Getting Organised for 2017 - Year Planner

Here is a year planner I have just finished for 2017.

It's easy to print on A4 as a 'diary' planner or to fold into your pocket or handbag. You can also print it in A3 size to use as a wall planner.

The basic planner only has weekends marked:

MAY 2017 update: I just found out that the planner above was linked to an old planner - now updated and checked!

The Australian Planner has national public holidays marked in:

I hope you find this useful!

Printable Reading Games for Holidays

As the Christmas holidays are fast approaching, I thought I'd better post a couple of games for children to use with their Sight Words cards.

These games can both be printed/copied cheaply in black and white* for children to take home over the holidays. Children will need some Sight Words cards, movers and a die or spinner to play the games. *The Santa Words (B&W) game can also be coloured in.

SNOW FUN

Snow Fun - Printable Game

SANTA WORDS  (black & white)

Santa Words (black & white) - Printable Game

Here is a colour version of Santa Words:

Santa Words (colour) - Printable Game

Click on the links to open a .PDF document that you can print. These games are free for you to download and use for private/educational (strictly non- commercial) use. They will be available for download during the rest of December and the beginning of January.

 ☺ Wishing everyone Happy Holidays ☺

Printable Game for Sight Words Practice - "Drive Time"

I made this game to appeal to my boys, using car stickers. I've scanned it and made it into a printable PDF document, so if you like you can print it onto light card and laminate before use. You'll also need whatever Sight Words cards you want your students to practise, and movers/dice to play the game.

Drive Time board game

Click on the link above to open the .pdf document. You can download this game for free (for personal/educational, non-commercial use) until the beginning of December.

Boo! game for /oo/ pattern

October has crept up sneakily and I haven't posted a game for a month now... so here's one I've been using with my students to help them learn the '/oo/ as in boot' pattern - and it can double as a 'Halloween theme' game if you like.

Boo game

It's quick to play and cheap to print; you'll just need light card to print on and a die and 'movers' or tokens. Laminate the board before use for best results.

This game will  be available for free download until the start of November, and as usual it's for private/educational, non-commercial use. Click on the 'Boo game' link above to open the .PDF file to print.

Printable Game for Sight Words

Here's a game I made a few years ago to encourage my boys to practise their sight words.

You can print it on light card and laminate before use; you'll also need some Sight Words cards suitable for the players, and a die and some small tokens or counters to use as 'movers'.

Up, Up and Away game board

You are welcome to print this game for your personal educational use; it will be available for free download until the end of September.

Reading Resources

I've been working on sorting all the reading resources I've made over the last 14 years, so that I can finally add some organised, useful content to the Reading Should Be Fun website.

It's such a huge job that I've been putting it off, but I will be retiring from my Reading Intervention teaching job in a couple of months and I've been asked to leave a list of resources and ideas behind, so it's spurred me on to dig out all the games and resources hiding in my computer and hard drives.

It hasn't helped that I broke my laptop and had to resurrect an old one, then I had to get all the files copied from my broken laptop (luckily the lovely computer technician at work helped, as it wasn't an easy process!). So I've spent many days exploring folders within folders within folders, re-naming and organising hundreds of files.

It's a long process, but at least it's started, and I've found some scans of games that I made years ago (hand-drawn game boards, copied onto coloured card with stickers added). These were the first Reading Games I made, before I developed my computer skills. The games were so popular with my students that I kept making more and more.... and the original games are still being used enthusiastically by my current students.

Here's one that I made to help students who are beginning to learn letter sounds:

Alphabet Game

Instructions

This game is available for free download (for non-commercial use). You can print it in colour onto light card (open the JPG image above, right click and Save As... to your computer, then print as a full-page picture). Print the Instructions on the back and laminate before using. You'll also need little 'movers' (e.g. counters) and a die/dice.

NOTE- My students have a plastic folder or 'envelop' (A4 size) to take home books, worksheets and games. I add small zip-lock bag with a die and 4 or 5 tokens (coloured glass 'wishing stones' sold in bags for putting in vases, but buttons/counters/small shells or even little coloured cardboard squares would do). I also write out sight words cards and send those home when relevant.

The children love to choose and swap games as well as books, and it really encourages them to practise their reading work at home without even realising they're working!

Auditory discrimination - short vowel sounds a,e

It's been a while since I've managed to do a post; after the mid-year holidays I broke my laptop and I'm still in 'recovery mode', but I've managed to get an old laptop working and to recover most of my files, so I'm posting a new game to print.

