Preschool in a Minute
Roll and Cover
One activity you can do with your preschooler in 1-5 minutes with something you may have in your home or easily get from the dollar store! That’s it! Preschool in a Minute!
Using dice is part of any board game. Here is a great way to use a pair of dice (or one!) to work on counting and number recognition.
Activity: Roll and Cover
Materials: 1 or 2 Die/Dice, Roll and Stamp Sheet (DIY or print out some from resource section below), stamps or disks to mark numbers
Why I Love This Activity: This is a quick and easy game that doesn’t take much time, but can be made and played even in a restaurant. You can also keep adding dice as your child gets older! This also helps get
children ready to read dice quickly when playing board games. One of the best parts of this game is that you are both (or all) working together to get the numbers covered or stamped. It can also be played with several players.
Prep Time: 5 minutes - to get the items together and print/make the sheet.
Age Level: 3 and up (once your child can count the number of dots on one dice, you could be able to do this)
Attention Span: 5 minutes for younger ones; 10-15 minutes for older ones
Note: If your child is still putting things in his/her mouth, be careful of the dice or get the large fuzzy ones from the dollar store.
Directions:
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Make the playing sheet by putting numbers with circles around them. You can go from 1-6 or 2-12 depending on the number of dice you use.
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Take turns rolling the dice.
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When you roll a number, put your marker or stamp that number.
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The game is over when you have covered all the numbers.
Resources (click on the items below):
Variations/Hints:
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Continue to add dice as your child gets older so he or she needs to add several together.
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Instead of adding the dice, multiply them.
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If you have a blank die, you can put letters on it (or use one from Scattergories!) and play it the same way.
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Don’t forget to put a pair of dice in a ziplock in your purse for play while waiting at the doctor or in a restaurant!
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If you want the paper to last longer, put it in a page protector for safe keeping.
Do you have a great dice game you'd like to share? Leave your idea (and URL below)!
Check out ways to learn in the summer or all ages with our free summer learning download!
Jen Benoit, MEd, is co-owner of Tutor Doctor – Tutoring in the Triangle, providing in-home, private tutoring to Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Durham, Chapel Hill, and surrounding areas.
Building Your Bookshelf: Robert McCloskey
Adding Great Stories to Fuel Great Thinking!
Building a Bookshelf for your child can be a virtual or concrete task. That means that you can build a bookshelf of books that you borrow and read, read online, or books that you have and keep on the bookshelf. Putting quality books with great storylines and writing into your child’s hands is a great way to enhance vocabulary, story retelling, following more complicated plots, and character building ideas. We’ll be “adding books” to your bookshelf” as we look at new and old books.
Books: Make Way for Ducklings, Homer Price Books, Blueberries for Sal, One Morning in Maine, Time of Wonder
Author and Illustrator: Robert McCloskey
Recommended Age: As a read aloud, you can start the picture books at preschool. They are listed as grade 2 and up reading level. The Homer Price books are better read-alouds from Kindergarten and up. According to Scholastic, the reading levels are grade 4 and up. See each specific book’s level here. All of these books are more nostalgic in nature, but certainly are able to be understood by children today. All the picture books have won a Caldecott medal.
Summary:
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Make Way for Ducklings – Mother Duck is leading her large brood of ducklings to the pond in Boston. Wonderful illustrations (and duckling names!) make this a winner for your bookshelf!
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Blueberries for Sal – Sal goes blueberry picking with her mother outside their home in Maine and has a wonderful adventure!
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One Morning in Maine – Meet Sal and her family again as they go through a day living on the shores of Maine!
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Time of Wonder – A trip through what you may see when you are in Maine. This has beautiful color illustrations and does have more poetic and lyrical writing.
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Homer Price Books – These are the most fun to read with older children as you follow Homer on his adventures (including his pet skunk!) as he helps others out and solves mysteries. My personal chapter is Homer Price and the Doughnuts!
Resources:
Make Way for Ducklings:
Blueberries for Sal:
Homer Price:
Do you have a favorite Robert McCloskey book? Let us know what you would recommend and why in the comment section below.
