Star Spangled Sight Word Match Up Game!

A new game to play for President's Day and our study of America to help with that sight word reading!  These are all of the sight words used in Scott Foresman for Units 1-5 plus color words.  I can't enough of all of these fun graphics and I NEED as many Go-To Activities as I can get my hands on!

Star Spangled Sight Word Match Up Game

Story Map Chart and Graphics

Wow!  I feel as if I fell off the face of the earth for awhile there!  I hope you are all having a great start to your new year!  We have completed our 16th day of school and are beginning to get the lay of the land with the new group.  It takes a few weeks but the kids are doing a great job adjusting.  We even completed our first full day of small reading group rotations!  Woohoo!!

I was googling an image for Plaidypus Lost, our third story in the Scott Foresman program, and I came across this post from April at Chalk Talk from last year.  I loved the idea of a permanent Story Map to use week after week with each story read.  I am currently making my chart and will include a photo when it is complete but I am copying the same design shown in the Chalk Talk post.

Here are the graphics and text I am using for my pirate theme this year, which I am loving by the way! I printed the text on colored paper and will use a large sheet of white chart paper for the chart.

Story Map Chart

Thanks to Scrappin Doodles...
Story Map Graphics


I also made these signs to differentiate fiction and non-fiction books that we read in Scott Foresman.  I have used google images to download pictures of the book covers and laminated them.  As we read each story, we will place the cover under the fiction or non-fiction sign.  I have been meaning to do this for the past several years so finally, here they are!

Fiction Non Fiction Signs

Scott Foresman Sight Word Business Cards!

I got this idea from Michele Potts who used this study system with her students last year and was very happy with it!

These are all of the Scott Foresman Sight Words Units 1-5.  I also included color words and "name".  They have all been formatted to fit Avery Business Cards #8371 and #5371.  Each child will have access to these cards in their Bee Binders.  For each unit, I will add the sight word cards to a binder page made for business cards.  This will enable them to practice reading the cards at home with their parents.  Practice, practice, practice!!

Sight Word Business Cards



Sight Word Business Cards 2


Sight Word Business Cards 3

I'm not sure why this page looks so wonky but I just downloaded it straight

 off of Scribd and when you click print, the words yellow and blue should align with the rest of the page. 

If you have trouble printing this page just let me know.

Sight Word Business Cards 4

Sight Word Business Cards 5

Scott Foresman and Such!

I thought I would share a few things that have made both Scott Foresman's Amazing Words and literacy centers somewhat easier lately.  None of these ideas is all that original or earth shattering BUT I really like the results I am seeing with these centers.  The BEST part is these jobs require NO COPYING and the grading is quick and simple! Woohoo!

I downloaded these rhyming cards from Lana Holzer's blog http://acreativeclassroom.blogspot.com/ and had them laminated.

The kids practiced matching them up to one another and you can see, it got a little silly!



They had to choose their favorite pair...



and write their own rhyming sentences.

This is a bit of a challenge so I tried it with my higher group first.  They worked on this while I Progress Monitored for NWF last Friday.

They did a good job and "got" the concept.  I will do this with my other groups but with more guidance.

She even made up a third line!

I just looked over and saw this and my heart melted.  I have never even shown them the Whisper Phones!  Why, I do not know, especially after I see this!  I love these kids.

Ok, another literacy center that I have incorporated once a week is for the kids to write and illustrate four of  the Amazing Words from our story on a Four Square paper.  I usually have them complete this as a center on Wednesday.  (On Monday, they make a Four Square paper using the letter of the week.)  I am loving their illustrations and the reinforcement it provides for the practice of these words that are often not the words that I would choose as "Amazing" from the story.

They have to read the words to me before they receive an "S".

At the listening center, the children illustrate a picture from the story but I have them write a sight word from that week as practice.  I know they should be writing a sentence about the story they just listened to but I have them writing their little fingers off so I ease up on them at this center!

Time Cards

Our Scott Foresman story this week, Bunny Day, is a great way to introduce telling time to the hour.  To coincide with the story and to help the children develop an awareness of what they are doing during the day at specific times, I made these time cards specifically for our day.  I am sharing them in Word so that you are able to adapt them to your schedule!  (For the clipart, I used Google images.)

Time Cards