Sight Word EPHIPHANY and a giveaway!

Sight words and I have a love/hate relationship. I know they are important for reading success, but following my county's prescribed method of teaching 5 words per week just wasn't jiving for me. Some kids already knew those words, and some kids still hadn't learned the words from last week.

This year, I have had a sight word epiphany. EPHIPHANY I tell you! I'm going to use the FABULOUS sight word pack made by The Teeny Tiny Teacher. This pack has 30 lists of 10 sight words each. 300 words should keep my students busy all year, but for those Super-Smarties who can learn to read 300 sight words, they can then start learning to spell the words. This pack correlates well to the Dolch sight word list and the Fountas and Pinnell list, which should make administrators happy.

So here is my plan...

1. I'm going to pre-assess students (my other love/hate relationship) so that I can determine with what list each child needs to start. Every child will work on their own list at their own pace. Assessment? Differentiation? Go ahead and put a check mark on my teacher evaluation that says "Uses assessments to inform instruction" and "Differentiates instruction to fit the needs of all learners" please and thank you!

2.I'm going to send sight word lists home so that parents can help students practice. I'll probably start this after Curriculum Night so that I can explain what in the world a sight word is and talk about ways to practice sight words at home. I really like this list of ideas.

3. The sight word lists come 2 to a page. I'll send one home to parents, and keep one at school for students to practice during stations.

I've just finished a sight word activity pack that introduces sight words in the same general order as The Teeny Tiny Teacher's lists. I've totally re-done my Sight Word Unscramble. It's a lot cuter now and also includes pictures to help students read unknown words. Students have to read the sentence on each card and unscramble the sight word that correctly completes the sentence. There's a recording sheet where students can record their answers. I think I'm going to print these cards and write the sight word list number on the back to make cards easy to sort.

I like using mixed-up sentences because I think it really makes the kids think about what they are reading. It also reminds them to start sentences with capital letters and end with punctuation. I've made 5 different colored sets of mixed-up sentences (each set has 5 sentences) plus a recording sheet so students can record their work.

I'm also putting together some general sight word ideas with recording sheets that students can do with any sight word list. As we start our sight word station, I'll slowly introduce these activities. From then on, students can complete them independently and repeat activities when they get a new list. And I won't have to re-explain the activity, which will hopefully make this station run very smoooooooooothly!

Some of the activities I'm using are:

• Blue Vowels and Red Consonants
• Rainbow Writing
• Building Words
• Roll-a-Word
• Fancy Letters
• Triangle Words
• Magic Words
• Scrabble Letters
• Word Searches

I'm hoping to add more ideas and recording sheets throughout the year so that my students will have lots of fun ways to practice their sight words.

4. Wasn't I numbering something? Oh yeah! Number 4 is testing. Each Friday, my para-pro is going to test students on their sight word lists. If they know all of the words, they get to move on to the next list, and if not, they will work on the same list the next week. I wouldn't expect students to learn 10 words in 1 week, but I hope they will get a new list every 2-3 weeks.

So there's my sight word plan for the 2014-2015 school year. I'm going to be using my new pack to help me, and I hope you'll check it out at my TPT store. It's half-price through the 4th (only $2.50)!

I'm also doing my very first Rafflecopter GIVEAWAY! You can win my new sight word pack for FREE! Hopefully I've done this right, but please bear with me if there are any...um...hiccups  =)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy 4th!!

iPad APP-ortunities!! (hahaha, wasn't that cheesy!?)

I am in week 2 of summer and just finished my second workshop. Teacher dork alert, huh?! At my workshop today, I learned about some great iPad apps that I immediately came home and installed. Teacher dork alert again? Oh well. Here are some of my instant faves:

Random Name Selector

The random name selector will do just that...randomly select a student's name. Great for answering questions or picking helpers.

NFL Play 60

Do you have overly active kids? My guess is that yes, yes you do! This app lets students hold the iPad and run, jump, and turn around to make their avatar do the same on the screen. Great for getting the wiggles out (but I'd probably make sure your iPad is in a sturdy case first....).

Sight Word Ninja

Sight Word Ninja is very Fruit Ninja-y, but instead of slicing fruit, students slice the sight word that is called out. The sight words are repeated, especially if the student gets it wrong. Great for sight word practice.





Too Noisy





Too Noisy



Did anyone else have a traffic light in their school cafeteria that turned red if the students got too loud? Anyone? Because we sure did! The app takes me back to that. Too Noisy measures the volume in the classroom. You can set it to different sensitivity levels based on the kind of activity you are doing. Great for basically everything!

Hope these help! Do you have any apps that you love using??

Sight Word Freebie

I see SNOW!!! Kind of. Really, it's more like sleet/frozen rain. Oh well, I'm safely at home and warm, so I'm not going to complain!

I'm using my snow day to post some new TPT products. I have a new sight word freebie that my students have been "guinea pig-ing" for me this week. They seem to like it, so it's time to unveil it to the world!

 

TADA!!!!!!!

 

I cut the cards out and placed them around the room for a write the room activity. Students have to read each sentence and unscramble the sight word that would make sense in that sentence. They then record the sight words on their recording sheet. At first, a few students needed a help...they didn't quite get the "unscramble" concept. Once we did 1 or 2 cards together, they got it! This really kept my higher students challenged! 

 

Don't forget the Snow Day Sale going on! You can scroll down to my last post or click HERE to see LOTS of great products by LOTS of talented teachers that are half off or only $1!! The sale ends Thursday night, so don't miss it!

 

Funny Sayings and Charm Necklaces

It's football Saturday!!!!! UGA isn't playing today, but I'm watching Mizzou VS South Carolina...it's gotten intense in the last few minutes of the game! Football and blogging are 2 of my favorite Saturday activities. Today I'm linking up with a couple of people. The first is Kreative in Kindergarten's "Kids Say the Funniest Things!" Isn't that the truth!?! My funny moment comes from my student who is commonly described as spunky, precocious, and a spitfire. We were making a class book about what we want to be when we grow up:

She will win every case she gets! So funny!

The second linky party is with Joanne over at Head Over Heels for Teaching.

My school has started a school-wide incentive using charm necklaces. Each child gets a dog tag type necklace that we write their name on. Then students earn charms for academic success in each subject.

Each teacher gets to decide what warrants a charm, and I give them for learning sight words. We have lists of sight words similar to these, and when students learn all the words on their list, they receive a charm. The lists are differentiated, so students on all levels can be successful. Kids just BEAM when they get their charm. Love how a small piece of plastic keeps them motivated!!!  

Game over, so it's time for this girl to get some ZZZ! G'night!

Tried-it Tuesday: The Most Awesome Cubes EVER!

It's Tuesday! And I tried something today! And I want the WHOLE WORD to know about! Thanks to Fourth Grade Flipper for hosting this linky.

I was at The School Box a few weeks ago, and I saw these...

 

They are dice instructional cubes that have plastic sleeves on the outside so you can slide paper inside them. Paper with anything on it! Sight words, letters, shapes, numbers, sentences...the sky is the limit! Talk about a major impulse buy, but I just had to have them! We used them today with our sight words.

I had 2 levels...

1. recognizing sight words and

2. reading sight words in a sentence

 

The students sat in a circle, and I handed them one of the cubes (based on what they needed). They rolled and read and had a blast doing it! I was surprised how well they paid attention!

 

 

I then introduced our sight word station where one of the activities they will do is roll the cube and graph the sight words they roll. They had a lot of fun and it was a great sight word review. Even my lowest babies were catching on! Success!