I Promised to Post About this FREEBIE:

If you saw my webinar...

... for the teachers of Santa Cruz earlier this week, you know that I promised to post about the cute Text & Spell phones that my friend, Traci Clausen created.

Click the image to grab this FREEBIE!

Here is the link:  CLICK HERE

They come in black or white.

Once you copy them, laminate them so students can write on the screen with dry erase pens and easily clean them off.

My students started writing their name on the screen and then texting their name with their thumbs.

They also texted sight words, one at a time and texted them.

Later, they wrote short sentences, like "I like you." or "I have a cat."

They also texted their sentences. 

It was such a fun way to motivate children to spell words and it's FREE! 

Thank you, Traci, for a wonderful resource!

  

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It's Finally Here... It's Humpty Dumpty's Sight Words!!!

Can YOU put them back together again?

I have been asked so many times to create these.

Well, I finally had the time! It's a GR8 way to teach and reinforce the 40 pre-primer Dolch Words!

Click Humpty Dumpty!

How it works:

If you don't have any parent volunteers who can make this, try recruiting 6th grade helpers for 15 minutes each week to come into your classroom and do tasks like this one...

Step 1:  Copy the Humpty Dumpty Sight Word Cards on regular copy paper or cardstock for a lasting center activity.

Click Humpty Dumpty!

Step 2: Cut apart the Humpty Dumpty Sight cards on the solid lines. Then, cut along the vertical dotted lines for each word. Keep all of the pieces for each word together.

Click on any Humpty Dumpty!

Click on the broken Humpty Dumpty!

Step 3: Number each sight word on the back of each vertical strip, so if word # 1 is "big" then number the back of each letter with a #1 and also label the plastic egg you will store those pieces in with a #1. 

Click the image.

Step 4: Fold each vertical strip up to the horizontal dotted line twice so it hides Humpty Dumpty and only the letters are showing.

Click the image.

Step 5: Place the pieces for each word in the plastic egg with the matching number. 

That's it. You're done! Now comes the fun...

In a small group setting, give each child a plastic egg to open. Without unfolding the strips, they should arrange the letters to create a sight word. If they arranged the letters correctly, Humpty Dumpty will be "back together again!"

Click Humpty Dumpty!

And, did I mention that you get an adorable color copy of the poem, Humpty Dumpty? And it is complete with the cutest graphics and fonts from DJ Inkers:

Click Humpty Dumpty!

You can grab the entire set of 40 Humpty Dumpties with the 1st 40 Dolch Sight Words 

by CLICKING HERE.

Tips:

~When learning a new sight word, give each child a "reference card" with the word they are trying to create printed on it. 

~When practicing sight words, give each child a combination of familiar words and newly introduced words.

~When using this as intervention, give the child an egg containing a word they have not been able to master. After they create the word, they should copy it with marking pens or build it out of Play Dough or Wiki Stix. 

~To keep track of which sight words each child has mastered and which ones they have not, use ESGI. If you have not tried ESGI yet, do yourself a favor. It's a game changer!

CLICK THE CODE ABOVE.

You can give it try for 60 days FREE (no credit card is required) with NO strings attached. If you LOVE it, here is a code to use that will give you $40 off of your 1st year. The code is "KFUN" and it never expires! 

CLICK HERE

to get started. 

Have fun!

Slap Those Sight Words!

So Easy & It's FREE!

This idea is so simple & FREE! 
Just die cut a variety of colorful hands, write sight words on each hand, laminate, and attach to your door. 

 As your class lines up to leave for anything, call out the sight word they should slap.

 Remind them to slap only once and call out different sight words so they don't just copy the student in front of them.

If a student is having difficulty reading sight words, call out the same word you used for the previous child so he/she can simply slap the same word. This will provide practice recognizing the sight word without embarrassing the struggling child. 

You can also find handprints at the dollar store or you can simply use circles, squares, or any shape for your sight words. Students can still slap them even if they are not handprints. 

