This is one workbox/center activity I've used for both my kids at various ages. It's intended to be on-task independent work for one child while I'm busy with the other.
I give the child an old magazine and an assignment sheet.
This is one of my less professional-looking assignments, but it gives you an idea of the types of things the kids are asked to look for.
I've used the activity to practice many subjects and skills. A few examples:
*math: adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing
*math: measuring, rounding to the nearest__
*language arts: finding words of a certain part of speech
*language arts: finding synonyms and antonyms, finding rhyming words
*geography: finding places mentioned on a map, answering NSEW questions about them
*science: finding creatures which are mammals, reptiles, etc.
*life skills: reading a recipe
*foreign language: cut out and label (in Spanish) at least___pictures
Sometimes answers are written on my assignment page. Other times things will be cut out of the magazine and/or glued.
I haven't used the idea while sitting in a doctor/dental office yet, but I suppose it would work there as well.
Dd5 has been doing some basic addition and subtraction. She loves doing things that supplement her lessons. We've been...
*...playing store, first with whole dollar amounts, later with coins, too. He would have to add the price for two or three items and give me the correct amount. I would even ask him simple making change questions.
*...making up songs to remember even and odd numbers.
*...playing anything that required two dice that would be added together before moving. I'm pretty sure we made a few file-folder games to practice this, too.
*...playing addition or subtraction war, first with only the numbers 0-5 and later adding the other playing cards.
*...counting cereal pieces at the breakfast table.
*...reading books from the MathStart series by Stuart Murphy.
*...using mathfactcafe.com flashcards. They're easy enough for beginners, tough enough still for ds7 learning multiplication and division. Best of all, it's free.
*...making addition and subtraction riddles for everyday things. For instance, you can choose 3 + 1 books for bedtime reading time.
READING
* Read a book with more than 100 pages.
* Work together as a group to read more than 100 pages.
* Read today for 100 minutes.
* How many 100 point books can you read and test on bookadventure.com?
* There is a sampling of books you may be able to get from your library:
* 100 Monsters in My School by Bonnie Bader
* 100 Ways to Celebrate 100 Days by Bruce Goldstone
* The 100th Day of School by Angela Shelf Medearis
* 100th Day Worries by Margery Cuyler
* 98, 99, 100, Ready or Not, Here I Come by Teddy Slater
* Counting Our Way to the 100th Day by Betsy Franco
* Emily's First 100 Days of School by Rosemary Wells
* Jake's 100th Day of School by Lester Laminack
* Many Ways to 100 by Betsy Franco
* Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten by Joseph Slate
* The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History by Jennifer Armstrong (Note: Some of you may wish to scan this one on your own before you give it to your kids. There are some tales that may be disturbing to young children.)
* Young Cam Jansen and the 100th Day of School Mystery by David Adler
WRITING
* Handwriting: Make a list of 100_____. This could be animals, places, numbers, anything you decide. You could also write 100 words that start with a vowel or 100 words that come before kangaroo in the dictionary.
* Help mom blog about the 100th day by writing about your favorite things you did to celebrate. How about writing about your least favorite 100th day things, too?
* Journal entry: I am 100% _______ (excited, scared, mad...) about __________ (going to the dentist tomorrow, having my friend over this afternoon...)
* Story starters: There once was a dragon with 100 teeth... There once was a girl with 100 brothers...There once was a dog with 100 fleas...There once was a rabbit with 100 carrots...
*Journal: Make a list of 5 things your parents must have told you a hundred times.
GRAMMAR AND OTHER LANGUAGE ARTS
* Find at least 100 mistakes in this letter I've written to you.
* Parts of speech practice: Write 10 proper nouns, 20 common nouns, 20 action verbs, 10 helping verbs, 10 pronouns, 20 adjectives, and 10 interjections (100 total).
* Put these 100 words in alphabetical order.
MATH
* How high can you count in 100 seconds? Or how many seconds does it take you to count to 100?
* Fill in the missing numbers on a 100 chart.
* Sort and graph these 100 M&Ms (or Skittles, or Fruit Loops).
* Make a 100 cm line and a 100 inch line. Compare.
* How tall is 100 inches. Do people grow to be that tall?
* The 100th day is a great opportunity to practice decimals.
* What number is 1/4 of 100? 1/2 of 100?
* Find people in your acquaintance whose ages exactly equal 100.
* Estimate which weighs more--100 _____ or 100 _____. (This could be pieces of cereal, paperclips, etc.) Weigh and record to check your estimate.
* Put these 1-100 number cards in order.
* Find out how many _____ you could buy with $100.
* Pretend you have been given $100 to help someone else. Make a list of things you could do or buy.
* Complete this list of 100 math facts.
Note: Some of these ideas are ones that I collected when I was teaching in the classroom. Others are new ones that we've added this year.
Paying For a Good Story: Add a little bit of math review into your regular day.
Sometime before storytime have your child help you make price tags. These will vary depending on the level of your student. The most basic price tags will be 2 cents, 4 cents, 7 cents or 20 cents, 40 cents, and 70 cents. The next level could have any price up to 99 cents. The last levels might show prices between $1.01 and $99.99. Place these tags hanging out of the tops of several of your favorite storytime books.
At the beginning of storytime, ask your child to select a book he'd like to read. Have him count out the price of the story with play money. The excitement of this activity has usually lasted a couple of days for us.
One variation on this is to have price tags on his favorite toys or video games. He can spend as much of his play money as he would like in order to "buy" these toys or games for free time.
