Making it Fun for the Little Ones!

I work on my school's Title 1 staff as a Reading Specialist.  We have found through the past years that our Kindergarten students are coming to us with much less than what the "state" expects of them.  (Not that I agree with everything the State has pushed, however, I would like to continue to have a job... So I follow the rules and press on.)  Therefore, we as a staff have really focused a big chunk of our day with the young crowd.  I spend over an hour of my day with a small Kindergarten group and then push in for a half hour in two different K classrooms.  I love working with not only the K students but the First graders too.  I just love to see the change they go through-absolutely amazing.   I meet with some fragile learners every morning.  I have to keep things interesting for these little learners.  In the previous post I shared our parking lots we use for learning letters, sounds, and sight words.  They really enjoyed using the parking lots as a quick warm up for our lessons but they were getting a bit bored with that activity.  So I decided to include a day of sight word warm-ups.  Our Kindergarten students are required to know 100 sight words by the end of the year.  For some of our students that goal is a lofty one.  I have four students in my morning remediation group.  Each member of the group has a job to prepare us for the warm-up as it requires a lot of materials.
Here are the materials you will need...

After all materials have been collected, I use a white crayon to write their sight words throughout the page on their notebooks.  Students then paint with water colors to find the sight word.  After the word is found, I give them the entire word on an index card and they write the word in their sand three times while they wait for their page to dry. 

After they write their words three time I cut the words apart and mix up the letters.  By this time the pages are somewhat dry enough for the students to put the words back together and glue them into their notebooks. 

This weekly routine usually takes about fifteen minutes.  After we clean up our materials we come up with sentences with our sight words.  I write the sentences for them and then they read them back to me before they leave.  The following day our warm-up begins with rereading our words, writing them in our palms, then reading the sentences they created.  Then they take a shot at writing a sentence or story with one or more of their sight words and highlighting it in the sentence.
Overall, I really enjoy working with Kindergarten because they love any activity you try with them..

Getting Ready for the Big K!

My little guy is going to Kindergarten this coming Fall.  He was old enough to send to school last fall however, he is a tad impulsive and wanted nothing to do with school...  Keep in mind the pressures of Kindergarten too (good old common core).
Being a teacher, I was kind of bummed when he didn't want anything to do with colors, numbers, letter, etc.. My husband continued to say, "you're the reading specialist, you have to teach him his letters".  However, H had other plans.  He would rather run like a wild man around the house and neighborhood before sitting down to learn letters.. Then I was watching him play with his matchbox cars and had an idea.. I can use his cars to help him learn his letters.  He absolutely loved it!!  I was amazed at how fast he caught on to his letters, numbers, and colors.  His little sister saw it and wanted to give it a shot too.  She really loved it and even started using her princesses.
 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/RTI-Fun-Letter-Identification-game-Park-your-car-activity-644309

We finally know most of our letters so we have moved onto blending letters.  He is great with all of his phonemic skills (for the most part).  We began reading CVC words this week.  He seems to enjoy it as long as it involves cars!!  His favorite part is flipping the flap to see if he read and blended the word properly.  This boy is definitely a tactile learner.

 I am so excited to see if my little Kindergarten friends will enjoy blending and checking their words as much as my son does.. :)
Stay tuned for a blog post on sight word ideas that have become part of our everyday remediation in Kindergarten. 

Stay warm all!! We have over a foot of snow!!!

More on Guided Reading...

I know that I have already talked about how I document my guided reading groups.  However, I created an up close and personal look at parts of the documentation.  As I previously mentioned, I was struggling with taking notes on reading behaviors at different reading levels..  Was I looking for the right thing? was that age appropriate? etc.. These forms for note taking at different reading levels have been extremely useful.  Hope you can use these..

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Guided-Reading-ObservationNote-taking-Forms-Levels-A-Z-611466

Craft Time...

This cold weather brings about some rowdy kids.  Instead of watching television all day long, I have been "pinning" several crafts for the kids to try.  Our first craft that we tried was a purchase from the wonderful Dollar Tree.  (I love that place)  We decided to decorate little stockings.  I just purchased the red foam stockings (6 in a pack) and a pack of Christmas stickers.  The kids love taking the time to design their own stockings.  Even Daddy got in on the action.  I think Dad enjoyed this activity more than the kids!

 Oh yes and the fun did not stop there.. The next morning Lil H wanted more!  I found this picture on Pinterest and decided to try it with the kids.  I think they are adorable.  My little ones had a fun time with this one too..

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!!!

Sight Word Fun

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I have been working on a little something for my Kindergarten friends.  I have a few students that seem to have a hard time picking up their sight words.  I made a worksheet with an area to read, build, trace, and write their words.  However, I couldn't fit all of the activities onto one sheet.  I created a "book" for each word.  The book has an area for tracing, reading, writing, building, rainbow write, and reading sight word stories.  I think the kids will have a fun time putting the books together.  When they complete the book, they have a little something to take home and continue their reading.

click here to get a Free download

What are some things you try with your kids to learn their sight words?

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Organizing Guided Reading

Throughout the day I see several groups of students.. I work with students from grades Kindergarten through Fourth.  For several years I tried different ways to organize my notes.  I work with small groups all day so it is important for me to be able to take quick anecdotal notes.  I began with this method..

 Then I decided that I did not have enough room on the index cards for notes so I decided to try this.....

 I liked the note taking on the paper however, I was still going to my prompting guide for some teaching points.. Therefore I decided to create my own note taking forms for Fountas and Pinnel Guided reading Levels A-Z. 

 I have not stopped using these forms and so far they have worked for me.  As I mentioned before I have groups that I see throughout the day.  Each group is working at a different reading level.  I copy the level that we are working on within the group and I am able to take notes on that specific level.  I am able to see the reading behaviors for that particular level on the right side of my document.  Then on the bottom there are teaching points listed for that level too.  I also made the space large enough to take notes for each day of the week.

 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Guided-Reading-ObservationNote-taking-Forms-Levels-A-Z-611466

If you think you might like to try this note taking method for your guided reading groups click the link above.