Word Detectives

Word Detectives Activity Sheet
 

Hello fellow educators and all others who view my blog. It has been a while since my last post and I do apologize. Today I would like to share ‘Word Detectives’ with you.

This activity and worksheet was designed to facilitate Word Work and it can be used at all levels. As teachers we need to ensure that students are able to recognize sight words and phonic rules they have learnt in materials they are currently reading. In addition, it also sets a purpose for reading for some students.

 

 

The book selected for this particular activity was linked to our Science topic- Seasons. In addition, the book was initially introduced to the students during our Read Aloud. The students enjoyed the story and were eager to have it as part of their Shared Reading and Individual Reading.

As word detectives, students look for words with specific attributes, for example : the long a sound, beginning with the letter s, words with ee within the text. They are then asked to say the words.

The students enjoyed the activty as they carefully completed the task.

Please note: Teachers can change the clues students are to look for with each worksheet. In addition,

teachers can provide students with a magnifying glass or spectacles with their lens removed so students can use when looking for words to match their clues.

 

 

 

 

Hope you are inspired!!

Focus on Phonics- Gas Up The Sounds!!

Hello again, yes it has been a while since my last post, so Happy New Year too. This year has started off great and I have lots to share with you.


This chart ‘Gas Up the Sounds’ was created a while back, however, I never got the chance to share it.

Gas Up The Sounds Chart

As a Second Year teacher I needed an interactive chart to help my struggling readers with letter recognition and letter sounds, blending and segmenting activities, in addition to fostering their word building.

This chart did take a lot of time to create since I was trying to link it to my ‘Car Racing’classroom theme. I eventually came up with the title and then the graphic. The chart is located in a central area so that it can be easily utilized. The letter cards are laminated to ensure durability as students manipulate them during their activity.

 

Here is the chart next to a Word Families Chart, to help students with their word building

 

As a Second Year teacher, I value the use of this chart in my classroom since it facilitates and fosters students' reading and writing.

Hope you are inspired!!

 

Alphabet Collage- Trinidad and Tobago Sporting Heroes

Hello everyone, it has been a while since I last shared with you. However, my post tonight was also done for the school's Open Day I mentioned in my last post.

As indicated before, my second year class was charged with presenting the area of Sports in Trinidad and Tobago for our Open Day. In putting together the class presentation, I wanted to do an alphabet chart, depicting our sporting heroes.

I firstly, went about identifying men and women in sports whose names( either first or last), started with the corresponding alphabet letter sound and not simply the letter. For example, with the letter b, I selected Bovell and not Brian, because Bovell has the initial /b/ sound, while the initial sound in Brian is the consonant blend /br/.
There was one exception, with the letter t, where I used Thompson, which starts with /th/.

I was able to identify 21 sporting icons whose names could be used.

After this first step, I assigned persons to each student and the students were asked to bring in pictures of the identified sporting icons.

It was then my job, to present this on an alphabet chart. This proved to be a problem, because the dimensions of the pictures I requested would not allow all the pictures to fit on one chart.

As such, with the Open Day fast approaching I decided to create an Alphabet Collage. Each picture of  the sporting heroes was glued to an individual piece of bristol board and their name written. These individual boards were then carefully placed on red bulletin board paper.

My students were very happy to see the 'Alphabet Collage' with the pictures that they brought in.

Hope You are Inspired!!!

Our Olympic Family Tree

Hi everyone, I am so anxious to share with you.
 Over the past few weeks my students and I were preparing for our school Open Day- 'Building a Nation Together'- Nationhood. The second year class focused on the area of Sports.

Firstly, we linked one item to our Social Studies topic 'Family'. Previously, each student constructed a picture of their family tree for our Social Studies activities.

Therefore, I decided that we would construct an 'Olympic Family Tree'.

Then they began to work on the tree on which the pictures would be placed.

Students were asked to bring pictures of the athletes who represented us at the 2012 Olympic Games. 

 

My students enjoyed this experience greatly.

 

My classroom Word Wall

My Classroom Word Wall

In keeping with my classroom theme- 'Car Racing' here is a picture of the Word Wall in my classroom. I used pictures of a Starter's Flag on a black backgrounnd. This Word Wall really pops and my students do enjoy using it.

There's an Alligator Under my Bed!!

Hi everyone, I am very happy to share with you what my second year students are doing. Last week, I read the book, 'There's an Alligator Under my Bed' by Mercer Mayer.

I used this text to demonstrate to my students the comprehension strategy: making connections. I modelled text-to-self connections with the text and was able to make some authentic connections.
At this point I am only modelling making connections to my students, they will start making their own connections in future lessons.

However, they did get to complete some activities which were related to the book.

In the first activity, my students thought about what they felt would be under their bed and they did some lovely drawings to show this.

In the picture on the left, the student felt a snake would be under his bed, while the student on the right felt an ocelot was under his bed.

                                                  Schema- What I Know!!!

Students were asked to show what schema they have about alligators. This students effectively completed an alligator with sharp teeth and a picture of a long green tail.

                                                     Alligator Paper Craft

I am sorry the pictures have not been rotated, but I was getting some trouble in rotating them.
I do hope that you enjoy looking at the paper alligators my students and I made.

Hope you are inspired!!!

Students' Awesome Pictures- Days of the Week

Hey guys, yes it has been a long time since I my last blog. The new term has started and boy I am soooo busy organizing my classroom. However, on the first day of school I read 'Today Is Monday' by Eric Carle to my second year students.

I selected this book, because of the repetitive language and bold pictures. My students really enjoyed this book. Since only seven students came on the first day I asked them to select a day from the text and draw the picture they saw. They did such a wonderful job that I felt I must share it with you.

I stuck their pictures onto blue construction paper and wrote the days of week and the food the animal ate. These are now posted in the classroom.