3 Letter Sight Words

As I sit here and notice that Summer is flying by, I cannot believe it. How did it disappear so quickly? It must have been the very few hot days we had and the more balmy weather. Not that I'm complaining, I'm ready for Apples and Pumpkins and Orchards and Patches! This week I made up a worksheet for Roman to reinforce his 3 letter sight words. I do this every now and then, to keep them refreshed in his head. As he learns more difficult words, I don't want him to forget the other words. If you would like to print this one out (it's the first of the school year), go HERE!

Have a wonderful day my friends and remember to enjoy every single minute!

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Money Math Centers!

Math is a huge subject that we focus on over here, my kids have a love of numbers that I just could not understand. I was a poor Math student that just ended up detesting the subject in every way. With the passion my kids have for numbers, it has made me look at Math in a totally different way. With Roman, my youngest, I am starting at the bottom and looking at it all with open eyes. I can see how they enjoy this as I teach him and then the other children new things, there is a true beauty in Math, almost a language in itself. Maybe I truly can get to like it too!

My youngest is tackling Money in math and gets the coins confused when they are on paper. I figured a hands on approach was needed here. I decided to make some Math centers to help him familiarize himself with his Math & Money lessons. I took a variety of coins and glued them onto Popsicle sticks to give them a handle and make them easier to handle. When he sees them on a worksheet, he matches up the right plastic coins, so that he can hold them as he counts. Roman has found this way much easier to learn with. The back of each stick has the value of the coin on it in case the child needs help with it and is using them alone.

I made a full set of coins with the Tails side up as opposed to the rest, which had the heads side up. Now, they become an easy matching game! Sometimes on worksheets, children confuse the coin, because they are not familiar with the backs of them. It makes learning fun!

These can also be used with 'store' cards! These cards all have items and prices on them and the kids can make up the change needed to purchase the items. If you don't have a set of these, it's easy to make them up on your own. You can give the child some cards of things to 'buy' and then a handful of sticks. See if they have enough money and how much change they would get back or how much more they would need.

Add and Subtract! I took a wooden block from the craft store and put addition and subtraction symbols on each side. The idea of the game is to pull out 2 sticks (more if they are advanced) and roll the die. Now add or subtract! Get it right and keep the sticks! Winner has the most sticks at the end of the game.

How true this is!! Enjoy the day my friends!

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Sight Word Tracker

The weekend is near, I can feel it! Something this family loves to do, is read! With our youngest starting the world of reading, I truly enjoy tracking his progress. It's a great way for him to grow confidence as he sees how far he has come!

*I started by making up an awesome game board to make the tracking progress seem like a game as opposed to just a plain chart or checklist. I wanted to theme to be travel related as opposed to racing, because I wanted him to feel as though he were taking a leisurely stroll through the words, as you would do on a trip and it was not a RACE TO THE FINISH. I do not like putting undue pressure on them. 

**After creating the board, I filled it in with some sight words that came from his next set of phonics readers that he is moving on to. I saved the blank template, so that I could change the words as needed. Each time he fills the board, he gets to pick out a special literacy field trip for our group (Library, Book Store, Story time).

As Roman completes each group of words, he colors the block and adds a sticker to it. This is his way of visually tracking all that he knows and since we sit and do it together, I can hear how he sounds out the words (he was born deaf in one ear, so I have to make sure that it does not affect his speech).

Enjoy every minute my dear friends and remember that we have been given one more day, so make the most of it!

*Blank Board Template can be found HERE*

**Filled in Board can be found HERE**

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Literacy & Learning Fun!

Tuesday came rather quickly! When that alarm went off this morning, I certainly wanted to curl back up and keep sleeping comfortably. Sometimes I often wonder what would happen if I decided to spend the day in bed? They could fend for themselves for a day, right? Hahaha...ahhhh, the dreams of a mother that is on the job 24 hours a day. Today is a post on what we have going on in the classroom in regards to literacy and learning!

I have a beginning reader that makes me prouder than words can say, as he begins his launch into the reading world, I like to build his confidence. He often time wants to give up when he opens a book and identifies just ONE word he does not know. To prevent that, I slip the book into a page protector and hand him a marker. I have him circle the words that he knows by sight alone and then sound out the others. If he still does not know it, he just crosses it out. Seeing everything he knows, makes him realize that there is more that he does know than does NOT know. This is one of his favorite things to do!

My baby reading his first book all the way through! You know those moments right? They bring tears to your eyes, you can even hear me sniffling in the background. I have each child reading their first book on video and it's amazing to see them all then and compare it to now.

One tip I can share with you, is when you get workbooks super cheap like these from TARGET's Dollar SPOT, pick up multiples. They allow you to use any good pictures for cutting out and using in poster boards when the kids have to do a report. They are also great for fact sheets if you are making a subject notebook, instead of the kids using their own handwriting in every single page.  

Reusing games is huge in my book. I get so much more out of them when they can be used for multiple things. These frogs come from a Cranium Game that we have and I just pulled them out and placed them on the floor with some sight word cards. This way he would flick the frogs and whatever card they landed on, if he could read it, he could keep it! He loved this game and wanted to play it all the time. It's amazing how kids will be drawn to learning if you just keep it fun! If you don't have that Cranium Game, head on over to Oriental Trading for a total STEAL on these frogs! 

