High Frequency Words Day 2

Today is my second day of sharing my ideas for teaching high frequency words.  This is really two ideas in one freebie.  The first I call Trace It, Write It, Stamp It. It has five words that we've recently been learning on a page for the students to trace, write and stamp.  My kinders love this station and, until recently, everything has been going great.  However, a new little boy in my room is somewhat destructive and the stamps we've been using all year are all of a sudden falling apart. And, the new stamps I put out since the old ones were breaking are now also falling apart. :( So, this one can't be a weekly station anymore. 

On the back of this page, I also have a word box and writing practice page that I sometimes add.  Sometimes the kinders just do rainbow writing of the words when they finish this one, but this other sheet is fun too.  The kinders find the word shape box and write the word and then practice it.

The second idea is a game called Roll a Sight Word.  You have to print the dice and put it together. (Recently, I've been purchasing the small wooden cubes you can get at Michaels and then just writing the words in permanent marker and saving for future years.)  The idea is that they roll the dice and write the word on the graph- saying it and spelling it aloud.  If they roll Erase a Word, they have to erase a word of their choice.  The goal is to see which word "wins" by making it to the top of the graph.

 These ideas are in my TpT product here.  But I made one for 2nd quarter words this year that isn't exactly the same as a freebie.  Click here for the freebie. BTW, I am having a New Year's Sale on everything January 1st and 2nd at my TpT Store.

High Frequency Words

I don't know about you, but teaching high frequency words is not my favorite part of kindergarten.  Our kinders need to know 75 words by the end of the year.  Some years that is not a problem because the kinders come in very ready- knowing lots of sounds and letters.  But when you get a group of kinders that don't know any letters and sounds at the beginning of the year and they need to know 11 sight words by the end of 1st quarter, it can get a little frustrating.  That is me this year!  Most of my kinders came in not knowing very many letters and sounds, so that was our primary focus for the first half of the year.  Now that they know their letters and sounds, it's time to really buckle down and get them where they need to be (50 words by March).  I have the problem, again, of not having enough resources provided for me.  The reading series our district adopted a bazillion years ago teaches the kinders maybe 25 words. That's not going to help me reach my pay for performance goals now is it? So, I am looking for some fabulous ideas for teaching high frequency words.  We use the Fry list of words, but we've mixed it up a bit to get some more common words toward the beginning.   So, I am looking for some great sight word resources.  I have a sight word work station and I need some fun and meaningful activities.  What do you do to teach sight words?  Over the next few days, I will share some of the things that I do, but I'd love to hear some of your ideas as well.
I've made a game with our sight words called Roll It, Read It, and Write It. 

Click here for the freebie. And check back tomorrow for another one of my ideas for teaching sight words. 

Word Families

Well, the time in my kindergarten class has come!  We know all our letter. We know all our sounds.  We've learned the digraphs /ch/, /sh/, /th/ and /wh/.  We made it!  It's time for word families!  Let me pull out the plethora of teaching materials that my district provides for me to teach word families.  Oh, wait- there's nothing! [Said in a sarcastic tone] The reading series we've adopted barely makes it through the letters and sounds in the entire year.   Well, let me purchase my own materials from teaching stores, search for some great things on TpT (and purchase them with district purchase order my own money), and make some things that are just right for my classroom.  Okay, my rant is over!  We begin with short a word families and progress from there.  Here's our sequence of word families for 3rd quarter.  I would love to hear the sequence others use to introduce word families and where they fall in sequence of skills.

At my thinking map station the week we come back, I have a word sort that I've created.  I received, through some thinking map training I went to once, a set of large (about poster board size) laminated thinking maps.  I am going to use the tree map one for this activity, but you could use the activity in a pocket chart just as easily.  There is also a recording sheet for the students to re-create the thinking map themselves. Check out the pictures below to see if it's something you could use and then click here to get the freebie.  I have to give a big shout out the Charlotte's Clips for providing most of these amazing graphics.  Love her stuff!

Pocket Chart Stations FREEBIE

I love pocket charts!  I have about 5 different pocket charts in my classroom.  Some of them house my shared reading poems.  Some have sight words we are learning.  And some of them are used specifically for my Pocket Chart Literacy Station.  I've done lots of different things for my Pocket Chart Station over the year, but mostly I use it for sorts and put together sentences.  Sometimes the students are putting together a decodable book that I've written out on sentence strips and cut apart.  Sometimes they are sorting pictures practicing different Reading Foundational Skills standards.  But my stations change every two weeks so I need new ideas fairly often.  This freebie is part of my January Pocket Chart Station product that I am selling on TpT and TN.  In this activity, you print out the words of the sentence on card stock.  Then the students use the words and pictures to put together the sentence.  Then they can use the worksheet to write the sentence, cut apart the word, put it back together and illustrate it.  You will find this sentence and three others in the product, as well as three other sort games- one for beginning sounds, one for medial sounds and one for ending sounds.  There's also a short a making words type activity as well.  Check it out here. January Pocket Chart Station
And, here's the link to the freebie pictured above.  Hope it is something that you can easily use in your classroom!
January Pocket Chart Station FREEBIE

Happy New Year!

Kindergarten Math Assessments

One of our goals for Kindergarten this year is to create math assessments for the Common Core. Our district has what is called a Math Toolkit. It is an overall test that has 2-3 questions for each standard. We are supposed to administer it each quarter until students master the standards. It was put together quickly by a very small group of teachers and, honestly, it's not very good. There are too few tasks for each standard to really know the students have mastered the concept. So, our team has decided to create quick, whole group assessments that we can use in addition to the district assessment. I am going to sell the ones I create on TpT individually by standard and then bundled when I get them all done.   Here's a freebie for Kindergarten CC3. CC3 {FREEBIE} Check out my store to see more.

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

Giveaway and a Math Word Problem {FREEBIE}

I am honored to participate in the Realistic Teachers 100 follower Giveaway.  Visit her here to enter her contest.  She has a TON of great giveaway items.

Last week I wrote briefly about our math journals.  Today, I have another word problem freebie.  They are reindeer themed word problems.  Click here to grab them.  I think that I mentioned that we do math journal almost every day.  In them, I ask students to draw a picture that shows the story problem and then I ask them to write their answer and circle it.  I choose 3 or 4 to share using my document camera at the end of journal time.  I show the student work and ask him/her to share what they did.  We go through the word problem and I ask the students if they can see the different parts represented.  Then I ask the student to show how they counted to get their answer and we look for their answer circled on the paper.  In the last few weeks, as I've been introducing number bonds with the students and number sentences, I've asked students to try it out in their math journals.  I've asked them to try to write the number sentence that matches the word problem.  Some are getting it, and some are not, some are trying it out and some are still uncomfortable with the idea, but we're sharing and they are definitely interested in those symbols and trying to "read" the number sentence. These additon problems have been straigh Join Result Unknown problems.
This week I am going to use the number bonds focus on idea of the missing addend. I am going to use my Holiday Number Bonds  and then I am going to give them some Join Change Unknown problems in their math journals.  It should challenge them and make for some great discussions! 

Winter Wonderland Math FREEBIE!

My Winter Wonderland of Math Stations is up on TpT and TN and it's also bundled with the Literacy unit for a bit of a reduced price if you purchase them together.  The math unit has lots of different games focusing on CC and OA standards for Kindergarten.  Here's a freebie.  It's an easy game that can be played over and over again with different numbers- On and Off the Snowman. Click here for a copy of it.  Stop by my store to see more. Kinder Karla