This week has been crazy!  I even missed my favorite linky on Friday.  My daughter fractured her foot and the cast came off on Wednesday.  She was put in a walking boot for two weeks.  At about 4:30 on Friday, she changed out of her school uniform and felt a pop.  We ended up at the emergency after hour doctor's office, only to find that they believe there is another fracture on a different bone!!!  WHAT???  We go back to the orthopedic doctor on Monday. 

Besides using names, I love using environmental print with kindergarten students to help practice letters and sounds!

This is a FANTASTIC resource from Jennifer at Herding Kats in Kindergarten.  If you click on the picture it will take you to the blog posting where you can download it! 

Right now we are using it as a book, but pretty soon, we will be using the cards as well, especially when we start sorting by beginning sounds. 

Here is my newest freebie (Sight Word Matching Game) plus another Flash Freebie for Fall! Until 8pm CST.

I got a little fall decorating done this week...I was inspired by Cara Caroll's post last weekend!

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 Based on assessment results, we have quite a few students that are struggling with phonemic awareness.  I like the PAST (Phonemic Awareness Skills Test) to assess students phonological awareness.  I feel like it is a pretty easy assessment to give, and it pinpoints where student are struggling.

During school-wide intervention time, in grades K-1, when teachers are teaching phonemic awareness, they are focusing on the following skills:

• concept of spoken words (clapping for each word in a sentence)
• rhyming
• beginning sounds
• segmenting onset and rhyme
• segmenting words
• changing words based on initial sounds
• changing words based on ending sounds
• blending words

One of my "go to" resources is always  the FCCR.  I have found so many different ways to use their ideas!  In the picture below, each student has a bag of words, and they get to "point" to the word that rhymes with the word I say.  The students love getting to use the "pointer"!  That has been a GREAT Dollar Store find :)

Another resource I like is Phonemic Awareness: Playing with Sounds to Strengthen Beginning Reading Skills.  Not only are there TONS of ideas that can easily be used without making copies.  This sound bag idea is from the book.  I also like sending bags home, and letting students bring in objects from home. 

Today until 7pm CST, my 30 Day Phonemic Awareness will be free until 2pm CST and my Phonics/Phonemic Awareness Bundle will be on sale half off!

 

Giveaway Winners...

Winners will be contacted by email!

Lori, Glorea, and Terri each won a $10 Teachers Pay Teacher's Gift Card.

Storie, Suzanne, and Cindy each won any three items from my TPT store.

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1.  I'm almost better, but I am exhausted!!!  I wish I had a magic wand (or a fairy godmother) to clean, cook, and be a chauffeur.

2.  I've been helping screen students with the Quick Phonics Assessment. It is really a good tool to help pinpoint phonics difficulties in older students.  We have LOTS of new students in grades 3-5, and this assessment has helped me so much in terms of making sure they receive the correct intervention.  It came with the Benchmark Phonics Spiral Up kit.  We use this kit to help supplement some phonics instruction during intervention, but we don't rely on it as our only intervention.

3. I need a good book to read!!!  Any suggestions?

4.  My son came home from school this week with a book he made about needs and wants.  My favorite page was the following:
Something I need is...love
Something I want is.... a melen dolores.

5.  We are hoping to have our school wide "walk to intervention" up and running by October 1.
Every grade level has a 30 minute time block where students are either working on reading skills (and applying these skills) or reading enrichment. Most grade levels are able to have 3-4 extra support staff helping during this time, which helps makes the groups smaller.  It has been a truly collaborative effort to get this started!  I'm super excited because this is in addition to guided reading and reading intervention. 

Don't forget to enter my fall giveaway!

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Happy Tuesday!  It is a rainy, Tuesday morning, and this quote just makes me smile :)

To celebrate my Facebook page, there will be flash freebies every night this week (from approx. 5pm CST to 8pm CST)!

 

Don't forget to enter the Fall Giveaway :) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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I'm not sure if I could put anymore in one blog post!!!

I started a Facebook Page. It is under construction...I'm going to see if I can get this to work!!!! Once my grad class starts up, in October, I'll be updating my flash freebies on Facebook!!!! I'm hoping it is much quicker, and will save me some time.  If you click on the link below, it will take you to my facebook page :)

Please "like" my facebook page to keep up with flash freebies.

Vowels

Something I've noticed looking at first grade data, is that some students are still struggling with their vowels, and that makes blending words VERY hard!

This poster by Katie King at Queen of the First Grade Jungle is a great reminder of the short vowel sounds.   It can be printed 4 on a page, and each student can have their own personal copy at guided reading an on their desk :)

To help with vowels, this is free today!!  It can be used in workstations, but it can also be used as a "Mix and Match" Kagan activity to get students up and moving.  Half of the students either have the vowel card or the word card, while the other students have the pictures....Students trade cards while music is playing.  When the music stops, they must find their match. 

Click here for my Sunday Flash Freebie!!!

I also love this catchy vowel video :)

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I have not done a giveaway in forever!!!  I thought since it will be fall in another week, it was a great reason for a giveaway :)

This giveaway includes three $10 Teachers Pay Teacher's Gift Certificates and three people can choose any three items from my store!
The adorable owls and frame are from Tracee Orman and the cute background paper is from Ashley Hughes! 
a Rafflecopter giveaway
The giveaway will end next Saturday (9/21 at 11pm).

