Sign Language Decoding

Hi, friends and happy summer!  It's been a great summer so far over in my neck of the woods...relaxation, traveling, and seeing family and friends.  I love the slow pace of summer.  I've spent some of my days working on products (which is something very common for me!).  One product I've created is "Sign Language Words."  This was actually created in 2020, but I never blogged about it or shared it much.  My kids have had so much fun with this during literacy centers the past two years, I decided I needed to spread the word!  

The skills I have the sign language activities for are: cvc words, digraph words, and silent e words. More will most likely be added in the future.

Each set has 20 cards ANDDDDDDDD TWO DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES, for a total of 40 cards/words.  You get two centers in one!  To prep the activity, print a few copies of the sign language alphabet chart.  Print and laminate the set of cards you want.  Print the recording sheet.  Throw all materials in a center tub and wait for the fun!  This center keeps kids engaged and they love "decoding" the sign language to figure out the words!  

Buy and prep now, thank yourself during the upcoming school year!  

xo

Megan 

Weekly Centers March 18

Hi!  I had mentioned committing to posting my centers each week but I have been on the struggle bus with my blog lately!  Some of these centers are obviously St. Patrick's Day and that is now over.  However, I wanted to share them with you in case you need some ideas for next year.  There are also other centers that are not holiday-themed!

I have shared how I manage and run literacy centers before, but for those of you that are new: here is a quick rundown:

I have 4 centers.  Each center has 3-4 students in it.  Not all of my students are in the room during center time; some are working on IEP goals and some are in intervention group.  One center is always a sentence scramble.  I use these that go along with the Wilson Fundations Phonics program.  One center is always the listening center (not pictured).  I have tons of books on tape/cd and I select one for the week that the kids listen to.  They complete a reading response sheet after they've listened to their book.  The other two centers are literacy activities.  Sometimes there is a game, sometimes a matching activity, sometimes stamping.  It just depends.

The kids visit just one center per day.  They do not switch between centers.  They stay at their center for about 15-20 minutes.  If they finish early, they check the "Early Finisher" board and do the activity that it shows.  **See below for board.**  I do not check any center papers.  Not necessary.  I am not grading the kids.  Center time is a time to relax and have fun while working cooperatively with peers.  I spent a lot of time at the start of the year setting expectations and floating to ensure kids were on task.  Center time could easily run by itself now without me even in the room!  Hahaha!

Let's look at what we had going on last week in centers:

Blends Stamping:  This is part of my Fundations Phonics activity bundle.  This particular stamping page is from the unit on blends (I believe Unit 9).  I love that the kids marked their words up after they finished stamping!

Please Note: *This file is an independent product and is not affiliated with, nor has it been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Wilson Language Training Corporation. Wilson®, Wilson Reading System®, Fundations®, Just Words®, and Wilson Fluency® are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the Wilson Language Training Corporation.

St. Patrick's Day Noun Match: This is from my St. Patrick's Day Parts of Speech pack.  The kids match the noun pictures to the words and write them on their recording sheet when finished.

Unit 9 Sentence Scramble: This is another activity from my Fundations Phonics activity bundle.  This is a scramble from Unit 9, which focuses on blends.

Yes, there is an error on their scramble.   I snapped a quick picture before looking it over for them!  They usually do very well with the scrambles.  

Please Note: *This file is an independent product and is not affiliated with, nor has it been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Wilson Language Training Corporation. Wilson®, Wilson Reading System®, Fundations®, Just Words®, and Wilson Fluency® are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the Wilson Language Training Corporation.

As I mentioned above, the listening center is not pictured this week, but you can check it out by clicking HERE!  Also grab my free response sheets while you're there!  

xo
Megan

Weekly Centers February 27

Hello!  I am a bit behind with my weekly centers blog post.  And to be honest, we didn't get to centers much at all last week because my student teacher had to film herself teaching for three days (It's a requirement in Ohio) and our schedule was all crazy!  Nonetheless, here are the centers we worked on last two weeks (which really should only have taken us one week).  I'll be back again Wednesday to share the centers we are working on next week!  Everything is linked for you below.

Stamping with Blends:  I use the Wilson Fundations Phonics Program to teach Phonics.  It's seriously amazing!  However, I want my kids to have some additional practice with the skills they are learning in class.  Last summer, I created a giant game/activity bundle to go with the first grade Fundations program.  This stamping page is from the bundle, as are many of my centers.  I have each unit, or chapter of my Fundations games listed in my store separately, but I also have them bundled to save you money and time.  I'm listing the bundle for you below.

The stamp pads and stamps that I use for any type of stamping activity are listed below.  Lakeshore truly has the best ink pads (in my opinion).  They are pricey, but well worth it.  They are washable and they don't dry out.  I got my abc stamps from Amazon years ago (link below).

Please Note: *This file is an independent product and is not affiliated with, nor has it been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Wilson Language Training Corporation. Wilson®, Wilson Reading System®, Fundations®, Just Words®, and Wilson Fluency® are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the Wilson Language Training Corporation.

Listening Center:  I love the listening center and so do my students!  It's great for them to hear fluent reading!  It's also important that they hear/read books for enjoyment.  We talk at them so much each day.  The listening center is a MUST in every K-2 classroom!  We enjoyed listening to There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover.  After students listen to the story, they complete a simple recording sheet, which is just having them write the title and drawing a picture of their favorite part.  The report is a *freebie* in my store and is linked below.

Blends Board Game:  As mentioned above, I do use many games/activities from my Fundations activity/game pack.  This is another activity from that pack.  The kids played  this "Read and Race" board game to practice their blends.  Don't use Fundations, but looking for blends activities???  Click HERE to check out my blends pack!!  

