This is an amazing sight word set I purchased on Teacher Pay Teacher. I am living every teacher's dream baby! I can finally differentiate my sight word instruction and be sure I'm meeting each student's individual needs. I can give my students' parents word lists and sight word cards to work on at home at the press of a button. This color coded set has it all, assessment, word lists, word cards, individual progress monitoring and best of all a reward certificate for each level the student completes. (I add glitter to my certificates, because as everyone knows glitter makes everything so much more awesome). I have placed a ziploc baggie with differentiated sight words in each of my student's daily 5 reading boxes. When I call a student to come read with me we do the reading bags first. If the student knows the words they get to keep them or throw them away and we keep the words we still need to work on in the bag for the next day. Each day I see my students mastering 3-4 new words. I'm adding stickers like crazy to their progress charts and I added some glitter on certificates for 2 students today. Can I get a big "oh yea". So proud of my students and how hard they are working on sight words, guided reading and so much more.
If you teach in Texas, you know what Istation is. You also know it may not be perfect, but it took the place of TPRI and I thank God everyday for that blessing. Testing 24 first graders one on one for 45 min. 3 times a year was a nightmare. One area our students often score low in is vocabulary. I have researched my student's test results and made a power point presentation with some of the vocabulary words introduced by Istation. It's a good teaching tool even if you do not live in the great state of Texas.
I am so excited to try some new ideas I have for my word wall. I want to "do word wall, not just have a word wall" I've read that having each word on a different color will help my students visual the words in their minds. That is what I'm doing on my classroom word wall and what I've created on my smart board word wall as well. I have attached my smart board word wall to this blog. Please feel free to use it in your classroom. If you click on the words an audio will say the word. I plan to add text boxes to each of the colored boxes with my word wall words. I want to make sure it matches my classroom word wall exactly with words and colors. My students have word wall dictionaries in their writing binders. I want to have them write each word in the color it is on the board. I read a fabulous teacher's blog about "doing word wall" I cut and pasted the blog, but I can't find her name on it. I wish I could give her credit. She had so many wonderful morning routine games that I plan to implement into my whole group literacy routine. Here are a few of her ideas. ***Word Wall, Beach Ball*** - Kids stand in a circle. I begin by calling out a word wall word and toss the beach ball to a kid. He or she tells me the color of the word on the word wall. That child then says a word wall word and calls another child's name before tossing the ball. The cycle continues. To speed the pace of the game, I count "1, 2, 3" - the ball must be tossed or it comes back to me. That prevents anyone from holding onto the ball. Also ONLY the child's name called can touch the ball. If anyone else touches the ball, he/she must sit out. I do this for safety mainly. I don't want a ton of kids diving for the ball. :0) ***Hot Potato*** We all sit in a circle. I play music as we pass a Mr. Potato Head or small ball. When the music stops, I say, "Read a red word". The child who is holding the potato/ball reads a word from the word wall that is red. That child gets to choose where the ball will start back up. My rule for this game is that you may only hold the potato for 3 seconds or you are out. That really helps keep kids from holding onto the potato too long. Sometimes I start the game with a blank Mr. Potato Head. Each time it stops on a kid who reads a word wall word - that child gets to choose a Mr. Potato Head body part to add. They LOVE this! ***Musical Chairs *** Place chairs in a circle. Tape a different word wall word on the back of each seat - one for each of your students. We set up the chairs in a big circle. Kids sit in a seat. As the music starts, the kids start walking in a circle. When the music stops kids find a seat closest to them. I show a word wall word. The kids read the word then check to see which word is at the back of their seat. If they have the matching word wall word - they are out and can sit in the middle of the circle. Sometimes those that are out help me show a word wall word. ***Writing Chairs*** This game is very similar to the Musical Chairs above. The main difference is no one is out. Each child has a marker board and a marker. We play music and they walk around. When the music stops, they sit. Then at once all students look for the word on the back of their seats and write the word on the index card. On the count of 3 we all "showcase" - share the word we wrote. Then we erase and start again. *** Cha Cha Word Wall *** I have enough maracas for every student in the class to have one. So, for this activity we will get out the maracas and go to town. We sing the word wall words to the tune of the Cha-Cha! "cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha like, like, like, like, like, like l-i-k-e, like -i-k-e, like l-i-k-e, like l-i-k-e, like l-i-k-e, l-i-k-e I want to say again these are not my ideas. I wish with all my heart I could remember the teacher's name and blog to give her credit her blog has changed the way "I do word wall" and I'm forever grateful to her for sharing her ideas.
I've found so many literacy ideas to use with students' names. First Grade Parade had this great idea posted from Ketchen's Kindergarten. Ketchen has some posters you can download. I created my own. Feel free to download mine or her version. I also added my students' names on an editable table so you can just change the letters and add your students' names for the "fix it" portion of the game. If you can't edit the table please leave me a comment and your email and I'll send it to you in word so you can have an editable version for your students' names. _The internet kept going down at my school this week. We were lost without it. :( We couldn't do announcements, smart board lessons or our fun songs. So I sang to my students like I used to do a few years ago before you tube and smart boards. They sat in shock. This group has never heard a teacher sing. They were amazed and loved it. Here is the song I sang to them (you tube version). I sang this song as a child and still remember how fun it was. Get ready and do the Hoochie Coochie Dance!!! My silly first grader Gage holding some of the "magic playdoh" we just made. It's white with color playdoh inside, when you squeeze it and say the magic poem a pretty color appears. I got this idea from Mrs.Southard's Fun in First Grade blog Here is the poem Magic playdoh oh so white. I make this wish with all my might. If another color does appear. We are sure to have a great school year. I plan to implement Whole Brain Teaching this year in my classroom. I've been reading all the information I can find on the www.wholebrainteaching.com website. They offer so many free downloads. You have to register for free and they ask you to share their website with colleagues, but it's worth your time to get the free downloads. There are also many free products on teacher pay teacher that I've found for Whole Brain Teaching. I'm nervous, but excited to try the WBT in my classroom this year. :) http://wholebrainteachingwithstyle.blogspot.com/ is a wonderful website with so many great free downloads. She is also on pinterest. I feel so much better about jumping into WBT using her ideas and free downloads. I love reading! I don't get a lot of time to read during the school year, but during the summer I spend as much time as I can reading on my Kindle. I wanted to share some of the books I've read this summer. This is the last book I've read. Oh my, how it becomes a part of your heart and soul as you read it. It's full of scripture of God's promises. This is a book that's hard to keep reading, but you have to finish to have hope and peace in your heart. Read it and let it become part or you. I loved this book. I found myself dreaming about it as I slept. I would wake up in the middle of the night and read one more chapter before I could go back to sleep. This book is amazing. It touched my heart in such a powerful way. You will have to finish this book to dry up the tears in your eyes. _
I love Teacher Pay Teacher. I've found new products for this school year. I thought I'd post some of my favorites so you can rush over to the TPT store and download your own copies of these awesome products. |
AuthorThere is no greater gift than a wonderful book that becomes part of you as you read it. Archives
January 2014
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