1-2-3 Come Do Some Vowel Activities With Me  

Today I'm featuring 4 of my newest vowel packets.  I hope your students enjoy them as much as mine did. 

First up are my word wheels and puzzles. They are my way of grabbing students’ attention, so they’ll want to practice vowel pairs, which can be a bit tedious on the road to fluency.

The crafty little twist of a wheel, and game-like aspect of making a puzzle, is a fresh alternative to a worksheet, which students really enjoy, and has been extremely successful in improving fluency, while building their vocabularies as well.

Both the wheels and puzzles come in color, so you can use them for an independent center, as well as black & white, so children can make their own.

I’ve also included a “Trace, Write & Alphabetize” worksheet, if you want your kiddos to show that they’ve worked on those center activities.

There are puzzles and wheels for ai, ay, ea, ee & oa vowel pairs. Some have six sections, others 10. 

Next up is a "Vowel Owl" packet.    It's stuffed with a variety of super-fun ways to practice those tricky vowel pairs: ai, ay, ea, ee, & oa, which help build vocabulary & fluency.

There are games, sorting mats, worksheets, puzzles, posters, an “All Aboard the Vowel Train” booklet, as well as a paper chain and “flip up” craftivity, plus an emergent reader, 1-page story, which includes 80 Dolch sight words!

We all know that “Practice makes perfect”, but simply reading and writing words can become a bit tedious.

So, if you want your kiddos to get them excited to practice their word work, tell them they’re going to get to make a paper chain, where they trace and write the vowel pair words, color the pictures, then link them all up.

Working in an independent center, putting together a puzzle, then recording the results, or playing a word game with a partner or as a small group, also creates interest, and helps improve fluency.

Whenever I could, I also tossed in a bit of math practice (Tally marks, counting, adding, and analyzing data.) Mixing math with literacy gives you more bang for your time too! 

The vowel-pair number puzzles, also mix math with literacy, as they practice sequencing numbers from 1-10, counting backwards from 10-1, plus skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s.

The puzzles come in full color to use for an independent math center, as well as black & white, so that students can color and cut to make a puzzle of their own.

For an interesting bulletin board, have children glue the pieces of their puzzle on a sheet of construction paper, leaving a small gap in-between, creating a mosaic effect. 

Finally, since I'm celebrating Seuss for the entire month of March, I decided to make a Seuss-themed vowel packet, and came up with "Vowel Prowl" with the Cat in the Hat. 

Even though I designed this packet with Seuss's crazy cat in mind, it also works "purr-fectly" with any other cat, like Pete! Simply color the patterns blue for you know who.     

The packet includes:

* 2, "We are on the prowl for a vowel” posters
* Vowel song-poster to the tune of BINGO, with matching AEIOU letter cards

* 4 vowel worksheets
* A “tally time” listening & following directions activity
* 3 options for a “Popsicle stick “long or short” puppet pal.

* 3 options for “long or short” vowel “header” cards to put in sorting cups
* 60 mini word cards for sorting
* 2 sorting mats

* 10, alphabetical lists of long and short vowel words
* 2, “I’m On The Vowel Prowl” word journals, with 10 pages. (2-on-a-page patterns to conserve paper.   

Just in time for your March is Reading Month activities, today's featured FREEBIE is aSeuss-themed reading log.  I hope you find it useful.

Well that's it for today. I can't believe it's snowing again! That lion continues to roar here in Michigan. 

Oh well, since I'm cooped up like the kids in the Cat in the Hat story, I may as well design some Horton "stuff".  Wishing you a heart-full of springtime.

"Step with care and great tact, and remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act!" -Dr. Seuss

1-2-3 Come Do Some Vowel Activities With Me

The letter Yy is quite a unique letter, in that it can be both a consonant and vowel.

To complicate matters, the Y has several different phonemes (sounds). It can have a long e sound, as in worry, as well as a long i sound, as in fly.

With that in mind, I designed this Ys Guys & Spies packet, as recognizing special spellings for vowel sounds is part of successful decoding & word recognition.

