BOLO: Be on the Look Out for...

Happy Monday All!  

This past weekend I was browsing the seller's forums when I came across a post from Stephanie of Principal Principles sharing info about a fun new monthly linky called BOLO!  This link up is all about "being on the look out" for some brand new products that will be in your favorite TPT stores soon!

With my LO keeping me very busy, I've been trying to work on a few products from my "to make list" that I know can easily be worked on here and there when I just have a few spare minutes.  Last week I started on my Alphabet Flip Books and I'm excited to give you all a sneak peek at how they are turning out!

**Now in store HALF OFF 10/1-10/3!!!**

Here's a look at the current cover.  I've played with the colors a bit and I think this one is the winner!  What do you think of it?  Any suggestions?

 This set of flip books will include 36 flip books. One for each consonant and three for each vowel sound (short, long, and combination).  Each flip book is made from one printable page making for easy prep!  This is what the "short Aa" page looks like and for stopping by you can grab it for FREE by clicking the image below.

I've also included a student direction sheet just in case someone would like their kiddos to make these in a center.  Do you think this is helpful?  Would you change anything about it?

Well, I hope you enjoyed this product glimpse and I'd love to know what you think so leave me some feedback below.  And be on the look out because I promise to have this product in my store by Friday and it will be 50% off for the first 24hours.  

Now if you'd like to get a sneak peek at more great products be sure to head to the blogs below.  Just click and go!

XOXOXO

How do you Word Family?

Hey All!

Today I thought I'd chat a little bit about word families.  I really enjoy teaching word families and I am a firm believer that teaching these patterns within words can help emergent readers tremendously!  Now I know some people refer to them as word chunks, but I've always used the term family because I think it helps connect the ideas for little learners and I just like how it easily ties into activities such as word family houses.  Either way the concept is the same:  to teach students how to recognize patterns within words.

So how do I do this?  First off here's the progression of how I teach word families:

1. Introduce one word family at a time.

2. Compare word families with the same vowel sound.

3. Compare rimes with different short vowels.

This is the suggested progression of teaching found in Francine Johnston's The Timing and Teaching of Word Families.  This is a great resource if you're looking for some reading.

Ok, so when teaching about a word family for the first time I start of by simply introducing the word family.  To do this I create a house chart with the word family listed at the top on the roof.  On the body of the house I list the rime 5 to 6 more times.  The rime is listed several times because this is where we will build the words by onset and rime. I find it easiest to tape it up to a white board and then place the letters that we will use to build words along the side. I learned this idea from my supervisor teacher back when I was student teaching. 

After introducing the word family it's time to make words that are in this family.  To do this I pull names and invite students up to the board to pick a letter.  After a student picks a letter we first name the letter and say the letter sound.  Then the student places the letter on the chart next to the word family.  At this point we blend the onset and rime 2 times, sometimes more.  We stop and discuss word meaning and act out the word.  Then the student removes the magnetic letter and writes in the letter with a marker.  While the student is doing this we all say the letter formation chant and air write the letter.  This process continues until we have made all 5 or 6 words.

After making all the word family words we are ready to read and sing.  To start we read through all the words in list fashion. We do this by blending the onset and rime and then saying the word.

Example: "c-at... cat"  "m-at..mat" Next we sing our word family song.

Graphics from Whimsy Workshop teaching @

 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whimsy-Workshop-Teaching

We sing the song 2-3 times, each time reading through the list of word family words. To help keep students engaged I swap out the word "read" with things like stomp, sing, clap, cheer etc.

This activity takes us about 10 minutes to complete and is always great fun!  Follow up activities/mini-lessons consist of sorting words that either are or are not in this word family, adding words to our list, feeding the word family monster, word family books and more!

Here is a little word family book that I created that'd be perfect for word work centers, homework, or as a follow up lesson.  It is no prep!  Just pick, print, and go!  For this activity students have to look at the picture and say the word family word aloud, write the full word, and then color.  I also left one spot blank for them to draw their own picture because I like to see what they know on their own.  I always hang our word family house chart so they have a reference in class as well.

