Boo! A Fun Halloween Game

admin October 3, 2012 No Comments

Practicing sight words is fun with games like Boo!  I love this game because it offers many opportunities for response and the kids LOVE playing it.  To assemble your game, simply print the pages single-sided to double-side on cardstock and cut out the cards.  Scatter the cards word side down on the table and have the students take turns choosing the cards.  When a student picks the “Boo!” card all of his or her cards are returned to the pile.  Play then continues until your small group intervention time is over.  The player with the most cards at the end wins the game.  Sound simple?  It is, but the kiddos love it! Click HERE to download your FREE Boo! sight word game

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Parent Handouts- Perfect for Conferences!

admin September 30, 2012 No Comments

I am really envious of my friends and colleagues who are organized.  I am just not one of those people.  I’ll confess my computer files are a mess.  Files are saved on several different computers, in different folders and under a variety of file names.   Well, conferences are coming up soon and I’m on a mission this morning to organize all my handouts and put them into one file on my hard drive and under file names that I can easily recognize.   It was my goal to have a parent handout developed for each of the 5 Big Ideas of Reading Instruction–Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension–and to have them grade specific.  Well, I’m not quite done yet.  I have

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Using Blending Boards During Small Group Instruction

admin September 29, 2012 No Comments

We’ve finished our DIBELS Next testing and our intervention groups are now in full swing.  Our teachers have been bringing out those blending boards that the Career Tech students made us last year (love them!) and are using them within their small group instruction.   We started using these blending boards last winter when our first grade Nonsense Word Fluency data wasn’t where we wanted it to be.  Our students were accurate with their sound-symbol relationship, but were mostly sounding out the words sound-by-sound rather than just reading the whole word.  Since posting the video on How To Use A Blending Board last April, I’ve been getting tons of emails and comments.  I decided to put all the downloads and videos in one blog post so you

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Monsters and Aliens, Oh My!

admin September 23, 2012 No Comments

Well I made the Candy Corn Alphabet activity with a cute little box found at JoAnn Fabrics and the Halloween Rhyming game with plastic discs found at Michaels Craft Store; I just couldn’t leave out my other favorite craft store- the Hobby Lobby.  While on my shopping trip with my daughter in the “big city” of Lansing, we stopped by the Hobby Lobby and found these cute little foam aliens.  I thought they’d be perfect for a Halloween-themed math center activity.   Okay– there is some assembly involved, but aren’t they so, so cute?  There are a total of 30 aliens! The directions for assembly are on the pdf which you can download for free. This is what the package looks

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Halloween Games

admin September 21, 2012 No Comments

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile you may know that my daughter Kassie is now a college freshman.  I miss her terribly.  Even though I have one child still at home the house is eerily quiet.  Fortunately, her college is only an hour and a half away, so a quick car ride down on a Saturday is pretty easy to do.  Last Saturday I picked her up from her dorm and we traveled to the nearest mall.  How much fun!  We both picked up a few items of clothing, but spent most of our time in craft stores.  We both love Michaels Craft Store, the Hobby Lobby and Jo Ann Fabrics!  So, here are a few of the fun finds that I turned into literacy

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Focus Sticks

admin September 17, 2012 No Comments

I love my job.  I really, really do!  One of the favorite parts about my job is that I get to network with a whole bunch of very talented teachers.  I love hearing about and seeing them implement creative strategies to improve student learning.   During the past several years, many of our local school districts have focused on improving writing instruction.  All of our schools, from elementary to high school, received training in the Collins Writing Program.  In addition, teachers were able to participate in other inservices such as the 6 Traits of Writing to enhance their instruction in this area. My good friend and colleague, Michelle (same job, just different schools) came back to our office one day so excited to share what she had seen in

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Build It- Write It Cards for CVC and CVCC/CCVC Words

admin September 13, 2012 No Comments

A few months ago, my good friend Keri from the Sweet Life of Teaching was preparing for a training that she was about to offer.  On the table was a roll of vinyl chalkboard paper (I’ve never seen or heard of it until this time).   As she was describing what it was and how she uses it in her classroom, I was literally getting goosebumps.  You can purchase the paper in single sheets, but Keri loves it so much, she purchased a whole roll!  Whoever invented vinyl chalkboard paper is a genius.  This product is so versitle… from using it to label bins to creating activities…it is awesome!  The paper can be cut into any size (just like contact paper).  You, or your

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A Fun Halloween Phonemic Awareness Activity

admin September 9, 2012 No Comments

Two kids away at college and the other at a birthday party.  What’s a mom to do?  Go SHOPPING!  No mall for me, though, just a quick jot over to the Dollar Tree and a stop at Walmart for wiggly eyes (super cool project for an upcoming post).  While at the Dollar Tree, I found these adorable Frankenstein sippy cups.  They were practically jumping off the shelf into my hands begging to be made into a project.  So here’s what I came up with. The activity is phoneme segmentation activity where students name the picture, segment the sounds (“ant” /a/ /n/ /t/) and place the picture in the correct cup with the number of sounds (2, 3, or 4).  To make this activity

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Super Easy Privacy Screens

admin September 5, 2012 No Comments

My teacher friend, Deb, has a super easy (and cheap!) way of making privacy screens for the students in her classroom.  She simply purchases boxes from our local Office Max and cuts out one side.  So easy!   Deb says these privacy screens are durable and they are the perfect size.  The students can still see her as she is providing directions (other screens are too high) and they fold up nicely and are easy to store.   Upon Deb’s direction, students get up and get a privacy screen from the box and quickly set it up.  I love it because it makes for a quick and easy transition so instruction can begin right away. I know what some may be thinking…these boxes may look

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Tactile Sight Word Cards- No Sandpaper Needed!

admin August 28, 2012 No Comments

Ever since posting the DIY tactile letters, I wanted to create templates to make tactile words for the first three lists of the Dolch 220 sight words.  I’m such a believer in a multi-sensory approach to teaching that, despite the amount of time they’ll take to make, they’ll be so worth the effort!  Once made, they should last you for years. So, this is what you’ll need for your project:  1.  Adhesive Outdoor Tread.  I purchased this tread at my favorite home improvement store–the Home Depot in the paint section.  2.  9 sheets of 3 different colors of 12×12 cardstock (scrapbooking cardstock found in most large department stores).  3.  Clear contact paper if you do not have access to a laminator.

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