Small Group Warm-Up Activities!

Hey there! 

What are you up to on a Friday night? Here I am blogging...but hey, the house is quiet and I've had something that I've been wanting to share for awhile. 

My daughter is actually home from college, but she wanted to go to the football game. My husband is at a men's recharge (preaching services). I cannot wait to spend some time with Harley tomorrow so I figured now was a good time to hop on and show you what has me so excited.

Ever since learning more about the process of learning to read, I've been trying to find quick and easy ways to get a lot of practice into my intervention time with students. I'm pretty excited about two new things I'm using this year and want to share them with you.

First, SuperSpeed 100 for sight words. This is a FREE activity from Whole Brain Teaching. They also have SuperSpeed 1000. I am using this (along with their FREE Biffytoons for my youngest readers) to practice sight words and it literally takes only about 3 minutes of my intervention time and the kids are loving it. The best part is that I've already seen my 1st graders improving on their AimsWeb Plus Word Reading Progress Monitoring. Whoop! Whoop!

Second, is what I'm calling Phonics Warm-Up Activities. I created these to use with my students as they progress through our explicit phonics and phonemic awareness lessons. My initial thought was to have students warm-up using the boards by reading the line of words with our targeted sound, but now I see that the possibilities are endless! Here's a peek at some of my students using the boards:

The boards can be used in small groups, as a center activity, or when students have extra time in the classroom. They can be used as a warm-up activity, roll-and-read, decoding practice, fluency practice, or as an orthographic mapping activity. My latest idea is to play "Bingo" by giving students sound hints to find specific words. I'm going to try this out next week. 

Like the SuperSpeed games, these activities are simple to prep (print and go) and don't take a lot of my intervention time to get lots of practice in. The boards start with short vowels and progress through more difficult skills. You can check them out in our TPT store for a full list of skills covered if you're interested. 

Enjoy your weekend! I know I'm going to enjoy seeing Harley...miss my kiddos so much (thankfully they still text and/or call quite a bit ;-))!

Super Easy (and CHEAP) Sight Word Practice System

Hello! Hello!

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I've seen on social media that some of you lucky teachers have already started Thanksgiving break! I have Monday and Tuesday left, but I simply can't believe we are already to this point in the year. I don't know why this year seems to be flying to me--maybe my new position?

Anyway, I said awhile back that I'd be sharing my sight word system...so let's get to it!

Who wants some sight word practice you can start today? And most likely without spending any of your own money?

That was me several years ago raising my hand!

Disclaimer: This is not an original idea. I saw it somewhere and have adapted it to fit my needs. If you know who might have “invented” it, please share in the comments.

So let me introduce you to what I call The Power of 3. The name comes from the fact that your students will be earning a series of 3 colored dots 3 times for 3 different types of exposure to the word. 

Now that is a mouthful, but I promise I’ll explain!

Materials:

Index Cards (what teacher doesn’t have them?)

Colored Markers (again, you already have them!)

Binder Rings (1” works well—you might have to buy them)

Sight Word List (your choice, I have used Dolch, Fry, or even the one from my curriculum)

Step 1:

First, you will want to make copies of the sight word list for each of the kids that you are working with. When I taught in the classroom, I did not do this with all of my students—just those that needed the extra practice. As a Title I teacher, I am doing it with almost all my kiddos.

Ask your student to read the list of words as quickly as possible. On your copy, mark each word that is not automatic (longer than 3 seconds). Now for those index cards. Make an index card for each of the words your student missed. ***Important note: I wouldn’t make more than 10 cards per student at a time. You really want intense focus on a small group of words at a time. You will be adding other cards as they move from ring to ring.***

Each student needs 3 rings, labeled READ, WRITE, and SPELL. All of the words start on the READ ring. I keep all this in a plastic bag, like so:

Step 2:

Determine how often you will work with your student. Daily would be awesome, but realistically I try to do it 3 times a week.

