Beginning Sounds Clip Cards! An easy-peasy literacy center

I'm a big fan of using the "Same same, but different!" approach with activities in my classroom!  I like to teach my class how to complete a variety of tasks, and then use the same activity across different subjects and skills as the year goes on.  This is the perfect strategy to use with literacy centers because it will save you a lot of time explaining tasks - kidlets will see an activity that they know how to complete and get started right away! For this reason, I am a BIG fan of clip cards!  They are so quick and easy to prepare and are perfect to use as a center task, fast finisher option, or even as one-on-one support materials.  

In my classroom you'll find clip cards that cover lots of different skills and concepts - number recognition, counting, punctuation, money, and of course phonics!

These beginning sounds clip cards encourage little learners to apply their phonics skills. They look at each picture, determine the beginning sound, and clip a peg onto the two that match the letter in the middle.  Clipping the pegs on adds an interactive fine motor element to this task - bonus! I usually use regular clothes pegs, but you can find all sorts of novelty pegs and clips if you'd like to use something different!

Make them self-correcting by placing a small dot on the back of the correct answers, using either a sticker or marker.  Children will clip their choices and flip the card over to see if they match!  You can use these cards as skill practise, as an informal assessment tool, or even as intervention work later in the year for those kidlets who need a little help to consolidate their beginning sounds knowledge.

Click on either of the images in this post to check this resource out in my TpT store!

Five for Funday!

It's been soooooo long since I linked up with the Five for Friday party! Today I thought it was time to get back into it... even though I'm two days late. 😃

1. Our household has been bitten by the Christmas bug already!  We celebrated early with part of the family because we won't be together during the holiday, and because we hosted it made sense to put our decorations up!  The girls wore their new dresses for our family lunch - long enough to pose by the tree before they jumped in the pool.  Instead of swapping presents this year we made (or bought) festive costumes to wear during the day - you can see how gorgeous we looked below! We've also posted the girls' letters to Santa - we got the postcards from the post office and posted them into the special box.

2. Speaking of the Christmas season, I saw this image on my Instagram feed and haven't been able to get the idea out of my mind!

It is so easy for kidlets to get caught up in the 'gimme!' attitude that comes along with Christmas time.  Every day there's treats, cookies, candy and gifts galore - it's easy to get selfish and greedy.  I absolutely LOVE the idea of a 'Classroom Kindness Challenge'.  Each day a challenge card is revealed and kidlets complete the act of kindness. What an easy way to encourage children to think of others during the materialistic holiday season.  You can start any time and could even use the challenge at home with your own children - maybe alongside 'Elf on the Shelf'! Click on the image above to see the pack. 

3. We had another reason to dress up this week! (And yes, the girls wore their same new dresses.)  We spent a lovely afternoon in the hinterland at a wedding.  

4. Being out of the classroom this year has left me really missing the hands on work of teaching.  I was beginning to feel like my days of impacting kidlets were over - and then I received this feedback on one of my resources: 

It really warmed my heart to know that even though I'm not face to face with students each day, I can still do my little bit to help here and there. 😊

5. Some of the oldest products in my store were in desperate need of a makeover!  The past few days I've updated one of my all time fave freebies - counting snowman buttons or marshamllows, and my Christmas playdough mats. Click on the pictures to go to each resource.

That's all from me today.  I'm off to grab some ice cream and to read the rest of the posts in the Five for Friday linky!

Hands-On Ideas for Teaching 2D Shape!

If you've read my blog before you probably know all about my passion for ensuring that little learners explore concepts in a hands-on way! Today I thought I'd share some ideas for teaching 2D shape that will keep your kidlets' hands and minds busy.

For the beginning of the year I love to use this song - to the tune of 'If You're Happy and You Know It'. (I didn't come up with it - it was a gift from Pinterest many years ago!)  Before you begin, make sure each student has one each of the shapes you'd like to focus on.  Either give them blocks or pre-cut card, or have them cut around paper templates.  The song goes like this (just change the shape name each time):

Put your {square} in the air, in the air!

Put your {square} in the air in the air!

Put your {square} in the air and wave it 'round up there,

Put your {square} in the air, in the air!

This activity is perfect for the beginning of your 2D shape learning because it focuses on simple shape recognition.  At the end of each verse you can ask questions about the shape if you like or talk about the properties in a more detailed way.

During this stage of learning I also like to include some informal shape work - usually in fine motor groups first up in the morning or as a maths craft.  The photo below came from Pinterest as I don't have one of it in action in my own room.

