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Mini Book Madness
29 March 2012

Mini books are a great learning tool for helping students develop their reading and writing skills. They are also a fantastic way to reinforce concepts being taught in your class. 

Mini books help our students to...

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1. Using pictures to work out unknown words.

Our students are just starting out in the world of reading and writing, so this is a very important skill for them to learn and use! In our under the sea mini book each page has a sentence with a blank space. The students then use the picture to fill in the space.

 

 

 

 

2. Following the words with your finger.

Many of the students in the class are pre-readers and this skill helps them to learn that each word written represents 1 word spoken. The simple sentences in these mini books provide a great structure for practising this skill.

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3. Using alphabet charts to help with sounding out and writing words.

Because the each sentence in the mini book is already written the students can really focus on hearing and recording each sound heard in the missing word. After identifying the missing word the students sounded it out using body taps for each sound e.g. c (tap head) r (tap shoulders) a (tap hips) b (tap knees). After doing this the students used their alphabet chart to find the sound.

Download your alphabet chart here.

After completing their mini books they are added to the class library. The students love going back to read their books and share them with their friends. Have you seen our mini books? We currently have an Under the Sea book and an Easter book. Click on the links to download your copy.

Remember keep calm and pretend it's on the lesson plan!

Top Teacher xx

Some Bunny Loves You...
29 March 2012

 

We created this card with our students to give to their families this Easter. It is fairly easy to make, however cutting it out to the correct point can be a little tricky so make sure you have a few spare copies on hand! We found that prefolding the cards for the students also solved a lot of potential problems and saved time!

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 To make this card simply print the document back and front onto coloured card and fold. Then have the students cut around the right hand side and add the decorations. We used googly eyes, a pom pom for the nose, coloured match sticks for the whiskers and cotton balls for the inside of the ears but you can use whatever you have handy!

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Outside of the cardInside of the card

The inside of the card reads 'Hoppy Easter' and the words to and from have been printed in a dotted font for the students to trace. When cutting around the card be careful not to cut along the bottom too far or it wont stand (we learnt this the hard way!). Download your copy here.

How are your Easter activities going in your classrooms? There seems to be so much to do and so little time! We have our annual Easter hat parade coming up, this is followed by an egg hunt. Be sure to watch this space as we will let you know how it goes! Until then don't forget to follow us on Facebook, we would love to reach 200 likes by Easter.

 

Remember keep calm and pretend it's on the lesson plan!

Top Teacher xx

EGGcellent Words!
26 March 2012

 

Use this egg themed game to help your students practise sounding out and writing CVC words. 

 

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I play this game in small groups and have 6 laminated sheets of the' EGGcellent words' recording sheets that students write on with whiteboard markers.  If you like you could print the copies off and use it as a worksheet instead. 

Print off the 24 words (each has 3 cvc letter and  1picture tile) and laminate them. I bought a couple of packets of plastic easter eggs that separate in half to hold the tiles.

 

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Students were able to choose an egg, 'crack' it open and tip out the tiles inside. They had to look at the picture tile and use the letter tiles to make the word. They then had to write the word onto the 'EGGcellent words' recording sheet. They then put the tiles back into the egg and closed it up. 

 

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They then got to choose another egg and repeat this process 5 more times.

 

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My students thought this game was great and had fun choosing an egg and 'cracking' it open! It has really helped their confidence working with cvc words! Download it here

Remember keep calm and pretend its on the lesson plan

Top Teacher xx

Roll Up, Roll Up!
24 March 2012

 

A great game to help your students not only read but also write sight words. Students roll the dice, find the correspondoing word, read it and then write it down. You could play the game individually if doing it in small groups or in pairs if playing with the whole class. 

 

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Here are a couple of ways you could play this game.

1. Laminate 6 or however many of the game boards you will use at one time. I play the game with about 6 students at a time so I have 6 laminated copies. You can choose the 6 sight words you want the students to play the game with. You could write the words or have them write the choosen words in the first box under the each of the different dice pictures. Students then roll the dice, see which word is under it, read it, then write it in that column wiht a whiteboard marker. Continue playing until all boxes are filled.

 

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2. Laminate as many copies as you need. Using the sight words lists copy each one a couple of times onto a coloured card and cut and laminate (These sight words lists match our sight word program.) To make things easier I copy each list onto a different coloured card eg set 1 onto orange, set 2 onto blue etc. I place a velcro dot in the first box under the dice and also place velcro on the back on each of the sight words. (Cutting the velcro dot sinto quarters saves using so many!). You can then let each child choose 6 words out of the container to put onto their game board. Continue to play game as above.

 

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3. Print off a copy for each child in the class and have them complete the worksheet in pairs. This allows for it then to be placed into their workbooks at end of the game. You could choose the words for them to write or let them choose the word out the container.

My students absolutely love this game and it have improved their confidence reading and writing sight words. Download it now!

Remember keep calm and pretend its on the lesson plan!

Top Teacher xx

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