Prompts2

I hope you enjoy them.  I want to make one more batch yet this weekend.  Well, off to bed.

Goodnight!!!

Postcard Writing Prompts

Tyler has been wanting some new writing prompts in his workboxes.  I will be honest after doing fall pumpkin writing prompts and Christmas ornament writing prompts I felt we should do something not so seasonal.  I tossed around a couple of ideas but then I settled on prompts that focus on different countries.  I thought it would be fun to make them look like postcards and then put one each day in a small mailbox in his workbox.
Oriental Trading Company has some small metal mailboxes for only a few dollars and you can even decorate them.  I like this mailbox so it is the one I am ordering for us to use.  Here is a picture.

I have published the postcard prompts I have made so far on Scribd.  There are 12 countries so far but I will be making more in the next few days also.

Postcard Writing Prompts

These print best if you print them on cardstock and print the fronts first and then flip the paper and print the backs.  I hope you enjoy them and please feel free to comment and let me know any ideas you might have for other countries.

Christmas Cookie Facts and Opinions Sorting Activity

I made this activity to work on sorting statements of fact and opinion.  Since it is Christmas I thought it would be fun to use cookies.  I hope you enjoy it!

Cookie Facts and Opinions

Christmas Poster Center Idea

I got a new gadget last week and I have to admit I am a bit obsessed.  I LOVE my new Martha Stewart Circle Cutter.

It is the best!  I got it for a advent calender I am working on for Christian but now I am a circle cutting fool!  I had some leftover Christmas scrapbook paper and Tyler was looking at it yesterday and commented that it would make nice ornaments.  I was inspired to make us a new center for December. 

I took a green posterboard and cut out a Christmas tree and glued it on to a blue posterboard.  I cut some holes with an Exacto knife and put paper bards through the holes.  I opened the bards only far enough for them not to pull through the holes and taped them on the back.  They need to poke through on the front so that you can hang the ornaments on them.

This is what each bard should look like at the back.

This is the front of the poster with the bards in.

 

I then took me scrap paper and my handy little circle cutter and cut 4 3" circles from each pattern of paper.  I glued ribbon on the back of each with the glue gun.

I am going to use half of the ornaments for Christian to match the patterns and to hang them up with the white side of the ornaments showing to play memory.  For Tyler I am going to use the other half of the ornaments.  I wrote a writing prompt on the back of each  of his and will hang them up and let him pick a prompt.

We will store all our ornaments on 3M hooks by the posters.

It only took me about a half hour to make this.  The longest part was gluing on the ribbons.  You could also put math problems on half of the ornaments and the answers on the other ornaments and have them match them or sight words on half and the matching pictures on the others.  I am sure there could be lots of variations.  I think it will also be fun just for Christian to play with and put the ornaments on too! 

Tyler's Workboxes for Monday

I haven't posted on our workboxes in awhile so as I am filling boxes tonight I thought I would share what will be in Tyler's workboxes tomorrow.  Before I get started let me share with you  a link for the adorable puppy workbox numbers we are using right now.  We got them from Sunflower Schoolhouse.

We are using them to go with our Dog unit study.  Honey has a bunch of other great workbox numbers based on themes too.
Tyler has 12 boxes for Monday and rather than fill this post with a bunch of pictures I decided to make a slide show.  It will take you from box 1 to 12.

Halloween Sensory Boxes

I was blog searching the other day and I saw this neat idea for a Halloween sensory tub.  Christian just loves sensory tubs.  We have done rice, pasta, beans, sand, and all sorts of things.  The one I saw was at Chasing Cheerios.  We went to Michaels on Sunday and they were having a big sale on fall and Halloween stuff so I picked up some things to put in our tub with black beans. 

He is really  loving it!

I also knew that Tyler has a hard time when I create a sensory activity for Christian and not for him.  Even though he is high-functioning he is still a sensory seeker so I made him a box of his own and a math activity to go with it.

 

I got the foam Halloween stickers at Michaels also and then I made him a worksheet to go with.  I had him dig out the stickers and sort them out on a large sheet of paper.

I had him count out the different stickers and then do the math problems.  The problems were about fractions, percentages, and probability.  He enjoyed it and he buzzed right through it.



I don't like the creepy side of Halloween and we don't really celebrate the holiday itself.  Our kids don't enjoy trick or treating either but they do enjoy these type of seasonal activities. 

Pumpkin Math

Tyler had a fun math activity in his workboxes this week and I thought we would share.  
I bought some mini pumpkins at the grocery store the other day although this would work equally well with regular size pumpkins.  I then made him a  worksheet  to go with the pumpkins.  The activity focuses on measuring the diameter, radius, circumference, and area of a circle.  It was lots of fun!
The first thing he did was to put each pumpkin on a piece of paper and traced around it.

