1-2-3 Come Do Some Letter Gg Activities With Me

I find that if my kiddos can compare the hard & soft Gg sounds side-by-side, with a variety of different activities, their reading and spelling of those words is much more successful.

A few little rules, lots of examples and fun ways to practice, will help reinforce the different Gg sounds.

So I created this packet. I started out with just the gorilla & giraffe flip booklets, but as I was designing, I also wanted to include other quick, easy, and fun activities, where students could practice in other ways. 

The variety keeps things fresh, while allowing for continued practice without reinforcement becoming boring.

Thus, the packet grew into jumbo size, as I combined both the hard and soft Gg activities into a BUNDLED packet.

They mirror each other, as the activities for the hard g have a matching soft g counterpart, which makes comparison super easy as well as fun.

Simply put, I know this “stuff” works because it’s worked for me.
My students are focused and engaged, enjoying learning some tricky things. I can use these centers year after year, which is a huge time saver. Win-Win.

The packet includes:
* A super-fun gorilla & giraffe flip booklet. So that teachers can quickly & easily make an example to share, I've included full color templates, as well as black and white so that students can make their own. 

The "mouth" of the gorilla and giraffe flips up to reveal pages of a soft or hard Gg graphic, along with a "trace & write" word.

There are a variety of page options, featuring words beginning with that sound, as well as the sound within the word. 

Choose your favorites or run them all off and give children a choice.

* The packet also includes 60 picture word cards with a tip list of games you can play, plus other ways to use them, as well as a nice selection of
* Posters, which you can use as anchor charts and a way to introduce the lesson.

* There are also a variety of "Word Work Worksheets", which includes alphabetizing as well as word searches. As with all of my packets, answer keys are included. Here are some more things that are included...

* 36 Ekonin Box cards with matching letters, makes for a  quick, easy & fun independent center.
* “Mixing Math With Literacy number PUZZLES.

* "Going to the Zoo” alliterative, “hard & soft Gg” story craftivity, packed with Dolch sight words.

The reading passage is sprinkled with hard & soft Gg alliteration, which is  sure to tickle your students' tongues.

My kiddos LOVE reading this aloud, and enjoyed making their own "open the door" worksheet. 

* Giraffe & Gorilla word booklets for hard & soft Gg words. My kiddos keep these in their writing notebooks. (Colorful teacher's version, plus black & white patterns for students).

* “Feed the Gorilla & Giraffe” craft, with 194 (hard & soft Gg) word cards. (Snack crackers).The mini cards feature a banana (which gorillas love), as well as some acacia leaves, which giraffes are fond of.

I put the "head" on a Boutique Kleenex box, so that the "mouth" of the gorilla and giraffe goes over the oval opening in the box.  I cut the mouths using an Exacto knife.

My students actually ask to play this game they enjoy it so much! Woo hoo.  

Choose which words you want to reinforce, print the pages, laminate and trim.  Pass them out to your students. We gather in a circle and sit on the floor.  I hold both boxes. 

Students show their word card and everyone reads it together.  If you want, they can also point out the vowel that helps give the word its sound, or explain that this is a word that's an exception to the rule, or that this word contains both sounds.  They "feed" their card to the appropriate animal.  Play 'til all of the cards have been "eaten". 

I often do this as a quick review before lunch. (Munch a bunch of cards before lunch!) 

Besides using the cards for "feeding" the animals, you can also use them for an independent center, where children sort X number of cards onto a gorilla or giraffe sorting mat. 

Older students can pick 3-6 cards and use them to make up sentences which they record on their worksheet.

You can use the variety of activities for...
* A whole group
* An independent center
* Partner fun
* Homework
* Lessons for a sub folder
* A simple & quick time-filler or something for early finishers

* Assessments
* A game
* Something fun for ESL students or children who need extra help.

Today's featured FREEBIE is also a letter activity. The Alpha Cats packet is perfect any time of the year.  Fun for a pet theme, and especially teriffic if your students are Pete the Cat fans, as these little kitties are wearing shoes!

Besides the upper & lowercase letter cards, there are also a few worksheets, plus I've included a 3-page tip list of ideas for using the cards, including the Kaboom game.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.

My husband's brother flew in from Denver, so it's time to put on my hostess hat. Wishing you a happy day, filled with many memorable moments.

"It's all about quality of life. Finding that happy  balance between work, play, family and friends." -Phillip Green

1-2-3 Come Do Some Word Art Activities With Me!

Tag! You're it; now you make a word picture! I am over the moon excited over Tagxedo! It’s a website that turns words, famous speeches, poems, quotes, etc. into a VISUALLY stunning word cloud picture! 

The possibility of ideas is endless.  Here are a few that I dreamed up for up-coming spring activities:

The site is simple to use, so that even K students can be shown how to type in a list of words and create a special piece of art that can also become a card.

