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Friday, December 29, 2017

Sight Word Sentences

Looking for fun and engaging ways for your students to learn and practice their sight words on a daily basis?

And practice writing proper sentences?

And practice grammar skills?

And practice letter formation and spacing?

And practice handwriting?

If you answered yes to all of the above, then look no further!




These sight word sentence writing sheets include 151 different sight words. You'll find the Primer, Pre-Primer, and First Hundred Fry Words, and words included in most sight word programs in kindergarten.

These sheets were created to help young learners gain confidence in writing proper sentences, while practicing their sight words. They contain just the right amount of support for beginning writers to be successful.


Students read the title and use the title as a sentence starter to write four sentences. Each sentence should use the highlighted sight word. Students use the words in the illustrated word bank in their sentences.


If you take advantage of teachable moments, such as using a/an correctly, subject/verb agreement, discussing the various parts of speech, and proper use of punctuation, you can REALLY MAXIMIZE LEARNING!

Once you have modeled how to complete a few of these sentence writing sheets, students should be able to complete them independently. It's so hard to find activities that young learners can complete on their own. Not anymore!

These are great for morning work, centers, assessments, interventions, homework, substitute teachers, and more!

You can try a free sheet by clicking on the image below and downloading the preview. 


In addition to completing these sight word activity sheets, students can also build these sentences in a pocket chart.




The same sight words and sentences are included in this resource. Instead of writing the sentences, students build them in a pocket chart. They read the sentences six times, each time using a different picture/word card.

Once you move to a new lesson, keep the cards from previous lessons available for students to assemble. Since they are all numbered, it will be easy to keep them organized.

By combining these two resources, you will REALLY MAXIMIZE LEARNING! Students will gain so much confidence and knowledge as they read and write sentences every day.

Even if you don't formally teach all of the 148 sight words included in these resources, you can still keep the sheets and pocket charts available for those students who are ready and able to learn more. We all have those high flyers who crave learning as much as they can, right?

If you'd like to see these two resources in my store, just click on these links:

Sight Word Sentence Writing Activity Sheets

Sight Word Pocket Chart Cards

You can also purchase both in a MONEY SAVING BUNDLE!
Click here or on the image below.



Saturday, October 21, 2017

Help Your Students Get fit4Schools!


It's no secret that healthy students make better learners, and healthy learners start with healthy choices. In a perfect world, all of our students would be living a healthy lifestyle, taught to them by the adults that help shape their lives. However, the reality is, many adults struggle with making healthy lifestyle choices and we often pass this struggle on to our children.

Thankfully, there is a FREE health activation program from Sanford Health, called fit4Schools, developed in collaboration with WebMD. fit4Schools empowers children and families to do the simple things each day that make healthy lifestyle choices a habit.

 fit4Schools makes it super easy and fun to educate and encourage students to sleep better, eat better, move more, and make healthy choices every day. 

Sounds like a dream come true, right?

Are you ready to learn more about how you can easily incorporate fit4Schools into your teaching day? I'm talking 5-10 minutes a day! That's all it takes to change the lives of your students for the better! You can fit it in during a transition, as part of your required PE time, right at the beginning of the day to get your students motivated to learn, at the end of the day, before you say goodbye, or, perhaps little spurts throughout the school day would work best for you.


What is fit4Schools?

As I mentioned above, fit4Schools is a FREE program. fit4Schools resources and programs are aligned with national standards, provide activities to boost students' energy, and include weekly challenges. The fit4Schools system of resources and programs provide school programs, childcare training, mobile apps, websites, and more.

What are the Four Key Factors of Healthy Living?


fit4Schools programs and resources build the awareness that RECHARGE and MOOD influence FOOD and MOVE choices, that activate healthy lifestyle choices. 

Confused? Don't be. 

This essentially means that our feelings and attitudes (MOOD) and our level of sleep and relaxation (RECHARGE) directly impacts what and how much we eat (FOOD) and how much we exercise and keep active (MOVE).

Fun and Easy Ways to Use fit Today!

I'm sure by now you are wondering how you can easily incorporate fit activities in your classroom.


Click the above link to see the daily tip page.


Click the above link to see the lesson topics.


