/F/ /r/ /o/ /g/ = Monkey...right????

Hi sweet friends! I am not sure where the summer has gone but I hope it has been a fun and relaxing one for everyone. I have spent A LOT of time this summer working on our district's Science and Social Studies curriculum team. I am so ready to give birth to that baby! Lol! =)

I have also spent time at my sister's pool, spent time with my dear friend PJ (aka my pajamas), spent time with my nieces, and spent a wonderful week in the Cayman Islands....I am ready to go back NOW. =)

I have also spent a little time working on activities that will help my kiddos be successful...especially in Reading and Math.

In Texas, we give a test 3 times a year called the TPRI. It is a test that assesses phonemic awareness and other skills that young children need to become successful readers. One part of the test assesses the children being able to blend sounds together to make a word. For example, I say /t/ /o/ /p/ and the child says top. To say that I get interesting answers would be a HUGE understatement. I am talking about beat your head against the wall wacko answers. I might say /f/ /i/ /sh/ and I have kiddos saying words like alligator, monkey, Sponge Bob, pizza, and even their own name.

Since Stretchy Snake has helped my kiddos so much when it comes to decoding unknown words, I decided he could help us with this tricky skill too! =)

Click on the pictures to go check it out in my TPT store. =)

My kiddos are obsessed with Stretchy Snake. This game has helped tremendously with this skill that is so tricky for so many of my struggling readers. It is /p/ /er/ /f/ /e/ /c/ /t/ for your Guided Reading and RtI groups.

The teacher will say the sounds /d/ /i/ /p/ and the child has to mentally blend the sounds together and then cover the correct picture. Once all of the pictures are covered the winner will either share the pictures he/she covered or segment the sounds back to the teacher when he/she calls out the pictures that were covered.

There are 5 different games and 12 assessments/individual practice for segmenting sounds....lots of Stretchy Sounds fun! =)

Since I am obsessed with Word Study I wanted to bring back a few *freebies* that I have shared before. I will be using these the first few weeks of school. 

and one more =)

I would love for you to leave me a heart note if you grab them. =)

I have a lot I want to share with you in the next few weeks....I have some really fun visitors that will be bringing us some very fun packages full of lots of awesome activities, snacks, songs and poems, and more. I hope you hop by again to check it out. =)

From My Heart to Yours,

March *Freebie* Fun...and Sound Racers =)

I love Spring. Here in East Texas we are already seeing the signs of Spring:  tulips trees, dogwoods, azaleas, and many other flowers are all starting to bloom. March also brings Spring Break, my birthday and my niece's birthday. But, I also start freaking out a bit....

3 months of school left???!!!???!!! Holy Moly...I need to see how much more I can cram into my kiddos heads. There are times I am feeling good about all of the progress my kiddos are making then....BAM!!! They say or do something that makes me want to go bang my head against the wall. Seriously, where have you been the last 7 months ????!!!!!????

One of my kiddos last week could not remember what this sign meant -....and this happened right after she just successfully finished a math sort that was mixed addition and subtraction. I had a 5 minute conversation with her that made me think I needed either an adult beverage or medicine for the migraine headache that was coming on. I felt exactly like this...

At times like this, all I can say is Help Me Jesus.

With Easter being in March this year, we will be doing a few of our leprechaun and St. Patrick's Day activities this week. Here are some of the *freebies* I shared last year.

Click on the picture above to grab your *freebies*.

My kiddos LOVE dice games. =)

Here is a subtraction sort....

And some ABC order fun.

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I finished this packet several weeks ago and just never got around to sharing with you about it. My kiddos love this and I am able to use it with all of my Guided Reading groups. The packet has around 300 words that focus on:

*short vowels and CVC words
*blends
*digraphs
*CVCC and CCVC words
*magic e
*r controlled vowels
*the 2 sounds of ow
*ou words like in mouse
*oo words like in boot
*vowel teams like ai, ee, oa, ay, etc

This is wonderful for RtI and is amazing at helping children blend sounds together to help decode words. The kiddos LOVE using little cars to drive over the sounds and then race and blend the sounds faster to read the word.

It is on sale this weekend. Click here to go check it out. =)

I hope you enjoy the *freebies*. I would love for you to leave me a heart note if you grab them. 

From My to Yours,

Stretchy Snake Fun

When we came back from lunch one day, we had a package waiting at the door.

The package was from Stretchy Snake.

This is Stretchy Snake.

Here is the letter he left us.

You can grab your letter from Stretchy Snake here.

There are 2 different letters: one talks about Eagle Eyes and the other one does not talk about Eagle Eyes in case your class doesn't know who he is.

In the letter, he told us he was a friend on Eagle Eyes and he was going to teach us another way to decode words. He even sent us some goodies to help us be super duper Word Detectives!

This last minute teacher Stretchy Snake forgot to put a few items in the package.

One of our favorite goodies are the Stretchy Snake Boxes.

Inside the boxes are cards. As you slowly slide the box out, you say the sounds...be sure to teach the kiddos to not slide it out all of the way. You slide the box back in and then slide it out faster while blending the sounds together. When you think you know the word, you slide the box out all of the way and check your answer with the picture. I'll try and find the labels for the boxes and post them later. =)

This is an activity both the kiddos and I ADORE.

The next thing we made were our class sound boxes. We made this with the tape Stretchy Snake put in the package. Our sound boxes help us s-t-r-e-t-ch out words...and the kiddos LOVE to HOP IT OUT!!! Can we say fun for our little ADHD energetic kiddos!!!! 

Here is how you use the sound boxes. A kiddo starts by standing to the left side OUT of the first box. If the word is bus, he hops into the first box and says /b/. He then hops into the 2nd box and says /u/. He hops into the 3rd box and says /s/. Finally, he hops OUT of the box and says the word bus. I hope that makes sense. =)

We can use the sound boxes for this fun activity. =)

Grab your copy here. Kiddos hop out the word and record the answer.

We also meet Stretchy Snake's friend Stretchy Giraffe.

He also helps us stretch out words.

Stretchy Snake also left us some slinkies and some words to stretch out and read.

I hope you and your kiddos enjoy these activities. =)

If you grab the *freebies*, please take a few minutes to leave me a heart note. =)

Question of the Day:  How do you handle tattling in your classroom?

From My Heart to Yours,

Sound Box Hop and Stretchy Snake

Today we met Stretchy Snake. Stretchy Snake is one of the Beanie Baby Decoding Strategies. He helps us to s-t-r-e-t-ch out our sounds and then blend them back together. We have been working on sound boxes during Word Study time and today we made our sound boxes for the learning rug. For some reason, they LOVE watching you do this. We then practice stretching out cvc words as we hop into the sound boxes. This is great for your kinesthetic learners (plus those kiddos who can never sit still like to use ALL of the energy God gives them (hahaha). This is hard for some kiddos who want to put all the sounds in one box but they soon realize they have to hop one sound for each box. They then hop "out" of the boxes and say the word. Later, after lots and lots of practice, this activity will be one they can choose from during Word Study centers. They even come and use the sound boxes during Writing Workshop. Later on in the year, we will add another box when we do words with blends. When you do sounds like sh or ck, those are 2 letters working together to make one sound so you only hop into one box for that sound.

Meet Stretchy Snake

Our Sound Boxes

Sound Box Hop

I hope your kiddos are happy to hop! I love heart notes because they encourage me to share more so please one! I would LOVE for you to follow me too!