Showing posts with label making phonics fun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label making phonics fun. Show all posts
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Phonics Through fluency
So I tried a few new things with phonics last year, and I think it worked out really well. I needed to add more fluency practice into my day and I did not know where to put it. So, I thought of phonics. After introducing the phonics of the week and sorting words by phonics chunk, nouns/verbs, singular/plural etc... I decided to add fluency to the mix. I wrote passages that had the chunk that we were studying. I wrote several versions with the chunk inside so that the kids would have 4 new passages a week (Friday was review/test day). I also wrote 2 versions of each passage (one at a lower level and one at a higher level). I wanted the kids to have as many opportunities with the words as possible. During word work (Daily 5 time) later they would also have the opportunity to find the phonics chunks in texts. I also was having a hard time fitting sight word practice into the day. So I had the kids sort out the phonics chunk and pull out and sort sight words. This latter part, the sight words, gave me more than I bargained for. Since the kids were reading the passage, pulling out the sight words, and writing the sight words daily they became SUPER at writing and reading those sight words, and I loved that it was all in the context of a story. We added other things like phonics games in word work Daily 5, but for the most part the fluency routine and sorts were the bulk of it. This class I had did remarkable on our end of the year fluency and I think teaching phonics this way was part of it. If interested I added some links to the units on TPT. I just bundled the long vowel units in 2 versions (1 just a few no prep games/centers and 1 with a large variety of centers/games). I'm going to write units for the short vowels this summer so I can start my year with it. Below is one story from the oo unit that one of my students highlighted. They then wrote the words in the sort. I like the written sorts because it really helps them with their fine motor and writing fluency.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
More Phonics Fun!
The kids have really been inspiring me to create some new instructional routines and practices to make their learning fun for them. Again, I'm feeling so blessed with this sweet group of students. They let me know what they really enjoy and I can see it in my last round of testing of their reading. The games and reading skills we have been reviewing and practicing have made a huge impact on fluency and writing. Below are a few more pictures of some fun the kids have been having by reviewing the long vowels. Although long vowels were already introduced earlier this year we are taking a week or so to review each of vowel spellings in depth within fluency passages, games, and writing. I want my students to have a very strong comfort level with long vowels before heading off to second grade. I've created units that do this and they can be spread over several weeks, used for homework, center work, Daily 5, or in a multitude of ways. The way we've been using them is I create a packet for each student that houses the fluency, the sorts, trace, read, write, questions, and a few other of the pages in the unit. We do a whole class review and student engagement activity like "Find Your Partner" or "Guess my Word" that gets them moving and talking. Then the kids work independently or in pairs while I pull groups. The kids love the characters and I try my best to gear the stories to things that might interest them. I knew I had a hit when I overheard one of my students asked their table mate, "I wonder who the Phonics Friend" will be this week." Some of the pages are in the homework as well. I then put out some of the other activities like write the room, read and roll, puzzles, slap it, etc... in center boxes for Daily 5 word work. It's been working great and the word work box for Daily 5 is quickly in the lead for the kids' favorite Daily 5 activity. Right now I'm working to try to get all the units up on TPT ...I'm almost done with long a. We started with long e, which you will find the link to below, because I had a chunk of students who needed a refresher on ea. I also have phonics units on oi/oy and oo.
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Making Phonics Fun
I've been searching for ways to increase student engagement this year along with maintaining rigor and covering the Common Core standards. It's been sort of like a puzzle to see what has worked and been successful for my fabulous first graders. We've tried A LOT of new things, and this group of students I have this year are awesome, adventurous, and it makes for a "laboratory" full of ideas. Here are some of our favorites! The kids love playing Slap it! There are many versions, but ours is best played with 4 in a group. So much fun!
The next video and photo shows a Guess My Word game. The word pages are differentiated so that all students can play regardless of language or reading level. Having the different versions of the I have a word page helps a ton. The kids love it because they get up and walk around having their friends trying to guess their words.
This kids love reading about the "Phonics Friends". They get interested in the characters, and they love highlighting and sorting words from the stories. To the left is an example of one of the oo stories in the oo word work packet. I always include several versions of the same story to accommodate all learners. I even put simple pattern text mini-books in the units for emergent readers.
If you are interested, the following products explain these fun phonics activities in more detail and include many more ideas and resources. They are centered around the combination of learning phonics through reading and Common Core Reading Foundational Skills.
OO Word Work
Long e Word Work
Oi/Oy Word Work
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