Nonna's Favorite Quotes:


Thursday, May 31, 2012

Let's Use Our Senses

Let's continue working on the five senses with the activity sheet below. Ask your child to choose and circle the picture that is described by all three adjectives in the sentence. Example: The dragons in the first box are all big and green, but only one is sleeping

This activity will reinforce
  • knowledge of our five senses
  • recognition of adjectives
  • critical thinking skills.


Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Five Senses: Learning About Our World

Has anyone ever asked you "Did you hear that?" or "Do you want to taste this?"  We use these kinds of questions because of our senses. Without thinking about it, we use our senses all day long to gather information about the things around us.

The senses of sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing are the 5 main ways that people and animals take in information. Each sense takes in different kinds of information and then uses our central nervous system to process this information. When our sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin) are stimulated, nerve impulses are sent to the brain through our central nervous system. 

Teaching your children about their senses is very important. Using activities that stimulate their senses help the brains develop. Teaching your children about their senses is also a great way to help them understand how their bodies work. (I've also read articles about how activities that explore the senses can benefit children with autism.)

The following are links to websites that list various sensory activities that you can do with your children:
Nibbles...Ideas For Families 
Little Giraffes Teaching Ideas
Gayle's Preschool Rainbow

I've also created two Senses Activity Sheets that you can use with your child. 

Start with Sheet 1:  Begin to discuss the five senses by using these pictures and sentences. Ask your child to give you the correct word that will finish each sentence. Then have them cut out each picture on the dotted line (or you can do it for them.) They'll need these for Sheet 2.

Sheet 2:  Ask your child to name each picture in Column 1 and then choose the most important sense that they would use to help their brain figure out what the object is. Have them paste that picture over the questions mark above the column. Do this for all five columns. 

This is also an opportunity to discuss how we sometimes use more than one sense to identify objects. Choose an object from Sheet 2 and discuss which senses your child could use to send important information to their brains.  (Example: flowers - sight, smell and touch)

                             To Print: Double click on sheet to open it. Then right click and choose Print Picture
Sheet 1

Sheet 2

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Using Your Senses

I've been using these parts of speech activity sheets with my 5 year old granddaughter and I'm amazed at how easily she's grasping the concepts. Simple sentences that contain a NOUN, ADJECTIVE, and VERB are a great way to demonstrate sentence construction and correct grammar. 

On the sheet below, I've also included a lesson on the 5 senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling. Explain to your child that our senses help us learn about the world around us and about our bodies. Ask your child what part of their body is used for each sense. (We will be exploring our 5 senses in more detail in later posts.)

Then ask your child to read the 5 sentences below, filling in the blank with an adjective that describes the noun. Have them give you several adjectives that would fit into the sentence. Then ask them to pick the one they like the best. If they can't write the word themselves, you write it in for them.

You can continue this activity by using things you see around the house. "I see the black refrigerator." "I hear the loud doorbell." "I taste the cold ice cream." "I touch the furry cat." or "I smell the yucky garbage."


Thursday, May 10, 2012

The Orange Dinosaur is Smiling

Here is another fun activity sheet that will reinforce the concept of NOUNS, ADJECTIVES, and VERBS. Using the graphics as a guide, help your child create sentences about the animals. To further reinforce these concepts, find common objects around the house and see what kind of sentences they can put together. 


Monday, May 7, 2012

Parts of Speech Practice

Now that you have introduced your child to the concept of nouns, verbs, and adjectives with my three previous activity sheets, it's time to combine these parts of speech into sentences. First review their definitions with your child:
  • Noun: a word that names a person, place or thing  (sister, city, dog)
  • Verb: a word that names an action  (run, sing, sleep)
  • Adjective: a word that describes (tells something about) a noun  (pretty, tall, purple)
Use the activity sheet below to help your child identify the nouns, verbs, and adjectives in each sentence. You can help your child identify the verbs by asking leading questions. (Example: "What did the sad boy do?" "What does the teacher do at the red school?" "What does the hippo do?")                                                                                                                                                                         Since we're now using whole sentences, you can also start pointing out the period that appears at the end of each sentence and introduce them to the concept of punctuation. We'll be working on periods and questions marks later on, but it doesn't hurt to explain that we use the period as a way of showing that the sentence is finished.


Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Sleepy, Silly and Sad: Adjectives

We've talked about nouns and verbs... now it's time for adjectives. Adjectives are important elements of language and grammar. They help language come alive by describing nouns. You can teach your child about adjectives by starting with a simple word game. 

Have your child give you a name of a person, place, or thing. (Let's use this example: dog.) Write down the word at the top of a piece of paper. Then ask your child to describe the dog. Write down the words that your child uses in their description. You may have to prompt them by asking questions. "Is it a big dog, or little dog?" "What color is the dog?" "Is the dog hungry?" "Does the dog like to play?", etc.  

Then read what you wrote down back to your child:  big dog, brown dog, hungry dog, playful dog, furry dog

Explain that the words big, brown, hungry, playful, and furry are words that tell you something about the dog. They are called adjectives. Ask your child to close their eyes and then read the list again. Ask them if the adjectives helped them picture the dog in their mind.

Then you choose another word. Have you child close their eyes and you give them some adjectives that describe the word that you are thinking about. Then ask them to draw a picture of what you just described. Discuss how adjectives helped them know what to put in their drawing.

Here's an activity sheet that will help you teach adjectives. You can also use this sheet to reinforce the concepts of nouns and classification by asking them if the pictures are person, places, or things.

To Print: Double click on the picture to open it. Then right click and choose Print Picture.