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Here is a great serises of videos to help your child with mathematics concepts/

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Hereford Elementary First Grade uploaded a video 3 years ago

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This YouTuber has created a whole series of how to correctly form the letters of the alphabet

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How to form the letters of the alphabet - Introduction

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This series of videos will help parents to understand how to work with their child practicing correct formation of the letters of the alphabet. Make sure to have your child use a number 2 pencil for writing and always begin letters from the top.

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This is the phonics program that we use at school - Soundwaves.

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Watch a class of eager students perform the Sound Waves Chants and Actions.

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Would be great for Sight Words

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Since the start of the school year, both kids have been learning at full speed. At the start of the year, QBoy could recognize all his numbers but still struggled to write many of them. He has also been working on learning sight words using the XGirl, on the other hand, has also been learning her numbers as well as her letters (using our own curriculum, some of which I shared about in You Can Read program from 1+1+1=1. this post).

One afternoon both kids had been struggling a bit with writing various things. I really wanted them to get it right, but they were finding it very laborious to keep erasing their work and re-writing it. So to spice it up, I pulled out some trays and some shaving cream and invited them to try some shaving cream writing.
Click here if you want more information about teaching the alphabet in a fun, hands-on, and multi-sensory way.
I placed just a dollop of shaving cream in the middle of each kid's tray.

I then invited them to spread the shaving cream all over the tray in order to create their writing surface. At this point, I was already hearing giggles.

I then started giving QBoy words to spell.

And I gave XGirl numbers and letters to write.

The kids loved the sensory aspect to this activity. They also loved how easy it was to "erase" a mistake by smearing the shaving cream. And I loved how easy it was for me to support their learning with the shaving cream writing. I could guide their hands to form the letter/number/word correctly if needed. And I could quickly write an example in the shaving cream for them to copy.

This shaving cream writing activity really spiced up our learning one afternoon. I also directly credit this activity with helping XGirl learn to write the number '4.' She had been struggling with how to correctly form the number until we did shaving cream writing. With this activity, she was having so much fun and found it so easy to practice the number over and over that she built some muscle memory and finally learned how to write a '4,' which made her a very happy girl!
Have questions about teaching the alphabet? We've got answers! Click here to learn more.
More reading resources

More sight word posts from Gift of Curiosity:
You can find more ideas for supporting children's reading skills on my Literacy Activities for Kids page and my Reading, Writing, and Spelling Skills Pinterest board. Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity's board Reading, Writing, and Spelling skills on Pinterest.

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Shaving cream writing - learning through sensory play

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Since the start of the school year, both kids have been learning at full speed. At the start of the year, QBoy could recognize all his numbers but still struggled to write many of them. He has also been working on learning sight words using the You Can Read program from 1+1+1=1.

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CVC freebie download

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here.
One of my favorite things about kindergarteners is when the magic of practicing all of those letter sounds translates into sounding out words. This is why CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words are the perfect start to really dive into reading with. Learning to read CVC words takes lots of practice. Blending all of the sounds together to understand the meaning of the word doesn't happen overnight. Using our CVC Word Match puzzles will make the hard work, more fun!

CVC Word Match

This free printable set includes 30 CVC words with matching pictures. All 5 short vowels have 6 matches each.

Print the file below and cut out the pieces. If you are using this CVC Word Match game in a classroom setting, I would laminate the pieces before cutting them apart. This will make the activity more durable while being used by so many different hands!

You can choose one medial vowel to focus on during the activity or throw all pieces into a tray or basket and play!

When playing this with my kindergartener, she insisted on playing all by herself. So instead of giving any hints to setting the pieces up on the table, I just sat back and watched. She chose to separate all of the CVC words and all of the CVC pictures into different piles. Then one by one, she spread out all of the CVC words across the table.

Once her words were set, she chose one card from the other pile. She would say the word to herself and then look for the correct CVC word. She's becoming a stronger reader at this point in the school year, and was able to match all of the pieces up correctly.

After she matched the pieces, she told me it was my turn. I decided to test her blending skills and letter sounds, and purposely match some up incorrectly. She caught on right away and thought it was great to have to correct my mistakes!

On each word that I wrongly matched, I made her practice stretching out the word for me!