Those of you familiar with the Houghton Mifflin kindergarten sight words can see that I have mine grouped by trimester.  :)

And here's a game-changer: You can use ESGI to quickly test sight words and print out a set of flash cards for each student with the sight words they have not mastered. I even have my own tests listed on their website which you can download FREE when you sign up for their FREE trial. 

CLICK HERE.

Get a FREE trial that runs through Aug. 31, a free t-shirt, you'll be entered to win an all-expense paid trip to an amazing conference, & qualify for $40 off your 1st year of ESGI. Now, that's amazing!
ESGI will change the way you assess, plan, and provide RTI. 

CLICK the image above to get started.

Spaghetti & Meatball Sight Words + a Sight Word FREEBIE

This Really Happened: (I can't make this stuff up!)

My class won the PTA membership drive for our grade level and the prize was a huge bag of Dum-Dum lollipops. Well, I decided to replace them with organic blueberries and so I was left with a bag of Dum-Dums.  So, when I spotted the rubber bands in the workroom, I got this cool idea...

1.  I grabbed a big handful of rubber bands, snipped them open with scissors, and placed them in the small colander I had in my home center.  (You can use a small bowl or pot.)
2.  Then, I unwrapped the Dum-Dums, cut off the sticks, and covered them with little torn pieces of brown tissue paper applied with Mod Podge.  (You could use white glue and 1" wooden or plastic beads.)
3.  I printed up 2 copies of each of our rightwards (we had 18) and I cut them out. I used more Mod Podge to apply the sight words so each word was on 2 meatballs. I coated them all again with Mod Podge and let them dry overnight.
4.  The next day, I showed my class how to use the tongs to pick up one meatball, read the word, and try to find the matching meatball without letting too much spaghetti out of the colander.  You get to keep the meatballs you can read & match in your own little bowl.
5.  Add a couple of chef hats & a red checkered table cloth and you have a fun restaurant center to use in your home center.
6.  The winner is the one who reads the most sight words.  If there is a tie, the one with the least amount of spaghetti in their bowl wins.

Also:  Students can try to copy the sight words they find.

(I saw the original idea on Pinterest made with string and flat construction paper meatballs.  Being Italian, I knew this just would not do!  Besides, round meatballs gives them a chance to identify spheres, one of the K math standards.)

Skills:  Sight words, identifying the shape of spheres, letter formation, and fine motor practice all in one fun center!  :)

For more sight word fun, check out my 

Sight Word Pocket Lockets by 

CLICKING HERE. 

You can try 2 Pocket Lockets FREE by 

CLICKING HERE.

Want to try ESGI for FREE through Aug., 2018, get a FREE baseball style shirt, get entered to win an ALL-EXPENSE PAID TRIP to a national convention, and qualify for $40 off of your 1st year of ESGI? Then, use my affiliate code, KFUN, and sign up for a FREE trial here: ESGI

ESGI will change the way to assess, plan, teach, and use RTI. 

It's a game changer!

Click the code to get your FREE extended trial & all the goodies.

Sight Word FUN! & It's on SALE Today!

Pocket-Lockets:

  

They are the newest rage in my class.  My kids can't wait to learn a new sight word so they can make a locket or a pocket watch!  And they include all 18 of the Houghton Mifflin Kindergarten sight words AND they come with blank Pocket-Lockets so you can add as many new words as you like! 

Want to know the best part?

The best part is that both boys and girls like to make and wear BOTH lockets AND pocket watches. 

Your students will LOVE making these sight word locket necklaces and pocket watches too!

Both are made the same way, just one is worn as a necklace and the other gets slipped into a pocket like a pocket watch!

How To Make Them:

All you have to do is run these Sight Word Pocket-Lockets on colored construction paper and give each child a piece of yarn that is about 26" long.  Give them marking pens for tracing the letters, words, and numbers; scissors, and glue and you are good to go!

Students trace the sight words and, as an added bonus, they also trace the numbers on the watch.  

