KinderClips MORE, LESS or the SAME 0-10 Cards

Just posted a new resource to help you develop your students’ number sense!These KinderClip MORE, LESS or the SAME Cards will develop your kinders basic number sense with counting, cardinality, one-to-one correspondence, and number identification.

On each of the 32 KinderClip MORE, LESS or the SAME Cards students will count/identify the number in each square and then follow the signs (>, < or = to the target number-–identified by counting fingers in the center frame of each card) to determine if that square contains a correct answer.
Although this set of KinderClip cards covers numbers 0-10, your students will identify numbers 0-14 as numerals, objects, base ten blocks, tally marks, marks on ten frames, dominoes and dice. They will also identify numbers on a number line, as a measurement, and on bar and line graphs.

Grab it here for half-off through tomorrow!

CRAZY for CVC GAMES!

Summer is full of fun…and planning for next school year! As we begin First Grade next year, we’ll be reviewing CVCs. Instead of using lots of great worksheets, we are going to start our year with CRAZY for CVC GAMES!

The best part about these CVC games is that the are ALL in black and white. No expensive colored ink needed here! So, grab your favorite Astrobright cardstock, and start printing up some learning fun!

THE BUNDLE will contain 30 games–six games for each CVC vowel group. These games can be used during the KINDERGARTEN school year in small reading groups, morning work tubs, for fast finishers, literacy stations, etc. Whatever works best in your class!

Now…for a look inside each of the games in the short A pack:

In GAME #1, playing with a partner, or alone, your students will read CVC words and mark their pictures on the game board. We like using Mathlink Cubes for this activity, but you could use whatever game pieces you have on hand. When they have found five words in a line, they win! Or, they could be like my kids, and keep reading and marking words until the whole board is full of math cubes!

GAME #2 is a word family Tetris puzzle. It is a great tool for assessing your student’s word family knowledge and critical thinking!

Using the game board from GAME #1, your students will cover the words that rhyme (that are in each word family)with the correct word family puzzle piece.

GAME #3 has four different TRACTOR RIDE game boards (#1: -ab & -ad; #2: -ag & -ax; #3: -am & -ap; #4: -an & -at). Your students will find and build the medial A CVC words on each board by drawing clue cards. Each clue card will give them a beginning or ending letter that they will use to find the word. This game can be played with a partner, or alone.

GAME #4, BOGGLE BUDS is a fun way for your students to practice their beginning reading skills. This short A pack has four different Boggle Bud boards (try saying that 5 times fast :).

Students will search for CVC words using three letters (including the medial A) that are touching each other in any way–sideways, up and down, or diagonally. The words can also be formed forward or backward.

GAME #5 is sure to be a class favorite. Who doesn’t love candy?!? It is really a fun way to practice reading and rhyming words.

I printed the rhyming boards on white and the candy on all different colors of cardstock. But you could print all the candy on one color (that matches the title page) or, if you’d like to use this activity to introduce the word families, you could print each word family’s candy in one color (a different color for each word family). Your students could then spend less time discerning the word families and more time simply reading the words.

 

 

 

 

 

In Game #6 your students will put all of their reading skills together by building sentences with CVC words. There are 6 different picture strips in this game. Each picture strip has a set of word cards (distinguishable by the matching picture on the word cards) associated with it. Only names are capitalized on these word cards.

Your students will read each word card and then order, and re-order them until they come up with a sentence that matches the picture strip. Next, they’ll write the sentence into their “My Little A Book” using a capital letter to begin their sentence and appropriate ending punctuation. The only sight words included in this set of sentence building cards are “is” and “the”. Your students should be very successful completing these sentences independently.

As a mom of 8, I need to be organized, or not much gets done :). So I want to share with you a couple of ideas on how you can organize the CRAZY for CVC GAMES.

The first is super simple and fairly inexpensive. Print the title pages for each game on a different color of cardstock. Paste them onto large manila envelopes and tuck all of the game pieces inside their envelopes.

If you are into IRIS containers (who doesn’t love them?!)–all of the game envelopes can be stored in one of their 11 x 13 project containers.