If you like these little books click the photo to check them out in my TpT store :)

So how do you word family?

Book Talks by Little Learners?

Yesterday I was working hard to finish up this little sight word gem and completely forgot to post for book talk Tuesday with Mrs. Jump's Class.  So Sorry!  But, it's ok because it got me thinking about book talks and then an idea popped in my head.  It was one of those "Oooooo, I gotta try that with my class moments."  So here's the idea...

I love doing book talks.  Not only do I enjoy writing about my favorite books on this blog, but I also like to give book talks in class.  Yes, even with Kindergartners!  So why do I love book talks?  Well I think...

1. It encourages discussions about books.

2. Brings awareness to different types of books.

3. It models how to talk about a book without giving the ending away.

4. It helps the us to think about a book. 

5. It motivates readers.

6. And builds excitement for reading!

What's not to love!  Now in the past I have followed the reading workshop model and the idea of book talks fits in perfectly.  I have known upper elementary teachers to allow their students to join in on the fun and give book talks of their very own, however I have never seen it done with the little ones.  Then I started thinking.  Why not let kindergarteners give book talks of their own?!  It would be so much fun and I know my past students would have LOVED to do this.  

Early on in the year I encourage discussions about books.  For example, when talking about our class library we discuss the importance of book categories and then to go along with this we create a class chart kinda like this:

This chart of course would be much larger.  I just whipped up a mini example to give you an idea.  Basically we host a discussion about the types of books we like and students add their names to the categories. Every once and awhile we come back to the chart to move our names, add more categories, or just hold a discussion about what topic is most popular.  Thinking about this chart and book talks led me to this idea of Kindergarten Book Talks.  

How would I do this?

First of all I would plan to do student book talks once a month.  The first two months would be done whole group style with interactive writing and then students of course would do the sharing to practice.  After that the book talks would be hosted in small groups where each student would share out and talk about their book choice.  To help prepare students for book talk day and to gather their thoughts, I created a little printable book.  This book would be used as a guideline for the whole class practice as well.  

Here's how I'd set it up.  You can download the printable book for free by clicking the image below!

Day 1: Pick out your favorite book from your book basket and re-read.
Day 2:  Fill out the "This book is about..." page according to the class categories we've talked about.
Day 3: Draw/write about why you like the book.
Day 4: Tell us which page your favorite part is on.
Day 5: Book Talk Day!  Students are put in small groups and have time to share out their books. (you choose how to make groups - maybe according to categories and student likes)

Fonts and Graphics by:
www.kevinandamanda.com
Krista Wallden of Creative Clips: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Krista-Wallden 

I think this would be a great opportunity to not only get little ones excited about books, but it also encourages communication and presentation skills!  

Do you know any early primary teachers that do this?  If so,I'd love to hear how and if not what do you think of the idea?  Would you try it?

"Read & Ride" Program

LOVE.THIS!  A teacher friend of mine liked an article called "This School Has Bikes Instead Of Desks--And It Turns Out That's A Better Way To Learn." Very interested by the title I clicked to read more.   

Click on the Picture to read this great article by Adele Peters

In this article Adele Peters talks about a North Carolina grade school that implemented a "read and ride" program.  Basically a classroom is filled with stationary bikes and then classes can use this room for independent reading time.  Students read as they ride.  Some classes even have a stationary bike in their rooms which can be used as a reward incentive or as a way to help those kids that can't sit still.  

I was so excited reading about this that I had to share.  I don't know how well it would work for kindergartners but I really like this idea.  I think it is a fun way to get kids moving and that it can benefit students in a variety of ways.

  Do you like this idea?  Would you want to see a "read and ride" program in your school?

Letter Crafts!

Hey Everyone!

