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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Leader In Me

Our campus was trained last summer in the Seven Habits of Happy Kids.  We have been slowly working to become a Leader in Me campus.  After attending a fabulous Leader in Me Symposium one of our Kindergarten teachers Ms. Felty wrote this song to the tune of the hit Dynomite.  The kids have loved learning the lyrics.  Check out her kids starring in their first music video!



I LOVE working on a campus that is devoted to teaching children how to become responsible and caring citizens!  Have a phenomenal day!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Troublesome Sneaky e

Hey there!  My little firsties seem to have so much trouble getting sneaky e down.  When they are learning to read words with sneaky e in class they seem to do okay but when the constant repetition of that pattern is over they get tripped up and often read short vowel words they've known with the long vowel sound.  I created a Roll and Read game to practice reading sneaky e words but I put them into sentences.  The context helps them and we are really working to get them to ask themselves if what they read makes sense.  I'm sharing my Roll and Read as a freebie.  If you download please comment.  I really love reading your comments!  Also, if you have any special ideas you could share on helping kids get down sneaky e I'd love to hear them!!

Have a fantastic week!  I'm super excited that Spring Break is almost here!!  I get to spend some quality time with my own kids!!

Jammie

Roll and Read Sneaky e freebie

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

We are 100 days smarter!!

Being the Reading Interventionist I often miss out on all the fun celebrations but I decided to play a fun game and celebrate my kids being 100 days smarter!!  They really have made so much progress this year! 


A few weeks ago I came across this game designed by Sally at Elementary Matters! It's called Beanie Toss to 100.  It's really an adding game for students to practice adding to 100.  But I thought it was super fabulous and figured out a way to tie in Reading.  As seen in our pictures, I created the same squares she did and used bean bags.  Students had to stand at the line and toss the bean bag.  If they landed in the inner circle they had to read a difficult word and could earn 10 points.  If they landed in the outer circle, the words were easier and they earned 5 points.  If their bean bag landed outside the circle they earned no points.  I kept track of the points on a white board but had them help me count by 10's and 5's.  The first person to reach 100 was our winner!!  They had so much fun and really showed off their skills.




Please don't look too closely at my square!!  :)  I ran out of the cheetah tape on the outside square and a trip to Walmart for more would mean at least a 20 min. drive.  So I decided it would have to do.....really hard for my type A personality but not one kid mentioned it.  They were too busy having fun!

I've attached a copy of the words I used and the labels for the cups if you'd like to play this game in your class.  Click here and here  to get what you need to play!  Hope you enjoy!!

Jammie

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Rainbow Words

Oh boy....sight words are so difficult for first graders to master!  We all know they are so important for kids to learn because they trip them up so often when reading!  It's hard to explain that to kids and their parents but learning them is essential to reading success.  I was so excited when my teacher bff shared with me Jennifer Jones' Rainbow Words.  If you haven't seen them you must check them out at her Teachers Pay Teachers Store.  Her blog post about this can be found here. 

My students have had amazing success this year and they are so motivated!!!  They can't wait to get to the next color!  I test them each Monday and Friday.  That might not be feasible in a regular classroom setting but it works for me.  It's quick and it has definitely helped!  In January, our first grade teachers created sight word folders and tested the students on each Dolch word list.  Many of them commented on how great my Intervention students did.  Each week after testing we keep track of how many sight words each child know and move stars on a graph to track our way to 100!  The kids set goals and work towards them!  It has been so great involving them in their learning and showing them that hard work pays off!

Don't forget about the Sunday Super sale at TPT!  I've got my cart ready!  Enjoy your weekend!

700SundaySuper