Primer Sight Word Readers

Finally, this little baby is ready! I have been working on my Primer Readers since Christmas. Yes, I'm slow. But, they were done in time for my Kinders this year. We have moved on from the Pre-Primer First 40 Words. Now, it is on to Primer. I am so amazed at how well my Kinders are reading. And I know that the reason they are reading is because they have a combination of sight word recognition instruction, phonics instruction, phonemic awareness instruction, and actual time to READ!

My goal is to have my Kinders not just reading by the end of the year, but for them to BELIEVE they are readers.

As you know, the growth mindset of a child is the most important thing you can teach. Be that to your students, your own children, and yourself. If they don't believe they can, then they wont.

I start off the year with telling them that in Kindergarten we don't say, "I cant." It's a bad word in my class. "Gimme" is also a bad word, but that's another story.

What I thinks makes students believe they can read is when they see that they are reading, over and over, every day. I just finished my Primer Readers and I hope you can check them out and get your students reading. They are great for Kinders and 1st grade. My school uses them as intervention stories in a separate program for struggling students. Here is a little preview:

These books are great for Guided Reading, tracking, sight words (obviously), and partner reads. I use one story every week. We read it in the class and the next week it goes home for homework.

My Kinders are reading, and I am so proud of them!

A Big Thank You to TpT

Its that time of the year where many of us are already thinking about next year. (We are insane, yes.) And I have been looking into many curricula that is being presented to my school district. I wish I could say I have found one that I loved, but I know that I will need to use teacher created products to meet my needs.

My Kindergarten Sight Word units have been the best, most uniform, way for my team and myself to introduce and practice sight words in Kindergarten. As many of you know, California has been waiting to adopt ELA CCSS curriculum. Well, what did we do in the mean time? Made our own!!

TeachersPayTeacher has been an incredible resource for those of us trying to move past the state adopted programs and use strategies that really work. I was saying to my K team earlier this week, "What did we do before TpT?!"

My school district is going through the process right now of finding an ELA curriculum to meet the CCSS. I have only heard one pitch, but I know that I will not find a program that meets all of my needs. I need to differentiate. Not one 3 levels, on 25 levels! No canned product can provide for what TpT provides, so thank you to all of the contributors and buyers. We are truly changing education.

To TpT

 

Snowmen at Night Craftivity

Here is a cute little FREEBIE! Snowmen at Night is one of the most popular winter books for kids. It lets them use their imagination and think of silly things. We do this craftivity when we read Snowmen at Night. Take a look.

We will glue the snowman to a black piece of construction paper and add the snowflakes at the end. Enjoy!

TpT Cyber Sale!

Save 20% on all of my products! 

Happy Teaching!

Kindergarten Sight Words Stamp It!

Hi everyone!
This year is flying by! I wanted to get my Kindergarten Sight Word Stamp It! unit out before Black Friday and here is it! Sweet and simple: Trace it, Stamp it, Write it. I use these in my weekly centers and my students love them. I love that it keep them engaged while they are learning their words and is a great addition to the sight word program I have made and am using. My kids are doing a great job this year with their words!

Owls!

This week we learned about owls.

 We made an owl can, have, are chart.

 We used our chart to write about owls. 

 

Grab the writing sheet here!

We also dissected owl pellets this week! The kids had a great time, even though some started out very timid. By the end they were digging through it with their hands! I purchased by owl pellets from www.owlpellet.com.

I bought the mini owl pellets. You get 20 of them for $19.80. I gave one pellet to each pair of students. They worked as partners and had a lot of fun! The pellets come in the mail very quickly, and are very good. They are filled with bones!

 We used toothpicks to pull the fur apart.

We matched the bones we found to the bone chart. This helped keep the kids on track and got them very excited when they could start identifying them.

 We wrote about our findings on our observation chart. You can grab the observation chart for free here.

 

Owls are always fun and I know my kinders went home and told their parents all about the bones they found and what the owls can do, what they are, and what they EAT!

Planting an Apple Tree with Harry Kindergarten!