File Folder Games

Schooling has been fun and informal so far this kindergarten year with lapbooks and reading only. It's been really fun to watch Jay learning and enjoying coloring and cutting and excited to see what activity we are going to next in our lapbook. This week we have been reading The Poky Little Puppy and learning about our five senses, obedience, sorting and categorizing animal, and playing Doggy Lotto. Super fun! I always try to involve Hunter in the activities and sometimes he joins us but mostly we wants to cut the papers into microscoptic pieces (not so fun for clean up time) so I deviced a plan to keep his little hands happy and my floor clean from paper confetti. I made 4 (so far) file folder games for Hunter to play while Jay and I are lapbooking. He is still in the room and can hear the story, the lesson, and activity but doing something on his own. He is still welcome to join us for our activity if he wants to. I always make 2 copies of whatever we are working on. Here's what I have so far.

Felt Cars - The fav!
I cut out shapes of cars, boats, monster trucks, delivery trucks, and tractors along with their appropiate tires, windows, headlights, etc. I glued a piece of felt in a file folder for them to stick on and store the pieces in a zip lock with the easy to slide opening so he can open and close it himself.

Memory
I made two boards and glued them on the insides of the folder, made cards, and got it all laminated. Jay cut out all the laminating while I stuck magnets to the board and to each card. I bought a roll of stick on magnets so it was super fast and easy. This makes a great car game because they all stick to the board so no flying cards! I store the cards in a zip lock also.

Colors
I made pockets out of colored paper and labeled the color name on the front of each one and made more little cards. The object is to match the color of the picture to the colored pocket. There is one white pocket to store all the cards in.

Numbers
I made 3 boards with the numbers in different places on each one and cards with pictures numbering 1-12. The object is to match the number of pictures on the card to the number on the game board. I glued a little pocket in the folder to store the cards.

I got all the cards laminated so they last longer. We took them to a restaurant on Friday and they played with them quietly at the table. Now I just need something easily portable to store them in. I'll check Higgins Branch! =)

I'll post pictures when I have a better internet connection!