Math and Literacy Activities using Scraps of Wrapping Paper [Freebie]

Today I was wrapping presents and as much as I tried to measure the paper to fit the gift perfectly, I inevitably had to cut strips of the wrapping paper off to wrap them just right. I was cleaning up the table and this pile of wrapping paper strips was staring at me. I couldn't let this cute wrapping paper go to waste! So I thought of a few fun literacy and math activities using scrap pieces of wrapping paper you have lying around.

I wrote letters on these strips of wrapping paper to practice letter name and letter sound fluency. It's about that time of year for another round of DIBELS or AIMSweb assessments and this would make practice fun! I wrote letters on several strips of paper and put them in the cute Santa bag. During small group, my little scholars can pull out a strip and say the letter names or letter sounds as quickly as they can. 

I wrote numbers on the scrap wrapping paper strips to practice number identification fluency. As a warm-up before small group math, my little scholars can choose a wrapping paper strip from the bag and identify the numbers as quickly as possible. 

I also wanted to use the scrap of wrapping paper to make a center my little scholars could do independently. I wrote a series of letters on each small strip with a missing letter. My little scholars will say the letters, identify the letter that is missing, and record the series of letters on the recording sheet. I placed the strips in a stocking for a little novelty--I know they'll love it! 

I did the same thing except using numbers for this next center idea. My little scholars will pull a wrapping paper strip out of the stocking, says the numbers, identify the number that is missing, and write the series of numbers on the recording sheet. 

I love including a recording sheet for accountability and you can download one to use by clicking the picture below.

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Listen for Sight Word Success!

Did you know that sight words make up about 50% of what we read? When children are able to read sight words fluently they are able to focus on comprehending the text instead of attempting to sound out each word they encounter. We know how important sight word mastery is to reading development but how can we ensure sight word success when we have tons of other standards to teach? I want to share the classroom-tested and student-approved way I teach sight words that has consistently resulted in my students learning 100 sight words on average year after year.

Make It Manageable
I divide up my list of sight words into different color groups. The first group is red so it will contain the most frequently used words like: the, and, a, to, etc. You may look at the scope and sequence of your reading curriculum and make your sight word color groups based off when the curriculum introduces the sight words. Breaking the sight words up into smaller groups makes it is easy to manage! I always know which color list of my words my students are working on, since they all master sight words at different rates.  You can use the printable below-- just type in your sight words!

I also made sight word flash cards for my students to use and take home. I printed, laminated, and hole-punched them and kept them on binder rings. Click the picture to grab the flash card template!

Keep Track

I needed a visual tracker for me and my students. This way I know at a glance how each student is progressing and they get the satisfaction and confidence boost of coloring in another part of the rainbow as they master more sight words. Tracking sight word mastery makes a tremendous impact on my students' motivation and they become incredibly invested in learning more sight words! The tracker also makes a great visual to share with parents and families. Just click the picture below to download the tracker!

Make It Meaningful 

Flash cards and rote memorization just don't cut it when it comes to sight word mastery! Students need multiple opportunities to read and write a new sight word because a child is more likely to commit a sight word to memory when he writes and says the word at least 5 times. Teaching sight words in isolation is not nearly as effective as teaching them in context, so teaching the word in the context of a sentence is a must! 

Listen for Sight Word Success

I always feel like I never have enough time to work with small groups or individual students to build sight word mastery--I just wanted to clone myself so they could get the teacher directed support necessary in order to develop this necessary reading skill! During center time, I tried every worksheet and printable under the sun but none increased student mastery--students either knew the word already or still were confused after completing the worksheet. Why? Because no one was there teach or correct them! It was just a whole lot of going through the motions.

Since cloning myself was clearly not an option, I opted for the next best thing--a recording of me! I created Teach Me Sight Words--a printable booklet and audio file for each sight word. The audio file guides the student through spelling the word, reading the word in context, writing the word, and the student hears the word spelled or read over 26 times! The printable provides accountability and can be taken home for additional practice. Instead of simply going through the motions of a cut and paste worksheet, the audio file and printable provides the necessary support and scaffolding for true sight word learning that leads to mastery! While there are lots of sight word apps and computer games, I haven't found any that actually teach the sight words and are easy to differentiate. I use a CD player for my sight word listening center, so I have a different CD for each sight word color list. Because we use the rainbow tracker, my students know which sight words they need to work on and differentiation is as easy as that!

