Spring Sight Word Find FREEBIE

Today was a beautiful Spring day here in Upstate New York!  

Tomorrow is supposed to be even better!!  

Then back to work on Monday.  

This upcoming week is filled with 3 days for the NYS ELA Assessment.  The following week is filled with 3 days for the NYS Math Assessment.  Even though I am not working with anyone in the testing grades, I am proctoring so it is a huge interruption in my schedule.  Do your students have state assessments coming up?

On a different note, have you seen the new features over at Teacher's Notebook?  They have many new features and they make life sooo much easier!  I am going to send you over there now to pick up my  newest Spring Sight Word Find for kindergarten.  

This Sight Word Find addresses the following Common Core Learning Standard:

K.RS.FS.3c:  Read common high-frequency words by sight.

I have hidden 18 teeny, tiny sight words for students to find using magnifying glasses!

In case you missed them, I also posted two additional Sight Word Finds for our Kinders and Firsties.

Love Birds Sight Word Find

This Sight Word Find addresses the following Common Core Learning Standard:

K.RS.FS.3c:  Read common high-frequency words by sight.

Let it Snow! Sight Word Find

This Sight Word Find addresses the following Common Core Learning Standard:

K.RS.FS.3c:  Read common high-frequency words by sight.

I do want to apologize because I just realized that I am sending you to two different shops!  If you click on these last two Sight Word Finds, that you will be going to my TPT shop!

Emergent Student Readers Set 2

I am so excited because I just uploaded my second set of 
Emergent Student Readers!!

Teacher's Notebook

or

Teachers Pay Teachers

This set includes 4 different student readers with sight word flash cards and picture cards to go along with each.  Something new included in this set are the Home Readers I created for the children to take home.  I found that my students really enjoyed reading each Emergent Student Reader and wanted to share their successes with their parents.  I would end up drawing boxes on the bottom for parents to document each time their child read.  Now the Home Readers have the boxes already prepared on the bottom and are ready to be sent home.  I have my students bring it back to me when all of the boxes are filled in for a special treat!

I introduce each Emergent Student Reader by writing the sentences on sentence strips and then place them in a pocket chart, displayed with the picture cards.  We review the sight word flash cards and then the students use a fun pointer to practice concept of word as they point to each word and read the story.  Here is one of my kinderkids reading "The Footprint" which is from my first set of readers:

Because I have different groups reading at different levels, I found that I didn't always have the time to switch out the sentence strips to change to a different reader.  So instead of using the big sentence strips, I cut out the sentences of the reader itself and placed them in a small pocket chart as shown below:

After we read it together, the Emergent Student Reader is then printed out and kept in the students’ own personal folders (the ones with the brads on the inside), along with the flash cards for the students to practice and reread.  


The students love them.  Their folders also become a nice activity if we have an extra minute or two at the end of our group or if I need to work individually with a student for a short amount of time.

If you missed my first set of Emergent Student Readers, click on the picture below:

These activities address the following Common Core Learning Standards:

K.RS.FS.1:   Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

K.RS.FS.1a:  Follow words from left to right, top to bottom.

K.RS.FS.1b:  Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequence of letters.

K.RS.FS.1c:  Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.

K.RS.FS.3:  Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words

K.RS.FS.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.

K.RS.FS.3c:  Read common high-frequency words by sight.

Well, it is Wednesday evening and my vacation is halfway over (**big sigh).  It has been such a wonderful mix of visiting with extended family, relaxing, and spending time with my immediate family.  I really thought I would have the time to catch up on my blog hopping, but I haven't been able to do so yet!  But hey, my entire vacation isn't over yet and I still have half of it left!  Woo hoo!!


Stay posted because I have some additional activities I am in the process of finishing up and uploading.  I also have some great giveaways coming up once I get back into the classroom!  I have two different pieces of technology and a membership to a great site to give away! 

Lessons I learned...

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

We suffered a minor little catastrophe in my house.  Saturday night, I accidently spilled an entire glass of water all over the keyboard of my laptop.  Not cool.  The next morning I couldn't get it to turn at first.  Once I did, my keystrokes were so wacky.  Sometimes capital letters would come out, other times lower case.  Then throughout the day I couldn't get it to turn on and stay on.  I have so many files on that little guy!  Files AND pictures!  Did I panic?  
Ummm....YES!!
Not only was I worried about losing my files and pictures, but I do soooo much on my little laptop.  It scared me to think that I would be off this week without my laptop!

Luckily I had backed up a lot of my files on Dropbox.  Do you use Dropbox?  I used to be the kind of gal who backed my files up onto flashdrives, but then would be so worried that I would lose the the flashdrive itself.  Then I used Google Docs for awhile, which I still do.  But I find that Dropbox is easier to organize.  You can access your documents from any computer with internet service and can download something right to your desktop.


Yesterday I ran out and bought myself a new laptop.  Between Dropbox and sharing between homegroups in Windows 7, I was able to save everything!  YAY!!


My lessons learned:
~  Back EVERYTHING up! (Do you?  If so, how?)
~  When I am eating or drinking, my laptop will be nowhere near me!


Finally, just wanted to share a pic I made through Instagram.  
My little lady makes everything in my world all better!

 

 Have a wonderful day!  

Hopefully today will be much less stressful in our house!!

The Pigeon Wants a Puppy, Do You?

I was so excited to see that 

Mo Williems

is reading his book

this month for 

Online Storytime at Barnes and Noble!

I LOVE Mo Williems!

I have posted about the Online Storytime at Barnes and Noble a few times now!  Are you sick of it?!  LOL!