Get Your Copy

Ready to practice CVC words? C lick the yellow button below to begin reading! Then, if you'd like more CVC word fun, hop over and try our Never Ending CVC Word Game!

More CVC Word Work

Working hard on CVC Words? Grab our CVC Word Family Emergent Readers or CVC Word Family Phonics Poems, and get help your kids get tons of practice with their reading fluency in a fun, engaging way!

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CVC Word Match Reading Puzzles - Free Preschool Printable

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here. One of my favorite things about kindergarteners is when the magic of practicing all of those letter sounds translates into sounding out words. This is why CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words are the perfect start to really dive into reading with. Learning to read CVC words takes lots of practice.

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Caterpillar words

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Word Caterpillars are not new; I have seen them all over the internet as a fun alternative to a basic word wall. I had intended making one for my kids as soon as we started learning Sight Words, but that didn't happen. Finally after covering 15 or so sight words I sat down and got started. We really needed a way to review!

Luckily my procrastination led to a fun result. I already knew my kids were active learners. You know the kind, the ones that can't sit still, the ones that learn better doing hands-on projects, yep, that's my kids. I also knew it was hard to find hands-on ways to learn to read, but my little word-a-pillar was going to help!

Our Sight Word Caterpillar Game

Since we had so many words to start our caterpillar with, we were able to play a little game as we assembled it.

After printing and laminating (we just use this simple laminator) all the current words, I laid them in a pile face down on the floor. The girls took turns drawing words. If they could read the word they drew they got to hang in on the caterpillar! This was VERY exciting to the girls! I guess there is something special about getting to tape something to the wall (or door frame in this case) or maybe it was just that they were reading.

We kept going, and going, until most of the words were up. If they came to a word they didn't remember, it went back in the pile.

They got stuck on the word "here," so I got to hang it up, not nearly as exciting as they were making it out to be.

And just like that our Sight Word Caterpillar was started. We covered 4-5 words each week, and at the end of the week we would play a mini-version of the game to hang up our new words.

We can also use it to review words, since the circles are laminated we can take them now at any time to play a new game of Build a Word-a-Pillar!

Print Your Own Sight Word Caterpillar

That's right, you can print a copy of our Word-a-Pillar for use in your home or classroom because most kids enjoy active learning even if they learn through another method too.

Our entire word caterpillar includes over 240 sight words. I am sorry they are all in capitals; when I made it my girls already knew both capital and lowercase letters, and I thought capitals would be easier for them to read from the floor!

Want to make your own Word-a-Pillar? Here is the PDF version of mine !

Follow along, so you don't miss a post!

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unique and fun sight word learning: building a word-a-pillar

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life with moore babies: unique and fun sight word learning: building a word-a-pillar

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Life with Moore Babies: Unique and Fun Sight Word Learning: Building a Word-a-Pillar

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Word Caterpillars are not new; I have seen them all over the internet as a fun alternative to a basic word wall. I had intended making one for my kids as soon as we started learning Sight Words, but that didn't happen. Finally after covering 15 or so sight words I sat down and got started.

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35 spelling games

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A couple of weeks ago I shared with you my Top 3 Fun Spelling Games. I thought I'd carry on that theme this week and pass on to you some more fun spelling games that will engage your students and help to consolidate what has been learned. I have found that using spelling games is a great way to finish a tutoring session, especially if it's been a particularly challenging session.

I have archived below some awesome spelling games so you have them all in one place. I hope you find some games that you can use in your classroom and with your students.

1. Roll a sight word by I Can Teach My Child
100 sight words are provided that you can download, or you can incorporate your own words if your prefer.

2. Who can spell the most words? by No Time For Flashcards
This game uses the 'Connect Four' game to make spelling words.

Graphics & Fonts By: Graphics From The Pond

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35 spelling games for students of all ages

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35 Spelling Games For Students Of All Ages (Top Notch Teaching)

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A couple of weeks ago I shared with you my Top 3 Fun Spelling Games. I thought I'd carry on that theme this week and pass on to you some more fun spelling games that will engage your students and help

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This is pretty awesome

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Showing busy teachers how to use this FREE ready to print word work mat six different ways in your math and literacy centers in an Early Years classroom.

