Making Words

I LOVE MAKING WORDS!  I mean, not making new words myself, but the task that the students have to make new words using the letters of one big word!  It was so much fun last year to see all of the words that students came up with that they didn't think that they could spell.  There were also some creative words that they made up (which weren't correctly spelled but they phonetically spelled them out so I had to give them some credit for that!).  For example, I remember last year a girl came up with the word "innit" and I circled it on her paper and she said "Ms. Schifano that can't be wrong because I know 'innit' is a word!" and I asked her to use it in a sentence and she said "I went in it (innit) when I went to school".  So as you can see this activity gets students thinking about words and I encourage them to use the dictionary if they are stuck on spelling.  
I use making words as a literacy center that I keep every week but just rotate the words used.  If I had the time to, I would make 4-5 sets of the letters, laminate, and put into envelopes to be used every week so that the students didn't have to cut out their own words.  Maybe it's something that I can work on during the year, but last year I had great success with having them cut out their own letters (that way, I can staple them and they can take it home and practice when they are done with the center!)

I just re-did my Making Words pages for the upcoming school year to move the letters to be cut out from the top: 

And now the letters are at the bottom and I made it a little prettier.

The letters on this one make "pilgrims"

The letters on this one make "september"

You can pick up all 10 fall/winter themed making words for your own literacy centers here.  

If you have any comments or ideas of words to use for making words, please post them in the comments section--thanks!!

Now taking a break from planning and time to start packing to move!! 

Common Core: Reading Literature

I am going to be slowly going through the core curriculum content standards for Literacy and Math for first grade and making files with helpful hints for teachers and graphic organizers/assessments that correlate with those standards.  So let's start at the beginning with RL 1.1:Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.  

Here are some helpful hints for teachers when teaching to this standard and assessing.  

And here's one of the graphic organizers that I made to go along with the standard to use after a read aloud (or can be used after guided reading or in a literacy center such as a browsing basket or listening center)

Students will draw and write about their favorite character in the story.  

To get the full file (these two pages plus one more graphic organizer) you can find it here.  

Ch-ch-check back to see the rest of the common core files...once they are created, of course! :) 

What do I do when I can't sleep? Do work, of course!

I got so hooked on watching the Olympics tonight and before I knew it, it was midnight and I was wide awake.  So...I'll post what I created tonight! 


First...I put together into one big file all of my literacy center signs that I laminate and put into a pocket chart so that students know what centers they go into each day.  Here's some pictures from the file that can be downloaded here.

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I also uploaded to TPT my home reading log, which I send home with students each month to have them track (with their families) what they read at home.  Parents are supposed to sign the log so that students and families are accountable for reading done at home.  You can really see a correlation between students who fill up their sheets the fastest and the highest readers in the class, which is why parent involvement is so key to helping all kids learn at all ages and levels.  

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We are also switching it up this year in first grade and following the Dolch Sight words for our high frequency/spelling words that we use for our spelling tests & homework.  I think I'm going to like these better than what we used last year (most used words in English language) because they got very hard at the end of the year.  I created a file with 6 words on each page (which is what we give each week for homework/spelling) which are shown in two formats.  

The top format (table format) could be used for putting onto a piece of construction paper and putting up in the classroom all together to display words for the week or putting into a literacy center where students have to work with all of their words for the week.  The bottom ones are spaced out so that they can be laminated and put into a pocket chart or onto a word wall, etc.  If you want to pick up all 36 pages of these flashcards, you can get them at TPT.  

OKAYYYYYYYYYY!!!! I'm going to get into bed and try to fall asleep, which I know will be quite difficult because I have all of these things I am thinking up for my classroom that I want to do!  I'll just start thinking of this magical place and going there for my "mini-moon" and hopefully I can fall asleep!