Search results matching tags 'teacher', 'teaching', 'sight words', and 'early childhood'

Student Picture Games

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:00:41 GMT

If you are looking for an activity that will engage your students and keep them on task then look no further. The secret is to use pictures of the students; they love to look at pictures of themselves and their friends. This activity can be done several different ways to allow for differentiation.

In the picture above you can see the sight word version of this activity. To prepare the activity take pictures of your students holding letters to spell sight words. Print the pictures on cardstock, laminate, cut, and then place on binder rings. I use the Rainbow Words program; this particular activity focused on the six words we were learning at the time. The students turn the cards and spell the words on their cookie trays using magnetic letters. I added a thematic picture to the cookie tray to make it fit with our theme. This activity is one of the all-time favorites in my classroom!

Using student pictures you can create activities to meet your students’ needs all year long:

Student Names: Take pictures of the students spelling their names. Students can then make their names and their friend’s names on cookie sheets using magnetic letters.
Upper to Lowercase Match: Take pictures of the students holding upper and lowercase letters and turn the pictures into cards. Have students match the upper to lowercase letters.
Alphabet in Order: Take a picture of each student holding one letter. If you have fewer than 26 students (and I hope you do!) then give some students an extra turn. Turn each letter into a card and have students practice putting the cards in order from A-Z. You can do this for both upper and lowercase letters. You can also use an alphabet strip and have students match the pictures to the strip.
Numbers in Order: Same idea as above only take pictures of the students holding numbers. Place Velcro on the back of each number card, laminate sentence strips, place Velcro on the strips and have students attach the numbers to the strip in order.
Power Points: You can use any of the ideas above and create Power Point presentations to show your students- fun!

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Spring Race to the Top Game

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 19:59:41 GMT

Race to the Top is a fun game that can be adapted for many different skills and levels. You can use these types of games to practice letter recognition, sight words, or even numbers. In the picture above you can see the Spring Alphabet Race to the Top game, in the picture below you can see the sight word version of the game.

To prepare this game use a pocket die as shown in the picture, or you can create your own for free using a small box. Select which letters, words, or numbers you want to use on your die and then write your selections on the flowers before you make copies. To record their answers students can use Do-A-Dot markers or crayons.

Race to the Top can be played in a small group or by an individual child. To play the game the students take turns rolling the die and recording their rolls on their sheet by placing a dot in the square or coloring it in with crayons. When a particular word, letter, or number has been rolled five times it reaches the top first and is declared the “winner”. I like this game because the students don’t compete against each other, the skills do. When a word wins I encourage the children to keep playing to see which one comes in second place, third place and so on.

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Magnetic Valentine Sight Words

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 11:00:31 GMT

This Valentine themed activity for practicing sight words is super simple yet still tons of fun for little ones. You will need one magnetic cookie tray or other magnetic surface per child, paper Valentine hearts, tape, sight word cards, and magnetic letters. You could also have the students match upper to lowercase letters on the trays. The cookie trays in the picture above are from the Dollar Tree and the hearts are pages from a notepad. First, tape the hearts to the cookie trays, I laminated mine first for durability. Next, make one individual sight word ring per child with the words they are learning, details can be found on the sight word page. Finally, place the letters that correspond to the words in a small Ziploc bag, one bag per child. Each child at the table gets one magnetic cookie tray, a ring of sight words, and a bag of magnetic letters. Students will spell the sight words from the rings on their cookie tray.

In case you are wondering how I can find so many magnetic letters without going crazy I’ve included a picture of my magnetic letter storage container for you above; it’s a nuts and bolts container from Wal-Mart. Each drawer is assigned a different letter; using this storage container I can find the letters I need quickly.

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