Teachers are busy people. I'm a teacher so I get it. Originally created to help my students practice their sight words during our
We all like to find resources for our classrooms that are useful and engaging and but are also easy to prep, set up and store when not in use.
Our 'Say It, Make It, Write It' word mats are one such resource.
l iteracy centre activities but l ike many of our printables, they can easily be used different ways making them an ideal resource for both the Early Years classroom and word work at home.

This post contains affiliate links.

ONE PRINTABLE, SIX WAYS TO USE IT

1. PRACTICE SIGHT WORDS
These Say It, Make It, Write It word mats can, of course, be used to practice sight words or tricky words.
Some programs also refer to these words as high frequency words because they're ones that we use most often in our writing. Allowing young children opportunity to practice reading and writing these words will help them become more fluent readers and writers.

One idea is to write the sight words onto cards or we love to use pop sticks for ours then add some magnetic letters for children to build the word themselves before writing it with some whiteboard markers.

We've used other tools like stamps, erasers letters, glass gems, LEGO, letter tiles and our rock alphabet in place of the magnetic letters. Another favourite are our
alphabet beads which get used constantly in our classroom and the children love them! You can use them instead of magnetic letters to make the words.

2. MAKE LETTERS I've had this
Of course, you don't have to use letters. Why not use play dough!
For preschoolers, you can use these same mats to learn individual letters and the sounds they make.
Here we used our play dough to make the letter before writing it below. Obviously you're not going to be concerned about writing the letter on the line at this stage like you would older children.
Leapfrog Alphabet Magnet set since my eldest was little and it's still going strong! The children can put each letter in it and hear the letter name and sound it makes.

3. BUILD NAME RECOGNITION
The 'Say It, Make It, Write It' printable is also useful for helping younger children learn their names. One preschool has been using these as their check-in station.

4. TEACH UPPER AND LOWER CASE LETTERS
I also use them in literacy work stations to help children recognise the purpose of upper case letters. Here we used student names but you could just as easily use other proper nouns.

We had also used some individual letter cards to see if we could make the upper and lower case letter before trying to write them too.

We've been working on writing other words in class so we've been using some of our charade cards without their label to practice making and writing short words. This idea could be used with any age group to help spell both familiar and unfamiliar words.

Our 'Say It. Make It, Write It' mats haven't just been useful in our literacy block though. They've also been useful as a math centre when we looked at numbers to twenty.

The students chose a stick with the number word written on it then had to make the numeral and represent it with the dice in their play dough.

In fact we came up with even more ways to use our Say It, Make It, Write It mats in Maths! Check out all those ideas here.

You can see how easy each of these activities was to prep and set up. And the mats can easily be stored when not in use.

You can download your copy from here.

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SAY IT, MAKE IT, WRITE IT MATS - HOW TO USE THEM SIX DIFFERENT WAYS

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Say It, Make It, Write It Free Printable Mats - How to Use Them Six Different Ways. Find out how to use this one free printable resource in your classroom 6 ways!

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Change up way your child writes their spelling words.

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Questions to ask

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Free spelling game

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Looking for a fun spelling activity to help your child avoid the summer slide? Try this gumball themed spelling game. It works for any word list!
(This post contains affiliate links.)
Writing spelling words five times each isn't fun for me or my kids. And frankly, that kind of mechanical practice isn't always effective.

That's why I love to make printable spelling games to use at home - and share with you, of course!

This game is based on one of my earliest printables. Spell it! is another gumball themed spelling game, but it takes two full pieces of paper to make the game. The longer I blog (and teach my own kids), the more I realize that we all need something simple. Assembling a two-part game and laminating it may not be what we have in mind.

Plus, some of you have told me you'd appreciate black and white printables too. So when the printable is a simple one (like this game), I'm going to start offering a black and white version when possible.

I like color. So I use the ink. 🙂

Directions:

1. Cut cardstock into small rectangles or cut index cards in half. Write a spelling word on each one.

2. Grab a die and playing pieces.

3. To start, the other player reads you a word. Spell it aloud. If you're correct, roll the die and move ahead. If you're wrong, you stay where you are.

4. The first to the gumball machine, wins!

What words should you use?

