/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,

*Freebie* Frenzy

I know there are teachers out there who have turned their minds off. They are able to step away from the computer, blogs, and Pinterest. They don't dream of clip art and fonts. They are not crazy enough to already be thinking of August....but that isn't me! =)

It is time to bring back some *freebies* in case you missed them the first time! These are some of our favorite activities that we do the first few weeks of school. Later some of them will go into our reading game basket.

Our reading game basket has word study games in it that the kiddos may play when they have finished all of their work. It is one of the things on our When I finish, I can... list.

My kiddos LOVED this game! It was one of the games we kept in the basket all year long.

Wild about Rhymes

Here is an I have...Who has... game with rhyming words because you can never practice that skill too much!

The next 2 activities are differentiation strategies that I learned as part of my G/T training. In these activities, the children hold cards and have to order themselves according to the game's directions to create a human timeline. They have to do it without any talking! Let me just tell you that right away you learn who the Mother Hen of the classroom will be. They love this activity and it is also great to use as a transition for lining up.

The first one is ordering numbers from 1-20 using 10 frames. The second one is putting words in abc order. The words are from Dr. Jean's Phon-ercise. We sing that song LOTS and LOTS and use those alphabet words for TONS of different activities.

Human Timeline- Dinosaurs

Human Timeline- abc order with Phon-ercise

I found these fun glasses at the Dollar Store and made this game to help know the difference between letters, words, and sentences.

In September, we give an assessment called the TPRI. One of the assessment tasks tests deleting the initial sound. Let me just hear a Help Me Jesus. An example would be, what would the word sold be without the /s/ sound? A typical answer would be monkey. We start working on this skill ASAP. Between this and teaching rhyming words I usually have a headache. =)

This game has helped so much! =)

Here is a *freebie* you can use all year! 

We start the first day of school learning our word wall words. We keep our cheers in a "Cheer" box! =)

These are just a few of the whole group activities we do. I'll be sharing more about how we will start the year off with The Kissing Hand and Pete the Cat....plus building Our School Family.

Don't forget to check out my awesome Pete Rocks giveaway!

hop over here to enter

I hope you enjoy these *freebies*. If you grab them, I would love for you to leave me a heart note.

From My Heart to Yours,

No Clue, No Lights, No Worries

It started storming yesterday and God was still blessing us with LOTS of rain this morning. There are very few things I am scared of but driving in the rain is a BIGGIE! I HATE it (and hate is a word I rarely use). I have about a 25 minute commute that I love because it is my time to brainstorm, reflect, unwind, prepare, pray and just focus on whatever is on my heart. BUT there are also lots of 18 wheelers who fly by you at 80 mph and in the rain that terrifies me.

So, I left for work early and I already like to get there early...this means it was dark outside AND pouring. White knuckles, rapid heartbeat, cramped hands, and 35 minutes later I arrive at school. Someone is in MY parking space. No, it doesn't have my name on it but it has been MY spot for about 9 years after I inherited it when Grandma Moses retired. I mumbled something ugly decided to not worry about it since God got to me to work safely and headed out to swim inside.

As I am walking to my classroom, the lights go out! I go to my room which is pitch black because it is still early AND dark and stormy outside. I get the flashlight out of my Boogie Bag  and turn on a very DIM flashlight and it dies! I go to the classroom that opens up into mine and search for her flashlight by light of my cell phone and cannot find her bag. I venture out it the hallway and learn that MY part of the school doesn't have lights but everyone else does. So I am thinking I can go home right??? My breakfast cart gets delivered (Yes, we have the joy of eating breakfast in the classroom but that is an entirely DIFFERENT post!). Now, I am beginning to panic and plan on a breakfast picnic in the hall because 1st graders cannot get food where it needs to be in FULL DAYLIGHT....milk in the dark and some of my kiddos...picture Elaine from Seinfeld dancing and put a milk carton in her hands...yep, that would be a close enough picture of the disaster that would be.

