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We try to be as active as possible when learning new words! This game fit the bill!

How To Play

First, make your letter pieces. I wrote the letters in marker on cardstock, and taped them to the floor with masking tape (our tape came off easily, but test first!). We set them out in 3 rows of 3 cards each. That's all the set up required!

To play, we decided to work mostly on 3 letter words. I'd say a word, and then my 6 year old would put a hand or a foot on each letter in that word. The more twisted up he positioned himself, the more fun he had!

It's also fun to switch it up, and have your child both call out the letter and then act it out!

The letters we used were: C A T H E O M P B. I'm sure there are tons of three letter words you could make from this group, but our favorites are:

For children learning letters: You could adjust this by just calling out letters: "Put a hand on 'A.' Put a foot on 'C'."

To increase the difficulty: add harder words (like "ate"), or 4 letter words.

Other Ways to Move & Learn This Week
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We try to be as active as possible when learning new words! This game fit the bill! First, make your letter pieces. I wrote the letters in marker on cardstock, and taped them to the floor with masking tape (our tape came off easily, but test first!).

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First of all - Happy Friday, friends!!

I have been very busy but wanted to take a second to tell you all about a reading game I LOVE.

Have you been working tirelessly on CVC words? Stretching CAAAAAT more times than you can count? You're feeling victorious (and exhausted) so you move onto short i words, then short o words, and so on. Could it be?! They're blending! They're stretching! Slowly but surely, those littles are reading! This game is a really fun review that provides A LOT of CVC reading practice that your students will love!

I present to you...

Roll and COLOR!

So here's the deal...

You print out a "game board" and the 3 dice. You print the dice on the color paper it tells you to so it corresponds to the little cheat sheet in the top right corner of their paper that tells them what order to put the dice in. They'll learn it pretty fast because hey - they want to win! They'll also make sure they read the word correctly (which helps with those kiddos who see the first letter and guess!) because again, they want to win! This provides so much reading practice.

Cut out the dice and fold along the lines and tape to make your dice. They're super durable if you print them on card stock but I am cheap and just use regular colored printer paper and just tape them!

Once your dice are made, students roll the 3 dice to build their word.

If their word is on their game board, they color it in! There are multiple ways to do this:
1) Give each student their own game board (but that is the same as their partners) to color in how they wish so when another person rolls, they can look on their own game board to see if it is there to sort of partner check without looking at their partner's board.
or
2) Give each student a different game board (there are 4 below level game boards and 3 on level game boards to choose from) to increase the amount of words on game boards. This can also be done 2 different ways: they only color in on THEIR gameboard if THEY roll the word, or (so they're just as engaged during a partner's roll), they can color in the word if they have it no matter who rolled the dice.
or
3) Have partners use the same game board and each get a different color. For example, Student A colors in with a red crayon and Student B colors in with a blue crayon.

You can also differentiate what the goal is! It could be whoever gets a full line (down or across) first. If you do options 1 or 2, it can be whoever's board is filled first. If you do option 3, it could be who has the most colored in when the board is full. There are sooo many different ways to play - just find what works best for you and your students!

You know me, I'm all about differentiation so that's why I included easier game boards as well! There are only 12 pictures instead of 20 on the easier game boards as you can see below:

You can also play Roll and COVER! I included all of the same game boards in color so you can also play this as a roll and cover game. Instead of crayons/markers, you'll need something for students to use as their piece. 2 different color counting cubes (or 3 different colors if 3 people are playing, etc.) or red/yellow counters work well!

Students take turns rolling the 3 dice and reading the CVC word they created. Instead of coloring it, they cover it with their marker. You can play first person to get a line wins or fill the board and whoever had the most wins.

The beauty of this center is that soooo many different words can be created by these 3 dice.. whether the picture is on the sheet or not, your students are READING every time they roll. They're getting nonsense word practice as well from all the non-words they roll. I chose the letters that would make the most possible kid friendly words as well as ensured that there weren't any no-no words that could be made :) The dice combination literally makes dozens and dozens of words so it is a whoooole lot of reading practice, let me tell you! And they can play this over and over again with the same (or different if you wish) boards!

If you want your students to be more independent, I included a kid-friendly directions sheet to put in the center. It's also a good visual reminder for the color order although, like I said, they'll get it pretty quickly!

This pack is currently on sale since I just posted it... go grab it {HERE} at my TpT store!!
Make sure you're following me so you don't miss out on great deals. I post a lot of things for 50% off for the first 48 hours or other little goodies to reward followers! You just click on the "Follow Me" below my name and then it should say "Following" so you see all the new stuff! I'm constantly posting new things! Yes, yes, I know I am a workaholic.

I'm thinking of making this activity for other phonics sounds (digraphs, vowel pairs, etc.)! Do you think you'd use it? Let me know in the comments!

**Edit: I now have this for a few other sounds! Check it out here:

& there is also a BUNDLE of all the short vowel rolls!

OR you can get them all in a

Also - don't forget to join Miss Giraffe's Class so you never miss out on fun ideas and exclusive free stuff from me only for subscribers!