You can cut the printable books up, let students write on them with a pencil and take them home OR reuse them by slipping the pages in sheet protectors and letting students write on them with dry erase markers. The audio files can be uploaded to iTunes and put on an iPod or iPad or burned to a CD for use on an individual CD player or stereo in your classroom.

All of my Teach Me Sight Word resources are in my TpT shop! You can purchase sight words individually for $2--that's for the printable book AND the audio file. If you purchase a bundle, you get the sight word printable booklet and audio file for only $1.40 each! If you'd like to try it out first, download my Teach Me Sight Words Sampler and give it a whirl.
                                

Involve Parents and Families

I explain my rainbow sight word program to my students' parents and families in the beginning of the year and give them each a laminated copy of the rainbow sight word list. On my class Facebook page, I post a picture of each student with their rainbow tracker after they have colored in another section so their parents can see their child's progress. My students love the recognition but their parents love it even more! Students are able to take home the flash card rings for practice but I also made online flash cards by creating a Facebook photo album for each color sight word list. I saved the flashcards as JPEGs and uploaded them just like you would a picture so while the child is riding in the car or at the grocery store he can scroll through the flash card "pictures" on Mom or Dad's smartphone. Parents are so busy and may not have the time or materials to make flashcards, so utilizing something they already have and something their child undoubtedly loves to use makes it a win-win! 

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Letter Rr and Spiders...Chock Full of Freebies!

Before a new week starts I want to share what we worked on last week! Last week we learned all about the Letter Rr. I introduced the /r/ sound by using beginning sound pictures and placing them on our beginning sound wall (it will be converted to a word wall later on in the year).

We also sorted pictures with the /m/ sound (Mm was the letter last week) and /r/ sound.

During centers my students built letters using this fabulous resource from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  

They listened to my All About the Alphabet: Letter Rr Interactive Listening Center. 

Last week was the first week I had used this interactive listening center. All but one of my 4 year old pre-k students mastered the Letter Rr on Friday--including identification, letter name, letter sound, identification of uppercase and lowercase, and word production! I haven't uploaded the Letter Rr set to TpT yet but Letter Ss (our letter this week) is ready to go! You can check it out [here] or by clicking the picture below. 

We also began our Spiders Unit last week! We read The Very Busy Spider and used these stick puppets to act out the story. I placed the stick puppets in a center and y'all should have heard my little scholars retelling the story...precious! You can grab the stick puppets for free [here].

We were focusing on the number 6 last week so we practiced counting and numeral recognition with this I See Spiders emergent reader. We used a stamp pad and our fingers to create the correct number of spiders on each page. Our book only had numbers 1-6 but I've included a page that has a blank so you can write in any number you choose! You can find the free I See Spiders book [here] or by clicking the picture below. 

We're finishing up our Spiders Unit this week and I'll be back to post more pictures! 

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So I didn't win Power Ball...

I had my ticket (or ten) and was sure that I was going to wake up a multi-millionaire. I even drove 35 miles across state lines to get said tickets..and no such luck! I still had something to look forward to today because....

Chillin' at the Overhead Station

our elf made his debut! I channeled my inner thespian and pulled out all the stops to make it a magical morning for my little scholars. After reading the book, we voted on our name for the little fellow. I pulled 5 popsicle sticks and each of them suggested a name. I wrote the names on chart paper and each kiddo voted on their favorite. I suppose I should explain the names...so the first suggestion was Tinker Bell and I explained to the sweetie that our elf was a boy so she shouted, "Well, Tinker Boy then!" Not sure where King came from. Obviously Diego and Boots are from Dora. And Cone? Well, my only guess is we've been learning about solid shapes. I may or may not have skewed the votes. An elf named Cone, really?! :) 

Moving on...I have been terrible at snapping pictures of centers/stations but I managed to get a few today! 

