Spring Has Sprung Blog Hop! Featuring a Freebie AND a Giveaway!

You have NO idea how happy I am that SPRING HAS ARRIVED!!!   I live in Chicago and winter was rough this year, to say the least!  So, I am very happy to announce that I've joined forces with 19 other teacher-bloggers to bring you some awesome FREEBIES and GIVEAWAYS!   Just hop on through, grabbing some fabulous free items and entering some great giveaways!

GAMES ARE FUN!  

If you follow my blog regularly, you know how much I LOVE using games in the classroom!  I keep a huge basket full of various reading, math, and science games to pull from for use in centers, small groups, or as homework.  Some of them have been in circulation for more than 10 years, but they are still going strong!  I think there is no better way for my littles to get the repetition they need to learn basic math facts and sight words than to play a game.  I also think games are a great way for students to develop reading fluency.  You can see my recent post about games and reading fluency by clicking HERE.   

FIRST, THE FREEBIE!  

Click on the picture to find it on Teachers Notebook.

Click HERE to find it on Teachers Pay Teachers.

This FREE set includes 3 types of games (K-2):  a full color Bump game, two add and read sight word sentences games, and one addition color by sum game.  It also includes an emergent reader and more pages, but games are the focus of our hop!   I hope your class has fun practicing with these!  

NOW, THE GAME GIVEAWAY!*  

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below to win a READING FLUENCY GAMES BUNDLE (not yet available in my stores) worth $30!   It includes 10 games to use throughout the year!  Plus, just to give you a better chance of winning, I'll pick 1 winner for every 50 entries.  We'll let the numbers decide how many winners I pick!  

The READING FLUENCY GAMES BUNDLE includes the following list of games.  You can click on each title to take a look at it in one of my stores.  

Fall Fluency Phrases Board Game (K-1)

Halloween Train Reading Game:  CVC Words and Sentences (K-2)

Gingerbread Man Game:  Sight Words, Sentences, Blends and Digraphs (PreK-1)

Snowman Soup Sight Word Sentence Game for K Through Third

Reading in the Rain:  Blends, Digraphs, Long Vowels, and Sight Word Phrases (PreK-2)

Pool Party Sight Word Sentence Game for K-3

Soda Shop Sight Word Sentences Game (PreK-3)

Race to Reading Fluency Board Game (K-1)

Fairy Tales Fluency Reading Board Game (PreK-1)

Pirate Reading Party (PreK-K)

*CLICK HERE to see the general terms and conditions of the giveaway.  Remember, you must be a resident of the U.S. and at least 18 years of age to enter.  Also, all entries will be verified.  Unverified entries will not count.  Good luck!  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please click on the blog button below to visit Cherry Workshop, 

the next stop on the hop!  

Spring Has Sprung Linky Party! Free and Priced Resources for Spring!

Yea!  It's FINALLY the first day of spring!  Let's celebrate the (hopefully!) end of cold and snow in Chicago with some link party fun!  

Scroll to the bottom to take a look at some great, spring-themed, free and priced resources for grades K-3.  Who couldn't use something NEW for spring?!  

Teacher-Authors:  Feel free to add your links below.  Please add only 1 free item and 1 priced item (or 2 free items) for grades K-3.  Also, to help visitors to the site, please add "FREE" to the title if your resource is free and a $ if it is a priced item.  If you have room, please add the grade level of the resource.  Please make sure your link goes directly to the resource and not to a blog post.  Thanks!  

An InLinkz Link-up

Thank you for reading!  I hope you found some great spring resources for your classroom!  

GIVEAWAY! Secret Word Write the Room COMBO PACK!

What do you do when your class has grown tired of the usual "Write the Room" activities?  Switch it up with some "secret words" of course!  

This COMBO pack includes all 7 of my "Secret Word Write the Room" products (for K & 1st).  I have sets for back to school, fall, Thanksgiving, winter, spring, and summer, as well as a gingerbread set!  Each individual write the room set includes:

*2 levels of write the room sight word cards with 18 cards each

*Most sets include 1 EDITABLE set of cards!  I'm busy adding editable cards to ALL of the sets!

*5 write the room lists with separate secret words (in color and blackline)

*1 write the WHOLE room recording sheet (in color and blackline)

*1 write the room & make sentences sheet (in color and blackline)

I tried to make these sets so that there is something for every child in the class.  I have some students who simply like to write the words, reading them with me or a friend.  Some like to figure out the "secret words."  My high flyers either write all of the words or use some words in sentences.  It doesn't matter which activity they choose, everyone is enjoying Write the Room once again!  