Just like my best-selling ”Vowels & Villains” packet, instead of students being frustrated and tripped up with “exceptions to the rules”, they are prepared and get excited when they find a “spy” that they can “jail”.

The packet includes:

* A letter Y craftivity, where students create 3 different “Ys Guys“ writing the various Y words on their letters.

I've named them "Regular Y Guy" for words beginning with the letter Yy and having the "ya" sound, "Sky the Sly Spy Y Guy" for words ending with the letter Yy & having the long i sound, and then there's  "Shifty the Shady Lady", for words ending with a Yy and having the long e sound.

* There are 3, Y Guys posters to introduce the lesson, with a matching word poster filled with lots of examples.

* A variety of worksheets that build vocabulary, including “Jail the Spies” fun.

* A “Letter Yy Word Booklet”.

* A short, 2-page “Ys Guys” emergent reader, with 36 Dolch sight words.

* A graphing extension of the last page in the emergent reader.

* 2 “Disguise” definition posters.

* 2 “Wanted” posters.

* 4 sorting mats, to sort the 160, mini word cards. Quick, easy & fun way to build vocabulary. Includes matching worksheets for more practice.

* A “Ys Guys” spinner game.

* Practice literacy & math at the same time, with 4, number-strip puzzles.

Students color, write on words associated with that "Y Spy Guy", cut & then glue the strips together to make a mosaic picture puzzle.

The number puzzles reinforce skip counting by 2s & 10s. 

Click on the link to zip on over to my TpT shop to check out the latest Villians in this 58-page Ys Guys & Spies packet.  

Since "bunny" is one of the Y Spy long e words, I thought my "I'm All Ears" bunny matching game, would be an appropriate featured FREEBIE for today. 

Use the large & small pattern to make this quick, easy & fun center activity. My Popsicle sticks include matching games for upper & lowercase letters, numbers, shapes, colors, equations, and contractions!

Well that's it for today. We are having absolutely gorgeous fall weather for November! 

The sunshine is calling me through my open window, so it's time to take a break and go play.  Wishing you a stress-free day.

 "Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine." -Anthony J. D'Angelo

1-2-3 Come Do Some Vowel Activities With Me

“When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking.” Is a simple & very popular rhyme that helps children read a variety of words with a vowel digraph. (Such as CVVC)

However, so that children are not frustrated, it is extremely important to add “…sometimes but not always.” after they recite the rhyme, as there are lots of exceptions to the rule. I've included this sentence in my poster set.

To build vocabulary, improve fluency, as well as spelling, I teach the “rule breakers” along with the words that follow the rule. 

This has been so successful with my own students, that I decided to design the "Vowel Villains"  & When To Vowels Go Walking" packet.  

I found it an especially appropriate title, as the word villain is a rule breaker!

Instead of being frustrated when they are tripped up by a rule-breaking word, my students get very excited because they’ve found yet another “convict word” to “jail”! 

Believe me, your students will LOVE this approach to word work.  Choose from a large variety of super-fun "rule-breaking" options.

My kiddos were constantly on the look out for CVVC words.  

They enjoyed determining if a word followed the rule or not, and took delight in finding “culprits” that they could add to the jailhouse.

Another thing that I include in the packet is some Rhyme Time activities.  There are posters with matching 2-on-a-page worksheets for time-saving printing.

Rhyme time, is another quick, easy & fun way to build vocabulary and help students find more examples of words that fit the rule.

Here are some of the things that the packet includes:
* 3 large “When two vowels go walking…” anchor chart posters, with a smaller version showing all of the posters on one page, along with matching bookmarks.

* 7 large vowel digraph posters to use as headers for a word wall.

* “When 2 vowels go walking…” finger puppets.  A set of boys, plus a set of girls in both black & white, as well as color.

They provide a super-fun way to introduce the rhyme & help children remember it.

* A set of 8, Mix & Match, “build-a-bookmark” patterns (boys & girls, black line & full color).

I’ve included completed samples, so you can quickly & easily make examples to share with your students to help explain what you want them to do. 

