Letter Sound Deck

Our curriculum provides a letter-sound deck. I love it! The digraphs/blends are mine and my co-teacher's creations. I was so proud when one student suggested we add ai to our chart. It is so exciting when they start picking out the letter combinations on their own! We learn one or two letters a week and their sounds along with many pictures that begin with that letter at the beginning of the year. After we have learned all the letters & sounds we begin our morning routine chorally reading the letters, sounds, & pictures. I have jobs for each of my students & the letter-sound person leads us through this chart with a pointer. It sounds like this: I says i for iguana. T says t for turtle, P says p for pig etc... I have also heard other teachers read it like this: I makes the sound i like iguana, T makes the sound t like turtle, etc... I think either way accomplishes the same purpose.

Daily 5 Rocks!

Nothing like a good old fashioned semantic shift! Yes I'm a nerd but I can't help it. Have always loved that term since I learned it from Dr. Jacobsen. : )
This Word Work center is to help the kids practice spelling with blends/digraphs. I write the letters/blends/digraphs on the back of the rock BACKWARDS then coated with clear polish for durability. I made the vowels red to go with our vowel poster in our room which is red. Eventually I will remove the notecards with words on them & make them come up with their own words. I found this idea here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRAyI2ivBqk
This guy is awesome! Check out all his videos. He is so enthusiastic!!!