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1.  I hate being sick....Last year I was uber healthy....the year before I was sick for a month (but only missed one day).  I also am not a great patient, and I don't like medicine....I caved in and went to the doctor.  Good thing, I had an ear infection and sinus infection.  My ear felt better, but I kept getting worse (fever at night) and developed this yucky cough and really couldn't breathe.  They were afraid I had pneumonia, but I don't.  So I'm doing breathing treatments every 4 hours and am on steroids :(

2.  Color Run.  I signed up almost 6 months ago :(  There is no way I can do it.  There will be another"happiest 5k on the planet" for me to run in the future! 

3.  Rainbow Loom...We got one at Michaels this week, and my daughter loves making them!!!  I wish I was an inventor, and I could invent something like this :)  Everyone in my family is sporting one :)  Mine is purple, black and white- for my favorite college team!

4.  Jeans.  I was at Sam's Club (our Sam's Club makes the BEST cakes that I don't eat).  My husband is celebrating a major birthday....but on the way to the bakery, I was distracted by these jeans!  I LOVE jeans with bling, and they were an awesome price....BUT I'M SHORT!  The last time I got blingy jeans altered (to match the stitching at the bottom) it was expensive!  By the time I pay for alterations.... not a good deal.  They need to sell petite blingy jeans at Sam's Club!!!  If you like jeans with bling, and are not short, Sam's Club might be the place for you (who knew????)!

5.  My post isn't very schoolish.  I've been working on data walls, bookroom, conferencing with teachers, and planning phonics, phonemic awareness, and fluency interventions.  I've been working on blog posts for them.  I decided every Sunday will be my "content" post, and Friday's will be my fun post :)
I have environmental print, phonics, phonemic awareness, graphic novels, and author studies lined up!

Flash Freebie: Today until 5 pm (CST) the following will be free. 

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Two races in 2 days (and it is HOT) wasn't really the best idea!!!

I love sight word cards because they are so versatile.   Not only can students play matching games, but they can make words out of wiki sticks, play dough, shaving cream, and magnetic letters. 

Students can also use the word cards and highlight words they find in magazines and newspapers or cut out letters from newspapers and magazines to build words.  This product is free in my store :) 

I picked sight words that look alike:  the, they, there, that, went, want, very, every, etc.

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1.  One of my friends is a personal trainer, and she put this on her Facebook page.  Even though she was talking about working out, I think it can apply to teaching!  This can be hard if you are a perfectionist, but unless you try, it is never going to happen!

2.  This was one of the stations in kindergarten.  I was so impressed with just after 2 weeks of practice, they were doing an amazing job staying focused on their task!  The sand wasn't on the floor, they weren't throwing sand, eating sand, or having too much fun!!!  It almost looks like the little guy drew a heart below the letter :)

3.  I have 3 races in the next 7 days!  I'm excited, but I think I'm going to make time for nap, since they all start EARLY!!! What was I thinking signing up for an (3) early morning races in the first few weeks of school????

4.  Our school is doing "walk to intervention."  This means each grade level will have 30 minutes where students are grouped based on skills (or enrichment) that they need.  I just met with our awesome 2nd grade team to plan our first three weeks of intervention.  I felt like we did a fantastic job...we didn't just look at numbers, but we were doing error analysis to help determine why students were struggling :) 

5.  I just started doing running record training with some teachers.  I always make it a point to give 1 praise and 1 "thing to work on" when I do a running record.  I also try and ask a question about why a student self-corrected (if they did) to get them thinking about what their brain thinks about when they are reading.  I'm a huge fan of running records!!!

Flash Freebie until 7:30 pm!

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I love participating in this linky!

I loved how this month there was a heart for "love yourself"  :)  I tend to let school consume my entire life...I need to STOP doing that!!!!  Easier said than done!  I also feel like I'm on a roll with my running program I've been doing, and I don't want to stop :)  I try to run on Monday's, Wednesdays, and Fridays and then I do the elliptical a few other days. 

This item will be free today until 5pm (CST).  We've been using in first grade at my school and the teachers really like it!

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I've been working on our bookroom since we moved it in June.  It still isn't 100% complete...I'm now working on building genre bins (mysteries, historical fiction, biographies, author studies, and more!).  I'm happy with it :)  Since I don't have a classroom, I will share my bookroom photos :)

We have lots of Mondo books, national geographic and trade books.  When I went to a bookroom PD a couple weeks ago, I learned that fiction and nonfiction books should be separated.  Just when I thought I was close to being done, I had a new project!

I try and put all the books in ziplock bags, so teachers just grab a bag (this is still in progress).

Here is a before picture.

This is an after picture :)

These are the crates with trade books.  Since I had a "hodge podge" of crates, I was able to make every level have the same colored crates.  The labels I used for the crates are in my TPT store.

These are the fiction Mondo books.  Each level has their own bin. The nonfiction section looks the same, except the label says "nonfiction."

I've ordered quite a few books for an author study...they will go in the magazine holders.  My goal is to get 15-20 primary authors and 10-15 intermediate authors.

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