1-2-3 Come Read and Write the Room With Me

This week has been especially busy, so I'm not quite done with a Very Hungry Caterpillar activity that I've been working on for days...so I wanted to check some of the most popular downloads and feature one on the blog today. 

I came up with my Read and Write the Room packet.  You can plug in this activity anytime of year, or make it part of your Daily 5 word work activities. There's nothing like passing out a clipboard and telling your kiddos that they should pretend to be ABC De-tectives, to grab their interest, and get them excited.

With that in mind, I designed some "Read and Write the Room" worksheets.   You can simply make copies of the template you like best and have students fill them out, sending them home when they finish, or you can have them glue them in a notebook.  (I stock up at the beginning of the year when all of the supply stores sell them as loss-leaders ranging from 10-15 cents!)

By having students glue the worksheets to a page in their Read and Write the Room Journal, you'll have an easy way to show student progress during parent teacher conferences, and a nice keepsake for the end of the year.

Since I'm blogging about this in April, use these activities as a wonderful review that helps reinforce what your kiddos have learned thus far.  I found that I constantly needed to do that to make sure they were retaining things as we moved along. 

I also needed to add some zip to their "word work" activities to keep that interesting for them.  This is great for that, as it's easy to implement, they can work on things independently and at their own pace, and they get the wiggles out, by roaming the room reading and writing!

The first photo is one journal option, if you like the idea of running off separate worksheets.  I have two kinds available.  One has a traceable letter box with an empty one for children to write the upper and lowercase letter in.

The other is an "I spy" version and has students draw something that they see that begins with that letter.  You can pick the style you like best or mix things up to add more interest and variety.

Another option is seen in the second photo. Here you conserve paper and the time it takes to run things off. Run off the "Read and Write the Room!" template, trim and glue to the inside cover.

Students use the “master” to write their own page for a new letter each week, or each day, depending on how long you want to stretch this activity out for.

After students have completed the alphabet, you can still continue this activity by using the "roam the room" alphabet cards.

Toss them in a container and have students pick one.  That will be the letter they "roam the room" looking for.  You can use the blank template as a worksheet for them to fill in whatever.

As with all of my other alphabet cards, you can use them for games, flashcards, sequencing etc.  A tip list is included to give you some ideas and includes the "Kaboom!" game.

I've also included a simple ABC De-tective alphabet worksheet, where students roam the room, trying to find something that begins with each letter of the alphabet.

This is a wonderful activity for your early finishers, or something quick and easy when you need a fun time-filler.

There are also several choices for the cover of the notebook journals.  Choose one, run off, trim and glue to the cover of your notebooks.  You could also have students design their own cover. 

Click on the link to view/download the Read and Write the Room Packet.  Thanks for visiting today.  

I'm so excited that spring has finally (sort of) arrived here in Michigan.  The birds are chirping, and the rain has managed to wash away all of that dirty lingering snow.

I'm headed out the door to rejuvenate my spirit with some fresh air and sunshine. Wishing you a blissful day.

"Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush." -Doug Larson