Five for Friday .....ummm or Sunday.....Phonics Freebie Style

FIVE FOR FRIDAY!  PHONICS FREEBIE STYLE:) 

Since I have been a horrible blogger

 and it has been almost a month since my last post :(

I decided to share some of my newest creations with y'all!  Enjoy!

 I have begun to create letter sound sorts for the kindergarten teachers in my building.  I am eventually going to bundle them but until then I thought I would share with my followers.

A vowel sort FREEBIE to accompany the consonant sort above.

 I updated my Fundations alphabet chart FREEBIE. 
It now includes letter and sound matching cards.
(I also changed a couple of the images)

 At my school we were recently lucky enough to have the author Brian Cleary visit.  Mr. Cleary has written over 50 books.  One of his series of books are called Words are Categorical.  These books focus on teaching concepts such as nouns, adjectives, verbs, homophones etc.  I created this homophone activity to accompany his books about homonyms and homophones.

 Finally snag my newest game on TPT for FREE if you download it within the next two hours!

I hope you enjoy the freebies!  I would love for you to leave me some LOVE and let me know what you think of the goodies:)  

Until next time,

FEED ME! A CVC FLUENCY GAME

I have been an awful blogger recently.  I am really struggling to get into the swing of things again.  I have been doing a little creating though in my blog absence:)

This summer I discovered the game BUBBLE POP! created by Growing Kinders.

I love the game so much that I decided to create some higher level games for my older kiddos.  The first game that I completed focuses on short vowel CVC words.  I have some struggling firsties that need a boost and a fun & quick game is just the trick to get them blending CVC words in no time.

Snag it now!  It is FREE for the first 24 hours:) 

Comprehension Strategy: MAKING CONNECTIONS with a FREEBIE

Last week, I began reviewing the comprehension strategy: making connections (mainly text to self).  This strategy is essential to enhance student understanding while reading.  Since all of my students are "at risk" anything that I can do to engage the students is key.  Linking the text to events from my students lives is one way to increase their understanding.


To introduce the topic, I read the book The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant to the students.  Since I working in small groups that amount to around 20 minutes each it took several days to read the entire story and discuss student connections.

 

This is a great book to use when doing TEXT to SELF connections.  Most students have had interactions with family, or traveling (even if it is just a short trip).  With some students it is really hard to get them to vocalize their connections for many different reasons.  One of the major obstacles that I face is limited language.  There are times were I really have to stretch the text to link it to a student's life. 

I love to use music to reinforce concepts that I am teaching so I was so excited when I stumbled upon songs that teach reading comprehension strategies by One Extra Degree.  I really like that she used tunes that the kids already know so it is easy to sing not only for the kids but for me as well. (my picture was not cooperating tonight)

I decided to create a little book to assess my students understanding of the "connections" strategy.  I created two different versions for students.  One book requires students to write a response and the other book allows the student to draw a picture of the connection.  Click the picture below to grab your freebie!

My students have begun reader's notebooks so I made a little cheat sheet to insert in their notebooks to accompany the other work we do with connections.

I am linking up with Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies to share my new creation.

I hope you enjoy this freebie!!  Please leave a comment and share your thought and ideas on teaching text connections.  I love new tips and tricks:)  I hope everyone has a great week!

Until next time,

Five for Friday: BACK TO SCHOOL

Well friends!  I hope everyone is surviving the back to school grind!  I have been exhausted since school started and my little blog has been neglected for sure.  I hope that some of you out there are fortunate enough to have air conditioning in your school because I am not that lucky.  It is so hard for little kiddos to learn when they are melting:)  I have my fingers crossed it cools down.


1.  Tonight I was shopping at a local toy store for a birthday present and of course I found a few things for myself as well.  I am really excited out this find!!  You use a pen to pull the beads up to form the letter.  It really has a strong pull that will help my kinders follow through with letter formation.

 

2.  My sweet little girl turned the big 13 on Monday.  She is now officially a teen but not much has changed.  She still has her headphones on constantly and bops along in her own world.

Isn't she beautiful?

3.  As an interventionist, I have the pleasure of assisting teachers with not only academic problems but behavioral issues as well.  Unfortunately one of my students has fallen apart since returning back to school.  I created these forms last night to try and assist the teacher with managing the behaviors within the classroom setting.

