Read the Room – Word Wall Word Explosion!

Materials:  Students will need a clipboard, a pencil, and a post-it for each of your words of the week.  

Procedure:  1.  Invite students to write each word of the week on a post-it.  If you have three words of the week, let’s say the, it, and he, then each child will write the on the first post-it, it on the second post-it, and he on the third post-it.  Coach the students who need support with letter formation as they write.

2.  Give students about 30 seconds to walk around the room and hide their post-its.  Yes, you will have perhaps 75 post-its all over your tables, walls, and furniture!  

3.  Call the kids back to the rug and invite them to get their reading fingers (their index or pointer fingers) ready to read the words all around the room.  

4.  Send the kids off to “seek.”  Tell them to look for post-its with the words of the week and when they find one, they should walk up to it, tap their reading finger under it (preferably under the first letter), and read it out loud.  Then leave the post-it for the next person to read.  Tell them to look for as many post-its as possible.  

You can do this activity for a few minutes.  Listen to the students as they practice.  Encourage the students to point under the first letter as they read.  To make this activity more multilevel, a few children may need to carry a clipboard with the words on it already and match the words around the room to the words on the clipboard.    

Popcorn Words – High Frequency Words

1.  The teacher makes the word with magnetic letters and ask the kids to read it.

2.  Children make the word and read it as they write it in the upper left hand corner of their boards.  Then erase.

3.  Children repeat the writing of the word in the upper right hand corner, in the bottom left corner, in the bottom right corner, and in the middle; reading it each time as they write it and after they write it.

4.  In the end, you can invite children to write it little at the center of the board, and then write it big.  Prompt them again to say the word as they write it and then read it after they write it.

Predictable Chart: Spiders on the Floor

Read the book.  Sing the song numerous times.  The popcorn word, on, is the high-frequency word this week.  We are reinforcing the high-frequency word or popcorn word, the, also.

Each picture on the white picture cards represents an item in the classroom that the children can physically move to and place the spider on.  The children were confusing the words ‘in’ and ‘on’ before this awesome lesson.

The teacher allows the child to pick a picture card (face up, picture showing).  The child reads the sentence strip and the child places the picture card into the pocket card.  The student reads the sentence strip including the picture card.  Then the child put “the spider on the bookcase.”  Finally, the students says the sentence again.

Do you know this word?

This site has tons of sight word support for kinder and first grade.  Any teacher who is trying to reinforce high-frequency words will appreciate this writing.  http://mrskilburnkiddos.wordpress.com/reading/sight-words/

I like chant and writing ideas

To introduce students to writing about what they like, many teachers introduce students to an idea chart.  The students and teacher generate a list of things or items they like.  This scaffolds writing.

High-Frequency Words

 

We are going in to the hallway. 

I am Mrs. Bradford (the teacher). 

my books

We have no squishy writing. 

No wearing hats in schools.

We like snack.  (This is the place where the teacher keeps the snacks.)

This is the calendar. 

Students learn the high-frequency words because they learn to attach meaning to the words.

Jan Thomas books

A kindergarten teacher who is also a great friend of mine, recommended this book to me.  She is using this book this week in her classroom this week with her students.  It will  reinforce the high-frequency word, on.  On keeps popping up in the book, What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas. 

http://www.amazon.com/What-Will-Fat-Cat-Sit/dp/0152060510/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232562806&sr=1-1

She wrote A Birthday for Cow!.    Her newest book is The Doghouse. 

The books have predictable text so they are popular with young readers and kindergarten teachers.  The humor helps too.

Apple Happy poem and book

Students make a book of their own after they have read the poem numerous times.

Students read the poem with the teacher numerous times. The teacher adds the clip art to the chart with the students so that it truly assists the students. This teacher quickly laminates it during lunch or gym so the chart can be read during ‘read the room’ or other times that are appropriate for the classroom. The students are learning numerous words on the chart.

Predictable Chart Day 5 Humpty Dumpty

When students enter, the predictable chart pages are ready to go. Their pages are at their seats.

At the beginning on the year, the students have a matching sentence printed on the paper, but this sentence is gone by October for most students. (This sentence is not the Humpty Dumpty sentence by the way.)

Teacher models exactly what the children will do at their seats. This is your sentence. You will cut it into words. Teacher shows students. Teacher makes a big picture on the paper. This book is successful if the teacher models.

This teacher has the book already put together with sheet protectors. The book is simply waiting for the pages to be added by the children. After the children make their page, it is quickly added to the book. The teacher reads the book on day 5 to the children. There is no waiting. (This is not the Humpty Dumpty sentence by the way.)

Predictable Chart Day 4 Humpty Dumpty

Cut Up Sentences – Whole Group and Small Group

1. Write 2-4 sentences from the chart on sentence strips.

2. Show one sentence strip to the students.

3. Have the child who said the sentence come to the front of the room and read his/her sentence to the class. The child points to the words as (s)he reads from the chart.

4. Teacher cuts up the sentence into words in front of the class. Is this a space or a word? Should I cut here? I cut on the space (not the word). The child who belongs to the sentence gets each word.

5. No, don’t cut on the word only cut on the space.

6. The child passes each word to a helper (Child keeps own name).

7a. Small group variation: The children recreate the sentence. All the students read the sentence. The children make a sentence, then raise their hands. An adult comes to the small group. The group of children reads the sentence to the adult. The adult hands another set of of words for the children to make into a sentence.

7b. Large group: A small group of children builds the sentence in front of the rest of the larger group of students. Everyone reads the sentence.

8. Student makes sentence in pocket chart. Student takes words home and makes sentence for parent. Teacher keeps track of who has a turn. Every child’s sentence is eventually used so everyone eventually has a turn taking their sentence home.