Letters and Sounds With a Fall Theme

Just wanted to share some of the fun Fall themed activities we have been using here in small group to help reinforce the letters and sounds!

A current favorite is the Pumpkin Letter Identification pack!  

This pack includes

~  2 sets of small pumpkins, one with upper and the other with lower case letters

~ 2 sets of larger pumpkins, again one with upper and the other with lower case letters. 

~  1 upper and 1 lower case pumpkin alphabet chart (for students to color as they reinforce their letter/sound identification) 

My Monster Love Identification pack includes very similar activities, but I incorporated some not so spooky monsters!  

(Want to know a secret??  I use this pack now and even again around Valentine's Day because of the hearts and "love" theme!) 

This pack includes: 

~ 2 sets of letter cards: 1 set of upper case letters and 1 set of lower case letters

~ 1 page of game cards to play simple letter and sound identification game
~ 1 upper and 1 lower case alphabet chart with hearts (for students to color as they reinforce their letter/sound identification) 

Fun activities you could do with either of these packs, include:

~  Practice pointing to and reciting the alphabet with one of the alphabet charts!

~  Match upper to upper, lower to lower, upper to lower, lower to upper case letters by putting the targeted cards into a festive container and having your students select them one at a time and then coloring the matching letter on the alphabet chart!

~  Practice naming letters and/or sounds by putting the targeted cards into a festive container and having your students select them one at a time and name the letter and/or the sound!

For some fun finding cute and matching cute candy corn and pumpkin letters, try my Fall Letter Finds and Mix Ups!

You will find both upper and lower case versions of candy corn and pumpkin:

~  Letter Finds (letters are listed in alphabetical order)

~  Letter Mix-Ups (letters are mixed up on the page)

~  Some suggestions for use at each level, that include using candy corn, candy pumpkins, bingo dotters, and bingo markers!

Finally, my Daisy Scouts had lots of fun creating their snack this week by making a peanut-free spider and mummy juice box!!

Didn't they come out great?

Letter and Sound Assessment

I like to take an inventory of the letters and sounds my students know at the beginning of the school year.  To do this, I use my Letter and Sound Assessment!  
I use this as a means to assess and then monitor the progress throughout the year. 

I begin by showing the students the upper case letters.  I ask them to tell me the name of each letter and what sound it makes.  I then move on to the lower case letters.  Although this isn't a "timed" test, I only give the child credit if they are able to name the letter or sound automatically (within 3 seconds).  They do not get credit if they need to employ some type of strategy in order to recall the letter name or sound (i.e., they have to recite the alphabet, spell their name, etc...).

Because I use this informal assessment multiple times throughout the school year, I make sure to mark the letters and sounds in a different way and with a different color each time I assess.  There is a space to assess the child three times on one form (6 times total if you print front-to-back).

There is also a box to write notes each time the child is assessed.  (I tend to take a lot of notes on my students, do you?)  I like to keep track of what letters/sounds they did not know, especially if they demonstrate inconsistencies between assessment periods.  Another thing I like to note is if the letter or sound seems to be emerging and I note the strategy the student is using to identify it (i.e., they had to spell their name, recite the alphabet, state the letter-keyword-sound in order to produce the sound).  Here is a picture of the assessment with one of my students for some of the year:

I do suggest that you print pages 2-3 front-to-back.  Then you are able to see the child's growth and have the data for six different assessment periods on one sheet of paper!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Valentine FREEBIES and Goodies!

I thought it would be helpful if I combined all of my Valentine goodies into one post!  

Some of these items are FREE!!  Those that aren't are on sale until Valentine's Day!!

Just click on each picture to be directed to my shop!

  

 

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Thank you!

Valentine Product Updates and SALE!

Hi there!
I spent some time updating two of the products I use for Valentine's Day!

The first one is my 

Sight Word Finds-Love Birds and Puppy Love

I use this as a fun way to practice and reinforce sight words.  I have hidden 16 teeny, tiny words in a full-paged picture.  The students have fun using a magnifying glass to find the words!  I also included a recording sheet for students to write down 15 words as they find them!