If you make one of these watches each week, that will give your students an extra experience tracing the numbers 1-12 AND they will conceptualize where the numbers go on an analog clock or watch.  

Students need to cut out* the rectangles containing the letters of the sight word and they need to glue them to one of the blank sides of the Pocket-locket.  When glueing on the letters they need to glue them in the correct order and they must make sure they are oriented in the correct direction and are not upside down.  They may use the sample of the sight word already printed on the Pocket-Locket as a guide.  Note:  When gluing on the sight words with 4 letters, they will need to overlap the rectangles so all 4 letters fit.

   

Then, they tie the ends of the yarn together and position the center of the yarn inside the fold of the Pocket-Locket.  It is best to use white glue when attaching the yarn.  They let it dry before wearing their Pocket-Locket.  

  

 

My students actually beg to make these Pocket-Lockets.  

This Is What is Included In This Pack:

Included are the following words:  I, see, my like, a, to, and, is, go, for, here, the, have, she, said, are, play, he.  And then you get 2 blank Pocket-Lockets and blank letter rectangles so you can add your own special words.  

  

A Fun Twist:

Have your students glue on the individual letters to the front of the Pocket-Locket in a random order so their friends may guess the word that is inside!

How To Get This Pack and The FREEBIE:

Click Here for the Pocket-Lockets download.

What fun! 

Click Here for the FREEBIE.

It includes the sight words see and my.

*  See a special post all about using higher level thinking skills while cutting out these Pocket-Lockets and take the "One Scrap Challenge" by clicking right HERE.  You will use this special tip EVERY DAY in your classroom forever!  Really!  :)

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Check out KFUNdamentals on Facebook and Pinterest!

Visit our TPT Store.
(My ENTIRE TpT Store is on SALE today!)

Making Guided Reading Work: A Simple Plan

Here is my Simple Guide to Guided Reading:

First, you have to set up your Guided Reading Table:

Children love routines. It makes them feel safe and comfortable. But they also seek novelty and their motivation to learn is peeked when we present information in different ways. That said, I like to keep my Guided Reading routine the same each week, but each day I toss in some fun, new ideas.

Since Guided Reading is taught through small group instruction, and is designed to provide differentiated teaching that supports students in developing reading proficiency, I begin by assessing my students (see more on assessment below)and meeting with them in small, homogeneous groups. These groups are flexible and change as often as needed.

So what does a typical Guided Routine look like?

Basically, I like to plan my small group lessons around these concepts:

Monday: Alphabet Work: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, and letter recognition.

Tuesday: Sight Word Work: Reading and spelling sight words (I limit my lessons to one or two sight words.)

Wednesday: Reading Strategy Work:  Discussing and practice reading strategies such as blending, segmenting, stretching out words, etc.

Thursday: Comprehension Work: Practicing comprehension strategies such as digging deeper, looking for evidence, and re-telling stories.

Friday: Writing Work: Practicing writing by completing the writing prompt that relates to the story or topic that week. 

How to bring novelty into your weekly Guided Reading routine?

Monday: Alphabet Work: (Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, and letter recognition)

We might focus on initial sounds by placing a cube on each image that begins with a particular letter. 

We might use clear and colored spoons to practice word families or onset rimes. This cute idea came from Heidi's blog:  http://blog.heidisongs.com

And we reinforce letter recognition by using alphabet pin cards, laminated letter tracing cards, and bingo markers that help us practice letter formation . 

Tuesday: Sight Word Work: (1 or 2 Sight Words) 

Click the image to grab the set of Pocket-Lockets. 

We create Sight Word charts where students use the sight word in a sentence, the teacher writes the sentence, and the student gets to sign their sentence.

We use my Pocket-Lockets set to create a pocket watch or a locket by spelling a particular sight word with letter squares. Students get to wear their pocket watch or locket home. 

And we use choral reading to read our Sight Word Mini Books together.

We use laminated Dragonflies in First's cute  iPhone templates to copy sight words or write a sentence using a sight word with dry-erase pens.