As I was forward planning I was looking at what letter crafts I wanted to do.   I like letter crafts to be easy to prep and simple enough that the students can make them in a short amount of time.  Right now on my weekly plans I have it scheduled to do one letter craft a week and this will be completed on the first day of each week.  I am focusing on uppercase letters for this craft. I like the idea that this is just another opportunity to reinforce letter shape and letter sound, but also that it is a craft which can and will be turned into a take home book after 26 school weeks.  I just know students will love it!

I came across a ton of ideas for letter crafts on Pinterest.  I mean really, there are so many sites/blogs out there that have great ideas.  So which ones should I do?   Well, as of now I'm not fully decided on  what craft I will do for each of the 26 letters but I did find a great website that has a section all about letter crafts and provides numerous ideas for each letter.  The site is called No Time for Flash Cards and the letter of the week ideas can be found here: 

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/letter-of-the-week

Here's an example of my Letter A Craft

A is for Alligator

Each student needs:

- 1 green Letter A sheet with pre-cut hole

- 1 piece of blue construction paper 

- 2 goggly eyes

- A small square of white paper

* Simplest way to make a Letter A cut out is to trace/write an uppercase A on a piece of copy paper. Then make class copies of this on green construction paper.

Simple & Fun!

Morning Message

Hi All!  Do you start your day with a morning message?  

If you saw my weekly schedule on the last post you may have noticed that I put in a morning message for each day of the week.  I actually think that the morning message is one of my favorite parts of a kindergarten day.  I remember how much my kinders loved it!  I think they enjoyed always starting the day off with a friendly message about our day's events and I know they had fun coming up to the board and searching for answers to the questions asked.  I even had parents comment on how their student would tell them all about something they learned or got to do during morning message time.  Now although I love it and the kids love it, I still need to make sure that I can get as much learning out of this fun time as I can.

I remember back to my first year teaching when I decided to start my day with a morning message.  I thought wahoo, this is going to be easy!  Well, let me tell you the first few weeks were not so great.  You see, I'm gonna admit, I wrote up a message, read it to the class, tried to ask some questions, lost their attention, and basically FAILED... TERRIBLY!  I knew right away that I needed more direction so I called up my mom (who is an expert morning messenger) and had her tell me exactly what she did for her morning message time.  I also searched the internet for information on "what to do"  with the morning message and began writing it out in my plan book.  Seriously I wrote the message out word for word and each question I wanted to ask with what it's.  Yes, it was like a script! HaHa

Now although my first year was a little crazy and I, a little overly prepared, it allowed me to really understand the purpose of a morning message and helped me to know all the benefits a morning message could make.  So the next year I did the morning message I got a little better, and the year after that I was starting to feel more like a pro.  But there's always been one thing that bothered me.  When I'm doing the morning message sometimes it seems like I'm always asking the same questions in the exact same way or that I focus on one standard way more than another or only talking about some standards for a day or two.  So I got to thinking and I decided that I'd create morning message sticks!  

I really think these sticks are fun and have a purpose!  I created these sticks using four kindergarten common core strands and color coded questions/tasks by these strands.  I included print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, and conventions.  I am so excited because now I have a set of over 70 prepared questions or tasks that cover 4 different strands of standards!  Plus I think the kids will be more engaged because they'll get to "pick a stick."  

So how do I plan to use these?  Well, I think for me while doing my planning for the next week I'd pick 2-3 questions/concepts that I want to introduce, practice, and focus on.  I'd teach these on the first day of the next week and then add them to the jar for "picking."  This will help me to vary the questions and ensure I have a variety of standards.  I of course can always elaborate on a pulled stick or differentiate the question or task but at least I'll always have an idea ready to go that's on target.  Here's what they look like finished?  I can't wait to try these!  

If you like what you see, grab your own set at my teachers pay teachers store. 

All set and ready :)

Here's a list of all the questions/tasks already prepared on one quick look sheet.

Here's what the sheets look like before you cut each question and glue to sticks.