Phonics Activity Cards

My son is in first grade this year and we have been working on learning to read words with blends, digraphs, and all of the long vowel spellings. I wanted to make an activity that would be a fun way for him to practice the spellings. These cards can be used in a few different ways. Here are some pictures of how my son and I used them. I cut out the cards and laminated them.

Then I used a 1 inch square punch to make a hole underneath the picture and word. Find 1 inch square punch here. Each word is missing a short vowel, long vowel, blend, or digraph. You can place the card on a piece of paper or white board and write the missing sounds in the hole. Below are a few examples of the different kinds of cards.

The pack has short vowel, blends, digraphs, silent E, and long vowel team cards for students to practice with. You could place the full page in a sheet protector and have students write the missing sounds in the box with a dry erase marker. You could also cut the cards out, laminate them but not punch out the square and have students write the missing sound with a dry erase marker.

February Worksheets

February is here already! I can hardly believe it! All of the kids are making so much progress but I will have to admit that it is our transitional kindergarteners that are impressing me the most. They have all started to blend words, write simple sentences, and are doing the same math as the kinders! So amazing….I am excited to see all that they accomplish in kindergarten! :)

Everyone is getting ready for the Winter Olympics to start and I am ready to share some new worksheets that I have made for the month of February! The worksheets meet the 1st grade common core standards but would be a nice challenge for advanced kindergarten students. Be sure to check them out in my TPT store! :)

Love the cute clipart from Melonheadz!

What student doesn't need more story problem practice? ;)

Word Family Fluency Passages

Last year I started writing these silly little fluency passages that would give my students practice at reading our CVC spelling words. I only wanted sight words and CVC or CCVC which limited my ability to create quality stories but I wasn't really concerned with that. I just needed simple, easy stories so my students could gain confidence as brand NEW readers.

I originally listed these passages for sale on TPT with my spelling word pack but then thought that people may just be looking for stories just like I was. Recently my fluency pack has become my best selling item on TPT! :) It was definitely unexpected to see this item shoot to the top but very cool at the same time! :)

I continue to update the file as I write new passages so for anyone who purchases it - don't forget to check back and download the new file! :)

Teachers Pay Teachers Cyber Sale

Tomorrow starts a two day cyber sale on Teachers Pay Teachers! I am also throwing a 20% sale on top of the Teachers Pay Teachers sale so be sure to check out my store!

Click on the Happy Holidays image below to go straight there!

Winter Worksheets for 1st Grade

I have been working hard on some new worksheets for my 1st grade students! They are all aligned to the common core and have a cute winter theme! I just wish it was December already so that we could start using them in class. Hope you enjoy these worksheets as much as I enjoyed making them! :)

Candy Corn Art

I love the way these Candy Corn pictures turned out! They are so cute and easy to prep for! The project kept all the kids (from 4 to 6 years old) engaged and interested!!

All About Animal - Science and Informative Writing Unit

We just finished up our All About Animals Unit with the kindergarteners. The kids had so much fun learning about the animals. You can get all the worksheets and pictures you see in my All About Animals pack on TPT! We started each animal group with an information poster!

I am not the best artist so I use pictures when making posters! If you feel the same way you can get these pictures in my All About Animals pack so you can make your own poster!

The worksheet version of the web.

Color, cut, & paste worksheets to go with each animal group.

I took the animal group worksheets and cut them apart to go in our science notebooks.

Here is an example of the informative web. When I do informative writing I always start with a web either like this or a big whole group web on the board.

Then I turn the web into sentences following the topic, details, and conclusion model. This is how I introduce informative writing in the beginning of the year. Before I even expect the kids to write informatively I model it whole group many, many times!

Then I mix up the sentences and have the students help me put them back in order.

There are worksheets in the pack so the students can put the sentences in order as well. These are really good for 1st grade students.

Now that the sentences are back in order, I show the kids how to turn the sentences into a paragraph. I start by putting the topic sentence in first and indenting it. Then I start to add the details sentences.

The kids will see that I do not have enough room on the line for a complete sentence. This is great for teaching kids that you sometimes have to finish a sentence on the next line especially when writing paragraphs.

I cut the sentences to make them fit properly in the pocket chart in paragraph form.

Then I transfer the pocket chart paragraph to paper so they can see how it looks written out.

Click on my pack or the worksheet to check it out on Teachers Pay Teachers. :)