This is split up into K and 1.  Each grade has two different Sight Word Finds-Love Birds and Puppy Love.

The following words are hidden:

K-1:  Love Birds:  I, my, go, a, see, can, me, and, is, it, am, in, for, the, at, no

K-2:  Puppy Love:  on, you, like, look, said, to, be, we, not, was, little, this, that, are, up, yes

1-1:  Love Birds:  like, look, said, then, when, with, me, my, from, for, she, he, here, play, all, are

1-2:  Puppy Love:  little, has, his, come, some, here, into, your, went, make, who, away, there, where, what, was  

The second one is my Monster Love Letter Identification.

I use this pack as a fun way to reinforce letters and their sounds.  This is a great addition to any Valentine's Day theme because the graphics used are adorable little monsters with hearts!

Guess what?  Both of these products are listed at half price until Valentine's Day!
Enjoy!

Upper Case Letter Identification Freebie

Here is a fun activity for your students to independently practice their upper case letter identification and alphabetical order.

The students color a path, one square at a time, from A to Z.  As they color, the following box must be touching the last colored box.  I remind my students that if they get stuck, to head back to the beginning of the alphabet and recite the ABC's as they point to each letter.

This download includes two different versions.  In the first version, the students start at the snowflake and create a path to the snowman.  This path moves from top to bottom.  In the second version, students begin at the the bottom with a penguin and creates a path moving toward the top, to reach an igloo.

Hope you and your students enjoy!

A Letter ID Game for the Entire Year!

As a Reading Teacher who works with Kindergarten students who are below grade level, I tend to work on letter and sound identification throughout the entire school year.  One way I do this is by playing a fun pocket chart game all year long that they just LOVE!  

Here is how to play:

~  Display the target letters on a pocket chart.

~  Choose your picture to "hide" and place it behind one of the letters.

~  Have your students take turns pointing to one of the displayed letters and naming it (and the sound sound).

~  If identified correctly, remove the chosen letter to see if the graphic is hiding behind it!

Here is a close up of the game in use in my classroom:

It is really, very simple!  I will use the same letter cards but change the graphic to go along with the seasons or holidays of each month!  The kids love trying to find the hidden picture!  (The first round of each new month is really fun because I don't tell them ahead of time what is hidden!)

Another nice thing about this game is that I always have it displayed in my pocket chart.  So if I have an extra few minutes here or there, we play a quick game.  The kids have fun and it is reinforcing their letter-sound knowledge! 

I created a document that puts all of the letter cards and pictures together in one download.  The download includes:
-  Cards for the 26 upper and lower case letters.
-  12 pictures to correspond with monthly holidays and/or seasons to hide behind the letter cards.

The uses of this game are endless!  I personally use it with sight words, sight word phrases, and CVC words.  It could be used with numbers, math facts, vocabulary words, etc...  Have you played this game before?

Letter Identification with Alphabet Charts

As a reading teacher, I work with many kindergarten students who come to school having little to no exposure to the alphabet.  So in addition to building their critical phonemic awareness skills, I spend a lot of my time exposing them to letters. 

The first place I like to start with my kiddos is with the 
ABC Song and an alphabet chart.  

We begin by singing the traditional melody of the ABC Song because many of the children are familiar with it.  (However there always seems to be a child or two who is not, so the extra practice and reinforcement is generally helpful to all.)  As we sing the song, we point to each letter of the alphabet.  This can be challenging at first, especially for the little ones who do not yet realize the relationship between the letters they are speaking and the letters in print.  It is important to slow the song down so that each letter can be heard, especially the L-M-N-O-P.

We use many different tools for this activity, including fun pointers, our own fingers, alphabet strips, and alphabet charts.  As the students become more proficient, we use different ABC songs and gradually transition into reciting the alphabet (removing the melody and pausing at the end of each row), while pointing to each letter.  

Seems pretty simple, doesn't it?  Alphabet charts provide so many opportunities for teachable moments!