So, to WIN your own Secret Word Write the Room COMBO SET (a $15 value), just enter the Giveaway below!  There will be 3 winners.  Remember:  The giveaway is only open to U.S. residents 18 and over.  Good luck!  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Using Board Games for Reading Practice and Fluency (and a FREEBIE!)

Click on the picture to see this product on Teachers Notebook.

Click here to see it on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I played this reading board game with my own children.  My son was reading the CVC words while my daughter read the sentences.  Then, they both wrote words or sentences on recording sheets with dry erase markers.  It was great practice with little protest because they love to play games!  

I have actually made several similar games for my classroom over the years.  Students love to take them home.  Parents find them easy to use.  They are a simple, quick way to practice reading without overwhelming reluctant readers.  Most importantly, my students ASK to play them with friends at school and often request to take them home.  

So, I have tried to make games that appeal to several groups of readers in my class:  those just beginning to merge sounds to make words, students who need sight word and fluency practice, and a more challenging set for the high flyers.  One of the things I love the most is that students don't have to use the same set of cards in order to play the game together!  

I hope your students are enjoying the games as much as my class and my own children.  Click on the picture below to download a FREE one for spring!   

Thank you for reading!  

Bright Math Ideas Blog Hop: Math Journals for Kinder and First

Thanks for joining us on the hop this weekend!  I hope you leave with some new math ideas and useful materials.  Be sure to grab my St. Patrick's Day freebie, then click on the blog button at the bottom to hop over to the next blog!  

I cannot tell you how useful math journals have become in my classroom!  I have been using them for 3 years with great success.  

                                     

Click on the picture to download some FREE journal covers.

3 reasons why I continue to use math journals:

1)  Math journals serve as a record of student progress.  

When a student is responsible for illustrating his/her own math problem, I can tell right away which concepts he/she does not understand.  Did the student draw the correct number of items?  Did he/she add or subtract the correct amount?  Does the student struggle with where to begin?  

The journals also serve as a wonderful record of math progress to use during conferences.  I often make notes on student entries so I can best recall student performance and/or have something I wish to share with parents.

2)  They help me implement the Common Core Standards in a systematic way.  

I made sets of journal prompts to use in my classroom for every season and most holidays.  Each set covers ALL of the Common Core Standards.  Topics like patterns (not included in the standards, but a valuable math skill), counting, 2D shapes, and beginning addition are covered in the first semester.  Addition, subtraction, 3D shapes, the teens, and measurement are more of the focus during the second semester.  Making sure each set covers all of the standards helps me to provide students with several prompts per topic throughout the year.  

3)  The journals are so easy to prepare and implement!  

I buy composition notebooks (Yea for back to school sales!) for the journals.  I love using the prompts because they use much less ink than usual worksheets.    Plus, I make 6 on a page, so you only need to copy a few pages for the whole class!  I cut them out and give one to each student.  The student glues the prompt at the top of the page and we're ready to go!  

I made a FREE sample set of prompts for kinder and first.  They have a St. Patrick's Day theme and cover several standards.  Click on the picture below to get a copy!  

I hope your students enjoy using this set!  Be sure to HOP on over to Reading with Miss B!  Just click on the blog button below.  

Thanks for reading and enjoy the hop!  

St. Patrick's Day FREE Printables for Kindergarten

Click on the picture to see it on Teachers Notebook.

Click HERE to see it on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I think my latest FREEBIE is just adorable!  The graphics are super cute!  The picture graphics are from Creative Clips, Lindy du Plessis, Educlips, and KPM Doodles.  I think everything is more fun when you have cute pictures to color!  

This set has 10 pages of math and literacy cut and color activities.  It contains the following pages:  

*St. Patrick's Day Hats Spin & Color:  A Words

             This is a 2-player game where students spin a paper clip and color words from different short vowel word families.  The first person to color 8 words wins!  This page provides some extra CVC practice.  A couple of blends are thrown in for an extra challenge.  

*Lucky Shamrocks!  

             Here, students color the shamrocks according to the number of letters in each sight word.  

*Pots of Gold!  

              On this page, students cut out words with the short "e" sound and glue them with the correct word family.  This is great for students still working on CVC words!

*Leprechaun Sentence Scramble

              Students cut out a scrambled sight word sentence, glue the words in the correct order, then write the sentence.  This page will be great to use on the day the leprechaun visits!  

*Color the Coins:  Sums of 9 & 10

              On this page, students color the coins according to the sum of each addition problem.  My students can always use more addition practice!  

