Welcome to Basic Skills!  

 

 

 

 

 

Are you looking for something fun to do with the whole family?  A game I recommend that's just as fun for grown-ups as it is for the kids is Bananagrams. I've played this with my Orton and Basic Skills students and it's terrific for working on word building skills!

 

The best and easiest way to work on basic skills at home is to read a book!  Take this time as an opportunity to slow down a bit and enjoy getting lost in a story.  

 

Practice your math facts! If you don't already have flashcards, they can easily be made with a set of index cards.  As you quiz yourself, make 2 piles, one for the facts you know "as fast as you know your name", and another pile for the ones you didn't get correct or that you didn't know the answer to quickly.  Pick up the pile that needed more practice and keep reviewing.  Work on getting more and more of those facts into the "fast as lightning" pile!   

 

Play "Kaboom"!  This is a game that we play often in Basic Skills to practice vocabulary, red words, and math facts.  It is easy to make with index cards or craft sticks.  Write a collection of math facts or red words on cards or sticks.  Include sticks or cards that say "skip" (skip a turn) and Kaboom.  As you play, take turns drawing from a pile or cup.  If you successfully read the word or get the math fact correct, you get to keep it.  If you draw a Kaboom, you lose your cards or sticks.  The person with the most at the end is the winner. 

 

Play Yahtzee!  This can be played with just two players or the whole family!   This is a game I have introduced with some of my Basic Skills students.  It is a fun game that is great for practicing addition and multiplication skills. 

 

Make a Fact Flower Garden.  Find some paper and crayons and get excited for spring with a fact flower garden.  Draw the center of a flower and write a factor inside (for example, 3).  Draw a row of petals with a second factor going around the center. Make another layer of petals around the outside with the product.  Be as creative and colorful with your garden as you can!  

 

For my Orton Students, make a set of vowel tents by folding five index cards in half and labeling them with one vowel on each.  Have somebody read a list of words to you and hold up the tent that matches the short vowel sound you hear in each word.   Here is a sample of some of the word lists I use:  grand, bottle, trunk, drop, shelf, patch, dust, egg, odd, add, under, pinch, punch.  club, mix, fox, mess, mass, slid, batch, spinner, catnap, pest, winner, club, tag. brick, kept, frost, such, past, stress, that, duck, lock, grin, lack, up, swim.  pack, pick, peck, puck, pen, grid, bus, melt, glass, sell, fuss, print, fresh, hatch.  

*Remember, the object of this exercise is to isolate and identify the short vowel sounds.