November 6, 2016 Leave a Comment

Spectacular Sight Word Activites

Sight Words {as you know} are a HUGE part of early reading! It is estimated that up to 75% of words that young children read are sight words! So, it’s ESSENTIAL that we make sure we do all we can to make sure kids can quickly recognize these words!

So the students become familiar with the words, we do lots of activities incorporating the words!

Top Secret Words

Top Secret Words are my favorite new way to get the kiddos practicing their sight words! More importantly, the students love Top Secret Words!

Simply grab a sight word list and allow your students to write the words using Secret Message Invisible Pens!

To make it even more fun, photocopy the Top Secret Words page onto Astrobrights!

You can snag the printable FREEBIE here!

Word Wall on the Go!

Word Wall on the go allows your students to bring the word wall to their desk!

I love that students can easily grab the words and take them back to their seat!

Lunchbox Sight Words

A super simple activity to prep are these Lunchbox Sight Words!

The kids pull out a sight word and use the magnetic letters to spell the word out.

Grab the sight word file HERE.

I just printed onto bright Astrobrights and used these thin magnets to make them stick inside the metal lunchbox from Oriental Trading! Make sure to poke around for a free shipping code on OTC!

The lowercase magnetic letters are from Amazon but you can snag a set at Walmart, Target or even the dollar store, if you get lucky!

Want even more ways to get your kids to practice their sight words? Head over and snag a TON of FREEBIES here!

Slainte!

November 3, 2016 Leave a Comment

Short Vowel Ideas to Make Learning Fun!

I’m always looking for new ways to mix up how we practice our short vowel words. I get bored looking at their work sometimes, so I imagine they get bored doing the same activities all the time! {Tell me I’m not the only one!}
So today I’m sharing my favorite activities for working on short vowels!

Short Vowel Word Searches

Once in a while you need your kiddos to pick up their pencils {or crayons!} and prove what they know! Well, who says it doesn’t need to be fun? These Short Vowel Word Searches are an educational spin on what they’d find on a kid’s meal menu!

Short Vowel Word Mats

Each week during the school year we focus on a word family. At the beginning of the year, we spend a lot of time on short vowels! The kids “show what they know” about word families by completing these Word Up! Word Mats.

They need to make words using the letter tiles and determine if the words are real or nonsense words.

Short Vowel Poems

At some point in the day, we chant our short vowel poem. I have NO idea where these poems originated {please share the source if you know!} but I do have them as a FREEBIE over on the Lucky to Be in First Facebook page!

Make sure you’re looking at Facebook from a desktop computer. You’ll find them in the “Fan Freebies” tab {along with a few other goodies, too!}

Check out these helpful directions from Traci of Dragonflies in First for printing these posters larger!

Short Vowel Task Cards

I’m always changing up our activities during Daily 5 to make sure that my students don’t get bored! Recently, I added these Short Vowel Task Cards to the mix.

It includes two versions for each vowel sound so you can differentiate for your class. The top picture shows how students are asked to write the beginning and ending sound.

In the activity below, students are asked to write the vowel sound and the final sound.

As with any phonics activity, you hope your students can independently work on, it’s important to review the pictures so students become familiar with the words!

Word Family Workouts

The latest addition to our Phonics repertoire are these Word Family Workouts! This one paper covers a bunch of skills: word recognition in various fonts, ABC order, and sentence writing!

Check out these Word Family Workouts over on TpT!

Slainte!

September 22, 2016 Leave a Comment

Shoe Tying Strategies for 1st Graders

There are certain things as a teacher that drive me nuts – forgotten books, picking up homeless crayons and “I forgot my backpack at home!” HOW, by the way, is that even possible? {But as I write this, I’m thinking about a story my sister shared with me recently how her own child forgot his backpack and she had to go home so he wasn’t that kid!}

But seriously what really “chaps my hide” are first graders who don’t know how to tie their own shoes! {Well, what really chaps my hide even more than that is parents who send their child to school in shoes that need to be tied, yet they don’t know how to!}

Each year, I make the “New Year’s Resolution” for each of the kids in my classroom – they WILL learn to tie their shoes before they leave my room!

I’m sharing a few of my favorite strategies to make sure all of my students are successful with this life skill!

Favorite Videos

My favorite trick to show kids is Magic Fingers!
Check out this great video that explains it!

Another video you may have seen pop up in your Facebook feed recently was this great idea from Unstoppable Mother. Though this is not the fastest way, it’s a super simple way to teach your kiddos who may struggle with bunny ears and loops!

I post the links to these videos on my classroom website so parents can refer to these when they think their child is ready to learn this important skill!

In the Classroom

In class, I have a few Melissa & Dog Wooden Lacing Sneakers for students practice on. Whenever they have a free moment, they can grab a “shoe” and practice. There’s something about practicing it that makes it just stick!

I also have a few books inside my library that give students a chance to practice with simple step-by-step illustrations.

By far, the fan favorite is Red Lace, Yellow Lace. The catchy rhyme easily guides kids through the steps. Bonus – it’s a durable board book!

You can snag other titles in the Scholastic Book Order, but the books are flimsy and easily break. Splurge and get Red Lace, Yellow Lace!

Home Connection

We cover a lot in class, but we can only do so much, right? So in addition to having kiddos use the wooden shoes and books in my library, learning to tie shoes is part of homework in my class!

In my Take Home Tasks – Homework for Families, I’ve included Shoe Tying 101. This box allows parents work on this skill throughout the week with their child.

On my classroom website, I also share these amazingLearn-to-Tie Laces from Jump for Joy on Etsy. When my nephews were learning to tie their shoes a few years ago, this was the best money ever spent! With no exaggeration, they learned to tie their own shoes in less than an hour!

Reward Their Accomplishment

When students can successfully tie their shoes, I share this little treat! Although it’s just a little certificate, it has a huge impact!

Click the picture to grab this FREEBIE for yourself!

How do you motivate your students to learn to tie their shoes?

Slainte!

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