The Connett Connection

So today started out like any other.  I got up, changed the baby, fed the baby and laid him on his play mat.  I then got breakfast for the older two, chocolate chip waffles, their favorite breakfast in the world.  I then opened the curtain on the back window then reached for my vacuum which has been camped out by that particular window for a few days now and proceeded to vacuum up the 10 or so flies that had congregated there during the night. You see, the last few days we have been battling a fly infestation.  Until this morning, I had no idea where Ms. Momma Fly laid all her eggs as I hadn't seen any of her babies crawling around anywhere.  Well, after getting the kids breakfast I look over at the kitchen and thought, I really need to sweep!  But then also had a thought, I just swept yesterday and we haven't eaten in there since!  Well, I got up to sweep up what ever crumbs some magic crumb fairy had left there only to discover it was all maggots... hundreds of maggots craw

I've been using these dab a sight word sheets with my daughter for a while now, but I was using a different list of words than typically used with Dolch words, fully believing it was the actual Dolch list, but after going a while I noticed words were missing from the list I was using and so I did more research.  The list I have is not a bad list, but I really wanted the Dolch list for her.  So now I'm making these dab a sight word sheets with the actual list, grade level specific and the pages have the words in order of frequency. My daughter loves using her colored chips to complete these pages.  She gets very excited when she finishes one and runs to tell me.  I love that this gets her practice with seeing the words and it is something she can do completely on her own.  We go over each word two or three times before she starts covering the words and I encourage her to say the words as she covers them. This is a copy of a typical page in the packet. There are three wa

I have just updated my number card packet to include tally mark cards and base ten cards! Click HERE to get your updated copy today!

It just dawned on my that August is just one month away.  I am still heavily planning my daughter's kindergarten year and hope that I can get the year planned before August gets here.  I already have to tweak her language/reading curriculum since we have found an area where she is struggling, and I want to make sure she has a good grasp of those concepts before diving into my personal idealistic curriculum I spent weeks planning for her.  (I know it will change hundreds of times before we get through it as I continue to learn how she learns best and her pace of learning different concepts). I did not realize how difficult rhyming words and phoneme segmenting would be.  My daughter is not an auditory learner.  She is very visual and hands on.  I know this after our first year.  She learned all her letters and numbers to 30 by watching videos that set learning to songs.  I have spent hours searching youtube and other sites for videos and songs to help teach the concepts I am teachi

 These dab a sight word sheets are just the first in the series I plan to make.  Each page features five sight words that are color coded for easy instructions. There are several ways you can use these sheets. 1.  Use dab it markers to actually dab the right color on the sight word. 2.  Use crayons or markers to color the appropriate color. 3.  Laminate pages and use colored counters to cover the spots with the appropriate color. I have been doing #3 with my daughter and so these sheets are color coded to match the set of counters I bought off of Amazon. To get your copy of these sight word pages, click HERE !

The short vowel word family coloring pages include 27 pages of coloring pages, one page for each of the word families featured. The following word families are in this file: ab ad am an ap at ax ed eg en et ib ig im in ip it ob od og op ot ub ug un up ut To get your own copy of the coloring pages, click HERE !

Directions for the basic game: CVC Word Builder Game Print out pages 2-7 on heavy card stock. Cut the two game cards apart and cut out the letter squares. Laminate for durability.  You may want to print out multiple copies of the letter tiles as needed. How to play: (2-4 players) 1. Build a CVC word on the mat to start the game.  Use the colors to guide students on where to place the letters. 2.  Give each student 5 letter tiles. 3.  The first player will choose one of their letter tiles to place on top of another letter tile to create a new word. 4.  If it is the students turn and they cannot make a new word, then the student will draw a new letter tile in hopes of making a word. 5.  Game ends when no student can play a tile during their turn or you run out of letter tiles. After mastering CVC words, cards with digraphs, blends and vowel combinations can be added.  All these sound cards and various game boards are included in this packet. To get your copy of the Wo

Color by beginning sounds packet contains nine sheets with four sounds each where students must color the pictures according to their beginning sounds. To get your copy of the color by beginning sounds sheets, click HERE !

