Magic e Activity Pack and Intervention Kit
Thanks for stopping by the Make, Take & Teach blog to check out the Magie e Activity Pack and Intervention Kit. The 15 activities contained within this activity pack and kit are ideal for use within your targeted small group instruction to teach the magic e rule. We know that children learn best through a hands-on approach to teaching and learning. The activities in the pack/kit are hands-on activities which means that you will need to gather some materials to assemble several of the activities. If you choose to order the kit, all the materials and printables are provided for you. The following activities are contained within the pack/kit:
A 17 page teaching manual provides step-by-step directions for each activity. Ideas for differentiation are provided. These directions makes the activities ideal for use during either teacher or para-professional led groups:
Magic e Wands and the Dry Erase Boards are the two activities that are used to directly teach the magic e rule. The teaching cards and the explanation of how to introduce the rule are provided for you. A list of magic e words is provided in the appendix of the teaching manual for use with the dry erase board activity.
The Magic e Activity Pack/Kit contains 5 activities that include magic e pairs so that students can compare words with and without the application of the rule. The Flip the Magic e activity is the first activity in this set. When you download the activity pack, you’ll receive 12 flip cards with picture cues and 28 cards without the picture cue. The Magic e Memory game contains 32 magic e pairs.
You’ll receive 3 Magic e Lotto game boards in the activity pack/kit. Students take turns reading the words on the lotto cards and covering the pictures on their card. The first player to have all the pictures covered wins the game. This activity can easily be transferred into your literacy centers.
The Clip the Magic e activity contains 12 pictured cards 12 cards without the picture. While working with the pictured cards, students clip the magic e after the appropriate picture. Students read the word first without the magic e and then after clipping the magic e on the cards without the pictures.
There are 2 card games contained within the pack/kit. The Magic e Card game is the last of the 5 activities which match magic e pairs. Students attempt to make words containing the magic e rule with the Magic e Make a Word Game. Both acitivities can be easily tranferred into classroom literacy centers.
The Magic e Fishing game takes a little bit of assembly, but it’ll so worth it as it is an all-time kid favorite. With this activity, students take turns fishing for magic e words. There are 32 bright and colorful fish with magic e words.
The Fiddle Sticks game is a fast paced game which offers many practice opportunities. Fiddle Sticks is one of my favorites and it’s always a hit with the students. To prepare the game, simply write magic e words on the sticks using the list provided and color one of the tips red. Students take turns choosing the sticks and reading the words. The player who picks the red stick must put all their sticks back in the cup and play continues. Students try to be the first to roll 10 magic e words while playing the Roll A Word game.
Four Magic e Game Boards are included in the MT&T Magic e Activity Pack/Kit. This is a great game for practicing reading words containing the magic e rule.
Four 4-In-A-Row game boards are also included. Students try to be the first to get four of their colored chips in a row while at the same time blocking their opponent. Great game for practicing reading magic e words.
Students practice building words containing the magic e rule with the Making Words activity. Again, the list of magic e words contained within the teaching manual will be helpful.
I’ve included 39 flashcards containing words with magic e rule. On one side of the flashcard is the word with the visual cue and on the other side, the word without the visual cue. There are 19 sentence strips also included in the pack/kit.
The Magic e Activity Pack is available in my TpT online store. The activity pack is a 116 page file filled with activities designed to teach and practice the magic e rule. If you’re not so sure you want to do the printing and shopping yourself- no worries- I’ve done it for you. When you order the intervention kit, you’ll receive all the printables and materials delivered to your front door! All the activities are printed in color and on 90 lb cardstock. Many of the activities are provided in triplicate for use with multiple students.
The Magic e Intervention Kit is available either in my TpT store or you can order it through the Make, Take & Teach website. School purchase orders are gladly accepted.
Let’s not forget that parents can play a critical role in helping their child on their reading journey. The Magic e parent kit contains 10 activites for a single user. This kit is also available within my TpT store or through the Make, Take & Teach website.
Are You Thinking of Starting Your Own Blog?
So it’s summer! If you are like me, you start making a master to-do list sometime in the middle of May. On my summer to-do list is to launch a new blog–Make, Take, Teach 4 Speech– and to give my website a total makeover. I’m really excited about the new blog. Prior to taking on the role of a RtI Coordinator/Special Education Curriculum Consultant, I was a school-based Speech/Language Pathologist for over 15 years. I’m so excited to develop activities for SLPs. For years, my friend, Jill and I (mostly Jill) have been making games for use in therapy.
Well, with this new upcoming venture, I’ve been thinking about how I started blogging just over a year ago. Prior to February of 2012, I didn’t even know what a blog was! It’s so hard to believe. I want to share with you a valuable resource that helped me get started just in case starting a blog is on your summer to-do list. Let me introduce you to Charity Preston’s Teaching Blog Traffic School.
Click HERE to visit TBTS.
When you join Charity’s TBTS you have access to 30+ instructional videos (that’s over 11 hours). Topics range from branding to blogging, and include how to use all forms of social media. In addition to the videos, there are forums and chat rooms where you can connect with other educational bloggers! Charity also offers 1-on-1 sessions via Skype.
So, if you’re starting your blog this summer and need some ideas and some direction, TBTS may be a good fit for you. If you have questions, feel free to ask in the comment section or just visit the TBTS website and ask Charity herself.