I like working with alphabet charts in this manner for two main reasons:
First, this helps to build understanding of the organization and basic features of print as they follow the letters from left to right and top to bottom.  (Sound familiar to anyone?)  Not only are they improving their ability to recognize and name the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet, but they are tracking print from left to right (understanding directionality), tracking print from the end of the line to the beginning of the next (return sweep), 
and pointing to individual letters (using one-to-one correspondence).  These are big skills for our little literacy learners!

Secondly, this activity provides the students with a strategy to use to help them figure out unfamiliar letters on their own.  Almost every classroom environments are rich in print.  Every classroom in our building has the alphabet posted and most students have the alphabet printed on their name tags at their seats.  So as long as they have the alphabet in front of them and can recite or sing the ABC Song as they point to the letters, they will have a means to name unknown letters.   

Here is a FREE Alphabet Chart to share with you!  To help our little literacy learners develop return sweep, you will see that I alternated the bee and the butterfly for each row.

I also created some letter cards and letter matching/identification worksheets to go along with the alphabet charts.  
You can find them here:

(Here is the link for my TPT shop.)

Here are some links to other letter matching/identification activities I have made to go along with the Fall that include alphabet charts:

 Do you use alphabet charts yourself?  Where do you start with the children who come into school who have had little to no exposure to the alphabet?

Letter and Sound Fluency at Home

As a reading teacher, parents frequently ask what they can do to support their child at home. Each week, I send my kinderkids home with a packet of homework to complete.  This allows the families to see what the child is working on in class with me.  The packet consists of a Student Reader for the child to read each night, along with activities to practice their phonological awareness and other early literacy skills. 

My district implemented AIMSweb for the first time last year.  I noticed that many of the kids became nervous during progress monitoring, simply because they were not used to being timed.  We find timers everywhere nowadays, (cell phones, microwaves, stovetops, games, etc...), so I decided to include something in the homework pack to provide extra practice with their letters and sounds at home while using a timer.  

I just put the finishing touches on this document to share with you!  It includes 10 different forms intended for homework or 1:1 review with an adult.  Directions are included for kiddos to go through and name their letters, then their sounds, along with an opportunity to repeat the routine to beat their initial score!

 Not only did this provide my students with additional practice with their letters and sounds, but I also found that the more they practiced with a timer, the more comfortable they became.

~ Enjoy!

Ladybugs Letters and Sounds Game

Need some new games to help your students practice letters and sounds?  Many of my students are still working to master them, so I created these cute upper and lower case ladybug letter cards and currently use them with my students in two different games.

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One of the games is called, "Ladybugs".  It is a simple card game where you mix up the letter cards and additional playing cards into a pile and place facedown (or put them in a cute Spring themed container).  The students take turns selecting a card and naming the letter and/or sound, or follow the directions written on the card.  Once all of the cards are selected, I flip through each student's pile of letters and have them name the letters or sounds to practice fluency.

The second game is "Find the Ladybug".  This can be played on the tabletop or in a pocket chart.  I use a pocket chart and play this game if I have a few moments to spare before our group time ends.  The kids love it!  This is the same game that I posted about here.  Head over to that post for directions and pictures!

What are some things you do to help your students master their letters and sounds?

St. Patrick's Day Literacy Activities

Here are some St. Patrick's Day themed activities that I will be using in the next few weeks to reinforce some foundational literacy skills.  Click on the pictures to learn more about each activity.

To help practice isolating and segmenting sounds, we will be using plastic gold coins to complete

St. Patty's Day Phoneme Segmentation:

To help practice letter and sound identification, letter writing, and phoneme isolation, my kinderkids will be completing activities from my newly updated 
Lucky Letters Literacy Pack:

And to informally assess correct responses to various phonological skills, I have my students
Color a Lucky Clover:

ABC Mouse App!!

I previously wrote a review for the website ABCmouse.com.

Since then, this site has become a favorite in my house with my little lady.
BUT, have you seen the free apps from ABC Mouse on iTunes?
They have interactive stories, beginning readers, and an interactive zoo!

Their newest app is 26 A-Z Music Videos!

These music videos are great!!   The graphics are cute and colorful and all of the songs are fun and catchy!  They are designed to help reinforce letters and sounds.  