Show your student the cards on the READ ring. If they read the word correctly within 3 seconds, use a marker to give them a colored dot at the bottom of the card. You will use the same color each time you work with the READ ring.

Yes, I've been known to add pictures if we are really struggling to master a word!

Once a student earns 3 dots (3 successful reads of the word), you will move that card to the WRITE ring.

Each time you work with your kiddo, continue flashing the READ cards. Add words as more cards are moved to the WRITE ring.

Step 3:

For the WRITE ring, you will ask your kiddo to spell the word. I let my students do this on the table with Dry-Erase markers which is always a favorite! 

If they are successful spelling the word with no help, use a different colored marker to give them a dot.

When students have 3 dots of that color (total dots should be 6 now), you will move the card to the SPELL ring.

Each time you work with your kiddo, continue working on the WRITE cards.

Step 4:

For the SPELL ring, students are asked to spell the word out loud to you. This is a more difficult skill because they can no longer “see” it and make a change if it doesn’t look right (as when they were writing it). However, usually by the time the cards have reached this ring my students are very familiar with the word and it doesn’t take long to once again earn 3 colored dots.

When students have 3 dots of that color (total dots should be 9 now), you will move the card off the ring. I like to keep these in the baggie and every once in awhile, we review reading them. My students enjoy seeing that completed stack get bigger and bigger!

That’s it! Simple, easy, CHEAP sight words practice that your kiddos will enjoy.

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving! 

Our Week at a Glance!

Here is a look at what went on this week in our classroom:

1.  The kids had a fun time practicing their spelling words in shaving cream!  The other good thing about it was that it made the room smell good too!  :-)

2.  We practiced our sight words by having a snowball fight!  The kids loved this one and they were able to tell me their sight words for this week quickly.  Each student wrote down a sight word on a piece of paper and crumbled it up.  I told them to throw the paper in the room and then they had to go pick one up.  When I came to them they had 3 seconds to tell me what the sight word was on their paper.  Then they crumbled it up and we continued playing.

3.  Find Someone Who-This was something we played when we first came back from Christmas Break (we didn't do this one this week).  I made up a page of the Kagan Strategy of Find Someone Who.  For example, one box says find someone who can show you how we line up.  So they had to find someone in the classroom who could show them that and then have that student sign his/her name in the box.  It was a quick and fun way for us to review our rules after our Christmas Break.

    

4.  We worked a lot on our nonsense words playing the nonsense words connect four games on TPT.

Have a great weekend!

Sight Word Fun!

We have been drilling our first 9 weeks sight words and I'm happy to say that the majority of my students passed this 9 weeks!  YAY!  They were even more excited because my co-teacher found these cool pinwheels on clearance at Wal-Mart.  If they could read all of their sight words in 2 1/2 minutes then they earned one of the pinwheels.  You would have thought that they had got a million dollars.  They were thrilled and mesmerized by these pinwheels.  

They were so excited about these things!  Now, to figure out what they can earn for the 2nd nine weeks sight words.  Any ideas?

Have a great day!

I May Have a Problem...

The first step is admitting it, right? HA!

This was my first week of summer vacation and I spent time working! 

I know. 

What is wrong with me?

I just couldn't help it...

Actually, it started last Friday evening after the last day of school as my family was watching yet another superhero movie. 

You see I had brought home some things, knowing I would be inspired to work this summer at some point. As I was putting things away, there was next year's calendar which is filled with changes. I can't even begin to explain it to you, and I know you don't want to hear it so I'll just skip right over that part. I figured I should just jot out my yearly reading and math plans at least. Not too taxing, and I would feel like I accomplished something big.

Then on Tuesday (I think, the days are already running together without a schedule), my daughter's softball game was postponed (again) and I was putting away more school stuff. 

This time my Reading Wonders samples...

We are getting Wonders for next year.

 I cannot wait!

We had Reading Street from what seems like forever ago--actually I think 9-10 years.

I know some people don't like using a basal series.

I love using a basal series.

