Phonics object boxes

I have been working on my phonics object boxes. here is my new list. By the way, I just love the Wades minature figurines that come in Rose Tea! they are perfect for this and my kids love them. I found my first ones at a garage sale for a dollar for 5 of them. There are over 2,500 wades figurines. I think I may start collecting them. Tonight when we went to Walmart I bought a box of tea and the little green christmas tree came in it for $3.12. The tea is good too!
In the phonics boxes the ones marked with a (*) are little plastic toys we already had in the depths of my toy box.
A
apple ( I made from felt)
alligator (plastic toy)

B
baby bottle (*)
bouncy balls
Beaver (Wade)
bear (Wade)
box (made for greeting card)
brass bell (antique store $2)
boot(*)
picture of hot air balloon

c
cat puzzle
car(*)
cross eraser(*)
cup

d
doll(*)
duck(*)
dice
picture of girl drinking from a water bottle

e
elephant (Wade)

f
falcon (Wade)
flower
fork(*)

g
girl paper doll(*)
green paint chip

h
hammer(*)
horse (*)
heart (cut from felt)
picture of hands holding red heart
hat

i
inspector guy (*)

j
jack

k
kite
plastic letter k

l
lion (Wade)
lemon(*)
leaf(cut from plastic floral arangement)

M
man or mayor (Wade ringmaster figurine)
marble
map cut from picture and laminated
mirror(*)

N
nickle

o
owl (Wade)
ox (*)
orange slice (*)

p
pink paint chip
pink pig
plastic pig(*)
guitar pick
porcelain poodle

q
quarter

r
rino (Wade)
ring
rose (from same plastic flower arrangement)
ribbon
rock
round circle

s
sheep(*)
shoe (*)
screw
spider (*)

T
tiger (Wade)
tree (Wade)

u
umbrella

v
picture of vioets cut from magazine
picture of violin

w
wood block

x

y
yellow yarn ball

z
zebra picture (cut out and laminated)

Ring toss board

Aaron made Little-man a ring toss game. I bought a small board and shaker peg for the center. Aaron drilled the center hole and put a screw in through the bottom. our local self-serve lumber also had wooden curtain rings on clearance for $0.99 better than the dollar store price. I took a little metal eye hook off each one. Two were already broken but there was 10 in a package and only four will fit on our peg at a time.

Homemade manipulatives

Thanks to an idea from "Pink and Green Mamma"'s blog I went out yesterday and found the screws and thingies to make her wooden block manipulatives. Pitty-pat loves to screw and bolt but kept taking apart his plastic work bench toy. This made it very dangerous for little-man who just wanted to climb it, so we got rid of it. I hope to dig around and find a block of wood today so I can drill the holes and get it finished.

phonics object box

Pitty-pat really wants to learn to read like his big sis. I started a phonics object box. I found a 26 drawer box at Menard's for under $13.00. I took some alphabet stickers from my scrapbook pile and labeled the drawers. Today I found some miniatures at a garage sale for $1.00 to go with what I found here at home. i printed some flash cards from SparkleBox.com.uk We are already playing name a word that starts with the "..." sound for each letter of the alphabet. He is a wiz at that game! It won't take him long to read with his level of desire right now.

Flat Stanley

Two more post cards from flat stanley having a blst with all the Flat Stanley geograpy lesson. what a neat idea.

Visitors Center Visit

Aaron and I took a trip to the Visitors Center Rest Area in Clare, Michigan i got a great wild flowers poster to hang in our school room for nature study! Also several brochures for places here in our home state to visit this summer. I also got another michigan map since I cut out my old one for a poster of places we go this summer. Aaron got to visit Jay's Sporting Goods which i also love to visit!

Jakes Event

The kids loved going to the JAKES Event put on by the local branch of the National Wild Turkey Federation. It had a small reinnactment camp complete with teepees and trappers tents and bow making. Bird houses for each of the kids to make. Boy Scouts teaching knot tying. Stations with several kinds of guns to shoot including a muzzel loader. Pitty-pat loved these he could smell smoke! Fishing in the very large stocked pond. Bows to shoot on a real 3D bow course. Bow fishing at an alligator or carp decoy. Ben Franklin impersonator showing compass lessons. The highlight was of course the Gator ATV rides to the parking lot. This is our fifth time going and all the kids have always loved it. Thanks so much for putting this on for all the kids.

Flat Stanley

A wonderful coworker is traveling and sending us postcards from flat stanley. The kids are amazed! We have had ones from Minnesota and South Dakota so far and they enjoyed finding the states on the U.S. map. They made their own flat stanley's and we hope to send them awy on a trip soon with pictures coming back to the kids through my phone.