Vowel Digraph Dino Trivia Game

*sigh* I know I've been MIA for quite some time now.  Truth is, LIFE IS TOUGH AND SO BUSY!  I think about this site and my products EVERY DAY and I never get any down time to do it.  That's not true, I do get down time but I choose to use that precious 30 minutes to workout :/  

We spent most of February sick.  That was AWFUL.  We had been doing so well for a few weeks after the Christmas fiasco.  The only good thing was that after Christmas, my son's inhaler was upped and I actually noticed a huge difference in February when he got sick.  I guess that's a positive?

Anywho, I'm trying to brush that aside and enjoy the fact that in just a few short weeks I will be hanging with MICKEY MOUSE!  Wahoo!!!  In the meantime, here's a super fun vowel digraph review game!

I wanted to make a fun but super simple vowel digraph review game to use with 1st and 2nd graders.  I came up with this idea and it's a hit!  I designed it to be easily set up in a pocket chart (that's what I have in my itty bitty space).  I work with only small groups (6 at the most) so I either have them do games individually or in pairs.  Students decide which vowel digraph they want to answer a question about and for how many points. 

You can play a few different ways:


• Students receive points for correct answers and are not penalized for incorrect responses.  No one can “steal” a question.  If a response is incorrect, it is returned to the board without discussion.
•   Students receive points for correct answers and are penalized (you can decide how much) for incorrect responses.  If an incorrect response is given, the next player (going right) has an opportunity to respond.  It can continue on until the original “owner” of the question is reached.
•   Choose one of the two ways above.  Make spelling the word a requirement (or a bonus worth perhaps 100 extra points).  This depends on the level of your students.
 
Of course, whoever has the most points in the end is the winner!

I'm looking forward to making more simple games such as this as well as a multisyllable vowel digraph packet!

 

Yay! Five for Friday!

Haven't done this in awhile!  So glad it's back!  Taking advantage of my little one napping while Daddy and the big one are out! Thanks  Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting this linky party!

 

Happy Birthday to my big boy!  Sunday was my oldest's 4th birthday.  FOURTH BIRTHDAY.  I have a four year old!  That's bananas!  He had a great weekend.  These are the cupcakes I made for him to take to school.  I definitely felt like such a mommy doing that haha.  

 

I read "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" by Laura Numeroff to my kindergarteners and first graders this week.  They loved it!  I'm sure most of you know her books are great to talk about sequencing.  We of course did that as well as talked about the story elements.  I made a few quick activities to go along with it as well.  For kindergarten, we practiced our color words.  We then used our color words in our writing prompt.  Mine have a very difficult time writing their own name let alone a sentence, so I made a tracing activity.  They did have to write their own color word in the prompt.  I was proud of them!  For first grade, I wanted them to describe what kind of cupcake they would give the cat.  We talked about sentence structure and rereading what we write to make sure it makes sense.  Look for this little bundle in my store soon...FOR FREE :)  Also, I will so be doing "If You Give a Dog a Donut" too!

 

My 4th graders have been working on their oral language skills.  As a quick activity, we look at a picture one day and discuss it.  The next, they write a sentence or two about the picture.  The third day, they share their sentences.  I stepped it up a notch and introduced them to this awesome wordless book called "Journey" by Aaron Becker.  I created this little booklet so they can write their own story for the pages.  Can't wait for everyone to share them!  This will also be up for free in my store soon!

I've been trying out the containers that came with my 21-Day Fix challenge pack.  I LOVE the workouts and have been seeing some great results.  I feel so happy and healthy!  Here are some of the meals I've been testing out!

The boys are doing well.  My little one insists on bothering me during workouts lol.  He even tries it with me.  They're also working on sharing.  It's becoming increasingly harder now that the little one is getting bigger.  He often takes the big ones stuff and when a fit beings he is the one hitting and literally banging his head against my older son's head.  *sigh*  Any suggestions lol?

Have a great week everyone!  I have so many things I'm trying to work on!  I will have those freebies up ASAP!