Get our Free Author Study Worksheet to complete for a home or school project. Robert McCloskey is an excellent author to use! Tutor Doctor provides in-home, customized reading tutoring to Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Durham, Chapel Hill and the surrounding areas.
Jen Benoit, MEd, has read Homer Price to every class she has ever taught (even Kindergarten!...but just the doughnut chapter!). She also has a great fondness for the Ducklings book as she lived in the Boston and the area for many years. She took her son there for the first time just recently to check out the Duck Family statues!
Building Your Bookshelf: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
Adding Great Stories to Fuel Great Thinking!
Building a Bookshelf for your child can be a virtual or concrete task. That means that you can build a bookshelf of books that you borrow and read, read online, or books that you have and keep on the bookshelf. Putting quality books with great storylines and writing into your child’s hands is a great way to enhance vocabulary, story retelling, following more complicated plots, and character building ideas. We’ll be “adding books” to your bookshelf” as we look at new and old books.
Book: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and follow up books in series (Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Magic, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Farm, Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle)
Author and Illustrator: Betty MacDonald wrote the books and illustrations are by Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are) for the earlier books and Hilary Knight (illustrator for the Eloise books) for the more recent books
Recommended Age: As a read aloud, you can start some of these at ages 4 and up. According to Scholastic, the interest level varies from grades 1-3 and the reading levels are grade 3 and up. See each specific book’s level here. My suggestion is to read aloud at younger ages and they can reread it themselves when they get older.
Summary: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is someone who every parent wants in his or her neighborhood. She enjoys having the children over to ride her pony, search for buried treasure in the backyard, and have tea parties in the upside down room in her house. As an added bonus, she also dispenses advice to parents on everything from a “won’t-pick-up-your-toys-cure” (a personal favorite) to tattlers.
The books focus on character development in a rather unique way and
the solutions to some common childhood ailments such as interrupting and whining are often hilarious and do-not-try-at-home. They only work in the land of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. However, they do provide a great jumping off point to discuss character development and issues with children.
These are more classic in nature and took place many years ago. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle could easily live in the same town as Pippi Longstocking. Explaining different ideas from a different time period is also a good activity when reading them. The most fun, though, is to see all the unique names and concoctions she comes up with for cures. A great read for the whole family! I have also read several selections from Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle aloud to various age students!
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Resources:
Do you have a favorite Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book or idea? Leave your comments (and URL!) below!
Learn new ways to help your child work on sight words with our free download below. Tutor Doctor provides in-home, customized reading tutoring to Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Durham, Chapel Hill and the surrounding areas.
Jen Benoit, MEd, has read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle since she was young and loves introducing her to future generations!
Preschool in a Minute
Felt Stories
One activity you can do with your preschooler in 1-5 minutes with something you may have in your home or easily get from the dollar store! That’s it! Preschool in a Minute!
Remember when felt stories were a regular part of early childhood? We had regular story times with them when I was young and I do them with my child. Many people feel that they are “old-fashioned” or “out-of-date,” but I believe they are still wonderful for preschoolers (and even older!)
Activity: Felt Stories
Materials: Pieces of various colored felt, Sharpie Marker, different printables from here.
Why I Love This Activity: Felt stories are great ways to visually show a child a story involving sight and touch. Children can hear the story, then they can retell the story with the felt board. There is something magical to children to be able to “stick” fabric onto a board.
Prep Time: Time to gather felt and large piece of felt (if you need a felt board) and time to download and trace or make the items to go on the flannel board.
You can make your own felt board (like this post by Oopsey Daisy that I love), you can buy one at a toy or craft store OR you can just buy a large piece of flannel and put it up on the wall or door using double sided tape or tacks. I found one at a yard sale and have used that one for many of the stories.
Age Level: 1 and up
Attention Span: 1-2 minutes for little ones and 5-7 minutes for older preschool age.
The little ones will want to put them in their mouths, so be sure to keep the small pieces away from them. Let them feel the felt board and felt items for sensory experience.
Directions:
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Print and cut out the characters or shapes you are using (see the Resource section below). Many are easy to cut out and may be just shapes.
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If you are cutting out paper, glue felt or sandpaper to the back to help it stick.
