Join us for SKILL BUILDERS on 7/18 from 10 to Noon for WATER EXPLORATION!

This month's Skill Builders session offers students the opportunity to explore water through science, writing, and crafts. We will use water like invisible ink to practice handwriting and writing complete sentences. We will make our own lava lamps to take home. And, we'll play Sink or Float, making predictions and charting our outcomes. We'll also enjoy a snack and a story.

Students of all ages are welcome and parent involvement is a must!

See you Saturday! Questions? Call Carrie Lucas at 847-254-7814.

DIY Literacy Materials

This is a repost from my personal blog. Our Literacy Coordinator thought it might be helpful to some of the parents! If you attended Jeri Reed's Reading Workshop a couple of months ago, you'll recognize some of these ideas. :) This will probably make more sense if I clarify that I'm a Literacy Tutor at the McHenry Playhouse and I also homeschool my own kids.



This is a salt/sand box. Basically you take a box (I had a wooden box from the thrift store with a lid), paint the bottom black and fill with salt or sand. I've let Jeremiah (3) do his own explorations with the box and he has done letters in his name, footprints with his plastic dinosaurs and most recently, stamped letters into the sand with magnetic letters from the fridge. It's a great pre-writing tool and it's fun for working on words we're learning as well.



Speaking of magnetic letters... This was another idea I got from one of the special ed teachers who volunteer at GiGi's... This was another box I had laying around which happens to be made of metal so I filled it with a bunch of magnetic letters which they can arrange on the lid inside or outside. They take it in the car, they sit and make up their own nonsense words for a good giggle (a great way to introduce phonics!)... the possibilities are endless on this one.



This is my robot word-eater. I made him for my kids and my students. I painted a box and cut a hole for the mouth and grabbed a stack of cards from a Memory game that no longer had all the pieces. I wrote words on the backs of the cards so we can play different variations. Robot wants to eat the word that starts with "b." Robot wants to eat the word "bear," can you find it? The picture cue is nice to have so if the child is having trouble, they can self-check so there's no wails of, "I don't knoooooow!!!!" So far, he's been a welcome guest with my boys and at my literacy sessions. The best part is, of course, turning him over and dumping him out after his meal.





These are little books I've made out of those flashcards you can find at Wal-Mart, Target, etc. I divided them into categories, "Things We Wear" and such and punched holes in the corners, threw a book ring around them and then printed a list of the words on cardstock and cut them up. The books are small and fun to look through and you can do lots of matching and labeling with the cards and words. For instance, in the first picture, I'd say, "This card says, 'boot!' Can you find the word that says 'boot'? Can you match it?" and it's relatively simple to find the word that looks the same. Instant success. After a while, you flip the cards over to the other side and have them match without the pictures. I find a lot of times, the kids will, before I say what the word is, read the word to me. I don't have to ask, I'm not testing, they just tell me when they know it.









These are some more flashcard books I made from recycling card games that no longer have all the pieces. Goodwill, garage sales... these places have a ton of flashcards and game cards that could be repurposed this way. The kids love having these little books around to flip through. If they are reading from the picture side, the visual cues are enough so that they can read the book to me without help... It's such a pleasure to see the satisfaction on their little faces. After a while they flip to the other, pictureless side and find they know many of the words by sight just from reading the little book over and over.

Skill Builder Saturday Skills

This month's SKILL BUILDER SATURDAY skills will include:

• Phonics: c/k, r, h, e, m, d with Jolly Phonics
• Handwriting: c/k, r, h, e, m, d with Handwriting Without Tears
• Math: Counting and number sense 1 - 9 and single digit subtraction with Touch Math
• Art and Sensory: Chalk drawing -- comparing drawing with dry and wet chalk

This month's Skill Builder Saturday is on February 28th, 1 - 3pm here at the McHenry Playhouse!

Join us for an afternoon of fun as we reinforce -or learn new-academic skills. All ages welcome - parental involvement required! This class is not based on age or grade level. If your child is working on these skills, come on in! You may leave messages for Carrie regarding this program at (815) 385 - PLAY.

Click here for more information on this program and pictures of last month's session!

Skill Builder Saturday Success!

The first Skill Builder Saturday was held at the playhouse on January 24th and it was a huge success! Devised and conducted by Carrie L., Skill Builder Saturday is an opportunity for children of any age to work on a variety of skills with Carrie and three other teachers all experienced working with differently-abled kids. This session, the kids worked on handwriting, phonics, art and math. Kids and their parents moved from one station to the next, working with such programs as Touch Math and Handwriting Without Tears. Many parents commented that the session completely reinforced exactly what the kids were working on in school! All 12 participants, aged 4-35, showed amazing focus and enjoyment during all the activities.

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Skill Builder Saturday is a monthly program which targets a different set of skills every session. There is no age requirement, so if your child is working on the set of skills presented, come on in! Thanks to Carrie L. and teachers who volunteered to make the program so amazing! Thanks also to volunteers who worked to promote the new program to make sure everyone had a chance to get in on the fun.

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The next Skill Builder Saturday will be held on Saturday, February 28th! Please leave your RSVP for Carrie at
(815) 385 - PLAY!
We hope to see you there.

Skill Builder Saturday!

Saturday, January 24th, 1-3 pm

Join us for an afternoon of fun as we reinforce - or learn new- academic skills. All ages welcome - parental involvement required!

This class is not based on age or grade level. If your child is working on these skills, come on in!

This month the Phonics & Handwriting groups will be focusing on the letters s,a,t,i,p,n. Learn silly songs and actions to help remember the letter sounds and practice writing them using either Handwriting Without Tears or D'Nealian handwriting techniques.

In Math, we will use Touch Math to learn counting to 10 and adding single digits. Move on the Art Station to have fun learning colors and blending!

Based on success, we will schedule these Skill Builder Saturdays regularly so please, come on in and learn with us! We hope to see you there. ❊

McHenry GiGi's Playhouse Library

Michelle Polizzi, Board Member, has started a resource library at the playhouse! We are all really excited about having resources for parents of and individuals with Down Syndrome available right here at the playhouse! We will have a selection of titles available for borrowing and an online catalog for browsing. It's a big project but we can't wait to get started. Michelle has an amazing vision of a place where new and expectant parents can go to get information about their child's diagnosis, where books by, about and for indviduals with Down Syndrome can be found and positive, informative and fun resources are organized and waiting! I know I'm excited!!!

We need BOOK DONATIONS! Parents, were there books you found helpful to read that you no longer have need for? Books that you loved that you would have liked to have had access to? We would love to add them to the library! Please leave messages for Michelle at the playhouse by calling (815) 385 - PLAY or by emailing mcgigislibrary@gmail.com.

We'll keep you posted on how things are going and of course, when the resources become available for borrowing!