Spelling all by Herself!

Yesterday Hannah started spelling by herself for the first time.  Usually when she writes notes she is constantly asking, "How to you spell TOGETHER?" "How do you spell ARE?" etc.  So I was excited when I saw this.  

"Wratr (water) tast (taste) betr (better) the more you drek (drink) it" 

Here is her note from today.

"I ben (been) the King of traning (training) Rex but I watid (wanted) him to be a big boy So I satid (started) to have him go to school in the haws (house) and I wod (would) tech (teach) him"

Spanish Calendar

Hannah attends an international school where they learn in English half the day and learn in Spanish the other half.  Her Spanish teacher invited me to watch Hannah leading the class in their daily calendar.  After only 6 months of Spanish, I was so surprised at what she knows!

Summer Learning - Hooked on Phonics "Master Reader"

 Master Reader Program

This past summer we also worked on "Hooked on Phonics" Master Reader.  I meant to do these lessons every day during the summer, but it seem like the days slipped by too quickly, and we didn't finish the program.  We are still working on it though :)

There are 4 different levels of books and the first one is blue.  It's not a "fun" as Hooked on Phonics, but is "cooler". Part of each lesson is done at the computer via their software.  Hannah though some of the sound effects were too loud and would cover her ears.  I didn't like the controls for dividing up the words into syllables, it was too easy to make a mistake without meaning too.  The lessons were a bit long for Hannah, but then again she is only 5 and it's meant for ages 7 and up. Other than that, I thought it was an good program.  

After you do the lesson on the computer, you pull out one of their short stories.  I thought this was the best part.  I could sit with Hannah and have her read to me.  Very fun stuff!

Each lesson has a tab with a story using some of the words from your lesson.

Some lessons have more than one story

After you finish the entire blue book, there is a chapter book to read.  

Very cool!

Well, we didn't ever get to the chapter books, but we are still working on it :)

What She's Reading Now

 Hannah's Stack of Books

Hannah said that she wanted to read "big" books, so I went to the library and picked out some I thought she'd like.  I knew she could read most, if not all the words, but wasn't sure how long her attention span would be or how well her comprehension and retention would be.  

To my surprise, she read the entire story "India The Moonstone Fairy" in two days.  She also told me what happened in the story and who the main characters were.  

She was SO excited "Mama!  I read "immediately" all by myself!

I was excited too :)

Isabella Inchworm

Hannah came home with the cutest song about the letter Ii.

You can also watch a cute animated video on Frog Street.

Isabella Inchworm will you try

to name some things that begin with I

Into and inside and in between

invisible means that you can't be seen

Indians and igloos, and insects too

and interesting, intelligent kids like you!

VIP of the Week - October 11 to October 15, 2010

Our VIP

Every week in school a child is chosen to be VIP of the week, and Hannah tells me every week which child was chosen. She was SO excited on Monday, that she was able to say "I'M the VIP of the week!" She brought home Chester (the puppet dog) and his backpack filled with dog books. She also made a poster filled with pictures of her (and one of me?... she insisted). Today (Friday) she gets to stand in front of the class with her poster and they get to ask her questions about the pictures and what she likes to do.

We all made a big deal about Hannah being the VIP, and she loved it!

Reading Time at Hannah's Library

Welcome!

We found this in the living room last week! Hannah having story time with her animals.

She's busy reading to all the "children"

The entire living room was her library. She sorted the books by content...

...each section had it's own place.

After she read a story, each "child" received their own book to read from.

Here's Hannah reading/singing "The Animals of Farmer Jones"

I am also allowed to pick out books from the library. She uses my library card, "scans" the bar codes and lets me borrow books. Hannah uses the piano bench as her checkout stand. She loves it!

Wheatgrass 'Garden'

Easter Display

I followed Make and Takes tutorial for growing wheatgrass and love the results. Hannah was able to do most of it herself and Ernest even did one for himself. Our first attempt didn't work out well, and since I over watered (a lot!) our wheat started to grow mold instead of grass! I'm happy to say our 2nd attempt worked out much better! This is our results after 12 days. There is just something magical about plants and being able to watch something grow from a seed. The wheat is growing so fast it seems like it's noticeably taller overnight!

I love the dew drops we found on our blades of grass this morning!

Hooked on Phonics - Book Matchup

Page 50

A few days ago, Hannah was reading "ear" blends in the Green Hooked on Phonics Book. That night as she was reading "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss...

we came across this page...

How fun to have a page in a "real" book that matched perfectly with her Hooked on Phonics reading!

Magic E Activity

'Magic' E

Here is one of the activities from the Hooked on Phonics Green Book. You could make this yourself using some cardstock or index cards. Hannah thought it was a lot of fun adding the 'e' on the end to change it to a new word!

Hannah Reading - Feburary 2010

Hannah Reading

Hannah is loving the Magie E (aka Silent E). I am amazed at how quickly she caught onto the concept of it. She loves to trick people, and I guess she feels that the 'e' on the end is a 'tricking' letter. Whatever the reason, she loves reading more now.

One Page a Day

The first page in the Green Book

We have officially started in the green book and we plan on reading one page a day. There are about 60 pages, so I'm hoping Hannah will be in the blue Hooked on Phonics book by the middle to end of April. It only takes us about 2 to 5 minutes to finish a page and maybe 15-20 minutes to read one of the story books that are included with the set. It's just a few minutes a day, but I don't want to overdo it and wear her out. Hannah is sounding out the words very well and does a great job! We also do a few pages each day in workbooks that I bought at our local learning store or bookstore.

Scooby-Doo Phonics Books

Scooby-Doo Books

Our friend let us borrow these books, and since Hannah LOVES Scooby-Doo, she was very excited to read these books. These books consiste of long vowels and blends so they match perfectly with the Green Hooked on Phonics Book. Hannah read one each night and did a great job. I only had to help her on a few words per book.

Valentine Panda

Valentine Panda

Hannah brought this CUTE Valentine home from Preschool yesterda. I love that it's all made from hearts. The head is a large upside down white heart. The eyes and nose are small and smaller black hearts.

And the ears are upside down medium hearts!

"I Read it Myself" Labels

Our Sheet of Labels

I used a sheet of Avery address labels and a template at Avery.com to create these labels. As soon as Hannah saw me putting them in her book that she read, she ran and picked out 5 more books to read to me. She put the labels in and I wrote the date for her.
Here's one of the books that was waiting for a label. "Duck is Dirty" is such a cute, funny book....
And the best part is that Ernest read this same book 9 years ago (when he was 4) !!!

Hooked on Phonics - Green Workbook!!

Green Workbook and Reading Books

As of February 1st, we have finished the Red Workbook in the Hooked on Phonics. Hannah was so proud to put an "I did it" sticker on her chart!

There are many Silent E and blends in the Green Books, so we are going to take a couple weeks off from the Workbook and just play the "Magic E" game and work on our Blends.

Here is our Magic E game

Regular or short vowel side

Silent E or long vowel side
Here is our "Blends" pouch
Here is the blend by itself on one side
and the other side with a blend word

Beginning Reading Books

Lots of Early Reader Books

Since Hannah is reading a lot more, I went through our books and pulled out the ones that she could read "all by herself" with the exception of maybe one or two words. I was glad to see we had some cute ones.

We love Little Critter!!

Lots of Biscuit books :)
"Step into Reading" Books

It seems that the ones that say "Phonics: ready to read, Step1" are the easiest for her. They have almost exclusively easy phonics words with no blends.

Here's a sample page. Perfect for Hannah!