Another idea is to store all of the game pieces in a 4×6 IRIS container and the larger title pages and game boards in a plastic envelope (I love these by the way! They can handle daily use a lot better than their manila cousins).

Everything fits in, nice and tidy :).

So…6 simple games…low prep…lots of fun…and perfect for teaching/reinforcing CVCs with a medial A!

You can grab the short A set on sale through tomorrow. Or grab the whole bundle today! The bundle price will go up as I add each letter’s games.

STAR WARS Parent-Teacher Conference Pack

This is for all of my teacher friends who love Melonheadz Star Wars characters as much as I do!

Two files are included in this Parent-Teacher Conference Pack. One is loaded with Print-n-Use forms.  The other is a PowerPoint file with editable forms. This pack also has lots of options for coordinating with parents as well as creating progress reports that work for you and your students/parents.

Here is  peek at what is included:

This form you would send home and have your students’ parents give you 3 dates/times that they are available. With the other set of forms (see below) you would set a time/day for each parent to meet with you (based on the sign-up sheet). They would return the bottom half of the form to you with their reply.

Use this next set of forms to find out what your students’ parents concerns are, and what your students think about their own progress.

And now, here are the options for gathering all of your data and generating a progress report or student summary. Choose the one that works for you and your students/parents.

Now, you are ready to hold your conferences! Be sure to have this sign-in sheet printed and some Padawan Love Notes ready for the parents to leave their children. 

This set will be on sale through Friday! Hope you love it!

 

NO-PREP Syllable Worksheets

I’ve bundled all of the NO-PREP worksheets from our growing syllable instruction packs for you!

Syllabication rules covered in this set include:

1. OPEN and CLOSED simple syllables (3 activities)
2. VCCV with Double Consonants (4 activities)
3. VCCV with Mixed Consonants (4 activities)
4. V/CV (6 activities)
5. VC/V (6 activities)
6. Magnetic Y (V/CY) (5 activities)
7. C+LE (5 activities)
8. VOWEL TEAMS (4 activities)

PLUS, built-in REVIEWS/ASSESSMENTS are included! After a new rule is added, all previous syllable identification rules are reviewed.

This set will be half-off through Saturday!

Open and Closed Simple Syllables

Open and closed syllables are the first two syllable types your students should learn. Hundreds of common words can be spelled using these simple syllables, so teach them early and well!

Here is a great place to start:

You’ll start with these fun teaching tools–the open road and OPEN SYLLABLES:The LONG measuring tape remind us that these vowels are LONG. But, as we “go” along the road, we might run into a barrier–a CONSONANT barrel:

 

The road is CLOSED and our vowel is now closed in by a consonant. The short measuring tape reminds us that the vowel’s sound is now SHORT.

After this demonstration with real and nonsense words, your students are ready to change their open-syllable cars to closed syllables with various consonant barriers. There is a recording sheet included for this activity.

 

Your students will also sort open and closed syllables with this activity:

A separate Open or Closed worksheet will help you asses your students’ ability to identify these syllable types.

Did you notice that all of your students’ syllable manipulatives, sorting mats and instruction cards fit neatly in an IRIS container? I love ’em, too!

Grab this helpful simple syllables pack today and tomorrow for HALF OFF! More syllable sets are in the works, so check back with me soon! Have a great weekend!

Favorite Reads from 2017 {Sonlight B, First Grade}

Another year has passed, and a lot of books have been read around here. I asked each of the kids to pick their Favorite Read from the 2016-2017 school year, and here is our first review. It is from Finn, age 6. He just completed Sonlight’s Core B (First Grade).  He really wanted to tell you his TOP 7 favorite books (Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Homer Price, Missionary Stories with the Millers were rated high on his list, too), but here is the one (okay, two) he gave top honors to:

Finn, age 6

Would you pull out your best friend’s tooth in the middle of the night? Karl Erikson, D.D.S (extracts teeth under complete anesthesia, or a good night’s rest) did that for his friend, Olaf. He is one of the happy kids from Noisy Village.