This packet contains a variety of activities for students learning about the -at family. The following activities are found in this packet: Page 3: Cut and paste the letters to create the correct word for the picture in the box. Page 4: Which words from the word bank best complete the sentence and a word search. Page 5: At family flower. Color. Cut and Paste together. Pages 6-7: At family word cards and activity suggestions. Pages 8-9: At family words. Cut out letters and make at words. Write the words on the recording sheet. Pages 10-13: At family dice games.  Game 1: Single player, roll die to form an at word. Write the at word in the appropriate column until one column is completed.  Game 2: Two player, roll die to form an at word. Color in one square with that word. Player at the end with the most boxes colored wins. Page 14: Color the -at pictures. Cut an glue them on top of the appropriate word. Page 15: Print on card stock cut out and laminate

This packet has 3 pages of word cards and one recording page.  Students will use the word cards to form a sentence.  They will write their sentence on the recording page and draw a picture to illustrate their sentence.  There are prompts on the sheet to remind the student to remember their capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and their punctuation at the end. To get your copy of the -AT Family Sentence Builders, click HERE !

Practice reading -at family words with the three emergent readers in my -at family readers pack. The three stories include: The Cat and the Rat I See One The Cat Sat Each page of the readers includes a picture to color and a sentence to read.  Have students create their own book to take home to practice reading. To get your copy of the -AT Family Emergent Readers, click HERE !

Another activity in my -AT family series is complete!  The -AT family sentences are here! With this new center idea, you simply cut out and laminate each picture and sentence.  The student will read the sentences and match the correct picture to that sentence!  They get practice reading the -AT words they have been studying as well as sight words, number words and color words. There are 14 sentences and pictures to match. To get your copy of this sentence match center, click HERE !

This packet contains subtraction cards for all subtraction facts from 0-10.  The cards are smaller than the standard cards found so that they take up less paper and ink.  Two recording sheets are available for this packet. Suggested Activities: Sort the subtraction problems to match their difference. Select two problems, determine whether the difference is greater than, less than or equal to the second difference. Give students a group of subtraction cards and have them put the cards in order from least to greatest. Play concentration/memory where students must match the differences to get a pair. To get a copy of my Subtraction Sort click HERE .

This set currently includes the numbers 1-99. Each number is represented by the number itself, the number name, the expanded form and the tens and ones for that number. This set was created to help further my daughter's understanding of numbers 1-100. The cards in this set were created smaller so that it did not take up so much paper to print out. Print each page on card stock and laminate if desired for durability. Ideas for this set: Sort the different cards for Standard Form, Expanded Form and Word Form. Match the different sets together. Recreate a large 100s chart using each of the different forms. Place a set of cards in order from least to greatest. You can use all of one type or mix the types for an extra challenge. Sort cards for even and odd numbers. Use two cards to determine greater than, less than or equal to. As time permits, I plan to add cards with tally marks and base 10 blocks as well. To get your own copy of the number cards  click --->

My newest product are my -AT family word wall cards.  This set contains 10 different -at words with black lettering and 10 cards with the -at part of the word in bright red. All the clip art in this set was also created by me.  Once I have the -at family clip art finished, it too will be available for sale in my store. Great to hang on your word wall while learning about the -at family words. To get your copy of the -AT Family Word Wall Cards, click HERE !

I love products that have multiple purposes.  These addition cards can be used for a variety of activities to help students learn addition fact fluency.  In this packet, you will find mini flash cards for all addition problems from 0+0 up to 9+9, number cards from 0-18 and a set of greater than, less than and equal to cards.  A set of work mats are included for sorting and greater than, less than and equal to activities. Uses for the addition cards: 1.  Use the number cards to sort the facts by their sum. 2.  Create a greater than, less than and equal to activity. 3.  Give students a group of addition cards and have them put the cards in order from least to greatest. 4.  Play concentration/memory where students must match the sums to get a pair. To get my Addition Sorting and Activity Packet, click HERE .

My son is obsessed with trains.  I mean obsessed!  He has a train table and about 20 trains and two sets of tracks, complete with buildings and accessories.  He plays with it for hours with a Thomas the Train video playing in the background. In light of my son's passion for trains, I decided what better way to help teach him preschool concepts than to use trains!  I have created my own set of train clip art with which I plan to make many resources for my son to learn letters, numbers and any other lesson I can think of. Activities I have created with my train clip art: 1.  Letter Trains 2.  Number Trains 3.  Counting Trains You can get your own copy of my train clip art at my store by clicking HERE .

