Miss Vericker's Adventures

Showing posts with label sight words. Show all posts

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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