Obviously if you're using this during the school year, use the weekly spelling list.

When I'm creating lists from scratch, my very favorite resource is Words Their Way. I use the fourth edition, but each edition gets better, so you might want to spring for the new one if you're designing spelling lists for your kids or students on a regular basis. I use the appendix for creating word sorts and games for my kids. Such a wonderful book! When I used it for a grad school class, it completely changed how I teach spelling.

Grab your free game (in color and black & white) HERE.

© 2015 - 2016, Anna G. All rights reserved.

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Free spelling activity (for any list!) - The Measured Mom

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Looking for a fun spelling activity to help your child avoid the summer slide? Try this gumball themed spelling game. It works for any word list! (This post contains affiliate links.) Writing spelling words five times each isn't fun for me or my kids. And frankly, that kind of mechanical practice isn't always effective.

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Free spelling and reading games
http://topnotchteaching.com/lesson-ideas/reading-games/

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Sight Word Slap

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The game is simple. I put our vocabulary words on different colored sheets of tag board. (That way if a word gets mixed up with another stack, it's easy to spot.) Words cards lie on top of table face up. I call out a word. Person to find it first slaps their hand down on top of the card, then takes the card and puts it to the side in "their pile". Person with the most words wins!

(Hint: Don't call out the last word when there's just one card left on the table. Otherwise it becomes a wrestling match.)

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The game is simple. I put our vocabulary words on different colored sheets of tag board. (That way if a word gets mixed up with another stack, it's easy to spot.) Words cards lie on top of table face up. I call out a word.

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Great for all year levels

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Asking your child to locate certain letters in the book.

Asking your child to locate certain sounds in the book.

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Is to add to this page throughout the year.

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This would also be great for sight word practice.

Due to copy write issues, we are unable to download and mass share resources.
We are however able to provide you a link to the free resource.
This link will take to you Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT).
You can sign up for free.

We are not promoting any company, simply sharing awesome resources.

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FREE Printable***Great to send home with parents and to share with teachers . It is a list of apps to use to write spelling words at home or in the classroom. They have been a huge hit with my son and students at school.

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Due to copy write issues, we are unable to download and mass share resources.
We are however able to provide you a link to the free resource.
This link will take to you Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT).
You can sign up for free.

We are not promoting any company, simply sharing awesome resources.

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Reading Strategies These Reading Strategies Bookmarks were a customer request to support the reading strategies posters that are found in my reading units. Students can use these in their book boxes or to hold a spot in their books as a reminder of the strategies they are working on while reading independently.

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This would be perfect for sight words also!

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This would also work really well for sight words

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This would work well for sight words, spelling and writing their name

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Cute freebie to download

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Activity for ages 5 to 7.

Looking for a fun way to help kids learn how to spell simple CCVC words such as ship, frog and crab? These print and play puzzles are easy to prepare and motivating to play. They make an awesome addition to a blends or digraphs literacy center!
This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
Getting Ready

To prep the puzzles (below), I began by printing them on card stock to give them extra durability.

Then I ran them through my laminator and cut along the dotted lines to separate the pieces.

As I cut apart each of the 24 puzzles, I slid them into separate snack size zip bags so kids could easily grab a complete set.

That's it! The prep took just a few minutes to complete.

Puzzle Time

My students and I have been working on blends or digraphs so they were ready to tackle both CCVC words at the same time.

I spread four of the CCVC puzzles out on a table at a time so the kids could find the matching pieces.

As we went along, I talked about the pictures with the kids and let them know the names of some of the trickier words like clam. It was great to see kids recognize the blends we have been learning like "fr" in frog.

My students loved solving the puzzles and sounding out the words at the end. Such a simple way to reinforce their learning.

Grab Your Set

Click the blue download button below to grab your free CCVC puzzles and then hop over and snag our free blends sort too!

About Rosemary

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Activity for ages 5 to 7. Looking for a fun way to help kids learn how to spell simple CCVC words such as ship, frog and crab? These print and play puzzles are easy to prepare and motivating to play. They make an awesome addition to a blends or digraphs literacy center!

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You already know that letter reversals create confusion among early learners that can lead to long-term learning troubles, specifically related to reading progress...

