Miss Vericker's Adventures

Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts

Reading Snapshot: Diphthongs!

Monday, May 8, 2017

T.G.I.F! I don’t know about where you all are, but here it’s Friday afternoon and it just started down-pouring. Not a bad time to curl up on the couch with my laptop and a snuggly blanket and introduce my first ‘Reading Snapshot’. Teaching reading is my PASSION! Obviously, duh. Probably every K/1^st/2^nd grade teacher out there loves it, but I am seriously OB-SESS-ED. Nothing makes me happier than planning out each group’s week of lessons. Is there any better feeling than finding the PERFECT activity for your kiddos on TpT?

I was gearing up to do a diphthong unit with my little ones. I just finished covering digraphs and wanted a similar high-interest unit for DIPHTHONGS. Unfortunately, TpT came up dry. I didn’t love the unit I used last year and found that the kids were bored with the all the worksheets. After about 15 hours, my Diphthong Mega Pack was born! Woo hoo!

Here is a “snapshot” into my finished product on diphthongs this week...

We start off with the flash cards. I do a fun little activity where I literally throw the flash cards at the students. They have to catch the cards, read them, then identify the sound being used and the letters that make up that sound. For example “Coin, /oy/ oi”. This takes about 10-12 minutes. I only focus on one or two sounds per day.

Next up, we create word sorts. I pass out a few (6-8) word cards per child. DIFFERENTIATION OPTION: For my support group, I will tell the students specifically how to sort the words. For example, 1. Sort the words by matching letters (all ‘oi’, ‘oy’, ‘au’, ‘aw’ ‘ou’ or ‘ow’, in one pile). OR 2. Sort the words by matching sounds (oi/oy in one pile, aw/au in one pile, ou/ow in one pile). My target group can create their own sort as long as they can explain it to the group. And my enrichment group creates two separate sorts independently and explains their rationale to the group. This activity is another 10-12 minutes.

The second day we will again review with flashcards, but this time we will practice using my hysterical Hollywood Voices packet. We are in stitches laughing every time we use this game. They are just so stinkin' comical, especially when they do the 'opera singer' or 'Queen of England". Each child picks a diphthong flashcard and a Hollywood Voice card then has to read the card in "character". We also throw in a little “fun” sheet or two on the second day, like Spin/Roll-a-Diphthong.

The third day is some good old “I have, Who has?” games for review. Depending on his or her ability level, each child is responsible for anywhere from 2-5 cards. And again, some worksheet fun.

The last day is GAME DAY! We play either diphthong BINGO or Connect Four.

{Even I play} Woo hoo! Party Time!

So, that about sums up this week's edition of 'Reading Snapshot'. I intend to make this a weekly installment of a little glimpse into my reading groups each week. Hope you enjoyed it and if you think this is something you would like to try in your class, pick it up here!

Have a spectacular weekend :)

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Reading Snapshot: ED and ING Inflectional Endings!

Longest.week.ever and we only had 3 days of school! Monday seems like and eternity ago, Tuesday we had off for Passover, Wednesday was PT Conferences and, finally, at long last- it is Thursday and tomorrow we have off for Good Friday. Yippee! I can't believe Easter is already here; Thanksgiving centers seem like yesterday. Seven weeks left! Sooo much left to do. Seriously, where has this year gone?

I wanted to keep reading group plans light considering we had such a short week. I figured I would breeze through endings lickity split and gear up for a new topic next week. I thought wrong. Monday's lessons showed me that endings, in fact, would not be "lickity split" this year. Rather I would spent my day off on Tuesday creating some more activities to reinforce these concepts with the little readers.

I started off teaching about -ed endings with Lori Rosenberg's super helpful 3 Sounds of ED posters. These provided concrete visual and auditory references for the students. Followed by a simple cut and paste word sort of the /t/, /id/, and /d/ sound.

On Wednesday and today, I continued with similar word sorts but also added in some fun games for review and reinforcement. I am totally anti-worksheets, so if I can turn something into a board game I most certainly will!

The kids loved the spinners on these board games. First, they spun the number spinner to move X number of spaces. Then, once they landed on a word, they spun the ED/ING endings spinner to determine what ending to add. For my enrichment group, I added extra layers of difficulty by asking them to also state which sound the "ed" ending made or use an "ing" ending word in a sentence.

I knew these games were a hit when the little readers asked to keep playing them during their independent Daily Five station! Jackpot! Next week, I will put out the Connect Four game boards for review in my Word Work game bin. You can snag this Inflectional 'ED' 'ING' Endings HERE!

Okay, now it's time for me to ~~TGIF~~ TGIThursday! Happy Easter, one and all! :)

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Hey, Hollywood! EOY

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Oh my WORD. Who is ready for the year to be OVER? This coming from the girl who bursts out crying as I write reports and put the final "we have cherished our year with xxx. We will miss him/her dearly and wish XXX all the best in second grade" because I know I won't see my littles next year. I am in a weird place of wishing the year was over about 3 days ago, yet also wanting to freeze time and capture every little smile, laugh, story, lunch, morning meeting we are sharing together as a class. For. The. Last. Time. :( Such a conundrum. I think if there was a way to not make reports due at this time of year, it would make everything a zillion times easier. Anyone else out there do narrative reports? 20 students x 5 subjects at a page each = 100 pages worth of narrative reports. Luckily they are due 4 hours (right down to the wire) so I can finally BREATHE and get back to my newest passion- blogging and teacher instagram :)

Anyway, I wanted to share a little lifesaver that has been getting me through reading groups this week... Wait, reading groups this week? I didn't plan any of those! I'm reporting and assessing, DUH! ...'cause that's how every teacher wants to spend the last few moments of the year with their kiddos. YEA RIGHT.