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First of all - Happy Friday, friends!! I have been very busy but wanted to take a second to tell you all about a reading game I LOVE. Have you been working tirelessly on CVC words? Stretching CAAAAAT more times than you can count?

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My class loved playing our Hidden Partners game to help reinforce math facts... SO

I thought why not make a game for sight words? So... I did. It's so easy and the kids had a ball with it. All you need are some 3x5 cards and a marker. It doesn't get much easier than that.

Make as many cards as you have students. If you have 20 students, make 10 sets of two letter words, or 6 sets of three letter words, and one two letter word. (I bet you figured that out all by yourself!) Anyway, I made one set with two letter sight words, and another set with three letter words,and one four letter word. (OK- that sounds bad... but don't worry, it's a nice four letter word!)

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As you can see, I wrote the word on top of the card and one of the letters for the word on the card. That way, if a child has an "o," he/she knows if it goes with to, go, do, so, no, or on!

I gave everyone a card and told them they could not look at it until I said, "Go." (They were really good about that, actually!) Then, I had them spread out anywhere in the room. When I said, "GO," they had to find their Hidden Partner to make their word. Once they found their partner, they sat down together where they were as quickly as they could, so we could see who had made a word.

We checked together as a class to see that each group made its word. When we got to a group, that group stood up together, said, and spelled the word. We clapped if it was right.

We played it a few times in the morning, and they already can't wait to play it again- so I thought I would pass it on. I can never have enough different ways to practice those sight words!

This is just one of the many activities Dr. Jean and I put together in our book, Dr. Jean's Reading Recipes! We wanted to share our favorite activities (with lots of different adaptations!) that help children learn, while having fun doing it!

Thanks for stopping by!

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My class loved playing our Hidden Partners game to help reinforce math facts... SO I thought why not make a game for sight words? So... I did. It's so easy and the kids had a ball with it. All you need are some 3x5 cards and a marker.

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Hey y'all! How's the week going so far?! If it's anything for you like it is for me, then it's crazy...and jam packed full of Hallow...

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Super Sentences and learning theory
The aim of education is to create children who are able to learn on their own.

Bruner (1960) disagreed with Piaget's notion of readiness (children can only learn specific concepts when they were developmentally ready) and believed that "complex ideas can be taught at a simplified level first, and then re-visited at more complex levels later on."

The concept of discovery learning implies that students construct their own knowledge for themselves (also known as a constructivist approach).

Bruner (1961) believed "the teacher should not be to teach information by rote learning, but instead to facilitate the learning process.".

Bruner (1961) went on to say that "This means that a good teacher will design lessons that help student discover the relationship between bits of information. To do this a teacher must give students the information they need, but without organizing for them."

Bruner and Vygotsky both agree that "adults should play an active role in assisting the child's learning." (McLeod, S. A. 2008)

The term scaffolding first appeared in the literature when Wood, Bruner and Ross described how tutors' interacted with preschooler to help them solve a block reconstruction problem (Wood et al., 1976).

Scaffolding (like Vygotsky's notion of zones of proximal development) "refers to the steps taken to reduce the degrees of freedom in carrying out some task so that the child can concentrate on the difficult skill she is in the process of acquiring". (McLeod, S. A. 2008)

This naturally leads to the idea of a play-based curriculum that is the basis of the EYFS in the UK. "Forty years of research has shown positive correlation between play and children's learning". (Lillard et al, 2012) "This has led many to generalize the conclusion that play is beneficial for all learning. Many of the findings are reflective of procedural knowledge rather than declarative knowledge." (Pinkham et al, 2012) "The assumptions that children can learn declarative information, such as words or facts, simply based on evidence that children acquire skills in play can not be made." (Pinkham et al, 2012)

And so this brings us to Super Sentences. We created it to teach the declarative information needed to write sentences. It removes the freedom in the task of writing sentences (i.e. the content) so that the children can concentrate on the difficult skills of sentence construction. Gradually over time we remove the scaffolding and support children to use their skills in a more child-based, context driven way. That way children are able to use sentence writing as just another skill in their play.

Now, just because we can use cognitive/development theory to back up why we do Super Sentences, it doesn't mean you should take it on. Our provision is largely child-initiated/led and we use Super Sentences as a whole class adult led input. We all teach differently, with access to different resources, with different children and varying levels of experience so what works for some won't work for others and it might not fit with your teaching style or your current cohort of children. We have talked about it because it works well for us and we thought some of you might be interested, as you all know we have gone from being a school in Special Measures to almost outstanding and our journey has been relentless so 'Think' things through and make your own decisions - you know your children best!

