Vowel Practice

Hi everyone! This is one of my favorite ways to practice and review vowels. This is simple to prep for, which is always nice!

Here's a little video to show how it works:

I give each student a vowel on a math counter. They all have the same worksheet with the vowel missing. They read each word with the vowel they have. Then they switch to use another vowel. Simple, quick, fun. It's great practice for them and a quick snapshot assessment for me. 

You certainly do NOT have to buy anything to do this though! For one, you could also make your own by just drawing it out on a piece of paper. Just leave a little circle for them to drop the vowel in. 

I also do quickies during guided reading. All you need is a sticky note.

Put up some chart paper like this and use any ol' popsicle stick to fill in the vowels. In this picture we are working on a vowel pair. I have little popsicle sticks with all the vowels. Sometimes I'll have a student come up and read a word with three different vowel sticks. This is a great whole class lesson. 

 Like I said, I love having meaningful activities that are quick and simple!You can use it anytime AND it's a great informal assessment. 


If you would like 50 pages of these "Fill a Word sheets to use throughout the year, visit my blog for more information. :)

Valentine's Day FREEBIES!

I only have a few days left on maternity leave...so this is gonna be a quickie! I'm sure you are all super excited (wink wink!) about the upcoming chaos celebration...Valentine's Day! If you are looking for a little art project to do, check out my Lovebot Craftivity by clicking below:

We made these last year and I love how they turned out!

And if you haven't snagged this FREE parent letter for Valentine's Day, grab it now!

And be sure to print off a few of these FREE Valentine cards (updated since last year!) for students that forget to bring their own!

Until next time my friends!

We're moving!

We're moving! 

Lots of great things are happening! We've got a new look and new name, but we'll still be bringing you lots of great ideas for the classroom!

You can find us at 

http://spark-ofinspiration.blogspot.com/

See ya there!

100th Day in 2nd Grade

Hey guys!  It's Angie from Lucky Little Learners and I am coming off of an exhausting, yet super fun, day of school!  Today was our 100th Day of School and I have to admit that there were so many moments throughout the day today that got me excited about the thought of blogging because I kept thinking, "Gosh, they are going to love this!"  Going into today,  I knew that I wanted to write a blog post because the 100th Day of School has always been a favorite of mine and I want to share with you a couple of the successful activities that we do. 

 When my students come into the classroom, our routine is always the same.  They come in, lay out their BEE binder, read the morning message, sharpen their pencils, and begin their morning work.  They knew that today was going to be special when a plastic baggie was on their desk and they were told that their morning work consisted of counting out 100 Legos.  Let the crazy fun begin...yes, right away at 8:10!

 Time out from the Legos...as my students started filling their plastic baggies, several of my students were intrigued by the 100 Adjectives display.  They wanted to know what was going to be happening on this board so after we got settled in, I explained to my students that one of the many challenges that I had for them today was to come up with 100 Adjectives.  When one of my students replied, "When can we start?" I knew we were in for a fun and busy day!

 As you can see they jumped to this challenge.  It was so fun to sit back and watch these guys work together.  Communication was key as they helped each other spell words, check for words that may have been doubled up, and triple check to make sure that the words that were listed were adjectives and not nouns or verbs.

 They conquered the task!  Everything may not be "dictionary spelled" but that was not the focus of this activity.  I think it looks great!

 Now, back to the Legos...once each student had their bag of 100 Legos, I instructed them to create something with their Legos.  I didn't care what it was but I did tell them that they had to use all 100 Legos and they could not trade any of their pieces for different sizes.  As you can see above, I may have some Type A kiddos with the all red and all yellow Legos.  Ha!  Ha!

 This task ended up taking them a lot longer than I had anticipated.  Their creativity kicked into high gear as they found this task to be a little more challenging than anticipated at the beginning.  There was some frustration with creations tipping over so they worked together to come up with the solution that the base had to be bigger and that the creations couldn't be too tall.  I loved watching their minds at work with this!

