Work Work Freebie (er, ir, ur)

Do your students need more work on the sounds er, ir and ur?  Mine did so I made a couple of activities for my students to work on at their desk so I could work with small groups during my reading group rotations. 

Click on any picture below to grab yourself a free copy!

Happy Teaching!

Aaargh!

Awhile back, we learned the sound of /ar/ and I failed to post some pictures of my cuties (with their faces erased, of course.)    I purchased the pirate hats (6 in a package)  and the blow up parrot at The Dollar Tree.  The eye patch is black construction paper and yarn.  My firsties loved this.

I also made myself and my coworkers shirts:

 

This is Abby Mullin's idea and you can go to her website and get the shirt graphic and instructions on how make yourself this same get up.  It was easy peasy.  You can hop on over to her blog and get the directions to make the shirt HERE and while you're there check out all her stuff that goes with her Pirate Mark unit listed below (that I purchased, of course):

You can purchase yourself a copy HERE

Snowman Packet and Fine Motor Skill Phonics Activity

I can't believe it is already time to start switching my brain from thinking "vacation" to thinking "school".  I have been staying up late and sleeping in.  Now, I'll have to adjust back to going to bed early an getting up early. *sigh* 

I finally completed my snowman packet :

I have a freebie from this packet mentioned further down in this post and you can check the whole packet out in my TpT store by clicking on the link below:

Snowman Hodgepodge of Math/Science/Literacy Activities

I have been trying to come up with some activities for a few of my students who need more fine motor practice.  I have been researching this topic a little since I seem to be having more and more kiddos who do not have age appropriate fine motor development.   One theory suggests that babies are not getting enough "tummy time" due to the fear of SIDS.  Whatever the reason, it is something I need to address in my classroom.

Since I will be doing my snowman unit when we go back on Monday, I decided to focus this little activity with digraph ow (long o sound). 

Students will use tweezers to pick up foam pieces with blends on them and place them on the magnet beside digraph ow.  They will then blend and read the word and then record it on their recording sheet.

If you want to make something similiar to this, then you will need these items:

permanent marker, wide popsicle sticks, magnetic tape strips, and foam sheets

     

FYI: all these items can be purchased at Wal-Mart (the foam sheets are sold at the Dollar Tree also)

You can grab a copy of the recording sheet HERE

If you do use this idea and blog about it, I ask that you link back to this website.

Happy Teaching!

Digraphs and Dipthongs

Here is a fun way I display a few digraphs and dipthongs in my classroom and the kids love it and learn it quickly because they are in the picture.  I leave these up all year for students to refer to.

Digraph th - students are giving me a thumbs up for the "th" sound

Digraph sh - students are holding their fingers to their mouth for the be quiet sound  "Shhhhhhhh!"

Digraph ch - students are pointing to their chin for the "ch" sound

Dipthong ou/ow - students are giving themselves a little pinch for the "ow, that hurts" sound

Grandmother Vowel

A coworker of mine shared this with me when I first started teaching first grade and I must say it has been one of the most effective tools I use when teaching the long and short vowel sounds.  My students want to hear the story over and over and when we get a new student, one of the first things they want me to do is share the Grandmother Vowel story with our newbie.  I take the posters off the wall and introduce each of my grandchildren as I tell the story.  (These posters are old and if someone takes the time to make some cutesy, updated pictures, I sure would like a copy)  My students refer to these alot during the first half of the year.

  (This is the version I tell my students as I dress like a grandmother:  white bonnet, apron, and grandmother glasses)

 Hello.  I am Grandmother Vowel and I have 5 sweet grandchildren who come to visit me on my farm every summer.  I want to introduce them to you.  (I hold up each poster as I say their names)  Their names are

ā, ē, ī, ō, ū.  These are their REAL names but I have pet names, or nicknames for all my grandchildren.  (I then ask the kiddos if any of them have nicknames and allow for a few shared stories)  I am going to tell you how I came up with my pet names for my grandchildren.

My granddaughter ā is just a baby and I have a large apple tree on my farm.  It is filled with bright red apples and ā just loves apples.  When she wants an apple, she points up to the apple tree and says "ă, ă, ă,"  until she gets one.  So after the first time she did that, I started calling her ă for short.  Her real name is ā, but I call her ă.

My grandson ē is full of mischief and he likes to pretend that he cannot hear me when I call him for supper.  He puts his little hand up to his ear and says "ĕ, ĕ, ĕ" like he can't hear me.  So, now I call him ĕ for short.  His real name is ē, but I call him ĕ.

My grandson  ī  loves to play indian when he comes to my house because I let him make all the noise he wants to.  He puts his hand behind his head with one finger sticking up like a feather and goes around yelling "ĭ, ĭ, ĭ" as loud as he can.  He even scares my cows and chickens when he does this.  So even though his real name is  ī , I call him  ĭ for short. 

I love to bake cookies when my grandson  ō comes to my house because he loves to eat my cookies!  When he smells the odor of my baking cookies, he rubs his stomach in a circular motion (like in the shape of an o) and he says "ŏ, ŏ grandma, you're cooking my favorite cookies".  His real name is  ō  but for short I call him ŏ.

My grandson ū is old enough to do chores on the farm when he comes to visit. I always pay him a little bit of money for doing little chores for me.  One time when he visited, he made $2 for gathering eggs.  He took that money to the store and bought candy and ate every bit of it right there!  When he was finished, he grabbed his tummy and he said "ŭ, ŭ, ŭ, my tummy hurts."  So now I call him ŭ for short.  His real name is ū and his short name is ŭ.

(When finished with the story, I go back through the posters saying the real names and then I have the students do the hand motions and say the short sounds with me.  By hand motions, I mean what each of the grandchildren did in the story  -
A points high up to the tree and says her short sound
E holds his hand up to his ear and says his short sound
I puts his hand behind head with one finger sticking up like a feather and says his short sound
O rubs his stomach in a circular motion and says his short sound
U holds his tummy like it hurts and says his short sound)

Activites for the /au/ and /aw/ sound

I have created a set of activites for the /au/ and /aw/ sounds.  Here
 is a  small preview.

There is a story to read to your class:

"Open your mouth and say Aw" Activity where students read words with au/aw and "feed" the words to the boy or girl they make.

A literacy center where students sort words with au and aw and a recording sheet:

You can check it out by clicking on the picture above.