Another Reading Idea~

I have a classroom set of magnetic letters and these little containers from IKEA
so I wrote two words on each lid then placed the letters inside to make the words~

 I hung them on the side of this awesome rolling cart from IKEA as well.
In each basket on the cart, I placed materials I would need to read aloud
as well as read with each child sometime during the day~

 I don't really stress 'word work', but I do think if you put a fun activity out for them to choose,
it is very likely they will learn while they are 'playing'~

The boys are reading their sight words everywhere, and they are so excited about it,
the little girls are becoming interested as well!!!
Win win!!!

Another Reading Activity~

One of the things I want the kids to do when reading is 'own' their sight words...

being about to read them in any text or in their environment.

In the past I have had them make little books each week with the new words.

I changed it up a little with the boys~

Are you getting lots of toy catalogs almost every day?

Yes, we are too so I gave each one a section 

and they were to choose four thingsthey 'liked' to cut out. 

I wrote their words in pencil and a line for the toy.

They glued and traced the words then touched to read.

It is in their journals and can be read anytime they choose to do so.

Reading for the Boys~

EK is pretty much an independent reader although loves for me to listen.

SJ is a good reader too and comprehends better if I'm sitting with her for narration afterwards.

One day last week the boys said, "We want to read too!"

Okay then... Let's do it!

I pulled out the same set of emergent readers I used with EK and SJ

along with some word work and started guided reading with them~

{First words were a, and}

I read the text to them and had them read back (echo) to me

then we built the words with the letters.

That was all for the first day and I caught them reading that book all afternoon!

This week we added a few things to our routine...

~smaller pocketchart of words

~word work caddy

build the word with clothespins

~word work cards

The boys chose books at Target that highlighted their super hero costumes

so I took their enthusiasm and had them use small see through disks

and while looking through their book, they covered a sight word if they found it!

We called it Sight Word Treasure~

{They loved helping each other!}

 Will loved moving his disk along the text (left to right!) looking for his words.

 While scrolling through FB this weekend, I found these awesome FREE emergent readers

and printed for our reading time~

 I had them read with me first, then read alone, and finally knee to knee for brother reading.

{Evie was sure to be in on the action for sure}

With only a couple of words right now, it is hard to play many of the sight word games I know so...

I made up a new one for them~

 Roll and Read:

I wrote the two words we know on a die.

I set my timer on my phone for 1 minute.

They took turns rolling and reading then grabbing a color disk.

When the timer went off, they counted their disks.

I specifically chose to let them beat the CLOCK and not each other

and on the second turn, they tried to beat their own record.

There was still some comparing between the two but I just chalked that up to

a little math thrown in for good measure!!!

GREAT Reading Boys!!! So proud of you!!!

Word Work {the fun way}~

The day began with two more desks being added to our school room (thanks Gwen!) and guess who claimed them?~

 The boys had turns too but weren't as impressed as the girls. :)

Now to the Word Work...

My sil, Amy made her kids a magnetic area using a huge oil pan from Walmart so Scott bought us one for our school room. He was able to hang it on the back of a shelf and the kids were thrilled to begin work on it today. SJ was first... she had three new words in her guided reading book so we took them to our 'Smart Board'!~

 I wrote the word for her to read, she wrote the words next, and then built them with mag letters... one hand to write and one to erase!

Next it was EK's turn. We haven't spent much time this year formally teaching/learning spelling other than editing in writing or work in her Explode the Code books but today I started Spelling Workout~

  Because the book cost about $15 and I will eventually use with SJ too, I just put a page protector over the pages she worked on so she could use a dry erase marker to work. She cleaned after we completed each page. I also do this with our math pages as well... saves money from buying more books and making copies. The lesson today had a word list so I sent EK to the Smart Board for a little pop quiz. I called the words and she wrote them on the board~

Then I had her write rhyming words beside each one. She made all the words with mag letters and cleaned once done. COOL that we can write on the board with dry erase markers and it comes off super easy!

All this time while working with the girls, the boys were working away with their ABC and numeral work~

   {Evie... having fun!}

After EK, it was time for the boys to get their Word Work on and what would be their favorite words??? Their names~

 They loved working on the board and did awesome!

I'm pretty sure this Smart Board is going to get a great workout... thank you Amy for the great idea!!!