Click the above link to see the fitBoost activities.

fitBoost is one of the easiest and most fun elements to incorporate in the classroom. It provides an interactive way for you to include an activity break in your class. We all know that fidgety kids have trouble focusing. Brain breaks are a MUST throughout the day! With fitBoost, you don't have to think of your own ways to get your students moving.

This is what the fitBoost page looks like. Once you click on it to begin, it looks like a slot machine, scrolling quickly through tons of exciting ways to warm-up, move, and cool down. The activities are randomly selected. You can choose to use the one minute timer or not. The activities are fun, quick, and motivating.

Here's a warm-up example...


Here's an example of a fun way to move...
I turned the timer off for this one. 
If left on, it counts down for one minute,
as it does with the warm-up and cool down.


And here's an example of a cool down.


Three minutes! That's it! 
And in those three minutes, your students will discover how much fun getting fit can be, and they will want to do more and more activities at home and with their friends, making getting and staying fit a habit and not a chore.

Now that you are familiar with fit4Schools, I hope you're excited to explore it on your own and start incorporating the activities and programs in your class today. Register for a free account here and start showing your students how much fun it is to live a fit and healthy lifestyle!

The 2017-2018 fit Commit Sweepstakes
But wait! There's one more thing!
fit4Schools wants to provide teachers with free resources to inspire students to make healthy choices. This sweeps is open to all currently employed full or part time educators in an accredited public or private K-12 school in the United States. 

Enter to win one of these fabulous prizes..

The Rainy Day Kit Includes:
-A giant tower game
-A physical activity BINGO set
-Clever Catch™ activity balls
-A set of fitBoost cards
-Plus loads of other indoor get-moving games and activities including hula hoops, a dance CD, beach balls and more!

The Get Moving for PE Kit includes:
-6 SST™ Scooters
-24 ACTION™ ToppleTubes™
-A huge parachute
-A set of fitBoost cards
-Plus all the balls, Frisbees, jump ropes and more to make your PE class awesome.

The Classroom Active Seating Kit includes:
-3 ergoErgo chairs
-6 BALLance™ stability balls
-A Yze standing desk
-A set of fitBoost cards and Brain Breaks activities

The 16 winners will get to select the prize of their choice.
All prizes are valued at $650.00!



This is a paid post sponsored by WeAreTeachers and fit4Schools
However, all opinions are 100% my own.

Friday, October 13, 2017

FREE Hunting for Nouns Word Search

I created something that I know my students will absolutely love. They adore word searches, so I made some grammar related ones.  I made five common noun, five action verb, and five adjective word searches. These are no ordinary word searches! Students read 10 sentences, find and underline the correct part of speech, and then hunt for them in the word search.


I encourage you to teach the children about the different types of nouns and verbs so they understand why some words may look like the right answers, but aren't. For example, students will not be finding proper nouns, pronouns, or linking verbs.

Students can use the answer keys to check their own work.

I made a FREEBIE for all my loyal followers. If you download the preview, you'll find a FREE noun word search. I hope you and your students enjoy it. If you do, please come back here and let me know. 



Click here  and download the preview to get the FREE word search! 
Enjoy!

This blog post was originally posted in 2012.
Since I updated the resource, I updated the blog post, as well.

Monday, September 4, 2017

Sight Word Booklets Aligned to Journeys

Teaching sight words has always been a favorite of mine.
I believe in a healthy combination of hands-on, open-ended activities and printables.

Journeys introduces 6 words a week at the beginning of the year, and then switches to 8 words a week. It's super important for the children to practice their new words daily. Reviewing previously taught words is also important.

These 30 sight word books, aligned to first grade Journeys, makes planning for sight word practice super easy! Each book comes with a total of 13 DIFFERENT fun and engaging activities to choose from.

The activities range in level of difficulty, making it very easy for you to differentiate learning. Some students may be ready for the challenge of putting words in ABC order, or writing sentences, and some may not.

Although I included a cover for you to make books, you actually don't have to use it. You can treat these activity sheets like any other printable and not make books. It's totally up to you!

So, let's say you're like me, and you want to assemble books...

Just print the cover and any of the 13 DIFFERENT activities for each lesson. I suggest printing them front to back to save paper. Then, staple the books and hand them out. It's that simple!
Let's take a peek at all of the activities included...

Configuration Station
Students write the words in the correct boxes.

Make a Sentence
Students combine the two sight words and write a sentence.

