Yep, more Seesaw...but Google Slides, too! #Freebie

 I'm on fall break. Here in Indiana half of my fall break was summer weather and the other half was just plain rainy and chilly. If you've never been to the midwest this is very typical. We can have multiple seasons in one week...or even one day. I will say the foliage was beautiful This is one of the trees on the primary playground at school. A week ago it was mostly green. This picture does not do it justice! I love watching this tree change every year. 

I also used my fall break to something VERY VERY important! I voted. It was extra special to me because this year is the 100th anniversary of women getting the right to vote! I exercised my right and am thankful for all the women that made it possible for me. 

If you voted show some love in the comments! You do not need to share your personal vote or political beliefs but I love to see other women using their voice. 

I also had some family time with the nephew. He's on fall break, too. We took the time to hang out and make s'mores and watch Hocus Pocus.....twice, lol. He even was my guinea pig for some Seesaw lessons but he loved it. That's what you get though when your aunt is a teacher. 

I also did what many teachers do....I did something 'bad'.....I did something we don't always speak of....I did something that I just felt like I needed to do.....

I. Went. To. School. Over. Break. 

There. I said it. I feel better now! I didn't feel like staying on Friday. I was pooped! So I took some time to go in earlier in the week. I kind of like it though. I get the copier all to myself. I can play my Pandora stations without worrying about underage ears hearing something they shouldn't or my co-workers hearing it go from my 90s rap to country music in a matter of minutes...and I just get a lot done. It was very productive. No regrets!

As I've mentioned in some previous posts, I think, we do OG at my school. It's a great phonics program to work on phonics and fluency. This is the second year I've done it and with the pandemic 'shutdown' I didn't make it as far as I would've like...but I'm really good at those first 100 lessons or so, lol. I'll share another post about OG, resources, and how we implement it for our virtual students. 

When we return from break we will be focusing on the 'H-Brothers' and talking about when to use c and k. We make an anchor chart in class and practice it. 

I decided to make a Seesaw activity for extra practice to reinforce the lesson. There is a video and a word sort for them to do. We use Seesaw in K-2 for our LMS and Grades 3-4 use Google Classroom for now. I made the Seesaw activity and I'm pretty sure the Google Slide will work just as well for those that use GC. 

It's a freebie. I'd appreciate you saving or sharing this on Pinterest or whatever avenue you use to share things you like. I am adding it to the Seesaw community library but they aren't currently approving new activities because they've had an overwhelming number of members/schools joining and are still rolling out updates. I expect that they'll start approving assignments very soon but I still want to share in the meantime. 

Click here to go to TpT to download the freebie. The download has a link for Seesaw and GC. 

Seesaw Medial Vowel Sorts

 I'm absolutely loving Seesaw. I'm total fangirl, lol. We just finished up our last short vowel in OG (Orton Gillingham). We will continue to review them but after fall break we are going to introduce the H Brothers. OG is all about being fair and not assigning passages or assignments where the content hasn't been covered in OG. It is now 'fair' to assign them tasks with all 5 short vowels. 

Enter the short vowel sorts on Seesaw! We still do paper/pencil activities and cutting and gluing but it has been cut back this year with the Seesaw for School purchase and Covid. It's still important to get those motor skill activities in but most of my centers are not digital activities in Seesaw. It also works well when I get a student that has to isolate or quarantine (unfortunate reality). I don't personally have any virtual students (100 % every day that is) but there are those in my district on the first grade team that do. So, we do a lot of group planning. It's been phenomenal to have the time to collaborate and share ideas. 

I plan on using these for a reading station activity (I'll be posting how I do stations in Seesaw soon) or as a morning work type activity. 

If you get these you can "Copy and Edit" and add different directions or record audio where you read the words. 

click here

Long Vowel Silent E

Over the next few weeks in first grade we will be completely kicking it up and learning so many phonological patterns. The weeks before and after winter break are super serious weeks....despite all the wintery fun and Christmastime anticipation

We started our first long vowel right before break. Long a w/ silent e. We watched this YouTube video to get the ball rolling.

I love this video. The kids love this video. It's really a win-win. Now the video does call it magic e and has a cape. I know that usually magic e has a hat or wand but I stayed consistent with the video. After watching the video we went old school and I had letters on construction paper and we did making words. Each kid held a letter then we read the CVC word. The we acted out magic e coming to help the closed vowel. It was kinda fun. Oh, and of course while we are doing this and being a bit goofy the principal comes and does one of his walk-throughs. But hey, I was teaching the kids were engaged, and it wasn't seat work. Also a win.

If you follow me on the 'gram (that's what the kids call it, right...???) okay Instagram you may have seen that I have been using #SeeSaw and #SeeSawActivities quite a bit. I love them. It saves papers. It's a digital portfolio that I don't have to be in charge of organizing/saving, the parents see assignments in almost real-time (as soon as I can approve them), I can leave feedback, I can differentiate, and I can HEAR each and every child sound out a 'page' of 12 words. Some of the videos are 12 seconds and others 58 seconds..so if I tried to do this one-on-one in class I'd be using valuable teaching time!

