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     

  

Christmas Word Games and Activities

For my last post of 2015, I'm offering a couple of printable board games with a Christmas theme, for children to play and practice Sight Words - they can be used with any words that need to be practised or revised over the holidays.

The first is a black-and-white version of "Santa Words", which can be cheaply printed/photocopied onto thick paper for children to take home over the holidays and colour in.

Santa Words B&W printable game

"Santa's Helpers" is another fun game for Sight Words practice:



Santa's Helpers col. Printable Reading Game 

These games are best printed onto A4 size light card; they can be laminated before use. 
They will also need "Sight Words' cards (these can be words written on small pieces of card) a die/dice or spinner, and small tokens or 'movers' (buttons, small pieces of coloured card etc). 
The games will be available for free download (for educational, non-commercial use) during the rest of December and the beginning of January.

As it's getting near the end of December, I thought I should also add links to some of my free Christmas activities on my other websites…

Christmas computer Jigsaws, clipart - http://www.epuzzled.net/holidayfun.htm

Christmas songs (also links to clipart, eCards) - http://www.cathyschords.com/christmassongs.htm

                            These song sheets have lyrics and chords for guitar; 
                            there are also some song sheets on the site for ukulele and banjo.

Christmas games –  Santa Snatch, Santa Swap http://www.free-fun-n-games.com/funstuff.htm

                               These games are lots of fun for a Christmas gathering – they don’t need expensive gifts, and are suitable for all age groups. 

I wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season... I will be back next year with more ideas and resources for teaching reading.

Sight Words practice- "Christmas Movers" for board games

Oops... I thought I had scheduled this post for the beginning of December, when I went away for a few days, but I just realised it hadn't been published... so I'll post it now along with this week's post!

Board games are a great way to get children to practise their Sight Words- whether you use flash cards or just cut up pieces of light card or thick paper and write on the words your child needs to practise.

You can use almost any board game, if you make a rule that when a player has a turn, he has to read a word card correctly before he rolls the dice!

Last week I posted a Christmas-themed board game for use with sight words cards, and this week I'm posting some 'movers' to use with the game (or with any other board games to give them a Christmas theme).

Christmas Games Movers 

You just need to print them onto light card, then cut out and glue them (assembly instructions are included). Your child may also like to copy the design to make their own movers with small stickers or their own drawings.

This sheet of Christmas Games Movers will be available for free download in December (for educational, non-commercial use).

Christmas Sight Word game

Here is a printable board game with a Christmas theme that you can use to help children practise their Sight Words; just use any words they need to practise, written onto small cards.
You will also need some 'Movers' or tokens and a die or spinner.

                                                   Santa Words printable board game

For best results, print the game board onto light card, and laminate before use.
This game will be available for free download (for educational, non-commercial use) until Christmas.

Next week, I'll post some "movers" to print, assemble and use with the game - and later in the month, I'll post a 'colour-in' version that you can print or copy to send home with your students to encourage them to keep practising their sight words over the holidays.

Sight Words Practice - Motorbike Race board game

Appealing to the boys...

I developed this simple board game a couple of years ago to appeal to several of my boys who would much rather be out riding their dirt bikes than practising their reading skills!

The game can be used with any sight vocab cards; I laminated a coloured-in copy on card for use at school with small groups, and gave the children their own paper copy to colour in and keep for use at home.

Motorbike Race -printable game board

It just needs some word cards, some kind of tokens (‘movers’) and a die or spinner to go with the game board. It's a very simple game to play, with lots of picture spaces on the board to give the players more chances to read word cards.

You can download this game for free during November (for private/educational use). Click on the picture or caption for the PDF file.