I (Heart) Vowels
I know it’s a little crazy, but I really do love vowels. It’s so important that our young readers learn those vowel sounds correctly so that they can decode words and use them correctly in their writing. Activities which involve discriminating the vowels sounds are so helpful, especially for those students who are having difficulty hearing the difference between the similar sounding vowels. I created the vowel sticks activity with a little Valentine twist for use during your small group instruction. For children just learning the vowel sounds, you may opt to begin with only two vowels (begin with dissimlar sounding vowels such as the /o/ and /i/) and then gradually work up to using all five. You simply say the vowel sound and have the students hold up the correct stick. To add a little more difficulty, say a word with a short vowel sound (“cat”) and have the students hold up the correct vowel.
Click the following link to download the FREE Valentine Vowels Valentine Vowels
Sorting activities are also great when teaching and practicing short vowel sounds. I purchased these candy chocolate heart containers in the holiday/seasonal section at Walmart. They are the small candy heart containers and I think they were less than $1 each. You’ll need 3 as you can use both the top and bottom of the container for sorting. For this activity, have the student name the picture and then place the pictured heart in the correct vowel container.
Click the following link to download 16 FREE short vowel pics Valentine Vowels Sorting
Working with word families is also important for our young readers as they learn to recognize patterns in words. When you download the Be My Valentine- Word Families activity you’ll receive 15 word family Valentine templates with 63 colorful hearts with corresponding pictures for sorting.
Click HERE to download the Be My Valentine Word Families from my TpT store.
Christmas Literacy Center Ideas
Only two more weeks until Christmas! This school year is just flying by. I woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow in our backyard. Living in Northern Michigan, we can almost count on having snow for Christmas. I will have to say, though, that it’s a little late coming this year. Usually by now we’ve had at least one snow day and the ski resorts typically open Thanksgiving day. Well the snow has certainly put me in the holiday spirit.
You still have a little time to put together a few holiday-themed activities. I picked up these gift tags at Walmart and thought they’d make for a quick and easy literacy center activity for practicing beginning sounds.
There were several gift tag options. I almost chose the snowmen–they were so adorable! Each package contains 16 game tags. I simply cut each tag down the center so that only the front of the tag is used. You could use the back of the tag, too, as a separate card if you wish. If you only want to use the pictured side, you will need 3 packages of gift tags for the complete alphabet set. Purchase 2 packages if you’re choosing to use the card back.
Simply print the following pdf on a full sized Avery label and cut out the letters and pictures. Adhere a letter or picture to each tag.
Click the following link to download your FREE alphabet pictures for creating this activity Alphabet Pictures for Gift Tags
These seasonal boxes are intended to be used for gift cards. They make such a cute box for storing the activity. They can be found right under the gift tags.
Looking for some more holiday themed activities? Here’s a little CVC activity I created for use in small group instruction or literacy centers for practicing reading consonant-vowel-consonant words.
Click HERE to download this activity from my TpT store.
Holiday Vowel Sorting Activity with a Twist
I was strollin’ through the Christmas section at my local Walmart and found these holiday stakes. They really are meant to placed in the ground around the house, but they are oh so cute and I just couldn’t resist using them for an activity. We have just a few little first graders who still need practice with the short vowel sounds so I thought this would be a perfect holiday activity for use in a literacy center.
To make this activity, first print and cut out the 25 short vowel pictures I put on snowballs. You’ll want to be sure to print the pics on cardstock so that they are durable.
Click the following link to download your 25 FREE short vowel pics Snowball Vowel Sorting
Cut a long strip of Velcro and adhere it to each stick. If you’d like, you can cover the point tip with the Velcro (it’s really not sharp).
Place a piece of Velcro on the back of each snowball and on each short vowel snowball.
Well, that’s pretty much it. So quick and easy.
Holiday and Winter Themed 4-In-A-Row Game Boards
I love the 4-In-A-Row game for practicing sight words. The game makes for an awesome activity for your literacy centers. It can easily be differentiated as you choose which game board to use depending on the level of your students. To play the game, all that is needed is a game board and colored chips or erasers (I love using seasonal erasers to add a bit of holiday spirit). Two students play the game and each take turns reading a word and placing their marker on the word. The first player to have 4 of their colored chip or erasers in a row wins the game. Players need to be sure to block their opponent as they are trying to get their 4-In-A-Row. It’s so simple, and sooooo much fun!
I found these absolutley adorable seasonal erasers at Michael’s Craft Store and asked Kyle (fabulous artist) to make coordinating 4-In-A-Row game boards. As ususal, Kyle did an awesome job! If you don’t have a Michael’s near you, colored bingo chips work just fine–you may want to use red and green.
Click the following link to download your FREE 4-In-A-Row game board for List 1 of the Dolch 220 sight words Holiday 4-In-A-Row Game Board for List 1
When you purchase the baggie of erasers, you’ll get 4 different kinds- here’ the 4-In-A-Row game board using the snowman and mittens.
Click HERE to download 9 game boards with words from the Dolch 220 sight words and 4 blank boards for adding words of your choosing from my TpT store. There are four different seasonal game board designs.
The Make, Take & Teach Snowball Fight game is another fun game for practicing the Dolch 220 sight words.
Click HERE to download Snowball Fight from my TpT store.
Thanksgiving Rhyming Activity
While shopping at one of my favorite craft stores last week–that would be Michael’s– I found these little felt turkeys. They are really stickers that come 7 in a packet. I thought they’d make such a cute rhyming memory game for either a preschool or kindergarten literacy center.
When you download this file, you’ll received 28 rhyming pictures so you’ll need 4 packets of felt turkeys. If you don’t live near a Michael’s Craft Store, I’ve included 28 printed turkeys for you to use.
Click the following link to download the rhyming pictures Thanksgiving Memory Game
Hurry! Hurry! run and get those turkeys before they put up their Christmas supplies.
Eyeball Bingo
Yesterday I decided that I really needed to be done with making Halloween activities and move onto Thanksgiving, but then I received the Dollar General flyer with our newspaper. These eyes were literally staring back at me! Oh my gosh! They look exactly like the 4-In-A-Row eyeball template that Kyle created– I thought Bingo! Literally, I thought Bingo! They’d make such a cute Halloween themed bingo game.
These ping pong eyeballs are $1 for a package of 8. To make this activity, you’ll need 5 packages for a total of 40 balls. If you cannot find these balls, regular ping pong balls will do and you can draw the eyeballs on with red, blue and black Sharpie markers. I purchased a plastic pot at the dollar store to store the balls for this activity.
When you download this file you’ll receive six Eyeball Bingo boards. I’ve also included the CVC word list so that you can write the words on the eyeballs.
Click the following link to download your free eyeball bingo game Eyeball Bingo
