Phonemic Segmentation Cards

Wow it's been a busy school year thus far! I hope you all are off to a great start. I have been so thankful and impressed by the power of Pinterest, other teacher blogs, and Teachers Pay Teachers. We have worked so hard, and our 2nd grade hallway looks absolutely fabulous thanks a bunch to ideas found on Pinterest! 

Oh the Places You'll Go - Goal Writing

Back to School Student Glyphs

Best Part of Me Writing

All About Me Pennants

In Our Classroom Poster - Class Rules

In other news, I've created a new TpT product: Phonemic Segmentation Cards. Almost all of my products come from a need/necessity in my own classroom, so the coolest thing is that every product has been kid tested and teacher approved! These cards were developed for use in my guided reading groups, but you could really use them any time.  This is the first year in a loooong time that I've had such a high group of emergent readers in 2nd grade, so I feel like I've been learning a LOT about pre-emergent and emergent readers - something I haven't really dealt with in quite a while, even when I was looping and teaching 1st grade also! I enjoy learning, so that's a plus. :-) I feel like Jan Richardson (the author), my kindergarten teacher friends, and the title I reading teacher have kind of been my go to gurus this year! Thank goodness for these awesome ladies! 

Anyway, my sweet little pre-emergent/emergent readers are struggling to segment words, so that is why I created these cards. Students can use these to practice phonemic segmentation. The dots underneath each sound are provided to guide students to put their finger and touch and say each sound. After saying each sound, students will then blend the sounds together to read the word. These cards are designed to help students practice 1:1 correspondence with segmenting sounds. These cards can be used in a variety of ways: parent volunteers, guided reading, literacy centers, flashcards, etc... I copied these cards, laminated, and put them on a ring to have my students work on segmenting during guided reading. Please let me know if you have any questions! Hope these cards are helpful for your students who are working on sounds during guided reading or any other time!

To download these cards, click HERE or click the picture below:

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"Pumpkin Smash" - a free 2nd grade sight word game

Holy moly. How is it already parent-teacher conference time??? This school year has flown by on the wings of crazy. Anyway, in honor of conferences and all that goes with this time of year (being too busy, having a million things on your mind, etc...), I have a freebie sight word game for you. This one is called "Pumpkin Smash", and my kiddos got a kick out of it.

To prepare this game, copy it on cardstock and/or laminate and cut apart. Each group will get a stack of cards.

Students will shuffle the cards and lay them out, facedown, on the table or ground in front of them. Students will then take turns to play. When it is a student’s turn, he/she will choose a card, and he/she will read the word aloud. That student will then continue to draw cards, reading each word, until he/she gets a pumpkin card. If a student picks a pumpkin card, he/she says, “PUMPKIN SMASH!” (some students seem to think this is hilarious - how little it takes to entertain a 7 year old...), and it is the end of his/her turn, and the next player will go. Play continues until all of the cards have been chosen. The person with the most cards is the winner! They seem to think it's pretty funny when a student will draw a pumpkin card right away. Dear me...

Hope your students enjoy this game as much as mine do. J This is a great game to use for word work during Daily 5 or guided reading, or students could practice it at home or play it together any other time.

Enjoy! To download, click HERE, or click the picture below.

 



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Dice Match Game with 10-Frames

Happy Thursday! I'm ready for the week to be over. :-) We are in the middle of our graphing unit at school, and this morning students got to graph jelly beans at 9:00am. Needless to say, the sugar got to my kiddos, and they were bouncing off the walls. Holy cow! Anyway, here is a new 10-frame activity for you. The Dice Match Game with 10-Frames is a game I created to help students learn to recognize numbers on a 10-Frame. To play, pairs divide 10-frame cards evenly between themselves. Students will take turns rolling two dice and adding them together. Whoever has the 10-frame card that matches the dice roll sum will record the dot and 10-frame patterns on his/her recording sheet. The first person to fill his/her recording sheet is the winner! If a student rolls an 11 or 12, he/she just rolls again. To find other 10-frame games/activities, and to get this game with the 10-frame cards, please visit HERE for a full version of the 10-Frame Math Pack. In the meantime, enjoy this free download of the recording sheet! To download the recording sheet, you can either click one of the pictures below, or you can click to go to my TpT store.

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Telling Time to the Hour and Half Hour - Ladybug Partner Bingo

My students have been practicing and learning all about how to tell time to the hour and half hour. We started our unit with a little anchor chart.

