CVC Find-a-Word Puzzles!

Hello friends!  I'm stopping by really quickly tonight to share one of my favourite activities to use when kidlets have started to read CVC words - Find-a-Word puzzles!  Typically I'm not a worksheet kinda gal, but I love these because they're super engaging and they're easily differentiated. :)

The puzzles are organised by medial vowel, and each page has 6 words hidden in the puzzle.  Kidlets simply decode the word using the picture clue and then circle it in the grid below! I use these puzzles across all of my ability groups - those who still need support to decode words complete the activity as a group with teacher help (you could enlarge the page for this purpose if you like), those reading confidently work independently, and those who require a challenge move onto the 'Spell & Find' puzzles.  In these, students must write the beginning sound before finding the word.  

These puzzles are perfect as a small group word work activity (that's where I use them!), but they can also be copied into a 'Fast Finisher' booklet, or used as a homework task.  Each pack also includes colour options - simply laminate these and use a whiteboard marker to complete. :)

Each pack has 12 puzzles - two for each short vowel, and another two that have a mixture of medial vowel sounds.  Answer keys are also provided if you would like to have students correct their own work.  

Click on any of the images in this post to see these in my TpT store!

           

Sight Word Sunday! Sight Word Hide & Seek

Hello again! I'm stopping by today with another interactive sight word activity that you can (hopefully!) use in your classroom.  

This activity is one that is perfect to use during your whole class teaching time.  It's also a great time-filler if you ever have 5 extra minutes that haven't been planned for. :)  I call it Sight Word Hide & Seek!

As you can see I use my pocket chart to play this game - but you really don't need one!  Blu-tacking the words to a white board or wall is just as effective.  To prepare this activity you just need some cards with your focus words written on them.  I use the flash cards I already have - you've probably got some made up, too!  On the back of 4 cards you want to tack on some little characters for your kidlets to find.  I used monsters but you can use any images that fit your classroom or current theme.

The aim of the game is for all of the monsters (or whatever) to be found.  Kidlets take turns to ask the question "Is there a monster behind ____?"  Flip the card around to reveal if there is or not.   (This is a great time to create a bit of drama just for fun!)  When a monster is found everyone cheers and whoever asked the question basks in their 5 seconds of fame. :)  Keep playing until all of the monsters have been found!  Usually this game is nice and quick so you'll have a chance to play a few rounds at a time.  Just turn your board around (or have your class cover their eyes) to hide the monsters again. 

My class loves this simple game - I'm sure yours will too!

Board Games in the Classroom!

If you've read my blog before you'll know that I absolutely LOVE using games in the classroom! As well as being hands-on and engaging for little learners, they can also help kidlets to practise and consolidate many maths and literacy skills, as well as social behaviours like turn-taking and rule-following.  While I'm all for using products that have been made specifically for use in the classroom (like those you can find on TpT), you don't always have to print and laminate to have a resource that fits in with the curriculum.  I own lots of store bought games that I use either straight from the box or with a few simple hacks. (Read to the end to find out how I get them on the cheap.) Here's a few of my favourites - with some ideas of how to use them! 

1. Snakes and Ladders!

Usually Snakes and Ladders is set up as a 100s board - bonus! Use a regular die to work on subitising, counting and number recognition with your kidlets. You might also like to use different dice depending on what your maths focus is.  This makes it a great game for differentiation! One group may use a dice with numerals, one with number words, another with ten frames and yet another might use two dice to work on their addition skills.  Ask questions as the game progresses - What number are you on now? You've rolled 5 - what number do you think you will land on? What number do you need to roll to land on the number 20?

2.  Scrabble!

Scrabble (or Junior Scrabble) is a perfect word work activity.  Depending on the ability of your kidlets, you could play the game in the traditional way or modify it to make it a little easier.  I like to have the letters laid out on a table - kidlets simply pick the letters they want to build a word on the board.  Speaking of the board - you don't even need to use it if it's too tricky and we never bother to keep score.  Of course, the Scrabble letter tiles can also be used for a tonne of other spelling and phonics activities - use them as you would magnetic letters, stamps, letter beads etc.