Luckily, this activity kills two birds with one stone. My Hollywood Voices activity practices fluency and gives lists of short vowels, word families, diphthongs, digraphs, vowel teams and 150 sight words which means that while we are playing away, I am secretly assessing them on their mastery of these concepts.

The young readers snatch up a word list (you can differentiate by separating the easy from harder lists) then pick a Hollywood Voice card. They then have to read the word list as that particular character. I guarantee this will have you and your littles rolling on the floor laughing.

Some of their faves:

Aloha (hula dancer)

Opera Singer

Queen of England

Surfer Dude

Firework Words (an excuse to scream)

Some of my faves:

Whisper Words

Stick Out Your Tongue (so, so funny!)

Hold Your Breath

Easy breezy way to have fun and end off the year with your kiddos!

ps- please excuse the lack of cute pics. I just can't right now. I promise I'll be cute and aesthetically pleasing again in 8 days.

pps- yes, I do use my zillion dollar mobile Promethean Board as a stage. That monstrosity has to be good for somethin' ;)

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New Product Giveaway!

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Good morning! It's a dreary Saturday morning over here in New York. No doubt, I will spend my morning on TpT and hopefully cleaning out my classroom a little. In honor of having not too much to do, I am hosting a GIVEAWAY of my Differentiated Sight Word JUMBO Pack {over 130 activities}.

To WIN, please follow my TpT store here

AND one of the following

1. LIKE my facebook page

2. Follow my blog on BLOGLOVIN {link in sidebar}

Kindly make sure to comment your email below after you follow/like!

Good luck!

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Reading Snapshot: Sight Word Buckets!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

If you've learned one thing about me, its that I abhor worksheets. Growing up I remember those pages upon pages of sight word lists. Every night in first and second grade I’d sit at the dinner table with my mom while she pointed to words on the list and I either knew it (check mark, move on) or didn’t (no check, we'd be revisiting this word tomorrow). Snore, snore...BORRRRRING! So, when I found out I was teaching first grade three years ago I set out to create fun and engaging games and activities for sight words and …

Woo hoo! Finally, after months and months of tweaking and perfecting my trusty Sight Word Jumbo Pack is DONE! I have been using these games and activities for years and finally turned them into something TpT worthy.

Here's how it looks in my classroom…

Each week we introduce eight new sight words. We use the Dolch word list and begin with the Pre Primer and work our way up through the Second Grade words. Once we have a healthy handful of words (around 24) we begin the games! Yippee! At this point I introduce THE BUCKETS. I always keep two buckets of sight word games and activities in my classroom Daily Five/library area.

The first bucket contains the I SPY games. These are changed out monthly and have at 3-4 versions of each game board {Pre Primer, Primer, First Grade and Second-Third Grade}.

I keep some mini magnifying glasses, mini clipboards, checklists and pencils in this bucket.

The second bucket has collaborative games such as ‘Connect Four’, ‘I have, Who Has’, and ‘Sight Word Dice Game’. There are also independent activities such as ‘Roll it and Read it’, ‘ABC Order’ or ‘Word Hunt’ in there.

This bucket has pencils, dice (both plastic and DIY templates on cardstock), spinners, crayons, colored pencils- all the fixings!

The kiddos can utilize these buckets during the Word Work portion of Daily Five or during any “down” time, i.e. morning work, early finishers, during snack etc. Since they change frequently, the little ones never tire of them. Also, the leveled labels (PP, P, 1, 2, 3) on each game allow me to easily differentiate for the children.

I also love to use these games or the fluency phrases {"Check Me Out"} as assessments. The little readers think they are simply playing a game with me, yet little do they know that I am actually assessing them! Discreet assessment is a b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l thing!

These sight word buckets have saved me many, many times when I having an observation or an unexpected schedule change. The buckets are always there and the littles are so used to them that I rarely get those, “I’m done. What can I do NOW?” questions.

What sight word games do you use in your classroom? Do you have go-to buckets or bins? Let’s all “turn and talk” AKA comment below about your sight word activities! Have a great Wednesday!

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Wordless Wednesday: Tracking Devices

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Yup, I am pretty wordless and voiceless after 9 hours of Parent Teacher Conferences today. Amen for Wordless Wednesday! Linking up with the fabulous Miss Decarbo for her Wordless Wednesday Linky.

This is a picture of one of the many reading "tricks of the trade" I employ. This is my on-the-go pointer finger for tracking and building fluency. I pop a paper clip on that index finger and watch the little readers carefully track each and every word on the page. I have some snazzier ones like the cocktail swords or those glow-in-the-dark pointer fingers for Halloween time, or even the glow-stick bracelets for super special occasions. I will post the other pictures later this week. I am just too bone tired to do it tonight.