And no, I do not follow it religiously.

It is a resource that I use to guide my instruction, and my students love reading stories from what we call the "big books."

So my head is already filling with how I will use all of the wonderful resources...

As I was admiring the samples once again, I realized I would need new "I have...who has...?" games!

Here's how (and why) I use them with a reading series:

I take the high-frequency words from each unit and make a game. Each unit is five weeks long, so I pull out the game in week 1. 

We play the game once or twice a week (usually in small groups during Daily 5) so the students are exposed to the all the words from the beginning of the unit. By the end of the unit, even my lowest readers have those words mastered!

 As you probably guessed, I got busy right away creating my games. 

One new thing I am definitely doing next year is data notebooks, so I also made assessment checklists to go along with the games.

I cannot wait to get them all printed and prepped for my classroom!

If you're interested, you can check them out in our TPT store: 

Buy the bundle and save $10!!!

Set 1

Set 2

Set 3

Set 4

Set 5

Set 6

This week was not all work though!

We celebrated my daughter's 15th birthday...with superheroes!

What else?

 

I've decided her fascination with superheroes--Captain America, especially--is not unlike my fascination with action movies at her age (think Bloodsport, Kickboxer, The Terminator...).

She insisted we take a picture with her cake to prove how dorky I am...what can I say?

13 + 2 =15

And that works when you realize you don't have anymore candles.

:-)

Sight Words

We have been spending some extra time on our sight words each week and I'm excited to say that the kids are knowing them when I test them on the words at the end of the week.  YAY!  We begin our week by introducing the sight words and talking to our shoulder buddy about what they mean and they try to use them in a sentence.  Then the practice is on!  Here is what we have been doing to master those sight words:

1.  Quiz Quiz Trade-This is a Kagan strategy that is very simple.  I make the flashcards of our sight words and give each kid a sight word.  They walk around the room and find someone to read their sight word.  Once they both have read the sight word, they switch cards and move on to someone else. 

2.  Around the World-The kids never get tired of doing this one.  They form 2 lines and see who can read the sight word first.

3.  Tic Tac Toe-They get a tic tac toe board with their words on it.  To put an X or O down they have to say the word first. 

4.  Connect Four-They always love playing the connect four game that we have several on TPT.  If they say the word correctly then they get to mark it.  Whoever gets 4 in a row wins.  

5.  Superspeed-I type out the sight words several times and we line up on the floor and the first student says the first word, second student (second word) etc.  They have one minute.  We do this every day and they try to beat how far they get each day. It has also helped them to listen and track each word that is said by the other students.  (sorry I didn't get a picture of this one).

6.  I Have Who Has-they always love playing I Have Who Has.  I time them and they try so hard to beat their time.  (sorry I forgot to get a picture of this one as well).

They love practicing the sight words with all of these and the best thing about it is that they are starting to master the words!

Have a great day!

Reading Fluency and Roll and Read FUN!

Today we worked on our sight words for the week by playing the roll and read game.  The kids love playing this game.  They simply roll the dice and whatever number they roll they find it on the paper and say the word.  If they get the word right then they put an X on the square.  Whoever, gets a word to the top first wins the game.  

The other game they played was the roll and read fluency game.  They roll the dice and find that number on the paper.  They read the sentence with the correct expression.  If they read it correctly then they get to put a tally mark under that number.  Whoever gets the most tally marks wins the game.  My kids have been getting really good at using the right expression when they read.  Many of them started out reading sentences that have an exclamation mark at the end by expressing only the last word (LOL!). After practicing with this game, they have started to use expression throughout the entire sentence instead of just the last word (YAY!). 

I hope all of you are having a great day!

Big Heartland Back-to-School Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Hey there! We have some new friends from the Heartland, and we've teamed up with them for a back-to-school blog hop.

First, we wanted to share our back-to-school tips with you!

If you want to see how I'm doing #2 and #3 with a video this year, check out this post!

