Photo snippets from Reading lessons

I have been a terrible blogger lately! But I've been a very regular Instagrammer, so I thought I'd share some of the photos from our Reading lessons that I've been putting on Instagram.

I bought these fantastic little lights on Amazon a couple of weeks ago. We've been enjoying using them as pointers during guided reading sessions.

Pop for Letters is one of my students' favourite games. Early in the year they just identify the letter name. Then they begin to identify the letter sound. After that they identify a word that begins with that sound, or end with that sound. Now they have to provide the name, the sound and a word!

These are some reading groups activities. Top left is making high frequency words using playdough. Top right was the guided reading group I was working with. Bottom left is an awesome game called Shark! (my kids love the shark attack cards). Bottom right is Pop for Letters.

In the last couple of weeks I've had to change reading groups to make five groups because the range of reading is expanding. Now we do two activities, as well as silent reading. The top two are the books that I read with my guided reading groups. Bottom left is Pop for Rhyming Words (love!). Bottom middle is playing Memory/Concentration with high frequency word cards. Bottom right is matching CVC words with the matching pictures.

When we were focussing on rhyming words I would write a nursery rhyme or tongue twister up on the board each morning. We'd read it, identify the rhyming words, and then brainstorm more words that rhymed.

We'd been focussing on these letter combinations for a while, so it was time to check what they could do. Each child had a card and had to look at the picture, say the word, and then identify the letter combination in the word. This was a whole group activity so there was lots of 'helpers' for those who needed it. I used cards from two different photo cards boxes: Learning Resources Alphabet Photo Cards and Learning Resources Kindergarten Vocabulary Photo Cards.

I'm a very visual person when it comes to reading/looking at blog posts, so I think this is a format I will try to stick with for a little while. Let's see if I can blog more than once every two months!

New products: Monster Truck Matching!

Two new products in my TpT Store! They are called Monster Truck Matching! with lower case and capital letters and Monster Truck Matching! with numbers, tens frames and dice faces.

You get 52 letter cards, capital and lower case letters, in Victorian Modern Cursive with awesome monster truck clip art on each card. Students need to match the capital letter with the lower case letter, then record the letters on one of the two recording sheets provided.

I used these this week with my students (forgot to take a photo!) and I punched holes in the two sides of the cards, gave the group Counting Links and they had to match the cards and then thread them both onto the links. This added some fine motor skills work to the task as well.

This activity contains 63 cards with monster trucks on them (21 each of number, tens frame and dice faces). This could be used as a quick maths activity or stations activity for matching numbers 0-20. The product is made using Victorian Modern Cursive and fantastic monster truck clip art! It includes one recording sheets that has the numbers on it already.

You could even punch holes into the cards and use Counting Links to join the matching cards. This adds a fine motor skills component.

Two Freebies at my TpT store!

My blogging frequency is getting better. And so is my product-making! I've uploaded three new things in the past couple of days. Today's two new ones are FREE!!

The first is a pack for the digraph /ng/ but only focusing on words with 'ing at the end (not as a suffix). For example, it includes the words sing, swing, wing, ring and king. There is a worksheet, a set of five puzzles and a Clip It style set of cards, where you clip the picture the has 'ing at the end.

I will be using this pack this term, coupled with my Sh Ch Th Digraph Pack. We have finished learning the letters of the alphabet and next we learn these common digraphs.


The second is a product called Alphabet Monsters Spin the Wheel Spelling or Phonics Task. You print two pages, laminate them, and then attached them together with a split pin. This means you can spin the front wheel around and only show one picture at a time through a chunk cut out of the front wheel. Students could use it to practice initial sounds, final sounds or spelling tricky words. The two sheets are different because one covers the letters A-P and the other is K-Z.

I have a set of cards similar to this that I inherited from the previous teacher who taught prep at my school. I have absolutely no idea where she got them from! If you have seen something similar please let me know, I'd love to give credit where it's due. I use this as a reading group task later in the year when my kids are ready for a challenge in their spelling and thinking about phonics.

