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Mini Objects
Submitted by Pamela Keegan (08-10-2012)
I have a collection of tiny pendants, miniature dolls house items and beads that I use to teach phonemic awareness, grapheme/phoneme matching, memory games, classification activities and many other things.
There is at least one item for every letter of the alphabet and I'm working on finding objects for digraphs (so far I only have a chicken and a shoe).
Some activity suggestions:
Select 4-6 objects depending on level of students and play i-spy, using the objects on the table. This really helps the children have a bit more success than playing it with things around the room.
Match objects to their corresponding initial grapheme (or in the case of x, we use the end as in box - I just explain that is because x likes to be at the end or middle of words). You could have cards set up like bingo cards, or you could just have one large alphabet chart that they all share, which is nice to take out the competitiveness.
Have children choose an object, say the initial phoneme and then write it.
Sorting - classify objects based on all sorts of features - colours, uses, living/non-living, sounds, syllables...
Memory games - have some children select objects (start off with around 4 for preschoolers and add more as they get better at it/older). Name each object, telling them to take a picture of them with their brains. Everyone turns around and the person who is in takes an object out (hiding it in their hand). The other students need to guess which object is missing.
Children just love these as they are intricate and cute. It adds some variety and a bit of fun, plus it doesn't take up very much space in your storage area! I really talk up how precious they are to me and how sad I would be if any went missing, to try to minimise little hands 'borrowing' them, or them getting lost on the floor etc. So far, the children have been very careful with our precious mini objects.
I have a collection of tiny pendants, miniature dolls house items and beads that I use to teach phonemic awareness, grapheme/phoneme matching, memory games, classification activities and many other things.
There is at least one item for every letter of the alphabet and I'm working on finding objects for digraphs (so far I only have a chicken and a shoe).
Some activity suggestions:
Select 4-6 objects depending on level of students and play i-spy, using the objects on the table. This really helps the children have a bit more success than playing it with things around the room.
Match objects to their corresponding initial grapheme (or in the case of x, we use the end as in box - I just explain that is because x likes to be at the end or middle of words). You could have cards set up like bingo cards, or you could just have one large alphabet chart that they all share, which is nice to take out the competitiveness.
Have children choose an object, say the initial phoneme and then write it.
Sorting - classify objects based on all sorts of features - colours, uses, living/non-living, sounds, syllables...
Memory games - have some children select objects (start off with around 4 for preschoolers and add more as they get better at it/older). Name each object, telling them to take a picture of them with their brains. Everyone turns around and the person who is in takes an object out (hiding it in their hand). The other students need to guess which object is missing.
Children just love these as they are intricate and cute. It adds some variety and a bit of fun, plus it doesn't take up very much space in your storage area! I really talk up how precious they are to me and how sad I would be if any went missing, to try to minimise little hands 'borrowing' them, or them getting lost on the floor etc. So far, the children have been very careful with our precious mini objects.
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What others are saying...
teaching letter-sounds
Wonderful idea, what about a fish 'sh', coat'oa' (mini doll jacket), chicken 'ch',whale 'wh', or
ring 'ing'
great idea
I went to Big W at Gateway shopping centre (Perth) and found a section in the toys where you can get a bag of 8 small plastic animals you could use for this activity. They had farm animals, wild animals, sea creatures and dinosaurs. I am sure you would find them in any Big W.
I had planned to use them as a sorting activity but now I will do that and then add an extension activity and ask the children to write down the initial sound. We have also been working on final sounds so maybe some could attempt this too.
The kinder surprises are also a great source of little items.
I also found some small clear plastic ornaments 3 for $1.97 in the Christmas decorations. I got some gorgeous swans.
Thank you for your contribution.
Mini Objects
Have you looked at different buttons and scrapbook things at Spotlight? You can find lots of different things there and you may be inspired for the digraphs
Mini objects
I think this is great. Thanks for the inspiring idea! Just a thought-maybe a mini thermos or thermometer for 'th'.
We have photos of objects/people relevant to the children to remind them/prompt them of the diagraphs (eg picture of cheese on our chopping block for 'ch', a picture of a friend with a 'sh' at the beginning of her name and a picture of the thermos we use to make yoghurt in class for 'th'). We keep these on the fridge near our big working tables in class that the children eat at.
So each time the children sit down to work at the table (or eat lunch!) they have a visual reminder.
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