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Tell the story or rhyme as the child watches you
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Then guide them or let them put them up as you tell the story again. My son LOVES to help me with the different felt pieces!
Resources for some great activities/stories:
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Color Sorting - just cut out several shapes in different colors and sort them on the board.
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Variations:
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You can also use magnets if you would rather tell the story on a magnetic surface like a refrigerator or a cookie sheet.
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Have the child retell the story to you using the pieces after you
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Put them away if you have little ones, but for ones 3 and up, put in a basket or container for them to retell the story themselves when they would like to.
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Glue different textures onto different pieces of felt or sandpaper for child to match textures. It is also a great way to work on sensory motor issues.
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Make a felt story out of a favorite book. This is definitely more time intensive and I did this when I taught Kindergarten, but every child (including mine!) has loved it! It is a matching game with the book about clouds. I copied the pages and put them in a binder with page protectors, but you only need to do that if you have a class of children and it is used very often by little hands.
Do you have a great felt board idea? Leave your idea (and URL below)!
Check out other ways to use cookie sheets and puzzles with our free download below!
Jen Benoit, MEd, is co-owner of Tutor Doctor – Tutoring in the Triangle, providing in-home, private tutoring to Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Durham, Chapel Hill, and surrounding areas.
Preschool in a Minute
Outdoor Journals and BINGO
One activity you can do with your preschooler in 1-5 minutes with something you may have in your home or easily get from the dollar store! That’s it! Preschool in a Minute!
Now that the weather is turning sunny and warm(ish), here are some great activities to use outdoors to keep children tuned into the changing spring world around them!
Activity: Outdoor Journals and BINGO
Why I Love This Activity: Often our family tries to go for a walk after dinner to get some exercise and some family time alone. After one walk made longer by our preschooler’s attempts at jokes every 10 feet, we decided to do something different! This is a way to keep the entire family occupied and talking about what is around them while having some exercise!
Prep Time: Time to download the BINGO or journals and gather sheet protectors and wipe off marker.
Age Level: 2 and up
Attention Span: 10-15 minutes depending on the age of your child. Don’t expect the little ones to be engrossed all the time and expect the first time to be a little more difficult as they get used to the idea of BINGO and spotting things.
For the little ones this is more about playing I Spy in the neighborhood than playing BINGO.
Directions:
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After printing off a BINGO sheet or a sheet of items in the neighborhood from the Journal pages, slide them into the sheet protectors and grab the markers. The sheet protectors are a way to reuse the BINGO sheets over and over, but you can easily just print them out every time you walk.
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As you go through the neighborhood, circle or X the item you see on the BINGO board or Journal sheets.
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Try to find all the things if you can!
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If you are working on the Journal pages, go home and draw or cut out the picture of what you saw on the walk. As the child dictates to you what he/she saw you can write it below or if they can write well, they can do it! If they are of writing age and don’t want to write, dictate anyway! This isn’t a school project. It is more important that they get their words on paper for what they saw then work on handwriting or sentences for this family fun!
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Once you have a month of journal pages, staple them into a book to enjoy together!
Variations:
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You use the same board for the whole family or separate boards for the whole family.
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Once BINGO is understood by everyone and you have done this a few times, try getting all four corners or only diagonal BINGO’s. You can also race to get the whole board!
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Take the journal pages with you to draw while walking! You might want to take a clip board, too.
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One night, take your camera and take pictures around the neighborhood to make your own BINGO or Journal sheet. That way it is specific to what your children see.
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Make a tricky BINGO board for older children. Take photos around the neighborhood while they are not with you and take pictures of tricky things like a letter in the street sign or a figurine in someone’s yard.
Do you have a great idea for outdoor journals or BINGO that you have done with your preschooler? Share your ideas (and URL!) below!
Working on sight words with your preschooler? Check out our free download about ways to learn sight words below.
Jen Benoit, MEd, takes walks with her family nightly to see and explore. She and her husband provide private tutoring through Tutor Doctor-Tutoring in the Triangle to Raleigh, Cary, Chapel Hill, Apex, Durham and surrounding areas.