 Once each student finished their Lego creation, they had to come to me to create a label.  We displayed their creations around the classroom.  One of my students said, "Mrs. Olson, it looks like a Lego museum in here!"  Yes, I will definitely let these take over my classroom for the next week!  Another student suggested that our principal and other classes come and take a tour...I just may have to arrange this to happen.  I love when they are proud of themselves!

 Once their creation and label were on display, I gave them a writing template and asked them to use adjectives to write "beefy sentences" that would describe what they made.  You can get a copy of this Lego writing template HERE.  They modeled their "2nd grade best handwriting" with hopes that Mr. Nagel would come in and read their sentences!

 I have included a few of their writing samples and Lego creations.  They may not be perfect but I feel that it was an effective activity!

Another favorite from today were these photos.  We used the Aging Booth app to create these photos of ourselves as if we were 100 years old.  I have never heard my kids laugh so hard when we went through everybody's picture on the document camera.  (DISCLAIMER:  I got permission to use these photos from each child's family.)

 I definitely think that mine is the SCARIEST LOOKING!  YIKES!

I would like to end this post with our 100 Reasons Why We Love Our School bulletin board display.  We made this last week for our Parent Teacher Conferences but it ties in so nicely for the 100th Day of School.  I hope that you found a couple of ideas that you could use for your 100th Day of School or that you could pin to your 100th Day Pinterest board!

Motivate your students to WRITE!

Every so often, we just need a little fun, don't we? Here's a little writing activity I like to do with my kiddos. They get to create a superhero scene & the write about it! They LOVE it!

I glue two sets of googly eyes on each page of paper. Part of the fun & challenge is creating the scene around those googly eyes-- wherever they are on the paper! I tell my kiddos that they can create any scene & add their own characters....the only rule is one has to be a superhero. I was inspired by this picture I came across on Pinterest from House of Baby Piranha.

My sweeties LOVE drawing their characters! The beauty of this project is, as they're drawing the picture with the googly eyes, they're really planning their writing!  Characters.....setting....even the details of the story begins to develop as they complete the drawing!

After they've drawn their pictures, they use the planner to get their ideas down in writing. I also give them a word bank to help with some of those words they might want to use: super, villain, thought, secret, victory..... lots of words that'll help get those creative little minds whirling! 

I've bundled it all into a little mini pack for you....Just click the pic below to grab a copy! 

Making It Back After Maternity Leave

Hey there, teacher mamas!

It's been awhile since I've posted. We are officially 5 months in to parenthood and I'm just now finding time to do things for myself again. :) There are piles of laundry and a sink of dirty dishes right now, but I've been anxious to sit down and finish up this post.

The first few days back at work, I'm sure my co-workers thought I was nuts. Some sweet soul would ask me how I was doing or ask about my little man, and I was too busy trying not to cry to give them much of an answer. I even put my hand up several times and answered, "We're not talking about it!!" Ha!!

Going back to work and finding a balance is hard. Leaving your sweet snuggly baby is even harder. If this is something you've been struggling with (or maybe it's in your future!) come on over and see if there's something that might help you. Click on any of the images in this post to take a peek!

Valentine's Day Freebies

Hi everyone!  It's Megan from Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade!  Today I am here to share a few Valentine's Day freebies that I have available for you to download.  I have made them over the past several years, but I know some of you may not have them.  I can't believe that it's almost February! Do you have a party for Valentine's Day in your classroom?  I usually do...it's the only "big" party that I have each year.  For drinks, I like to give my kids a bottle of water and include these editable tags with a flavor pack.  The kids think it's so cool to make their own water in class!  Hahaha!

On Valentine's Day before we have our party, we usually spend the day doing "Valentinish" things, such as this sight word game.  To prep it, just write or print some sight words onto strips of paper. Fold them up and place in little heart boxes.  Be sure to number the boxes.  Print and copy the recording sheet and have the kids walk around {with music playing, of course!} and write the words. My freebie includes the Fry's First 100 sight words and a recording sheet.  You can select which words you want to put in the boxes.  I got my boxes at Dollar Tree many years ago, but I have seen them around town at various stores {Hobby Lobby, Target, Etc...}.