3. Boggle!

I like to use Boggle initially as a letter recognition game.  Give the container a shake and then name the letters you can see!  Kidlets can write one per shake on a whiteboard etc. or cross them off a worksheet or board as they appear in the game.  When you begin phonics teaching, have students say the letter sound rather than it's name.  Of course when your learners are ready they can play the game as it's intended - writing down words made from the letters that appear after each shake.

4. Guess Who?

Let me start by saying that if you have the original style Guess Who? with the flat boards, make sure you hang on to it!  The newer version has connected boards that stand upright and it's much trickier for little learners to manage.  Guess Who? is perfect to play straight from the box - it's a game that encourages kidlets to use critical thinking and specific vocabulary in order to narrow down the faces on their board - and on top of that their questions must only have a yes/no answer.  If you watch your kidlets play this throughout the year you'll see how their skills improve.  If you have the time, make up a game board (either a sheet or individual cards depending on which version of the game you have) with the faces of your whole class.  A perfect way for kidlets to get to know their peers! Hasbro even has additional character sheets that you can print from their website to mix things up a bit - and a little Googling will help you find themed sheets that other clever clogs have shared.

5. Trouble!

Everyone loves the popomatic bubble!  Trouble is perfect to play when little learners are working on number recognition and counting skills.  No hacks necessary. :)

6. Hungry, Hungry Hippos!

Another game just made for maths groups. After each round of marble chomping, kidlets count how many their hippo has eaten. Whose hippo ate the most? Whose ate the number closest to ten? Using two different coloured marbles extends this game further - six red marbles and two yellow marbles makes eight in total etc.

7. Connect Four!

Connect Four can be used to work on turn-taking and critical thinking skills straight from the box.  By using a marker, some dot stickers or painter's tape you can also modify it to use for lots of other purposes! I've mostly used it as a sight word game by writing words on the chips.  Kidlets choose a chip from a bag (otherwise they'll just pick the words that are easy for them each time!) and add it to the game if they can read it. Put all the red chips in one bag and the yellow in another. The winner is still the first person to line up four of their chips before the other player.  You can see how easy it would be to modify this to suit any skill you're working on - write letters for recognition or phonics practise, numerals or number words, CVC words (or whatever words suit your phonics focus), shapes etc.

Now you might be thinking - this all sounds great but seems like it could be expensive! It's ideal to have the games differentiated and ready to go whenever you need them, but that means having two or three of each in some cases.  I'll be honest with you and say that I've paid full price for very few of my classroom games! The easiest way to get them for free is to pop a note on your classroom door or school newsletter asking for donations.  There's always families looking to declutter their toy cupboard who are more than happy to share the love and donate to little learners.  You might get a few that are missing pieces - combine them to make a full set.  The next best place to look is in second hand stores, or garage sales.  If you'd prefer to buy new from the store, keep an eye out for knock-off versions that are less expensive.

I hope I've inspired you to raid your board game cupboard and find a few treasures to use in your classroom! 

Photo Catch Up - it's been a while!

It sure has been a while since I've stopped by to share photos of the things we've been up to in my classroom! This post has no real theme - it's just a hodgepodge of pictures that I'd taken in the last few weeks of term - and it seemed that most of them were snapped in a hurry, so sorry about the quality. :)

The end of Term 1 means lots of reviewing of the concepts I want to make sure my kidlets really 'get' before the Easter break.  As we worked on counting skills two games became the new favourites!

'Race to Fill the Cup' is super fun and very simple to set up.  All you need is some large cups (or really any container), some counting cubes and a die.  Kidlets roll and count that many cubes into their cup.  The first to fill their cup is the winner!  For extra fun I made some pocket dice cards and included a little 'thief' clipart.  When he was rolled, 1 cube had to go back into the middle.  A regular die would work just as well.

