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!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, when the school year started I had no idea how busy I'd be this year. I had great plans for posting on the blog at least once a week. You see how that went! Overall, though, school is going great. I have a fantastic class and an amazing TA so I can't complain! We've just started to really get into Houghton Mifflin Reading and this is my favorite time of year with it. We started our reading groups and have begun to focus on high frequency words. I bought this resource pack from Made for 1st Grade and it has been a lifesaver! I've had it for three years now and by far the thing I use most are the Lightning Words. It's a weekly sight word homework sheet and the results are amazing! I love it! You can see it here: 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Houghton-Mifflin-Resource-Pack-1st-Grade-2004-edition-145234

 If you teach Houghton Mifflin this is definitely worth it! New for me this year is Reading A-Z. I put it on my order last year and the resource fairy delivered it! I haven't spent too much time with it yet but now that things are slowing down a little bit I plan to. I had a free trial last year for a couple of weeks and I really liked it. I like the decodable readers but...WOW...I love the reader's theater. I started doing RT a couple of times a week and the difference in fluency was amazing! I only had a limited number of downloads so I made a few of my own scripts using our decodable readers that come with the reading series. By the time we were done "rehearsing" and performing they had read the book at least 6 times and they loved doing it. Definitely not boring!!

Well, beef stir-fry and hungry children are waiting!!!

Literacy Linky Party!

I just joined up with iHeartLiteracy for a K-2 Literacy Roundup linky party! I linked my Houghton Mifflin Focus Wall for Theme 1. It's getting to be that time and if you've just started school and you're using HM Reading Theme 1 is right around the corner. For me, next week is the last week of the Back to School theme. I know how important Kindergarten review is but I have to admit that I love getting into the routine of the themes, starting reading groups, etc. When I put up my focus walls I feel like we're really back to school! Come join the party!



Speaking of back to school, last week we made our first class book. Every year I start with this one since we're working on letter/sound review. It's an ABC Book made with the children's names. Tomorrow I'll bind it and put it in the class library. I can guarantee that for a few weeks we'll have to pick sticks (popsicle sticks with the student's names on them) to decide who gets to hold/read the book. Even after that, though, it's always a popular book. I have a special book box for all the books we make together along with yearbooks from past years. Always a hit!

Well, we've certainly enjoyed the long weekend! I don't think we really did anything at all but it was nice to not really have any pressure. Now it's off to make lunches and iron shirts (and find out what last minute homework someone accidentally forgot!).

September!

September is right around the corner! Now is a great time to pick up my packet of September Morning Work. It's packed with great math and literacy activities for September. I use Houghton Mifflin at my school so the literacy activities are loosely aligned with that but it can be used with any program. Stop by and take a look!

Focus Walls are Finished!

Noooo! I just finished this post and somehow deleted it before I published it!!!

Well, as I was saying....


The Houghton Mifflin Focus Walls are finished and posted to TpT--Themes 1-10! Yea! I used these at the end of last year and I'm excited to start the year with them this time around. After using them for a couple of weeks last year I noticed that the kids would flock to the focus wall on Monday to find out what we were going to be doing that week. When I would get around to introducing a skill someone would always say "I already knew that...I read it on the focus wall!" LOVE that!

I'm currently working on a calendar set to go with the schedule cards that are already posted. Last year I started keeping my calendar on the Promethean board but I needed somewhere to put up the date for the kids to reference throughout the day. I have very little wall space so I used the schedule pocket chart. I'm planning on printing out the set and setting it up in the pocket chart and taking picture because I'm sure that will make it much clearer!!! But first, we're off to the library. There has been WAY too much Minecraft in my house!!!

Half Way There!!!

I just posted Theme 5 out of 10 of my first grade Houghton Mifflin reading Focus Walls! I'm half way done. Yea! I'm so excited to have these done and ready for next year. I couldn't believe how interested the kids were when I started using focus walls at the end of last year. I would find them up at the front of the room when their work was done going over the different things on the wall! I also got lots of "I already knew we were going to learn that because it's on the wall."!!!!

Theme 3 is Finished!

Yea! The Theme 3 focus wall is finished and posted! Theme 3 is a little bigger because it also has spelling lists included. Here is a preview:

Enjoy! There's more to come. (Soon I hope!)

Sightseeing

We were very touristy today. My mom thought ahead and got in touch with her senator who got us tickets to see congress in session and a tour of the capitol building. I think you can get these just by showing up but this way we were able to skip most of the lines. Yea! It was very interesting and the kids loved it! Everyone was exhausted by the time we got home but that meant that I got some time on the computer! Theme 3 is almost finished and should be up soon. I had someone ask if I planned to post Themes 3-10. Yes! As soon as they are finished they'll be up. Each theme I do seems to go a little faster and the last few themes I've already done, they just need to be reformatted and cleaned up a bit to keep them consistent with the others. Once I get home I'll dedicate a couple of days/evenings to it and the rest should be up in no time.

We have a few more days of vacation and I think we're going to head out to the pool and maybe have afternoon tea at the Ritz. Fun!

Theme 2 is Ready!

The Theme 2 Focus Wall for Houghton Mifflin Reading is ready and posted on TpT. Here's a preview of some of the pages:

Houghton Mifflin Focus Wall Theme 1 is Ready!

I'm getting into a routine and actually getting some work done! Last year was my second year teaching first grade and Houghton Mifflin. I really like this program and the way everything is so incremental and builds week by week. The first year I was so busy just figuring everything out that I didn't even have a focus wall. Last year I did and it really made a big difference. I started out with just writing the information on a big chart paper. I have to admit that even thought it was old school, it was a lot of fun! It reminded me of my student teaching days, chart paper and lots of Mr. Sketch markers! (yes,I did sniff each one before I used it!) After a couple of weeks I realized that it would be much easier to just do them all in PowerPoint and print them out.

Once I started using them regularly I noticed that the kids would come in and look for them on Monday mornings! After a while they were reading them by themselves and looking forward to what we would be doing that week. They thought it was so funny when I would introduce something and they already knew about it because of the focus wall!

Over the summer I'm going to work on the walls, neaten them up and post them on TpT. The good news is...Theme 1 is done and posted! You can see it here: