Rhyming with Cat In The Hat!

 Dr Seuss's birthday is around the corner and I am so excited to share rhyming sheets based on his popular book, 'Cat In The Hat". He was an American writer and illustrator who has penned over 60 popular children's book and I personally adore his work in 'Cat In The Hat', 'Wacky Wednesday' and 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'

The kids always get hooked on to his books because of their rhyming nature. And as educators, we all know that  rhyming is such an essential skill for emergent readers.Read my posts on RHYMING to know more.

And my newest pack will help to develop that indispensable rhyming skill in children in a fun way.

There are 25 CVC word family activity sheets in there. Children have to cut and paste the words that rhyme with the given word family.

 

They can even color the hats like the one in the story or with different colors, thus  working on their  patterning skills. 

Don't we teachers love it when we can work on multiple skills simultaneously?:)

Get this pack from my TPT STORE.

I also wrote a post based on his book 'Wacky Wednesday', so if you are using the book during his birthday celebrations, check out the post HERE.

CVC Word Families-Spin And Graph Activity Sheets!

I am all set to bid adieu to winters and can't wait for the beautiful spring season to start. Though, I am quite grateful that this year we didn't experience the harsh winters that we normally do. So while stashing my winter clothing away, I  thought of making a winter themed CVC activity to end the season. 

It is a fun and interactive activity which will surely get your students excited about reading.

 

Just print the sheets and attach a paperclip, to use as a spinner. Children will spin it, read the word and color in the box of that picture which matches the word.

 

These sheets will also help them to practice their comprehension skills as they will have to find the correct picture after reading the word.

There are 25 CVC word families in the pack. They can be used in the literacy centres or can even be sent for home practice.

Easy and effective and more enjoyable than a boring old worksheet!

Find the pack HERE.

Board Games

Who loves board games? I do ! and it sure brings back childhood memories. Monopoly, scrabble, snakes and ladders were just a few games that added fun to our evenings and gave us time to bond as a family. But now a days, thanks to all the technical devices, kids don't really understand the meaning of playing with others, taking turns and waiting for their turn. 

So i decided to whip up a quick board game for one of my kids, not only to teach him an academic concept but also some other important skills. And boy oh boy, it did turn out great!

We practiced numbers with this board game but you can work with any concept you like:Alphabets, CVC word families, sight words etc. 

Just print, fill and use.

Grab your copy HERE

No Worksheet Wednesdays

 I am linking up with The Primary Chalkboard for No Worksheet Wednesdays. I have tremendous respect for teachers who make an initiative to go beyond the mundane worksheets and make learning exciting for their students. 

Doing hands on activities with the kids not only excites the children but makes the whole planning and execution part interesting for the teachers too.

Today i will share a few hands on activities that i do with my kids when we read CVC words. The school year has ended in India and our next session will start only in April so i will share activities that i have done in the past with my kids.

We first read words as a whole group on our word slide.

Then we bring in a little movement and read words by jumping on the letters and blending at the end.

Children then work in small groups to make and record CVC words using various manipulatives.

Old glue stick bottle caps with different letters imprinted on it.

 Letter tiles

 Foam Letter Tiles

Magnetic Letters

These activities make the emergent readers excited about their learning and they feel confident when they are in charge. They have freedom to create any word with the manipulatives and they learn reading without any pressure. I will definitely be back next Wednesday to share more hands on activities. 

CVC Words

Its that time of the school year where my little angels have started to read . They have understood the concept of blending sounds and are making an attempt to read simple sentences using their phonetic and sight word knowledge. As a teacher it is such an incredible feeling to see children read and make sense of what they are reading. To elevate children's interest in reading, i have been doing a lot of fun activities in small groups with them. The most favorite activity is with magnetic letters. Children select a picture and then make words.

I have also made CVC word family tins for them. They use a strip with the word family written on it and  place individual letters to read words.