Next, he measured the diameter and radius.  After that he took string and put it over the traced circle so that he could measure the circumference.

 

He was then able to calculate the area of each.  He did great!  He really enjoys these hands on activities.

 

Here is our worksheet if you would like to give it a try.

 

Pumpkin Math

The Mystery Gourd Game

Here is a fun game for fall that I made up to include in Tyler's workboxes for tomorrow.  It is to help him work on writing descriptive sentences.  I bought a bag of gourds today at the store and thought about how different each one looks and thought this would be a good opportunity to work on using more adjectives.  Here are the instructions if you want to check it out.

The Mystery Gourd Game

Planning a Homestead Math Activity

On Tuesdays I like to include a fun hands on math activity in Tyler's workboxes.  I got the idea for this one from an old magazine.  I used Word to print out the instructions and put some construction paper, scissors, ruler, and glue in his box.  This activity works on measuring, perimeter, and area.  He really enjoyed this so I thought we would share this one. 

I gave him a piece of regular sized brown construction paper which represents his piece of land.  He also was give a chart that stated what things he needed to fit on his land.  It gave the measurements for each object so he could measure them and then cut them out. 

He needed to write the name of each object, the perimeter, and the area on the rectangle.  He also chose to make a small picture to identify the object.  When he had cut out all the objects he arranged them on the paper (his land) and glued them down when he was satisfied with their locations.

He did all this pretty independently except I did kind of tell him it might be a problem if he placed his vegetable garden too far from his house and barn.  Although I am sure the animals would appreciate it!

This his finished map.  He liked it so much I am thinking next week we might do a zoo, amusement park, or shopping mall.

If you would like to use the instructions I made for Tyler for this activity you can get them here:

Build Your Own Homestead 

Workboxes for Special Needs

I was looking for some workbox ideas for Christian this morning and came upon two web pages that look like they have some easy to make ideas. 

They are:

http://www.preschoolfun.com/pages/teacch%20work%20jobs%20other.htm

                   and

http://www.buildingblox.net/taskideasandfreebies.html



I'm off now to create!

The Value of a good Sentence

I am sure you have heard of a fifty cent word but have you ever heard of a five dollar sentence?  I saw a suggestion for a fun activity using both math and grammar in one of my Mailbox magazines and I just knew I had to whip something up for Tyler's workboxes.  After all can you beat doing two subjects at once especially when it is fun!

I started by making up a sheet with a special code on it that gives a monetary  value for each word in a sentence.

My hubby typed up a worksheet with a bunch of sentences to go with the code.  The first thing that he does is to use play coins and place the value for the word above it in the sentence.

Then when you are done you add up all the coins and find out the "value" of the sentence.

Our coins were a little bunched together so I think next time we will use a larger font for our sentences.  I am also going to use the coins and code when we do sentences for spelling and see if I can get some more "valuable" sentences in the future.  If you want to try this and would like the code sheet you can download it below.



 

Valuable Sentences

Going Nutty!

The other day I made some cute little squirrel cards with numbers on them and some little grids to do counting with.  My thought was that we could use whole nuts, the kind you use with a nut cracker,  with the cards and grids.  I am sure I saw them recently in the produce section at the store.  Tyler and I looked yesterday at Walmart and couldn't find any and today my husband looked at the commissary today and no nuts there either.  I would even be okay with acorns even though I would have to watch that Christian doesn't put them in his mouth but we don't seem to have those in our yard either.  So now my idea is on hold until we can locate some nuts.  Maybe tomorrow we will go for a nut hunting walk!

Here is a  picture of my cards with the counting grids attached.

 

I was thinking we could put one nut on each square of the grid.  Not too fancy but good for his one to one correspondence.  I thought it would be fun for fall.  I put the cards and grids on my Scribd account if you are interested.  I made them for the numbers 1-10.  All you need to do is cut out the grids and cards and then glue the grid to the back of the card. 

Squirrel Counting Grids Squirrel Counting 1-4 Squirrel Counting 5-8 Squirrel Counting 9-10

We have a winner!

Congratulations to Christie at Monkey School !

You have won the Fall Workbox Giveaway.  Thank you for your entry.  Thank you to all those who entered and I can't wait to try all your great ideas.

Fall Writing Prompt Poster Center

Okay, the fall bug has bit me bad!  I have sooo many ideas in my head.  I wanted to make a fun writing center for Tyler and I am not quite sure how it all came about but I like how it turned out so here goes....

The Pumpkin Patch of Writing Prompts

I took some green construction paper and cut them into vines.  I am not sure how successful I was there because they kind of look like seaweed to me.  But, anyways, I glued them on to a brown poster board to form little pockets.  I then used Microsoft Word to put a bunch of fall writing prompts unto pumpkin patterns.  I then printed them out onto orange card stock.

