Year in Review!

I haven't blogged in awhile because I have just been so very busy.  But it is a new year and we are ready for a new start!  First, let's look at a my year in review via photos!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for going down memory lane with me!

Winter Wonders Blog Hop Birthday!

Today we are celebrating our bloggy birthday over at Literacy Land!  One year ago, several reading bloggers joined together to create the ultimate reading blog.  We called it....Adventures in Literacy Land!

Today we are celebrating our first birthday AND we are welcoming some new members to our literacy team.  It is quite a celebration!

Be sure to hop through each of our blogs, pick up some freebies and great literacy strategies, and then enter the rafflecopter on the last stop to win one of our Barnes and Noble gift cards!

Today I am sharing with you a brand new product!  This is on my list to begin a whole new series with.

Last year I created a whole series of Spot and Jot pictures for sight words.  These are similar to the I Spy activities out there, except that they have many options for recording and building the words that the students find.  You can find the winter ones here!

Today I am sharing a new spin-off!  This one is called Spot and Color!  Students use magnifying glasses to "spot" the words and then color them according to the color code!  I think students will love this activity.  It will be a great way to get students looking at those sight words over and over again.

For more activities and ideas like this one, be sure to follow my blog on bloglovin!

Your next stop is Melissa over at Don't Let the Teacher Stay Up Late!  Be sure to check her out!

Gift of Reading Blog Hop

Thank you so much for joining us for a "gift" of reading!  I love to teach reading and it truly is a gift.  It is a gift to be given the opportunity to watch children grow into independent readers and learn to love books!  I am blessed with 22 children each year that I get to share this love with.

This year, I wanted to share with you one of my newest sets from a new series that I am starting.  It is not a seasonal product, but one that you may be able to use throughout the school year for those beginning readers.  It is one of my Concept of Word Nursery Rhyme sets.  So far I have 4 sets done: Baa Baa Black Sheep, Hickory Dickory Dock, Humpty Dumpty, and Hey Diddle Diddle.  Plus I have more coming!

  

  

Concept of word is such an important skill for beginning readers.  It is the ability to have one to one correspondence while reading.  This means that students need to know the difference between a word, a letter, and a sentence.  They need to understand that there are spaces in between their words.  They must be able to say one word for each word that is on the page.

At the moment, I have students that will read the sentence "I can ride." as "I can ride my bike at the park."  These students do not have concept of word.  They are reading the pictures rather than looking at the words.  We practice counting the number of words on the page and counting the number of words that we read.  This helps us to be more aware of the words on the page.

These concept of word packs have many activities to help you teach this skill to your students.  I hope you find it as helpful as I do!  Each of the full sets are on sale this weekend only.  Hope you check them out!

I am giving away a product of your choice (under $10) for 2 WINNERS this weekend!  Be sure to enter the giveaway below!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Getting Festive for Fall with Virignia Teachers Blog Hop

This weekend I am joining a fabulous group of teachers all from VIRGINIA!  Yay!  We are gathering together to share a bunch of great freebies for you this weekend.

Every year I "forget" just how "low" my kids are at the beginning of the year.  It is so easy to forget how much they have learned and how much they have grown throughout the school year!  Each year I have to remind myself how to start at the beginning and go back to the basics of reading.

So right now, I am focusing on the basics.  I am working with my kids on letter sounds, print basics, concept of word, simple sentences, sight words, CVC decoding, rhyming, phonemic awareness, etc. 

My freebie for you today is part of a new series that I am starting on concept of word.  I want to be able to really put focus on this skill with my students using nursery rhymes (which is a great review for rhyming and phonemic awareness too!).  Concept of word is the ability for students to match spoken words to print.  It is tracking with one to one correspondence. In order for a student to do this, they must understand print basics such as where to start in the text, the difference between a letter and a word, and that there are spaces in between words.

So far I have completed two units: Baa Baa Black Sheep and Hickory Dickory Dock.  Each unit includes a full page teacher book, a small student book, picture sequence cards, sentence strips, books for adding word markers, a small one page nursery rhyme for fluency, 3 different pages with missing words for cut and paste, word identification cards, and a word identification list in both color and black and white!

Your freebie is a copy of the student book for Baa Baa Black Sheep!  You can grab it here!

Both of these full sets will be on sale this weekend.  Plus you can enter to win them in the rafflecopter below!  (If you win and you have already purchased them, you may pick something else from my store of equal or lesser value.)


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Now keep on hopping!