What's Gnu is a FABULOUS game that my children LOVE! When I had the opportunity to purchase just the slider and 72 letter tiles for .25, I knew exactly what to do with it! This became our new writing center for my youngest. He slides a word and then he sounds them out. Next, he says the word and then writes it out as he spells it! Fun for him and perfect for me!

My children also love working with Geoboards. Something fun that they enjoy doing is making their own cards for their siblings to be challenged by. These are some designs that they started making on the computer. I also just keep the plain paper printed out at the center, for them create their own as they play.

Everything can change in an instant. Enjoy every minute that we have!

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Fun with Learning!

Happy Thursday! Any big weekend plans out there? Not too much going on for us, just picking up stuff to finish some yard work and the like. Today's post is fairly simple, I spent yesterday making up worksheets for my youngest child. Making your own worksheets allows you to cater the learning of your child to exactly what he or she needs help with and you can also make the type of sheets that your child enjoys. Roman loves to color, so I knew coloring sheets were right up his alley. 

For his addition sheets, I put in the numbers he struggles with along with easy ones, so his confidence is never completely zapped. If he still gets some right, he still feels good about his abilities. 

 On his Sight Word sheet, it's all about what he can read as soon as he sees it, then he colors the ones that he needs to sound out and then together we work on the ones that he struggles with. From there, I know what to use on the next sheet.

Sight Word worksheets are so simple to make, because there are always words to be learned. You could make them with spelling words, phonics sounds, letters, anything at all just make the sheets according to your child's ability. 

The subtraction sheet is a little more complex for my youngest but it turned out to be his favorite. It doesn't matter how much you put into the sheet, just give it a try or feel free to print these out!

Enjoy every moment my friends!

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Read to the FINISH!

I am using a car carpet as a learning tool in the classroom today! I set out Sight Word Cards (from our sight word memory game, information coming Thursday) on the road portion of the carpet, covering all of the roads. The minute he saw this when he came into the room this morning, his eyes lit up and he was eager to learn. 

Roman has to drive his car from start (lower right hand corner) all the way down the paths of the words he knows, collecting cards as he goes. There are options in the road to go either left or right and this helps him choose which words he is stronger on. Eventually as the game goes on, he will make it to all the words and each card will be collected from the roadways.

If he does not know a word and cannot sound it out, it gets PARKED in one of the 6 parking spaces on the mat. These PARKED cards will be dealt with at a later time. If he does not know more than six, he can just double park in a spot. I told him that double parking gets him a ticket, so he has to try his hardest to not double park because it's really not allowed. You should see how hard he tries to sound out words a couple times before giving his final answer!! 

With the PARKED words, he must take them to the RACE TRACK for a lightning round. In this round, We SAY, SPELL, SAY each word 3 times out loud and then place it on the race track. After sounding out all these PARKED words, we are ready to start the game on the race track portion.

He has so much fun driving his car around, that I honestly don't think he believes he is learning!!

 

Reading opens you up to so many different worlds that it should be a true treasure to know how to read!!

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Classroom Tips

Monday! Wow, I cannot believe how quickly it all just comes to an end. Time to head on with our shortened week. We will be taking Holy Thursday and Good Friday off. I wanted to share some quick tips with you all today.

To save your sanity in the classroom and playroom, change out the dice that come with board games with foam dice!! They are light and quiet and absolutely perfect. The kids like these too, because they feel like they are throwing 'air' Hahahah!!! 

I am also the Mother of 3 wild children that love to throw their dice across the room on their roll! In order to stop this 'delay of game', I popped the foam dice into a mini plastic container. This keeps them contained AND quiet. BONUS!

No matter how organized I am with my magazines, they never seem to get the use that I would like out of them. I put up a small clothesline in our classroom and lo and behold, they are looked at daily! I was planning on putting up a little colorful carpet or something below it but a beanbag chair or even some pillows may work better! 

STOP! Sometimes Mommy and or Teacher needs a little peace & quiet and sometimes it's acceptable to let loose and get wild! I use these 3 magnets in the playroom to symbolize what kind of time it is. I will move the magnet of that time to the center of the board, so that they are aware of how to behave.

Green: GO GO GO! Running, jumping and loud games are okay!
Yellow: Light Chatter is okay, keep the movement to WALKING ONLY .
RED: It's QUIET TIME! Read to yourself, color any kind of quiet activity is acceptable during this time.

Homework Fun!
Do your kids constantly ask how to spell something or what something means? Solve that in no time. I picked up a dictionary from the TARGET dollar spot a few years ago when Autumn entered Kindergarten. (Now I have done the same for the other 2 boys when each started Kindergarten) Whenever they ask what something means or how to spell a word, I refer them to their dictionary.They look for the word and then highlight it once it is found and learned. This way they will have a complete collection of words they know meanings of and spellings when they complete high school. In only 3 years for my oldest, her dictionary is well worn and much loved!

Get creative with your storage on your work tables! I use recyclables and always look at normal household goods outside of the box! Whenever you are about to pitch something, ask yourself if they could be used for something else!

Share any classroom tips you have with a link in the comments please!

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Sight Search Worksheet

Roman is still having some trouble with identifying IS, so I made up this quick worksheet for him to do. I fill in the line at the top with the word he is supposed to X out. The words he can search for are: (is, if, in, it).

This has helped him stop, slow down and look at what he is searching for! I also love that I do not have to make up 4 different sheets, I just write the word on the line that he is searching for each day!

How do you learn Sight Words?

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