The F word

No no, not THAT F word... Freebie!!! What?! I have a freebie for you! Yes I do! Being on summer vacation has done me some good already! And, it will do you some good because I have freebies! Are you excited?!
I have started planning for next year already. I know, summer break just started, but we all know teachers work on summer break. And I have had ideas in my head for so long that I had to get started. Every year I have at least a handful of kids that really need phonics help, but there is no time for that during regular instruction time. So, I am going to work with those children during morning work time. I bought a third grade phonics workbook but I needed more. So the first thing I made (for the first week of phonics fun- that is what I am going to call it) is a making words activity.

 

I will be doing this with my group, but it can be done as a center activity. (I realize this is definitely NOT something most third grade teachers need, but my tier 3 kids do. Feel free to pass it on to your friends that teach younger grades.) Each student will get a 3 letter word mat, 4 letter word mat, and a set of alphabet cards.  All of the image cards will be flipped upside down. One student will pick a card, say the word, and then we will discuss the sounds they hear and how to spell it. So if they picked the star (it says color on it, so the answer is pink), they would say pink and identify which letters make that sound. They would find the letters in their pile and put them on the mat. Then they will record the answer on their recording sheet.

 

There are a total of 11 cards for students to work through. To make it more "fun" looking, I am going to print the word mats and alphabet cards on bright colored paper. Or if I am feeling extra ambitious, I may print the word mats on white and color the beach balls in. 

I really think my kids will love this. Once we do a few together, I may turn it into a friendly competition. We will pick a card and then see who can come up with the correct spelling of the word first. The winner will get smart beads and a note sent home. (If you haven't seen my post on how I use smart beads in my room, you can click here.) 

I hope you enjoy this freebie! (click on the cover page picture to take you to the posting).

Ready for another F word. Two of them actually. Fabulous Finds (from Target of course)

A couple teacher friends posted pics of this AMAZING find in the dollar spot... and so I hunted them down and finally found them in my third target. I bought every single one they had (23). 

Book boxes! For $1! Now, I know they don't match. And well, they certainly don't go with my plans of doing a pirate theme, but I needed them, and for $1, I don't care if they match. Plus I am thinking of doing bright colors with a touch of pirate anyways. I am thinking of putting these on a shelf where you wouldn't be able to tell that they didn't match anyways.

My next target dollar spot find...

Happiness! All kinds of sticky notes and tabs. There were all different sized flags and even regular post its. But I didn't get those (yet). The 2 packs of dry erase markers were perfect because my students are going to need them for our multiplication tests next year (post coming next week). And the other thing you see is a 2 pack of mini erasers. Yes I know my kids could use socks or fabric scraps, but these were cute. For now, I only have 8 of each, but I will be going back to get a class set.

I am linking up with