Word Wall Maracas!

We've been working hard this year learning important sight words! Reagan loves to read and loves showing off how many sight words he knows....what kinder kid doesn't?Yep! They all do....and that is exactly why I love the "kinder age".....

Here is our home word wall. We use the word wall at home the same as we use it in the classroom... It's a great way to extend the home/school connection and really drives home the point that those word wall words really ARE the most important words in the world!

Reagan is always in full control of HIS word wall. He puts up every single word and boy oh boy! Do not let anyone try to move them! He just won't have any of that! He's so protective of his words.

We do lots of activities to go with our word wall. We play snap & clap, flashlight, mystery word, etc. We still do alot of the same activities I did when I was in the classroom. You can read about those activities HERE. 

I used to have a set of plastic maracas that we'd use in the classroom. I had enough where all my students could have 1 maraca. We'd shake our maracas as we'd chant our word wall words. 

Like - Like  

L-I-K-E

Like

cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha

like, like, like, like, like, like

l-i-k-e, like, l-i-k-e, like, l-i-k-e, like, l-i-k-e, like, l-i-k-e, like, l-i-k-e, like

This was always a class favorite for word wall!

So, I decided to make it apart of our word wall routine at home....but I left my maracas in my old classroom. We had to make some....

Here's what we used:

Take a normal sized plastic Easter egg (not a large one).... Open it and fill with rice or beans or beads. We didn't have any beans so we filled some with rice, some with beads, and some with both --which was Reagan's idea. Different items make different sounds so it was fun to discuss those different sounds.

Yes, even Bailey got involved in the fun! She's such a kinder at heart! <3 See those beautiful Jamberry's?

 Close the Easter egg up and place 2 plastic spoons on either side of the egg... (don't ya just love Bailey's "cool" face? She'd hate to know I posted this... hehehe)

Then we used masking tape to hold it all together. Bailey wasn't the only one that wanted to ham it up!

Then, it was decoration time! Now, I will tell you that it would have been MUCH better for use to use colored Sharpies. Hindsight is always 20/20. The washable markers didn't show very bright on the masking tape. :( Oh well! Live and learn and we still had a great time with it. But, FYI - if you make these, have some colored Sharpies on hand.

Our finished maracas! 

Reagan was so proud of his homemade maracas and he now LOVES using them for word wall time! Look at that happy smile! :) <3