CVC Words

Blending is such a difficult concept for some students to master.   I have found that many students are lacking in the phonological skill so before blending CVC words, I always make sure students have mastered that concept first.  We begin our year with a lot of blending practice without letters, just so students are hearing the sounds that make the word. During this time, we use sound boxes as move the chips or other objects for each of the sounds that we hear.  Once this is mastered, we move on to blending letters to make words.  I try and use many different approaches to teach this skill to try and reach all learners.

When we first start blending in my classroom, we begin with picture flashcards.  The picture gives the students a bit of a support to help with the sounds.  When I teach blending I teach the students to slide one sound into another.... They hold on to the first sound until they get to the second sound making it sound more like a word instead of sounds in isolation.  I found that this makes it so much easier for them to hear the word that they are blending.

We begin whole group blending once we have learned our first 5 letters (m, a, p, s and t). Usually most students are confident with these letter sounds within a couple so we begin blending without the support of pictures, using only these letters at first.  We use those letters to start making simple short a words (map, tap, sat, Sam, Pam, etc) As a whole group activity, we use large letter cards and make CVC words as a group.

We practice making words whole group for several weeks, giving students time with this new concepts.   I assess my students to see who "gets it" and who needs additional support.  Usually after the word week or so I will as a quick assessment I will give the students an exit ticket where they read the word and circle the picture to match.   They are still reading to word but have a bit of picture support to help.

I am then given quick information of students who are catching on to the concept and those who may need more support.  (You can find these CVC Word Exit Tickets Here:  CVC Word Exit Tickets

Although I know at this point that most students are not fluently decoding words, I know they have the knowledge and skills to read CVC words and at this point, only need practice.
For students who are still unable to blending sounds to read CVC words, we then move into small group blending.  I begin with the letters apart and students are able physically move the letters, moving one sound to the next, while holding onto that sound.

We do the same thing with pool noodle letters, which are such a fun way in the classroom to practice blending sounds that my students love.  
They work really well on the table. I start with the sounds spread apart.

 They slide the first sound into the second, holding the sound until they get to the new one.

And then slide those sounds into the last sound.

I will usually do this activity with a small group and then let the students practice blending the sounds individually.  My students love it since it is so hands on and fun for them and it has helped them so much blending CVC words since they are so engaged!

Individually, I have my students work with magnetic letters in small group to practice blending.  I give my students several letters, they make the word and slide their finger on the arrow as they blend the sounds.   I begin focusing on one vowel at a time and we make words with that vowel and a few consonants.  It is so easy for them to swap out a sound to make a new work. 

Another fun (and literally hands on) practice that we did was with these gloves.  I made them by cutting the fingers off a glove.  We then line the letters up in alphabetical order so we can find them quickly.  Students can slip the letters on their fingers and blend the word. 

Once they become more proficient, I love using these simple notecard books to flip through different CVC words.  I made it by cutting a notecard book into 3 sections.  I wrote consonants in the first space, vowels in the middle and a consonant at the end.  It is so easy flipping through the book, making new words and giving students the opportunity to decode words. This works as a great reading or skill group warm up, exposing students to so many different real and nonsense words.

Blending is such a skill that takes so much practice.  I also made these CVC word mats, for my students to practice this skill individually in a center or as a quick warm up with me. Depending on my child's abilities, for some students, I will give them the cards and have them turn the mat over first.  This way, they do not have the visual support of the pictures when reading.  They read through the cards one by one.  This is a great activity to have them do with partners.  They then turn the mat over and read the cards and match them to the picture.  If I know that a students may need more support, I allow them to have the picture mat showing when initially reading the CVC word cards. 

These CVC mats are available in my TPT store.  Since many teachers teach blending words focusing on one vowel at a time, included are 2 different mats for each of the vowels in isolation and then 5 mats with a mix of all vowels.  This provides students plenty of opportunities to practice blending words.  I will often assess a students and see that they may need practice with only one vowel, and then I can quickly pull out a CVC mat focusing on that vowel to provide that student with practice. 

I will often just pull the cards and have my students play a game of quiz quiz trade using the words only.  To play this game, each students is given a card.  They find a partner, "quiz them," asking them to read the word, read their partner's word and then trade cards.  It is a great game because it gets your students moving and they are able to offer each other support if needed.  

