Much like her father, Rebekah is not a natural memorizer. She is excellent at concepts, but struggles with the details {also like Josh}. In the long run, these will be great strengths, but right now, it means she is having a little trouble learning her sight words for P1. The idea is for her to simply recognize and read these words by sight. However, for Rebekah, the best method is to teach them to her by sounding them out, making some sense of them. Once we’ve done that for a while, we drill her with flash cards, or alternatively, with way cooler games like the chocolate chip game! Inspired by Great Kate, I made laminated words for her and laid them out on the floor {Christy found clear contact paper at Poundland for, you guessed it, a pound, and I used that to “laminate”}. She got to put a chocolate chip on each one. Then, in whatever order she wanted, she read the words and got to eat the chips when she got them right. Luke quickly realized that there were a lot of chocolate chips to be had in this game. Bless his heart, he grabbed the Leap Frog flashcards for capital letters and started laying them out…so, I was greatly surprised to find that he knew almost all of them!!! Man, what my kids will do for chocolate chips!!
When he realized how well Rebekah was doing with the game, Josh took it up a notch by timing her, which was a fun variation for all. ;) Rebekah has all her capitals down pat, so she runs the chocolate chip game for Luke if I can’t, which is so cool to see/watch!
Chocolate is a great motivator! In fact, its one of the only consistent things that motivates Lily. Way to go, Malone Family!
YEAH for chocolate chips!! So glad the incentive is working and that Luke is in on the action also. He will have all those sight words memorized before he starts school!! Great job with those pre -reading skills.
Hey, I bet Dan would have a lot cleaner house if he used this game with me!
This is brilliant!!! I love this concept, and as you’ve already covered, it can be used to learn so many things… Hmmm…
I also just saw this game: http://learningwithmrsparker.blogspot.com/2011/10/roll-sight-word.html and thought it might be fun with the sight words
Dana- I really like the dice game- nice way to change things up without having to do treats all the time, too!
What a way to learn – it would certainly motivate me!! Way to go Rebekah and Luke . . . and of course their Mom!!