We Scare Hunger and SMART board freebies

      Yesterday we went on our We Scare Hunger walk to collect food for our local food shelter.  The kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes and we went "trick or treating" for canned goods.  They had such a blast!  My class just had once block to collect from and we came back with a heaping wagon full of food to donate.  They felt so proud that we were able to help others.

      Unfortunately, my camera battery died almost as soon as we left so I only got a few pics of their costumes before we ventured out.

Our "nice smiles" before we left.  Look at my wonderful aide in her cute red riding hood costume!

Our silly faces

        As a school, we collected over 600 cans/food items to donate to our local food bank!  Please leave a comment if you participated in We Scare Hunger and let me know how it went.

        Before I go, I wanted to share a few freebies with you.  As I've mentioned before, my school uses the Words Their Way program for word study.  See my previous post for more info.   Each week, I introduce our new word sort/word study focus for the week on the SMART board.  I have not been able to find any Words Their Way resources for the SMART board, so I started creating the sorts myself in the Notebook software.  You can click on any of the pictures below to download the files for free to use with your class.

This sort helps students notice the difference in long and short a words (how they sound and how they look)

Long/short i sort

Long/short o sort 

Long/short u sort

    To introduce a new sort, first we read each word together and discuss meanings when necessary.  This is important and allows all students to be actively involved even if they wouldn't have been able to read some of the words on their own.  I usually point out homophones and have students practice using those words correctly in sentences.  Then, I model thinking aloud about the first few words and how I decide where they go.  I say the word slowly and then say the picture heading slowly to see if the middle sounds match (i.e. job, sock....job, bone.  I hear o in job like on sock).  After modeling the first few words, I invite students to help sort the rest, making sure they explain why they put a word where they do.

    Finally, we read each word in a column to double check and make sure they sound right.  Then we check to see if they look right (all follow the same pattern like CVCe).  

   After using the SMART board sort for an introduction, the following day I give students a paper copy of the sort, and they cut it out and sort it on their desk.  We store them in envelopes to re-use throughout the week.

   I hope you can use these sorts, too!  Happy Friday tomorrow!

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Word Work Centers and a Halloween Game

      The last few weeks I have been thinking a lot about word work in my classroom.  With the Common Core Standards for English-Language Arts (CCSS-ELA) out in the last year or so, I need to revamp my word work curriculum and activities to correlate with the new standards.  This will be a process, I know, but I've been wanting to get started.  Also, my school has a half hour intervention block each day where I am meeting students one on one or in a small group to do an intervention.  I wanted to incorporate some word work centers during this time.

      A couple of weeks ago I came across an old blog post by Beth Newingham on her Scholastic Top Teaching blog.  It describes in detail the word study program she created based on Words Their Way, Fountas and Pinnell phonics, and sight words.  I really like how she used assessments to guide instruction and created centers for students to practice the skills being learned each week.  This is a lot of work in the beginning and seems a little overwhelming.  So, I thought I'd take some of her ideas that I could begin with and build more things in as I go along.

     My school already uses Words Their Way and we also have the Fountas and Pinnell phonics program for each grade.  You can check them out by clicking on the pics below.

This is the program overview book with lots of printables, games, etc.

This book is one of the word sort books available.  Typical second graders work on these sorts.

       Since I have these resources and already do the assessment and word sorts that are part of the Words Their Way program, I decided an "easy" next step would be to make some games and activities that I could use as centers during the intervention block.

        I decided to have four centers:

1. Smart board
2. Sight Word Work
3. Games
4. Word Hunt

Smart Board
       For the Smart board center, I created a version of Roll a Word for kids to practice the idea.  I got the idea from Learning with Mrs. Parker.  Follow the link to her blogpost where you can download the powerpoint file for free.  I just copied and pasted it into the Notebook software for the Smart board and added an interactive die for the kids to roll.  Each week I change the sight words to match our words for the week.
 
Sight Word Work
      At this center, I put a paper copy of Roll a Word with a die.

     Another choice at this center is rainbow writing.  I did not create this but found it a few years ago online and it was created by Ms. Ross.  Click on the picture below to go to the google doc.

The actual sheet is much higher quality than this picture.

 

Games
       I also will create games each week that go along with whatever sort we are doing.  Last week I created a short and long i racetrack game with a Halloween theme because we were learning about short i words and long i words with the CVCe pattern.  Click on the first picture below to check out the game and get your copy.

    

Here's one of the games before I added the title on the right side or laminated it.  But, you get the idea. :)
I don't know why the picture won't center, either.

So far the kids have loved the games center and the adorable candy corn Halloween characters in the short and long i game.

Word Hunt     

      The word hunt center is done in their word work notebooks.  Whatever patterns we are studying for the week are the focus.  For example, last week the headers for our word sort were "pig" for short i, "kite" for long i, and "oddball" (words that don't sound right or don't follow the pattern).  Students write the headers at the top of each column in their notebooks and read from their bag of books (or book box).  When they find a word with the right sound and pattern, they write it down under the correct header.  Simple.  They love it.

     So, that's where I'm at with word work centers.  I still have a separate word work time each morning when I introduce the sort, teach sight words, other word work topics, etc.  I would love to hear how you teach word work or organize your word work centers.

       Please leave me a comment and feel free to follow my blog.  :)  Happy hump day!

Songs for Shared Reading and a Freebie

Every year I do some variation of a poetry or song book for word work with my students.  I use a lot of song lyrics or poems that we turn into songs for shared reading.  I write them on chart paper, add some drawings, and laminate them.  We read/sing them together during word work.  I usually follow this routine:  On Monday, I read/sing it aloud the first time, then I use a pointer and ask kids to join me.  The third read-through I call on a student to come use the pointer and lead the class as we read/sing altogether.

We usually re-visit the poem each day for a week incorporating different activities such as: highlighting rhyming words with highlight tape, looking for words in a certain word family, circling sight words, searching for words with certain spelling patterns (i.e. consonant-vowel-consonant words), tuning into interesting words and figuring out meaning together, etc.

Either on Tuesday or Wednesday, I hand out a copy of the poem/lyrics to each student that is already 3-hole punched.  They illustrate it and add it to their song book.  I usually just use the 10-cent 3-prong folders you can get when all of the school supplies are on sale.  I like to give every student the same color folder so it's easy to find and I can just say, "Get out your green song book" and everyone knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Here is a cover I made for their song books.  You can get your free copy by clicking on the picture below.

One of my favorite songs to use for working on digraphs and blends is Zip-ah-dee Doo Dah.  First I just teach them the song as normal.  Then, I show them a card with a blend or digraph and we replace the beginning sounds in the words with that blend.  For example, if we are working on /th/ as in think, we sing,

Thip-ah-dee Thoo Than, Thip-ah-dee Aye

My oh my what a wonderful day,

Plenty of sunshine coming my way,

Thip-ah-dee Thoo Than, Thip-ah-dee Aye

and so on...

The kids love it!  They always ask me if we can sing that song and pick a card to change the sounds.

I give them a copy of the lyrics so they can do this activity individually at word work during Daily Five.  Click here for a copy of the song lyrics to print.

How do you use songs with your students?