Field Day

I have so much to post, but there never seems to be any time! Today was field day and needless to say, I'm exhausted! Luckily for us, it was overcast the whole day and stayed very cool. There's nothing worse than a scorching hot field day and overheated kids. Yuck!

Right now I'm working on a manipulative math center to teach >, < and =. We're going to be trying it out next week and I'll let you know how it works. For me, this has always been one of the hardest topics to teach. Either they get it, or they don't and for the ones who don't it is so hard to help them! I can get them to the place where they answer correctly but I'm never sure that they understand the concept. I was playing around with different ways to teach it when it occurred to me that Popsicle sticks would be perfect! I showed the students that >, < and = are really just two lines that we move to show which side is bigger.

Wow! What a difference! After just a few tries with it I saw some real understanding from a group of kids who were lost before. I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier! I'll definitely take some pictures next week and write a longer post about it. Right now, I'm going to bed!!!

Sight Word Sampler!

So, I decided to create a sampler of the activities in my Super Sight Word Packet and offer the sampler as a freebie. This way teachers can get a feel for the packet and see if it works for them before buying the whole packet. You can get your copy of the sampler here:

I have to admit, I LOVE sight words! At the beginning of the year we have a literacy night with the parents of the kindergartners and first graders. I know I always go overboard when we talk about sight words but I feel like if I can get across to the parents the importance of learning these words the rest of the year is soooo much easier! As a parent (and, yes, sometimes as a teacher!) the first thing we tend to say when a new reader is struggling is "sound it out". There's nothing wrong with sounding a word out but I tell the parents that it's such a labor intensive strategy that we try to save it for when it's really needed.

One of the ways I show them is I put up on the board a page of a book we read in November. It has about 25 words on the page and it looks pretty overwhelming. We go over how hard it would be to sound out every word on that page and how little you would remember by the end of each sentence, never mind the whole page!

The next slide I show is the same page but this time all the sight words we've already learned have been whited out. There are now only two words on the page and one is easily figured out with a picture cue. Every year the parents say "Ohhhhh"! It really brings to the forefront the importance of learning high frequency words!

We use Houghton Mifflin reading and I really do like it. It introduces 6-9 new sight words every week. Each week builds on the week before and the learning is very incremental. We use the Sight Word Packet activities as centers or homework throughout the week and it really helps reinforce these words. In the packet I've labeled each page with what theme/week it corresponds to in Houghton Mifflin so T8W1 is theme 8, week 1. Having said that, you don't need to use Houghton Mifflin to use the sheets! These sight words are all on the Dolch and Fry lists and are words every reader needs to know!

Enjoy!