This term, I'm working with Prep (1st year) and Grade 1 students, many of whom are still unsure of common 'short vowel' sounds. The short 'a' and 'e' are very easily confused, so I've made this game to help children distinguish between these sounds.

 a or e game

The game can be printed on light card and laminated before use; you will also need a die and tokens/'movers'. It will be available for free download for at least 2 weeks (for private/educational use).

Children need to learn to separate words into their component parts so that they can learn to decode unfamiliar words.

One of the first and easiest ways to 'break up' words is to look at compound words.

Here is a couple of picture sheets I made for my students some years ago. I have laminated them, and I re-use them each year to help my beginner readers.

   

         Compound Words_1                                                          Compound Words_2

You are welcome to download these sheets to print for your personal/educational use.

"Taking Words Apart" - Compound Words

Children need to learn to separate words into their component parts so that they can learn to decode unfamiliar words.

One of the first and easiest ways to 'break up' words is to look at compound words.

Here is a couple of picture sheets I made for my students some years ago. I have laminated them, and I re-use them each year to help my beginner readers.

   

         Compound Words_1                                                          Compound Words_2

You are welcome to download these sheets to print for your personal/educational use.

Printable board game for /all/ word family

I'm trying to get some of my students to recognise 'little words' or letter patterns inside words.... so I've been using this game I made several few years ago. I let the students borrow it to play at home, so they get extra practice (I also send home a little zip-lock bag with a die and 'wishing stones' for movers).

The game is quite simple to play- just make sure the players can follow the sequence of numbers from the bottom. My students enjoy this game, especially if they land on a bug!

Up the Wall game board 

Up the Wall Instructions

You can download this game for free until the end of this month. Print in colour on white or light-coloured card (or cover paper), and print the Instructions on the back before laminating. You will also need a die/dice and tokens or 'movers'.

Reading Game to Make

Busy times at work... today I had a mixed class of Grade 4 & 6 students (their Grade 3 and 5 classmates were sitting tests).
Some of the Grade 4's finished their work early so I quickly adapted and printed off a Reading Game board I made a while ago. The task I gave the students was to think of words either suitable for Grade 1's or words they themselves need to work on, then fill in the game board and decorate it.

A couple made some very good games that I can use with my Grade 1's (colour photocopied onto light card and laminated). The others can play their games with friends or family.

The game board will be available for free download until the end of May (click on the picture below) ... but children also love to design their own game boards!

The game is very simple - if a player lands on a word and can read the word correctly, they move on an extra space. If you want to make it more complex, you can make a rule that anyone who rolls a 6 has an extra turn, any player who rolls a 3 misses a turn (or 2=go back 2, 1= go on one), etc.

New printable board game for Sight Words

Term 2 began here last week, and I have been working with my Reading Intervention children on the "Bridges" reading program.

At the end of each session, I play a quick game with the child, highlighting a teaching point. Often I want to practise some Sight Words, so I have been going through my collection of games to find simple ones that won't take too long to play.

I thought I'd make a new one with cat pictures, as most children like cats.... so here it is.

Cat on the Mat - printable board game

You can download the game for the rest of April. Print it on light card and laminate for best results.

You can make or use word cards, or if you are playing the game with the child, you can just write a list of words and point to the word you want the child to read - I do this if I'm short of time as each child will be working on different words, and they can vary from session to session.

You will also need tokens or 'movers' and a die (dice).

Easter is coming early this year, so I thought I'd get organised with a couple of  printable board games - one to use with Sight Words cards and one to focus on the ‘short u’ sound.  

Both games are 'colour-in' sheets, which can be copied cheaply onto paper or light card to give to children so they can decorate their own game boards (a good Easter Holiday activity to get children to keep practising their Sight Words). 

Click on the pictures below to open a printable .PDF document.

            

Players will also need tokens or movers (counters/buttons/small shells etc.) and a spinner or die/dice.

These games can be downloaded for free during the rest of March- April, for private/educational, non-commercial use.

Easter games for Reading

Easter is coming early this year, so I thought I'd get organised with a couple of  printable board games - one to use with Sight Words cards and one to focus on the ‘short u’ sound.  

Both games are 'colour-in' sheets, which can be copied cheaply onto paper or light card to give to children so they can decorate their own game boards (a good Easter Holiday activity to get children to keep practising their Sight Words). 