Anita and Mark

References
Bruner, J. S. (1960). The Process of education. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. S. (1961). The act of discovery. Harvard Educational Review, 31, 21-32.
Wood, D. J., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology, 17(2), 89-100
Pinkham, A. M., Kaefer, T. & Neuman, S. B. (2012). Knowledge Development in Early Childhood: Source of learning and classroom Implications. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Lillard, A. S., Lerner, M.D., Hopkins, E.J., Dore, R.A., Smith, E.D. & Palmquist, C.M. (2012). The Impact of Pretend Play on Children's Development: A Review of the Evidence. Psychological Bulletin. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0029321
McLeod, S. A. (2008). Bruner. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/bruner.html

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Super Sentences and learning theory The aim of education is to create children who are able to learn on their own. Bruner (1960) disagreed with Piaget's notion of readiness (children can only learn specific concepts when they were developmentally ready) and believed that "complex ideas can be taught at a simplified level first, and then re-visited at more complex levels later on."

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There are SO many incredibly creative ways to learn and practice Word Families - this DIY Word Family Ladder is just another great classroom hack for school & home! ( Check out our DIY Word Family Booklet that's easy to make and use!) If you're working on reading and sight words I HIGHLY recommend The Reading Game - it's one of my absolute favorites and leaves the kids feeling proud of themselves.

DIY Word Family Ladder Materials:

*Construction Paper
*Ruler
*Sharpie
*Letter Manipulatives

Teach word families with these easy DIY word ladders! Grab some strips of scrap construction or printer paper. Color doesn't matter unless you are color coding for writing purposes.

Using a Sharpie permanent marker , make a ladder. Make sure to give yourself plenty of space in between the ladder steps for large letters. You can choose to have your child write the letters in the ladder for extra writing practice if desired.

I recommend laminating these for durability in a classroom setting or if you'd like to save them to use with multiple children. I just use a simple $15 laminator that I purchased for my home projects. Use small letter manipulatives to mix and match. There are quite a few ways you to do this. Write a letter on the side of LEGOs, plastic counting blocks, etc.

This activity can build fine motor skills, and can work well for kindergarten centers, quiet time, or just general hands-on literacy!

To extend the activity:

Use the activity to sound out nonsense words "lat" "nat" "wat," and to distinguish them from real words, like "cat" "hat" "rat" and "mat." Practice writing out these variations on paper or tracing them using play-doh or shaving cream!

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DIY Word Family Ladder Center Activity Classroom Hack

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There are SO many incredibly creative ways to learn and practice Word Families - this DIY Word Family Ladder is just another great classroom hack for school & home! ( Check out our DIY Word Family Booklet that's easy to make and use!)

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Knowing how to read sight words helps kids to read more fluently and better understand what they are reading. Kids learn many sight words just by being exposed to them during shared reading, but there are those tricky ones that need some extra practice. To make memorizing sight words more fun we like to play games!

Last week my kindergartner played Sight Word Swim in the pool and he had so much fun we came up with another game we could play with the ball pit balls-Cup Crash!

I wrote the sight words he was working on plastic cups and grabbed the ball pit balls with the same words on them from the other game.

He read the word on the cup and if he was correct he got to stack it on the counter.

Once he had read all of the words and built a tower it was time to knock the cups down! We already had sight words written on our balls so he practiced reading them again before throwing them at the cups. You could skip this part if you don't have enough balls to write on. He had a TON of fun with Cup Crash and so did his sisters, there were smiling faces and cups and balls everywhere!

Sight Word Cup Crash! is another post in the Move and Learn series I am doing with The Pleasantest Thing and Hands on : as we grow. Each week we are sharing ways that you can get your kids moving and learning and having fun!

Find the Letter and Swat It! from Hands on : as we grow

Geometry Game from The Pleasantest Thing

Check out their posts from this week and go to our Move and Learn Pinterest board for even more ideas!

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Knowing how to read sight words helps kids to read more fluently and better understand what they are reading. Kids learn many sight words just by being exposed to them during shared reading, but there are those tricky ones that need some extra practice. To make memorizing sight words more fun we like to play games!

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By · This content may contain affiliate links.

As kids learn the sounds that letters represent, they can begin to blend sounds together to make words. It can be helpful to do this in a concrete way. We decided to do a frog hop to practice blending words. It's a great spring activity for a frog theme or a pond theme.

To prepare this activity, I grabbed a small piece of drift wood, the frog from our life cycle set (affiliate link), green construction paper cut into lily pad (ish) shapes, blue paper, and a green marker.

I chose to focus on one word family (-og) for this activity, so I labeled the lily pads with letters that would make words in that family.

To play Tinker placed a beginning sound in front of the "o" and "g" lily pads. Then as the frog hopped from one to the next she said the sound represented by each letter. After saying the last sound she jumped off the last lily pad and said the whole word blended together (log).

Then she changed the beginning sounds and hopped again to blend a new word.

Extend this activity by having your child "be the frog". Instead of using the lily pads just hop along on the floor and orally blend the words. Or write the letters with chalk outside and do the activity that way.

MORE FROG FUN WITH PRINTABLE FROG THEME LESSON PLANS

Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we've provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
GET YOUR SPRING LESSON PLANS Preschool Frog Theme Lesson Plans
Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers

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By · This content may contain affiliate links. As kids learn the sounds that letters represent, they can begin to blend sounds together to make words. It can be helpful to do this in a concrete way. We decided to do a frog hop to practice blending words.