We've spent time in both math and instructional focus, honing our awesome time telling skills! The students have worked so hard, and they are really getting good at this skill, even if only so they can practice telling time so they know when recess and specials are. :-) I created a game, Ladybug Partner Bingo, to help the kiddos continue to practice telling time to the hour and half hour. To play, each student gets a game board and some game markers. Cards should be shuffled and divided between the partners. Students take turns drawing a card and reading the time. If the student has the corresponding digital time on his/her board, he/she puts a game marker on the ladybug spot. If not, the card gets put in a separate pile. When all the cards have been gone through, students will take the separate pile of cards and reshuffle them to continue play. Students will keep going trying to fill their ladybug spots. If a student gets the card that says FREE SPOT, he/she may choose to place a game marker on any spot on his/her ladybug. The student who fills his/her ladybug first is the winner! You may want to laminate the game cards and boards first (at least if you're anything like I am and don't like things getting "torn up" ha). Enjoy if you can use it! You can download by clicking any of the pictures below, or you can go to my TpT store to download - HERE.

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2 Dice Adding and Graphing Game

We just started our graphig unit with EnVision this week, and I created a game that students can use for practice (I threw in some addition practice as well, because goodness knows they can always improve). This does print on big 11 x 17 paper. To play, each student gets a gameboard and recording sheet. Students take turns rolling 2 dice. They will then record the addition sentence for the dice rolled below the correct sum on the graph below (2 + 2 under the 4, etc). Students continue until one of their columns is full. Whoever can reach the finish line, or the bottom of one of the columns first, is the winner! Students then work on graphing their results and answering questions about their graph. Enjoy if you can use this activity! Just click on either picture below, or you can click HERE to download from TpT. Happy Hump Day! I'm feeling a little bit of spring fever with this beautiful weather we're having, and it took everything in me today to not stare longingly out the window all afternoon. :-)

 

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Spin-a-Sight-Word Game

Here is a new sight word game I've created for partners to use. I'll be putting this in my sight word center, so if you can use it, enjoy! To play this game, each pair of students gets a game board. Each student chooses 1 side of the game board (left or right) and gets 6 counters or game markers. Students take
turns spinning the spinner (on top of the recording sheets). If they spin one of the shapes,
they must then read a sight word on their side of the game board that is on a
corresponding shape. They can then cover that word/shape with one of their game
markers. If a student spins the “You Pick” option, he/she may choose any of his/her
words to read and mark. If all of the shapes are already marked when a student spins
it, he/she just loses his/her turn. Students may also fill out their recording sheets by
writing the name of the shape they spun and the sight word they read (any chance to combine math and ELA is always a plus)! :-) 

Instructions are also included, and you can either click either one of the pictures below to download, or you can download from my TpT store for free HERE

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New TpT Product - Spring Butterfly Math Pack

I just posted a new product on TpT - come visit my store to see it! This math pack is $2.50 and includes Catching Butterflies (using double 10-frames - this game is also available for free both on my website and on TpT), Basic Butterfly Addition and Subtraction (game board with basic facts), Subtraction Butterfly Bump, and Addition Butterfly Memory. Directions are included on the activities, but they are pretty standard and straight forward. Enjoy and click the link to preview it: Spring Butterfly Math Pack

 

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Catching Butterflies

I haven't posted much this week with it being Spring Break! Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that I haven't forgotten you - I'm just taking a bit of a break. :-) Here is a free math game/center I created to help my students practice using ten-frames and making numbers. To prep this activity, I will be putting butterfly (bow tie) pasta in baggies. I will be making quite a few baggies of mixed, random amounts between 1-20 (you could extend this by adding more pasta and having students use 2 or more mats). Students will then choose a baggie, place the "butterflies" on their ten-frame mats, and record the number on the recording sheet. I set up the recording sheet so they have practice writing the number of butterflies in 4 different ways. The students can then just keep repeating this. If you can use this, feel free to download, and leave some feedback if possible!! Just click the link below the pictures to download. Happy Thursday! I can feel Spring upon us, and it feels great!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Catching-Butterflies-Using-10-Frames-and-Making-Numbers

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Vowel Ladder Game

Here is a free game I created for my students to practice reading and identifying words with short and long vowels. To play, students share a game board, and each student chooses a ladder (1 will take the short vowel ladder and 1 will take the long vowel ladder) and places his/her marker at the bottom. The kids then shuffle the word cards (or picture cards for your lower kids) and take turns choosing a card and reading the word aloud. Then, if the word has a short vowel sound in the middle, the person with the short vowel ladder gets to move his/her marker up one rung. If the word has a long vowel sound, the person with the long vowel ladder gets to move his/her marker up a rung. The partner who makes it to the top first is the winner! You could also have the students write the word on the ladder rungs or on a separate piece of paper if you want your students to have the writing practice too. Click the link below the pictures to download, and let me know if you have any questions! If you are able to use this activity, feel free to leave me some feedback - thanks so much! :-)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Free-Vowel-Ladder-Game Pin It

Measuring Sight Words

We've just started our measurement unit in math, and today's lesson was for students to measure indirect objects by comparing it to a 3rd object. While it went pretty well, some of my students could use some extra practice, perhaps in centers. Therefore, I thought that I would combine the math skill with some sight word practice, and that is how Measuring Sight Words was born. :-)

To do this activity, students will use a piece of string to compare and measure the sight words from end to end. They will then write the longer word in the third column. And that's all folks - the kiddos will be practicing their measuring skills, and they will practice writing sight words - a 2 in 1 activity! To download, just click the picture!

