Magnetic Letter Mayhem

Hello again!

So I've had something on my "To-Do List" that might seem a little compulsive to some of you...maybe not...at least I hope it's not too OCD on my part, but it just might be.

I sorted all of my magnetic letters last night.  

Like.  All.  Of.  Them.

Yep...there it is.  You should see my living room floor!  It's glittered with magnetic letters sorted by upper and lower case letters, style of magnetic letter, some styles put in ABC order, etc.  Okay...I might have a slight issue...but that's no surprise to some of you!

As you may remember from earlier posts, I will have an aide in my classroom this year and I've been busy creating and gathering "Go-To Activities" for us to grab and use with our kiddos in small groups or one-on-one.  I felt it was necessary to see what letters I had so that I can pre-bag them and have them ready for us.

When I sorted them I realized that my vowels were missing.  Now where did they go?  Then I remembered that I saw an idea on Pinterest where the teacher spray painted all of her vowels a bright red so that the children could find them easier.  

Hey!  I did that too! But where did they go?  

I'm in the midst of sorting and organizing every nook and cranny of my classroom so they'll turn up eventually, but I kind of need a plan now.  I found some cute Magnetic Letter Digital Art from Poppydreamz Digital Art!

Poppydreamz Digital Art 

Magnet Letters Alphabet and Number Clipart

I was just going to create some vowels, but one thing led to another (again) and I made a complete set...with Fundations in mind.

You can download it for FREE in my Teachers Pay Teachers Shop by clicking here!

Included in the packet is:

• a full alphabet in black and white
• a set of red vowels (5 of each vowel)
• a set of blue glued sounds (3 of each glued sound)
• a set of yellow blends and digraphs (3 of each blend and digraph)
• a set of green bonus letters (3 of each bonus letter)

I'll be printing, cutting, laminating and attaching a small magnet to the back of each tile so that my children can practice building their  words.  Hope it's something that you can use too!

Off to take care of the magnetic letters scattered all over my floor!

Have a great day!

Well, hello again...finally!

I'm blowing off the dust again on this little blog!  

Geesh!  What a year!  Like a GREAT year!  I had a super group of kiddos and got to teach with 2 amazing teachers and their students.  We departmentalized this past year again and it was a really good thing for our children.  Unfortunately we won't be able to departmentalize next year for a few reasons and I'm okay with that, but I'm already busy planning for next year.  I've been the Reading/Writing teacher for the past two years so I need to brush up on Math, Science and Social Studies for my first graders.

Our school used Fundations this year in Kindergarten and First Grade.  Second grade will start it this coming year.  The program was originally presented to us as a scripted program that you read directly from the manual to teach your class.  I am so not a scripted teacher...and I believe that there's not just one way to teach children as they aren't little robots either but...a year in and a few sessions and words of encouragement from a representative from Fundations, I feel a little more comfortable entering our second year in Fundations and tweaking it a little bit as needed.  

A few things I learned...

1. My children who didn't receive Fundations in Kindergarten were behind the 8-ball from day one.  I really think that there should be an intensive Kindergarten Review for those who didn't have Fundations prior to first grade.  There was a huge discrepancy in ability right from the get-go.

2. Some of the children who were new to our district and didn't have Fundations in Kindergarten at their previous school qualified for Title I/Special Reading.  They received a second dose of Fundations daily in a small group setting which helped, but by the end of the year, they were still the ones who were struggling.  Again, they made progress through the year but it wasn't enough to make them confident readers.

3. I wish there was a handwriting component for the first grade version of Fundations.  I feel like my new first graders (who had Fundations the previous year) came to me with impressive handwriting, but as the year continued, it regressed.

4. I wish there was a little more practice with the words introduced.  All of the words were on our word wall and in their notebooks, but I would still see them struggle reading and spelling them in their daily work.

5. The pace (as scripted in the manual) didn't meet the needs of all of my children.  My top readers had a hard time staying on task during the lessons because they were ready for more.  I also feel that the words learned weren't as intensive as years past.

So...I created a few packets to go along with Fundations this year and thought I'd share them with you.  I plan on using them with everyone at the beginning of the year but as the year continues, I might use them to help differentiate with my struggling students.  I've linked all of the the titles to the units in my TPT shop.

Handwriting Practice for Level 1: Trick Words and Words of the Day

We'll be using these all year to hopefully keep our handwriting neat and tidy.

Word of the Day Workout for Level 1

Trick Word Workout for Level 1

Each day a new Word of the Day or Trick Word is introduced, we'll use the complementing page from this packet for further practice.

Trick Words and Words of the Day Unit Review-Level 1

This packet includes word cards for each unit as well as a small assessment piece.  The word cards will be copied and sent home for extra practice throughout the year and the assessment piece will be used to help me document who is mastering the words and who is struggling.

If only I could learn how to code...I could develop a quality tech component to Fundations!  I would love some apps or software that would offer a "Fundations focused" practice for my children.

So, that's what I've been up to since school let out!  Hope your summers are off to a great start!

Baby Echo Gets a Home

Hello Friends!

If you've been following me, you know that I'll be starting Fundations with my kiddos this year.  There's a small owl finger puppet that I'm supposed to use during the lessons.  When we went to observe Fundations in an area district last spring, some of the teachers attached the owl to a stick and would use it that way.  A plain old stick wasn't going to work for me so I jazzed it up a bit.  

Here's what I came up with...

Off to fill my cart with some Back to School goodies at the big Teachers Pay Teachers sale!

Have a great day!

Fundations Freebie

Hi Friends!

Just a quick post today to share a Fundations Freebie!  

I went ahead and created some Smart Board slides to use when I'm teaching the lessons in Fundations.  You can download them for free in my TPT shop if you need them!

Click here to visit my TPT shop!

Take care!

