My First Freebie!

For years I have planned on creating materials and products for my therapy sessions and for my kids at home. Another one of those “someday” things I am always talking about. If you were to go through my desk drawer at work, you would find messy, handwritten notes quickly jotted on scattered post-its, scraps of paper, or whatever is closest to me when an idea pops into my head. Hundreds of ideas just waiting to come into fruition.

During my lesson planning last year in our homeschool journey, I wanted an early literacy option for my nearly 5-year-old. I was inspired by some of the things I was finding online at the time and decided to create my own book that matched our theme at the time. I also wanted to be able to modify it for future lessons, as well. It was quick and messy and flawed, but it served the purpose I wanted and, of course, my son couldn’t have cared less! It was simple but fun, predictable and engaging, and built his confidence in himself as his reading skills were emerging.

I edited my original quick, messy product to make it a little more appealing, and to mark another “someday” off of my list. But the best part of this is that I am offering it to you for FREE!!

This is a simple, emerging readers mini book with a cut and paste component. It features repetitive, predictive text with the reading dots under each word and a visual for the sight word “see,’ as well as visuals for each animal or item added in the story. In addition, the pictures offer an opportunity for fine motor practice using scissors and glue.

Great for:

• early readers
• expanding utterances
• targeting farm vocabulary
• making associations
• giving choices
• requesting

Here’s how we used it:

We used this with our farm theme. I printed off the cover page and 5-7 pages for the book, along with the 9 pictures at the end. I cut the pictures into strips to allow for a little cutting practice. I let the kids choose what animals and items they wanted on their farm and glue them to the pages. They loved being in control of creating each of their own stories. This increased their engagement and motivation in the activity. The simplicity of the pages also allowed the kids room to draw or write the words in the extra space.

I am so excited to be sharing my first freebie with you! I would love to hear how you implemented it, so feel free to comment on this post and share! I will be posting more materials as I make them so be sure to check back often to see what new freebies are available! Enjoy!!