literacy love.

workshop.  daily five.  guided reading.  whatever you want to call it.  here's some ideas for literacy love.  {in case you're all Christmas'd out or are already planning for january!}

{sight} word search:

I got this idea from Hello Literacy via Pinterest!  She has tons of anchor charts, educational apps, technology hints and {of course} literacy activities.  This one was super easy.  Pick a few sight words {more or less depending on the group} and write them all over chart paper.  I made sure to write each word in every color so they couldn't pick up on any kind of simple pattern.  In my group, I {re}introduced each sight word, we found it on the chart paper by pointing it out and then I turned them loose to find & circle each one with a yellow marker!  

They had to read the word before circling it so I could be sure they were making the connection.  Next time I might give each kid a different color to circle with so I can see who read which words.  {Did they choose the same word over and over?  Did they only do 2 or 3?  Instant assessing!}  ;)

Boomer goes to school {journals}:
We read Boomer goes to school by Constance W. McGeorge then used him as our writing topic!  Focusing on the sight word {is} and writing with sentence structures, we made "Boomer is _____" journals.

 We brainstormed a list of words on the board from our own observations and vocabulary in the story {big, curious, hungry} and the students were allowed to use some of those words in their sentences then sound out their own words on the last two pages.  Illustrations accompanying, of course!

{I Spy} with Environmental Print:
I asked parents to send in their child's favorite snack wrapper, cereal box or other familiar packaging from home.  {I also emailed our staff to help with the collection.}  After I used them in flashcard fashion to encourage the kids that they are readers I hung them up in the alphabet center.

Then I created a simple I Spy recording sheet to along with it.  The kids use their Word Windows to hunt for each of the four letters in words to write down in the boxes.  They really feel like readers, it's an independent center that doesn't require my immediate supervision and it's spread out enough for 3 or 4 students to work there simultaneously!

{at} hats:
so simple.  so cute.  diecut hats {or cats or bats or mats or whatever your school has} and write various -at words on each one!  My kids love a crown...and this was no exception!  The possibilities are endless: {ig} words on a pig, {up} words on a cup, {og} words on a dog or a frog, {ed} words on a bed...or just your head!  :)