Building Your Bookshelf: Books by Melanie Watt
Adding Great Stories to Fuel Great Thinking!
Building a Bookshelf for your child can be a virtual or concrete task. That means that you can build a bookshelf of books that you borrow and read, read online, or books that you have and keep on the bookshelf. Putting quality books with great storylines and writing into your child’s hands is a great way to enhance vocabulary, story retelling, following more complicated plots, and character building ideas. We’ll be “adding books” to your bookshelf” as we look at new and old books.
Book: Books by Author Melanie Watt
Chester, Chester's Back, Chester's Masterpiece
Scaredy Squirrel, Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping, Scaredy Squirrel has a Birthday Party, Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Christmas, Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach, Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend, Scaredy Squirrel at Night
Author and Illustrator: Melanie Watt
Recommended Age: As a read aloud, you can start some of these at ages 4 and up. According to Scholastic, the reading level is at Grade 2 or 3 and up. See each specific book’s level here. Overall these are great read alouds for younger children and good independent reading as they develop reading skills.
Summary: Watt has a few different series including Scaredy the Squirrel as well as Chester.
Chester is a cat who has various disagreements with the author. Scaredy is really the Monk character (if you ever watched the show) in squirrel form. Scaredy is afraid of many things and always creates a plan for safety should something happen that disturb his life in the tree. He has several adventures and always comes prepared.
These books do possess a little sarcasm and Chester in particular can be rather self-centered and annoyed when others get his credit. It is written with Chester interacting with the author, Ms. Watts. It is a unique way to write a book and gives you insight into Chester’s thoughts.
Melanie Watt Resources:
Do you have a favorite Melanie Watt book? Let us know the book you would recommend and why in the comment section below.
Learn about 30 Ways You can use to improve your child’s reading with our free download below. Tutor Doctor provides in-home, customized reading tutoring to Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Durham, Chapel Hill and the surrounding areas.
Jen Benoit, MEd, discovered Melanie Watt by dusting off some of the books on the bookshelf given to her by a children’s librarian friend. The books came during her now-four-year-old’s baby shower and he loves them! What a discovery! It really pays to be friends with a librarian!
Building Your Bookshelf: Picture Dictionaries
Adding Great Stories to Fuel Great Thinking!
Building a Bookshelf for your child can be a virtual or concrete task. That means that you can build a bookshelf of books that you borrow and read, read online, or books that you have and keep on the bookshelf. Putting quality books with great storylines and writing into your child’s hands is a great way to enhance vocabulary, story retelling, following more complicated plots, and character building ideas. We’ll be “adding books” to your bookshelf” as we look at new and old books.
Book: Various Picture Dictionaries
Author and Illustrator: Varies
Recommended Age: Picture dictionaries can be used from birth up through the elementary years. Children start by looking at the pictures, then naming them, then reading and writing the words.
Summary:
A picture dictionary is any book that has labeled pictures in an organized fashion. You might have a book centered around farm animals or a book centered around the body. As they get older, children read picture dictionaries with words followed by definitions.
You will want to choose dictionaries at a younger age that are board book style (thick pages that are boardlike). Then they move onto paper pages as they learn to respect and handle books. The dictionary should have colorful and clear pictures that are engaging to the child. The idea is that children can use them to learn new vocabulary and develop the sight of words and pictures together.
Other Uses:
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Picture dictionaries can be used as children start writing and need to know how to spell a word. It is much easier to flip through a book to remember the spelling than it is to look it up in a non-picture dictionary for those early writers.
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If you or your child are learning a second language, pick up some picture dictionaries in that language. Your child might be in middle or high school, but having a picture dictionary is still a fantastic resource to find words quickly! When I taught Latin, I always had a Latin picture dictionary handy.
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English Language Learners of any age can benefit from picture dictionaries as this teaches the words quickly with the benefit of groups of words (such as household items, etc) in order to learn a particular set of vocabulary.
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Use as picture prompts for writing 
exercises. You can see the French picture dictionary we have below. Our son has loved this from a very early age. There is something about the clay figures and colors that he enjoyed and still looks through today. Most of the scenes can be used for your child to tell a story along with the picture. Because of the many vocabulary words available on the page (if it is in English), it is much easier to write the story using the picture and words on 
the page.