...but, did you know that research indicates the problem may be much bigger than we first expected - yes, dyslexia is now possibly linked to these early learning blunders which can be completely avoided for your children.

If you want to bypass these early learning mistakes - using effective methods of teaching the alphabet that virtually eliminate 100% of these letter reversal troubles - then these letter reversal teaching tips are an absolute MUST READ!

While each of these tips is phenomenal, you'll want to pay careful attention to identify which of these, if not all of them, can be used right away in your daily lessons.

These 5 teaching tips will reveal how to prevent any further confusion and course correct your child's learning path, giving them a sense of confidence and certainty.

TIP #1 - Alphabet Font Choice

Children are strong visual and kinesthetic learners which means that images, signs, and symbols create initial impressions that go beyond audible explanation or reason. For instance, let's put this concept into practice right here for you.

Take a look below at this commonly used font for teaching the letter b and d.

By using a traditional ball-and-stick font, these letters appear as a mirror reflection that creates added confusion for children who do not understand opposites.

HOWEVER, when using an appropriate alphabet learning font, the letter b has no "tail" extending to the bottom left, while the letter d has a "tail" extending to the bottom right - like that of a dog (d for dog.)

Notice how the fonts differ from one to the other more clearly?

This "tail" is what we call a learning landmark - that is a distinguishing symbol that engages the imagination to lock in and secure association.

Of course, after your child learns these fundamental differences, you can explore alternate font variations to expand their letter recognition capabilities, however, starting with a clear differentiation secures the initial concrete letter impression.

TIP #2: Use Continuous Stroke

A child's natural tendency for handwriting is the continuous stroke method. That is the method of handwriting that maintains pencil to paper for the complete letter formation.

Go ahead and try it - pick up a pencil and slowly write the letter b. Notice how you create it with one continuous stroke? Depending on where you started the letter will determine its ending point. Now try the same with the letter d.

By using one single continuous stroke versus creating a ball, lifting the pencil and attaching the vertical stick with a second stroke, you make a unique letter creation that helps differentiate between the b and d letters.

Also, this writing formation etches a distinct pattern into the child's mind that helps facilitate association and letter recognition.

Learn more about continuous stroke versus ball-and-stick handwriting methods.

A common but overlooked fundamental in learning the alphabet is basic letter formation and letter starting points. Teaching your child the correct points to begin and end each letter allows for a natural formation using the continuous stroke method.

A critical mistake is to use perfect circles and lines to form letters which remove the unique and distinct shape characteristics that children recognize to help individualize and identify the letters.

Instead, treat each letter as its own character that includes starting point, ending point, shape path and formation. This method reinforces the unique markers required to differentiate and recognize each letter.

Additionally, before learning to write letters, children are already learning the traditional alphabet song and letter sequence. Using this natural advantage, the letter sequence is already imprinted in your child's mind which can be accessed to reinforce learning letter formation.

This teaching tip focuses on your child's spacial learning process and helps to separate letter concepts. We find it helpful to go as far as creating two separate learning booths that contain the different letters with related images that your child can enter and explore.

By separating each letter by lesson time, the learning environment and the related letter objects, you engage your child's tactile senses and provide clear guidelines for them to differentiate each letter.

You may even consider using the dining room for letter d and a bedroom for the letter b which provides another learning landmark. This practice creates an anchor in the lesson time with your child's familiar environment that triggers heightened recall.

Additionally, separating common letter reversal pairs into different letter groups is highly recommended to help divide and categorize them accordingly.

TIP #5: Related Letter Formation Associations

Utilizing organic teaching methods tend to produce magical results. In this case, we turn to the natural shape of the human hand to illustrate the lowercase letter b and d.

With the left hand, show your child the thumbs up sign. Then trace the letter b with your right hand over the left-hand b shape while explaining how it outlines the letter formation. Be sure to start the tracing pattern at the top of the thumb, down to the base of your hand, and then up and around in a continuous motion.

Next, draw the letter b on the whiteboard or paper and have your child compare their hand with the letter b picture. Then identify the vertical line and oval shape, or the b's bubble.

Explain that the letter b is second in the alphabet sequence which is why it uses the left hand.