Wednesday: Reading Strategy Work: (Reading Strategies) 

Click the image to grab this cute, FREE set of posters. 

We use multiple copies of small trade books, phonetic books, or familiar literature books to practice reading decoding strategies together. We discuss the strategies found on these FREE posters from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten and share how we used them to read. 

Students also practice partner reading their book during this time. 

Thursday: Comprehension Work: (Comprehension Strategies)

Students use their trade books, phonetic books, or familiar literature books to discuss new vocabulary, look for evidence in the illustrations or text, and re-tell parts of the story. Concepts of print, such as identifying characters, the setting, the problem, the solution, or sequencing parts of the story are also addressed. 

Friday: Writing Work: (Writing Component)

Click the image to grab the American Symbol Flag Writing Template. 

Students respond to a writing prompt that relates to that week's story or a concept of print, such as the characters, the setting, etc. I use my Writing Prompts every Friday. We also used my Career Writing templates after reading about community helpers and my American Symbol Flag template after reading about our national symbols. 

A Word About Assessments:

I have used ESGI for the past 8 years and it has saved me hundreds of hours assessing my students and using the amazing data to drive my instruction and RTI. It's easy, provides you with so much useful information about your students, and you students will LOVE it so much they will actually beg you to test them! Really!

Click the image above to grab your FREE trial!
Remember to enter your code: KFUN.

You can learn more by grabbing your FREE 60 day trial (no credit card necessary) by CLICKING HERE. Add the promo code KFUN when you grab this FREE trial and you will automatically qualify for a $40 discount off of your 1st year! This is a GREAT company. They won't try to trick you into enrolling for a year. Use their built-in tests or create your own to meet your own school's assessments. After you try it, you will love it.

There you have it! I keep the routine the same, but I change out the way I teach each lesson or the materials I use. Sometimes I dress the part wearing a wig and windshield wiper sunglasses if we are discussing the letter W. And sometimes we will play an Onset Rime Hopscotch game. Keep it fresh and new!

Leave a comment and let us know about some great ideas YOU have for making Guided Reading fun!

What do YOU think this is: A Great Way to Wear Your Sight Words Home!

A Pocket Watch or a Locket:

Click the image

I created these Sight Word Pocket-Lockets so my students could wear their sight words home. They were a HUGE hit! 

Click the image.

I also made two blank ones so you can create your own Pocket-Lockets with as many sight words as you like!

How It Works:

First, you copy the templates on colored construction paper. 

Click the image.

Second, students trace the sight word and the numbers that are printed in a dotted font with a fine tip marking pen. 

Third, they cut out the pieces to create their pocket watch or locket. They glue the letters that spell the sight word on one side of the circle. 

If they fold it so the watch face is inside, it's a pocket watch.

If they fold it so the watch face is outside, it's a locket.

Click the image.

Last, they cut a piece of roving yarn about 24" long, tie the ends together with a knot, and glue the center of the yarn to the inside of their pocket watch or locket. Even my Pre-K students were able to do this by themselves! 

Click the image.

When they dry, they can wear their sight words home!

Click the image.

My students LOVED making these SO much! They couldn't wait to see which sight word they could wear home next, and they loved letting the yarn (chain) on their pocket watch hang out of their pocket!

At first, all of the girls made lockets and all of the boys made pocket watches, but that soon changed and I had lots of boys wearing their sight word lockets home and lots of girls wearing their pocket watches hanging from their pockets. 

The best part was that they were talking about their sight words at home and using them in class during our daily journal writing time.

If you want to try these out for size, you can grab two Pocket-Lockets for FREE on TpT. Just CLICK HERE for the FREEBIE, or CLICK HERE for the full set of 18 Sight Word Pocket-Lockets PLUS 2 BLANK Pocket Lockets that may be used with additional sight words. 

I always taught sight words with Heidi's Songs: "Sing And Spell Sight Words" and then, they made their pocket watch or locket and sang about their sight word all the way home!  Check out Heidi's Sight Word CDs by CLICKING HERE!