Sensory Fun with shaving cream and sight words!

   So, the snow is back... We enjoyed a few snow-free days and then got hit with reality once again. Ugh, this Buffalo winter sure has been long! And sadly, I don't think we are done with it quite yet!
   Anyhow, as much fun as snow can be to play in (and it is easy to just bring some indoors), the little munchkin and I opted for some sensory fun with another awesome white and fluffy substance: Shaving Cream!!
   She has been learning just over 20 sight words in the past two months, and can correctly identify almost all of them.  I try to do fun games and activities with her to reinfore sight word learning every day. Today, she went on a "Snowball" sight word hunt.  (This is a type of activity that can easily be adapted to learn letters, numbers, etc.)
    I bought some ping pong balls at Dollar Tree awhile back and actually forgot I had them until a few days ago. I wrote sixteen of the twenty sight words she has been learning, onto the pig pong ball. I filled up a bin with shaving cream and hid all of the ping pong balls inside of the pile of "snow".

She dug into the "snow" to find the "snowballs".

    I added another bin of warm water when I noticed that her hands were so full of shaving cream, she couldn't wipe the shaving cream off of the ping pong balls very well. 

She dipped the "snowballs" in the water to reveal what sight word was written there.

    And then of course, once she found all sixteen "snowballs", she begged to play in the shaving cream for awhile longer. She was elbow deep in shaving cream and it kept her busy for awhile, which is exactly what mommy needed in order to get a few things done around the house. Hey, whatever works some days, right?

    So, every few days we review some sight words and we have since reated an "I Can Read" sight word display in her playroom, right on the basement door.

    Every few days, we review the words and once she is able to correctly identify the word at least 3 different times and sometimes on three different days, I know she has mastered it and I give her a star with the word written on it. She colors it (in rainbow colors) and proudly puts it on the door!

    Teaching and learning sight words has been so much fun. I constantly seek new ways to teach her sight words in a fun, engaging way. I know learning sight words can be difficult or even an unattainable skill for any preschool child, as it used to be something that was taught in the later part of Kindergarten or even First Grade. So I always, always try to make it fun at home, no matter what!

    For now, we are both so excited how much (and how fast) she is learning and I love to hear her read the little sight words books that her teacher sends home with her sight word list every few weeks. It gives her so much confidence and I know she is proud of herself everytime she reads a word she knows!