4 minutes before the kiddos come our lights come on....now I have to wait about 20 minutes for my computer to boot up and I have to install ALL 1, 222 fonts back onto my computer. Now, come kiddos with umbrellas and it is pouring and we are watching the playground become a lake.

The Monday is getting even brighter because I have decided to conquer the TPRI to get it out of the way. Child number 1 takes 50 minutes for me to give him the test. One of the stories he read (which was more difficult than what he usually reads) his words per minute were 12. O! M! Gosh!!!! And that was doing the you say it in 3 seconds or it is an error! HEADACHE! CALGON TAKE ME AWAY! But the icing on the cake was BEFORE listening to him read. He was reading words from a list and came to the word shelf. He noticed it had a H brother and even told me this. He sounded it out sh-e-l-f and then said monkey. Seriously, where have you been since August??!!!??? I did tell him I was about to bop him on the head!

Later, he was playing Animal Detectives and was looking at the camel card and was trying to figure out the last letter in camel. He goes to look for his guided reading book that had the word camel in it! Yes, he was being resourceful but really??!!!??? I looked at him like they look at me sometimes like Have you completely lost you sweet mind???? Right away he said "l" but I was like this friend needs a little bit more one-on-one time to build him up and his confidence because he obviously is so unsure of himself because he knows! He is just one of my little ones that needs so much love because no one makes time for them at home. =(

So, after beating myself up for being a crummy teacher and making an ENORMOUS list of all of the things I need to do better. I am going to try and not worry. The key word there is try!

I am planning a giveaway for all of you wonderful followers and really just want to take the time again to tell you not only thank you for following me but thank you for the heart notes. Each one means the world to me!

To show you some thanks, everything in my TpT store is on sale for $1! Click on the lovebugs to go to my store!

While you are there, I would love for you to follow me! This sale will end sometime tomorrow! Tell your bloggy friends! =)

Here is a *freebie*!

My kiddos love the first Animal Detectives I made so here is Animal Detectives 2!

graphics by DJ Inkers

Here is the first one if you didn't grab it!

graphics by DJ Inkers

Question of the Day:

Do you have a parking "spot"?

Penguin on a Shelf...A South Pole visitor =)

On Monday, we are receiving a "chilly" letter from the South Pole. This letter is from Santa's brother, Jack Frost. Jack knows we are learning about penguins and wants to send a "helper" who will report back to Jack and his uncle, Santa, how each kiddo is doing. Our penguin friend also knows the elves and has talked to different elves about the visits to the classrooms they made before Christmas. Much like an Elf on the Shelf, Mr. Penguin (name not yet determined) will move around, cause mischief, and sometimes leave if he gets scared by what he sees and hears! =)

Here is Mr. Penguin.

Here is a copy of the note we will receive (It will be placed in the freezer before arrival for a chilly effect).

graphics by DJ Inkers

On to some *freebies*!

Some of my kiddos are still needing help with digraphs, especially my ESL kiddos. Here is a penguin digraph sort. I *love* the penguin font! =)

graphics by DJ Inkers

The next *freebie* is Chilly Cover-Up. This is a digraph game where children spin and cover one of the snowflakes with a picture having that digraph. He or she must say the name of the picture and the sound that digraph makes. The first player to cover all of his or her snowflakes win

 

graphics by DJ Inkers

I hope you enjoy all of the *freebies*!

I want to give everyone who left me a heart note after my last post a HUGE heart hug. The person making the hurtful comment did not leave it on my blog...infer what you may....and infer again about why I asked the question about the bucket dipper. I try and not take things to heart but I am a worrier. I have faith that God brought each of you to my blog for a reason and for that I am forever blessed.  Each of you make my heart smile daily and your sweet heart notes encourage me and inspire me to be a better teacher. Thank you!



