1-2-3 Come Study -ick and -eat Word Families and Shapes With Me

Here's a word family trick for helping teach Common Core, that's a real treat, as you'll  be covering the Phonological Awareness Common Core State Standards: RF.K2a, RF.K2c and RF.K2e  in a quick, easy and fun way.

Here's How: Run off my template with the adorable Laura Strickland trick or treaters on it. You can use the treat bag just as it is, or you can cut off the top of a brown paper lunch bag, so that it fits on the back of this treat bag, and glue it on.

It's a bit more difficult to manipulate the strips, but worth the extra effort as it's truly a functional bag for doing other things with, which I'll explain later.

Pre cut the top & bottom dashed lines of the squares. (I use an Exacto knife.) Insert letter strips, so students can make new words.    

I’ve also included traceable word flashcards, so students can practice the words in yet another way.  There's a cover if you want them to alphabetize the words and then make an Itty Bitty booklet.

When they have finished cutting & tracing their word cards, they can drop them in the bag when they are done.  Students write their name on the side of the bag. You can punch holes and put in real yarn for handles if you want a more 3-D effect.

After everyone has completed their bag, call on students to pull their strips to make the various sentences. Children read them in unison.  There'll probably be a few giggles as they say “Wick or wheat”, “Sick or seat” "Chick or cheat" and “Kick or heat.” etc.

Make sure the last one they read is “Trick or Treat!”  Drop a piece of candy corn, or a sticker, or special treat in their bag as a reward for their great effort!

You can also play “I Have; Who Has?” with the word cards.  Make a copy of the word cards and do not cut them out. Post these pages on the board.  Make another copy and laminate them.  Cut these out.  Put them in your Trick or Treat bag and have students choose cards ‘til they are all gone.

You read an –ick card and ask for an -eat card on the list. The –eat child reads their card. Both children say their “–ick or –eat!” sentence together. Those cards go in the bag. Play continues ‘til all of the cards are gone.

The packet also includes a poster that says: How many words can you make using the letters in Trick or treat?" plus a recording sheet and alphabetical list of 158 words that I thought of. 

Click on the link to view/download the –ick or –eat Word Family Treat Bag.

Finally, after doing this trick or treat-themed activity, you may want to review 2D and 3D shapes using my candy shape posters.  

There are 17 Candy Shape posters in all, with a white or black background. What a fun way to grab your kiddos’ attention. 

These “real life” shape examples will certainly help them understand and hopefully remember the various shapes.

As an incentive, reward them with a shaped sweet treat when they can identify all of the shapes on the posters.

Thanks for visiting today.  The rain's stopped and it's time to take my poodle pup out for a romp.  The fresh air is filled with the wonderful fragrance of fall.  Wishing you a splendid day.

"Like a ten-speed bike, most of us have gears we do not use." - Charles Schulz 

1-2-3 Come Do Some Spook-tacular Activities With Me!

Halloween is just around the creepy corner, so I thought I'd blog about a few of our Halloween-themed FREEBIES. Since the Fact Family Schoolhouses were such a huge back-to-school hit,  I thought I'd repost the Fact Family Haunted Houses.

The Packet includes:

• Fact Family "craftivity" templates.
• Fact Family spinner game templates.
• Directions and link for a home-school math connection, for fact family online-homework practice.
• Directions and sample of how to make mini dry erase envelope boards.
• Fact Family T-bar "mad-minute" skill sheets +
• A certificate of praise.

If you're looking for a language arts activity, one of my favorites is the Trick or Treat Word Family packet, which will help reinforce Common Core State Standards: RF.K2a, RF.K2c, RF.K2e

It's a fun way to review the -ick and -eat word families.  Students make this "craftivity" and pull the letter sliders through the treat bag windows, to reveal humorous new ways to say "Trick or treat!"

I've also included traceable word flashcards for the -ick and -eat families (28 cards) + another "Trick or Treat!" word activity game extension.  Click on the link to view/download the Trick or Treat Word Family packet.

Thank you for visiting today.  I design and blog daily, so I hope you can zip on over tomorrow for more FREEBIES.  Feel free to PIN away. 

To ensure that "pinners" return to THIS blog article, click on the green title at the top, it will turn black; now click on the "Pin it" button on the burgundy menu bar.   If you'd like to see all of the wonderful-educational items that I spend way too much time pinning, click on the heart to the right of the blog.

I wish you and yours a very Happy Halloween.

"The whole idea of living, is to believe the best is yet to be." -Peter Ustinov

1-2-3, Come Slide With Me, To Study a Word Family!

My Y5's really enjoyed making "sliders."  I named them that, because you slide a strip of paper through slits that then revealed something in the cut out "window."

I made sliders for lots of my report card standards: upper and lowercase letters, numbers, skip counting, counting backwards, shapes, colors, word wall words etc.

A slider was an especially successful way for my students to actually see, how a word family operated. 

They liked seeing new words appear, as they slid their letter strip up and down.

To make a slider, simply run off the templates on construction paper.  Students cut out and assemble.

Add pizzazz to their chick with wiggle eyes, a 3D beak, a yellow feather atop the head, and by folding the wings forward.

I added that finishing touch to the bunny, with wiggle eyes and a pink pom pom nose. Students can also glue a cotton ball to the back for a fluffy bunny tail.

Sliders are a wonderful way for discovering words that your students are not familiar with.

Add these to the vocabulary-building activities included in the packet like this sweet -ick ending word dictionary.

I often built vocabulary for a variety of themes and word families via a dictionary.

I've included a cover for both the -ick chick word family slider, as well as the bunny -op word family slider.

I hope your students LOVE learning new words as much as I do!  One of my favorite things about the internet is the unbelievable amount of information available at the click of some keys. 

While I was researching ick and op ending words I learned a few new ones I didn't know: snick, strop and swop!

There's also a worksheet in each slider packet, where students trace and then write the word family words in alphabetical order.

Because I thought it would be slick for students to skip count with their chick, I also included skip counting strips for 2's. 3's, 5's and 10's.

Click on the link to view/download the chick ick word family and skip counting sliders.

Click on the link to view/download the -op word family bunny slider packet.

If you like these spring sliders, you'll probably want to take a look at the sheep slider, featuring -eep Da -eap word family words.  Click on the link to view/download it.

Thanks for visiting.  The birds are chirping; the sun is shining and it's time for a much needed break to grab some fresh air.

"Do your work with your whole heart and you will succeed; there's so little competition." -Elbert Hubbard