Making Barton Fun:
Ideas from a parent for making Level 1 fun:
I've been trying to come up with things that will make the Barton time more fun or interesting while making the tiles less distracting. Some ideas I have are:
· Using the colored chips from our "Whoonu" game. This worked better than tiles last night because they couldn't be placed tightly together in a line. Our daughter likes to have the tiles tightly lined up by color in a straight line which makes moving the tiles difficult because she has to keep straightening them. By using the chips instead, she cannot place them tightly together because they have ruffled edges. Vertical color lines work well.
· Using small "counting" cars so they can wheel down the sounds.
· Floating chips in a shallow dish so they can fish them out and put them back to "wash" off the sounds.
· Dress up in character. Last night our kids dressed up as "Despereaux". The feathers in the hat were somewhat distracting, but if they were totally attached it would be better. It seemed to make the Barton "game" more fun. When they had difficult with placing tiles or sounds left to right or had difficulty swooping with their right hands left to right, I'd have them stand up and practice being "Despereaux" bowing when he spoke to Princess Pea. Of course they thought the nonsense words they were using were hysterical if said to a princess. The same could be used to act out "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle". They could be dressed up "sweeping" left to right or dusting left to right. They could even be a racecar driver and the swoop (hand) could be a "car" driving around a curve left to right.
· Using skittles or gummy fruit instead of tiles that they could look forward to eating them when they are done.
· Using different tiles or chips to make it more interesting; counting bears one day , counting cars or lizards another day, and tiles the next and giving each day or section a different name to make it seem more like a game.
· I gently explain that we are doing this so that they can hear every sound in a word and that is how really good readers and spellers do it.