A Blast from the Past

I hope this is not bad blog etiquette (and if it is, someone kindly tell me!) but I want to bring back a few of my favorites that you might have missed if you are new to my blog. Over the break, I went back and followed a few of my favorite blogs from the very beginning. I loved it! But unless I am looking for a certain skill or activity, I really only go back a few posts and then I am off blog hopping again! So, today I want to bring some of my favorites to you in a quick, easy way! =)

The first is my Wish Well Circle. We do this everyday and it only takes about 2 minutes. Today, we welcomed back one of my kiddos who had been absent the past 2 days. As we were about to sing to her, she said she got better faster because she knew we were at school thinking about her and wishing for her to come back to Our School Family because we weren't the same without her! Awwww, I got tears in my eyes! Click on the link above to go to the post and grab the Wish Well Circle *freebies*! Here is a picture of it!

Next, we wander back to some Word Study *freebies*. The reason these came to my mind is next week I have the joy that every K, 1, and 2 teacher in the state of Texas gets to experience...the TPRI! It is a reading inventory that can take up to 45 minutes per child to administer and I always have a headache when I finish...this is when I head to Auntie's Pasta's for an adult beverage!

The 2 tasks on the test that are the most difficult for the majority of my kiddos are deleting the initial and final sounds in a word. O. M. Gosh!!! To share with you what I am so looking forward to, "What is the word cart without the /c/ sound?" Kiddo: "Monkey"!

Some little ears just have a hard time hearing sounds...OY!

I made 2 different bingo games to help teach and build this skill. We play these in a small group.

This one is for deleting the final sound. We talk about how turtles are so slow when they speak that they often forget to say the last sound of the word. Click on the picture to go to the post and grab the *freebie*!

This one is for deleting the initial sound in a word. The Sound Snatcher comes and he is trying to be so quick that he can only get away with stealing the first sound in the word. Click on the picture to go to the post and grab the *freebie*!

Finally, we hop back to one of my kiddos favorite ways to practice our Word Wall words. I bought a class set of small exercise balls at Target...they are about the size of a large lemon. The children bounce the ball for each letter in the word and then bounce it once more it say the word. We usually do it with one child bouncing at a time and everyone else just pretending to bounce while spelling the word (because if not you have balls rolling everywhere). This is great for those kinesthetic learners and helps with hand eye coordination too! I have done this in a center after a LONG talk about the right way to do it and what will happen IF......

I hope you enjoy these and a visit to the "past".

Now to the BIG topic! =)

I recently had a very hurtful comment made about my blog and myself (and let's just say it was NOT from any sweet follower or blog stalker). I, for a moment, had my feelings hurt and then wanted to make a comment back but finally just let it go because it wasn't worth it. I left High School a looonnnnggggg time ago and if I want to be around some catty females I will watch the Bachelor (and thank you sweet Kristin for your post that has made me want to go check it out!).

So, my question of the day is this:

Do you have any bucket dippers or bullies at your school (and I am not talking about the little people)? If you have a juicy story, feel free to vent and share! =)







Creature Crunchers

When I saw Heidi at Swamp Frog First Graders posted her adorable number crunching monsters I knew I needed to post my Creature Crunchers!  This activity is very similar to word ladders or change one sound.  The children start off making the first word with magnetic letters and then change one sound to make a new word. For example, they make the word pig and change pig to wig and wig to dig and dig to dog and dog to dot.  This is so great because it focuses on initial, medial and final sounds. I hope you can use this with your kiddos!  I would love for you to leave me a heart note and let me know what you think.

Creature Crunchers

Animal Detectives

When you have cute clip art, you MUST find an activity to make so you can use it (lol).  We do OODLES of Word Study activities on listening and isolating the beginning, medial, and final sounds and they really help to teach the kiddos to stretch out words when they are spelling.  This activity calls on the kiddos to be "Animal Detectives"!  I will probably even write a little note from one of the animals calling on my kiddos to help these animals remember how to spell their names (Any time I can write a letter so we can get mail helps make the kiddos even more engaged!).  You can focus on initial, medial, or final sounds or give the kiddos a mixture of each!  This activity will also help with the TPRI. Please leave me a heart note and let me know what you think!

Animal Detectives

Graphics by DJ Inkers and Scrappin Doodles