The Barefoot Teacher: literacy

Showing posts with label literacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literacy. Show all posts
Looking for Back to School activities?This Fly Swatter Game is a fun and fast paced way to practice letter ID, sounds, numbers, color words, and high frequency words! Over 450 flies to print and use. This is a game that will grow with students as they learn. You can use it all year long.
Looking for Back to School activities? Or just something to help you reinforce the basics?
 This Fly Swatter Game is a fun and fast paced way to practice letter ID, sounds, numbers, color words, and high frequency words! 

**This post contains affiliate links.**
You'll want to get some fun classroom fly swatters for this Fly Swatter game! 

And also choose which flies you want to use (letters, numbers, colors, sight words...) so that you can print them out, and even laminate them for added durability. Over 450 flies are available to print. 

You'll love to hear that this game can grow with students as they learn. That means you can use it all year long! And the flies are large in size so that all student can easily see them. 

To set this game up, tape or velcro dot the selected flies around the classroom or on the front board. Have your fly swatters nearby and ready. 

To play, call out a letter, sound, number, or sight word. Have students run up to swat the corresponding fly. It's a great way to informally assess where students are at and what they need to work a little more on. You can keep a notebook or post-its close by and jot down what you notice as students play. 
Students can play individually, helping each other review and learn. Or have them race against each other to see who swats the fly first. It's a fun and fast paced game. I guarantee your littles will cheer every time you pull it out to play.
To make sure these flies last a long time, I recommend to print them out on card stock and to laminate them. That way they won't get bent easily. I use my Scotch laminator and laminating pouches to make it quick and easy. 

Organize and store them in large Ziploc bags and put them in your file folder or drawer. 
Don't miss out on having the smartest, fastest fly-swatting students around!

Find it here: Fly Swatter Game

-Til next time
     
Looking for Back to School activities?This Fly Swatter Game is a fun and fast paced way to practice letter ID, sounds, numbers, color words, and high frequency words! Over 450 flies to print and use. This is a game that will grow with students as they learn. You can use it all year long.
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Nursery Rhymes poetry activities for kids
Today I want to show you how to reinforce high frequency words during your Nursery Rhymes unit by using Poetry Books. Nursery Rhymes are one of my favorite things to teach Preschool & Kindergarten littles. 

**This post contains affiliate links.** 

For each Nursery Rhyme I teach, I put up a poster that matches the poetry book page we're using (which I'm going to show you in just a bit). Before you know it, our wall is lined with all kinds of fun Nursery Rhymes that we've learned. I  print them on card stock and use your Scotch laminator (aren't they the best?!) to laminate them so that they stay in good shape throughout the year. Need more laminating pouches? Great deal HERE.


We also like to watch Cool School's Nursery Rhyme videos on YouTube. If you've never seen these before, then you just have to check them out! Seriously, stop everything you are doing and watch one right now! I promise you'll be entertained. The kids are usually giggling like crazy over these "silly videos."

Ok, let's get to those Poetry Books now. After I show you what they're all about, I'm going to give you a link to a FREE DOWNLOAD!

 Each time I teach a Nursery Rhyme, I focus on a specific high frequency word. And we collect all of the rhymes together in Poetry Books. We use spiral bound notebooks (but you can use composition books too!) and glue each of the pages in. You could also simply staple all the pages together prior to using them all, or you could even use the 3-prong folders (get the high gloss & laminated finish ones) & a 3-hole punch to add them into a folder Poetry Book.

Every time we learn a rhyme, I give each student a black/white version of the poster. But the one I give them is slightly different in that it has blank lines for writing in whatever high frequency word belongs with the rhyme that we are working on.
This FREE Nursery Rhymes poetry book printable will fit right in with the other activities and songs you are singing with your Preschool and Kindergarten students. Plus, it reinforces high frequency words as well!

Students write the word in every blank. Then we "butter" all of the words we wrote with our super fun Crayola Twistables. (If you want to make it scent-a-licious, use the Mr. Sketch twistable crayons!  The kids' favorite is always "Stinky Cheese," haha!

