Short Vowel Practice

We are starting digraphs this week and wrapped up our short vowel review last week.  We've been in school for 9 weeks now {WHOA!}.  It may seem like we are moving at a slower pace than what you would think, but many of our students do not attend pre-school and come to kindergarten very behind.  We are always playing catch-up.  We spend the first two or three weeks on procedures, routines, behavior, etc..during that time we are also reviewing letter ID, letter sounds, and alphabet order.  After that, we move into short vowels...starting with a and all the word families that go with it.  Each week is dedicated to a short vowel and its word families.  This helps get our kids back into "reading/school" mode.  It also refreshes them from kindergarten, as many do not have books at home and do not read during the summer months.  Today I am sharing a few of my favorite things to do with CvC words.

Each week, we have a poem that goes along with one of our cvc word families that we are studying. We practice the poem every day and by Friday, the kids read it chorally {or alone!} and then we go on a word family and sight word hunt.  Finally, the poems are placed into their poetry folders.  Each week, we re-read old poems before adding our new one.  The kids are also allowed to read their old poems whenever they have extra time or during quiet reading time.

On Mondays, we always begin with a word sort.  Both the kids and I write the words.  Then we read them together and look for the patterns to circle/color.  Finally, the kids take turns making sentences orally with their words.

We practice on our slates one day during the week.  This is usually a phoneme substitution activity. Sometimes, we break into teams and have dry erase races where I call a word and the teams race to spell it correctly!  The kids love this!

We do word sorts with practice pages or cards.

We play a game once or twice...Jeopardy is a favorite!!!  *All my Phonics Jeopardy games are bundled.  You can also purchase them individually.

I try to incorporate a craft, as well.  This ladybug is from Crafty Bee Creations.  I just made some short u dots to go with it!

We do a find-a-friend or write-the-room-activity.

I pull kids for extra practice {when I can!!}.  We do flash card races, which is a favorite.  We also play "Around the World" with the word cards.

Listening for the vowel sounds in words I call out and clipping accordingly on our vowel clip charts is a great way to review!

Reading our cvc fluency strips helps us get faster at decoding these words!

We practice the word family/vowel sound we are working on in centers...this was one of last week's center activities...we were reviewing all 5 vowel sounds.

Here's another center from a few weeks back when we were reviewing short a and short e.  They are working on clip cards...matching word families to pictures.  Magnetic letter practice is a favorite, too!

We practice sentence writing...using our sentence rubric.  This is excellent practice!  The rubric is a nice visual.

MORE CVC RESOURCES:

xo
Megan

NEW Word Work Activities

I love magnetic letter centers.  They are novelty and they require minimal prep!  This is especially helpful for my sanity during the beginning and end of the year!  I created a few new phonics magnetic letter mats for students to use during literacy centers, guided reading, or as early finisher activities.  So far, I have mats for: blends, cvc words, magic e, and vowel teams.  I also have sight words but they have been in my store for several years.  What I love about my new phonics mats is the fact that they are differentiated!  Below grade level and/or on grade level students can work on adding just the missing blend/vowel team/vowel & magic e while advanced students can work on spelling the whole word.  I also included both color AND black and white versions of all mats, just in case colored ink is not an option for you.  These mats are a great investment to have on hand! Take a look below!

What other mats would you like to see?

xo

Megan 

Simple CvC Activities

I like to always have a CvC center included each week--especially at the beginning of the year.  I created some CvC flash cards to use for centers as well as instruction.  Below are some ideas for how to use these in your room!

Magna Doodle Practice-Put out a stack {or all} of the cards with some magna doodles and let kids practice writing the words!  This has been a fun center in my room!  I have large and small magna doodles.  I like to use the large for this because I ask the students to write each word 4 times.  To check out magna doodles online, click HERE.

Races-I do these in guided reading a lot.  Hold up a card, and the first person to correctly decode it gets to keep it!  Winner has the most cards at the end!  The kids get obsessed with this game!  Great practice!

Spin-a-Vowel-Put a stack of the cards out, face up.  Students take turns spinning a vowel spinner and selecting a card that matches the vowel they spun.  They must read the word and make up a sentence with it.  They can keep the card if they stretch it correctly.  To snag a spinner, just click HERE.

"Secret Password"-Put the cards on a ring and ask each child to read one of the words as they enter the classroom in the morning.  I like to flip to a new word for each child so they aren't just copying what the child in front of them said.

These are just a few ways I use my cards.  I also have sight word and silent e flashcards.  How would you use them?  To snag these cards, click below!  There are 66 pages included, with 4 words to a page!  

xo
Megan 

End of Year Review!

Good morning and TGIF!  With only 3 days left in the year, we've been spending some time reviewing the skills that we have learned in first grade.  Today I want to showcase two products that I really love that can be used for review!

First up is my Reading Foundational Skills Pack.  I posted this back in the late fall/early winter.  I think it's such a great product and want to show it to you.  It's chocked full of fun activities including: sentence scrambles, spinner games, board games, sorts, and tons more!  Click the cover to take a peek!

What I really love about this pack is that it's non-themed, so it can be used at any time throughout the year.  It's very appropriate for kinder and first, and even second {for RTI}.  This pack has 1-2 activities from each of the CCSS "Reading: Foundational Skills" standard.  Just last week my students played the blends board game that is included. I have really enjoyed having this pack for my students this year.  It's come in very handy for reading group and centers.  Take a look!

They love the blends/digraph board game!

Next is my Long Vowels and Vowel Teams pack.  It's a hot seller in my store and the kids seriously eat this up!  Each vowel team & long vowel has a board game, song, worksheets, and different activity to go along with it.  It's been great these last few weeks!  Click the cover to preview what's included!

This week in centers, my kids were playing "FIVE," one of the many games included. 

Happy long weekend!  What are your plans?

xo
Megan 

Word Segmenting

For practice with cVc words, I went to Lowe's and got some 3-box paint samples.  I laminated them for durability.  Give each student 3 chips.  Instant elkonin boxes! Ways to use them: -Say a cVc word and have the kids push the chips up the boxes as they hear the sounds, or say a word and have them segment by pushing the chips and saying the sounds.  -Say a word and have them listen for a certain sound and place the chip in the correct box. 

To make these sound stretchers, start by going to a craft store to get some thick elastic.  Cut the elastic into strips.  Laminate a piece of light-colored tagboard or construction paper.  Cut 3 squares and staple them a strip of elastic.  Say cVc words for the kids to write on their squares (They need to use a Visa-V marker for this, because Expo don't erase on laminated paper well.  All they need to erase the Visa-V is a wet tissue).
The kids segment the word by gently stretching their elastic.  They snap it back to say the word.  *I also made 4-square stretchers for cVcE words to teach long vowels.