Thanksgiving Fun!

I started writing this post last week, and then the week got crazy and I forgot all about it!

Here are a few fun things that I have done in my Kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms over the years.

This is a FAVORITE in our classroom! It’s a super fun way to practice those tricky sight words! Click on the image to download for FREE!

I LOVE to read these books during the week of Thanksgiving! The kids enjoy them too!

I’ve made up some basic comprehension questions to go along with them for our readers notebooks.  You can download them if you think you can use them.

Here is another game that we played in Kindergarten.  I’ll play it again this year, but the children will draw 2 cards and add them together.  Click on the image to download for FREE!

The following pictures are centers that I did in Kindergarten.  I LOVE these centers and so do the kiddos!

Turkeys in disguise is one of my all time favorite Thanksgiving projects! My families really did a great job with this activity and the children are so excited to share and talk about their creations!

If you’re interested in any of these center packs head on over to my TpT store! Grab the FREE downloads while you are there too!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Phonics Fun! CVC Words

When I was teaching Kindergarten, I spent most of the year teaching CVC words.  Now that I am teaching first grade I spend about the first quarter of the year teaching and reviewing CVC words.  When the children are more secure on their CVC skills, we move on to blends, then digraphs, and finally vowel teams. 

I use Words Their Way to differentiate my Word Study groups, and within these groups I have kiddos working on beginning sound sorts all the way up to more complicated long vowel words. 

I still, however, need to teach the grade level content.  I don’t spend a lot of time during whole group teaching this content, but I will throw it into work stations and during our small group teaching time. 

These are some of the resources that I use:

I use the activities in this bundle not only for Intervention, but for guided reading activities, center activities, and whole group lessons.

One of my favorite activities for whole group are using the CVC sliders:

The number of sliders included in each kit varies, but there are more than enough to practice each vowel sound.  The children can’t get enough of these!

I have bundled these sliders in a separate set if you’re only interested in these, but they are included in the CVC kits.

I love playing card games in small groups – learning is so much more natural and fun when we can actually have FUN!  After we have played each game numerous times, I will put it in a center for the children to play with partners.  Each set has practice for hearing the individual phonemes (and blending), independent practice, and fun card games!

*I wish I had real pictures of these products in action, but they are all on my old computer, and I haven’t been able to get them off! I hope that you can use your imagination! 

I have also included some fun board games to practice hearing and blending sounds together.  Again, we play these in our group time and then move it to a center for more practice!

We also practice hearing onsets and rimes with a different type of slider!  There are sliders included for each word family and a recording sheet for independent practice.

There is also plenty of independent practice!

When I taught Kindergarten, I used these throughout the entire year – in first grade, I use these more at the beginning of the year to make sure there is a solid foundation of CVC words before adding blends and digraphs.  (Next project!)

Another activity we love to do whole group is called CVC Bang! I project it on my IWB and the kids LOVE it!

You can download this game for free {HERE}

During workstation time, my kiddos have a variety of centers to choose from based on the skill that we are working on for the week. 

These stations are a set that I made this year.  I wanted the children to have some practice with our weekly phonics focus, but I wanted to work smarter, not harder!  The activities stay the same each week, but the skill changes.  They LOVE these stations, and are SO engaged!!

We also will spend some time building words the old fashioned way! With letter cards and mats! We do this activity as a whole group on the first day that I introduce the phonics skill.  The children have a box of letter cards (the red box in this picture) that have only the cards needed to build with.  I call out words, and the children build the words on their mats.  I am able to glance around quickly and see who can do it, and who will need more time in groups practicing the weekly skills.

On day 2, we work with white boards and practice writing the words.  Day 3, we read some phonics books that focus on the weekly skill.  We will first read them whole group, and then partner read.  On Day 4 we take the same letter cards that we used on Monday and work with a partner to write as many words as we can with the phonics focus.  On day 5, we take a short 5 words assessment – just to progress monitor.

Phonics is such a foundational skill that we spend a LOT of time in whole group, small groups, partners, and 1:1 to make sure they grasp this skill!

Do you have a favorite way to practice CVC words?  Leave a comment and share with the community!