Rachel and Prairie love school, and we do school every morning, but I needed them to focus on something independently while I worked with the boys. So, I finally set up activity shelves to keep these learning-hungry girls busy.
This is Activity Shelf 1.
Let’s start with the top shelf. On the top, in the basket, I have some very easy books —- board books, Dick and Jane, and 4 x 6 photo albums. In the photo albums, we put a picture on the left side and a story (usually from their 100 Easy Lessons) on the right. Occassionally, I get creative and write a more personal “story” for the girls.
We like to encourage sisterly love and kindness, even as they practice reading skills.
I rotate the books in the basket every few weeks or so.
Beside the basket, we have little pockets with matching cards. The girls adore these cards. They play with these more than any other thing on the shelf.
They lay down the picture cards first. Then match the word to the picture. Some of the pictures are copies and some I drew by hand. I did not spend a lot of time making these, maybe 10 minutes putting together 1 pack of matching cards.
This fractions folder took me about 10 minutes to put together. The girls match circle sections.
When they are very comfortable with halves and fourths,we will add thirds and eighths.
Another matching game. Match the “baby b” to “Mama B” and “baby d” to “Mama D.”
Stringing beads, Magnetic marbles we use for math (when we are not using raisins or chocolate chips), and buttons in matchboxes.
Finally, I did something with all the pretty rocks the kids carry in the house. The girls match rocks to the circles on the index card while counting. They check themselves by flipping the card over to see the number.
I actually like playing with the wooden fruit. It is kind of cool to “slice” through the velcro. Our wooden knife is missing in action. The last time I saw it, it was tied with rope to the waist of a shirtless 7-year-old boy. When I find that knife, I will thump that boy on the nose and pull his toes, then cut up fruit with the girls while talking fractions.
Prairie Sings 