Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Humpty Dumpty


When Amelie started school last year she came home with spelling words in her homework book called 'Humpty Wall's'.  Basically they are 12 walls of words, each wall having about 6-8 words on it.

Each week or two (or whenever they master the wall they are learning) they move up to a new 'humpty wall' which is a great motivator for them.  If your child can read these words easily he/she will find reading larger pieces of text a lot easier, and the same goes for writing- mastering the spelling of these high frequency words means they will be able to write far more easily and with confidence, and can also then think about using more interesting and challenging words in their writing.  Confidence is so important in the early school years so things like this really help to boost that. Don't worry about getting the flashcards out yet though, I personally don't believe in flashcards or anything that formal before school -some knowledge of the ABC's is very helpful though (which is a whole other blog post....!)

Anyway, not the most riveting blog post so far but here's something cute to make up for it...I came across this super cute Humpty pattern over a year ago and filed it away as something to make one day, and then after getting my teaching job I thought it would be a cute thing to have in the classroom to promote the Humpty Walls, plus act as a class mascot type thing, or something to cuddle when mum or dad leaves in the morning...

The pattern doesn't include many instructions so it was a bit of a trial and error to get him made (I didn't make the arms and legs removable like in the original pattern)-wish I could be bothered making another one as my kids have taken a major shine to him, taking turns having him in their bed at night even:)  I am one of those crafters though who loves making something for the first time and then pretty much has no interest in making whatever it is again once it's finished!!
feeding Humpty
taking him for a walk :)
I bought a bag of wooden blocks last year from a second hand kids shop (which was a great score as I had been wanting some for some other crafty projects) so I printed out the Humpty Wall words and modpodged them onto the blocks so the kids can have fun making a wall and hopefully reading some of the words at the same time!
I got that idea after seeing something like this on a blog ages ago using words stuck onto duplo blocks...
 
...if you do have younger kids you could put the abc's on your duplo...there are lots of Duplo bulk lots on TradeMe if you are wanting some.

Next project is a cute pencil holder... 
Megan x

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh I love Humpty. What a great idea to encourage vocabulary. I guess you could use this for learning languages as well.

I am also the kind of crafter that gets excited by making new things then doesn't want to think about it again. I can get two or three done to really perfect it sometimes but that's it.

Sarabeth
Life of an Agnostic Sunday School Teacher

Little stitch and me said...

Thats a great idea, i am not sure we do this in the uk, but i'll be finding out inseptember when my little boy starts school.

gretbert said...

Looks amazing, I love him!

Leonie said...

Love this idea - absolutely brilliant and engaging!

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