Preventing the Summer Slide
As much as teachers love summer vacation, there’s always a little (actually, big) panic that sets in as we pack up the classrooms and send our children off during those three lazy months of fun in the sun. What if they never pick up a book? Oh, and they were so close in learning all their math facts- will they forget? We’ve worked so diligently teaching skills and the kids have learned so much—what if when they return in September and they forget? The loss of skills during the summer in the educational world is known as “The Summer Slide” and it is very real. Research indicates that children who live in poverty consistently lose 2 months of reading performance and that those loses accumulate each year during the elementary grades. This means that by middle school a student can be up to 2 ½ years behind! According to research, two-thirds of the 9th grade reading achievement gap can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities during the summer months during elementary. Crazy, right?
So, what’s the answer? With dwindling funds in education, summer school and enrichment programs are often the first things on the chopping block. Although I am supportive of summer programs, it’s only one option to lessen the effects of summer loss. In fact, there are many no-cost ways of not only eliminating summer reading loss, but accelerating learning over the summer. Evidence suggests that simply giving students a set of self-selected books on the last day of school or offering opportunities such as opening up the library one day week may be enough to eliminate the summer loss. Could it really be that simple? Surprisingly, providing books to read during the summer produced as much reading growth as did sending students to summer school (Allington 2010). We must ensure that our children have books in their hands. Below are a few fun and simple ways to keep our kiddos engaged with learning during the summer.
1. Visit your local library! Help your child find “right fit books. Right fit books are books that are of high interest to your child and are not beyond their reading level. You can use the five finger test to determine if the book is too difficult for your child. Open the book to a page with many words. Have your child begin reading the text. Hold up a finger for each word he/she does not know. If you have 4 or 5 fingers up, the text may be too difficult for your child to read independently. Feel free to still check out the book! It just may be a book you want to read with your child.
Click the following link to download this file Finding the Right Fit Book
2. Be sure your child reads at least 20 minutes a day. According to research, a child who reads only 1 minute a day outside of school will learn 8,000 words by the end of sixth grade where a student who reads 20 minutes outside of school will learn 1,800,000 words! That’s huge! If reading isn’t one of your child’s top priorities, you may need to set up an incentive program.
I found these “Mark My Time” book marks at Walmart. They can be a great motivator to ensure that your child reads at least 20 minutes a day. If your child already enjoys reading, you probably wouldn’t need to use this. We want children to read for the pure enjoyment of reading. Some children just need a little bit more structure and incentive.
3. Set a good example. When your child sees you reading and enjoying a book or a newspaper article, you are sending a message that reading is important and valuable.
4. Read to your child. When you read to your child, he/she hears the rhythm of language. Be sure to read with expression! Changing your voice for the different characters in the story and increasing volume for exciting parts are only a few ways to make reading interesting.
5. Read with your child –explore different types of reading like poetry. For our little ones, poetry is great way to improve phonemic awareness skills as poetry often incorporates rhyme. For our older children, poetry is a means of improving fluency.
6. Read for different purposes. Reading directions for a recipe or directions for assembling a toy are fun ways to incorporating reading.
7. Games with Words. There are tons of ways to have fun learning letters and sight words. Check out my earlier blog post 8 Super Summer Sight Word Activities for a few ideas.
8. If you have an iPad, try downloading a few interactive books. There are also lots of reading games that keep children engaged.
Click the following link to download this FREE handout Summer Slide Handout
Did you know that teachers typically spend the first month of school reteaching skills? Let’s get going! Make this summer a summer of learning and fun!
Fun Little Alphabet Games
Kyle created this cute little ladybug for another activity and I thought he would be ideal for a fun little springtime and summer themed alphabet activity. When you download the ABC Ladybug game you’ll receive 4 free ladybug game boards and letter circles. To play the game, provide each child with a game board and place all the letter circles face down on the table. Players take turns choosing a circle and matching the beginning sound of the letter to the picture on their game board. The first player to have all the dots on their ladybug covered wins the game.
Click the following link to download this fun little freebie Ladybug Alphabet Game
Maybe your students are more into turtles than ladybugs?? They may enjoy the ABC Turtle game instead. Same idea–just a different twist.
Click HERE to download the ABC Turtle FREE from my TpT store
Hope your students have fun with these games. Enjoy the freebies!
Explicit Instruction Website
After reading my earlier blog post on The Need for Explicit Vocabulary Instruction, my new friend, Erin, from the University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning sent me a link to Anita Archer and Charles Hughes’ website www.explicitinstruction.org. She thought I’d enjoy the vidoes on the website and she was absolutely right! Its one thing to read about an instructional strategy, but it’s another to see it in action–and demonstrated by a master teacher.
If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you may know that vocabulary instruction is one of my favorite topics. On the Explicit Instruction website there are are two videos of Dr. Archer demonstrating a vocabulary lesson (one for kindergarten and the other for second grade). They are both excellent. My favorite video, however, is the Active Participation video where she engages second grade students in a lesson.
The goal of the video is to demonstrate strategies to gain attention and engage students in learning. Earlier this week I had a conversation with one of my colleagues about instructional delivery and we talked about pacing. This video is an excellent example of how to deliver instruction at an appropriate pace which increases engagement and maximizes learning.
Just below the video is a written description outlining the purpose of the demonstration as well as the instructional strategies that were used during the lesson. For each strategy, a description of the strategy, when to use it and the exact procedures for implementing the strategy are provided.
The videos are super helpful. They aren’t too long– the active participation video is less that 7 minutes. So, take a few minutes and watch Dr. Archer’s lessons. The way in which we deliver our instruction has a direct impact on student learning.
I just ordered the book Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching
Teacher Appreciation Sale!
Thank you, teachers, for all you do for our children! In honor of Teacher Appreciation week, Teachers Pay Teachers is having their annual block-buster SALE! All Make, Take and Teach products are 20% off. Enjoy the sale and enjoy Teacher Appreciation Week!
