Thanksgiving Freebies that YOU'LL Want to Have!

Today my kids played a game that Heather Price is giving away! You SHOULD go and get it. . . NOW . . . before Thanksgiving is a past holiday! It's simple and quick and these first graders loved it  and had to think to find the answers.  This group is my RTI group that we call Reading Shuffle. They come to me everyday for 25 minutes and I use only the center activities that I pick up on TPT or here on other people's blogs. Well, I do use the things that I make too. . I just wanted to highlight some OTHER fun people who make cool things.

You see, one of the things that I'm truly thankful for, is all the friends that I have made in this blogging community. So helpful, caring, giving, and receiving too!

So you'll need to go over to visit Heather Price at Heather's First Grade Heart and pick up her Thankful Turkeys. These picture cards have words with the missing digraphs of wh, th, sh, and ch. It's a great practice for those who love a good game.

These kids love to pose for a picture. . . what oh what have we done to children that they are so fascinated with getting their picture taken, and then saying, "Lemme see!" right away!

Then we got out this compound word activity from  Sliding into 1st. 

Cait made these cute little weiner dogs and cut them in half to show the two words of a compound. These would be good for first or second graders. 

I picked this up last year, but it's still a good one to use. 

Those are NOT my blue fingernails. . . I wouldn't ever wear blue!

If you haven't already ventured over to Let's Talk Turkey, you need to do that soon too! That's where you'll find some cool and fun Thanksgiving activities to use before the Holiday is over!

Patty

OU & OW Spellings

Fall. ..Fall. . . oh how I love fall. . . It's cooler outside, the sun still shines and here I sit at my computer. . . shame on me!

I'll make this quick so you too can get outside and enjoy this day.

My kids need to work on learning the difference between the OU and OW spellings on words. They can sound like "OW, I just hurt my finger!" or "OH is that gift for me!"

It's tricky and while there isn't really a special rule to help them learn this, they just need practice in seeing which looks correct.

I made an activity that will help them look at a picture, check out two words and decide which one is the correct one to match the picture. There are 24 cards so you can do this with a SCOOT game if you'd like.

(I would have made more, but it was pretty hard to come up with 24 pictures of words in the clip art that I have!)

 

I also included an answer key, but sometimes it's just as easy to write the answer on the back before you laminate them. Your choice!

You can pick it up at my TPT Store I'd appreciate any comments that you want to leave!

Yesterday was my husband's birthday. . . oh well. . . he was in Chicago at the Ryder Cup with his brothers in laws and nephews. . . . (this looks very much like our anniversary when he was golfing with these same guys!) I guess I'll have to plan a getaway for MYSELF for my birthday in a few weeks since he isn't celebrating with ME anymore!!! ha ha!

Tomorrow is my Dad's 91st birthday. . . 91! Can you imagine living that long? I struggle with the mid 50's sometimes. . 91, that's huge. . . And he is driving down to see us ( a 2 and a half hour drive) this week. He's actually a pretty good driver still. . . notice I didn't say perfect! I'm so glad that he is still around and so independent.  I do realize that things could be so much worse for him and mom.

Today Mom was skyping with me.  . . . I know My MOM Skypes! At 89 years young she is pretty tech savy.

So she is asking me about Facebook. Because in her circle of friends all that she hears about is the BAD stuff on FB! Jeesh! I always try to tell her that I'm ok and that I know who all my friends are and that I don't put things on there that I wouldn't be proud of.

I try to explain to her how the 'friends' thing works. . . I don't  think I was successful, but she said to not worry, she wasn't going to join it anyway!

 Ok, on to the outdoors! This weather is just too nice to sit inside! Plus I think there is an MSU ball game on tv, but I'm not such a fan that I need to watch it!

Patty

Vowel Circle Maps

Today feels like a Saturday to me. We don't have school tomorrow. That's the perk of living in a small rural communtiy. Our county fair started today so all the students in the county get the day off from school tomorrow. Usually the teachers get to go to some wonderful powerful inservice or work on a project. But since our budgets are in check, there is no money to pay us to come to any inservices. So I get the day off. I'm not bragging, I'm just stating a fact. And of course I'll be taking advantage of this extra day and will work on school stuff for most of the day.

Be sure to come back tomorrow night or Tuesday for a great giveaway that I think you'll all want to be checking out.

My district has bought into Thinking Maps and we are supposed to use them as often as we can. I know how to use them and I know  how good they are. But sometimes I'm at a loss as to WHAT to do with them to make them meaningful and helpful.

Then I noticed one of my colleagues had used it for short vowels with her first grade and the light bulb went off. So thank you very much Heather Vettes for inspiring me to get back on the band wagon!

I decided to grab some "Short and Long vowel A" cards that Christina Bainbridge made. You can get her free Short and Long A and Short and Long U cards by clicking on the highlighted words.  I had each child make their own Circle Maps by tracing paper plates and little cups.

They put the words "Short A Words" in the center. Then I put one of her cards on the elmo and asked them to listen to the sound of the 'a' in the word and decide if it had the long sound or the short sound. If it had the short sound they wrote it on their own paper.

