CVC Word Family Booklets...perfect for back to school!

Are you ready for the new school year yet? 

It's almost time for some of us!

If you are ready to start planning, then you may want to check out these brand new CVC Word Family Booklets!

Teaching word families is a year long journey, and these books are more than ready to take that journey with you!

I'm all about hands on learning, but, you also need to have plenty of printables, as well. That's where these books will really come in handy!

There are 24 different books, one for just about every short vowel word family. And, each book comes with a whopping 16 DIFFERENT fun and engaging activities. 

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 reading and writing sentences, and some may not.

Children LOVE to make books! If you're a book maker, like me, then you'd use the covers. The one shown below is an example from the -at family. You can also treat these pages like any other printable, and not make books. It's totally up to you!

So, let's say you decide to assemble books...

Just print the cover and any of the 16 DIFFERENT activities for the word family you are teaching. I print 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 the activities included for each of the 24 books.

Configuration Station

Students write the words in the correct boxes.

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.

Fill it In

Students fill in the missing letters of the words.

Find and Highlight

Students highlight the words in each row that are spelled correctly.

Word Family Houses

Students write the words to match the pictures, plus one bonus word on the lines. Then, they write the words in the house.

Spin and Color

On the lines, students write the words for the pictures in the spinner. Then, they use the color code to color in the words that are already written in each gumball.

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.

Color, Write, and Highlight

Students color the picture, trace the word, write the word, and highlight the letters that form the word.

ABC Order

Students write the words in ABC order.

Read, Draw, and Write

Students read the words on the book, draw a picture of each word, and then use each word in a sentence.

Sentence Match

Students read each pair of sentences and put a check mark next to the sentence that describes the picture. Then, they write that sentence on the line.

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

I created 16 different activities for each word family because I wanted to be sure to have enough choices for those who need more practice. Also, you can use some for morning work, some for station work, some for independent work, some for small group instruction, some for homework, etc. 

I am super excited about these word family booklets and I hope you are too!

Click here or on the image below to see them in my store!

Early Literacy Practice Pages

Do you have students who need help with some early literacy skills? Or students who have mastered most of the skills, but have some difficulty following directions, so they often answer questions wrong, even though they understand the concept?

I do! I do!

I needed a way for them to practice general readiness, phonemic awareness, phonics, and structural analysis skills, so they would feel more confident when taking tests and learn to analyze directions so they didn't get questions wrong because they weren't paying attention to the key words in the questions.

So, I came up with these early literacy practice pages.

I've been using them in small groups and they are really helping students to think about what the questions are asking and to look at each answer choice carefully. Many of them contain answer choices that are similar and look correct.

Here are all the skills included...

Most of the skills contain 2 different activity sheets, and there are some that contain more. Blends has 3 different sheets, mixed review has 4, and word families has 5 different sheets.

Here is an example of one of the sheets. See how some of the wrong answers look like they could be right, if you don't pay close attention to the question?

  

This one is all about rhyming. I came up with quite a few different ways to test the children's understanding of rhyming.

When I complete a sheet with an individual or small group, we go very slowly. I help the children read the questions and identify the pictures with them. These sheets were not created for children to complete independently. So many teachable moments would be missed!

Once an answer has been chosen, we discuss why it is the right (or wrong) answer. It is very interesting, and very telling, to hear the children explain why they chose an answer. It is during this conversation that children usually figure out if they chose the wrong answer. I tell them that they fell for my trickery and to be super careful not to let that happen. They love the challenge!

Answer keys are included for teachers to refer to. I highly suggest using it because it will tell you what each picture depicts, just in case you can't figure it out on your own.

If you are looking for a great way to help students who have difficulty with a few or many early literacy skills, or students who don't read or listen to directions very well, then you may want to check these out. You can find them by clicking here or on the image below.

CVC Word Family Mats...a GREAT Independent Activity!

Once your young learners know their letter sounds, it is time to introduce CVC words. And it is so exciting watching them when they realize that they can read!

These CVC word family mats were created with our youngest learners in mind. They want fun. They want to play games. You want them to be engaged and challenged. You want them to work independently.

If you want all of the above, then check these out!

There are a total of 39 CVC word family mats.





Each mat contains six words for the children to read and write.

Here is an example from version 1. This version contains six words that are all from the same word family.

First, the children read the words.

Then, they find the matching pictures and place them over each word.