Here is my final (so far) of outlined materials.  I already have all the letter outlines up and available in my store.  You can read the post about my letter outlines HERE . This product includes one full paged outline for each number, starting at 0 and going all the way up to 20.  Suggested Activities: Color the number for a simple number recognition activity.  Look through magazines or other printed material and cut and past examples of the numbers. Draw objects inside the number to practice counting to that number. Place stickers inside the number to practice counting to that number. Use as playdoh mats. Trace the numbers with fingers. Use as building mats, like placing blocks to create the number shape. To get your own copy of the number outlines, click HERE !

This activity was created to help my children learn all about the letter A.  It consist of an image of a tree which is to be placed on one side of a manila folder and you would need to glue an envelope or other type of pocket to the other side of the folder for storing the apples.  The apples need to be cut out and laminated for durability. There are two games that can be played with this packet. 1.  One way is to use the set of apples that include the letter A in different forms as well as other letters.  All the apples with the letter A need to be put on the tree and the other apples on the ground. 2.  Another way to play is to use the picture cards.  All the pictures that begin with A belong on the tree while the pictures that do not begin with A belong on the ground. A blank apple page is also provided with my download.  The teacher or students can draw their own A pictures or write their own letter A on the apples to add more apples to the game.  Other uses for these app

I've been planning some science activities to do with my daughter for Kindergarten.  One of the first lessons in the science book I have talks about living and nonliving things.  I have created my own living and nonliving sorting activity that uses real photographs for her to sort into the appropriate category. I have also made an activity where she must determine if something is living or not based on answering questions.  This activity is called, "Am I living?"  It poses five questions to the student.  Do I grow and change?  Do I eat food?  Do I breathe?  Do I reproduce? and finally, Am I living.  If the answer to all of the first four questions is yes, then your picture is living.  If any of the answers are no, then the picture is not living.  Below is an example one question in the file. Both of these products are available for purchase in my store! To purchase the sorting activity, click HERE . To purchase "Am I living?" click HERE .

I want my daughter to fully understand numbers, especially those up to 100.  I plan to teach her how to count to 100 and several other number concepts during her kindergarten year.  I may be over estimating her abilities, but I can address that if a problem arises during the school year. In the mean-time, I have created 2 number of the day pages that reflect all the number concepts I want her to learn by the end of kindergarten and master by the end of her first grade year. The two sheets cover the following concepts Even and Odd Students will circle whether the number is even or odd. Base Ten Blocks  Students will draw base ten blocks to represent the number. Hundred Chart Students will fill in the portion of the number chart around the number of the day. Tally It! Students will represent the number with tally marks. Before and After Students will write the numbers that come before and after the chosen number. Expanded Form Students w

There are a ton of alphabet activities and crafts that can be done as you work on teaching your children the letters of the alphabet.  My daughter has loved doing crafts as she learned each letter, but my son needs more hands on and movement activities to help him learn his letters.  Below are links to each individual letter of the alphabet.  Each alphabet page will have arts and crafts activities, songs, snacks, games, themes and other activities that all help teach students their letters.  For more center type activities that can be used as a review or to reinforce learning of multiple letters, please see THIS POST ! Alphabet Pages Links Letter A Activities Letter B Activities Letter C Activities Letter D Activities Letter E Activities Letter F Activities Letter G Activities Letter H Activities Letter I Activities Letter J Activities Letter K Activities Letter L Activities Letter M Activities Letter N Activities Letter O Activities Letter P Activit

Well, today starts a new adventure for me and our family.  My oldest is getting ready for kindergarten.  Kindergarten.  That means she is five years old.  FIVE.  It seems like yesterday that she was born. Anyways, this new adventure is not only for my daughter, who is excited about learning, but it is also new to me.  I will be teaching her.  Yes, we are home schooling.  I plan to home school as long as I am able. In preparing for her kindergarten year, I decided to tackle making my own curriculum for her.  Everything I looked at had some deficiency and I could not bring myself to pay hundreds of dollars on a curriculum I could only use part of. I began looking at sites like Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook for ideas and resources, and found tons, but not all were packaged in a way that was useful to me.  I could pay money for a group of activities when I was only interested in one or two pages.  It did not seem practical to me to do so. This is when I decided, why