Friday, May 6, 2011

Cater-spelling, An Egg Carton Game


Despite the fact, that snow showers are still in our weekly, weather forecast, the seasons are changing.

Leaves are budding, birds are singing, and the insects are returning to our yard. I have mixed emotions about that last one, but the children were quite thrilled to find their first caterpillar of the season.

Again, I had mixed feelings. Did you know not all caterpillars are really caterpillars? The larvae of other insects, like sawflies, crane flies, and beetles can also look a lot like a caterpillar. Ours did seem to be an actual caterpillar though (more on that for Science Sunday), so we celebrated with a spelling lesson.

I know, I know, a spelling lesson doesn't sound like much of a celebration, but this was cater-spelling - a craft, a game, and a lot of fun.

I cut the bottoms off of a couple of empty egg cartons.


The younger girls painted them green, purple, and yellow.


When they dried, we turned the green ones into heads, like normal for an egg carton caterpillar (Michelle, over at A Mommy's Adventures made a cute one with her girls this week, to go along with Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar).


Then, I painted letters on top of the purples (two sets of vowels), and yellows (only one set of consonants, because I ran out of empty egg cartons)...


...so that after a bit more drying time, we could practice our alphabet...


...and simple spelling skills.


Best of all, the pieces can be stacked, to turn one word into another.


Of course, once we empty another egg carton, or two, to add another few sets of letters, we'll be able to spell larger words, and the older children can join in for a full fledged, family game.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

That is a "larvae"-ly way to pratice spelling! (hee! hee!)

My Oatmeal Kisses said...

This is such a fun idea! It's so hands on, what a great way to connect things in children's brains. I am a terriable speller, so I would have loved to have more hands on activities. And their cute as a "button" as well!

BTW do you have a facebook page I can follow you on?

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

My Oatmeal Kisses - Thanks! Sorry - no Facebook page. A blog is enough to keep my hands full right now :)

Ticia said...

Oh that would be so fun now to successfully collect enough before the dog shreds it.....

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

What an awesome idea and the way to reuse those cartons. You obviously go through A LOT of eggs in the house :)

Debbie said...

I love this. I have been saving egg cartons and now I know why. I will have to make something like this for Selena. I know she will love it.

Jackie said...

What a great idea. We've been doing some work on sight words, coming up with fun games including memory, and this looks like another great way to practice them!

Anonymous said...

What a terrific and fun idea!

shawnacy said...

LOVE THIS IDEA!!! i will certainly be trying it out at our house. great post!

Christy Killoran said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I'm going to start saving the egg cartons. It will be great to work on spelling this way over the summer!

Marilyn said...

Such a cute idea! Thanks for sharing!