I then tucked the pumpkins into the pockets and printed out a title for the poster.  This is super easy!  My plan is to put this out with some fall themed writing paper and some fun pencils.

I finally figured out how to share PDF files on the internet so here are the patterns for the pumpkins if you are interested.  They are black and white so you will have to print them on orange paper.

Don't forget to keep adding your fall workbox ideas to my giveaway.  I love all the ideas you have shared so far.

Have a blessed night!

Pumpkin Prompts

Hurricane Tracking

We live on the Atlantic coast and so this time of year we pay a lot of attention to the storms brewing in the ocean.  Hurricane Bill is looming out there right now as a category 3 hurricane and Tyler has been excited to be able to use his hurricane tracking map that his grandma bought him last year while she was here on a visit. 

His map is laminated and so we use dry erase markers with it so we can wipe away the storms when they are gone.

This is a great way for him not to only learn about hurricanes but also to use lattitude and longitude lines.  We use the National Hurricane Center to get the coordinates of the storms.  You could use a hurricane tracking map printed from the internet covered with clear contact paper or laminted to do the same.  This could be a fun activity to include in your workboxes during the hurricane season. 

 Here are a few other links about hurricanes to check out:

1. How a hurricane is formed

2.  2009 Hurricane names

3.  lots of great hurricane printables and activities

Christian's wednesday workboxes

I was going to try and post Christian's workboxes for today this morning but I didn't have enough time.  I thought that the best way to show what he does in his workboxes is to well...show you.  Because of his developmental level and still somewhat resistance to sitting down and "working" with me his activities are  fairly simple.  Perhaps a parent who has a severely autistic child will understand though that half the lesson is just learning to complete it.  He is doing a little better at that.

Here are some (not all) of his workboxes today:

These are his counting cakes.  They help him to work on his fine motor but also on his one to one correspondence.  He likes these but wants to put all the candles in at once.  Sometimes I have to hold on to the candles and only give him one at a time. This is what they look like when they are done.

This is our book I made the other day.  We are still loving it and I am amazed at his concentration when he does it.  I still need to make more like this.  If I could only find a way to give up sleeping!

This is our cherry scented playdough.  This is a sensory treat for him! He loves to play playdough.  Sometimes he doesn't want to stop.

This is our cutting box.  We do it a couple of times a day.  His scissors opens by itself which is much easier for him.  I tabe the strips of paper across the top of the box so he doesn't have to concentrate on holding the paper while he cuts.  I also stagger the lines so he can't just cut right through them all at once.

Next is our saxoflute.  He gets to put it together and then blow through it and play music.  He gets both fine motor and oral motor practice with this and music which he loves.

The next one I am going to show you is an activity he still struggles with and frankly doesn't like a whole lot but is good fine motor practice.

You have to use the tongs to feed the bones to the dog.  He doesn't see the need for the tongs when he can just use his fingers.  We are still working on this one but may abandon it and try something else if it frustrates him too much.                   

Finally is another rather new activity for him but one that is going a bit better.  Awhile ago at Michaels I got these scented paint markers and I print off some pattern sheets off the computer.  We use the markers to make dots to fill the patterns.  I am trying to teach him to write the letter C for his name so todays sheet is a big letter C.  We did this one twice too.

That's it for today.  I am going to try to show picture of his boxes at least once a week this year.  I wish I could figure out a way to show pictures of him doing them but I have to help him so I can't be taking pictures.  

See you later!                                

Tyler's workboxes for Wednesday

This is where Tyler does his workboxes every day.  Would you like to know what is in those boxes today?

1.  Keys for Kids devotion

2.  (Work with Mom box)  Prayer time with Operation World (We find the country we are praying for on the globe and then read the prayer requests in the book)  and Bible (Bob Jones)

3.  30 minutes of Rosseta Stone Latin

4.  Play Made for Trade boardgame with mom.  We are studying the barter system and the start of banking so this is a good reinforcer. 

5. Saxon math 76 (we are still finishing this book from last year) lesson on square roots

6.  Quiet time for 30 minutes listening to Jonathon Park on cd with headphones

7.  page in Spelling Workout

8.  Apologia General Science questions on experiments we did about atoms last week

9.  copywork from Queen Homeschool Copywork for Boys

10. file folder game to learn the musical alphabet

11.  Bob Jones writing and grammar lesson on fragments

12.  Bob Jones World Studies- read section on towns and trade and make a VENN diagram comparing the barter system with the system of money and banking for the lapbook/scrapbook we are making

I thought I would give you a little peek at what a normal day looks like for him.  He is doing pretty well with school so far.  He has been a bit unfocused and quite the chatterbox but we are working on it.  He seems to be enjoying science in particular and we are also trying to learn a little music theory which is something we haven't done a lot of in the past.  I will try to give you a peek at Christians boxes also but I will do that in the morning because everyone is finally asleep and I am on my way there too!

Goodnight!