ABC Order
Students write the words in ABC order.

Break the Code
Students use the code to figure out the words. 
Then, they write the words on the lines.

Word Search
Students find and highlight the words in the word search.

Unscramble Me
Students unscramble the words and write them on the lines.

Word Fluency
Students color in the words and then read them five times.

Read it, Rainbow Write it, Write it Fancy

Students write the words using different colors and fancy writing.

What's Your Word Worth?
Students find the worth of each word, using the scrabble tiles. Then, they write the word(s) that are worth the most and the least.

What's Missing
Students fill in the boxes with a sight word.

Fill it In
Students fill in the missing letters of the words.

Find and Highlight
Students highlight the sight words in each row that are spelled correctly.

Roll and Write
Students roll the dice and write the words for the numbers they roll. Then, they write which words they rolled the most and the least.

As you can see, the activities vary in difficulty. There are plenty of choices for every single learner in your classroom.

I created 13 different activities for each lesson because I feel it's important to have enough choices for those who need more practice. Also, you can use them during different times of the day. Morning work, station work, independent work, small group instruction, RTI, homework...etc.

And, what's also great, is you can use activities from an earlier lesson if you have students who need extra practice, while you're on a later lesson. 

Right now, I have completed Units 1-2, which is Lessons 1-10. All of the other units will be completed by September 25. However, I wanted to add this resource to my store now, so you can start using the books immediately.

So, by purchasing this resource now, you will save a lot of money!
40% to be exact!

As I add each unit, the price will go up.


Don't wait!

I know you and your students will love it!

Click here to grab this growing bundle of sight word goodness!


Do you teach kindergarten?
Good news!
I created similar books that align to Journeys!

Click here to see Sight Word Books Aligned to Kindergarten Journeys!

The cover is the same...


And so are these activities...











These two activities are different from the first grade version...


Spin and Color
Students write the sight words on the lines. Then, they spin the spinner, and use the color code to color in the words that are already written on each gumball.
 Read, Write, and Draw
Students read the words on the books, write sentences using the words, and then illustrate their sentences.
Right now, I have completed lessons 1-17. All of the other lessons will be completed by October 14. However, like the first grade edition, I wanted to add this resource to my store now, so you can start using the books immediately.


If you want to save 50%, I suggest you purchase this resource now, before the price goes up!

Click here to grab this growing bundle!

Saturday, August 12, 2017

Reading Comprehension

I'm sure everyone will agree with me that you can never have enough interesting, engaging, and challenging reading comprehension resources for our students. We need to support our readers, by...

-teaching decoding skills
-helping to build fluency
-building and activating background knowledge
-teaching vocabulary words
-motivating all readers
-and engaging them in discussion

I love to create reading resources that accomplish all of the above.
That's why I'm so excited to show you this new resource, which also has a phonics focus, so learning is maximized!



These 40 stories will surely engage and challenge students!
First, they read a short story.
Next, they highlight the silent e words.
Then, they answer three comprehension questions, which will help them develop the ability to find the evidence in the text.
And, finally, they write three of the silent e words from the page.

There are two different versions included.
The first version has multiple choice questions.

The second version is a bit more challenging.
Students read the questions and write in their answers.

Some of your students may not be ready for writing their own responses and some may. Having two versions makes it easy for you to differentiate instruction.


These comprehension stories are perfect for small group instruction. This is the perfect time to help students become good readers by teaching them how to use the strategies of monitoring, predicting, inferring, questioning, connecting, summarizing, visualizing, and organizing. In the beginning, the children will need a lot of support, but, gradually, with practice, they will become more confident, knowledgeable, and capable.

Eventually, for many students, these stories can also be used as morning work, center work, independent work, and homework.

To further maximize learning, you can use this pocket chart activity.


It contains the same stories as the comprehension pages. Students read the stories and match the picture to the story. This is a great center activity and students will definitely enjoy matching the pictures. An optional recording sheet is included, where students copy one of the stories and illustrate it. You can use this as handwriting practice.

Want to try these out in your classroom?
I included two free sheets in the preview.


To get them, just click here and download the preview.
If you love them, then you can check out the full pack...

Click here to see just the reading comprehension stories.



Click here to see just the pocket chart stories.



Click here to see a money saving bundle of both!



Scholastic Teacher Book Wizard