Dino Dash is perfect for easy differentiation.  Some of my groups used one die to practice counting, while others used two and worked on early addition skills.  Dinosaur tokens are moved along the rock path and stop to 'rest' under the trees when they make it to the end.  Players have to get as many dinos to the end of the path as they can.  You can grab this game in my store (click on the pics!) and add some plastic dinosaurs for extra fun.

We linked up number representations to review numerals, ten frames, words and dot patterns to 10. 

We made shape ice-creams to review 2D shape!  And who knew that some old cardboard would turn out to be the smash hit of the year so far...

...?  I needed a five minute time-filler activity so during lunch time my TA cut these shapes from old boxes.  I blindfolded a kidlet who had to identify the shape by feeling the number of sides and corners etc.  After we'd done the four shapes I wrapped up the activity and those who'd missed out on having a turn were devastated.  They literally begged me to keep the shapes out as a fast finisher option, and for weeks afterwards there would always be a pair of kidlets playing the 'Mystery Shape Guessing Game' - complete with high levels of excitement.  Who knew it would be such a hit?!

Once a week we do a whole class sorting activity to introduce or review reading and phonics concepts.  That activity then became a small group task. You can click on any of these photos to see the matching pack.

We reviewed letters, words and sentences and completed a cut'n'paste worksheet.

We worked on those tricky medial vowel sounds - next term we'll use mailboxes showing letters only rather than our Sound Waves cards.  We'll do the recording worksheets then too.

These cute tulips are sorted by the number of phonemes (sounds) in each picture.  We also did a cut'n'paste activity to match this sorting work as well, but who knows where that photo ended up. :)

Squirting sight words was by far the most fun sight word review we did all term.  We wrote the words  with chalk inside a bug shape on the path outside.  Depending on the group, kidlets squirted the bug containing the word called or identified the word based on clues given.  "This word has 4 letters and starts with l" etc. Perfect for kinaesthetic learners!

Phew! Told you I had lots of photos! Hopefully you've found an idea or two that you can use in your classroom. :)

My Classroom Library - a peek inside!

As I was doing my end-of-the-week tidy up yesterday afternoon I snapped a few photos of my classroom library to share with you all.  Hopefully you'll find a few easy ideas that you can use to organise yours or to help your kidlets become excited about reading!

First up, let's talk about how I organise my books.  I know it's not perfect, but I wanted there to be some order so that kidlets could make informed decisions about the books they choose for their book box - and I wanted to scaffold their choice of a 'best fit' text. 

One shelf holds our levelled readers, organised into baskets of 2 levels.  For this term, I have been choosing these books for kidlets - explaining that I'm giving them 1 book at their level, 1 that's easy practise and 1 that's more of a challenge.  Next term they will have control over these choices.  I was undecided as to whether or not I should display the levels... I didn't want reading to become a competitive sport.  Luckily enough, my Preppies have always been happy to choose their level and not worry what their friends' levels are. :) As these are all school books I can't really re-sticker them with colours etc. so the levels are the easiest for organisation at the moment.

Two other shelves hold our picture books and non-fiction texts. The left shelf has baskets organised by author - Mem Fox, Dr. Seuss, Pamela Allen and Jez Alborough - as well as two baskets of non-fiction.  On the top are pink baskets with Grug and Little Golden Books.  We also have a returns box. Children can choose whichever books they like from here.  It took a few weeks, but they are getting pretty good at leafing through to check and see whether a book is one that interests them rather than grabbing random ones.

Now on to the fun stuff! I have a little collection of tools that my kidlets can choose any time they are reading to help them engage with a book.  Our 'Reading Glasses' are just dollar store sunglasses with the lenses popped out.

'Sight Word Stars' are the newest addition to our library.  I typed our sight words onto some star clipart, laminated and cut them before taping them onto a giant straw (from Ikea!).  Kidlets use these to search for sight words they know in 'tricky' picture books.

We have a variety of pointers to use as well, these really help to ensure that kidlets attend to the text they're reading - particularly in Guided Reading groups.  At the moment I've only got the googly eye sticks out, but now that my clever Preppies are using these responsibly I'll add some new ones next term.  I get everything from the dollar store!

