I'm Back! Five for Friday!

Eeek sorry everyone!  It's so hard to blog lately!  First, I wanted to share that my TPT store is doing AMAZING!  Thank you to everyone who has purchased something!  So thankful!  Here's my Five for Friday!  Thanks  Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting!

We just started taking groups this past week.  After much testing, the first graders I have will need a quick letter name/sound review as well as rhyming.  They absolutely loved this uppercase/lowercase acorn match!  They needed to tell me the letter name and letter sound. This product was one of my first so I gave it a bit of a facelift.  I know have a recording sheet for their letters.  They can record them on blank acorns and glue them on a paper with a tree on it.

 

My oldest helped me make meatballs!  He rolled them and everything!  I was impressed.  I'd be more impressed if he would actually eat them :(

 

Sorts, sorts, and more sorts!  My kids LOVE sorts.  Every group does.  I like them too.  I like that they reinforce skills in a fun manner.  The book pictured above is a great way to find multisyllable words!

My kindergarteners need a lot of practice with their names.  Several of them can't write their names and if they can, they can't identify the names of the letters in their name.  I broke out the cookie sheets and put all the letters in their name on the apple.  They then had to build their name.  It's a nice way to see who really knows how to spell their name.

Finally, my third graders are working on r-controlled vowels this week.  After practicing all week we did some phoneme mapping.  It was good practice.  As you can see, there was a lot of erasing.  We will be doing it again soon! :)


Thank you again for everyone who comes here. I hope I didn't lose you with my brief hiatus there!  See you soon!  I have an L-Blends packet that will be posted in a few days! 

It's Off to Work I Go...

Well summer, it's been real.  We knew it had to end some day.  I just wish it wasn't so soon.  We had a good run.  Good times...bad times...I will treasure our time together.

After a very sad break up with summer vacation it was back to figuring out what to do with my space.  Last year, I had an owl themed space.  This year, I went with a zoo theme based on Krista Wallden's super awesome Zoo Clip Art which you can find here.  

I don't like clutter and I don't like having things up that won't get used...especially in such a small space.  Here's what I have done so far.

My word house is up.  It's waiting for the millions of post-its that will cover it.  I have no idea why all my pics are blurry so my apologies in advance!

This was me sorting out my awesome, can't wait to use posters (I made them smaller).

Here they are in action.  While I liked them up and want them up, I ultimately took them down.  I just don't have enough space in my cubical and don't want every inch of my walls covered.  I think I am going to put them on a binder ring and use them as flash cards.  I did something similar last year but I like mine better ;)  If you are interested in getting these posters for yourself, here are the links: Short Vowels, Long Vowels, R-Controlled Vowels, Vowel Digraphs, & Diphthongs.

Here's my student supply section on top of my binder bookcase.  I made a mini welcome sign along with pics of my family and favorite books.  Last year, all my student supplies were located in that white box you see.  I found certain grades were destroying my pencils and erasers.  I am holding them accountable this year by giving each group their own pencil box.  This way they can't argue with me about it being a different group who destroyed my supplies.  This is also where I have the student hand sanitizer and tissues.  They are kept far away from me and I have my own NO STUDENTS CAN USE THESE supplies right near my spot but where they can't touch it.  I try hard to minimize germs, not for myself but my own babies at home.

Here are my cute zoo themed behavior charts!  I hate buying them so I made my own to go with my theme.  Also, I color code my groups so I did it to their charts as well.  It will be easier for them to find their chart!  Like the signs above the sticker charts?  They are a great freebie from Class of Kinders and you can find them here!

That's really all I have to show you right now.  Apologies again for the blurry pics.  The lighting in my space this year seems really off.  I'm finishing up my NO PREP Vowel Diphthongs packet.  I'm also working on a pirate themed r-controlled vowel packet, NO PREP Halloween Packets (currently just Kindergarten is almost done), and of course a NO PREP R-Controlled Vowels packet as well.  Stay tuned my friends!

R-Controlled Vowels "Bossy R" Posters, Activities, & Worksheets

Wow!  I'm so impressed I actually got this done a week after the diphthongs packet!  Go me! :)  Here it is!  I've been hearing such great things about my other packets so I really hope this one can help out you guys as well!

Here is what's included:

*Features AR, ER, IR, OR, & UR R-Controlled Vowels Cuties graphics created to help students get a visual of what sound each “Bossy R” makes
*R-Controlled Vowels “Bossy R” mini posters
* Pocket chart sorting activity
*Spin and Read game
* Memory game
*Worksheets (Missing R-Controlled Vowels and 3 levels of Fill in the Blank)

My first graders are DYING to get to Bossy R!  It's all they're talking about!  I guess it didn't help that I told them I had a pirate sort that we would be doing when we got to it haha.  EVERYDAY my students refer to the cuties posters that I have placed under their correct word house spot.  I only have my Vowel Digraph and Diphthong cuties posters up but they are all so interested in them.  Even my little ones who haven't quite grasped those concepts yet are asking me questions and pointing out a word that has those vowel combinations together.  I love it!  I can't wait to see their excited little faces when I places these under our word house Monday!

I'm hoping to have my consonant digraph books and book bundle up in my TPT either later today or on Sunday.  Also, I am looking forward to share with you all the neat stuff I purchased during the big TPT sale.