Do you have a favorite picture dictionary or way that you use it at your house? Leave your idea (and URL!) below in the comments section.
Learn about different Reading Myths with our free download below. Tutor Doctor provides in-home, customized reading tutoring to Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Durham, Chapel Hill and the surrounding areas.
Jen Benoit, MEd, has enjoyed picture dictionaries as a teacher and a mother. Even the French picture dictionary (found at a yard sale) has been a hit in our house!
Preschool in a Minute
Cookie Sheet Letter Matching
One activity you can do with your preschooler in 1-5 minutes with something you may have in your home or easily get from the dollar store! That’s it! Preschool in a Minute!
Most of us have magnetic letters for our preschoolers, but often they hang out on the refrigerator door (or floor as they did at our house for a season!) and that is the only use they get. Well, here is another way to use those great learning tools!
Activity: Cookie Sheet Letter Matching
Materials: A full set of upper case or lower case magnetic letters (these can be found at the dollar store), a cookie sheet (used or new from dollar store), a bowl to hold the letters, and a printout sheet of letters from here or make your own!
Prep Time: Time to gather all magnetic letters, cookie sheet, and print out alphabet sheets here.
Why I Love This Activity: There are several reasons this is a GREAT activity for your little one.
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It helps develop identification of upper and lowercase letters.
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It helps with fine motor coordination to pick up the item and put it down where it belongs.
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It can travel with you and be used in the car or at visits and appointments. Because it is magnetic, the pieces do not fall off as easily. If you are concerned about using it in the car, just pack it for when you reach your destination.
Age Level: 3 and up (you can try it with younger ones if you feel they are ready)
Attention Span: 3-5 minutes at first, but as you do these over time, you can see their interest grow and you can move to the next level of interest.
Directions:
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Place the letters in a bowl next to or above the cookie sheet.
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Put the paper on the cookie sheet and talk about matching the letters.
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Choose the first letter and talk about what it looks like and where it might be on the sheet. Be sure you are using the paper that has the same letters (upper or lower case) as the magnets. Children are going to identify the same things first.
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Continue matching letters until your child loses interest or you are finished.
Variations:
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Matching Upper to Lowercase – As you continue working with the letters and your child is learning lowercase, put out the uppercase magnetic letters with the lowercase sheet to challenge them. When my son did the uppercase matching sheet quickly, I knew it was time to change over to the lowercase. Don’t worry how fast or slow your child goes. Look for accuracy.
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Practice Letter Sounds – As you match the letters, talk about the sound each letter makes and a word that starts with it. For example, when matching B to B say, “B says buh” like in Bubble! Next time you blow bubbles together, remind her of the B sound. Tying all of these things together helps it to become more natural rather than taught specifically.
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Sight Words – As your child starts recognizing that sounds make words, bring out one of the sight word sheets (or make your own!) here. Sight words are common words in books that children may see. They are usually short. Even if your child is not reading, he can work on these sheets because, again, they are matching letters to letters. Soon, your little one can form words. It may be some time before he can read them, but it is a good practice to have them “make words.” Print out sight word sheets here.
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Using Numbers - This variation works on numbers and number words. You can download sheets here that give spaces to match numbers with the number words. Your child doesn’t need to read because in the beginning you can read the words to them. As you read them emphasize the beginning letter and sound so they know that “seven” starts with an S. Read more on this website as I am a big fan of these cookie sheet ideas! If you really enjoy them, she has a whole set you can purchase for just a little over $5.
Do you have an idea for using magnetic letters? If so, leave your idea (and URL below!).
Looking for more ideas? Get our free download about how to use cookie sheets and puzzles below.
Jen Benoit, MEd, works with her husband, Tim, providing in-home, private tutoring to Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Durham, Chapel Hill and surrounding areas. They also like to match magnetic letters with their preschool son!
The Cycle of Reading Failure
When Does it Start…and End?