We also "butter" the word at the top right of the page. Then we practice reading it together a few times.
This FREE Nursery Rhymes poetry book printable will fit right in with the other activities and songs you are singing with your Preschool and Kindergarten students. Plus, it reinforces high frequency words as well!

Next, it's time to put our page into our Poetry Books! First we cut the solid line around the poem. Then we glue it in the next page of our notebook. 
This FREE Nursery Rhymes poetry book printable will fit right in with the other activities and songs you are singing with your Preschool and Kindergarten students. Plus, it reinforces high frequency words as well!

After that, it's practice time! Students read to themselves, to their friends, to a plant or class pet, and every so often they take the notebook home and read to their parents! 
This FREE Nursery Rhymes poetry book printable will fit right in with the other activities and songs you are singing with your Preschool and Kindergarten students. Plus, it reinforces high frequency words as well!

There are 27 Nursery Rhymes total included in this Nursery Rhymes Poetry Book resource. And in just a second I'm going to give you that FREE DOWNLOAD I mentioned earlier which will give you an opportunity to print out some of the nursery rhymes poetry book pages and try them out. Let me show you the various versions of each rhyme that are included. 

For each Nursery Rhyme, there are four printouts. Two are black/white student versions and two are colorful. Of those, one has lines to fill-in high frequency words and the other does not. 

Two sets of labels (2x4 layout) are also included for the outside of your notebook. And a cover/title page is included in case you'd rather have that to use. 

There are 27 Nursery Rhymes that you can print. 
Here is a list of them: 

Ok, now that you know how to use it, and you've seen how it's set up and what all is included, let's get you that FREE DOWNLOAD so that you can try it out! 
This FREE Nursery Rhymes poetry book printable will fit right in with the other activities and songs you are singing with your Preschool and Kindergarten students. Plus, it reinforces high frequency words as well! #nurseryrhymes #littlemissmuffet #poetry #freeprintable #kindergarten #sightwords #highfrequencywords
FREE Little Miss Muffet Poetry Book Pages
or get the 
FULL VERSION Nursery Rhymes Poetry Book Pages right now!

I'd love to hear what you think. 
Feel free to leave a comment below!

-Til next time
  

    



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Today I'd like to introduce my Word Family Accordion Friends with you.
They are super easy for students to make on their own and have proven to increase engagement as students can't seem to take their hands off of them once they are made!
Meet the Word Families Accordion Friends! They will fit right in with the other rhyming or word families activities and ideas you're doing with your Preschool, Kindergarten, or First Grade students. Proven to increase engagement, your students won't be able to take their hands off them once they are made!
Your littles are going to LOVE practicing word families with these stretchy friends, I promise! 

So let me show you how they work, how they are made, and how you can differentiate with them to best meet the needs of your littles. (18 different friends are included, not just the boy seen in the highlighted pictures. They do repeat...92 pages to print total.)

So we all know that not Kindergarteners are great cutters yet. With the Word Family Accordion Friends, THAT IS OK!
Your more advanced cutters can go ahead and manuver around all the grooves of the body and those who struggle with cutting can simply cut one straight line down the paper.
Meet the Word Families Accordion Friends! They will fit right in with the other rhyming or word families activities and ideas you're doing with your Preschool, Kindergarten, or First Grade students. Proven to increase engagement, your students won't be able to take their hands off them once they are made!

Each Word Family includes two different friends...one that has words pre-written on it and one that doesn't. This is so that you can offer a challenge to those who are ready for it. Meet the Word Families Accordion Friends! They will fit right in with the other rhyming or word families activities and ideas you're doing with your Preschool, Kindergarten, or First Grade students. Proven to increase engagement, your students won't be able to take their hands off them once they are made!
Let advanced students think up words on their own and write them in. Students who struggle with writing or who need more help understand word families can simply focus on the families and not have to worry about the writing part. And once they get it, offer them the same challenge as well! 

