Over the years we have enjoyed several Dr. Seuss activities inspired by his books.   

One of our favorites for early readers is this Dr. Seuss sight words game.

This simple Dr. Seuss game makes sight word practice at home more fun.   It’s perfect to do in March, while schools are often celebrating the author’s birthday.

You will also love these other Dr. Seuss sight words activities and  Dr. Seuss File Folder Games for preschool & kindergarten.   

Dr. Seuss Sight Words Game

You will need 9 plain white note cards.  You could also cut your own cards out of a piece of white card stock.    

Use markers to draw a hat similar to the Cat in the Hat’s hat on each card.  (You could also do this on the computer and print it out if you have access to a color printer.)

With a black marker write one sight word at the bottom of each card.    I chose to use all rhyming words for our cards, making it easier to sound out unknown words.  (And very Seuss-like, too!)   But you can use whichever sight words your child is working on at the moment.  

Draw a small birthday cake on a piece of scrap paper.  It needs to be small enough to hide under one of the note cards.  

Why the birthday cake?  To celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday on March 2.  If you plan on doing this activity at a different time of year, simply draw (or print out) a picture of the Cat in the Hat for your child to find instead.

Dr. Seuss Reading Game

To play, flip all 9 cards over.  

Hide the birthday cake (or cat) under one of the cards while your child is not looking.

Have your child flip over the cards, one at a time and read the word on the card. 

If they read the word correctly, it stays face up. 

If they read the word incorrectly, read it for them, and then place it upside down again.  

The game ends when they find the hidden birthday cake and correctly read the card it is hidden under.  

How many cards can they read before they find the cake?  

Both my preschooler and kindergartner were able to play this game.  

The kindergartner already knew several of the words in this DIY sight word game and was easily able to sound out the others.

I LOVED that the preschooler was also able to play by sounding out the first letter and then add “at” to it and putting it all together.  He was so excited to read the words “mat,” “hat,” and “rat!”  (And I was excited to watch those wheels in his head turning!)

This Cat in the Hat craft was fun to do after playing the game. 

You can easily modify this game to meet the needs of your child.  Once they are feeling confident in getting through 9 cards, try setting it up with 12 or 15 cards for them to read.  

I hope your child enjoys this Dr. Seuss sight words game as much as we did.

Looking for more Dr Seuss activities?  

• Dr. Seuss Activities for Older Kids (8+)
• DIY Yertle the Turtle Stack the Turtles Game
• Dr. Seuss STEM Activities 
• Daisy-Head Mayzie Craft

Originally published February 28, 2014. 

The post Dr. Seuss-Inspired Sight Word Game first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Over the years we have done numerous Dr. Seuss Crafts & Activities.   

These Dr Seuss File Folder Games are fun to play and are easy to store to use year after year.  

Affiliate links have been used below.  See my full disclosure for more details.

Kids learn best when they are having fun.  We love incorporating educational games for kids into our homeschool routine.  

These Seuss games for kids are perfect for preschoolers and kindergartners.  Older kids will love these Dr. Seuss activities for older kids. 

If you wish to use these games in the classroom, or with several students for homeschool, you may want to use a laminator to help protect the pieces.  The games take up almost no room, and can be stored in their file folders in a cabinet or crate, making them easy to access.

Dr Seuss File Folder Games

Pets & Their Homes — This is fun activity to go with the book What Pet Should I Get.   Kids will learn about 6 different types of pets and what kinds of cages/homes they are usually kept in.

Dr. Seuss Sight Word Game — While not a true file folder game, this simple DIY game can fit easily in a file for storage.  

Seuss Land—  A colorful game for young kids, played like the classic Candy Land game.

Lorax Math Game —  This is perfect for kids who are working on adding or subtracting skills.  

One Fish Two Fish Counting Game —  Young kids will have fun placing the colorful fish into the fish bowl and then counting to see how many fish there are.  

Cause & Effect with The Lorax — Read The Lorax and then use the matching game to talk about what happened in the story. 

Seuss Tic-Tac-Toe — This printable tic-tac-toe game is a fun way to celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday.  

10 Apples up on Top File Folder Game — Toddlers and preschoolers will have fun placing the correct number of apples on each animal’s head in this printable game. 

These file folder games for Dr. Seuss books will have young kids smiling and learning with some of their favorite characters.  

Continue the fun with a few Dr. Seuss STEM Activities.  You may also want to check out these funtastic Dr. Seuss math activities.

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Affiliate links have been used below.  Find my full disclosure here. 

Vowel Recognition Activity

Materials Needed:

• Large Piece of White Paper and Marker
• Toy Tractor/Front Loader
• Letter Tiles

Draw 2 large circles on your piece of white paper.  If your child is just beginning to learn the vowels, you may want to label one of the circles (a, e, i, o, u).

Scatter a handful of letter tiles (making sure there are plenty of vowels included in the bunch) on the floor near the paper and grab a toy tractor with a front scoop.

The goal of the game is to use the tractor to push all the vowels into the correct circle and all the consonants into the other circle.  (My son pretended he was moving his crops to the correct areas.)

After playing the game several times flip the paper over and draw two new circles.  This time around just label one circle “vowels” — do not include the letters a, e, i, o, u.   Now the challenge is for your child to know which letters are vowels without having them written down to check.