Happy New Year! Frog Hop Phoneme Segmentation

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! First off, my apologies for being MIA this past month.  My children have been super sick the entire month.  Well, for like two years.  I need new doctors for them :(  They just don't listen to me.  I brought them both there in November and they kept brushing it off.  They continued to be sick and of course, it turned into a pneumonia for BOTH of them Christmas week.  UGH!  Despite all of that, we still had a nice Christmas.  It was really nice being forced to just stay home and play for days :)  Santa brought the boys a wagon.  I thought the big slide that the Easter Bunny brought was the best gift ever.  I think this was a winner too!  So glad we didn't get the kids a lot and really tried to stick with things they'd like.  This wagon is amazing.  It's been a Disney ride, a car, it's sailed the Never Seas, been a restaurant, a pet store...so many things!

On a happier note, I have FINALLY posted my Frog Hop Phoneme Segmentation to my store!  I can't believe I never did!  DUH on my end!

I posted about this awhile ago, but forgot to post the product!  I made this to think of another way to get my kindergartners and first graders to practice phoneme segmentation.  They were getting bored with sitting at the table and doing it that way.  They always seem to have ants in their pants so I wanted to get them up and moving.  It was a hit!

First thing to do is print off either B&W version or the colored version.  I printed mine in B&W but on green paper.  I also laminated it since they will be stepped on.

You can either do this with your students or set up as a center.  They can pick a card (or you).  Cards are 2-5 phonemes and there are several for each.

 
They will say what the picture is.  Then, the student will hop out the phonemes.  They can keep the cards to tally up at the end or can play for fun.  If you want your students to practice blending phonemes, then YOU pick the card, DON'T show them, and say all of the phonemes. The students need to repeat the phonemes by hopping and then blend the word together.  It's so simple but fun!

I have some more things in the works.  Looking forward to some cute stuff for February.  I'm also interested in knowing what you guys would like to see me create.  Let me know!

Gooble! Gooble! Five for Friday!

I've been a bad, bad blogger!  But, November is sooo busy for us!  A million birthdays and our anniversary.  Oh and turkey day!  Thanks  Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting this linky party!

 

 

My Kindergarteners and I read one of my favorite books, Clarence the Cranberry Who Couldn't Bounce. I picked it up in the Cape and have been using it for years  It's a unique little story about a cranberry's journey from growth to being a prize winning cranberry.  We wrote a sentence and drew Clarence doing something from the story.

 

My Kindergarteners and I also did a little work from my NO PREP Thanksgiving Literacy--Kindergarten Packet.  They loved it and it was a great way to do some reviewing before the holiday.  I also used pieces to go through with my very low first graders.

 

Another favorite with my little ones was my Thanksgiving Little Reader & More:  Kindergarten set.  I taught them the vocabulary words ahead of time with the vocabulary cards.  Then we read the book together, focusing on the phrase "I see."  Personally, I loved it and can't wait to use my Christmas ones!

I am super thankful for my two little turkeys!  We carried on the holiday tradition of making muffins in the morning. I've been doing it since I was little.  We also went to my sister-in-laws this year.  It was honestly the most relaxing Thanksgiving I've had in a really long time! 

We ventured out to two different malls and Home Depot on this wonderful Black Friday.  We go out around lunch when it's not too nuts but you can still find some deals.  Definitely made out at Old Navy!  This pic was at Home Depot.  It was really awesome because we walked in and were told there was a visitor.  Santa was there!  They got a pic right away, wrote letters to Santa (I think they will be mailing us something back!), candy canes, AND they gave out cute little keys so Santa can get into your house if you don't have a chimney.  Mommy just spent $4 on one from a catalog lol.  I thought this was super awesome of them to do!  My little one is clearly in a candy cane coma haha!

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday.  Keep an eye out because I have a lot of holiday stuff coming your way!

Addressing Letter Naming and Letter Sounds in Kindergarten

After doing reading intervention with Kindergarten (and up through 5th) for 4 years, you can imagine how many resources I have collected over the years.  This is the first year I haven't found myself scrambling or spending a ton of money on resources.  It's really nice to have organized binders full of wonderful resources!  Here are some of the things that I have found helpful over the years.