To turn these friends into accordions, you'll want to grab a handful of rulers.
Meet the Word Families Accordion Friends! They will fit right in with the other rhyming or word families activities and ideas you're doing with your Preschool, Kindergarten, or First Grade students. Proven to increase engagement, your students won't be able to take their hands off them once they are made!
 --Tell students to leave the line between the first two words unfolded. --
For the rest of the lines, show them how to make a 'perfect fold' by placing the ruler right at the line and bending the paper forward over it. (Some of your students won't need a ruler to fold.)
Flip the friend backward every other time you fold.

There are 38 Word Families to choose from.
Blank friends are included so that you can add your own.

A corresponding recording chart is also included so that you can keep track of the families your littles have mastered. A great way to show student progress and growth!

Once they are made, your students will not be able to put them down! There is just something about accordions that make you want to keep stretching them out and closing them over and over again. 

Students can 'quiz' each other by keeping the friend closed, seeing if they can say words from the family without looking, and then opening them to see how they did. 

You can find the Accordion Friends HERE. 
Meet the Word Families Accordion Friends! They will fit right in with the other rhyming or word families activities and ideas you're doing with your Preschool, Kindergarten, or First Grade students. Proven to increase engagement, your students won't be able to take their hands off them once they are made! #wordfamily #wordfamilies #rhyming #phonics #kindergarten #firstgrade #activities

Have fun!

-Til next time
              

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Are you ready for some football? Practice phonics, math, reading, and more with these fun football activities for kids. A free printable is included! It's a perfect pack for the other football ideas, crafts, and games you have planned for your Preschool, Kindergarten, or First grade students! #superbowl #football #activities #activitiesforkids #phonics #math #sports #freeprintable
Are you ready for some football??!! 
To be honest, I'm really not a football fan (Ah! Did I really just admit that out loud?!), but I know a lot of littles that are.
Let me show you some of the things that are in my Football Activities pack and then I'll give you a link for a Football Freebie!
First I want to show you this Subtracting Footballs Emergent Reader.
Each page asks students to figure out how many footballs are left after a specific number of them are 'kicked' away. You can have your students cross out the kicked-away number of footballs, or you can have them use the included football manipulative pieces to figure out each book page's answer. 

Besides the reader, the Activity Pack also includes practice in beginning and end sounds, short vowels, color word recognition, measurement (shortest, tallest), syllables, number recognition, & rhyming words. 
Here are some more of the included printouts...
This Football Color-By-Number FREEBIE is also included in the pack. 
 Your littles are going to absolutely love this activity! 
You can download this Football Color-By-Number absolutely FREE!

Have fun!!!

-Til next time
      

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I know Thanksgiving hasn't yet passed, but I wanted to get this out to you guys so that you will have a head start heading into December. I'm gonna keep it quick and to the point today.

I've bundled together every single one of my December resources. You read that correctly! Every. Single. One. Which means two things.... 1) You can have all the extra resources you need all in one download. 2) You can your precious hard-earned $$$ (and use it on a little something for yourself) by getting all of these together in one pack. 

So here's what I got for you.
I'm calling it the December Holidays MEGA Pack.
Looking for holiday activities? This December mega pack will go right along with the other crafts, games, and ideas you have planned for your preschool, kindergarten, or first grade kids. Includes math, phonics, literacy, and more! Includes gingerbread man, Christmas, Santa, nativity, polar express, and more! #christmas #polarexpress #gingerbread #gingerbreadman #winter #december #kindergarten #math #literacy #holidays
This MEGA pack comes with over 550 pages of printouts you can download and use with your littles this December. A variety of themes are included, such as Polar Express, Gingerbread Man, Nativity, Santa, Winter, Christmas Carols, & more. 
 There are all types of activities including emergent readers, Common Core aligned morning work, pocket chart pieces, high frequency word practice, pattern & number review, fun sheets, Color-By activities, vowel reinforcement, alphabet & handwriting practices, & so much more. 
You can find a very detailed description of all that's included HERE.  
Get it now so that you can spend some time browsing and deciding which activities you want to print after Thanksgiving. Make this December a stress-LESS one by staying ahead of the game. I promise, you'll be glad you did! 