Happy Times in Noisy Village was my favorite book this year because it is really funny. There are stories about the things kids do every day that will make you laugh. One time the boys took over the girls’ snow-fort and the girls had to make snowballs for them for the rest of the day. Another time the kids were trying to sell cherries along the side of the road. It was a busy road, and nobody would stop. Karl started getting angry about no one stopping, so he jumped out in the middle of the road (sort of) and a car stopped. The story about Olaf’s loose tooth is the funniest. You’ll just have to read that one!

NEW TODAY!!! Star Wars LIGHTSABER NUMBER LINES!

The perfect addition to your Star Wars-themed classroom—a lightsaber number line! These come in Black Galaxy and Silver.  They are 3″ tall (the hilt is 4″ tall by 13.5″ long). You can add your favorite paper behind the blade for a “glowing” effect.

 

 

These number lines can grow as your students practice and master each group of tens.  A lightsaber tip for each of the 10s is included in the set.

These are half-off until Wednesday!!

Spring Photo Booth Writing Prompts

We had some fun this week celebrating sping and looking forward to Easter. My kids love it when we celebrate with a photo booth (Krista’s props make them especially fun) and I love it when we work on their writing skills :). So, I put together some fun spring writing activities that you can use as crafts, as a display, or in a photo booth like we did.

1. Our Easter is Filled With—Why is Easter special? How do you celebrate it? Your students will write and draw about their Easter traditions using this brainstorming writing prompt. They will put each idea on a separate egg and then place it into their Easter basket.

2. In the Spring (Five Senses)—Using their five senses and descriptive words, your students will write about spring. Their responses can then be used to write a spring cinquain. Four colors of flowers are included.

3. Spring Cinquain—Your students will use the descriptive phrases and action words they came up with for “In the Spring” to write a Cinquain (a short, unrhymed 5 line poem of 22 syllables). Cinquain poster and instructions are included.


4. Rain is a Blessing—Your students will ponder HOW (what if it did not rain), WHY, and to WHOM rain is a blessing in this photo booth writing craft. This also a fun writing craft to use after discussing the water cycle.

Grab this set of PHOTO BOOTH WRITING PROMPTS for half-off today only!

Star Wars Jedi Centers for Number Sense & Counting 0-10

New math centers for your Jedi half off until Sunday!

This set of STAR WARS JEDI CENTERS is loaded with Number Sense, Counting, and One-to-One Correspondence activities for the numbers 0-10.

Each numeral is represented with a Star Wars character ten frame, Lightsaber tally marks, Death Star dominoes, Tie Fighter dice, stars, money, counting fingers, and in its number word form.

“I CAN” Droid Direction cards for independent work are included for each activity.

Your students will:
** Sort Odd and Even numerals
** Identify numerals that are Greater Than, Less Than and Equal to others
** Identify Before and After numbers
** Count-On from a given number
** Count Back from a given number
** Complete a variety of Number Sense/One-to-One Correspondence activities for each numeral (counting fingers, number word and money; tally marks, dice and stars; ten frame and domino)

Three One-to-One Correspondence Mats are included for any target number (1. Number word, ten frame, Lightsaber tally marks and stars; 2. Number word, counting fingers, money and Tie Fighter dice; 3. Number word, ten frame, Lightsaber tally marks and Death Star dominoes).

Sort counting fingers, numeral word, and money for each number

Sort lightsaber tally-marks, tie fighter dice and counting stars for each number

Your students can compare any of the numeral tiles in these activities.

Hook two Count On or Count Back strips together to challenge your students.

There are six “THE NUMBER” recording sheets to asses what your students have learned after they have completed a variety of the centers. These sheets ask your students to complete various tasks including:
** Identifying if the target number is odd or even
** Writing the number word
** Dotting the ten frame
** Counting the number by circling or coloring objects or drawing their own
** Showing the number on dice, dominoes and fingers
** Drawing the number as tally marks
** Identifying the numbers that come before and after
** Identifying numbers that are greater or less than the target number
** Counting on, or back from the number.

Grab them today while they are on sale! Your Jedi are going to love them!