More Games and New Workboxes

Workboxes have taken over and I am ever so thankful for Sue Patrick for writing a book about the concept!!! I do love them!! They have been so easy for us to use and just throw into our school day and make it better!!! I go to convention next week and she is going to be there - I am excited to see what she has in her booth on display and the possibility of beinga ble to chat with her a little!!!
Anyways - I did have to switch up our boxes to magazine files so that we could use 12 and I need them to fit on the 2 bookshelves, hence the magazine box versus the show box. Thomas will still only have 6 but he has a whole shelf to choose from that houses his stuff!!!


I had thought we would only use 6 or 9 but I have gotten so many ideas from other blogs and the yahoo group and just going through my stuff and the stuff I want to do with them that I decided we would use 12! I got these great number tags and I am so sorry that I can't remember where I got them(if any of you know and wouldnt passing along her blog so I can give her credit I would appreciate it) because they are so cute and the boys like them much better than just the plain ol' number!!


I think this will be the way that I put the cards in their boxes for the things we do together. If I put it into the box - they will think their box is empty and we wouldn't want them to think that!!


I have a small basket on top of the bookshelf for them to put their cards and numbers in when they have finished that box. They didn't seem to care about putting it on a schedule - they liked that it was off the box. If that is enough for them - it is enough for me!!!

File Folder Games Rock.........

I do love Games and I have gone a little crazy making file folder games and other games with paint chips these past weeks!! I think these will be the end of it but who knows!! Over at The Snail's Trail she keeps giving me some FANTASTIC ideas to do so very cheaply - practically free and I get so excited I start making them again!!! Most of these are ideas I got from Momma Snail - I thought I would show off because I sure had fun making them and am ever so thankful for the sharing of ideas out here in blogland!!!

The number words are written out on the folder and they will have to match the dot and the numeral to the word. I only did 1-10 for now and will do 11-20 later on when Thomas is ready to move past these!


Thomas is going to love doing this one. In the envelope are each of the letters in his name and he has to match them to the top to learn how to spell his name! I used a library pocket as the envelope. I cut open the front of it, folded it over and used some velcro to keep it closed and I put packing tape on the top edge so it won't rip as he opens and shuts it!

This is another number matching where he has to match the dots to the numeral.

These are the dots and I used the same library pocket to put the dot cards in.

You can't see the numbers but each 2 square spot has a number on it 1-10. I put packing tape(didn't have anything else around the house, it works and it was late so...) over the numbers so he can use dry erase markers to color them in, practice writing them and he can trace them with his finger! I put a piece of writing strip on the bottom so if he wants to try to write the number without tracing it - he can! Again - it is covered in packing tape so we can use this over and over with a dry erase marker!

In the little baggie velcroed to the folder are pictures of a word that begins with each letter of the alphabet. He will have to match the beginning sound to the proper letter.

This is one of my favorites from Momma Snail. I love the idea of using the preschool workbooks to make games. She also had a rhyming words one which I will get around to doing one of these days. This one is sequences. I got hte pics from a couple of old preschool workbooks.

I was thinking about using this same format to do greater than and less than, before and after with #'s, maybe opposites???

Games, Bees and Life

I have been busy this past week rearranging, making games, tweaking the workboxes, I painted a room that has been waiting to be painted for quite some time, we did some school, and Life has continued around me whether I wanted it to or not!!!!

These are the completed file folder games I showed you in the making in this post


In this one they will have to match upper and lower case letters


This one is a simple matching game for Thomas!


I saw this book storage idea and it has been eating at me to do for quite a few months now!!! I looked all over for cheap magazine boxes to copy her idea and I couldn't find ANY!!! She got hers from Ikea and the closest one to us is 2 hours away - aarrgghhh!!! I hate it when I can't get an idea out of my head and it consumes me because I so want to do it!!!! So - I was halfway to Ikea last week and I just kept driving!!! I bought the boxes - painted them black with some spray paint(who knew you could do that - I tried it - it worked and so I was off and running) and put them on my shelves!!! I love that I can label the boxes with what is in them and it makes it a lot easier to find books when looking! Now - not all the books are in boxes but a lot of them are!!!

I also wanted to use magazine boxes for workboxes since our space is limited and that was my other push to go get them! I am now able to get 12 boxes on the 2 shelves. We will not use all 12 during the summer but I am getting some great ideas to use in the boxes and it is going to be easy to fill them all when we start back in the Fall! I am not done with them yet but will post some pics when I am!!
My OCD is happy for now!!!

We found a BeeHive in a tree in our backyard!! So - we are about to start a Bee LapBook that I got from CurrClick for free!! I am a little scared becasue I dont want the boys to make them angry and they are right near where they play but they are as excited as I am to watch them make their hive and learn about them so.....I am going to brave it!!!
How cool is this........


There are a lot of bees in there - it is a little scary but it sure is neat!!!

Paint Chips are Fun

You have to go over to visit Momma Snail and see what she is doing with paint chips - great ideas, fun colors and they are free!! I have made a couple of my own games and thought I would share those.....

I found these stickers in the dollar spot at Michael's - they have an upper case/lower case letter and a pic on each sticker. I bought 2 sets of stickers and made 2 sets of cards to use as a matching game. I want to teach Thomas upper and lower together so these were perfect for me to use with Thomas. I couldnt figure out a good way to keep the cards and then it dawned on me to make it into a file folder game so I am still working on that! I will have to cut the chips down a little to get 26 of them into a file folder but it will be worth it!


The stickers above were packaged just like these ones - in case you go looking. These ones were also in the dollar spot at Michaels. I found some smaller individual paint chips at Home Depot today and I am going to make these into a file folder matching game as well. I am going to put a capital on one chip and a lower case on the other chip. I am planning to use these with Ben and reinforce the letter sounds while we are at it!!!



I have also found some great animal and bug pics in the clip art at microsoft.com that i will print out and put onto the chips to make a matching game for Thomas as well!!! This could be done with stickers as well!!

I would love to hear some of your ideas for paint chips......or games!!!!