You can check out these CVC words mats in my TPT store here: CVC Word Match Mats

As the year progresses, my students continue practicing this skill and applying this knowledge in their reading.

What other ways do you use to teach students to decode and encode words in your classroom?

Exit Tickets In Kindergarten

Exit tickets or quick checks are my absolutely FAVORITE way to assess my students even in a kindergarten classroom!  They are so quick and simple to use and I am able to gain so much information from them to guide my teaching!

We use them frequently so my students are very familiar with the routine.  In our classroom we call them our "secret learning tickets."  My students know that they are used to help us learn so it is important that they keep their answers to themselves.  

We use them frequently so my students are very familiar with the routine.  In our classroom we call them our "secret learning tickets."  My students know that they are used to help us learn so it is important that they keep their answers to themselves.  

Currently we are working on subtraction so I wanted to share how we use them in my classroom.  Each student receives the question.  I know in the older grades, the students can copy the question from a board but since I teach kindergarten, I have found that it is easier just to have my questions prepped for the students.  I give each student their "secret learning ticket." 
The students quickly answer the question and then flip their paper over and write their name on the back.  I always have them write their name on the back because I do share their answers and I don't want to embarrass any of the students.  Once all of the students have answered the question, I quickly collect the exit tickets.  Depending on time, we may go through them as a group and sort by the correct and the incorrect answer or I may quickly do this on my own. 

I then have a pile of correct answers

and incorrect answers 

I have created an environment where it is okay to make mistakes and the students have their names on the back so I use these tickets as a quick teaching opportunity. 
I learned of this strategy from a gifted course that I had taken years ago where we watched this video (PS Amazing teacher!!) 

 
She is a middle school teacher but I loved this strategy so much that I had to bring it to kindergarten! I search through the incorrect answer to find "my favorite no".... my favorite wrong answer that I can use to guide the students learning. I absolutely love this strategy.  I look for an answer that the students did do something right but need a little more to guide their learning.   For this subtraction lesson, "my favorite no" that I shared with students was this particular exit ticket. The student had showed the subtraction problem but did not answer the question. 

I share this ticket with my class under our document camera so as a group we analyze the problem together.  The students find something that the student did right and what they can do better next time to help them get the right answer.  I lead the discussion but the ideas come from my students.  For this lesson the students shared how we like how the student put the cross out mark on the objects to show that we are taking away but next time, we would like them to count how many are left.  

At times, you may notice that there are too many student who just didn't "get it," then you know that to reteach the lesson.  If the majority of students understand the concept I am able to move on with my teaching and just pull small groups for more support.   

I have found this quick and simple formative assessment to be so beneficial to me as a teacher and I know it is helpful to my students as well.   

You can click on the image below to check out my kindergarten addition and subtraction exit tickets in my TPT store that are easy to print and use as a quick formative assessment in your kindergarten classroom.  It includes a variety of skill levels focusing on both addition and subtraction with and without pictures.  

You can also find a bundle of printable kindergarten exit tickets year long bundle focusing on both math and ELA in my TPT store 

Addition Fun

I am very into hands on learning, especially for math.   When teaching addition, I think it is so important to use counters and other manipulatives to solve addition problems, making it concrete learning.  I teach ELL students and I am very into sentence frames so we learned "___ and ___ is _____"   

We picked cards from the pocket chart, represented those numbers using felt shapes and solved the addition problem.   The number cards that we use also have pictures so we were able to check our answer by counting objects on our cards and using our fingers. 
We continued using our sentence frame and learned to represent the numbers by drawing pictures.  I had students pick a handful of cubes.  They made a tower with those cubes and then broke their tower apart leaving some cubes in their left hand and some cubes in their right hand.  Students then traced their hands and the cubes and wrote their sentence frame to match. 

Almost every student came up with a different number sentence and I was so pleased with how it turned out.

We used our monkey math manipulates to practice putting numbers together.  I have used this for years and it is always a favorite by my students.  It is really a balance...  Students pick two sets of bananas, the group of bananas show that amount of bananas and the number.  

They students count how many all together and balance that number on the other side.  

 It is like magic for my students!!!  I purchased this Monkey Math at Lakeshore but I was able to find a link on Amazon.  You can check it out below. 