Organizing Fundations and a Freebie!

First of all, I have to say how grateful I am to these two teachers!


       Both of them were kind enough to give me some encouragement on this whole Fundations journey I'll be on this year.  I'm so excited that they reached out and made me feel comfortable in contacting them throughout the year when I need it!  I've been stalking their blogs this weekend...and if you're not following them yet, you should jump on over and check them out!  (You can click on their buttons above to visit their site.)
In my last post about Fundations, I showed you all of the materials we received.  Click here if you want to see them again.
So here's how I organized all of the student materials...I numbered everything.  The teachers we observed at an area district suggested that we do this so that if a piece ever came up missing, we could just flip it over and see the number and match it with the student.  The first thing I did was pull out all of the magnetic pieces, flip them over and write the same number on each piece with a silver Sharpie.  I then labeled the fabric envelope, letter board and both sides of the dry erase boards with the same number.

I was a little worried about all of these magnetic pieces so I only put the ones we will need to start the year on the letter board and I sorted the rest.

There are about 30 "extra" pieces that we won't be using during the first few weeks of school and since I need to keep it simple for my Firsties and myself, I purchased a bead organizer at Walmart to store the additional pieces in.

  So now, when we need a specific tile, I can just pull them out and pass them out to the kiddos. Hoping this works!  :)
I also had a few requests to share the letters I created as an extension of my newest favorite book, The Day the Crayons Quit! 

  

You can download them by clicking here.

Have a great day!

New Mandate for Me: *Fun*dations

Last fall our grade level starting hearing that we were going to be told to teach phonics using a program called Fundations.  This program was presented to us as a "scripted program".  I don't know about you, but I am not a scripted teacher at all...so this idea of a script started to freak me out a bit.  Like you, I do everything I can to make learning fun in my room...I couldn't help but think, what is fun about a script?  

I've been doing Ginny Dowd's Phonics Dance for years and have seen huge improvements in my children's reading and writing ability.  I've been immersing my children in literature that they read themselves and that I read to them.  Like you, and the teachers in my building, we try to make our classrooms very language rich environments so that our children have access to everything they need to be a successful learner.

So, when this shook down, I had a hard time jumping on the bandwagon.  Our school district is pretty innovative and has always allowed their teachers to experiment with new methods, try new ideas...pretty much do whatever as long as we were following the standards for our state and it was best for our kids.  We were told, "This is the program you'll be using."  My heart broke...if you use Ginny Dowd's Phonics Dance in your room, you know how fun those chants are for kids and how they just stick with them.  You know that the movements and the chants together are great brain based learning opportunities and that it is research-based.

Now, I'm not saying Fundations isn't going to work...by all means, it will work.  It's a whole program based on reading research and the Wilson Reading System.  The teacher's manual states that Fundations is "a highly structured and intensive program for challenged readers in grades 2-12 and beyond." Whenever someone speaks of the impact Fundations has had in their school, it's always positive.  This past spring we were able to travel to an area school district to observe and talk to teachers who had been using Fundations.  They were very helpful.  I was so grateful that our district let us observe those teachers and those teachers took time to answer all of our questions.  

So what's the big deal?  It's just change.  BIG CHANGE for me.  I consider myself to be a pretty open person and I love to think outside the box...but this scripted program makes me feel kind of like I was just squashed inside a box with the lid closed and duct taped shut.  At the same time, I also consider myself to be someone who just sucks it up and makes the best of things.  I am sucking this up and making the best of it because the data proves that the program works.

So here's a look at the materials we received...
The mascots are Echo the Owl and Baby Echo.
 

These posters...are huge.  Like enormous.  I'm trying to figure out where and how I'm going to display them in my room.

These are the books that were provided.

The children receive a magnetic letter board, magnetic pieces, and a 2-sided dry erase board as well as 3 different workbooks.

There are also large magnetic pieces for the teacher and word cards to use during the lessons.

So...what have I been doing?  I've been trying to wrap my head around all of this and figuring out how I'm going to supplement this program...and fit everything else into my 80-90 minute blocks.  (We departmentalize so I teach 3 blocks of Reading/Language Arts.) The daily lessons from Fundations are supposed to take 30 minutes so I'll have the rest of my block for additional instruction.

Here's a few of the things I've been doing to organize myself.  Feel free to download them if you're in the same boat as me or are just curious as to what Fundations is all about.

Kindergarten Trick Words
These are the words that the children learned in Kindergarten, so I'll be sending this home with my parents at Open House so that they can start reviewing them with their child. 

Fundations Scope and Sequence
With this document, I took all of the skills taught in each unit and kind of mapped out my year.  My next step with this is to try to compare this to the Common Core Standards so that I can map out my assessments.  This might end up being a project to complete as I'm teaching it throughout the year...I'm kind of a learn as I go type of girl.  :)

"Trick Words" by the Week
"Word of the Day" Words by the Week
I mapped out the words as they're taught throughout the year.  Again, I needed to see where and how the words were introduced.  I then decided to make up some family notes to send home as the words were introduced.
Family Notes: Trick Words
Family Notes: Word of the Day
In the past, I've sent home new spelling and sight words all at once.  With this program, they're introduced at various times so I wanted something that was ready to send home with families as we learned new words.

Sorry about the long post today but I've kind of been sitting on this for awhile and started to think that maybe there's someone like me out there who's in the same boat and might appreciate some organizational tools as they embark on the Fundations journey too.  Anyone using Fundations in their classrooms this year?  I would love to collaborate with you...and share your blogs with the teachers in my building.  Last year, Kindergarten started using it, this year is our turn, in First Grade, and next year it will be used in Second Grade.

Take care!

P.S.  Do you ever write a post and then sit on it for a week or so and keep going back to reread it and edit it over and over again?  This was one of those posts for me...