You could easily modify this game to fit the interests of your child.  Construction trucks, animals, or even princess dolls can help move the letter tiles to the correct spots.

You may also like:

• ABCs & 123s:  40+ Hands On Learning Activities for Letters and Numbers 
• Sight Word Game: Reading Farm 
• Simple Pig Craft for Farm Unit
• Read to the Top: Sight Word Game 

The post Vowel Farm — Game to Promote Vowel Recognition first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

We have been blessed with some beautiful weather lately!  This past week I just couldn’t keep them cooped up inside, so we moved the learning outdoors with this simple sidewalk chalk outdoor reading game!

The game is very simple.

While they were running off some energy, chasing the puppy, I used sidewalk chalk to write a variety of CVC words (think 3 letter words with a vowel in the middle) all over the driveway.

Ways to Play the Reading Game:

We played our reading game several different ways over the next few days.

Game 1:  The first time around I guided them by hand to different words and they took turns sounding out each CVC word.

Game 2:  The second time we played we used a rock.  They took turns tossing a small rock onto the words and then reading whichever word the rock landed on.

Game 3:  Then we played a version where I called out a word and they raced to find it to stand on the word.

Game 4:  Finally, they got out the squirt guns and after they read a word they got to squirt it.  (This, by far, was their favorite version!)

With a bit of sidewalk chalk this outdoor reading game is a simple way to work on early reading skills. 

More fun ways to learn at home:

• 15 Fun Ways to Practice Sight Words at Home
• Nerf Gun Math
• Kinesthetic Math Game

The post Sidewalk Chalk Reading Game first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Apple-themed activities seem to flourish at the start of the school year.

Whether you are looling for ideas for an apple unit at school or homeschool, or you just want a few fun learning activities for fall, there are plenty of fun apple activities for kids to choose from.  

We had fun with our own apple unit in homeschool, starting with a few preschool apple math activities using pom-poms.

We used red, yellow, and green pom-poms to represent apples for these fun apple unit activities.

For more math fun, check out our apple skip counting activity. 

Apple Math Activities

Sorting:  Sort the “apples” into baskets by color.  You could also do size if you have different sized pom-poms.  (Our baskets are empty yogurt containers that have been washed and dried.)

Patterns:  Use the pom-pom apples to work on patterns.   You can challenge your child to create their own patterns or give them a type of pattern you want created (such as a simple AB pattern or an AAB pattern).

For younger students you might want to start a pattern and then ask them which color would come next in the pattern you created.

One-To-One Correspondence:  Work on one to one correspondence with the pom-poms as you count.   Line up the pom-poms and show your child how to point to each “apple” as you count.

Counting:  Ask your child to count out a specific number of apples.  I created simple construction paper apples and wrote different numbers on them for my kindergartner to then count out that many apples.

Addition and Subtraction:  Use the pom-pom apples as manipulatives to work on adding and subtracting skills.  

You could use the pom-poms to help your child work on addition or subtraction problems on pre-made math worksheets.  Or you could create your own math problems to work on together.  (If I have 5 red apples and I add 4 green apples, how many apples do I have total?)

You may also like:

• Apple Themed Preschool Ideas from Teaching 2 & 3 Year Olds
• Apple Stamping Activity 
• Work on early subtraction skills with Subtraction Squish
• 15 Fun Ways to Work on Sight Words at Home
• Easy to Make Apple-Scented Bubble Dough 

The post Apple-Themed Math Activities Using Pom-Poms first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Several months ago my daughter decided to empty her piggy bank, all over the floor.  Somehow the pennies got put into a bucket instead of back in the pig, and they’ve been dumped a number of times since.  I decided this week it was a good time to wrap up those pennies.  And it just seemed natural to work on counting skills with the pennies, too!

I started off by showing her the penny wrappers.  I explained that we were going to put 50 pennies into each one.

Because she learned to count by 10’s in kindergarten, I decided to have her first count out the pennies into groups of 10.

She counted most of the pennies out one at a time, but I did show her how we could count them out by 2’s as well.  (That’s a skill we will work on this year in first grade!)

Once we had our groups of 10, I asked her to count to 50 by 10’s, moving our piles in a line as she counted.

I started the roll off for her.  Those things can be tricky!

And then she placed the rest of the pennies, one at a time, into the roll.  (Great practice for fine motor coordination!)

Once we had several penny rolls filled, I showed her how many rolls made 100 pennies.  Then we talked about the fact that there are 100 pennies in a dollar.

I love that she thought she was rich when she saw she had two dollars worth of pennies!

We counted out five dollars worth of pennies before she lost interest.

That’s a lot of counting!

I did try counting pennies out with the 5 year-old, but he wasn’t quite as interested.  He did count out one roll’s worth, though, with some help.

It was great practice for one to one correspondence when it comes to counting.  (Which he needs to work on!)

Keep in mind if you choose to count with pennies that they can be a choking hazard for little ones that still put small objects in their mouths!  From what I observed with my own children, it may work best for those who are in kindergarten or are older.

When counting you could try counting by ones (working on that one to one correspondence), or you could count by 2’s.  Then use your piles of 10 to count by 10’s.  You could even count by 10’s to 100 and divide the piles in half to fill the rolls!

Feel like doing extra math?  Take a couple piles and add them together!  What’s 10+10?

Keep it fun and they won’t even know you’re sneaking in some math practice!

Happy counting!

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