Now, repeat these same steps using the right hand to form the letter d, while explaining that the letter d comes after the letter b. Of course, be sure to begin the letter d from the correct starting point at the base of the thumb instead of at the top, and continue tracing around to finish at the tail.

Special Note: The B-E-D activity poster uses these hand shapes to fortify the correct direction and formation, however, first, cover the basic association and verify that your child has sufficient understanding and practice before introducing it. By using the hand shapes and relationship to the drawn formation on paper, you allow your child's brain to connect and see a distinction. Once they have this base understanding, you can also implement the B-E-D activity to help fortify the lesson.

Conclusion

When the strategies revealed in these 5 teaching tips are used together, they create a synergetic learning force to eliminate confusion and anchor each fundamental letter identity.

The primary goal of this approach is to help your child build essential identifying blocks from multiple angles in the early stages of learning until they are reinforced by repetition, practice, and use.

Now that you are aware of the common mistakes, try integrating these tips and customize the approach to your own teaching style that lends to better understanding and comprehension for your students.

Happy Teaching!

Activities and Teaching Posters for B-D Letter Reversal

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You already know that letter reversals create confusion among early learners that can lead to long-term learning troubles, specifically related to reading progress... ...but, did you know that research indicates the problem may be much bigger than we first expected - yes, dyslexia is now possibly linked to these early learning blunders which can be completely avoided for your children.

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This page has been created for Prep - 2.
You are able to adapt them to suit your child.

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Scroll the page left & right
up & down.

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What do good readers do ?

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Looking for the main idea in the text
Cr

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Asking your child these higher order thinking questions will enhance your child's understanding of the text they are reading.

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'Between the lines'  questions (inference questions), are a great way to challenge your child's thoughts and think outside the 'box'

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Use Bloglovin' & never miss a post from the education blog Susan Jones by Susan Jones.

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Here is another example of different questions you could ask

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Asking simple questions like :
Who was in the story?
What happened?
Where did they go?
Why do you think....

is a great place to start to enhance your child understanding and knowledge.

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Questions, Anyone? Ask Your Way to Reading Comprehension | Activity | Education.com

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Help your child gain reading comprehension skills, as well as listening and memory skills with this fun activity that uses his favorite book!

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Thinking about reading.

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Making connections is a really important skill for children to learn.

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We use these strategies in class.

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Word Hunt.

Write sight words on sticky notes.
Put the sticky notes throughout your house.

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Such a simple idea

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Great for spelling families
http://www.inmyworld.com.au/sight-words-and-word-families-week-2/

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One of my favorite links!
http://teachingmama.org/fun-ways-practice-sight-words/

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Winter break never seems quite long enough does it? You probably had big plans to revamp your entire schedule, create some new games for your students, reorganize your classroom library or start a new behavior management system . . . but then those long lazy mornings were just so nice, and hanging with family was such a pleasant distraction, or that new series on Netflix simply sucked you in for a full three days. It happens! I totally get it. That's why I'm here to help you out with a little freebie that will set you on the right road for the New Year and engage your students by Colorizing Your Classroom at the same time.

Color is a commodity in short supply during the long, cold, white days of winter in Michigan and many other parts of the country, so any time I can engage my students with something fun and colorful, I take full advantage. A FREE Editable Ice Fishing for Sight Words game using Astrobrights Papers is a perfect way to welcome your students back from the holidays. I've included a few affiliate links to make shopping for items in the post a bit more convenient if you need them.

I knew that using Astrobrights Papers for this activity was going to be perfect because I wanted to make sure that it was differentiated. No sight word game is fun or interesting if it's too easy or too hard. I wanted any students to be able to play it and play it at the same time as another student even if they weren't at level of sight word fluency.

In my classroom, I have my sight words leveled by Dolch Word Lists 1-11. All my students work at their own individual pace to master each of the eleven levels (220 Words) by using my sight word fluency system- Ball Words. I knew I wanted my fish to correspond with those levels, so I chose eleven different Astrobrights Papers and printed each list on a different color of cardstock. Here's the colors I chose for this activity: Solar Yellow, Cosmic Orange, Rocket Red, Plasma Pink, Fireball Fuchsia, Planetary Purple, Venus Violet, Celestial Blue, Terrestrial Teal, Lunar Blue and Vulcan Green.