Well, as I said those weeks before break were packed full of important phonics. So, I created this to hear each kiddo practice soft g.

click to hear student

Well when we come back we hit the ground running with long i. There were some great freebies for long i work on SeeSaw that were shared by fellow teachers but I like the format above so much I created quick pages for long a, i, o, u. I didn't do long e because I found that there weren't as many e__e words but when e get ready for vowel teams I will be adding some. IF you can think of some first grade appropriate words then please comment below and I'll create a long e page and send you a copy of my pages for free. I had three or four that fit the pattern. 

click any of the previews to check it out on TpT

Social Media

I did it. I did it....I gave in...I'm on Instagram.

I actually had an account a year or so ago linked to my personal FB/Twitter but I never got into it. Now  with all the blog hype and hashtag fun I had to give it a go.

Leave your twitter, instagram, fb links below if you'd like me to follow you.

Here's my info:

**I forgot to add Pinterest so I linked it below in the hashtag**

#SocialMedia #Twitter #FB #Instagram #TeachingIn2013 #Pinterest

One of my Instagram photos today!

Also, I wanted to thank those of you that commented on my last post about my circus centers! Christy was the lucky winner (and I had a FB winner, too). 

I posted the other day on Teaching Blog Roundup. Did you see the freebie?

Practice a variety of sounds!

• ee and ea
• final y
• ai and ay
• short a and i
• long a silent e and long i silent e
• oa and ow
• oi and oy
• ou and ow
• er, ir, ur
• or and ore
• I'll try to update the packet as I add more 
• (follow TBR, You Might Be a First Grader...,and my TpT store for guaranteed updates on products)

click here to get your freebie!

*update*Find me (and my freebie) over at Teaching Blog Roundup

Sorry! I just saw that my schedule post didn't actually post. The post and the freebie are up and running!

Today is my first post at Teaching Blog Roundup!

Hop over and check it out! (A nifty post and a freebie too!)

click here

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom and all the great moms out there!

Letter Circles

In first grade we practice so many letters and their sounds...and combinations of letters and their sounds. I wanted to have some practice letters that fit the color scheme (kinda) of my room. Here is what I came up with to practice these letters and create a sound wall.(Click to enlarge)

Check it Out

Each time we introduce a new letter sound I'll pull out the corresponding circle and practice it daily, probably during our morning meeting.

Some other ideas:

• If you have a focus wall this would be a cute addition. 
• You could also hang them all in advance and expose the children to them as a preview to upcoming lessons.
• Find pictures of items that have the sounds you're practicing and use these as sorting mats.
• Find pictures of items that have the sounds you're practicing and glue them to a clothespin and clip the picture to the correct sound
• Word wall word headers (for a sound word wall)

How else could you use them?
Have other first grade letter combo suggestions?

Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) Packet

Though I am weeks away from doing those awful  lovely standardized assessments with my firsties I thought I'd be proactive and be prepared. One thing that we test for at the beginning of the year is Nonsense Word Fluency. Basically the kids read CVC words that are make-believe. They get a point for each correct sound and are scored on how many they actually read as words, too. We do this test (among with others) three times a year and the benchmarks increase each time. The first time I try not to practice any of the skills so the scores I receive really reflect their level upon entering first grade.

Once assessment time is over I look at the data and go from there. So, I've created 3 NWF games for my kiddos to practice during center time. Some practice reading the words and one of them is set to practice at differentiating between real and nonsense words.

BTW It is way harder making up nonsense words than you think! haha.

 
 Check it out in my TpT store.

 X'ed

How to play:

(2-4 players)

Each player will choose a card. The player will need to read the

nonsense word correctly. If s/he reads it correctly they get to keep the card. If it is read incorrectly it goes back into the pile. If a

student draws an ‘X’ card then they lose all of their cards. Whoever has the most cards at the end of the game is the winner.

Variation:

· When an ‘X’ is draw students lose all of their card but the cards may be put back into the draw pile

· When an ‘X’ is drawn it may be set aside or returned to the draw pile for prolonged play

Sample of Nonsense Words

Real or Make-Believe

How to play:

(1-2 players)

Roll dice and write the word on the recording sheet under the

correct heading.

When playing a 2 player game players (or teacher) may decide if the winner has made the most make-believe words or real words.

Recording Sheet for Game

Trash Digging for Nonsense

How to play:

(1-2 players)

Players take turns picking a piece of ‘trash’ from the trashcan.

The player must correctly read the CVC word and identify it as real or nonsense (make-believe) and place it on their mat.

The player with the most nonsense words at the end of the game is the winner.

Beware...if you draw the trashcan card you LOSE all of your

nonsense words!!!

 Tip: You may want to crumple the words to make them look like real trash!

Card Sorting Mat

Tucker Signing Strategies

The former Special Ed teacher at my school, Mrs. H,  has many years of experience and a special way of reaching the kids. I'm always amazed and excited to see the growth in the kiddos that she sees. One of the things that she uses is called Tucker Signing Strategies. She teaches these hand cues to the kids to remember the sounds that the letters make.

Now, I'll be honest I do not know all of the signs and I do not teach all of  the signs to my kiddos. I know that in order for it to be effective I should implement the strategies with fidelity. I wasn't trained on it and I was just talking with Mrs. H about them one day. I asked her to show me the signs for the vowels. For many of my kids short o and u are so difficult to remember and differentiate from other sounds. It was so neat to see when they were sounding out a letter and I knew they were confused and I would show them a sign with my hands and they'd remember. Do any of you use them?

(I found this on Pinterest. The teacher goes through the alphabet but there are also signs for digraphs, r-controlled vowels, etc.)

 

Click to go to Amazon and see the book.