Brainstorm a list of words with students; write them on the board; students choose the ones appropriate for them and type them in.

These are three that I made for Mother’s Day. You can use mine, or have students describe their mom and make their own.  Click on the link to view/download the Mother’s Day word pictures.

Different fonts, colors and shapes are available to choose from, so each child will come up with a unique keepsake for their mommy.

Another activity that you could do,  is to have students make up a list of adjectives that describe them. Students make a word picture about themselves entitled “ME”.

I chose the handprint shape for mine, but they could choose whatever shape that represents them, such as a shape from their favorite sport, a ballerina, their age, their initial etc.

Teacher's could also make a "High Fives!" word art picture for each one of their students as a card for preschool or kindergarten graduation, or as a certificate for going into the next grade. 

I've also made, "Look Who's Leaping Into ______ Grade!" filled with fun words associated with the school year. There's also a matching bookmark or slap bracket to go along with the certificates.

Click on the "Look Who's Leaping!" template to view/download mine, or design your own with words specific to you and your school.

Tagxedo also has an awesome gallery featuring famous people.  Two of my favorites are Abe Lincoln and Martin Luther King.

How perfect to use word art, when studying these men. Have students plug in a speech, or adjectives they feel describe them.

What a wonderful vocabulary builder and great independent computer center to practice keyboarding skills!  It’s also a fun way for students to illustrate a poem or short story that they wrote!

I’m always looking for different ways for students to use Dolch and CVC words, so I typed in the various lists of Dolch and CVC words to make cute anchor charts. I made a header that says:  How many words can you spy?

Students LOVE  “I Spy” and “Where’s Waldo?” books, so this is yet another way to immerse children in word work in a fun way. Run off copies of the various word pictures and have students “spy” the words in the collage.

Have them jot down the words as they find them and then, for another activity, students can alphabetize their list.

Have students make tally marks next to each word to see how many times they found it in the word picture, to reinforce yet another standard!

I've included an apple word art picture for all of the Dolch words for the following lists: pre-primer, kindergarten, first, second and third, + an apple for all of the Dolch nouns and an anchor chart that lists all of the words in their separate categories.

There are 8 CVC word posters. The shape depicts a CVC word. i.e. dog, pig, key etc. I've included an alphabetical list of all of the 338 CVC words used on the word art posters. Click on the links for the Dolch Word Picture Packet,or CVC Word Picture Packet . 

I also thought it would be cute to make a graduation certificate using those themed-words. Click on the link to view/download the Kindergarten Graduation certificate word picture.

Word are is an interesting and unique way to plug in new vocabulary as it relates to the various science themes that you study, like butterflies. Click on the link to view/download the Butterfly Word Picture anchor chart.

As you can see, I had an absolute blast on this site and hope you do too! Do you have a fun site that your kiddos enjoy or a personal favorite educational site?  I’d love hearing from you diane@teachwithme.com or feel free to post a comment here, especially if you use one of my ideas.

For more technology in the classroom, click on the link to zip on over to my "pinteresting" pin board filled with  more creative and fun ways to use technology with your kiddos.

Thanks for visiting today.  Even though it's the end of April, the weather continues to be unusually cold here in Michigan.  We actually had snow flurries the past two days.  Boo and boo hoo too! Wishing you a warm and cozy day.

 "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.  Art is knowing which ones to keep." -Scott Adams

1-2-3 Come Do Some Letter Tile Activities With Me

If you're a blog hopper or Pinterest pinner, then you've probably seen all sorts of wonderfully creative activities for the alphabet or word work that involve letter tiles.

Some teachers and homeschoolers use magnetic ones on cookie sheets, others order colorful plastic alphabet squares from a company, or use the Scrabble tiles from a garage sale find. Although many educators have their kiddos cutting and gluing letters to make words, I didn't find any templates to do this with.

With that in mind, I designed a packet that includes both upper and lowercase letter tiles in 4 different sizes.  From one set on a page, to 8 sets. Simply print, laminate and trim to use in centers and for games.

Run off extra sets for students to use for Daily 5 or other word work activities, where they cut and glue letters to make words. The packet includes a 4-page tip list, filled with ideas and games to use the letter tiles for.

Make an uncut laminated copy of the large set to use as an assessment tool.  Individually, ask a student to point to a letter or cover it with a block or other manipulative.  Click on the link to view/download the Upper and Lowercase Letter Tile packet.

Besides this newest FREEBIE, since it's Thursday, I also wanted to feature something for TBT (Throw Back Thursday). 

As far as cutting and gluing letters to make words go, one of my most popular downloads is this word-work worksheet.  It's simple and fun and fits easily into Daily 5.  Students write and stamp the word, plus use the letters included in the packet, to cut and glue a word together.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  A soft and gentle rain is falling.  My office window's open and the fresh air smells wonderful. I find the sound of rain very soothing, so I'm just going to kick back and relax, while I cut, paste and play today.  Wishing you a carefree day.

