Happy Monday friends!
After talking with A LOT of teachers last week (more on than to come!)…. some of you are already back in school THIS week! WHAT?!
For those of us soaking up the lasts few days/weeks of summer…. I hope you have enjoyed your summer thus far and make the most of what is left.
Last week was definitely the highlight of MY summer! I’ll give you a hint…. 6,000 enthusiastic teachers in one location (Las Vegas!)…. some fabulous presenters, some amazing program and event planners with SDE…. and ME!
You guessed it…. the National I Teach conferences with SDE. Specifically, the I Teach 1st Conference, as this is where I was presenting for two days!
Usually when I present at the state conferences throughout the year, I travel alone, take time off from work, and then return and get right back in the hustle of things! This year though, I brought the hubby along…. since I would be gone for 5 days!
We arrived on Sunday and settled in…. walking the strip and adoring the sights. OH…. and the AMAZING food. Gosh dang…. I could live there for the food!
And ….. yes…. we gambled (a tiny bit!)
One great thing about these conferences is not only the wonderful teachers who attend, but I get to see some blogging and social media buddies that I don’t get to see too often!
And you know what happens when teachers get together…. we talk talk talk chat talk talk LAUGH talk and chat some more! SO while I met some AMAZING people last week…. I didn’t get my picture with everyone because of all the chatting, talking, and laughing!! 🙁
After settling in… it was time to get to work! This was my room for the week ….
Now…. onto the GOOD stuff 🙂
As promised in my sessions, I told everyone that attended that I would be on the blog soon to recap the sessions!
Today – – – – – > It’s all about Literacy and Sight Words,
More specifically, the sessions,
“Readers Under Construction”
and
“At First Sight” – sight words
Readers Under Construction
This session was all about building our students into successful readers using shared and guided reading, along with comprehension, decoding, vocabulary, and fluency activities in the mix!
A combination of shared and guided reading should be included daily into your classroom to create successful readers in the primary grades. This is the ultimate goal in K-3 classrooms! If you are not doing shared or guided reading, I highly recommend looking into it and seeing if it can be implemented into your classroom schedule!
As we build our students into readers, we should also be including a variety of activities that focus on comprehension, decoding, vocabulary, and fluency.
Throughout this session, I highlighted a variety of activities for each of these reading components and compiled most of them into a complete packet!
Here is a quick look at what is included!
These comprehension sticks are perfect to use whole group or small group after reading a selected text. The teacher can choose or students can choose and it makes fun interactive way to focus on comprehension!
These Comprehension Necklaces are a favorite! These can be used in small groups or whole group! Divide your students into groups of 5, giving a necklace to each student. The students are responsible for retelling the part of the story that matches the necklace they wear! This is a fun and interactive way to get all students involved for comprehension!
I use these comprehension cards in my small groups every.single.day! I color coded mine into red, yellow, and green, as in a stoplight!
Red – we are stopped. We haven’t moved forward with the text… we don’t know what lies ahead!
Yellow – We are SLOWLY and cautiously moving through the text, gathering information and answering questions.
Green – We are moving quickly now. We have completed the text, we are answering questions and re-visiting the text if needed.
The following pictures will give a much more detailed look at what is included in the completed “Readers Under Construction” packet.
I have just put the bundle in my TpT store AND it’s on sale!! You can find it by clicking HERE or the picture below 🙂
Now…. onto Sight Words!
I shared quite a bit of activities (like 35-40) sight word activities as well as tracking options to help measure our student’s success! I think by far the favorite… were the sight word songs! Well… you aren’t alone! My students LOVE to sing our sight word songs 🙂
Did you know that when you put content to music, the brain has a 90% higher chance at retaining that information?! IT’S TRUE! Imagine what putting our content in the classroom to music can do for our students?!
Many of you asked for a copy of the songs…. AND they are available for YOU!!!
I have two separate packs that offer the sight word songs….
This pack includes the songs for the first 100 Fry words, however it also included multiple activities for each word as well, totaling over 1,000 pages in this bundle!
This bundle includes letters to build the words, no prep printables, student booklet, songs, and more!
IF you JUST want the sight word SONGS…. then the pack below is for you 🙂
I included color and b/w versions, just in case you want your students to create their own song book for a keepsake!
I also have the Interactive Sight Word pages available for the first 100 sight words, which make great morning work activities, centers, word word, fast finishers, and more!
The packs below are all in my TpT store 🙂
This pack is all about your word wall that includes your own specific sight words for your classroom! This pack includes the mystery word activity as well as 19 other activities for your word wall and sight words!
This pack includes an interactive template for the first 100 Fry words, allowing students to write the word, trace the word, write a sentence, and build the word!
I really just want to say a BIG Thank you to EACH and EVERY teacher who attended a session of mine last week! You were so engaged, enthusiastic, and I had a blast with each and every session!
Please feel free to email if you have any questions from the past week or a session! I’ll be more than happy to help 🙂
Stay tuned for Vegas Recap (Part 2) which will be ALL about Science and Social Studies 🙂
Until then, you can find the activities above in my TpT store and by clicking on the highlighted links throughout the post!
Happy Teaching!!!
Took 2 of your sessions at the conference and they were great! Thank you for all the great info! You are awesome!