Phonics Friday: Letter & Sound Sorts

Happy 4th of July friends!!!

Today's post will focus on:
Letter and Sound Sorts

Why sort use letter and sound sorts?

Initial sound sorting is the very first step of phonemic awareness.  It's goal is to help students learn phoneme isolation, identification, and categorization. Students are taught to state whole words and then isolate the beginning consonant sound and then match it to other words that have a matching sound.

What are the first steps? 
Model, Model, Model for the students.
Demonstrate how to state a word and isolate the beginning sound.
(especially the at risk kiddos)

 

Then have the students practice sorting with their own cards or objects. Below are some cool examples on using objects for beginning sound sorts.

 

The next step is independent practice and assessment. 

Students need to be able to isolate the beginning sound without support.  This can be assessed in a variety of ways.  

Here are a few examples:

The I Spy sheets were created by Deanna Jump.  She has a few sheets available for free from her Alphapalooza pack.  

Click the picture to download.

  

This is a Facebook freebie from Creating and Teaching.  I love that  laminate and velcro can be used to make this great resource reusable.

Click the picture to download.

 

What do you do if a student is just not getting it?

The Florida Center of Reading Research has wonderful materials to use as intervention tools for at risk students.  They have a large variety of activities available for FREE.  Click here for materials that target beginning sounds.

Last week I promised you a little freebie.  So here it is friends:)   A sort for sounds /m/ and /n/.  This is the middle version of my latest differentiating alphabet sort packs.  

This sort can be used to assess whether a student can independently differentiate the sounds m & n.  Click the picture below to download your goodie.

Also snag my differentiated BTF sorts for 50% off this weekend.

That's all for today folks!!  I hope your fourth is full of food, fireworks and family!!  If you have posts you would like to see in the coming weeks please leave a comment below.

Movement Breaks with a little freebie!

I grew up in the 80's and honestly I don't remember movement breaks or kids having trouble sitting still during class.  My classrooms were the traditional desks lined up in rows.  Kids today aren't successful in that kind of classroom.  They NEED movement.  They really NEED it.  Allowing them to move helps kids learn:) 

 

  

What resources can be used to give kiddos a much needed sensory break?

Play dough is a great hands on learning tool.

 Alternative seating options that allow movement while learning.

 

I don't have these stools but they look cool.

 

I just got a few of these balls from WittFitt.  I can't wait to see if they help some of my very active kiddos.



Here are a few learning ideas that involve sensory.  (I found them on Pinterest)  I haven't tried them personally but I thought that they looked cool.

The theraband is a tool that helps control active feet. 

A movement grid is a tool that can be done whole class but it can also be used as a 

movement break for students who need it during whole class instruction.  I have been messing around with creating my own movement board.  Click the picture to snag it for yourself.

This a lot of the information in this post was obtained from a Shannon Samulski conference.  She has a background in special education.  Shannon Samulski has a blog called Interventions on the Go if you would like to check it out.

Until next time,

A SUPER SIMPLE INTERVENTION

I was lucky enough to attend the Ohio Kindergarten conference in Columbus, Ohio January 13th and 14th.  I was star struck to get to meet big named bloggers like Deanna Jump and DeeDee Wills.  I came back with a ton of great information that I am excited to try out.

Those of you who have followed me for awhile know that I am not a kindergarten teacher but I am an interventionist that works with kinders.  I firmly believe that early intervention is KEY in preventing academic difficulties in at risk students.

At the conference, I was also fortunate enough to get to hear Shannon Samulski speak who has a background in special education.  She has a blog called Interventions on the Go if you would like to check it out.  For her blog post about "Sandwiching" Information click here. 

Do you have that student who you could do everything even stand on your head and the information just does not ever seem to go into the student long term memory?  If you have ever had this happen to you then you will understand why I found the following information PROFOUND.  It is so simple.  Why did I not think of it???

Surround the brain with KNOWN information and it will help the UNKNOWN information STICK. 

As my teenager would say, "I know, right?"  It is so simple and makes total sense.

Are you ready for it?? It gets even simpler.  All you need are ten cards and a metal ring and you are ready to get started with this intervention.

1.  Assess the student to determine known and unknown information
2.  Write/type the known information on 7 of the cards and make sure that these cards have a symbol in the corner to show that this is KNOWN information.
3.  Then on the other three cards write/type three bits of information that you want your student to learn.
4.  Then hole punch and place on the ring using the following sequence: 
known known unknown known known unknown known known unknown known
5.  Once the unknown information becomes known either move the card to a known slot or remove it from the ring.

This intervention can be used for letters, sounds, shapes, colors, sight words, fry phrases, math facts, science concepts, social studies concepts, etc.  This intervention also has no age limit!!  It will work for kinders but it would also work for high school students.  The information being used would just be different.

Don't stress and think that every student in your class needs an intervention ring.  Only about 3-5 students from your class should need this intervention:)

I have a student in kinder that is struggling to retain her shapes, numbers, and sight words.  She does know 24/26 letters and sounds but still does not perform well on AIMS probes when she is timed.

Here are the cards I came up with for her intervention ring.  I am going to have a ring for sight words, one for shapes, and one for numbers. 

I put three stars on the concepts she still needs to learn so that we can color them in as she demonstrates she has retained it. 

I put a smiley face on the concepts she already knows.

I can't wait to get started using this intervention next week!  Just in case you want to try this super simple intervention yourself, I created a little something to get you started! An editable template so you can add your own concepts!!

Enjoy, friends!

If you would like a hard copy explanation about this researched based click here.
(**this was not created by me.  I located it on the internet.)