My assistant worked with our little scholars on segmenting CVC words. We start by just segmenting the sounds and then eventually graduate to moving the chips and writing the letter that makes the sound. Just like my Road to Reading: Phoneme Segmentation Fluency packet, we color-code the sounds. Green for the first sound, yellow for the medial, and red for the final sound. 

One of our literacy centers is working with cookie sheets. I whipped this little goodie up and my kiddos just loved it! There's something magical about magnetic letters I think. Notice the green border? Color-coded because students have to listen for the first sound and find that letter. The medial sound mats have a yellow border and the final sound have a red border. Make sense? Some of my kiddos are still working with identifying beginning sounds while others can decode the word after finding the letter that makes the beginning sound. 

I've been busy printing, laminating and cutting until my fingers bleed but I am just in LOVE with Caitlin Clabby's Yummy Batch of Literacy and Math Centers.

I'm read to roll them out on Monday but this week we've been practicing making sets using this little activity

Just some Christmas trees with a number in the star and colorful pom poms. 

Now off to work on next week's lesson plans...my favorite Thursday night activity! :) 

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Calling all Read Well teachers!

Do you use the Read Well curriculum in your classroom? It's my 3rd year using the program and I am trying to spice it up a bit! I created a pocket chart center that is 100% aligned to Read Well K and includes the pattern words and tricky words from the small group units. Its super easy to differentiate...I have 4 tubs by the pocket chart center (one for each of my reading groups) and when it is their time, the kiddos just grab the tub for their group and begin! The materials in each groups tub are always from the last unit with a pass or strong pass, ensuring independence while I work with small reading groups.

I have been using it in my classroom since the beginning of the year and I just posted Units 1-10 on Teachers pay Teachers. I've included an I Can chart to foster student independence and a recording sheet for each unit for student accountability. So far my kids are LOVING it and I have noticed the results on their unit tests. My favorite part is that my kiddo are so proud of their work (the recording sheet) they read and re-read it at all times of the day (hello, building fluency!) and take it home to show their parents and families (hello, home-school connection!).

If you don't use Read Well, you're probably wondering what on earth I am talking about. But Read Well folks, you get me...right?! :)

Happy Sunday, y'all! 

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Playdough Letter Mats [Freebie!]

Summer school began on Friday and I am nothing short of exhausted. I only teach until 12:45 each day but I am spent and ready for a nap as soon as I get home. Is this what having 3 weeks off does to a teacher? I'll go ahead and blame it on the 95 degree weather.

Meeting my incoming kinder kiddos was very exciting! I have a fabulous class this year... I've got a good mix of kiddos and, unlike last year, an even mix of boys and girls. Meeting my kiddos reminded me how much we have to teach kinders before we can actually teach them. I asked my kiddos to trace their names today and a few students stared blankly at me. Thus began the "how to trace" mini-lesson. I've already taught the "appropriate use of the restroom" mini lesson, the "how to sit on the carpet" mini lesson, and the "how to open my milk and use my napkin instead of my shirt" mini lesson. Once we get the basics of being in kindergarten down, we're diving right into academics. We have ambitious literacy and math goals this year and not a minute can go to waste!

I introduced a few, very basic literacy centers today so my kiddos could work busily as I assessed each student. I introduced our play dough letter center and it was a hit! We use play foam instead of play dough though. Play foam is easy for students to mold and never dries out...its just perfect! Anyway, I posted the playdough letters mats to TpT and you can grab them for f-r-e-e by clicking the picture below. They'll make a great addition to your literacy centers for the beginning of the school year!

 

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Spring Center Activities [and a Giveaway!]

Today we started my Spring Math and Literacy Activities and my kiddos had a ball! I didn't snap any pictures today (a surprise 45 minute observation from the superintendent will throw you a bit off track!) but I will post some tomorrow for sure. My packet is 149 pages with 7 Common Core aligned center or station activities, a bonus tally mark activity, and an emergent reader! You get...

...and an emergent reader and math facts within 5 fluency cards! You can grab it here! And for a little fun, leave a comment with your email address and I'll use random number generator tomorrow morning (around 6CST) to pick 5 friends who will receive a copy of this packet for f-r-e-e!  

Have a great evening y'all! 

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