Googly eyes glued to craft sticks.

Magic wand party favours.

Plastic magnifying glasses.

Torches.

Two big containers hold our 'Reading Buddies' and 'Whisper Phones'.  Buddies are available any time kidlets want to read their book aloud.  They never interrupt and are nice to cuddle. :)  I asked parents last year if anyone knew a plumber who could get me cheaper plastic pipes to make Whisper Phones, and was so appreciative when one of my little girl's uncles just went ahead and made them as a donation!  They're two pieces glued together, and I just decorated them with colourful duct tape.

Lucky last - our Book Boxes!!

I used the 100 Scrappy Kids set that Mel (Graphics from the Pond) made to personalise each label.  I chose the scrappy kid that most looked like each kidlet, and we also use the same graphics for desk labels.  Each week we change our books (3 levelled texts and 4-5 other books) to keep for our independent reading time.  At this stage of the year my class can read for 10-15 minutes in silence, which I think is pretty good for Term 1 Preppies! :)

That's all from me today!  Easter holidays are coming up so hopefully I'll have some extra time and energy to post a little more - I have lots of photos of fun activities we've been doing but end of term exhaustion has just kicked my butt.  I really hope you found an idea or two today that you can use, and I promise to be back soon!!

A Very Colourful Five for Friday!

What a wonderful week it's been!  We've had so much fun in Prep with lots of colourful activities.  Time for Five for Friday to share the fun.

Inspired by a pin from Kindergarten Smiles we made monster paintings as part of our phonics work this week.  They are so simple to make - just fold a large piece of paper in half and have the kids blob paint on one side.  When they re-fold it, they can rub their hands gently over the paper to blur the paint together.  Make sure you watch their little faces as they unfold their painting! They'll be absolutely amazed to see their results. :) When they dried, we gave each child some paper circles and asked them to glue them on as monster eyes.  I just LOVE the way they turned out!

How gorgeous is this guy?!? To me he looks just like a monster peeking over the top of the card, complete with pink hair, purple horns and a blue face. :)

We brainstormed some adjectives that could describe our monsters and each kidlet chose one that they wanted to match their painting. These guys are going to look amazing on display in our classroom!

Speaking of monsters, our Alphabet Monster was hungry this week! I cooked up some Alphabet Soup for him, full of veggies and letters.

Wouldn't you know it, he wasn't interested in the veggies at all and only wanted to eat the letters!

Kidlets took turns using the tongs to grab a magnetic letter, identify it and then feed it to the monster. Some of my little learners (ok, lots!) are still working on letter recognition so we are doing lots of alphabet activities.

As well as letter recognition we're also working on confidently spelling our names using a capital letter only at the beginning. During small group time kidlets used bingo dabbers to dot over their names, and we talked about the letter sequence and the correct direction to form each one.

I bubble cut around them and they brighten up our Library corner nicely!

 We worked on the /j/ sound as part of our phonics program so of course needed a craft to match!  This jellyfish craft was super quick and easy.  We cut some paper plates in half and the kidlets painted them with bright watercolours.  When they were dry we glued on some crepe paper tentacles.

Sorry about the awful photo, my camera doesn't like the fluorescent lights!

We added another poem to our Poetry Journal on Thursday.  This week was 'Five Little Ducks'.  We read the poem together on the carpet, and this time I chose a special helper to point to each word as we said it.  Back at their desks we sang/read the song again and pointed to the words on the journal copy.  I think our next poem will go in the pocket chart so we can work on sequencing and editing by adding capitals and punctuation.

I was so proud of my drawing, but the kidlets set out to draw one better than mine!

I love this one, kind of looks like relaxed ducks on a tropical island. :)

That's all from me, friends. I'm off to see 'Wicked' this afternoon and I'm super excited! I'll be back tomorrow with a wrap up of the fun we've been having in small groups. Happy Valentine's Day!