Making Words and Word Work:
I made this Work on Words Activity for this week in small groups. The students roll an onset and chunk dice and have to decide if it’s a real word or nonsense word.
I purchased my set from Really Good Stuff…Love that company, and I especially love the EZ-Pay system they offer teachers.
Here is the recording sheet I gave them. My teacher trainer in Reading Recovery always said be careful with the “it” chunk and the “uck” chunk when doing the Make and Break part of the lesson..so I caution you. Just saying.
Last week our phonics skill was long a: ai, ay. This week we are reviewing long a: ai and ai. Here is a Work on Words activity I created. Our story was not about the farm…thought it was cute clip art and went with it.
This week our phonics skill is long e: ea. Here is the Work on Words review activity they will complete next week.
Weekly Story
Last week our Reading Street story was Mama’s Birthday Present. I created this activity pack to go with the story. We did some whole group and the rest small group.
Money
We are continuing our money unit in math. I gave each of the students a sheet of coins and a piggybank. They pulled a card and had to make that amount of money two different ways.
Yay for Hump Day!
Ms. A
Okay so all the snow days this week gave me a chance to do something I’ve been trying to do since school started.
I love the book Making Word Walls Work. Judy Lynch was a Reading Recovery teacher (have to support my peeps) and I use this book everyday for my word wall routines. One of the activities she has is Word Wall Concentration. You pick 6-8 word wall words (that would be 12-16 words total) and place them in a matrix in your pocket chart. Then you cover the words with number cards in order 1-12 or 1-16(depending on how many words you use).
*This should be done before students enter your room, you don’t want them to see where you put the words. Then students call two numbers and you uncover the words. If it’s match then the class can cheer, if not you keep calling on students to give two numbers they want uncovered. My kids love this game, they ask to play this all the time. Sometimes they'll choose it on Fridays Work on Words and play with a partner. It’s a good review, it's fun and it helps my strugglers. I hope the directions are clear, if not e-mail me.
Anyway, I said all that to say I usually just write the words and the number cards on index cards or squares of construction paper. But a while back I decided I wanted them to be more appealing to my students…so my plan was to make sets for all the Fry words and all the words in our reading (Reading Street) series. So last night I started creating. They have ocean animals because that’s my classroom décor this year. But I felt like they were generic enough to be used anytime. Hope you can use them. Let me know what you think.
I have just uploaded my Valentine Math and Word work Game Kit to Teachers Pay Teachers. This kit comes with four math and four word work stations. That’s enough to take you through the entire month of February. Click on the link to check it out. I’ve also uploaded a preview. Remember to leave feedback.
As I blog, our state is right in the middle of a Winter Weather Advisory (Snow and Ice). We will have a snow day on tomorrow. Yes! So thought I’d share a few things. 
I read Ladybug Teacher Files blog about embedding a document right into your blog…so here it goes. I hope it works. I use Fry Phrases all the time. Each of my students get a set of the first four sets of phrases. They can read them during free time, or quiz each other. They can also time each other to see how many phrases they can read in a minute, we also use them during whole group games like Around the World. Hope this works and thanks for the tutorial!
I just uploaded this short and long a review to Teachers Pay Teachers. I’ve also uploaded two Valentine’s activities. One is for word work and the other is for math. Click on the picture to check them out.
On Fridays I usually let my students complete a Work on Words Activity with a partner or small group. This game would be perfect for that.
I hope you have found something useful during these past five days after Christmas. It’s crazy how much contentment I get from creating and sharing ideas.
I hope all of my followers will continue to be my faithful friends, and if you haven’t considered following me, I hope you’ll think about it.
To all my fellow teachers, Happy New Year! I wish you all a wonderful second half of the school year. I’ll be back after Winter Break to post pictures of our activities for our Arctic Animal Unit…unless I have a great idea to share before then.
Happy New Year
Ms. A
Here is an activity in a sack. I’m using this game as a review for my first graders. All you’ll need is a gift bag of your choice. Enjoy!
The First Day After Christmas
Last week my blog crossed the 20,000 page view mark. I know it’s not a lot for you seasoned bloggers out there, but it made me feel good. So as a thank you I’m going to post a new idea for the next five days after Christmas (you get it?) 
This game is simple and easy to assemble. Just laminate the game boards and cards. Cut out the cards and follow the easy directions. I make several games like these for word families, sight words and math facts. My students love to play it over and over, and its also perfect for those fast finishers. If you want a student to play alone, just omit the word cards, and have them toss a pom pom or chip onto the board, then write a word with that chunk, or write a sentence using a word with the chunk.
