Reading with Mrs. D: April 2014

Friday, April 25, 2014

Working on our sight words

My students are all at different stages of remembering their sight words, and with only nine weeks left of school when we head back to class on Monday, I feel I really have to start pushing them even harder to be ready for next year.

So I'm coming up with a few changes to how I use sight words.

I've seen a few blog posts and Pinterest pins where teaches talk about having students slap or tag a Sight word on their way out the door.

I decided to actually design a set of cards I can laminate and put up this week to do this.
Since I have a few students still struggling with Dolch Pre-primer words, and many working on Primer, but a few happily chewing up the first grade list (where ideally they will most if not all be working on by the end of June), I colour coded my sets.

Red: Pre-Primer
Yellow: Primer
Blue: First Grade

I also made cards for all the second and third grade words as well as the Dolch nouns.

Second: Green
Third: Purple

Nouns: Orange

I'll put up four words a week of each colour my students are working with, but not tell them which set. If they notice a pattern, fine, but I'm not going to point out that so and so is only on RED, but so and so is already on blue. that would be mean.

I bundled EVERYTHING up for only $8, but each set is also available individually since most of us don't actually NEED all SIX sets in our classrooms at the same time. Pre-Primer is my newest Forever Freebie, and for the time being it is my featured Freebie on TPT. Click on the images to go directly to your chosen product.

SAMPLE PAGES IN RANDOM ORDER

THE COMPLETE BUNDLE

Stay tuned for my other new initiative, the clothesline!

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Friday, April 11, 2014

Two Easter crafts: Religious and Secular!

We're gearing up for Easter in my class and next week is a crazy week for us!

Monday is report-card day, so it's a half day, and we also will be enjoying a musical performance in the morning.
Tuesday is a normal day.
Wednesday is our normal staff meeting/early dismissal day for students.
Thursday is a normalish day.
Friday there is no school for Good Friday, and it's also the start of our Easter Break! One week off to relax with my husband and daughter!

To prep for the holidays we've done a couple of crafts.

Earlier this week we made these tape resist crosses inspired by Apples and ABC'S. They were SO simple to make!

My quick tutorial:

Use masking tape for best results (I bet painters tape would be even better!)
Teacher before class starts puts a cross down the centre of a sheet of white paper. We used plain copy paper, but you could use art paper instead for a sturdier paper. I may use card stock next year...
Show students how to use watercolour paint (we used pucks) to spread paint across their paper.
Direct to NOT remove tape until it is dry or else it WILL rip tear and form holes.
Once dry, CAREFULLY remove all tape to reveal a simple white cross.

Note: While I allowed my students to use whatever colours were on their trays, I used the following for these reasons:
Green: New Life
Purple: Royalty (Jesus was the King of Kings)
Yellow: Light (Jesus has no darkness in him, he is all light)
Red: Blood Shed

The white revealed by the tape being removed is his purity or sinless.

TODAY we made SPARKLE BUNNIES!
This was a hit, and SO EASY to make. You definitely need an extra helper when making these. Our LNC teacher offered to come in and help as she loves crafts.

My Quick Tutorial:

So Easy again!
Take a paint brush and paint the four fingers and palm of each students hand, but NOT the thumb.
Have students form the LIVE LONG AND PROSPER Vulcan hand salute. Most will need help.
Press their hand down on the purple paper and hold while they pull it back up.
Pour sparkles over top and pour excess off. (I do this step)
Tie a bow with ribbon and glue to neck of Bunny.
TaDa!

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Saturday, April 5, 2014

Book Doors!

Welcome Pinterest! Thanks for popping in to see these book doors.

I convinced the staff at our school to participate in National Reading Month this March, and so we all decorated our doors to represent a different book. Most teachers had students contribute to their doors.

Here are our finished products!

Grade 5: The Light-Fingered Gang