A new school tool!

Hey everyone!  Thought I'd drop in and write a few lines, you know, just to let everyone know we're still here.  Things have been going well.  School started with a bang and is moving right along.

I've been busy.  Subbed several times already this year, which is good.  Seems the substitute pool is very limited, so it looks like they will call me often.  And I'm ok with that. 

I recently ordered this new educational thing for JEB from Lakeshore Learning.  Pretty cool.  His teacher was showing me one day how she uses it at school.  It's a Build-A-Word Magnetic Board.  It comes with magnetic tiles with pictures and letter of the alphabet. I will post a pic of it so you can see it.  Anyway, she chooses which picture tile to use, writes the letters with a dry-erase marker and then lets JEB match the letters she has written.  Then she sounds out the word and he will do the same.

I tried it with him this morning and he did great!!  Only instead of writing the letters with a marker, I simply places about 6/7 tiles for his viewing that included the correct ones, and said the sound of the letters.  He then would pick which letter made that sound, and he did pretty good.  Missed a couple of sounds, but for the most part, got the correct letter.  So, I will use this with him and see if it will help his reading skills pick up a bit.  I can also use it with my tutoring students that I work with in 1st grade and my 2nd graders with spelling words!!

It was a little more than I would've thought, $29.99 but I think it's going to be worth it!