Did I mention that it is FREE??

Now, when you download the app, you start with 3 videos for the letters A, B, and C, along with 100 tickets.  Each time a short video is watched, 1-3 tickets are earned!  Once in awhile, there is a cute little wheel to spin to earn additional tickets.  The tickets earned can then be used to unlock additional videos for free!  (You also have the option to purchase the videos if you choose.)

Now, if you want to check out their other apps, click on the picture below:

Photo courtesy of ABCmouse.com
OR if you have an iTunes account, you can also click here.

And finally, if you wanted to read the review I wrote back in August for the ABC Mouse website, click here.  
(You can learn how to set up a FREE classroom account!!)

Lucky Letter Literacy Pack UPDATED!

In getting ready for St. Patrick's Day, I updated my Lucky Letters Literacy Pack! 

This pack includes upper and lower case versions of:

Lucky Letter Finds (alphabet charts)

Lucky Letter Mix-Ups (letters are mixed up)

Color the Lucky Letters ABC Paths

Write the Lucky Letters

It also includes worksheets for the students to circle the

beginning, ending, and now middle sounds of the words pictured.

Teachers Notebook

Teachers Pay Teachers

I realized that some of the original pictures did not align with the Common Core Learning Standards (a few pictures ended with "l" or "r"), so I went ahead and changed them.  

Here are some of the Kindergarten Common Core Learning Standards that can be addressed when using the Lucky Letters Literacy Pack:

RF.K.1d- Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.
RF.K.2d- Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.* (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
RF.K.3a- Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.
RF.K.3b- Associate the long and short sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for the five major
vowels.
LS.K.1a- Print many upper- and lowercase letters.

Snowman Letters and Sounds

At school, we just completed our AIMSweb Benchmarking.  
Most of the kiddos had a great deal of difficulty with Letter Sound Fluency (LSF).  If you are unfamiliar with AIMSweb, this is where the student is presented with a random series of upper and lower case letters and they need to produce as many sounds as they can in 1 minute.  

When I assessed them with my Letter-Sound Assessment to see exactly what letters and sounds they knew, I found that many of them simply didn't know many letter-sound correspondences.  So they really need a boost in this area.

One game that I like to play with my kiddos is the, 
"Hide/Find the ____" game.  
This game has been around for years and years, but I just love how you can make simple changes and the kids continue to love it each and every time they play it.

I didn't have any fun alphabet cards to use for the winter season (well, none that wasn't currently part of an activity I would be using), so I made these Snowman Alphabet cards to place into a pocket chart and play, "Hide the Penguin" to reinforce letters and sounds.

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How do I play, Hide the Penguin?

Well, do you see that little penguin above?

He is the little guy who I hide behind the cards.

I simply place the letters I want to reinforce  into my pocket chart, as seen below (I play this game with sight words too).

  I then hide the little penguin behind one of the cards.

The kiddos take turns naming a letter and/or producing a sound trying to find the penguin!

Have you played this game before?  Do your kids like it as much as mine?

If you are interested in my Letter-Sound Assessment, you can find it in both of my shops!

Teachers Notebook

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Updated Snowman Letter Identification-LiPS

Hello there!

Completely unrelated to teaching, I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures from the past few weeks of my little ladies.  

Paige was an angel in her school Christmas play and she lost her first tooth (she pulled it out all by herself).  She has been loving the snow that has been falling for the last few days and is excited to celebrate her birthday just next week.  Saydie is also enjoying the snow and the Christmas season!  
She LOVES to open presents, too!

Do any of you have to complete an Evidence Binder?  In case you have no idea what I am talking about, it is now part of New York State's new teacher evaluation plan.  Since the beginning of the school year I have been shoving my "evidence" into the front of my binder.  I really need to sit down to sort through and organize what has been collected so far.  

I added some fun game cards to my Snowman Letter Identification!

Now in addition to using the letter cards with the alphabet charts, you can also use the letter cards with the new game cards to play a fun card game to reinforce letters and sounds.