I also found interesting word family strips from blog.maketaketeach.com

I use a context while reading CVC Words in a large group. I tell children that all the letters are playing on a slide and some are scared to go down alone. So they need to take the help of another letter friend. For instance if it is word family 'it' that we are focusing on, the letter 'i' would need help. So his friend 't' would hold his hand and they would go down the slide together. I prompt children to take out the "it" sound. These letters wait at the bottom of the slide to catch other letter friends. Children instantly say  'kit' when letter 'k' comes down the slide.

It is a super fun way to teach them blending. Even the ones who need help while blending are able to read with this strategy.

After we finish reading on the flannel board, we sing a song to reinforce all the words .

The lyrics are as follows:

The letters /i/ /t/, they always says /it/

just like in the words 'kit' and 'sit'

and 'hit' and 'pit'

and 'lit' and 'bit'

k says/k/, put /k/ before /it/

/kit/ always says  kit

s says/s/ put /s/ before /it/

/sit/ always says sit 

h says/h/ put /h/ before /it/

/hit/ always says hit 

p says/p/ put /p/ before /it/

/pit/ always says pit 

l says/l/ put /l/ before /it/

/lit/ always says lit 

b says/b/ put /b/ before /it/

/bit/ always says bit 

The letters /i/ /t/, they always says /it/

just like in the words 'kit' and 'sit'

and 'hit' and 'pit'

and 'lit' and 'bit'

I have also created a CVC Word pack for my little kiddos 

 

I am using the sheets from my pack to send for home practice. If you would like to purchase it, you can download it from my TPT Store.

CVC-Words

The school year is about to end in India and i want to gear up for the next session. We start the year with introducing alphabets to our little kids and end by reading simple sentences, so i am working on an alphabet pack which would soon be available on my TPT store. I would like to end the post with some free downloadable sheets for CVC words. 

Click on the link below to download them.

CVC-Word-Worksheets

Sight Words

I love teaching letters and words to my little kids. It gives me immense joy when they start reading. It starts with letters , then words and finally sentences. It is a wonderful process and a great high for a teacher when she sees her students actually reading books. In fact in school, my English teachers were always my favorite teachers. They really inspired me to read and do well in the subject. Another person who is responsible for inculcating in me a love for the language , is my dad. He used to take me to a book store every Sunday to buy story books. I used to love the Famous Five  and Goosebumps series. He has a stupendous vocabulary and reads at least one book in a week. Well i haven't been able to match up to him, but reading forms a significant part of my life. Books make me happy and i love collecting books for my little ones. Story time is my favorite time in the class. It is the only time in the class when there is utmost silence and no wiggles :), the stories do their magic!

In Kindergarten, we start the year by reading letters and their sounds and then move on to CVC words.
My school follows the whole reading and phonetic approach to teach language , therefore, i  introduce sight words right from the beginning. Since sight words have to be memorized as a whole word by sight it can be a bit daunting for the little ones. I introduce the concept by bringing in a magic hen who lays magic eggs( High frequency words). Children say a chant so the magic hen can give a word. We search inside the plastic eggs and find the word.

Then children sing a song to the tune of Bingo:
There was a sight word for the day and 'the' was the sight word
T-H-E, T-H-E, T-H-E
and The was the sight word.

Each child gets the egg with the sight word printed on it. They then color it and take it home to create their own word wall.

I found a fantastic idea on Pinterest to have a password for the day. It is printed near my class door and i change the word everyday. Whenever children go out for a special, they have to tell  the password before exiting.

We also use sight word wands while reading books.

Some of our favorite games to recapitulate sight words are the 'snow ball' game and 'hit the bug' game.
In the snow ball game , words are written on white paper. Children crumble them up and have a snow fight. Whenever i say freeze, they stop and read the word closest to them.

In 'hit the bug' game, words are written on a chart and children use a swatter to hit the word that is called out.

I printed sight word charts from Pinterest. I am unable to find its original source.Once i do i will definitely update. Children read the words during center time.

I also took an idea from Dr jean's sight to make a sight word album . Children use the sight word wands to read words from the album.

This is my sight word wall. The words are from www.mrsburgen.blogspot.com

My kids enjoy all these activities and learning happens without any stress.