Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.-Einstein

Friday, June 14, 2013

All In the Family (The Word Family That Is) and a Freebie to Get you Started

I am a true believer in the power of FAMILY...specifically Word Families.  In my own classroom, it's an essential part of my Daily 5 Word Work.  

Word families, or some people call them chunks (families is just so much more friendly sounding to me but to each their own), help readers look for patterns when decoding. When your students recognize those patterns, they can more easily sound out words they don't readily know.





It is always amazing to watch when a light suddenly turns on as a students starts decoding with the help of word families.  I think they surprise themselves as much as they surprise us.  I won't soon forget hearing one of my most struggling kinders this year, yell across the room at me in the middle of one of our first Ball Word Celebrations.  "Hey Mrs. McGuire, I just read KitKat. Kit is part of the ~it family and Kat is part of the ~at family. I read that!!"  Confidence, independence and joy...pure joy is what they experience when they 'get it.'  So yes!  I spend a ton of time practicing and using word families with my kinders.  

After I feel that the majority of my students have mastered their letter sounds, I start introducing a new word family each week. When a new family is introduced, it goes on my word family wall (above my regular word wall, for quick, easy reference for my kinders and then another set on a ring goes in my writing center.)  




We have a routine of whole group, small group, center and independent practice activities that allow my kinders to get plenty of practice and familiarity with the word families.

Here's kind of a typical schedule of  some whole group activities I like to do:

Monday:  Introduce word family words as a class and make words using letter placards.  If at all possible, I like to give my kinders plenty of opportunities to move and this Is a great kinesthetic activity.  By the way, if you don’t have any letter placards, you can get a FREE set HERE and learn how to put them together.



Tuesday: Mini Lesson-Use the picture cards from two or more sets of word families to sort (thumbs up thumbs down) whether the word is or isn’t part of that week’s  word family.  Hand the students a card and let them sort into a labeled pocket chart.  (This can  move to a Daily 5 station with a recording sheet.)

Wednesday:  Mini-lesson-Students find all the ‘word family’ words hidden in my morning message.  I have students come up and underline, circle with wikki stix, use a pointer or flyswatter to identify word family words.
Thursday:  Mini-Lesson-I call out word family words that may or may not be part of that week’s word family.  If it is, then students perform a specific physical act like standing up, raising an arm, lifting their right leg, waving hello…It feels like Simon Says because then can only perform the act IF the word is part of that week’s word family. 

My goal for whole group mini-lessons like this is always to give my students a chance to move.


To support the whole group lessons, I provide extra practice for each new word family in small group and independent Daily 5 stations.  I usually introduce these activities the first several weeks to my students in small group before placing them in my Daily 5 Word Work Station.  But after I've introduced several word families, most students can use these independently. 

Here’s a few activities that I choose from each week to allow for practice:
Say-It-Make It-Write It I like to use this with some of my small groups before it goes into a station so that I am sure that students understand the words and concept.  I have enough copies of the playing mat laminated for each child in the group.  I only use magnets for the ‘making’ part of this activity, and I hold onto the playing card until everyone has made the word and written it,




 I open the card to show them the answer.   Once this activity moves to a station, students can choose to ‘make’ the word with magnets, beads, 






Play-doh stampers or whatever letter manipulative you would like to offer.  Differentiating can be accomplished by giving your students choices.  Here's one way to make that happen.

Memory Match: Played like traditional memory but students will match the picture card with the word card. 


Sorting Word Families:  Place the sorting picture cards in a bucket, a basket or even in your sensory table with some seasonal shredded paper, pasta or rice.  Students can sort the pictures into canisters labeled with a thumbs up or a thumbs down, indicating whether they are part of that word family or not.  You can also have them do this in a pocket chart or onto ropes hanging from your ceiling. 



Be creative and make it fun.  For students who need an additional challenge, have them record their findings on the word family sorting sheet.

