Syllable Shenanigans

October 11, 2016
Today we started learning all about syllables.  It is an important topic when teaching what sounds "y" can make.  

I teach them to put their hand under their chin and every time their chin moves down when they are saying a word = ones syllable.  So in butterfly their chin/hand moves down 3 times when saying that word which means butterfly has 3 syllables. 

We then practiced this strategy for counting syllables by doing a whole group syllable sort.  I showed them many pictures and then as a class they should me with their fingers how many syllables was in the word.


Tomorrow is game day - we are going to start practicing the syllables by playing different games and hands-on activities! First, each child will complete the syllable zoo activity.  After they finish that activity, they will race each other.
Andrea Sign

Hey, ShortE!

September 17, 2016
I love, love, LOVE our First Grade phonics activities! The students are always so engaged with the stories, the activities, and love the craftivities that accompany the units!!

This week we were learning all about the Eggsellent Short E sound.  We read about Ted's Egg Adventure, hunted for colored eggs that were hidden in the hallways of our school, sorted the eggs between "good eggs" and "bad eggs" (good eggs had a short e word inside, bad eggs had a word with no short e), and made Short E Egg Vests to remind us of our fun adventures learning about the short E sound! 

The Egg Vest consists of a short E word hunt (glued on the back).  They then chose some of these short E words that they found, wrote those words on the eggs, drew an illustration, and then assembled! 

 You can get templates for the vest and other short E activities here.

Andrea Sign

ABC...It's as easy as 123...

September 13, 2016
...and as cute as can be!

I thought I would spend some time this evening writing about one of my FAVORITE things in my classroom...


Not only do I LOVE the aesthetics of this and that it creates a child friendly feel right when you look at the front of the classroom...

There are SO MANY academic benefits (which makes it even more heavenly!!)

This activity accompanies my ABC order lessons which is perfect because any time the students are working on something related to ABC order OR something that they need a reminder of letter-sound relationships, they immediately think to look at our classroom alphabet.  I noticed this year (the first year I added this to my classroom) that the amount of students who use this tool has really increased.

I also teach this when teaching my math unit of Sorting & Organizing to connect how things in our world can be organized (ABC order).



Andrea Sign

Phonics Phun!

September 09, 2016
"Get those littles to read!"

Phonics is such an important foundational skill that students need. Phonics allows children to be able to read and the ability to read then allows them to take even more ownership of their learning. 

A strong foundation of the phonemic sounds is imperative!! 

Phonics is a big focus in my classroom.  We do many different activities to constantly reinforce the skills the students have learned.

Each week we learn a new phonics sound.  To introduce the phonics sounds, I share with the students a story.  For example, the story of Nat the alligator who LOVES apples!


After that story, we add our new phonics sound to our phonics board.

Then we come up with a phonics chant that incorporates movement (something we as a class come up with to help us remember the sound) and words to help us remember the sound.  We also create an anchor chart with words that we can think of that have that vowel sound.     


Then each morning for the remaining days of the week, the students walk in and begin working on their Phonics Interactive Notebooks.  
You can get the short A Phonics Notebook freebie here.

 During the week, typically during literacy stations/Daily 5, the students hunt for words in their books and/or around the classroom.  They need to find 10 words throughout the week.  Depending on the week, this is sometimes a fast finishers activity.  I love these word hunts because they begin to see the sounds in their world around them and the hunts are also super easy to differentiate.  



During literacy stations/Daily 5, students also have an opportunity to complete games and puzzles based on the the phonics sound of that week AND the previous phonics sounds we have learned.


At the end of the week, each student creates a phonics visual that was connected to the story that we had read at the beginning of the week and incorporates their word hunt. 
Andrea Sign