These are free, so check them out! I'd love to hear any feedback about these.

New product: Sh Th Ch Digraph Pack

I have been really terrible with posting on this blog and making products lately. It's been a very busy couple of weeks, and I just haven't had the motivation. Until tonight!!

I've made a new product, which I'd been meaning to make for ages. It is a pack of five different activities to work with the digraphs /sh/, /th/, and /ch/. The pack includes a set of worksheets, a set of Clip It cards, a set of puzzles, a set of cards to use for Memory and a set of cards and headings to use for sorting. As I think of more activity ideas I will add them to the pack. Here is a look at the different pages.

As it's a brand new product I will be giving a copy away to a lucky winner. Just leave a comment on this blog post and I will send a copy of the pack to the winner next weekend. I will be printing and using this pack in my classroom during term 3 so when I do I will write a post about it.

Reading groups organisation version 2.0

I love to reorganise things, but only when they are not working perfectly (or close to). I run reading groups twice a week, and have done for the past 6 weeks. They are working well enough, but I could see room for improvement. Enter this colourful tray trolley:

I bought it from Officework yesterday, put it together while my kids were at Music, and set it up after school. I have five groups for guided reading, and I use the same groups for reading groups. What I normally do is have two groups that do guided reading, and they swap half way through the session, and two groups get to do two different activities (and they swap halfway through the session). The problems were arising with the swap. I was finding that one group was awfully slow when it came to packing up, and the other group would then get distracted and muck around. To stop this I've decided to have 10 tasks set up, and each group does their task box 1 first, then when we swap they do the box numbered 2. This way they don't have to swap with another group. My plan is that when they are used to the tub idea I will let the groups switch to their task number 2 whenever the first task is complete - so there is a bit of self-directed responsibility in reading groups.

At this stage I love the tubs (though they are a bit shallow and I've had to stack a couple of games behind the CD player on the top) and tomorrow will be the real test!

I have also been meaning to follow up about the SitSpots that I bought. Here they are:

They are working really well. Whenever I tell my students to sit on the carpet I always say "find a spot" and that reminds them that they must have their bottom on a spot. They have discovered that the spots come off the carpet (the are pretty similar to velcro) but we have tough rules in place that the kids aren't allowed to take the spots off the carpet. A couple of times, when there have been arguments and kids haven't been sitting sensibly, I have asked all students to stand up in a circle and I've allocated the spot they are to sit on. I also use the shape or colour to send the preps out to snack or lunch, ie. "Anyone sitting on a pink oval can get their snack". I tell them I'm looking for the row sitting the best, and they lift their game! One of my little darlings has even taken to jumping from one spot to the other and saying the shape name or the colour - he actually needs to work on these skills a bit so it is perfect for him! Basically, I love them and highly recommend them!

I had an awesome day with my kids today! We started the day with a song, which they always love, and then it was just writing, reading and maths (then they had music and Indonesian while I did some laminating etc). We have started work on persuasive writing, learned the letter Kk and started work on ordinal number. I'm really glad it was a nice day because I'm smack bang in the middle of report writing, and it's a bit stressful!! In fact, that's what I should really be doing now, but everything is more fun that report writing (especially blogging, and even doing the dishes!).

Celebration Freebie - Alphabet Chart

To celebrate the new blog design and starting a Facebook page I have put up a new freebie on TeachersPayTeachers! It is an alphabet chart in Victorian Modern Cursive, with clipart by Graphics from the Pond.

Thanks for supporting me!

New design!

I redesigned my blog! I think it is a cleaner look.

I've had a three day weekend, so I had some time to play around with my blog. Now it's time to plan for my week. In my class this week we are learning the letters Dd and Oo, focusing on recounts in writing, finding out why people and animals need space and shelter, and learning all about 2D shapes! Should be fun.