Monkey Math 

Once students had a grasp on putting groups together, I introduced the addition symbol.  I LOVE this video from Harry's Kindergarten to teach the addition symbol

We starting using pictures to solve addition problems.  I LOVE exit tickets and checking for understanding after each lesson so I am able to know if I can move on.  

  
We made an anchor chart explaining the concept of addition.  I love keeping anchor charts up while teaching the concept and referring during lessons as a visual for students and to reinforce our learning. 

Students practiced using the addition symbol using counters and tens frames.  

The equations that we used were color coded so we used double sided counters and students put that many of each color on the tens frame to solve the equation.   You can grab this freebie by clicking on the link below:

Tens Frame Addition Equations

We did another addition check for understanding, this time the students have to solve an addition problem without any support.  These were so helpful because I was able to quickly scan through them and pull a group that I would have to support more.  

 

We then solved paper and pencil addition problem and the students were so successful.  We used these mini books with only one problem per page, allowing them to focus on that one problem without getting overwhelmed. The students drew pictures under each number and cut and paste the answer to solve each problem.

These addition mini books are available in my TPT store which you can check out by clicking on the image below. There are several mini books included in the packet including using tens frames, pictures, number lines, tallies and creating number sentences to match pictures. 

You can also check out the exit tickets that I used by clicking on the image below... They are bundled with other OA standards in this packet.  They have been so helpful to guide instruction in my classroom.

 
Once my students really understood addition, as a center activity, we used dice with dice inside (which my studnets LOVE)  to practice addition.  

The recording sheet is a freebie from Kim Dominak's TPT store, which you can find my clicking on the link below. 

Differentiated Dice Printable

   

I hope that you find some new ideas that you are able to start using in your classroom!!

Kindergarten Sight Word Activities

I really believe in play in the classroom to enhance learning.    I try to make learning fun for my students, yet still challenge them.    I love teaching sight words because there are so many fun ways to teach them that the students love!  I wanted to share a few of our favorites. 

Sensory Tubs
This was my first year trying out a sensory tub in the classroom and I am completely hooked!  For this center, I added letters to the sensory bin for the student to make sight words with.  I tried to make it a little more challenging for them so I color coded each word, so students found letters of the same color and tried to make a word from them.  

Sight Word Hangman
My students are OBSESSED with this and beg to play it.  I found this adorable Melissa & Doug hangman at Michael's but its also available on Amazon or the students can simply make their own template Travel Hangman (Affiliate Link)

Differentiated Dice
These dice are one of my favorite and I use them for so many different things.   When using them with sight words, it is so easy to differentiate.  You can easily differentiate based on how many words you are using.  Based on where the students are at, you may only use two sight words (with each word showing 3 times), for others you can have up to 6 words.  For one of our sight word activities using these dice we sit in a circle and a student rolls the dice. We go around the circle to spell the word. 

For example if we rolled here, the next student in the circle would say h, the student next to them e, the next student r and the last student e and then we read the word as a group one more time.  The next student in the circle then gets a turn to roll the dice.  My students love this game and it is so simple!!  You can find these dice here: Differentiated Cubes (Affiliate Link)

Sight Word Printables
Sometimes I think students also need something paper and pencil to practice as well.  I created these printables to practice sight words. They give the students many different opportunities to practice the word by exposing them to the word in a variety of ways.  Students trace the sight word, rainbow write it, read it to a friend have have them sign their paper, identify vowels and consonants in the word, write it, clap it and identify how many syllables, find it among other words and find it in a sentence. 

It can be done whole group or as a center activity.  The fun part about this sheet is that it can be kept as a word sheet or students can turn it into a little book.  To do this, they simply cut the rectangles and staple at the top.  It has worked out so well for me.  Students who are quick finishers are able to make them into a mini book, while students who take a little more time just keep it as a worksheet.  

 You can check them out at my TPT store by clicking the links below:

 Sight Word Mini Books

over 130 sight words are included in this packet!

 

Or you can check them out for free here first:

Sight Word Mini Books Sample

Sight Word Spinners
This is a fun and kindergarten friendly way to get your students reading sight words.  It is so easy to differentiate as well by having different word lists available for students.  Students spin a top and read the word that it lands on.  This is a great warm up activity for skill groups or as a center.  
I keep the word list and top in a cookie tin for classroom management so it stays contained during the activity.  