I really liked doing this because they "should" have learned these in first grade,

but just in case they didn't remember them, this was a great review for them.

Then we paired up and practiced reading all the short A words with a partner.

Don't cha love how they can fit two little booties in one chair!

Oh I wish I could remember when I could share a chair like that!

This week I plan on doing the same thing with the Short and Long I, the Short and Long O,

 and the Short and Long E.

Since these ideas all come from Christina Bainbridge, I would love it if you would not only leave me a comment, but leave one for her too. After all SHE is the one who put all the hard work into making these. And I love them because they are made with DJ Inker clipart!

Dont' forget to come back in the next couple days!

Patty

Do I need a silent E or don't I?

When kids are learning to spell words, sometimes they just throw that old silent e on the end because they think that's what you're supposed to do.

Oh no you don't!

It just shows that they haven't learned the rules yet and they haven't become familiar with how the word should look.

These cards will help them practice identifying whether an e should go there or not. The words match the cutsie pictures from DJ Inkers clipart.  And that makes it easier for them to figure out the word if they are beginning readers.

I have included a recording sheet and answer key in case you want to put this in a center. But you could easily use it in a small group verbally. This might even be good for when you have a parent who wants to help some kids.  I think I've kept this simple enough that many first (and some of your stinkin smart Kinders!) could do this activity. I only made it in color because if you print and laminate it, the color just pops so much more than black and white.
Here's what one of the pages looks like.

If you'd like to get them click on Silent E or Not

I like to keep them small, but not too small so that you don't have to do a ton of cutting. As you may have noticed, I tend to use the same size cards that are easier for me to cut out with a cutter or my scissors.  I think they are easier for the students to handle and for me to store, too.

If you remember I found these cute little boxes at Walmart and I became obsessed. . .

So seriously obsessed with them. They fit my stuff and most of the ones I've picked up from you, too!  Easy for the kids to open and close. . .

 How many of your kids can't zip the bags?

And it's so much easier than the slippery zip lock bags that are hard to organize.

 I'm just hoping that in a few weeks Walmart will deliver a box to our store with left overs that don't sell and they'll have a zillion of these little things in them! Does your Walmart do that to you? Deliver left overs? Ours is so helpful. They have given us tons of Elmers glue bottles, pens, notebooks (The U of M ones, because WHO wants to buy those!!! heee heee! Big State fan here, sorry!) scissors, and plenty of other stuff.

As Farley would say. . . SQUIRREL!

Back on track again. I know that many of you are back in school today either with our without kids. . . I'm with ya in spirit. Next Tuesday is my first day back. So I'm really trying to absorb these last few days of summer. (and here I sit at my computer! duh! Get outside!)

Patty

Back To Back Freebies

One of the things we do for oral language development is called "Back to Backs."

This is how it works. Two students sit back to back with the same piece of paper and the same colors of crayons or markers. Limit the colors to about 5. They can use something for a hard surface to write on. Child #1 tells child #2 what word shape to color and what color to color it. So at that time they BOTH color that same word the same color. They do NOT show each other the word or their finished coloring. They don't peak either!

Then child #2 tells child #1 a word and a different color to color in that shape. They repeat the same as above. This activity continues until they are done with all the words and colored everything in.  The picture won't look good because they may have chosen colors to use that won't compliment the picture!

Only now do they compare pictures. If they listened well, and IF they can read well, and IF they know their colors, then their pictures should be an exact match. This is a fun activity and well . . .  a bit noisy because everyone is talking at the same time!

But when they are done, it's fun to see who truly was listening and who wasn't. I have more of these and will post more, if you think they are worth while for your students.

Click here for the link.

Patty

Freebie! Long Vowel Spelling Cards

Yea! It's Friday! All day long! I love Fridays. My kids start out in Art first thing, then go to the library, then our Title Teacher comes in and does a lesson with them to get them ready for the MEAP test they will take next fall. And after that it is 10:30 and I get to actually teach them something! Some days I wish everyday was Friday!

Today I am sharing another card game with you. . . . I call them cards, just because I can't think of a better word. . . .so cards they are and cards they will be!

These are so similar to other things I've posted, except these ONLY deal with the long vowel sounds of many vowels. Each card has two choices of spellings. Each spelling will make the long vowel sound that matches the pictures, BUT only one is the correct spelling.

Christina shared with me that she likes to use Hot Dots (which I had to admit I didn't know what they were!)  to make it easier for the kids to find the correct answers.  If you have such capability, then go ahead and use that too.

I am now wondering if I should be including an answer key card with these so the kids can self check them. . . . I usually use them in a small group situation, so I can help them see if they are right instantly.

Also I use D.J Inkers clipart and Peggy font for making these. I think if I won the lottery, I would buy all the D.J. Inkers clip art there was! Why does that fascinate me so? I just think they are so dang cute!

Ok here they are! Enjoy them and if you do take them, please let me know. I am loving that I keep making new friends from all over the United States!
long vowel spellings

Patty