You can find these colors individually or there are various cardstock assortment packs to choose from on Amazon with many of these same colors.

You can use as few or as many colors as you choose because, the packet is EDITABLE. That means if you use Fry words or Dolch Pre-primer and Primer or your own individually developed sight word list, it won't matter. You simply open the document with Adobe Reader, type in the words you would like your students to use where you see a blue highlighted box and print them out on colored paper.

In the end, you'll have sight word fish differentiated for your entire class. Now you just need to whip up some poles, prep your fish and create an ice fishing (or pond) experience for your student.

Poles are easy! Simply grab some nylon string, duct tape, a couple of dowel rods and some ring shaped magnets. I used these ring shaped magnets that I had in one of my science kits because they are easy to attach to a string and they were free. You can get them pretty cheap though if you don't have any of your own laying around.

Wrap your string around one end of the dowel rod . . .

and tape it to attach it.

Cut the string to your desired length and then tie your magnet to the end of it. Viola! You have a magnetic fishing pole.

Now to prep your fish, I use the shortest metal brads I can find and poke it right through where the eye of the fish would be.

Push the brad through all the way . . .

and bend the ends against the back. Your fish is ready to go.

For organization purposes, I place my fish according to color in different poly envelopes. This way students can simply grab their level of words and go. It's perfectly fine for two students who are at different levels to play at the same time.

For an 'ice fishing' center, I simply take a large square box and turn it into an ice-cube cutting a hole in the top and covering it with white butcher paper. You could also simply use a small tote for a pool as well.

Students are 'suppose' to fish by taking turns placing their fishing poles in the hole without looking. No peeking allowed (right!). Only one fishing pole in the hole at a time or the magnets will cause the poles to become tangled.

Students pull their line up to find out what fish they have caught.

If they say the word correctly, they get to keep their fish. If they can't read it correctly, the fish gets thrown back.

Students at different reading levels can easily play together. My rule is that if you catch a fish that is NOT your color, you can choose to 'steal' it from your fishing buddy by reading it correctly, or you simply can throw it back and try to get a fish of your own color to read.

Students continue to collect as many fish as they can. However, there are a few 'sharks' in the water. If you get a shark, you throw all your fish back in the water and the shark card stays out.

Play ends when all the fish have been caught. Then everyone counts up their fish to see who is the Master Angler.

It's such a fun and engaging activity and now you can really make it your own by editing it and differentiating so that's perfect for all your students. So go ahead and click on the image below to download your own FREE Ice Fishing for Sight Words Activity. You will simply fill in your name and email address and a confirmation email will be sent to you (Check your spam file in case you don't see it in a few minutes!). Then once you confirm your subscription, the file is sent to your computer. Check your 'download' file. It should show up there.

I promise you, your students are going to LOVE it.

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a "sponsored post." I was compensated me via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value to write it. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally, believe will be good for my readers and truly love.

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Colorize Your Classroom With Editable Sight Word Fishing Fun! - Differentiated Kindergarten

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Winter break never seems quite long enough does it? You probably had big plans to revamp your entire schedule, create some new games for your students, reorganize your classroom library or start a new behavior management system . . .

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This isnt just sight words, its more of a mixed bag
http://www.youclevermonkey.com/2013/07/literacy-centres-first-six-months.html

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Four different ways to learn Sight Words
http://www.playdoughtoplato.com/sample-class-mastering-sight-words/

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Write sight words onto the cups and bowl them over.

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10 Fun ways to learn Sight Words http://www.tickledpinkinprimary.com/2015/11/10-ways-to-practice-sight-words.html?m=1

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Disclaimer: We do not own any of the photos used

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Write spelling blends / digraphs onto the plastic eggs.

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Write sight words onto Jenga blocks

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Activities for Sight Words
http://sparklinginsecondgrade.com/activities-for-sight-words/

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75 Fun ways to practice spelling words
http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2012/10/75-fun-ways-to-practice-and-learn.html

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Hello!
We have created this page as a 'one stop shop' so you are able to access different ideas and strategies to use at home to enhance your child's learning.

All you need to do, is find what you are looking for, spelling, sight words, reading etc and click on the link!