Home Learning with Treasures From Jennifer - Part 3: Literacy Activities
Kate Kwijas (@exploringlifetogether_) for Oskar's Wooden Ark | June 15, 2023
In Part One of this series we introduced you to the wooden frames made by Treasures From Jennifer. In Part Two, we shared some activities to help support and develop numeracy concepts for your little learners. In this final instalment, we’re excited to talk about how you can use the Treasures From Jennifer frames and coins to support literacy in your home.
Choosing the right resources for you & your child
When I look for a resource to add to our learning space, it must satisfy certain criteria for me to purchase it; it must add beauty to our space, it must be made well so that it lasts for all my children and, ideally, it should have more than one function. Although the Treasures From Jennifer Frames might typically be thought of as a mathematical resource, when combined with the Alphabet, Grammar and Sight Word Coins, they instantly become much more.
Activities with ALPHABET Coins
The Alphabet Coins can be used for so many learning activities. Initially, they are used to encourage letter recognition. Later on, little learners will naturally begin to create their own nonsense words and delight in trying to sound them out. Below are some activities you can set up with your Alphabet Coins at home:
Easy as A B C
Place the Alphabet Coins in order and have your little learner point to each letter as you say or sing the alphabet together. Remove certain letters and replace with a woollen ball, encouraging your child to figure out what letters are missing.
Nonsense Words
Have your little learner create nonsense words with whatever ever letters they please and encourage them to sound them out. This is a great activity for learning how different letters sound and how multiple sounds put together can form words.
CVC Words
Create some simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) three-letter-words, then remove the vowel. Have your little learner determine which vowel belongs in the word. Encourage them to sound it out. Example words; cat, hen, pig, dog, bug.
Say My Name
Children will love to learn how to spell their names. Encourage them to do so and identify the letters involved.
Activities with SIGHT WORD Coins
The Fry Sight Words is a list of the most common 1,000 words in the English language. Learning all words in the Fry list equips a child to read about 90% of the words encountered in a typical text. The words are listed by the frequency in which they occur, meaning that the first 100 Fry words are the 100 most frequently occurring words in the English language. Consequently, when you purchase and use the Treasures From Jennifer Fry Sight Word Coins, you will be supporting your little learner’s reading and spelling at home whilst reinforcing what they are learning at school.
Although these are called ‘Sight Word Coins’, it is important to note that you do not have to use them to teach sight words. Teaching the sounds each letter makes and supporting your child to learn to decode words is important. We love to use the Sight Word Coins in our daily learning.
Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check
One of our favourite ways to use these coins is to combine them with the Alphabet Coins and use the method of look, say, cover, write, check. However, instead of writing the word, we recreate it using the Alphabet Coins.
Loose Parts Play
We also enjoy reading the Sight Word Coins by placing them onto the Hundred Frame (or the Twenty or Ten Frame) and placing a loose part over each word as it is correctly read. If my little learner sounds out the word but still gets it correct, we still place a loose part on top of it.
Activities with GRAMMAR Coins
We absolutely love to use our Grammar Coins in our home and also incorporate them into our home learning.
LEARNING the Parts of Speech
We use the Hundred Frame, with its distinct quadrants to focus upon four different parts of speech. We roll a dice and place that many words onto the frame, under the correct heading/part of speech. This is a collaborative game to place all words onto the board. The discussions that naturally occur as a result of this game share so much insight into your little learner's understanding.
IDENTIFYING the Parts of Speech
Another activity that we regularly engage in with our Grammar Coins is to make a sentence and then identify the part of speech of each word underneath. The twenty frame works perfectly for this activity. The beauty of this activity is that it clearly demonstrates that each word plays an important part and has a role in a sentence
This brings us to the end of our three-part blog series on Home Learning with Treasures From Jennifer. The true beauty of these materials is that they are able to grow with your child, whilst supporting their learning through a hands-on approach that will add beauty to your play or learning space. We would love to see how you use these resources in your home to support your little learners.
The Treasures From Jennifer range has so much more to offer to compliment your frames and coins, why not check out the full range below?
If you and your little learners try any of these activities at home with your Treasure From Jennifer products, be sure to share it with us on Facebook or Instagram, making sure to tag us @oskarswoodenark.