Hang in there! And have a blessed Thanksgiving. 
-Til next time
     

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Help your Kindergarten students develop confidence in their reading comprehension abilities while learning about spring at the same time! This free download will go right along with the other Spring activities and crafts you have planned for your class. The strategies used with these worksheets will feel more like playing you are playing games with your student than it will reading!

Spring is in the air!
Ok, actually, for me it isn't. Not at all. It's March 13 and we are getting hit with a mini snow-storm right now. And that's AFTER I'd already packed up all the kids snow gear! (Should I add that it's been 50s-60s here and there before this snow came?!) Got to love good ol' Illinois weather! 

Now where was I? Oh yes, spring! I was sitting here yearning for spring. And technically, it is just around the corner...only 13 more days. So this snow had better melt fast!

So with spring in the air (for some people!), I'm going to show you one of my Non-Fiction Reading Comprehension Packs, the spring themed one. I'll show you what it entails, how I use it, and then I'll give you a FREE DOWNLOAD so that you can try it out! 
Help your Kindergarten students develop confidence in their reading comprehension abilities while learning about spring at the same time! This free download will go right along with the other Spring activities and crafts you have planned for your class. The strategies used with these worksheets will feel more like playing you are playing games with your student than it will reading!
Now you can help your littles develop confidence in their reading abilities while having fun and learning about spring at the same time!

I made these reading passages (with corresponding comprehension questions) with Kindergarten students in mind using the Flesch-Kincaid reading comprehension leveling formula. The passages range from .1 - 1.0 levels. 

The kid-friendly font that is used in these passages makes reading the text even easier. 

There are 10 passages included that teach students about the following topics:
-snails, bees, gardening, frogs, the sun, rain, chicks, birds, tulips, and kites

When I use these passages with my students, I introduce them by first asking what they know about the topic. This allows me to pulls as much back-ground information as I can so that I can base my direction and discussion around their prior knowledge.  

I've found that some of my students tend to instantly shut down when seeing so many words together in one passage like this, so we break it down before reading so that they can see that they actually already know many of the words that they'll be reading. 

First, we find out what the topic is about, and then highlight the topic word all throughout the passage with an orange crayon. 

Then, we go back through the passage (not yet fully reading it) and highlight with yellow any high frequency words that we can find. 

Finally, we notice that there is a word underlined, which probably means it's pretty important! So we highlight that one pink so that we can pay close attention to it. 


After we've fully read the passage, we move on to the comprehension questions. 
Sometimes I read these questions to the students, sometimes we read them together. If a student is able, I allow them to read the questions to me. 

Many times, the students can recall the information needed to answer the question without going back to the passage. But if they don't know the answer, I guide them back to the passage and together we look to see if we can find the area that might give us the answer. Then we fill in a dot next to that question so that later, when I'm recording their data, I can remember that they needed help answering that question. 

Here is what I record their data on: 

Currently, I have five different Non-Fiction Reading Comprehension Packs. You can get them all in one bundle if you're interested, which allows you to save some money compared to purchasing them individually.  
Help your Kindergarten students develop confidence in their reading comprehension abilities while learning about spring at the same time! This free download will go right along with the other Spring activities and crafts you have planned for your class. The strategies used with these worksheets will feel more like playing you are playing games with your student than it will reading!

Now - let's get you that FREE DOWNLOAD! I'm going to give you the Slippery Snail reading passage, with its corresponding reading comprehension questions so that you can try them out with your students. Don't forget to leave a rating after downloading, it's important to me to hear what you think!
Help your Kindergarten students develop confidence in their reading comprehension abilities while learning about spring at the same time! This free download will go right along with the other Spring activities and crafts you have planned for your class. The strategies used with these worksheets will feel more like playing you are playing games with your student than it will reading!