Word Family Hide n’ Seek:  This activity gives your students an opportunity to practice reading word family words while playing a fun interactive game.  Place word family word cards in a small pocket chart.  Behind one word card hide the picture above.  Students then point at and read a word where they believe the picture is hidden.  If they guess correctly, they get to hide the card next.  You can use cards from more than one word family or just one word family. (You can find the playing piece in the ‘extras’ section at the end of this unit.


Write The Room For Word Families:  Laminate, cut apart, and mount the write the room cards below with masking tape around your room.  Based on your students readiness level, select a recording sheet for them to use.  You may either laminate these (my preferred method) or print them off to use with a pencil if you prefer.  Hand your student a clipboard and have them search the room for the word family pictures.  I have my recording sheets differentiated so that students are adequately challenged but not frustrated because the task it too hard.  One level just has them entering the onset for the rhyme, another level has them writing the entire word family word and yet another level has them writing the word in the context of a sentence.




Homework/Morning Work/Extra Practice  I like to have the option of having something for students to take home for homework or just a little extra practice so I also provide some EXTRA differentiated printables including a differentiated word family slide, I-spy, word maze, Count, Graph and Write, and Say It-Make It-Write It sheets.  


Once my students have a couple of word families under their belts, I can add a few more games and activities to extend their learning.


If you would like to see learn more about my word work, you can click on the picture below.  I have a whole set of activities available (193 pages!!!)  for letter ‘a’ and am working on completing the next vowel groups. 


These sets are available as a bundle (6 weeks worth of Word Family Work in this set) or as individual units for you to pick and choose.  








Wednesday, June 12, 2013

End of the Year Crazy Fun!

I'm finally DONE!  These last 10 days of school have seemed to drag on and yet fly by.  Is that even possible?

Well,Mel over at Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations and some of my Freebielicious Friends are sharing all their fabulous End of the Year ideas, and I thought I would, at the very least, give you a snapshot of some of my last couple of days.

Every year, our entire school heads off for a day of fun and activities at one of our local camps (Michigan has a TON of summer camps by the way).  Everyone that is EXCEPT the junior kindergarten and kindergarten classes.  We take the opportunity to take over the school while everyone else is gone and hold our very own, just for little big kids, Kindergarten Field Day.

In years past it has been blistering hot, but this year proved to be just a tad bit on the nippy side when we started out.  The weather did quickly get a warmer, and we were able to take off our sweatshirts and enjoy the sun.  


We thankfully started this event a couple of years ago when our then PE teacher took it upon herself to create this day of fun just for the little kids.  There are 13 events (we had about 110 kinders/jr. kinders) that rotate every 15 minutes or so.  We divide the kids up into groups of about 8-9, and each group has an adult leader.  That leader is given a handbook (laminated due to the fun water activities we have going on) that includes a map of the route and the spot where they will start.


Each activity has a description page that gives the leader instructions and what they will need.  This makes things so much easier because we don't need to have additional adults available to man stations.  We just use each group leader.  They get to their station and they know exactly what to do.  When the 15 minutes are up, they look on their map and see the next spot they where they need to travel.  Easy Peasy!


Of course, there are a ton of water activities just right for this age group.

Squirt guns are an absolute must.  I love the noodle kind because they are easier to fill for this age group and, let's face it, they go farther and get everyone more wet.  

There are never enough opportunities in life to throw a water balloon so we make sure we have several 100 available for the day.


And no one throws a fit if they get wet...

Among the highlights of this year day was our first ever bouncy house and velcro wall station.  What a blast.  Our kids loved it and I have to admit...This is my son and I told him I was considering installing one for extreme 'time out' purposes.  He was all for it. 



Then yesterday, our very last day of school, in addition to our school's awards day, I do a little awards day of my own.  I absolutely LOVE Reagan's Candy Bar Awards and I purchased them last year and they are super cute.  They are such a fun way to recognize everyone in the class.  Yes, it's candy but  ....come on... it's the last day of school.  You have to splurge a little bit with the sweats right?



