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).