I can't help it!  I love the books they feature and the authors and celebrities they have reading them!!  I also love that you can view the books they featured in previous months!

And by the way...I am now officially on Spring Break!  

Wooooooooooooooo hoooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Bunny Hop Freebie

I am so excited to be hopping along the bunny trail with TBA!
Thank you so much for joining us!


On this stop of the bunny trail, I am sharing a fun little game that can be used to help reinforce so many different skills as your students help the bunny hop along the bunny trail to reach his friend with the carrot!  I use it to help reinforce letters, sounds, and sight words.  But you can also use it to reinforce numbers, math facts, or any rote skill!  

To play, simply write whatever you would like the child to practice in the empty boxes on the bunny trail and also create matching flash cards.  Mix the cards up and have the child read through each until they get to the first word on the bunny trail.  Continue until you get to the finish and the bunny with the carrot has been reached.

I included two versions, one does not have a colored background in case you wanted to save some ink!


Are you having fun hopping on the bunny trail?  
We sure hope so!
Click on the egg below to continue hippety hopping along our bunny hop!

Next you will be visiting Mrs. Lyons 
from

Get Your Hoppers Ready!!

Did you know that in just a few days the authors of TBA will be holding a Bunny Hop full of FREEBIES?  This Bunny Hop will take you through several AMAZING blogs each day, who will each be offering an AMAZING FREEBIE and will be lasting an entire week!  
A little bunny told me that the hop will be coming through here toward the beginning of the hop!! (wink, wink)

It all begins April 1st so try to rest those hoppers of yours because you won't want to miss a single leg of our FREEBIE trail! 

Bunnies and Chicks Early Literacy

I just put together a set of activities to practice some early literacy skills.  It has adorable bunnies and cute little chicks to help practice letter identification, letter-sound correspondences, letter writing, and isolating beginning and ending sounds!

Here is what I included:

Bunny Letter Finds and Bunny Letter Mix-Ups: to practice letter identification.

Write the Missing/All Bunny Letters (upper and lower):  to practice writing their upper and lower case letters in ABC order.

Chick Beginning/Ending Sounds:  to practice identifying the letter that makes the sound at the beginning of the word, then at the end of the word.  They will then write the letters heard at the beginning and end of the word.

These activities address the following Common Core Learning Standards:

~  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 (CVC) words. 

~  RF.K.3a:  Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary or many of the most frequent sound for each consonant.
~ L.K.1a:  Print many upper- and lowercase letters.
~  L.k.2c:  Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes).

Click on a link below to learn more:

Teachers Notebook or Teachers Pay Teachers 

The Common Core, Goals, Parties and BOOGIES!

So do you want to know what the Common Core, Goal Tracking, Party Math and Boogies (yes THOSE boogies) have in common?

Well before I answer that, let me ask you another question.  

Do you follow Teacher's Market or Like her Facebook page?    

If you don't, I really think you should!  You can use the links above to access her pages.  Elizabeth shares contests, grants, freebies, deals, and coupons  to help teachers save in the classroom.

I won the following items all because she promoted the contests and giveaways on her blog and/or Facebook page!

Here is what I won:
An amazing Boogie Wipes Classroom Kit!

This really cool Ring the Bell Electronic Goal Tracker from Educational Insights through What the Stuff Toy Review

A neat Party Time math game from Remedia Publications

And finally, a super-useful K-5 Common Core Flip Chart from Mentoring Minds

I am sending a BIG 

THANK YOU 

to Elizabeth at Teacher's Market for all that she shares and to all of the companies for their generosity in sharing their products through giveaways!

Since I was feeling lucky I bought a lottery ticket...but apparently I am not that lucky!  You can't blame a girl for trying though, right?!

Spring Phoneme Segmentation

Happy Spring!!

To celebrate Spring, I put together a some Elkonin boxes with cute little flowers to practice phoneme segmentation.  

My students will use a seed or a jellybean and slide it up the stem to the flower for each sound that is heard in the word dictated or pictured in a picture card.  (There are two different versions included in the download:  one for words up to 3 sounds and the other for words up to 4 sounds.)  They will then connect the sounds they hear to the letters and write the word on the corresponding worksheet.  Click on the picture above to learn more!

It surely doesn't feel like March here in Upstate New York, we have been having the most glorious weather here!  Temps are forecasted to be in the 80's on Thursday!  Very exciting.  This has kept me outside with my little one almost every single afternoon, which is taking me away from my little blog.  I have many things floating in my head to sit down and create, and am hoping to do so soon!  The kiddos at school are just as excited as I am, and boy do they have Spring Fever!  It feels like it is the end of June.  Hopefully we can all pull ourselves together since it is only March!   LOL!

Color a Lucky Clover FREEBIE

Top Of the Morning to You!Are you wearing green today?  

I am happy that I remembered!!  

(Usually I don't remember until I leave the house!  LOL!)

Just wanted to quickly share something simple that I whipped up to use with my little ones today.  I have used this type of activity for a way to review and as a means to informally assess. 

Here is how I will be using it:

~  I will be printing out the document and cutting it into four strips.  

~  Each student will get their own strip.  

~  As I review various phonological skills with each student, they will color in a Lucky Clover for each correct response.  

It is a fun way for me to informally assess where they are with the skill they are working to strengthen.  You could use this in so many ways, with any type of skill!  It could be used for literacy skills or even mathematics skills!

Also, don't forget about my St. Patty's Day Phoneme Segmentation Activity!

Enjoy your day!!

Now how many of you will be cooking corned beef and cabbage?  Will you do it in the crock pot???