Spring Rhyming:  This is a new product of mine.  I have a rhyming activity for each season as well as a bundle of all of them to save you time and money.  For this center, kids matched the rhyming cards in a pocket chart and completed the recording sheet by writing the rhyming words side by side.  They also colored the pictures. 

Sentence Scramble:  Again, working from our Unit 9 Fundations game/activity pack.  This is a sentence scramble.  Each week, we have a sentence scramble center.  I have a black pocket chart that stays up on the wall all year (with Command Hooks) and the kids do their scrambles over there.  Once they unscramble the sentences, they write them on the provided paper.  *The Fundataions scrambles are great, because all words are 100% decodable to that point in the year or they are sight words. 

PS: Here's a common question I get asked: Do I grade center work?  No I do not.  I don't even look at it because I am meeting with a small group at my table.  The kids know they better be working and their work better look nice.  If not, they stay in from recess the following day to do it correctly.  It's rarely a problem.  #highexpectations

xo
Megan

Weekly Literacy Centers: February 20

Hi!  If you follow me on Instagram (@mrswheeler44), you saw my poll asking if you'd like to see what I do for literacy centers!  I used to do a weekly post sharing my centers, but got away from it.  Based on the poll results, you want to see it return!  So here is my first post in a while about centers!

Quick and dirty explaination of how I run literacy centers:  I have 4 centers (some years I have 5 centers...depending on class size).  Each center has 3-4 kids.  Yes I have more than 15 students, however, some are out during center time working on their IEP goals and/or intervention.  The remaining students that are in the classroom go to centers.  The students visit ONE, just ONE center per day.  Kudos to those who manage a Daily 5-type system.  That's just too overwhelming and chaotic for me.  The kids know which center to go to because I have a small, Target Dollar spot pocket chart up with their pictures and center number.  Each night, I rotate the center number cards down.  Every 4 days, I switch the center buckets.  Grab the center labels below.

Each center bin has one activity inside.  Many activities contain a corresponding recording sheet.  *If you don't have unlimited copies, you can use the sheet protectors shown below!  Just make several copies of the recording sheets and place them in the sleeves with dry erase markers.  The children do the activity inside and then read or color when they finish.  Note: One of my literacy centers each week is the Listening Center.  This is where there are multiple copies of a book and a matching tape or cd.  Yes, I said tape or cd.  I know it's 2019 and kids don't even know what a cd is these days, but aint nobody got time or money to replace all those tapes and cd's and let's face it, they work great!  *We also don't have much technology in our school district.  A cd player and a 1972 tape player counts as technology, right?!  Hahaha!  Anyhow, the kids listen to the story and then complete a listening report afterward.  Grab the reports for free below.  You can read all about the benefits of a listening center HERE.

I have been collecting my listening center materials for all 15 years of my teaching career.  Many were purchased with my own money or Scholastic bonus points.  I store them in gallon Ziploc bags.  I have two drawers full...one full of holiday-themed sets and the other with general sets.

Here's an example of the more advanced listening report:

Here's an easier version with a spot for a picture:

In a nutshell, that's how I run centers.  I might also rewind and say that it took my kids a LONG TIME to reach center independence.  Here are some tips for getting your kids independent:

1.  Introduce each activity in class FIRST.  If you don't have time to have them practice a similar activity, at least go over the type of activity in the center briefly on the first day of new center materials.

2.  Do NOT run a group during centers UNTIL your class is under control.  Establish rules.  Spend the first few weeks, even months of school floating around and re-directing.  Your kids need to know that center time is NOT play time.  Have consequences.  If my kids don't do their work during centers, they stay in and do it at recess.  Not fun for me or them.  Once they've done this once, they never mess around during centers again.  Not able to take recess away?  Turn their picture card backwards and tell them they have to sit out a day of centers.  Also, not fun for them, but works like a charm.  Discuss appropriate noise level for centers.  Practice, practice, practice!  Praise, praise, praise for a job well done.

3.  Put  developmentally appropriate and activities that promote independence into the centers.  Don't put something inside that your kids can not do on their own.  The last thing you want is them constantly running up to you asking for help when you are to the point in the year where you are having a reading group during center time.  Consider putting activities in that cover skills you have ALREADY TAUGHT.  This helps the kids feel confident about completing their work!

4.  Put FUN and ENGAGING activities into your centers.  A worksheet is NOT a center!  Incorporate a game or activity with the worksheet first.  Be creative!  Think letter stamps, magnetic letters, letter beads, salt boxes, play-doh, etc!  You can do a lot with a list of words and some hands-on manipulatives.

*Baskets with lids are from Target.  They are several years old.  I haven't seen them in years.  I also like these latch-lid boxes that are linked below.

That's it in a nutshell for how I manage centers.  Next up are the activities we had last week!  

Center 1: Listening Center--We listened to "Will You Be My Valenswine?"  

Center 2: Pocket Chart Activity--We practiced verbs with a fun Valentine flair!  After the kids matched the cards, they wrote the verbs next to the pictures on the provided recording sheet.  All of my parts of speech activities are available for individual or bundled purchase.  See below.

Center 3:  Sentence Scramble--This is from my "Fundations Phonics : Level 1 game/activity bundle.  If you teach Fundations Phonics, you NEED THIS RESOURCE IN YOUR LIFE!!!!!!  Each week, there is a sentence scramble center.  The scramble is a spiral review from the previous unit that I explicitly taught during our Fundations Phonics block.  Activity bundle linked below.

Center 4: Glued Sounds Match--Again, this is another Fundations Phonics Level 1 activity.  Great practice!!!  Check out the activity bundle below.

That's a wrap!  See you next week for an update of our weekly centers!

xo
Megan