Click here to get it:
Spring Themed Non-Fiction Reading Comprehension FREE DOWNLOAD
Don't forget to leave a rating - I love feedback!

-Til next time
     

Help your Kindergarten students develop confidence in their reading comprehension abilities while learning about spring at the same time! This free download will go right along with the other Spring activities and crafts you have planned for your class. The strategies used with these worksheets will feel more like playing you are playing games with your student than it will reading!


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Happy New Year! 
Let's get the New Year started with a FREEBIE!

These daily math, literacy, and writing activity sheets were made, with the common core standards in mind, to be independent practice sheets for students to do as morning work, homework, at a center, or for use in any other way you would see fit!
If you like it, you might be interested in the full pack, which includes enough pages for the entire month of January! Each week follows the same format so that students can work independently after the first day of instruction.

This resource is also available in a Common Curriculum Everyday Bundle.

Hoping 2016 brings amazing things your way!
-Til next time
         

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Happy New Year!
Did you make a resolution? I did - My goal is to blog more often this year. In fact, I already have a ton of exciting things already in the works! 

Well, as it's almost time for school to start back, I wanted to share this New Years activity pack with you. 
It's packed full of tons of New Years fun!
Here's what's included:
-New Years Emergent Reader 
with Resolutions Writing Prompt
-2 Beginning Sound Activity Pages
-2 Short Vowels Activity Pages
-2 End Sounds Activity Pages
-County by 2s
-2 Rhyming Sounds Pages
-Measuring (Tallest)
-Color Words Activity
-Missing Numbers
-Syllable Practice
-3 Piece Cut/Paste Puzzles
-Tens Frames Practice
What's YOUR New Years resolution? I'd love to hear it!

-Til next time
       

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Eeeeeek!
They are here!


I have been waiting for 8 business days to get this package, lol! 
Want to see what's inside? Take a peek...


What is this you ask? 
Why, it's my newest line of teacher resources!

I am so incredibly excited to announce 
(drum roll please!)...
my Story Telling Magnet Sets!

I am starting this new product out small, 
with just one theme of Cinderella. 

But don't worry, I already have other themes 
made and ready to go...I'm just waiting a bit longer to release them.

Where did this idea come from you might ask?
I'm not sure really! 

I was sitting around adoring my favorite Melonheadz graphics when I starting thinking about how cute they would be to play with on the fridge. 

Next thing I knew, I was daydreaming about how much fun my own kids would have building magnetic scenes...if only there was a way to do this.  Then, (since I am a teacher you know!) 
I started brainstorming ways that I could tie an activity like that into my own classroom. 

Before long, I was on the computer...
making, creating, researching, and ordering! 

Fancy up a cover page and now here they are...
 all ready for your own kids or students to enjoy!
 Check it out here!

And the best part about it is that I paired it with my Cinderella themed bundle of math & literacy activities. You can get it all! Something to download now, and something to receive in the mail later...simple as that!

Purchase of this magnetic set includes the themed magnets, a corresponding sentence recording activity, and 10 math/literacy activities to download. 

It's 170+ pages for your kiddos to enjoy!

Let me also mention, these magnets are WATERPROOF! 
Yup, thought that out ahead of time...
Snotty nose? No problem! 
Spilled drink? Easy to wipe off!
The Cinderella graphics are full vivid color on a smooth, waterproof, vinyl magnet. 
You can use them on your refrigerator, magnetic whiteboard, cookie sheets, filing cabinet, or any other magnetic surface. 
Once your kids are done building a scene, have them practice building sentences with the 48 included magnetic words. Capitalized words and punctuation marks are also included. 
After creating a few sentences they like, they can record it on the corresponding activity sheet. 

Use these for story re-telling, sequencing, verbal communication, visual literacy, narration, and more! Perfect for your Cinderella or fairy tale themed literacy centers.

Become a follower to watch for more magnetic sentence building themes to come in the near future!



~Til next time
         

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