We also have Valentine-themed centers during the first part of February.  This "Mustachy Measurement" center is always a hit during math tubs!

To see more Valentine ideas, click below!  Happy {almost} February, friends! 

xo

Megan 

Managing Must-Dos for Daily 5

Hey everyone!

It's Tina from Tina's Teaching Treasures!

Do you have students who are off task during Daily 5? Trying to differentiate and pulling out your hair with too many bins, stickers, reminders, etc?  I was too.  Until, I found my Must-Do system! This has been a sanity saver for me AND helps my students get the differentiated learning they need!

It's so easy (and cute!) and FREE! For details, check out my blog post on Tina's Teaching Treasures!

That's all for now!
-Tina

iPad and Mobile Device Poster Set FREEBIE

I don't know about you, but lately I've seen too many of my students trying to treat my iPads like TV dinner trays.  They've gotten a little too loose with the rules...but it happens because we're over halfway through the year.

To curb these actions I've put together a simple set of classroom rules for my iPads (I know some of you use other devices).  You can grab a free set for yourself in my TPT store.

I kind of felt like I was rewriting the rules for Gizmo.  The last thing we need is more gremlins running around school.

Enjoy the posters!  Grab them HERE.

If you're wondering where I got the excellent clip art, look no further than Jen at Teaching in the Tongass.  She has excellent graphics!  I've gotten quite a few sets from her store.  Here is the link for the iPads.  She has tons of choices, which seems to impact my clip art habit.

...and if you want to check out my latest PBL activity that journeys through the rainforest just follow this link:  Discovery in the Rainforest.

Discovery in the Rainforest

This is a cross-post from Digital: Divide & Conquer.

           

Using Beads for Letters, Phonemic Awareness, and Phonics

Hi everyone! Today I want to share with you a simple idea that is low-prep but loads of fun. I've used pipe cleaners to practice sight words, but this year I started using them in a few other ways. 

With my kinders, we use pipe cleaners and letter beads to practice our letters and sounds. I put on letters they know and a letter(s) they are working on. They put the beads on, making the sound or saying the letter name as they do. When they are all on, they practice the letters a few more times by moving the beads. They can mix up the order by taking the beads off and on again. It's like a fluency strip that moves! Ha! You can get letter beads on Amazon (tons of choices here) or at a craft store, like Joannes or Michaels. 

Remember, we want our students to have automaticity with their letter sounds. This activity is great for all kinders, even if they know all of their sounds. This would be a great warmup to your Guided Reading group. Give each student a pipe cleaner with several letters and have them make the sounds as they move the beads. Then they could switch with a buddy and do it again. 

You can also use them when your students are just starting to sound out words. I start with just two beads: a vowel and a consonant. I stretch the vowel sound as I move it toward the consonant. "/aaaaaaaaa/ /t/ Say the consonant sound when the vowel touches it. 

When your kids are ready, add another consonant to make CVC words. Start with just one word family and change up the initial consonant.

Let's back it up a bit! You don't even have to use letters. This is a great way to practice phonemic awareness. Put different color beads on the pipe cleaner. Start with two, then add on the third when your students can proficiently blend two sounds. I love this because your students don't have to know a stinkin' letter to do this activity but it is SO valuable. They need to develop their phonemic awareness! To do this,  you would say a word with two or three sounds: "at" and your students will move the beads as they say the sounds, "/a/ /t/". You can do it the other way, where you point to the beads and say /a/ /t/ and they copy you then blend the sounds to guess the word.

Do you use pipe cleaners? Tell me how you use them! It can be for anything- arts and crafts too. I have an overload of pipe cleaners and I'm itching to use them! :) 

Here's a little page to use for some follow-up in your classroom. :)

Come by and visit my blog to pick these up.