A Dr. Seuss Freebie & Literacy Work Stations

Here are the stations my students will be working on until March Break

{8 days from now, but who's counting?!?}

---->   ME   <----

WORD WORK

Students are 'texting' their sight words on iPhones, 'typing' words onto iPads, and arranging their iPod playlists in alphabetical order.

See here for my previous post about this low-tech, faux-tech fun & the downloads!

CAT'S ABC ORDER 

*freebie*

Note: I have added to this freebie pack!

16 word families are now included {as of Feb. 2013}

This month we are reading Dr. Seuss stories. They are great springboards for introducing rhyme and word families.

I created this activity to reinforce word families {rhyme} as well as alphabetical order.

Each card has four words on it, all from one word family. Students draw a card, then print the words in alphabetical order onto their sheet.

I provided a simple alphabet strip for those who needed a visual aid.

 

*NOTE: This pack has been updated!

I have added MORE to the Cat's ABC Order set and have made it a FREEBIE PACK!

It now includes 16 word families!

 

You can download the entire pack {here} for FREE :)

ALPHABET GEOBOARDS

At this station, students choose a letter template and try to replicate it using geoboards and elastic bands.

The geoboard letter cards can be found here.

LISTENING CENTRE

I had never heard of Tacky the Penguin until reading about him on various blogs. Our local library had the book & CD kit available, so that made it a great centre!

The student book response form is from Mrs. Jump.

SIGHT WORD BOOK

The sight word booklet is called Places We Go.

I am using this book to introduce the new sight words go and to.

It is available from Hubbard's Cupboard.

I love how this booklet adds new words to the previously learned sight words. The students are really reading now!

See my post here that describes a typical small-group lesson.

Faux Technology

This week my students will be texting their sight words on iPhones.

They will be typing their sight words on iPads.

And they will organize playlists on their iPods in alphabetical order.

 Expensive?

Absolutely not. 

It's low-tech.

And faux-tech.

{Did I mention they're freebies?}

Impressive?

You bet! 

iPhones

Using washable overhead markers, students print sight words into the fields at the top of the 'phone', and then 'text' them.

from Dragonflies in First {here}

 

iPods

I've written my students' names on small discs. Students select a disc and put it on their iPod.

Using washable overhead markers, students print the names on the playlist in alphabetical order.

This can also be done with sight words.

from {Teacher Tipster}

Sight word discs are included in the download.

iPads

Students print sight words on the screen {there's room for ten}.

Then they practise typing the words using the keyboard.

from Mrs. Gilchrist's Class {here}

Happy Family Day! {& President's Day too}

Here in Ontario, Canada we are enjoying a day off to celebrate

Family Day!!!

illustration by Melonheadz

I am actually enjoying a 6-day stretch off of school, due to a PD Day, a PA Day, the weekend, and Monday's Family Day holiday.

We surprised the kids and headed to the U.S.A.!

We headed through

and

to get to our first destination:

Then we headed further south to our next stop...

...and even further, into

Flags on the Peace Bridge

Home sweet home

We had a great time, spent way too much money, and enjoyed FAMILY, which is the whole point!

{It was sooo great to have Friday off to get those report cards done!}

PS I hope my American friends have a great President's Day!!!

Is anyone else doing anything fun on this long weekend?

Pesty the Penguin Returns!

You may recall an earlier post that introduced Pesty the Penguin.

The lesson was an inferencing activity, where students had to guess what was inside the Mystery Box.

 

Then Pesty made occasional *secret* appearances to our classroom while we were away, and he stole letters off of our Chit Chat Chart.

We had to work together to fix it.

 

This time, Pesty appeared during our Math lesson.

As practice with number recognition, students took turns pointing to a number on the pocket chart and saying what number it was. If they were correct, they removed the number from the chart.

 

Boy were they surprised when they found this hiding behind several of the numbers:

Pesty the Penguin strikes again!

Literacy Work Stations

Here is the latest five day rotation of literacy activities:

WRITE THE ROOM

My students have been using my Valentine's Day freebie set to Write the Room.



Using Valentine pointers, students read the sight-word hearts that are posted around the classroom.

 

 

Wearing heart-shaped sunglasses while reading-the-room makes this activity even more fun!

 

 

 

Click here to find the post where you can download your free copies of the word hearts and activity sheets.

 

 

 

RAINBOW WRITING

At this centre, students practice printing their friends' names, then trace over them using different coloured markers.

 

 

When they finish their page, they write words on the chalkboard, rainbow writing over top of their words using different colours of chalk.

LISTENING CENTRE

I initially had Franklin's Valentines as our book selection, however my tape recorder ate the tape :(

So now it's Pete the Cat!

{in non-machine-edible CD format}

The kids are rockin' out to Pete's song, air guitars and all.

You can grab a copy of the reading response sheet from Mrs. Jump.

SIGHT WORD BOOK

Our Valentine book is called The Hearts.

It can be found at Hubbard's Cupboard.

For those interested, the book is available in English, French, German, and Spanish!

INITIAL SOUNDS

This month I need to assess my students in their ability to identify the initial sounds in words, so I created this sheet for them to work on:

They cut out the letters and glue them beside the picture that begins with that letter.

Happy Valentine's Day!