We MADE Sight Words. We LIKE to MAKE Sight Words.

We learn 1 - 3 new sight words each week. I go through the A-Z books and find books containing the sight words. We read the books together and underline the words. Each sight word has a corresponding practice page where students write the word, circle the word and use it in a sentence with an illustration. After we learn 10 words I send home a sheet of flash cards on business card stock (the kids love pulling the cards apart). I have been trying to introduce new sight words in memorable and fun ways - similar to the effective way Jolly Phonics introduces sounds. I have hidden words all over the room, used our "sight word glasses" to hunt for words, made board games for specific words, use words in our weekly poem, made up elaborate stories, and on and on. This week's words used our new skill magic e. The words are not tricky words - just sight words. The words are # 67 - 70. What could I do new and different?

I put the kids in teams of 2 or 3 and they built the new words with materials I gave them.  They could make the words however they wanted. Here are some of the results for made, make and like. The FDKers were uber-proud!  A

Abraham Lincoln a la Pinterest

Here's an idea I got on Pinterest that turned out great.  I made a life-sized Abe Lincoln to hang up. The laminator did a number on his collar and then melted the gray crayon - but he still looks presidential. The students measured themselves on the wall next to Lincoln. They attached masking tape to the wall with their height. We took a photo of each child next to Lincoln (like the Pinterest sample). I printed the photos in black and white and gave the snapshot to the kids to use however they wanted. That was a huge success. I will post some examples tomorrow. One child glued the photo to paper and wrote, "Abe Lincoln is WAY taller than I am."

Magic E a continuing story

Those extra pounds I've put on this year sure helped with the Ms. Hag costume. The kids are still talking about it today. Some said they thought it was a substitute teacher at first, some knew I was wearing a wig but where did I get those teeth? The FDKers especially liked explaining it to other teachers and staff - always a good thing. After they "fixed" me by adding the magic e, we tried out the Magic E reading sheet. 

The kids went around reading to each other and of course everyone wanted to read to me - I let them read a few to me but they had to read with peers while they waited a turn. (I hate a line waiting to see the teacher). Hopefully, the cards went home and got lots more readings there. Super cheap download at my TPT store: Magic E Flip Chart 

Mrs. Hag needs a Magic E

Here I am as Ms. Hag last year.  Looking good!

I can't lie, this is one of my favorite days of the year.  I dress as "Ms. Hag." The e has fallen off my name tag and Ms. Hage is suddenly Ms. Hag. I have a great set of awful teeth, a bad wig and a dear friend's grandma's housecoat to make the transformation. I am less than pleasant as I greet the students. They are eager for me to transform back into Ms. Hage (as am I because the teeth really aren't comfortable). The students help figure out what I can do to fix my name. Once we add the e to the name tag I take out the teeth, take off the housecoat and remove the wig (although my hair tends to still look pretty bad after having a wig flattening it out). 

We follow up the lesson with an activity changing CVC words into V-E words with a long vowel sound.Magic E practice activity

Adding the "Magic" e.                             Back to normal.

Sight Words in a Bottle

Looks fun and it was!

Tried adding glitter. I didn't love it. It stuck to the sides. Some of the kids liked it though.

The flat sides did eliminate rolling and allowed copying. 

Determined shaking and deciphering required!

Proud completion. Note how much rice works best. 

I have had the bottles for this activity since last spring when I drank bottled Fiji water (for the flat-sided bottles of course). Then I got my husband to drag home the rice (hmm I think I mentioned this in my blog earlier).  Well I finally finished the center reporting sheet and used the bottles at a station - BIG SUCCESS!  The students rotated and shook the bottles trying to find all ten of the items and the 10 sight words in each bottle. I numbered 4 bottles with different items and words (with a master list for teacher checking if so desired). Now I can put the bottles on our Reading Workshop cart for the students to choose (they want to try all 4 bottles). I will put the reporting sheet on TPT for free. Well, I will when they reopen postings. They are temporarily down. OPENED:  My Store at Teachers Pay Teachers

Good News / Bad News

Got to use my Valentine Mystery word lesson today. Good news: kids spelled lots of words really well, many FDKers even spelled Valentine using memory and sound cues - hurray.  Bad news: my list of possible words to make included - end.  There is no "d" in valentine!  YIKES!  So embarrassing. The students loved chanting "Teacher, teacher made a mistake!"  Because I did make a doozy. If you bought this from me I am so sorry and will send you 3 new mystery word lessons with real words to make.  I have done valentine before but obviously with a different set of words to use. "smack"  That is me hitting my forehead with the heal of my hand. Now here's a cute photo of a finished sheet:

