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?

I Have, Who Has Blending and Rhyming

Hi all!  
Do your students like "I have, Who has" games?  Well, since I work with small groups of children, I wanted a quick activity where they could practice blending their sounds and also reinforce their rhyming skills at the same time, so I created these two games.  

The two games are identified by the color of their borders, one yellow and the other pink, with eight rhyming pairs each.  Each game creates a loop, so the last question is answered by the first answer set on the table.  The students are encouraged to work together to determine the correct answers.  Directions are included! 

Click on the picture to download.

 

I also have another "I have, Who has" game to help reinforce rhyming.  This game is much longer and includes 24 rhyming pairs.  In this  game, there is no text for the students to read.  They match the rhyming pairs using only pictures.

Click on the picture to head over to my TPT shop!

Have you ever heard of LoopWriter?  It is a program you can buy/download that can create looping games just like these.  They also have a FREE "I have, Who has" rhyming game with pictures.  You can access that here.

Thank you!

Ultimate FREEBIE Collection-HAPPY BIRTHDAY TBA!

Have you been over to Teaching Blog Addict (TBA) in the last few days?  If you haven't, you really need to stop by!
We are hosting an ultimate FREEBIE celebration to celebrate filled with FREEBIES for different grade levels!

Click on the picture below to head to the 

PreK and Kindergarten FREEBIES:

Once you are there, you will find 8 or more pages of 50 FREEBIES to each page!  

And that is just for PreK-Kindergarten!

Click on the links below to find the other grade levels:

1st-2nd Grade

3rd-4th Grade

5th-6th Grade

So get your printer ready and stop by to grab some amazing FREEBIES!  

You are also invited to link up your own FREEBIES!

How amazing is that?

I feel so blessed to be an author for TBA and can't believe it has already been 2 years!  I look forward to celebrating many, many more!!

HAPPY, HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY TBA!

Zippin Down the Freebie Trail

I am so excited to be part of the FREEBIE trail!
I hope you have found some great activities to add to your toolbox!

I would like to share a fun game called
The Bunny Trail

This game can be used to reinforce so many different skills.  I use it to reinforce fluency with letters, sounds, and sight words.

To play, write whatever needs to be reinforced on the included flash cards and also in the empty boxes on The Bunny Trail game board.  Mix up the cards and have the child read through each card until they get to the first target on the trail.  You then continue the same routine until the bunny gets to the end of the trail!
Enjoy!!

Now, click on the egg below to zip on down to our next stop and see
Learn With Me in Grade Three

And if you are just starting with us, click on the egg below to head to beginning of the trail!

 

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!!)

Want to have some fun?

Anyone up for having some fun?

I found this cute little picture in my daughter's room.

The first 3 people who can tell me the author and title of the book that is pictured, will win my updated

Lucky Letters Literacy Pack!!

Jessica, Michelle, Kimberly, and Casey were all right!
It is from The Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon.
A favorite here in our house!
Thanks for playing along and please check your email ladies!  I'll be sending you the file!

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.

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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.

New Student Reader-"I See"

Now that assessments are done and I have added new kinderkids to my caseload, new groups and routines are underway.

I really wanted to start reinforcing concept of word with some of my groups, so I wrote a new Emergent Student Reader called, "I See".

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I will be using it to reinforce:

~  concept of word, sentence, and space 

~  sight words:  I, see, the, a

~  1:1 correspondence when reading

~  use of picture clues when reading
~ onset-rime blending
~ rhyming

I start by writing out the sentences on sentence strips and placing them in the pocket chart.  I model how we point to one word at a time when reading.  Of course I make a mistake or two (I read "a" instead of "the" and insert the word "can") for the students to correct me.  This helps ensure they are focusing on the words.

I then have each student come up and read with a pointer.  Once done, they receive their own copy to begin their Student Reader folder.  (As we read additional Student Readers, they will be added to the folder.)  They will also be taking home the Home Reader to read to someone special.

 This reader is a bit more simplistic than the first one included in my Emergent Student Readers Set 1. If you want to learn more about the Student Readers I have created and use with my students, you can click on the pictures below:

Thanks and enjoy!

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!

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