What We've been Reading (Little Golden Books)

I came across a set of second-hand Little Golden Books and bought them for Z... a lot of them are vintage with beautiful and detailed illustrations...Z  and I have been reading them every night. Sigh...these books evoke such strong memories of my own little golden books I had as a child : )

Action Book

Z is 3 years 4 months old

Although Z goes to a preschool where English is the medium of instruction and also hears a lot of English at home as well, it is still her second language. One area where she still stumbles is when saying things in the present continuous form. So she says 'dolly sleep' instead of the dolly is sleeping or 'boy cry' instead of the boy is crying.

To help her out, I decided to use pictures to elicit and practice sentences with her. I have done this with my EFL students before- using pictures from magazines to elicit target language and extensively practice so that they get comfortable using those words and they begin to come naturally to them.

I scoured my magazines for appropriate pictures and stuck them in a spiral sketchbook to give them a book feel since Z loves poring over books. Then we both sat together and looked at each picture while describing it - the baby is sleeping, the boy is digging, the woman is vacuuming etc

I also had a sheet of stickers with action pictures that she stuck onto cardstock while saying out loud the actions in sentence forms (she needed help with that) which I punched holes into and bound with ribbon.

I intend to keep coming back to both the books with her till she becomes proficient with the sentence form. I also intend to build upon sentences with the same pictures to further enrich her vocbulary and sentence forms InshaAllah so that she can say The woman is vacuuming the carpet, the girl is brushing her teeth , the girl is swimming in the water etc. Later, these books can also be used for writing practice as well.

What method did you find effective to teach your child action sentences?

Linking to

Quiet book no. 2

A friend of mine was  travelling to India with her 2 year old daughter about 6 months ago, and it was a last-minute decision to make this quiet/busy book. I whipped this up in about a week so I stuck to a simple layout and design. I also had to use whatever sewing and embellishment supplies I had in the house so I couldn't improvise on my ideas, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out overall.

Buttoning Flowers

Left : Buckling and Braiding

Right: Foam Arabic Alphabet stuck with the help of a glue gun

Left: Putting up the Laundry

Right: Zip up the tent 

I had seen this idea online before I started blogging and long before Pinterest came along and I don't think I bookmarked the page...if you know the blog where this idea originally appeared please let me know so that I can give due credit. 

Left: Look under the flaps

Right: Counting beads

A purse with a snap button and filled with goodies that the sweet girl could use such as a small pencil, notepad, small pack of tissues, a toy mobile phone, a small wallet with some pretend credit cards (actually those fake cards that you usually get in new wallets : ) ) a lollipop and some candy

More File Folder Games for Preschoolers

Z is 3 years and 3 months old

I had so much fun making file folder games last time, (click here to see the post)  and Z enjoyed  a new variety of activities as well, that I made some more for her. Then we went to India for our vacation , and Z started school on our return so we didn't really get to use them. Z's been at home for the last 2 weeks due to an infection so all the file-folders came out for her to play with. I hope you find the ideas below useful. (Note: all the printables mentioned below are free to download)

Match the sides of a die

I used the image from here to make a pre-counting activity for Z where she matches the cards based on visual discrimination of quantity.

Matching Apple Colours   from File Folder Fun

Uppercase- Lowercase Alphabet Match  from Homeschool Share

(Once you're on the webpage, scroll down to Preschool Workboxables and click on Alphabet Matching A-Z)

Matching Traffic Signs

When I stumbled upon a set of stickers of Saudi traffic signs, the first thought that came to my mind was 'file folder game!' I bought 2 sheets of the set. I love the camel sign..isn't it cute? 

This would also be a good springboard for discussion in the future on traffic signs and what they mean.

If you're not able to find stickers, you could use printable traffic signs from your therapy source, doodles and jots or living life intentionally

Rock Structure Shadow Match  from File Folder Fun

Fish Shadow Match from teenasteachertidbits

Growing Garden (ordering by height) from TheEducationCenter

Click on the link for sample pages to be directed to the pdf. I have to mention that I made this activity over 7 months ago and right now this is too easy for Z .

Matching Patterned Hearts from preschoolprintables

Arabic Alphabet Match (used the call cards from here at amuslimchildisborn)

Sea Creature Match from littlegenegreenbean

Shattered Patterns from File Folder Fun

Matching Flip-Flops

Found a sheet of flip-flop stickers...had to use it for a file-folder game : )

If you're keen on making your own flip-flop matching activity, you could print the black & white flip-flop printable found here, colour and cut out.

Tooth Counting from bitsycreations

Z's not quite ready for this yet, but I HAD to make this one since its so pretty and cute.

Linking up with:


 

Lookie What I Made ! Mooshy Belly Bunny

I'd been saving these old stripey T-shirts discarded by my father since last year especially for this project. Finally made this yesterday. It was super simple to make and  Chez Beeper Bebe has a tutorial for this sweet cuddly bunny that's really easy to follow. Z loves it and now I'm off to make some more Inshallah!