Free Long Vowel Game

Here's a free long vowel game to help your students master the long sound of i and its most common spelling patterns.

Can we agree that long vowel spelling patterns are one of the quirkiest spelling patterns for new readers and writers to master?  /ie/, /i-e/, the dreaded -igh, ... tough stuff, right?

This free game includes the board you see here and 72 word cards, for lots of practicing decoding and using long vowel spellling patterns.

Click here or on the picture below to get your copy!

If your students need more practice with long vowels (and whose students don't?), here's a set that I have at my TPT store. All  five games follow the same rules as Long I Bullseye, so once you teach it, you're good for them all! That makes the games great for your centers and also for Family Homework activities. 315 word cards plus sorts for vowel patterns are included.  Click here or on the picture below to go straight to the product page.

Happy Teaching!



Valentines Day Blog Hop WInners!!

It's time to announce the winners of the Valentine Blog Hop. Here they are!

 

Congratulations to Sandi, Jennifer, and Jennifer! Each of these winners will receive 3 free items of their choice from my TeachersPayTeachers store, so head on over and have a free shopping spree!

 

The 2 Jennifers will be receiving an email to confirm their win. Sandi - where are you? I really want you to get your free items, so please leave a comment with your email.

 

Many thanks to all who participated, and for signing up as new followers. I hope you enjoyed  all of the free Valentines Day items you collected as you hopped from blog to blog.

 

                                                                                                   Linda

With Love, Valentines for Your Class

Hi! Are you planning to write out your valentines to your students this weekend? I've been snooping around the blogs to assemble a list of Valentines Day printables. Here are a few you might like!

Sweet owls from Ready, Set, Create!

A nostalgic set from The  Handmade Home

Printable treat bag toppers from My Frugal Adventures

If you're looking for something that you as a teacher can send to your students, I have two sets at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. They are designed to honor the character traits we work so hard to instill in our students, like perseverance, honesty, friendliness, and kindness.

The first set is for your 1st through 5th graders. These 30 easy prep cards will give you a unique card for each of your students. The card and envelope print as one piece, and can even become a foldable that your students can keep on their desks to remind them of what makes them so special to you! Click here to see it.  You can sample four free cards when you download the preview there.

A customer made a special request for something more specifically for the K-2's. here are a few samples from the set for your shortest sweeties.  Click here to see more.

I hope this will make choosing your Valentines a simpler job this year, with no late-night run to the 24-Hour Walmart! 

Happy Teaching!

                                                                                                       

Happy Heart Freebie!

Hello, Teaching Friends!


Here's a bit of Valentine love to share with your students. Play Happy Heart to practice decoding words that have the /ar/ chunk. The set includes the game board you see here, 41 word cards, and 4 special cards (move ahead, move back).  It will be a great seasonal addition to your Word Work center!

Remember that February is also American Heart Health Awareness Month - a great time to add some health teaching with lifelong benefits!

Click on the picture to download - enjoy!

Happy Teaching!

                                                                                                  

A Valentines Treat for the Birds

Hi, Teaching Friends!

A few weeks ago, Erica Bohrer had a neat post on her Critters in the Classroom blog about critters outside the classroom. Like Erica, I think a window bird feeder is a great way for your students to observe, learn, and appreciate animals, especially with many schools outlawing pets because of allergies. Observing a variety of birds at your classroom window builds compassion and also a wealth of background to establish prior knowledge for your other animal studies. Best of all, it's a lot of fun!


The bird feeders attach to the outside of your window with suction cups.  They're inexpensive at places like Walmart and HomeDepot, and are also available at lots of places online. Sorry that I don't have a great photo, but you can see our feeder in the background of the flower photo on this post.

You might be thinking that the birds will be a crazy distraction for your students. In my experience, that only lasts a day or two. Here's the positive flipside of the distraction: for a child with behavior issues, a few quiet minutes near the bird feeder has a very calming effect, kind of like watching fish in a tank. Also, it's such a kick when the volume gets going in your room to hear the little guys remind each other, "Shhh! You'll scare the birds!" :)


To encourage the literacy connection, put a box of bird books in a box on the windowsill. I like Kevin Henke's Birds, Nancy Carol Willis' The Robins in Your Backyard,  and Cathryn Sills'  About Birds. Any of the field guides to birds are also very high-interest in spite of their high reading level. Here's a word chart and diagram to encourage journal entries about the birds.

Click picture to download.

It's also fun to make birdfeeders to send home. I used to use cardboard hearts, spread with peanut butter and dipped into birdseeds. Of course, PB has become such an issue now. Here's a link to alphamom for a more complicated but safer alternative.

Update: 2/7/13: Here's a link to Lowes Creative Ideas Magazine variation.

"Valentines for the Birds", by Aileen Fisher, is a perfect match to read and attach to this project.

                                                                Have fun with the birds!

                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                   

Is the Super Bowl this weekend?

Okay, even I, who am one of the least-tuned-in-to-football people in the world, know the answer to that question! But for those of you - and of course your students- who now rank this as a national holiday, you might want to take a look at this game for compound words.

To play, students take turns reading the 3 words on a card and using 2 of them to make a compound word. There are 36 cards, and there's also another game board, "In the Doghouse", to play using the same cards. Response sheets for accountability are included for both game boards. Click on the picture to see it all at my TPT store.

Got to go...  I may not be all about the big game, but I've got to start planning the special snacks to munch on while we enjoy the commercials! :)