Aleph-Bet Salt Writing

A great way to practice the Hebrew Sounds with your child. 

All you need are 4 items and you're set to go! 

If you don't have these exact items, you can improvise by creating your own letter cards. You can also use tape... 

Have your child place the self-adhesive dot magnets on the back of your card.

Now place the card on the pan. Kids love the magnets. 
Have your child read the sound to you and then write it in the salt. 

Be creative. Add a vowel to the letter and tell it to your child. 

Now ask your child to write the new sound in the sand. 

Tip: Hebrew reading is simple - sound out the top sound and connect it to the bottom sound, continue reading like this from right to left. 
Remind your child: "Read top to bottom and  then right to left!" It's that simple. Really!

 CAP IT! Get Ready to Read Hebrew comes with a complete a deck of 48 cards with all the Letters and Vowels in the Hebrew language. The kit includes a coloring book, crayons and stickers. Check out this great set HERE

Teaching your kids on your own

I got this text from a Mom who, after putting her child through two schools and expensive tutoring, has taken the bold move of solving her child's Hebrew Reading issue on her own, with a little guidance from us. So she got our CAP IT! Reading kit, followed our directions. Here is the text she sent me:

"THANK YOU!!! There's been such a major change in my son since we spoke. The fact that I spoke to you relaxed me and in turn relaxed him too. I've been getting him to bed earlier and that helped a lot as well. Last night he insisted on reading the sentences on the pages too. He wants to work on the book and not just the cards and its clicking like magic. I repeat the sounds for him as he sounds our 4 letter words so he can "hold it in his mind" and it helps. Today we are gonna call you cuz I told him you will have so much nachas (pride)."

As much as I enjoy working with kids at my learning center, this is the ultimate enjoyment: Knowing that I have given parents the tools to teach their own kids. This is something their kids will always be grateful for!

Below is a Picture of my daughter learning to read with our CAP IT! Reading Kit, 

yes I taught her to read myself! 

GREAT LEARNING SPACES

Teaching through play is definitely my favorite way to teach, and learning can happen in so many environments and paths. I came across this webpage and was amazed at what these guys created as a waiting room for their community center. They combined the perfect place for kids to play while they wait, and of course they learn math, problem solving skills, communication skills etc. All without even knowing it!

CHECK IT OUT HERE

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lace-Up & Learn

A simple fun way to lace letters! 

Item 1: Shoelace 

Item 2: Pen

Item 3: Screwdriver 

Item 4: Shoebox 

Step 1: Poke wholes in the shoebox. 

Step 2: Take apart the pen. 

Step 3: Thread your shoelace through your pen. 
TIP: Use the “ink-filled-tube” to help you string the shoelace through your pen.

Step 4: Start writing letters & vowels! 
TIP: Use the back of “ink-filled-tube” to help you poke the lace through the holes.

BE CREATIVE & HAVE FUN!
Have your students write letters, and then put vowels under them.
Later, they can write words. Do it in different languages as well.

"Get real!" Kids say stuff like that, and they are right. Things really should be "Real." The same goes for teaching kids to read: it needs to be real! Yet reading is such an abstract concept. Think about it. You need to memorize a bunch of random sounds and put them all together to make words. So the question is HOW DO I MAKE IT REAL? The answer is: Make it hands on. Here is one of my favorites. Go out and get some Giant Pipe Cleaners, give them to your child and ask them to create sounds for you. Then have them put the sounds that they created into words. Now have them read back to you the words they created. Important point: Don't ever correct your child if they create a word that doesn't exist! The point of this exercise is to practice reading, NOT vocabulary. Guess what, you just made reading real! 

Welcome to the "Hands-On Reading" Blog

Happy labor day,

I have been a teacher a very long time ... I don’t want to reveal my age :-) But to be honest, my true passion is creating things. So this is where my passion and my teaching come together. I am all about "Hands-On!" These days they would label me a "Tactile Learner," or "Kinesthetic Learner." I love it when the process of learning and teaching is as natural as possible.

I live in Los Angeles, and this morning at around 3:30am we had a 3.3 earthquake. I know it doesn’t sound very big...but the epicenter was 3 minutes from my house. I twisted and turned in my bed for some time, until I finally decided to get out of bed, and surf the web. At around 6:30am I had an itch to create. So here it is: I am creating a blog! My goal for this blog is to share with others how fun learning can be, and how easily you can implement these ideas for your children or students. All you need to do is allow them to "create" what they are trying to grasp and learn -- and bang! Once they create something, they own it! It is precisely the things we own that we appreciate most, cherish, remember, and use in the future.

My passion for the past few years is teaching Hebrew Reading (my husband and I just published our 3 reading programs - check out our site www.capitlearning.com). So my posts will be different Hands-On Reading ideas, but please be creative. You can adapt these ideas for any language or topic. Enjoy! And share your ideas as well.

OK, enough about me. In my next post I will share my first idea.