1.  Alphabet Cards

The ones that I am currently using are old and are a copy of a copy of a copy (you get the picture).  Last year, all of us in the Reading Room decided to use the cards that Kindergarten was using.  This way, the kids had consistency no matter who they were with.  I highly recommend this.  We all know how much kids depend on routine.  I'm hoping to transition out of using those old ones for next year because the new Kindergarten team isn't using them anyways.  With that said, I have a created FREE Alphabet Flashcards that are available in my TPT store.  With this free product, I hope to encourage others to create consistency for their students.

 2.  Vowel Song

Along with using the same Alphabet Flashcards, we also sing a song about the vowels.  This one is to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?"  I'm sure many of you are familiar with it.  Using a vowel song (and keeping it the same amongst your grade level and anyone else who works with your students) really helps students with vowels.  The first day I had my Kindergarteners this year they had NO IDEA what I was talking about.  That was completely expected and was addressed with a reassuring smile.  Sure enough, 4 weeks later, my little friends can tell me that A, E, I, O, and U are vowels.  They can also tell me that they each make two sounds and what those two sounds are.  So proud :)  I created posters for this awhile ago but this post has encouraged me to give it a much needed facelift!  Again, these Vowel Song Posters are FREE with the same hope as the Alphabet Cards!

3.  Letter Tracing/Writing

Wait...you want me to....WRITE the letters now?!  Are you insane lady?!  You know I don't even know what this letter is!  Ah yes my friend.  I do know that.  However, they go hand in hand and I assure you, you will look back and laugh at this situation in a few weeks!  Being able to properly write letters is a tricky concept for Kindergarteners.  And writing them on those nice lines we give them...HA!  But that's okay.  We're still going to practice :)

The first thing that I absolutely love are Stephanie Ann's Alphabet Mini Books for Tracking Letters.  I laminated them and stuck them on a ring.  I have 5 sets.  This is FANTASTIC to give to my students while I am progress monitoring.  It's great practice and they LOVE dry erase markers!  I highly encourage you to download this...IT'S FREE! 

   
Another thing I love are my FREE Alphabet Trace Cards.  These have been out for a few months but at the suggestion of a customer I changed some of the pics.  I'm quite happy with the changes!  These cards go perfect with the flashcards that you could use daily.  It would really reinforce the connection by using the same pictures.

4.  Letter Finds

Our little friends also need practice simply identifying particular letters that are amongst a group of letters.  If they don't know that what they are looking at is a letter F then they can't tell you the sound and will eventually be unable to decode words.  One of our absolute FAVORITE things to do is use dot markers!  This goes perfect with another one of our favorite things, I Spy Letters- A Letter Search Activity by Teaching Products.  They love that the dots actually form the letter!  Gets them every time!  That little perk was extra helpful while doing the B and D sheets.  They realized that by stamping the wrong one it wouldn't help form the big picture.  I like that she also has it where they have to trace and write on the bottom.  I make them do that part first.  This is currently listed as $3 and is totally worth it!  I would have paid more!

If you are looking for something free, we were using one from Over the Big Moon called Full Alphabet Letter Identification Printables.  It's free!  I only switched because I stumbled upon the other one and liked the writing and that it formed the letter.  Both are great!

5.  Alphabet Books

There are SOOOO many books out there!  Not just on TPT either!  At first I was using the Itsy Bitsy Books from Kidzone.  I enjoyed that they were one page books and were to the point.  But, I don't like that they have written down that "B says buh. Buh, buh, buh."  We try to teach kids NOT to add a vowel sound to the letter sounds.  I was worried that parents would see that at home, misunderstand it, and teach them the opposite of what we want haha.  With that said, they are free and not that bad!

I ended up going with Teacherscrapbook's Alphabet Mini Letter Books.  They waste more paper than I'd like and you have to staple them but they're good.  I like that the vowels have two books, one for each sound.  The kids enjoy the graphics in them as well.  What do you look for in an alphabet book?

