Mommy-Made Workbooks

As a teacher, I was not a fan of worksheets. I personally think there are better ways for children to learn that are more interactive than a worksheet.or a workbook.  That being said, there are also some moments when it is necessary to administer a paper/pencil activity to see if a student understands what is being taught. 

For the last month, I have been going through my 10 years of teaching supplies. My main goal was to get rid of my storage unit, so we moved everything into the garage.  This gave me a chance to sort through everything and really evaluate what is necessary for teaching in the future, and what is not.  I came across many things I have not used in many years and some things that I have never used.  A lot of things got tossed in the recycling or trash, and I was able to sell some things to new teachers at a yard sale.  All of my neatly organized binders were taken apart and put into a file cabinet (which I do not like but it takes up less space than 30 notebooks of files). As I went through the notebooks to file them, I pulled out pages that reinforced letters, numbers, colors, and shapes.  I turned them into workbooks.  Each workbook focuses on a different skill and the activities range in ability. For example, in the letter workbook there are simple matching upper and lower case letters and then there is also writing words that begin with a particular letter.

workbooks in old report folders that were in my teaching supplies

I also created one that is write and wipe with dry erase markers.  I have a laminator at home so I just laminated the sheets I wanted and put them in a folder.  I can add more or make it more challenging in the future.  Included are sheets for tracing the alphabet as well as his first and last name. (worksheet for name tracing was generated here.)  There is also number writing practice and a sheet to circle the correct amount of pictures that corresponds with the number.  I particularly like this book because it is reusable.  Eventually, the sheets may end up in a larger three ring notebook and they can also be reused when Brooke is old enough to practice these skills.

examples of two pages in the write and wipe book