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!

           

Five for Fraturday... Better late than never!

Friends, I am exhausted!  I had the seemingly brilliant idea of tackling a couple of DIY furniture projects today and it was tougher than I thought!  I'll have to come back in a few days and share some photos of my handiwork, but for now it's time for Five for Friday!

1. The phonics program I use in my classroom introduces only phonemes (sounds) in Term 1, with the graphemes (letters) that represent them taught for the rest of the year.  I'm so impressed with the phonemic awareness that my kidlets have this year - they can segment, blend and isolate sounds like champs!  As we revisit each phoneme this term we'll also discover which letter/s are used to represent each sound.  This week was m and short a, so we made monsters and alligators!

To make the alligators I gave the kidlets strips of paper and an example that my TA had made.  They had to figure out how to cut/assemble the paper to make the alligator.  Everyone was successful... although some became more frustrated than others. The occasional problem solving lesson now and then is handy for them. :)

We completed the monsters as a directed drawing activity, and then painted them with watercolours.  I love how each little monster reflects the personality of whoever drew it.  Directed drawing is so great for setting kidlets up for success while allowing them to express their own creativity!

2.  Every second Tuesday we spend half an hour in the Kitchen Garden.  The kidlets plant, weed, water, harvest and cook all sorts of fruits and veggies.  This week they made corn fritters with beetroot cream. Makes my heart so happy to see them learning such important life skills.

3. Group work was back in full swing this week after our Easter break!  The kidlets worked so beautifully in their teams that I was able to stay with my Guided Reading group the whole time.  Perfect for teaching, not so perfect for taking photos as I rush around to check on them. I snapped only a few...

Sight word work was a choice between magnetic letters, writing on the whiteboards or typing words, but these clever cats set their equipment up as an office so they could do all 3 options at once!

Happy teacher moment - one of my reluctant writers had this at the end of group time one day.  She's written 'It is 8 more sleeps'.  Not all sight words, but who can concentrate on them when your birthday is so close! :)

Now that we're working on graphemes it's time to break out the creative handwriting activities.  Shaving cream letters were a hit!

4. During outside time on Friday I asked these two where they were off to:

Their answer? "We're taking our baby to the Blues Festival!"  Oh... of course!

5.  I shared this on my Facebook page earlier this week.  It was saved on my desktop and I've taken to looking at it at least once each day just for a giggle!

Well folks, that's it from me.  I've got a big night of folding laundry ahead of me... doesn't that sound fun? ;)

Lauren

Who's a Lucky Duck? (With a giveaway winner!)

Who's a Lucky Duck?  Me!  While feeling sorry for myself on Sunday - trapped indoors writing report cards - I heard from the lovely Brooke at Teachable Moments that I was the winner of a giveaway she ran last week on her blog!  Yay!  While I was checking my email for the pack she had sent me (more info about that below!) there was another one waiting for me from Greg of Smedley's Smorgasbord to say that I had won the box set of the Draw Write Now! books that he was giving away!  Double yay!  I was so thrilled to be a winner, if you couldn't tell from all the exclamation marks in this paragraph. :)

The pack that Brooke sent me was her Find It and Clip It Medial Vowel Sounds Identification pack.  I was excited to put this to good use in my reading groups this week, because those tricky medial vowels were something that a few of my Preppies needed some extra practise with.  I got these printed and laminated ready for Monday morning and I'm so glad I did - after completing the clipping and recording (worksheets are included in the pack) in their groups a lot of my kidlets chose to 'play' with the cards during fast finisher's time.  :)

(You can just see the little yellow dot sticker on the back of one of the cards - I pop these on so they become self-correcting. Handy for when the kidlets are using them independently.)

I knew that these clip it cards would be a hit, we used Brooke's Initial and Final Sounds cards earlier in the year and her Word Family Racers were our revision activity in reading groups this week, too!

Finally, congratulations to 'M' (how mysterious!) who is the winner of my 3 Christmas packs from my giveaway earlier this week -  I hope you love using them with your kidlets!

Halfway through the week already, can you believe it?  I'm set for a looooong night of report card writing.  How's your day going?

