Monday Made It

Happy Fourth of July!  I do hope everyone is enjoying the holiday and PARTYING LIKE IT IS 1776! :)

Partying like it is 1776....get it?  haha.....I would love to take ownership over that little gem, but I found it on Pinterest.

Today I am linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for her Monday Made It linky party!

I am slowly but surely adding more variations of my Slap Words game.  Today, I finished the consonant blend variety.....

This game includes practice with two-sound consonant blends and three sound blends. The two sound consonant blend game cards include: bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fr, ft, gl, gr, ld, lf, lk, lm, lp, lt, mp, nd, nk, nt, pl, pr, sc, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw, tr, and tw.  The three-sound blend game cards include: scr, shr, spl, spr, squ, str and thr.

An example of the game cards are pictured below.  For each blend there are four cards, totaling 150 cards in the game pack.  This means lots of time having fun reading words with two-sound or three-sound blends!

 

Slap Words Blend Edition is super easy to set up and very engaging for students!  Directions for the game are listed below---it is as simple as that!!

I hope everyone enjoys their day!

Monday Made It: Connect 4!

I am always on the lookout.......or racking my brain to try and think of fun and engaging games to play with my fifth and sixth graders to review phonics skills.

Now.....If I can find (or create) a game that requires little prep.....even better!

So......today I am linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for a Monday Made It, because I want to share an easy, no-prep, fun and engaging game that I just made :)

Connect 4 is a REALLY easy game to prepare, play and adapt to various needs--but better yet the kids love it!  In fact.......my kiddos request it!

Prep and setup is super easy!  Basically all you need is one game board per pair of students, markers or chips to cover the squares and a six-sided die.  I laminate or put my game board in plastic sleeves so my kids can use dry erase markers--but either way works!

As far as how to play....well....Connect 4 is just like the old fashioned game......except on paper!

1. Player A rolls a die and chooses any open word underneath the number they rolled.  Player A must read the word chosen correctly.
2. Player B then rolls the die and repeats the same process.
3. If a player rolls a "6," he or she gets to erase (or take a chip off) one of his or her opponents words.
4. If there are no open spots in the numbered column, they player loses a turn.
5. Play continues until a player gets four in a row (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal)

Basically once you have one connect four template.....you can create endless games.  I plan on making lots more....but so far I have created a  Connect 4 game one for digraphs, the advanced vowel team oy/oi, the R controlled vowel team or, ar, and advanced vowel teams ee, ou, oa.

Check them out if you have a chance....or create some of your own!  Like I said---they are easy to make and super fun for kids!!

Monday Made It!

Happy Monday everyone! :)

Today I am linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for their weekly linky party, Monday Made It!

A couple of summers ago I spent my time working on morphology units for grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.  These morphology units were based off of research by Timothy Rasinski, Nancy Padak, Rick M. Newton and Evangeline Newton--aka amazing reading researchers and leaders in their field. You can read about those by clicking here. 

While these morphology packs are great at teaching each grade level's specific prefixes, suffixes and roots .....they didn't contain any way to practice what was taught. 

What was a teacher to do after the kids have gotten the content, but need to practice????? 

Sooooooo.....along came my idea for a practice edition for each morphology pack! :)  I'm talking games, task cards, practice pages and flash cards!  Basically....... any way you can think of to practice prefixes, suffixes and roots....I wanted it! AND....I wanted it all in one spot!

I am proud to say I have completed my first practice edition for the 5th grade morphology pack! :)  This puppy was a lot of work....because it is chock full of stuff--50+ pages of stuff!

The 5th Grade Common Core Morphology Pack--- **Practice Edition** is GREAT for practicing previously taught 5th grade prefixes, suffixes and roots.   It is also great for differentiation, remediation, assessment and enrichment!

The Practice Packet includes:

• 50+ pages of practice material
• 3 sets of task cards (one for the prefixes, suffixes and roots)
• Answer keys
• 5 engaging games
• Practice pages
• Flashcards
• Blank Templates

These two products (5th Common Core Morphology Pack and 5th Common Core Morphology Pack Practice Edition) are really married together...and sync up perfectly.  After you teach all of the morphology---spend some time practicing the new learning in fun ways!  

That product was a doozy to create.....but I think it will be SUPER helpful!

Have a great Monday everyone!

Monday Made It: Doggy Ice Cream

Hi friends....happy Monday to everyone out there!

Today I am linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for their weekly linky: Monday Made It!

Over the weekend  I made Rudy a special homemade treat!

You see...... in Kansas the summer heat is awful.  Horrible. Stifling.  

It is like opening an oven door hot!

This heat makes me feel bad for my precious pooch, Rudy.   

I don't know why I feel so bad for her....because 99.9% of the time she is like this.....

Sitting in the air conditioning **peeking** out at the hot, hot, HOT summer day!  Or perhaps she is just SUPER smart and has figured out a way to get a tan and not be in the heat! 

Anyway.....I wanted to make Rudy a tasty treat to cool her down on these hot summer days....so I researched some doggy ice cream recipes and found a GREAT one!

Isn't this a cute little doggy clip art piece...I got it for free @ Brad Fitzpatrick's TPT store!

Three ingredients....that's it! Throw them all together in  a blender and then freeze.  This recipe was super simple to make---and super cheap!

The best part is....Rudy loved it (see below). 

Hope you all stay cool out there (and your pups too!)

Monday Made It -- Easy Display Wall!

I had a problem the other day.......

You see..... I had an entire wall in my classroom that was completely blank! An empty, cream painted sheet rock wall.....void of color, encouraging words, posters, pictures and basically anything education related.  GASP!

Then I stumbled upon this image on Pinterest.......

And I was inspired....

And I thought....that looks easy....I can do that!

So I created this.........

Thank you Creative Art Teacher for the adorable doodle arrows!

Excuse my poor photography skills....in fact I had an up close picture of the wall....but it was REALLY terrible, so I will spare the damage to your eyes. Take my word for it!

Anyway, moving on.....

The wall was super simple to do!  All you need is:

• construction paper
• hot glue
• hot glue gun
• clothespins
• lamination machine 

First, I laminated construction paper, and  then laid the paper out in the pattern I wanted on the wall.  Next, I hot glued the papers up in the pattern I laid out.  Then.....for my last step, I hot glued clothespins above the construction paper.

See....Easy Peasy!

Now my problem is solved (goodbye blank wall)......AND... I have a great way to display student work!

Check out other Monday Made It's over at 4th Grade Frolic's blog! :)