Once all of the words are covered, they write the words on the lines, hopefully, without peeking. But, if they get stuck, they can peek at the word.

When they are finished writing the words, they can use the answer key to check their work. 

Here is an example from version 2. All six words contain the same vowel, but are from different word families.

And, here is an example from version 3, which contains a mix of all CVC word families on each mat.

These mats are perfect for independent work time, station work, working with a partner, interventions, and reading groups.

Just prep them once and they will last a long, long time.

If you're like me, you like having plenty of hands-on learning activities for your children to utilize every single day. Since these mats are differentiated, you will be able to meet the needs of all your students.

Just click on the image below to see these mats in my store!

Pocket Chart Station

This week, I added a new station in my classroom for kindergarten and first grade. The Pocket Chart Station! It was a huge hit! And it's really easy to set up and, the best part of all - I don't have to make copies, or collect work to grade! It's a win/win!

This week, my first graders are working on long a. At the pocket chart station, I have some long a word family header cards and lots and lots of word cards for the children to sort.

I am so sorry about the quality of these photos! There was a terrible glare and I couldn't seem to get rid of it. I don't have any pics of the children sorting the cards because I was conducting reading groups at the same time. After the children sorted the cards, they practiced writing the words on white boards. I am not using recording sheets because I want the pocket chart station to be a place where the children work collaboratively to read, sort, match, etc. I also didn't add pictures to the words (except for the compound word pack) for two reasons. First, I want the children to focus on actually reading the words, not matching them to pictures. And, second, I was able to add tons and tons of cards for each phonics skill because I didn't have to worry about finding pictures to match the words. 

The cards you see above come from my new Pocket Chart Activities series. 

This is the long vowels edition.

All the popular long vowel word families are in this pack. Just print, laminate, cut out, and use the cards all year long. I put mine in labeled baggies and I store them in a plastic container.

I also made a contraction edition because contractions are not something you teach once and forget about. I feel that it is important for the children to practice contractions all year long. I love knowing I have an entire collection of (cute) contraction cards to use whenever I need them.

There is also a blends and digraphs edition.

I bought a blends/digraphs pocket chart set at my local teacher store and was so disappointed that not all the blends and digraphs were included. No worries here! I included all digraphs, l-blends, r-blends, and s-blends. And since I didn't include a clip art image of each word, I was able to include tons of words. Students can sort blends and digraphs all year long. 

And, finally, here is the word families edition for kindergarten.

We've been working on sorting short a word families.

The children sorted the cards and then wrote some of them on white boards. This set includes all the word families known to man. Again, I bagged them and store them in a container for quick and easy access. No more hunting for cards. 

Now I have a very comprehensive system for teaching CVC words/word families. You can find most of what I use here. There is a good mix of whole group activities, small group activities, worksheets, games, and more!

And, last, but not least, I made a set of compound word cards for the pocket chart too. This is another skill that needs to be taught all year long. Since there are 111 compound word cards, they can easily be used all year long.

And I'm not done creating pocket chart activities! I have a few more editions up my sleeve. Can you think of any you'd like to see? Leave me a comment with any suggestions you have! Thanks!

CVC and Word Families!

I love a good sale! Don't you?

This Monday and Tuesday, TpT is having their annual Cyber Monday (and Tuesday) sale!

Just use the promo code: CYBER when you check out.

This sale is a good opportunity for all of us to stock up on activities we'll need for the next few weeks (and months!)

My kindergartners are diving head first into CVC words and word families. I just finished updating my Ultimate CVC Pack. I've added more CVC puzzles and more CVC mats and changed a few other things here and there. If you already own it or different parts of this pack, please go and download it again. If you don't already own it, now is a great time to purchase it. The bundle pack is already discounted 30% and with the Cyber sale, you save even more!

Here are some images of what is included...

This pack is a must have for every kindergarten and first grade teacher. Everything you need is in one pack! And the activities are simple, fun, and engaging and don't take much prep time at all. Just the way I like it!

Here are some other CVC / Word Family activities you may find helpful for this time of the year...

CVCe Word Searches

Kindergarten Literacy Skills Little Books

CVC Rhymes I Have...Who Has?

Short Vowel Go Fish Games

Write the Room...Sentence Editing {Kindergarten Edition}

My Little Books Word Family Edition

Roll, Say, Keep...Word Families Edition

Let's Build Words {Kindergarten Word Families Edition}

Happy shopping!