Draw Write Now Review and Giveaway!

Have you ever heard of
 Draw Write Now?  
It is a collection of beginning drawing lessons with text to help students practice their handwriting.  Best part is, it was developed by a teacher!!  There are currently eight books in the series that include science, math, social studies, reading, geography, and creative writing and they come in this beautifully illustrated case.

My daughter will be entering Kindergarten this year and she loves to draw, color, and do any type of craft.  She knows how to form all of her letters, but there are times when she confuses the direction of a few.  She is not a fan of writing the same letter over, and over, and over, and over again.  This program doesn't do that!  In addition to providing step by step directions, using simple strokes to draw cute pictures, Draw Write Now allows the child to practice forming their letters while writing simple sentences about the topic at hand! 

Here she is drawing and writing about cows.

The lessons can be modified to meet your needs.  You can use them with large groups, small groups, and even in one-to-one settings.  You can use any type of paper and/or change the text to suit your needs!

Want some great news?

Barker Creek will provide one of you with a copy of their Draw Write Now Boxed Set!  Rafflecopter will randomly choose one lucky reader to win!  Please be sure to leave your email address!
Congratulations Karen!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you Barker Creek for contacting me to review this program!  It is great!  If you haven't visited their site, make sure you pop over to check out all of their teaching resources and supplies!

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!

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Can Do! Phonemic Awareness Game Show

I am excited to be able to share my thoughts with you about Lakeshore's Can Do! Phonemic Awareness Game Show!

Although it is indicated for students in Grades 1-2, I played this with my kinderkids, who had so much fun practicing identifying and matching initial, final, and medial sounds.

I was able to put the software right into my computer and guided the student through the game.  

I liked that the 
Can Do!  Phonemic Awareness Game Show 
allows you to choose:
~  up to 4 different teams teams.
~  a futuristic player for each team.
~  the length of the game.  There are options to play up to 4, 6, or 8 points.
~  whether or not you want instructions to play throughout the game or not.
~  to print out a score report at the end of the game. This report is broken down by each category (beginning, middle, and ending sounds).
~  to print out a pre and/or post assessment.

My students had fun selecting a player to represent themselves.   When it was their turn, the robotic host told them to spin the wheel and answer a question to earn points.  Each time a question is answered correctly, something fun happens to the avatars of the other players (the Ice Device is activated, the Super Gooper pours cheese, ketchup, dish soap, or some other goopy material on the players, etc...)

Thank you Lakeshore for allowing me to review the 

Can Do! Phonemic Awareness Game Show!  

It was definitely a hit and will be a great addition to help build my students' phonemic awareness!  I keep hearing, "Can we play that robot game again?"

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.

Teachers Notebook
Teachers Pay Teachers

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!!)