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Springin' Into Adding and Subtracting 10's Game

I think I've said before that our new common core aligned math curriculum is a bit tough this year. Next year will be better, but this year has been slightly difficult due to the switch (our students just don't have the background knowledge needed yet). However, we're hanging in there, and I am impressed with some of the strategies my students have picked up. One of the strategies enVision teaches our students to use is to be able to use mental math to add and subtract 10's from a given 2-digit number. We've taught the kids how to do this by skip counting on/back by 10's, we've taught them using place value blocks/cube towers/ten frames, and we've taught them by using the hundreds chart. Students are realizing that this strategy makes computation easier and faster!

I created this game for students to practice this strategy in order to increase their computational fluency. It will be going in the math center after introducing and practicing with it! Students should be able to solve the problems using mental math (of course they can get manipulatives if they need/request), but I am also having them write the problems on scrap paper so I can see how they're doing with it. To play, students place their game markers on start. They will then flip a colored counter/chip. If it lands on red, they will move forward 1 spot. If it lands on yellow, they can move 2 spots. The students must solve the problems for whatever spaces they land on. The first one to the end is the winner! If a student lands on a space that has a ZOOM arrow, he/she can cross the arrow over to the space on the other side. Enjoy the free printable game, and if you have time, please leave me some bloggie love if you download (just click the picture)! :-)

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Magnifying Magic Sight Word Activity

Not only has it been a short week because of President's Day, but I was sick yesterday, so I had a sub. Then today, we actually had a K-3 sub day where we all had subs and we met for professional development (pretty amazing, huh??? - thanks so much to our awesome principal for giving us that gift) and implementation time. Anyway, I haven't even seen my darlings yet this week!! So crazy! However, today's professional development was so helpful, and we talked a lot about teaching vocabulary. My coworker and I will be explicitly teaching strategies for figuring out words and using vocabulary strategies as you read, and I'm super excited about it! More on that later! 

Last week sometime I mentioned a sight word activity using magnifying glasses. I actually got the idea for this activity from my old teaching partner who had heard of a similar activity using spelling words. I have used this activity for both spelling and sight words, and either way, the kiddos LOVE it! To play, students use a magnifying glass (either the little science ones that I'm sure your schools have, or anytime I can, I look for magnifying glasses in the $1 bins at Target - they sometimes have some super cute ones) to find the "secret word". They then write the word and use in a sentence/draw a quick pic. To make this activity, I just type the words in super small font - so simple! Feel free to download this 1st grade sight word magnifying magic activity below. I think I've got it to where you can just click the picture to download it - BIG thanks to Deb over at http://mrsreynoldsfirstgradeadventures.blogspot.com/ for helping me figure out how to link my images!!! :-)

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Happy President's Day: Presidential Probability Freebie

Happy Day Off! :-) Here is a free printable probability game in honor of President's Day. I will be putting this in my math center this week. To prep, just create a few bags or cups of coins that are mixed between quarters and pennies. Super easy and quick! To play, students will first count how many pennies and how many quarters. Then, the students will make a prediction about which coin they will choose most often. Next, they will actually do the experiment 10 times and will record which coin they got each time. Last, the students will address whether or not their predictions were correct. And that's all folks! To download, click the link below the picture.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Presidential-Probability 

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Rainbow Tracing Sight Words

Spring break is still 3 and a half weeks away, but I am all planned and prepped through that time. I am currently working on my plans for the rest of March and April, and because we have a short week after spring break (amen to the district head people who decided a couple years ago to give us a PD day after spring break - easing us back into it makes a world of difference), we are not doing a shared reading story. We're instead going to use that time that particular week for some sight word testing and sight word activities.


One of the activities I created for that week was Rainbow Tracing Sight Words. Because we're going to be doing some testing, I needed to come up with some slightly more independent activities, and I won't be able to do as many of my cooperative learning activities and group games that I normally mix in (i.e. find someone who, snowball mix n' match, quiz quiz trade, go fish, shaving cream, etc...).