*Coloring Lucky Gold:  Tens and Ones

               Here, students color the correct amount of coins to represent each number.  This page provides some place value practice.

*Lucky Graphing:  Sight Words

                This page combines reading AND math!  Students cut out the lucky horseshoes and use them to represent how many words are found.

*Adding Shamrocks

                 Here, students use shamrocks to represent each addition problem.  Pages like this one have really worked well in my class this year.

*Ten Hats

                On this page, students cut out additional hats, using them to make ten in each set.  

*St. Patrick's Day Addition Within 10

                This is just an extra addition practice page--but it has adorable graphics!  

This FREE set gives you a little preview of my SPRING set!  The spring set has 40 pages of similar material.  Each of the pages is completely different from my St. Patrick's set, so if you get both, it's like having 50 pages to use!  AND the set is a Daily Deal on Teachers Notebook through Monday, Feb. 17 (Tuesday, too, if I win the bid), so it's only $2.40!  Click on the picture below to take a look.  

Click on the picture to see it on Teachers Notebook.

Click HERE to see it on Teachers Pay Teachers.  

I hope you AND your students enjoy the freebie!

Teaching Beginning Reading Part 1 of 5: Letter Sounds

I have created this series of posts to answer a few questions I have received recently regarding beginning reading instruction.  I really enjoy teaching little ones to read.  It's one of my favorite things about teaching.  This series is intended to break beginning reading instruction into 5 steps, starting with letter sounds.  

In my classroom and with my littles at home,  I teach beginning reading using phonics.   Knowing the sounds letters make is an essential skill for decoding new words.  Of course, some words cannot be "sounded out" and must be learned by sight, but more about that in a future post . . .

The very first thing I teach my beginning readers is the most frequent sound each consonant makes.  These frequent sounds are the ones found in most 3-letter words.  Some examples would be "G" as in gorilla (not giraffe), "X" at the end of fox (not xylophone, which is actually a "Z" sound), and "C" as in cat (not city).  When I send materials home, I always include a list of the most frequent sounds and/or an answer key.     This makes it easier for those who might not have learned to read using phonics.  

As for the vowels, I teach the short vowel sounds first for the same reason.   Most 3-letter words have short vowel sounds.  That would mean "A" as in apple, "E" as in elephant, "I" as in igloo, "O" as in octopus, and "U" as in umbrella.  While the Common Core Standards require that we teach long vowels, I usually wait until later in the year to teach those.  Otherwise, I find that students are often confused if both sounds are presented together.  I have found that learning to read goes more smoothly if students  learn the letter sounds, learn to merge letters to read 3-letter words, practice reading CVC words and sight words, THEN learn long vowel sounds.

I use various methods to teach vowel sounds.  In the picture above, my son is using a set of letter sound puzzle cards.  I love these because they allow the child to "self check."  If the answer is wrong, the pieces don't fit!  Click on the picture below to take a look at this set.  

Click on the picture to see this on Teachers Notebook.

Click HERE to see it on Teachers Pay Teachers.

When students are just learning their sounds, I only present (at most) 3 or 4 letter/picture matches at a time.  I also use sets where students match more than one picture to a sound and these work very well with beginning readers.  As students progress and know more sounds, I prepare a literacy center activity using 10-15 of the puzzle sets.  The goal of these activities is for children to not only learn the sound of each letter, but also for them to tie the sound to a word.  This allows them to make the connection between letter sounds and how letters form words.  

More Activities to Help Children Learn Letter Sounds

1.  Help your student/child learn the first letters in the names of loved ones and friends.  Children LOVE this!

2.  At home, I love to teach letters during bath time!  You can cheaply purchase a set of foam bath letters/numbers.  These are valuable for learning letter sounds, writing names, spelling and reading words, AND doing math!

3.  Games!  We play a game in the car where we take turns naming things that start with a specific letter.  This is great for sound to word matching as well as vocabulary development!  You'll be surprised to hear the words your child uses!  

4.  Point out the beginning letters of favorite foods and objects.  You will really sound silly saying, "P for puh, puh pizza" in a restaurant, but you can guarantee your child will remember it!

5.  I love Leap FrogTM products!  I had no idea what a wonderful learning tool their "Letter Factory" DVD was until I bought it for my then 3-year-old.  I was so shocked when my 18-month-old learned his letter sounds, too!  

I also love to use a lot of games, so I have created some to target letter sounds.  Click on the picture below to download a FREE letter sound matching game!  

Click on the picture to see this on Teachers Notebook.

Click HERE to see it on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I hope you found this post helpful!  

Thanks for reading,