Guess My Sorting Rule
This is another fun game that I love playing with my students.  This game is so great to really get your students to use higher level thinking skills. To play this game, I use a pocket chart and have sight words sorted some way.
I choose all different ways to sort them.
I may sort by beginning sound...

or by the numbers of letters in the word. 

Sometimes I will sort by words that rhyme or words that have/ do not have a specific letter.  Students then decide how I sorted.  I usually then have a few more words that we will add and decide where they belong.  

Games

What kindergartener doesn't love playing games.  This is a simple sight word game that I play with my students.  Students choose a card, read the word and move that many spaces on the game board.  We play it in the classroom, but I also send it home with students so they can practice at home too.  We prep everything in the classroom, practice playing and then they have this activity to play at their house too.

This game is editable and is a freebie available in my TPT store.  You can check it out by clicking on the image or link below.

Sight Word Make and Take Freebie

  Sight Word Musical Chairs
This is another fun way to get your students moving.  I place sight words on chairs.  I do small groups of around 6 chairs and have 4 groups in my class.  We just turn our chairs around at our table groups so it is so easy!!  I love doing it this way because it is more manageable for me and I am able to differentiate.  If several students are all working on one word, I make sure to include that word in their group so I can really target the students learning.  
Students all carry a crayon with them and when the music stops, the students stop, they trace the sight word and then read it to the person next to them.  This gets the students reading and writing their sight words.  

Sight Word Towers
This is a center that I had to implement in my classroom.  We did a tower challenge on the 100th Day of School and my students we begging to play it over and over again so I had to make it into a center.  For this activity, we begin with all cups stacked.  Students pick the top cup, read it and then stack it in a tower.  If they are unable to read it, I have taught my students to "coach," or give them a clue to help them read it.  My students LOVE playing this game and have so much fun practicing sight words while playing. 

 
Morning Messages
These are another way to not only practice sight words, but if your students are making errors in their writing to help point out common errors.   Each day I write a message on our board with errors in the spelling of sight words and sentence convention mistakes.  I may forget spaces between my words, leave a capital letter in the middle of a word or begin with a lowercase letter.  Students first share with a partner a mistake that they see and tell why... This way, every student has an answer if they get called on to share.  As a group, I then call on students to fix the errors.  While they are fixing the errors, as a group we will spell that word in some fun type of way.... we might cheer out the word, write it on a friends back, or spell it in a monster voice.  They love it and it is another great way to practice words that we are learning.  

Sight Word Bowling
This will for sure be a classroom favorite and was so simple to create.  I was able to find these bowling pins at a dollar store.  I added flash cards and boom we have an instant center.  Students bowled and then read the words they knocked down.  My students absolutely LOVE this center.  I also have a clipboard at this center and students write down the words that they bowl giving them more practice with the words.  

Magnetic Boards
These little magnetic boards are another fun and enaging way for your students to practice writing their sight words.  It is important that students can not only read but also write the words since these skills are so closely related.  I picked up these boards at Dollar Tree and they were such a big hit in my classroom.

Word Stairs
These are another very easy way to practice writing sight word.  One of my students favorites is sight word stairs.  Students create stairs by writing the word one letter at a time.  If students are working on a particular list they can write all of these words in "word stairs."

I love this activity because students are paying close attention to the letters in the word.  

Roll and Read
This is another great sight word activity for reviewing several words at a time. 

Students play with a partner, so they do have support and accountability from a peer.  I love how easily it is to differentiate by just giving students different words.  I grabbed this copy free on TPT from The Reading Bungalow!  I have included the link below. 

Roll A Sight Word EDITABLE!!! {Freebie} 

Wordle
This is a free and amazing website and one of my favorites.  You can type in a word list and it will make a collage of the words.  You are able to play with the colors and fonts of the website.  
I print several different versions since it is great for students to see the words in different fonts.  Students can then search for their sight words.  I keep them in sheet protectors and the students circle the words with dry erase markers.  

I hope that you were able to find some new ideas for teaching sight words in your classroom!! I would love to hear any fun ways that you teach sight words in your classroom!!