Valentine Math Worksheets

After two weeks of counting to 100 over and over and over - can my FDKers do it on paper? This week I'll let them try with some morning math pages. Valentine and Heart themed worksheets

100 Museum

Tomorrow is the big day - our 100 Museum. We have been counting, sorting, writing and making all sorts of items to display for our 100 Museum tomorrow.  We weren't able to schedule the museum on our 100th Day but we sure were able to engage in all things 100: 100 compliments, 100 chains, 100 cans for the needy, 100 grid name tags for our locker, write to 100 on tape register tape with a partner, 100 lego creations, 100 toothpicks and gumdrop structures, 100 words in word families, 100 people we love photos, 100 stickers in a book with a sentence for every 10, "if I had a $100" class book, . . . 100 calorie snacks to share with our visitors.  Tomorrow we will learn our docent assignments.  Every year the kids amaze me with their ability to inform and direct our guests.  Fingers crossed! Here's some photos from last year:

Word Family Slides

Word Families work wonders building young readers confidence and fluency. My FDKers make "word families" every day when we use Heggerty for phonemic awareness. So when I whipped out the Word Family Slides for a station they were ready to read 'em. Each child selected a few slides to cut and color. Some students even took some extras to make at home later. I put 16 sets in my TPT store Word Family Slides

Here are some of the students with their prized slides.

Dance and Exercise to the Beatles

This month our composers are Lennon / McCartney. As you can imagine, put on the Beatles and the FDKers start dancing. To add a little control and exercise (and sneak in some phonics/reading) we read words off the document camera screen to dictate our “dance moves.”  I must confess I got most of the moves watching Ellen and Mrs. Obama exercise with some school children. We looked darn good and got really tired (in a healthy way). The “fast tap” was a killer.

We did go to gym in the afternoon for our last attempts at jump rope. Next week - aerobics.

Easy as One Two Three Sight Words

This week our sight words are Tricky words one two and also three. (We distinguish between Tricky sight words and phonetic / rule following sight words). Since my class loves board games and will choose a board game consistently during Reading Workshop, I made a one, two, three board game.  It is so simple and yet the FDKers loved it. The board is just spaces starting with a penguin and ending with a fish. I think a little shorter might work better or allowing a free turn or jump ahead on the squares with pictures.   Anyway, I use wooden cubes for dice with one, two, three written on the sides. Any place markers work.  We used "people" this week. They love it and I know the sight words are imprinting in their brains. Soon I will write up directions and standards and add to my store's free stuff or as an add-on to the penguin unit.

Descriptive Writing

In preparation for our 100 Museum, we practiced descriptive writing this week.  The students got into teams. Each team got a brown bag with an object in it.  Their task was to describe the object using good descriptive words and NO color words. The teams loved peeking in the bag and thinking up fun words and uses for the objects. They came up with some very clever ideas. The students returned the bags to me and I placed all the objects at the front of the room. Each team came up and read their descriptions.  The other teams tried to guess which object the team had written about.  They loved it.  Luckily I had a few extra objects to keep the suspense up until everyone had a turn. I did do some modeling before hand with their help.

groundhog day mystery word

We didn't make a big deal out of Groundhog Day - no pop-up craft or elaborate shadow play.  We did have flashlights, black sheets and a white board for making shadows all week at stations. For the last two days we read our groundhog books and good ol' Let's Find Out magazine had a groundhog book. I did add a little groundhog to our phonics and spelling practice though. Our mystery word lesson starts with a strip of letters.  The students cut apart the letters and line them up across the top of a work "mat." Today the mat had a picture of a groundhog. I gave clues / hints to indicate what word to build with the letters.  I often give the answer  to the clue if needed and I model the word on the document camera after allowing enough time for students to work on their own. After a series of words we build up to the mystery word.  Today the kids were super proud because they "guessed" and spelled GROUNDHOG!  Most of the FDKers chose to take home their letters in bags to rebuild with later.  Some kids glued the word groundhog on top of the page before coloring it.

 I have the Valentine and Groundhog mystery word directions at my TPT store: Groundhog and Valentine Mystery Word lessons  I hope to add some other mystery word lessons soon.