6.  Letter of the Week

I have been wanting to do this with my Kindergartners for a few years now but I was never successful implementing it in our short time together.  I think I've got it this year!  I don't call it "Letter of the Week" because it would take us wayyyy too long to get through everything!  I decided to call ours "Our New Letter" because I switch it out every few days (about 3).  Now, I don't try to jam pack everything I can about that letter in those 3 days.  I want what I do to be meaningful.  I decided to create my own Our New Letter Pocket Chart.  I have very limited space in my area so I squished it onto a small pocket chart I bought from the dollar section of Target.  I can only fit the uppercase/lowercase letter card, 4 picture cards, and the traceable letters that the kids do.  Included are blank cards that you can have students come up with more words that start with that letter and you can write them.  Right above the pocket chart is our whiteboard.  I hang up the teacher traceable sheet to demonstrate to students how to properly form the letter.  I'm thrilled with how this turned out.  It was just what I wanted.  My students are responding quite well to it!  Do any of you have a similar chart?

 If you are feeling creative, you can do something along the lines of what I did for my own son.  I printed off picture of things that he liked for his letter pocket chart.  He really loved this.  We've slowed down on it now that my little one has decided to continuously yank the stuff out of the chart lol.  I turned it into a sight word chart and he stopped touching it.  I think the words aren't as interesting as the pictures haha.  Can you tell we love Thomas?

7.  Multisensory Tools

Tired of doing the same old paper/pencil activities?  Try one of these!  We love playdough!  I searched high and low for the perfect playdough letter mats.  I liked something from each of them so I decided to make my own to better address the needs of my students.  Here's an example of my A-Z Playdough Mats.  On the left, students can build the letter with the playdough.  On the right, they must trace/write the letters and circle the 3 pictures that have the correct beginning sound.  They ask every day to use playdough!  Even my older grade groups want to use it!

If you are on Pinterest (and you probably are if you are reading my blog haha) then you have probably come across the following activity.  I followed the directions from Teach Preschool on how to make a hair gel sensory bag for writing letters.  My students really enjoyed doing this. Of course, I had the one who decided to scrape his nail along the bag despite me saying DON'T DO THAT and he tore holes in it *sigh*.  I also didn't use enough hair gel.  You need like most of the bottle!  I also heard fingerpaint works.  I might try that!

8.  Games

Who doesn't love a fun game?  Kindergartners THRIVE when they are truly engaged in an activity and games tend to do this.  Some of these can be considered more "activities" but I think they're still fun!

The first super simple "game" I like is giving my students about 3-4 letter dice.  I let them roll it and line them up.  I then either ask them to tell me the name of each letter, the sound, or both.  Right now we're just doing letter name.  If you don't have letter dice you can make your own with paper or writing them on small wooden blocks you can find at a craft store.  You can find some here on Amazon.

Another great activity is uppercase/lowercase matching.  I like to do my Uppercase & Lowercase Acorn Match with my kindergarten and first grade groups.  I spread out the bottom part of the acorns which have the uppercase letters on them.  I think have my students reach into a bag and pull out an acorn top.  The tops have the lower case letter.  They love putting the acorns together.

Another favorite is "I Have, Who Has?"  I haven't done it quite yet this year because I think they need to become a bit more comfortable with their letters.  The version I have has the letters in alphabetical order.  I want to also get one with them out of order (the older ones pick up on it lol).  Head over to Lanier's Lions to pick up their FREE I Have Who Has Letter Recognition Game.

This week, we plan on using our new game "Pop For Letters" that I got from Amazon.  I have the blends version and the older kids love it.  I tested this one out on my preschooler and he did great!  I think I will need to buy one for home too!  The concept is super simple, pick a piece of popcorn and say the letter name/sound/both.  Keep it if you are right.  If you pick a "POP" you must put everything back!

Here's another simple but fun activity.  I created an "Alphabet Soup" game.  I KNOW I saw it on Pinterest but I can't find the original!  I will post if I do.  Anywho, I ordered some foam alphabet letters from Amazon, got a bowl, a spoon, and whipped up a quick recording sheet and we were good to go! 

Finally, I really enjoy Camp Kindergarten's Letter Sound Interventions RTI Literacy Pack.  There are really fabulous activities that my students love to do!  It's work checking it out!

PHEW!!!  That was a lot! This was awesome to reflect on and I hope this can help you find some great things to use with your students!  I will be trying to do posts like this more.  Is it helpful?  What are some things that you do with your students to address these skills?  What are some products you would love to see me put together?