You can find my Snowman Letter Identification in both of my shops, just click on one of the links below:

Teachers Pay Teachers

Teachers Notebook

Last, but not least, before break I was able to attend a one-day training for the Lindamood-Bell Phoneme Sequencing program called LiPS.  Do any of you currently use the program?  I would like to start incorporating it into my instruction with some of my kinderkids who are REALLY struggling with letter identification, but would love some feedback from real teachers who are using it!  What are your thoughts?

Sleigh Full of Goodies-Presents!

Thanks for continuing along the

If you missed the two stops on the blog hop from Day 1,
make sure you click on the picture above!!

In my sleigh, you will find my 
Christmas Present Letter Identification pack 
This will be FREE, for the next 12 days!

In addition to the blog hop, I am also linking up with Day 1 of 

hosted by Amy of Teaching My 3.

Click on the picture below to hop over to The Lower Elementary Cottage to see what she has in her sleigh!

Thank you Beth from Thinking of Teaching for hosting this merry blog hop!!

Do you have something you would like to share?  

Please link up and join in the fun!!

Turkey Letters and Sounds

One of my favorite holidays happens to be just around the corner!

Thanksgiving of course!

I love gathering with family and eating delicious food!!  
What can be better than that?!

Are you working on introducing and reinforcing letters and sounds?  I created a Turkey Letters and Sounds Pack just for Thanksgiving, with cute little turkeys!  

Don't forget that I also included some cute Thanksgiving pages in the Roll and Say activity to help promote fluency with letters and sounds.

Finally, I have a game board that could be used when reinforcing almost anything.  It is available for FREE!!

Gobble!  Gobble!!

Fluency with Letters and Sounds

Today was a short day at school.  We were dismissed early and will not have school tomorrow due to Sandy.  Being in the northeast, we luckily we have emergency days built into our school year for snowstorms and other emergencies.  Who knew we would use the some of those days for hurricanes two years in a row?  Good news is that it has given me time to let you know what I've been up to!!

I have mentioned in previous posts that my district has adopted and implemented AIMSweb for the first time this year.  Through this assessment, many of my firsties showed weaknesses in both Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) and Letter Sound Fluency (LSF).  For those of you who are not familiar with the assessment, the students are presented with rows of random upper and lower case letters and are asked to name as many letters as they can in one minute for LNF, or as many sounds as they can in one minute for LSF.

LNF and LSF does not tell me what letters and sounds my students know or continue to need more practice with.  To help learn more about this, I also assessed them with my

I found that they did know most of their letters and sounds.  When I put the results of the two assessments together, it showed me that they need extra practice naming their letters and producing their sounds automatically and fluently.  

As a reading teacher, my time with students is limited.  So in addition to providing instruction to my firsties, I also want to provide them with some time for extra fluency practice.  The first few minutes of my intervention time is devoted to practicing this fluency through a quick activity, depending on the day of the week.  
Here is what I have started to do:

Here are some examples of quick activities I do each day:

On Move it Monday, I generally play a quick game where the students are moving game pieces or their bodies.  For example, games like 

and

On Time it Tuesday I have been using my 

I just updated this pack to include a combination of upper and lower case letters.  

For One Breath Wednesday, a wonderful colleague and I created several little ticket-sized boxes with two rows of letters.  My students select their "ticket" and then read each line in one breath. 

Totally unrelated to letters and sounds, I wanted to share with you that we created these tickets after downloading and using Donna Coleman's fabulous "One Breath Boxes" for sight words! 

For Throw it Thursday we will play 

This is a brand new pack that I just uploaded to TPT.  I included two versions for the months of October, November December.

Flip it Friday is usually done with some type of alphabet letter cards.  I have many different sets with different themes, so they are "new" to the kiddos almost each and every time.  I quickly flip through the pile for my students to name the letters or produce the sounds as quickly as they can.

Hopefully these quick daily speed drills will help my firsties increase their automaticity and fluency with their letters and sounds!  What are some activities you do to help promote these skills?

And for those of you who are also affected by Sandy, my thoughts and prayers are with you!  Stay safe!