Provide a magnetic board and a specific selection of magnetic letters. Choose, for example, only the letters that spell "yesterday." This will be the mystery word which you must not disclose. Ask the children to make as many words as they can from the letters provided, and see if they can guess the mystery word. Provide pencils and paper for them to write down their answers. This task improves writing and spelling.
Set up a CD or MP3 player with headphones. Have a children's short story set to play on it. Ask the children to listen to the story and draw a picture about it. Provide paper and colored pencils. This task develops listening skills.
Place lots of cut-out, laminated words into a basket. Provide a children's dictionary. Ask the children to pick out a word from the basket and find it in the dictionary. Provide pencils and paper for the children to write down the definitions of words. The children will practice how to look up words in the dictionary.
Put each letter of the alphabet, cut out and laminated, into a basket. Ask the children to pick out a letter and draw a picture of a place, person or thing that starts with that letter. Provide colored pencils and paper. This helps children to learn letters.
Teach the children synonyms. Draw 10 hot-air balloons, with baskets, on cards. Make each a different color and about 5 inches tall. Draw 10 separate baskets of the same size and shape as the baskets on the balloons. Write a word that has a synonym on a balloon, for example, "present." Then write its synonym on a basket, for example, "gift." Cut out the hot-air balloons and the baskets and laminate them. Lay out the balloons and ask the children to choose the basket that contains the synonym for each balloon word. Ask them to lay each basket onto each of the balloon's blank baskets.
Create word search games with about 10 hidden words, cut-out and laminated. A word search is rows and rows of letters, with words hidden in straight horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines. Provide erasable markers and ask the children to draw a line through the words that they find. This task develops reading and investigative skills.
Put out a magnetic board. Draw pictures of things, for example, a tree, pencil and table. Color them in, cut them out and laminate them. Attach a magnetic strip to the reverse of each; place them down the left side of the board, one above the other. Provide lots of magnetic letters. Ask the children to choose letters to spell "tree" and place them next to the tree. Ask them to do the same for the other items. This develops writing skills.