Kristi and I picked some of our best back-to-school resources to giveaway to one lucky winner. Here's what our winner will receive:

Math Helper (with workmats)

Super Sight Words Pack (level of your choice)

1st Nine Weeks HOTSHOTS (your choice 1st or 2nd grade)

Check out this post for an explanation of HOTSHOTS!

Go ahead...enter to win these back-to-school goodies!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Big Heartland will also be having a linky each month that you are going to want to check out!

That will be a featured product priced at only $1 on the 1st of every month!

This month our featured product is our Sight Word Connect Four game pack (regular price is $5), so hop on over to our TPT store to pick it up for only a $1! 

Then you'll want to visit our new friends to see what back-to-school tips and tricks they have for you, enter their giveaways, and check out their $1 deals. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Five for Friday--Giveaway, Games, and Freebies!

Happy Friday!

I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs for a peek at my week.

1

This is week 2 of my DIY version of the 21 Day Fix. I looked into buying it, but then realized it was really about making smart choices and portion control--something I felt confident I could do myself. I am so proud of myself for eating LOTS of fruits and vegetables--I even craved fruit yesterday! That's a new one for me! LOL!

2

So...this kid is so excited. I know it might not look like it. He shows excitement like his dad. What can I say? I had to make him smile! Some of you watched the video on Facebook of him running for the first time since February 23rd last week--now that showed a genuine smile.

He is released for cross country. He doesn't have to go to therapy for two months--when they will start working on making cuts, sharp turns, etc. for basketball. Woohoo! And mom and dad are happy that insurance is covering his expensive brace at 100%! Praise the Lord!

3

This pic takes some set-up.

I have not been sleeping well for months--which means hubby has not been sleeping well. We had our queen-sized bed for 15 years and it was a hand-me-down from hubby's parents so who knows how old it really is... 

On July 4th, we decided we'd had enough and loaded up in our truck and went shopping. We spent hours picking the perfect king-size (hubby wanted to go up a size)! To my disappointment I learned that we would have to wait 7-10 days to have the bed delivered. 

So we waited. 

It was coming the 10th day.

Then the 11th day.

Then they said it wouldn't be here until today (the 13th day).

So the mad face is on our old bed...that's how I felt about spending one more night in what I have not-so-lovingly termed the "torture chamber."

The other picture is me on my new bed that was delivered yesterday--hooray! 

Please ignore the snowflake pillows and camo blanket. The king-size means I got new sheets too--woohoo! And in case you're wondering, I slept like a baby last night. :-)

4

In case you haven't entered yet, you're going to want to click here to enter our giveaway! Prizes include $50 to Target, $25 to Amazon, and $25 to Etsy.

We're also having $1 Deals every day the giveaway is open (until July 20th at midnight). Today's deal is our Connect Four Sight Word Mega Pack--marked down from $5! 

Feel free to pass the word along about the giveaway and $1 deals.

5

Freebies!

At my school last year, we all had "versions" of the Whole Brain Teaching rules and they were all in different orders... Talk about confusing when we teach each other's kids for specials! In music, I'd say, "What's rule #1?" And the K and 1st would say something different than what I had in 2nd...etc. We decided to all get on the same page and I came up with these. Click the picture to grab them for free!

And...I've had some people ask me about our Robot Calendar. It is updated in our Robot Theme Pack if you purchased that. I decided to also put it on Facebook as our Fan Freebie for now. I tried to let our followers know, but considering it has only 30 or so views I think FB might be "hiding" it...so weird the way that works.

Speaking of FB hiding things, I wanted to let you know (in case you didn't see it) we have a little game going on over there too. Comment with what you would like to see as $1 deal in the coming days and on Monday will draw a winner, who will get whatever they selected for FREE! The game post is pinned at the top of our page for now so head over there to play along.

Okay, I'm out! 

Back-to-school panic is setting in...I report back one month from today, students the 21st and I have so many "projects" I haven't finished yet. Yikes! Need to stay focused today!