This homemade color and pattern matching card game was taken directly out of the book, The Toddler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner. It's an easy way to teach kids colors and matching using leftover wrapping paper or construction paper. For older children, you can turn it into a traditional memory game, ...
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Montessori Sound Jars
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My 3 year old was not very good at doing these Montessori sound jars when I first made them, but I'm hoping that as he gets older, he'll learn to distinguish between the different sounds. The idea is that you have two sets of jars (blue and red, in my case), each filled with the same objects (like ...
Homemade Colored Shapes
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When I first learned about laminating with contact paper from the book, The Toddler's Busy Book, I admittedly got a little carried away with "laminating" everything. One of the things I made was this set of colored shapes to help my toddler learn both his shapes and colors. Recommended Age Range: ...
Homemade Number Matching Game
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Kids seem to enjoy matching upper and lowercase letters so much in this homemade letter matching game, that I decided to try something similar with numbers. Admittedly, this number matching game a little more tedious if the child has not yet made the connection that a 2 digit number can be broken up ...
Homemade Number Cards
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Honestly, I made these homemade number cards out of necessity, not because they're any fun by themselves. Sometimes it's hard for kindergarteners to remember the numbers that don't make any sense. Like why is 11 called eleven and not one-teen? Similarly hard numbers are 12, 13, 15, and 20. I believe ...
Homemade Letter Matching Game
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This letter matching game is very simple, and it doesn't seem like it would be much fun, but even kids that in general don't seem to be interested in learning letters seem to like matching these cards. I think this "game" is best used when the child is fairly confident with the uppercase letters and ...
DIY Sight Word Matching Game
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Sight words are boring. This sight word matching game is my attempt to make them a little bit fun. To give them context instead of just showing the child words written on blank cards. Basically, the game uses a modified version of these illustrated sight word flashcards with the sight word removed ...
Illustrated Sight Word Cards
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I really don't like the idea of making kids memorize sight words. Sure, grown-ups don't take the time to sound out and decipher words like "the" or "as", but we remember them because it's convenient and necessary, not because someone told us we needed to. I wanted a way to help a child remember ...
Which One’s Different? Cards
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Being able to classify objects is an important skill, and I can't think of anything easier than making these "Which One's Different?" cards (or making new sets once kids get tired of the first set). They remind me a lot of standard worksheets for preschoolers, though I'll admit I wouldn't think ...
Letter Sounds Lift-a-Flap
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I'm not sure what other schools do, but at our local kindergarten, the kids are taught this really cute song to help them learn the letter sounds. The song is sung to the tune of the ABC's, except instead of just singing the alphabet, they sing, "A-ah-apple, B-buh-bear, C-cuh-cat, D-duh-duck..." ...
Michelle has a PhD in Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor's Degree from the California Institute of Technology. 