Make up a collection of coloured paper shapes.  Laminate them if you'd like to use them long term!  Simply provide kidlets with a board/table space to design a picture using the shapes.  As they work you can ask lots of questions and talk about the shapes and how they are the same or different.  For example, "How many triangles have you used?" or "A square has 4 straight sides, do any other shapes?"  I prefer to use the laminated shapes during morning work for a while and then have the kidlets create a collage with paper and glue as a maths craft.

The biggest unexpected hit in my classroom during 2015 was this simple activity that I came up with to fill a spare 10 minutes.

I cut some shapes from old cardboard boxes we had in the room and put one at a time in the feely bag (my fancy name for an old Toms shoe bag!).  I blindfolded one kidlet and asked them to feel inside the bag and guess which shape was in there.  Of course, they need to know how many sides each shape has, whether they are straight or curved and the shape name - so this is a great activity to discover if any kidlets aren't quite getting it.  I was very surprised to see that everyone was just desperate to have a turn feeling inside the bag, so I ended up putting it and the shapes out for discovery play time.  For the few weeks afterwards I would see pairs and small groups of kidlets playing the guessing game independently. :)

For a whole class activity I love "I Have, Who Has?" This version includes colours and comes in 2 levels (one with 'trickier' shapes!). 

I have two all-time favourite 2D shape crafts!  The first is a shape ice-cream!

To make this craft just print out some shape outlines on coloured paper (I make mine in Powerpoint) and some labels on white paper.  Give each kidlet one of each and have them glue the labels on each shape before assembling their ice-cream.  (I use a second triangle for the cone).

Next up is a shape pizza!

Normally you would paint the paper plate pizza dough coloured before you complete this craft... but I must have been pushed for time the year I took this photo! :)  Cutting out the little shapes is a great job for parent helpers (they can even do them at home) - use a circle punch to make it easier though.  Kidlets go ahead and make their pizza, and then record the number of each shape they have used.  {If you're anything like me the first time you do this activity you will cut enough shapes for 6000 pizzas and use the shapes for years after!}

Now time for a couple of tasks perfect for small group rotations or centers.  2D shape learning fits perfectly with patterning concepts, as often times we ask kidlets to create patterns using colour and then shape.  I use pattern blocks all the time and love these pattern block cards - children copy and continue the patterns shown.

We also love to 'Link-it-Up'!

To keep a record of your student's learning, these 'I Spy' worksheets are quick and easy - just print and go! {Hint: Print 4 to a page to use as an exit ticket style informal assessment!}

I hope you've found an idea or two that you can use in your classroom! Thanks for stopping by today. :)

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. :)

Our Week in Photos!

This post is brought to you by the wonderful condition called 'Sunday Afternoon Laziness'!  I took lots of photos this week and have lots of fun activities to share... but am feeling too lazy to organise them as anything other than a photo dump with quick captions. I hope you'll still find an idea or two that you'll be able to use in your classroom. :)

Tumbling Chimps is perfect for fine motor fun! I found it at Big W - they have lots of cheap games that would be wonderful for the classroom.

Kidlets used bingo dabbers to dot over a line...

...and if they had time, cut along the line through the middle of the dots.  Fine motor and scissor skills all in one!

 Tracing this week was with our new Scentos markers! Had to remind them not to sniff the pen directly. :) The room smelt so gorgeous all week.

New favourite maths game? Dino Dash!  This super fun game works on early addition concepts, or you can use it as a counting game for those who still need that practise.

We played Beach Bingo (part of Mel's bundle) - working on numbers to 10. 

My kidlets loved making a Flip Strip from Cara's pack!  This week we matched quantities to 5 as our easy review task.

We worked on representing numbers in different ways using counting cubes and ten frames.  I called a number, the kidlets built it and then told me how they had organised their cubes - 6 might be 3 and 3; 4 and 2; 5 and 1 etc.

During Literacy groups we played Stretchy Snake Bingo -  I love this as phoneme blending practise.  The caller says each word as individual sounds, and the kidlets have to blend them together to figure out if that picture is on their card.

It was a bingo kind of week - we played Brooke's Alphabet Bingo, using wooden letters drawn from a bag instead of calling cards.  

Our sight word work was stamping with playdough!

We used the pocket chart to sort Letters, Words and Sentences - this was a whole class activity that will be reviewed with an independent cut & paste task this coming week.

Last but not least - I love these colourful vases of flowers that we made as part of our phonics work.

Phew! That's all from me, friends. :) Enjoy the last of your weekend!