 

I based this on an interventions one of my teaching buddies did last year with the same kiddo.  The student starts out the day with all of his X's for both the morning and afternoon blocks.  If all AM checks are still there by lunch then 5 minutes of Ipad time is earned.  After lunch, the whole process starts again.  If the student had a bad morning it doesn't matter because after lunch it is a clean slate.  

4.   Today was my day to post on Teaching Blog Round Up!  I was glad that I had a scheduled day to post so that it forced me to push through my back to school fog.  If you are interested in reading about vocabulary tiers then you will definitely want to check out my post and grab your freebie.

5.  I was very excited to actually get to read with some of my kiddos today!  I love listening to kids read.  Today the kids used LED finger lights to track text as they read!  It was so fun!!  The kids loved it and I must admit so did I.  

 

So that is my week in a nutshell:)  

I can't wait to read everyone's Five for Friday posts!!  

Until next time,

TPT SALE

I am so excited for the sale Sunday and Monday!!  I have items on my wishlist that I have been waiting to buy ALL summer.  Will I empty out my wishlist?  Probably not because it is kinda long:)

I am linking up with some of my firstie friends in celebration of the sale!!  Hopefully you get a chance to check out their great products and purchase a few of their goodies for your own:)

Here are a few products that you should check out!

Do you need a back to school pack?  

Be sure you check out Nicole Lanier's Back to School Literacy and Math Activities for 1st grade.

I just discovered this pack from LMN Tree myself!!  I love me a beginning of the year easy reader for my at risk kiddos!  Especially when it comes in three different levels.

Since I do most of my work in small group, I was pumped when I found these questions from Spotted in First Grade to utilize when reading: 20 before, 20 during, & 20 after.

Make sure you check out the other fan-tab-u-lous products from my Firstie Friends!!
Don't forget the code!  B2S13

Let's talk about me Monday!

 

I am very excited to link up with Blog Hoppin' for Teacher Week 13! 

 

Let's talk about me, Monday!!

 

Today I spent the afternoon in my classroom doing my best to attempt to organize myself so that I can be more efficient this school year.  I get so frustrated with myself at the end of the year when I pack up my room and I realize that I did not utilize great teaching materials because I forgot I owned them:( 

So here goes......

1.  I currently live in the same small town in Ohio where I grew up but I work in a "village" about a half hour from my house.

2.  I have two beautiful children that are the lights of my life:)  along with my hubby of course!

3.  I am a tv addict and my DVR is one of my besties!  I am a sucker for crime dramas like The Bridge & The Following.  My hubby gets me addicted to sci fi shows like Haven & Falling Skies. And of course one of my absolute favs is Shameless.

4.  I am currently addicted to pull and peel Twizzlers and was very upset today when Wal-Mart only had watermelon flavored:(   I have a horrible sweet tooth.

5.  A few weeks ago, I caved and bought myself a laminator and I am in LOVE!  So is my little guy:)  He wants me to laminate all the time.

6.  I have a slight book addiction and my classroom library is overflowing.

7.  I am embarrassed to admit how much I love my new Toyota Sienna.  I was adamant that I would never own a minivan.  (never say never)

8.  My IPhone playlist currently includes:  Matchbox Twenty, Maroon 5, Mumford & Sons, Adele, Fun!, & Bruno Mars.

9.  In my mind, I am thirty pounds thinner.........but that does not explain why my pants don't fit.  A girl can hope right?

10.  I love to laugh and luckily with a tween and a toddler I have many opportunities:)

I hope you learned a little about me. 

Until next time,

Back to School Blogger Exchange: Show Us What You Got!

I am so excited to have linked up with Covered in Glitter and Glue and Katie from Adventures of Ms. Smith for their Back to School Blogger Exchange. 


I was lucky enough to be paired with Traci from The Bender Bunch!!  I was very excited to receive my package full of goodies.  Traci loaded me up with a little bit of everything to start my year.  My absolute FAV item is my name done with Scrabble tiles.  Can you say adorable??? 

She also got me a few adorable owl goodies, pens, pencils, pedicure items, and my personal addiction--COKE.

Everything came in an adorable container that I already have at school!  I have an idea up my sleeve on how I plan to use it.

Thanks so much to Covered in Glitter and Glue and The Adventures of Ms. Smith for hosting this awesome link up!  It was so much fun.  I loved not only getting my package but getting to know a fellow sped blogger a crossed the country.  I also totally loved bargain shopping for goodies:)

Until next time,