Time to catch up and Five for Friday and March Currently

I haven't blogged in a very long time. It was week three the last time I blogged, and we are about to go in to week 7 this week!! Phew, the time has flown. I have had a few new roles at school which I've been getting my head around, and I've been sick which is absolutely no fun. But I'm back, and I'm going to keep on trying to post more often! Starting with a link-up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.

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After I have taught a few letters we have a week of revision, and that week was last week. We revised six letters (s m a t p c). I decided to really push my term 1 preps during the revision week to see what they could do - and I was really impressed! They had to sort images by initial sounds, draw pictures of things starting with the sounds we have learnt, practiced their handwriting of the six letters, and (the hardest of all) identify and record the initial sound for different words. This is the one that stumped quite a few of them, which I knew it would, but some of my preps totally blew me away! They were doing exactly what I had taught them to do: say the word, say it slowly, listen to the sound, check which letter makes that sound, record what you hear. It was so exciting!!

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I had my first sick day this week, and I didn't give my class any warning about it. But they were totally fine!! We talked about it the day after and they told me what they did while I was away, and we talked about what they had learned. It was a relief to see that my preppies are settled enough that a surprise CRT (sub teacher) day was totally fine.

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My sister has started selling Arbonne products, and she gave me a mini makeover today. It was fun, and I looked pretty! Haha... I'm the sort of person who slaps on a bit of tinted moisturiser and a hint of mascara and heads out the door. So I was a bit more girly for a change!

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I am currently obsessed with two TV shows. The Block (Australian renovation show) and Bitten (Canadian werewolves). Love them both! And room reveals are on tonight for The Block!

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I am also obsessed with a book trilogy. Yep, I am finally on the bandwagon of loving Divergent by Veronica Roth. I read Divergent in three days, and am now on to Insurgent. Love it!!

And here is my March Currently from Oh' Boy 4th Grade.

Here is my new phone case. It is an image from my favourite book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. If you haven't read the book you should!! This picture is shown without the detail of the elephant draw initially and it looks like a hat, but once the details are filled in you can see that it is a snake that has eaten an elephant. It is all about perspective and having the right information. I love it!!

New TpT Product: Alphabet Playdough Mats

I have just uploaded a new product on Teachers Pay Teachers. It is an Alphabet Playdough Mat set. There are two sets of the alphabet included. One set uses Victorian Modern Cursive as the font, the other is in Comic Sans MS. The awesome clipart is Graphics From the Pond - I love that stuff!!

I think I will make a numbers set to match this one tomorrow!

Five for Friday link-up

I'm joining up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

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Our second week of school went very well. We did our first Science lesson this week. The lesson was about listing things that we need to stay alive. We compared what chickens need and what people need to stay alive. This was our T-chart (sorry about the glare):

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We started learning letters this week. I start with S then M, and do two letters a week. I always start with a brainstorm of words that start with the sound we are learning. Here is our circle map for /m/:

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After the brainstorm the preppies do an initial sounds sheet from my TpT product. They love that we do the same thing each time we learn a new letter - it gives them a sense of routine:

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Then we do a craft that links to the sound/letter we learn. Here are our /m/ monsters!

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We practiced subitizing, recording, using dice and writing numbers in maths this week. The group I've got this year are stronger in maths than in literacy so far. It has been really interesting.

So that's part of my week in pictures. It was a fantastic week! Looking forward to next week. We are learning A and T.

A revamped product just uploaded!

I have just finished an overhaul of one of my products. It has new clip art (from Graphics From the Pond), a new border and a revised layout. It still has Victorian Modern Cursive though. Here is a before pic and an after pic - what a difference!!!

 

You can buy a copy here. 

I use these sheets when I teach a new letter, but you could use them as revision sheets as well. A buyer who got the 'before' version said that they have laminated a set and use whiteboard markers with them as part of a writing corner.

Today I have also been working on a new product. It's not quite finished, but it's nearly there. It's all about gross motor skills, which is something I will be working on with my preppies this year.