We all know reading is important for children, but what many people don’t know is that there is a cycle of reading failure that can start as early as lower elementary! According to Peter Stuart Westwood who wrote Reading Learning Difficulties: Approaches to Teaching and Assessment,
“A child needs to get off to a good start because success tends to build on success. A successful entry into the world of reading makes a child feel confident and intrinsically motivated. Failure quickly causes frustration and loss of confidence and avoidance.”
It makes sense doesn’t it? Success builds on success and failure encourages more failure. But what can we do if our child is starting to experience the cycle of reading failure. Well, first we need to look at the essential components of learning to read.
What are the Essential Components?
Phonemic Awareness – the awareness of sounds and the differences between them when it comes to letter and letter combination sounds
Phonics – learning to read by putting sounds with letters or letter combinations
Vocabulary development – developing background knowledge and understanding of words so you can effectively comprehend them in context
Reading fluency – the ease at which students are able to read a sentence or passage
Reading comprehension – how well students understand what is written
Many people often think of reading failure only in the early grades, but this can happen often in the upper grades as well, particularly with the addition of more complicated texts or reading material. Often students lack the background knowledge and the vocabulary to effectively read the texts and get lost in the subject area, giving them a very poor chance of doing well in the courses and subsequent courses. See the Cycle of Reading Failure below.
Here are some recommendations when your student may be caught in the Cycle of Reading Failure
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Give opportunities to develop background knowledge. Giving a variety of ways to gain material he or she may have missed by taking field trips, watching historical movies, or reading picture books or novels can be very helpful. Read more here.
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Ask your child’s teacher for a text that may be at a different level. Use that text at home with your child to avoid embarrassment. This way, the material can be understood at a simpler level with less complicated vocabulary.
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Encourage study groups with other students where students discuss what is happening in the text.
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Hire a tutor for your child to make sure there is specific help for your student’s needs. Often teachers do not have the time to individualize like a tutor can.
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Ask the school (in writing) for your child to be tested for reading. If you feel there may be a problem with reading, talk to your child’s teacher and ask for your child to be tested. There may be some reasons why your child is not performing at the level of her peers.
Do you have some great tips about helping reading skills? Leave your comments below.
If you feel that your student may need reading tutoring, read more about how Tutor Doctor can help here. Tutor Doctor provides reading tutoring to Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Cary, Durham, Apex, and surrounding areas.
Jen Benoit, MEd, has seen the Cycle of Reading Failure in her twenty years of teaching and hopes that we can all take steps to help students break the cycle.
Writing Prompt Wednesday
Story Plot Graphic Organizer
When looking at a picture prompt, students are usually asked to write a story or descriptive paragraph about the picture. Many students get blocked when trying to decide how to write about it. One way is to use graphic organizers.
This one is called the Story Plot Organizer. It helps the student visually break down pieces of the story in these areas:
· Rising Action (What leads up to the high point)
· Climax (High point or Turning point of
Falling Action (Events leading to the conclusion or resolution)
· Resolution (What happened in the end; how the conflict was resolved)
This is Boston Marathon season (and many other marathons!). This month's picture prompts are for your student to put together a story about running. It is easier to think up rising action, climax, falling action and resolution when looking at a marathon or a race. In the Boston Marathon, for example, Heartbreak Hill may be the climax for some writers because it is the most intense part of the race. For others, crossing the finish line may be the climax. It all depends on how you write it.
Feel free to use the picture prompts below. Although not from the Boston Marathon, they may inspire some ideas. Use your own pictures if you are looking for a different story type.
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Using the Story Plot Graphic Organizer, the student can visually work at creating various parts of the plot.
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He or she fills in the different sections of the graphic organizer with phrases and words.
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Then he or she will turn those phrases and words into a story.
So, now it is your student's turn to use this writing prompt for a descriptive writing exercise.
Get and use our free download below. You get a formatted sheet with further instructions that you can use today with this picture writing prompt or your own. Just click on the picture below.
Happy Brainstorming!
What story would you like to use this graphic organizer for? Leave your ideas below.
Jen Benoit, MEd, enjoys the writing process and has used graphic organizers often with her students. She co-owns Tutor Doctor - Tutoring in the Triangle providing private, in-home tutoring to Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Durham, Chapel Hill, and surrounding areas.