A Look at Whats Hangin' Around Our Classroom

Happy Wednesday

It was suggested that we post a few pictures of the charts that we currently have hanging in our classroom. So we decided to do just that! :) 

Below are pictures of some of the charts, routines, etc. that we currently have hanging in the room. Please feel free to comment and or add your ideas!! 

Cheerfully, 

Stefanie & Chrissa 

Math Games and Todays Number routine behind. You can also see the number line and beadstring (both student jobs)

Community Rules: The post it's are the students drawn examples of how to be kind, safe, fair, and responsible

Classroom Rules that we Created as a Class

 

All of our Weather and Temperature data over the course of our year. A GREAT way to see trends over time.

Attendance Rekenrek: The Students come in and place their picture up when they get done unpacking their things. Then the recorder writes who is present and who is absent. 

Schedule for the day, the weather data for the month and ten frames counting the days in school. All student jobs. :) 

Current Word Wall :)

Our Super Reading Powers Strung across the front of the room 

Prepped Guided Reading and Writing Strategy Groups with Conferences notes 

Partner Reading Menu (Partnerships have a small copy that can be manipulated to create a partner reading plan)

The Main Chart (Color-coded) for our reading strategies charts below

Reading Partners Chart and Mini Signs for Private and Partner Reading (Reading Workshop)

Writing Center

We are Writing Small Moments (Narrative)

 

Editing Checklist 

                 Emotions Vocabulary Charts

                               

Our Hopes and Dreams

To the Tune of Old McDonald :)

Our Research Process : Current Unit: Family

Phonemic Awareness Songs

Here are just some of our favorite songs to develop phonemic awareness. We wish we knew who to give credit to!

*Just sing and have fun helping students focus on hearing and generating sounds, no need to put these on charts for them.

 Identifying Phonemes (change songs for first/last/middle sounds)

Tune: London Bridge is Falling Down

What’s the [first sound] that you hear,

that you hear, that you hear,

What’s the [first sound] that you hear,

that you hear in ___, ___, and ___ ? (show pictures or objects)

/ / is the [first sound] that we hear, that we hear, that we hear.

/ / is the [first sound] that we hear at the [beginning] of

___, ___, and ___.

Tune: Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Which sound comes first in these words:

five, fat and fish? (show pictures or objects)

/f/ is the first sound in these words:

five, fat and fish

With a /f/ /f/ here and /f/ /f/ there,

Here a /f/, there a /f/, everywhere a /f/ /f/

/f/ is the first sound in these words:

five, fat and fish

Tune: BINGO

There is a kid in our class whose name starts like this
/k/ /k/ /k/ /k/ /k/
/k/ /k/ /k/ /k/ /k/
/k/ /k/ /k/ /k/ /k/
And [his] name is Kyle
Kyle stand up, Kyle stand up, Kyle stand up and...

Jump, jump, jump!

Phoneme Blending

Tune: Frere Jacques

Put the sounds together.

Put the sounds together.

/c/ /a/ /t/

/c/ /a/ /t/

What’s the word we made?

What’s the word we made?

cat, cat, cat

Onset and Rime

(this is Chrissa's favorite...)

Tune: Do Your Ears Hang Low?

Can we sing this silly song?

Can we sing it all along?

Listen with your ear to the sounds you will hear.

I will say first sound and you will add the rime [/-ake/]

How many words can we make?

If I say /b/, you say ___.

If I say /c/, you say ___.

If I say /r/, you say ___.

If I say /f/, you say ___.

If I say /w/, you say ___.

If I say /sn/, you say ___.

etc.

Enjoy!
Chrissa & Stefanie

Outline Mats

Happy Saturday everyone!

Today we want to share some work center mats for practice with ABCs, high-frequency words, and numbers. The kiddos love using these mats with pom pom balls and tweezers, and it helps to strengthen their fine motor muscles too!

You can download the mats in our TPT store!

The bundle includes: 120+ high frequency words, the alphabet, and numbers!

They can also be used with pom poms, playdough, Wikki Stix, dry erase, or under gel bags, etc.

These are the tweezers they're using! Click here.

Enjoy and happy weekend everyone!
Stefanie and Chrissa

How to Make a Letter Tray

We've received so many inquiries about our magnetic letter trays! Here's some more info!

Materials you will need:

1. First, get some cookies sheets. Tip: Grab a magnet while you're in the kitchen aisle to make sure the cookie sheet is magnetic. :)

2. Then, use a ruler and pencil to sketch out where to place the letters.

3. Next, use oil-based paint markers to draw lines and write the letters.

4. Last, add your magnetic letters.

Now you are ready to have fun building words with your kiddos!

*Feel free to use this post as a how-to mentor text. jk jk :P

Comment below!

Chrissa & Stefanie

BUILDING WORDS

The following is based on the work of Patricia Cunningham and Tim Rasinski.

the TCRWP posted a pic from Chrissa's classroom! :D

PART 1: MAKING THE WORDS
Tell students which words to make and give them clues as necessary.
Ex.

• "Change just the first letter to spell..."
• "Change one letter to spell..."
• "Add one letter to spell..."
• "If you move the letters in this word around, these same letters can spell a different word."

*Tips: 

• We find that the magnetic letters are easier to manipulate and store than paper letter cards.
• Make alphabet charts and vowel charts available to students. 
• For our beginning ELLs, we like to have pictures of the words prepared if possible so they are exposed to the meanings of new vocabulary words.
• Differentiate by using the appropriate lesson for each of your groups. Who's working on final consonants? Who's working on spelling with medial short vowels?

Show each word on an index card and put them in a pocket chart so students can check. The quick pacing of the lessons is important so it's best to have word cards prepped before hand. There are other places outside of this lesson for students to write the words.

PART 2: SORTING THE WORDS
Sort the rhyming words and then guide students to notice the similar spelling patterns. ex. "cat, bat, rat all rhyme and they have -at!" (If you have more time, you could also sort by first letter, same vowel, or kinds of words: nouns, verbs, etc. before sorting rhyming words.)

PART 3: TRANSFERRING WORDS
"We can use the words we sorted to help us read and write new words." Show students a new word; can they use the patterns they just noticed to read the new word? Ask them to help you write a word or sentence; can they use the patterns they just noticed to write a new word?

Check out these resources for more information:

We posted some of the beginning lessons for building words with short words in our TPT store.

Have a great week!
Chrissa & Stefanie