"...I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.” -Mark Haddon

18 pages.

This packet includes both upper and lowercase letter tiles in 4 different sizes.  From one set on a page to 8 sets. Print, laminate and trim to use in centers and for games.  This FREEBIE is part of my large, Alphabet Activities packet on TpT.  Click on the link to pop on over.  For your convenience I've included a preview.

5 pages.

Practice a variety of word work with The Very Hungry Wordapillar.  I've included patterns, an at word family sample, plus a list of ideas of word categories to make caterpillars for.  Children can design their own caterpillar head, color my template, or simply add wiggle eyes and a smile to a colorful circle of construction paper.

31 pages.

March is a very windy month here in the midwest. With that in mind, I designed this Wind Tricks poetry packet, to go along with my other wind-themed activities.  I hope you find it helpful.

26 pages

This snowflake craftivity packet, is a super-fun way to review word families. The activities are great for independent word work or Daily 5.  Completed projects make an awesome winter bulletin board. 

1-2-3 Come Do Some Fun Football Activities With Me.

I discovered long ago,that if I could incorporate a theme of something that was popular with my students, I'd grab and hold their attention.  It seemed that my little guys had more difficulty focussing than the girls did, so I often offered choices when I could. 

Because sports was always a "hot button" and 'tis the season for the start of football, I decided to dream up some activities with a football theme.

I thought it would be fun to do something with the -all family of words and make a game of it. 

Students choose teams and then work either independently or with their group, to think of as many -all words before the timer rings.  Each word is worth 1 point. 

To get in some math practice, have students figure out how many touchdowns and field goals they achieved with their word list.  i.e. 7 words = 7 points = 1 touchdown.  Any "extra" words can be counted to make a field goal. 

A field goal = 3 points for 3 words. i.e. One team thought of 11 words.  They scored 1 touchdown (7) and 1 field goal (3) and had 1 extra point left.

I've provided score card - posters, if you'd like to keep track and post the results. 

There are blank templates, so you can program other word families, if you'd like to keep this idea going. 

After I got the -all word family football packet done, I wanted to make Bingo cards as another way to review the words. 

However, I had less than 24 words and could not make a Bingo card, so I thought I'd add the -ick word family to the football packet, because you kick a football. 

80 pages later, (!) the packet was completed, but my entire day had slipped away, so I certainly hope you find it useful.

Another fun way too reinforce these new words is via a word search. 

The packet includes the same activities for both the -all AND -ick word families. 

There are pocket word cards, traceable word cards, covers so students can make Itty Bitty booklets, alphabetizing worksheets, plus trace-write-color-cut & glue worksheets. 

Also included is a fill in the word sentence worksheet; 30 different Bingo cards, so your entire class can play; words on footballs + Kaboom bomb cards to play Memory Match and "I have; who has?" games. 

There are also posters, blank templates for you to program with whatever, and 2 "craftivities"  like the football -all word family slider pictured.  Many of these activities work well for your Daily 5 Word Work.

Click on the link to view/download the -all & -ick Word Family Football packet.

To go along with the football theme, I also designed a 10-frames football packet.  Click on the link for this FREEBIE.

Because of several special requests, I also designed a 1-2-3 Count Footballs With Me, 10-frames easy reader. 

Because these booklets are based on a 10-frame, they are nice extensions for the matching 10-frames packets. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.   If you'd like to see all of the terrific-educational items that I PIN, (Almost all of them FREEBIES!) click on the heart to the right of the blog. 

Time for a much-needed break.  I'm off to do who knows what.  Decisions-decisions-decision.

"There are only two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle." -Albert Einstein

Howl With The Owls And Learn About Vowels!

Vowel Owls are a fun, hands-on way to teach Common Core State Standards:RF.K3b, RF.K2a, RF.K2d, RF.K3c.

Students sort the 570 CVC & Dolch word cards  into the various long and short vowel owl cups.

The Vowel Owls make a great "Word Work" Daily 5 activity. The cards are just the right size, small for little hands and easy printing. With 60 CVC words on a page, and 10 pages, you'll have enough cards to practice as a whole group.

I've also included a Vowel Howl game board, as another option for a fun way to practice long & short vowel sounds, as well as a list of other things you can do with the word cards, including games, + sorting the cards by rhyming sounds, to cover another Common Core State Standard.

Click on the link to view/download the Vowel Owl Packet.

Thanks for visiting today. Do you have a vowel activity you could share with us? I'd enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or post a comment here.

I hope you and your students get a hoot out of these activities and are enjoying a fun-filled fall!   It's brisk this morning and frost is definitely on the pumpkins.  Time to drain and bring in our garden hoses.  Wishing you a delightful day.

"Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes." -Parkes Robinson