And finally, yes, even on my very last day of school, I held a Golf Ball Word Champs party.  It was last minute (my last little one passed the day before) and it was thrown together, but it sure was fun and I was happy to have gone out with a bang.  My classroom is an absolute disaster.  I didn't have time to pack up or clean or do any of those things that are so desperately necessary to keep me from having to go back in to school....but I was able to make some amazing memories with my kinders those last couple of days.  Because of that, it was all worth it.

So that was my end of the year in pictures.



If you want to check out more great End of the Year happenings and ideas, or add your own, link up below:

Friday, May 31, 2013

Winding down and gearing up.

There are only days left before the school year is over.  On one hand it feels like we need to hurry to get everything in before they leave.  And on the other hand, it's time to plan for those fun, end of the year events, that celebrate the completion to another successful year. (Yes, I have another Ball Party to plan before schools out --- hopefully two but more on that next week.)

Dinosaurs have wound up for the year...bitter sweet for me because it's one of my favorite units.



I waver over whether it should be a beginning of the year or end of the year unit, but I just love how much writing we can do and math work that can be done with them when it's in the spring.

We took a break from writing about a dinosaur one day and went outside.  What was left looked like an invasion of mini dinosaurs all over my room.


Even now when it's been how many weeks of having these little guys around...my kinders beg me not to change this theme...

I swear they would dig for dinosaurs all day long in those Plaster of Paris rocks if I let them.

Missing Addend Dinosaur Math Station

Luckily, they have enjoyed the math and literacy work as well as the learning centers that let them explore dinosaurs as well.


Dinosaur Math Stations Galore

But whether I like it or not, it's time to start thinking about summer.  Seven more days of school left.  All the assessments are done, assemblies, field days and award ceremonies are planned. . . it's time.  So while I'm winding down the school year, I'm gearing up for summer.  Time to start getting my things together for summer reading, time to start thinking about all those things I've been wanting to blog about but haven't had the time, time to start playing with my own boys and planning all our own family fun . . . and believe it or not...time to start thinking about Back to School and all the things I'd like to do next year . . . But...not quite yet!  

First, it's time to enjoy the sun and anticipation of summer just a little bit.

I just can't send my kinders off without a little fun in the sun I-spy.  If you want to check it out, just click on the picture.  I've started doing more and more black and white copies because even after my kinders have used the colored picture mats with different response sheets, they love having that black and white copy to complete, color and take home and to show their parents.   Who would have guessed I could get so many uses out of it?  















Monday, May 27, 2013

Get Your Books . . . We're Doing a Book Study!

While there will be tons of fun things going on from the Freebielicious authors this summer, I wanted to give you a quick heads up about the book study that's going to be taking place so you can get your book and be ready to go.  

All the details aren't hammered out yet, but if you remember the Daily 5 book study from last year, I'm sure it will go pretty similar to that.  Great discussion, resource information and, of course, some Freebies along the way.  But to get started, you need the book. Right?

So here it is:



You can get it by clicking on the picture above or clicking HERE!
It's also listed over on the right, under my summer reading picks. So take a look and let me know what you think.


When I and some other bloggers polled our facebook readers about possible book study ideas, guided reading came up over and over again.  Jan Richardson's, Guided Reading book seemed a natural choice.  

Things will get going in a couple of weeks.  We want to make sure everyone is out of school and has a moment to breath and then we'll dive into it.  So look for details in the coming weeks and get your book now so you're ready to go.



Some of the bloggers that will be working on this book study this Summer are:

Kreative in Kinder

Mrs. Miner's Kindergarten Monkey Business



Kindergarten Smiles

Fun in First







Sharing Kindergarten

Little Miss Kindergarten

First Grade Blue Skies



I'm so excited!  This is gonna be a GOOD one.

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