Click on the pictures below to open a printable .PDF document.

            

Players will also need tokens or movers (counters/buttons/small shells etc.) and a spinner or die/dice.

These games can be downloaded for free during the rest of March- April, for private/educational, non-commercial use.

Shamrock Memory Game (and -at words cards)

It's almost St Patrick's Day, and I've posted a Shamrock-themed Memory game on my free-fun-n-games website, so I thought I should mention it here.

I was having problems with my file sharing site, but it's all sorted now and the printable cards will be available for free download the rest of this month at http://free-fun-n-games.webs.com/readinggamestoprint.htm. You will also find other reading games that you can print.

The 'Shamrock' card backs can be used with any words written on the blank side (use pencil so the writing doesn't show through), or you can print the '_at' words on the back.

Just remember to make two sets of cards, and start with maybe 5 or 6 pairs to play the game.

Me or my?

This week I have finally started Reading Intervention programs with my new students, as I had been filling in for classroom teachers over the past month so they could do testing of their students.

One problem I notice that keeps cropping up with the Grade 1 children is the difficulty with words me/my, be/by etc.

Here is a strategy I use to help them differentiate between these 2 vowel sounds:

When you say a long 'e' sound, as in 'me', your mouth is wide and smiley, a bit like a letter 'e':

When when you say a long 'y' sound, as in 'my', your mouth hangs down, like a letter 'y':

I draw a diagram like those above, then write a list of words, with an exaggerated wide letter 'e' or extra long letter 'y'. e.g.

me    my
be     by
we    why
she   shy

We then practise reading the words with exaggerated mouth actions, and I encourage the children to use the exaggerated actions when they read those words, or similar words (he, cry, fly, etc.).

After a while, the children will no longer need to actually make the exaggerated mouth action as they read (though they may need reminders at times).

If you like, you can download the pictures above and print them for use with your child or students.

Reading Games to Print

As my working hours and duties have increased this year, I will not be posting each week. However I will try to manage one or two posts each month.

I missed out on posting the January Reading Game here (Internet problems), so I'll post links for January and February games , and leave them available until the end of Feb.

These games are designed to be printed onto light A4-size card, and laminated for use in small groups. You will need some tokens or "movers", a die (dice) or spinner, and if you are using them as reading games, you will also need Sight Words vocabulary cards.

The First Games below are scans of games I made to help children to develop the idea of playing board games, including taking turns and following instructions, and to practise ‘one-to-one correspondence’ with counting, i.e. moving their token one space for each number counted (this can be difficult for young children who are still unsure of number skills). If using a die, children also practice counting the dots on the die.

If you want to use the games for reading practice with word cards, you can write ‘WORD CARD’ in the first of each pair of blank spaces (before you laminate the board). Then when a player lands on the WORD CARD space, they can read a word card and move on an extra space if correct.

I'm also re-posting a Hearts- themed game as it's almost Valentine's Day. This game needs Word Cards as it's for practising Sight Words.

These games are available for free download through to the end of February, for educational, non-commercial use. Click on the images to open the .PDF document for printing.

Planning for the new school year

Our school year for 2016 is just starting, so I'm getting organised with planner formats.

I like to have a yearly planner on my pinboard above my desk, and I use an A4 copy also in my Planner/Diary.
Here is the planner I have made for 2016; it can be printed on A4 or A3 paper or light card (I've printed one out and shaded in our school and public holidays, then photocopied it for other staff members as well).

2016 Year Planner

March 2nd- please note- the files to download are stored in a Dropbox folder, but have been unavailable for the past week due to 'excess traffic' on the files in the account.... Dropbox are not responding to my queries, so I have replaced the link to the year planner; I'm hoping other links will be available again as soon as Dropbox allows the account to be open again.

For day-to-day planning, I have formatted pages to print and photocopy back-to-back, then punch holes and put in a loose-leaf folder.

We have 6 sessions in our school day, so these sheets have 6 sessions, but I have left the sheets as Word documents so if you want to use them, you can alter them before printing. Print both pages and copy back-to-back, enough for each week of the year. You will need to fill in the dates on each page.

 Here are the links to the documents:

DailyPlanner page format left side blank _6 sessions 

DailyPlanner page format right side_blank _6 sessions

DailyPlanner cover sheet 2016     

For fortnightly planning, you may also like a blank 2-week page that you can print, copy and add dates to:

Diary lined page - 2 weeks