To do this activity, students will read the sight words that are in the top boxes. They will then find the words in the text boxes below and rainbow trace them in the color shown. This is such a simple activity, but my students LOVE anything that has to do with crayons, markers, tracing/coloring, etc... I may even extend the activity and have the students then write the words out or write sentences using the given sight words (just on the back of their paper or in their writing to learn binders). The possibilities are endless, and this activity could easily be converted for spelling too! Here is an example of what it will look like when finished:

To download a pdf of this activity, just click the link!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rainbow-Tracing-Sight-Words

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Mirror Sight Words

So I was perusing around Pinterest one day, and I saw this super cool sight word idea using mirrors. I think I've said in previous posts that kids LOVE anything "different" and "out of the norm". Activities where students get to use things like highlighters, mirrors, and magnifying glasses (I have a cool magnifying glass sight word and spelling word activity also that I'll post sometime) are fascinating to the students. Anyway, I loved the idea, because it was different, so I borrowed the idea and modified it, and I came up with this sight word activity.

To begin with, I was really struggling with trying to figure out how to "flip" and mirror image text within Microsoft Word. After playing around with it for a while, I decided to use my noggin' and google free backwards fonts. There actually is a font called "backwards". I downloaded it, and to make the cards, I just typed the sight words backwards (i.e. last letter, middle letter, first letter) using the backwards font. The result was exactly as I wanted! To play, students will draw/choose a sight word card. I will be giving them the little mirrors we use in math class for symmetry, and they can hold the mirror up to the card. The students will then read the word out loud, write the word on the recording sheet, use it in a sentence, and draw a quick pic. I'm sure the sweet little munchkins will love this activity, but we'll see! :-) The pictures below are just for you to see what the activity looks like. To download, click the link below the pictures!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mirror-Sight-Words

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Play-Doh Center - Sight Words

I always use a Play-Doh center in 1st grade. I start the year having students use cookie cutters and play-doh to make other students' names in our class. That helps with both class name recognition and spelling (which is helpful for both the tattle and compliment jar - see previous post). However, after the 1st or 2nd quarter, I switch over to sight words. After a LOT of training on how to use this center appropriately, :-), students are able to use this center during guided reading. The kiddos LOVE it, and it's so easy. I just change out the words every week or couple weeks. The students take the Play-Doh center to a set spot, and they use cookie cutters to cut out the letters for the words. Then, after making the sight words with play-doh, they write the word in the box, and then they either write a sentence or draw a "quick pic" (a super quick, not too detailed picture). It's such a fun, tactile way for students to practice their words!! Feel free to download the recording sheet for free (the link is under the picture)!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Play-Doh-Center-Sight-Words

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Toss and Write - Comparing Numbers

Happy Thursday! Today was a special day in my blogging world. I've made it past 1000 page views! Wow! Thank you all so much for stopping by to visit! I've really enjoyed sharing ideas with everyone. :-)

Boy howdy, does anyone else feel the burn of the new mathematics common core?? Next year will be much better, but this year has been tough! I will say, I'm impressed with some of the new strategies my students are developing, even though the curriculum is "tougher" and more rigorous.

Anyway, enough of that. We are in the middle of a unit on comparing and ordering numbers. This game is a game I created for students to use at centers to practice comparing numbers. Players take turns tossing a bean or chip onto the gameboard. They each write their numbers on the recording sheet and decide together which comparing symbol to write. Whoever has the greater number is the winner! Easy peasy. I have one board that has only 1 or 2 digit numbers, and then 1 board that goes into the hundreds. Enjoy either one! Click the links below the pictures for the boards, the recording sheet, and the directions.

Board #1 - 1 and 2 digit numbers: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5iECqL9FXwzNTc5Y2YyZGEtMjMwMS00Y2Y4LTliZjItYWExMzI2ODc3M2Qz

Board #2 - 1-3 digit numbers: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5iECqL9FXwzODIwNzY2NTAtN2E5ZC00MmJkLTllY2EtYWE3YjdkYzNiYjc0

Toss and Write Recording Sheet: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5iECqL9FXwzNjllMzk2OWEtMGE2Ni00MzgxLWJiZTgtNDQ0ZDc3MWQwOWQz

Toss and Write Directions: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5iECqL9FXwzN2JlYWZlYWYtY2IyYS00YjE0LWI4NDItMjI2ODM3N2M4M2Qy

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An Oldie but a Goodie - TrackStar!

TrackStar has been around now for ages, but it is still a site worth mentioning. This is a terrific, free website that "bookmarks" sites that you approve and pick out from around the web. It's a great resource, because you can either create your own tracks or you can browse premade ones from other users. You are also able to annotate the different sites you set up.

You can find TrackStar at http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/index.jsp.

I use this site to handpick websites that I think will be beneficial for my students and that match our curriculum and standards. I create math and reading tracks, and I put a bookmark for each track on the laptop desktops for my students to use during centers (I usually go in and change the icon to a "star" also so they can access it and see it easily). This ensures that the students are only going to the websites I've approved of and not just randomly searching the web (this still takes training though with young students). I also sometimes send these tracks to the parents so their children can use the same sites at home for consistently. Enjoy exploring this wonderful resource! Pin It