Digraphs freebies

I am so excited that it's Friday!  I'll be spending the weekend with several of my besties at Women of Faith!  Looking forward to being inspired.  Most of my little ones are rocking beginning and ending blends.  We will be focusing on reading blend words fluently and mastering the digraphs sh and th.  I made a few more goodies to help make reading words fun!  I started by introducing my kiddos to the Secret Story of sh and th.  If you haven't checked out the Secret Stories you really should.  The secrets are engaging and they really help strugglers remember all the sounds they must master to be successful readers.

Then we read words on pumpkins and sorted them by the sh and th sound.  After the fact, I realized I should have also had them sort the sh/th sound by beginning of the word or ending.  This could have stepped up the lesson and required them to think a little more.  I've attached the words I used.

Pumpkin Digraph cards

Next, I've made a Connect Four game to practice reading words with sh and th.  Hope you enjoy!  If you download, please leave me comments.  I love reading them! Feel free to share my blog!  I LOVE to see when I get new followers.

Connect Four Digraph game

Happy Friday!

Digraphs

I don't know about you but I am loving this fall weather!!  I'm so excited it's October and Halloween is right around the corner.  I'm not really into dressing up but I LOVE dressing up my own kids and taking them trick or treating!  And I love going to the pumpkin patch.  Next week our first graders will be working on reading words with digraphs sh and th.  So many of them still read /t/ /h/.  I was browsing on Pinterest and got an idea to create a pumpkin roll and read using words with sh and th.  There are two versions:  easy and hard.  The hard one has directions that are a little more complicated.  Check out the easy version!

If you'd like a copy of this game you can find it in my TPT store.  Just click on the link below.

Pumpkin Digraph Roll and Read game

Happy Trails!

Blends, Blends, Blends

Hey there!  I'm having so much fun working with my kiddos as a Reading Interventionist!  It's like I'm playing all day!  We get to work together so closely and it's so great to see the light bulb go off when they suddenly get something.  On the other hand, it's easy for me to see when they don't get something and focus on it a little longer.  Our first grade classes have been working on beginning and ending blends for the last several weeks.  Today, my groups did an activity that I saw from Heather's Heart blog and it was fantastic!!  I can't even begin to tell you how much I love Heather's blog!!  She really has some great ideas!!  I made some picture/word cards with beginning blends and ending blends.  Some words had both.  First, I modeled for the students how to look at a word and identify the blend.  We used laminated word cards and dry erase markers.  The students colored the blend and had to tell me if it was a beginning blend, ending blend or if the word had both.  Then we took our word cards and sorted them in a venn diagram with hula hoops.  They really had to take a close look at the words. 

Again I'm sorry about the sideways picture.  ONE of these days I'm going to get that figured out!  Ha!

I'm uploading the picture/word cards if you'd like to do this activity in your class.

Blend pictures for venn sort

I LOVE making things and sharing!  If you download, please leave me a comment and share my blog with your friends!  I'd love some more followers.  I feel like I get so many freebies in cyberspace and I just want to share the things I create with others.  

Games Galore

I'm so excited about this post!  My mind has been racing lately trying to come up with engaging activities for my littles to do when they come to my class.  Where do I turn to?  Pinterest of course!  I found this super easy activity from Kindergarten and Mooneyisms called SLAP.  It's pretty simple and so easy to prepare but my kids LOVE it!  They beg to play it every day!  Gotta love it!  Since our firsties are working on beginning and ending blends right now I made some cards to play SLAP.  Here's how to play:  Lay out cards.  Teacher calls out a word and the first student to slap the word keeps the card.  The student who has the most cards at the end is the winner.

Feel free to download them and try it out on your kiddos. 

Slap beginning blends

Slap ending blends
On to the next game......last night I was digging out some puzzles to do with my 2 year old and I came across some old games my daughter used to play.  She doesn't play some of them much anymore so I talked to her about letting some go.  One of them was the old Cootie game.  But then I started thinking about how I could turn that game into a Reading game so I could repurpose it and use it at school.  I decided to use the Slap cards and tried it out with a few of my groups today.  They loved it!  And not ONE of them had ever played the Cootie game before.  I realize it's pretty old school and most kids today are more into technology than board games.  But this one is only $5.00!!!  Gotta love that!!  Check out some of our fun.

Sorry about the last picture being sideways.  It's not sideways on my computer but I haven't figured out why it gets turned and how to fix it.  If you read this and know, please send me a comment so I can change it. 

Last game for this post is a game called Roll, Read and Color.  I'm not sure where I found the original game so please let me know if you know where it came from so I can give proper credit.  The original version I downloaded was absolutely adorable!  But I wanted to change the words so that it fit what my kiddos were working on.  So here's a copy that focuses on ending blends.  Feel free to download if you'd like to play in your classroom.  Please share some love....I love reading your comments!

Roll, Read and Color ending blends


Happy Friday!!!

NOTE:  While playing the Roll, Read and Color game I noticed a few mistakes.  If you've already downloaded, please redownload.  I've fixed them.  Thanks for being so understanding!

Freedom Walk

I just wanted to share a quick photo of my team.....well, they aren't exactly my team anymore since I'm now a Reading Interventionist but I still think of them that way.  This past Saturday the small town I work in hosted their Freedom Walk to honor and celebrate the many people who have served our country and provided us the many freedoms we enjoy.  The day began with a Walk and continued with baseball games, food, shopping and lots of fun.  My school had many staff that participated in the walk.  Many citizens also turned out to show their support.  I just want to give a shout out and thank anyone reading this for the sacrifices you have given for our freedom....I know that extends to family members as well!

Monday Made It

I am so excited to be able to link up with Monday Made It today! Yesterday I finally finished these cuties inspired by Pinterest of course. Two will be gifts for teachers and the other is mine! I've got a few more projects in the works for today. Can't wait to get started!

I  absolutely LOVED how these turned out.....good thing because I'm such a perfectionist.  Mrs. Cunningham actually got two because I didn't LOVE how the first one turned out.  Ha!

Back to School Sale

Hey everybody!! It's that time of year! TPT is having their Back to School sale. I am offering 20% off and TPT is adding another 10%!! It's time to shop till you drop!!