Lauren

Five for Friday! 19/10/13

Another Friday, another five random moments to share!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs - you should too! :)

1. We've been learning about living and non-living things in our Science lessons. This week we had some great opportunities to interact with different living things to learn about their needs.  First up was a gorgeous mother hen and her chicks that our Kitchen Garden teacher brought from her farm.  The kidlets were very interested to learn about how the hen teaches her chicks to scratch and peck for food, and loved seeing the tiniest chick hide under her mum to stay safe from little hands. :)

2. On Wednesday we had a day out at an aquarium here on the coast.  We learnt about lots of different creatures that live under the sea and in fresh water. We got to meet some sea stars and sea cucumbers in the Touch Tank and saw 2 seal shows.  My favourite part of the day was when each group had some free time right before we went home (the rest of the day had been a guided tour). One of the parent helpers took her group of boys back to the tunnel tank and they spent the whole time chatting to each other about the different animals that they could see, asking each other questions and sharing facts they knew about the fish, sharks, stingrays and turtles.  When I wandered past them all 4 were standing with their hands on the glass, staring at a reef shark hiding near some coral.  Such precious kidlets! 

3. A parcel arrived yesterday - full of treasures that I bought online!  I've now got some Alphabet Sand Moulds, Letter Stampers and Alphabet Beads to use in word work activities, and some of those coloured plastic link things that I've had my eye on for ages.  I've seen ideas from other blogs that use these to sequence number cards and spell sight words using letter cards, but I'd love some other ideas if you've got them! :)

4. I love working with kids, they say the funniest things.  I posted this story on Instagram last night from a conversation I had with a little cutie in the playground.  Now, I know I'm not a medical expert but for a while I was seriously confused!

5. No photo for this one!  Next week is a short one with kidlets for me.  We have a student free day on Monday, and then I'm off 'networking' (doesn't that sound official?) at another school on Tuesday.  Does anyone else struggle to let another teachers take control of their class... even for just a day? 

OK, it's time for another coffee in an attempt to motivate myself to get the housework done.  I MUST resist the urge to spend hours blog hopping!!  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Lauren

Word Workin' It!

Before this school term ends (last day tomorrow!) I wanted to share a few word work ideas that my kidlets have been LOVING lately. :)

These CVC car tracks fit nicely with our Science unit (you can read about that here) and the boys especially jumped at any opportunity to choose them in free time.  All that's needed is to grab a toy car and practise s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g out the words by driving the slowly at first, and then more quickly along the road beneath the letters.  It was great easy revision for those kidlets who are marvellous at decoding the initial and final sound of their words, but often forget the medial sound!  These are from the CVC Word Mega Pack from Jessica of Littlest Scholars.

Our new favourite sight word game is one that I call 'Spotlight' (once you see the photo you will realise what a creative genius I am with that name!).  I just printed words onto yellow star shapes, cut them out and stuck them all around the classroom.  If I had a ceiling that I could reach that would have been perfect, but I had to settle for high up on the walls and pegged to the net above my carpet area.  We then used torches (flashlights for my North American friends!) to find each word (I either said the word or gave a clue), read it and spell it.  My cuties couldn't wait to have their turn, and they've begged me to play this game every day for almost 2 weeks. :)  I'm sure this isn't an original idea - if I've inadvertently stolen this from you let me know! 

Have I told you how much I love Marsha McGuire's Word Work Galore bundles?  Well, I do.  This week we revised word families and practised spelling words from the families we've studied with the Say, Make Write cards from Marsha's packs.   I popped 2 or 3 from each family with this group.  The cards are pegged closed so that only the picture is visible.  The kidlets said the word, made it with magnetic letters, checked their spelling by un-pegging the card, and then wrote it again with a marker on their whiteboards.  They used our Word Family Word Wall if they needed to.

This lovely cut'n'paste came from Casey and was a freebie! :)  A nice rhyming revision activity.

I must admit that I have really enjoyed the past week, with the kidlets doing lots of revision which means familiar activities and games.  That's meant that I have spent lots of time playing with them and chatting been able to get lots of assessment done.  Just one more day and then we all get a well deserved two week break! :)

Lauren