As you can see by the photograph there are lots of ways to mix & match the heads, feet & bodies to come up with a cute "Walking Vowel Bookmark".

* 338 (10-on-a-page) word cards for ai, ea, oa, & ee; including a blank set of cards so you can program with more words, plus a tip list of what else you can do with the word cards, including the“Kaboom” game. 

These words are also listed on anchor chart posters.

* A variety of “rule breaking activities” including a rule breaker song to the tune of London Bridge

* 74 rule-breaking word cards, with a blank set to program more.

* An assortment of “Lock them up” worksheets, with answer keys;  ai, ea, ie “I broke the rule” posters, along with a set of rule breaker,“build-a-bookmark” convicts, in color plus black & white.

* And as always, directions, tips, samples, links & photographs

I sincerely hope that your students enjoy learning tricky vowel combinations with these interesting techniques, as much as my students have.

Click on the link to pop on over to my TpT shop to check it out: "Vowel Villains & When 2 Vowels Go Walking...Packet". It's a whopping 135-pages, and just $4.95. 

Today's featured FREEBIE comes from the packet.  It's the 3 "When 2 Vowels Go Walking..." poster set." I really enjoyed creating the graphics, & hope you like them too.  Click on the link to get your copy. 

Well that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by. 

My bones are achy, so I'm hobbling around with my cane that I haven't used in months, reflecting on how much we take for granted when we are healthy & buzzing around. 

Wishing you an energizing day, filled with lots of memorable moments.

"You know, all that really matters is that the people you love are happy and healthy.  Everything else is just sprinkles on the sundae." -Paul Walker

 1-2-3 Come Make A Common Core Scarecrow With Me!

So much to do and so little time to cover it all.  Sound familiar?  It's a no wonder that teachers constantly complain that there's simply no time for any of the fun craftivities of yesteryear. 

But wait!  There's hope! I spent a zillion hours making a comprehensive "Patches" the Standard Scarecrow. 

He's 17 scarecrows in one, so you can pick the standard(s) you want to practice.  Patches covers the following Common Core/Report Card Standards in a quick, easy and super fun way:

upper & lowercase letters, numbers 0-30, odd & even, skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s, 10s, 2D shapes, 11-colors, vowels, telling time to the hour and half hour, and words: SC blend, contractions, compound words, beginning Ss sound words, CVC words that begin with S, plus rhyming words!

Wow!  That's a whole lotta bang out of one little scarecrow craftivity, and completed projects make a wonderful fall bulletin board, or look sweet hanging back-to-back from the ceiling.

To make this extra special, fold a sheet of white construction paper, have students trace their hand and then cut once, to get two hand prints for their scarecrow's "gloves".  I ran yellow construction paper through a shredder to make the "hair". 

Run off the scarecrow's body templates on a variety of colors of construction paper.  Students trim and glue together. 

For more fine motor practice, cut yellow rectangles with a paper cutter.  Have students snip the bottom portion and glue the "hay" to the back of the scarecrow's pant legs, then crumple.

I purposely made these patterns super simple to cut out, but if you think this is too much for PK kiddos, have a room helper trace once and then cut 3-6 shirts and pants out at a time,  leaving just the head for preschoolers to cut out.  

There's a blank head so children can draw their own scarecrow face, as well as a completed template for little ones to color.

 Students make their scarecrow and then trim and glue on the appropriate patches.  The vowel scarecrow is especially versatile, as it not only covers vowels, but shapes and colors too. 

The packet also includes shape and color cards, along with a variety of worksheets for more practice.

For extra reinforcement, when everyone is done, play an "I Spy" game and give students a piece of candy corn to use as a manipulative.  Choose a student to call out a "patch". 

Children locate that letter, number, shape or whatever, cover it with the candy corn, and then raise their hand. 

This is a fun way to practice and review standards, as well as a quick and easy way to whole group assess, as you can see at a glance who is having difficulty. 

I've also included blank patches for you to fill in with whatever, plus ideas and templates to use the number, letter and shape scarecrows for matching games.

i.e. match the lowercase patches to the uppercase letters; match the number word patches to the numbers match the colorful patches to the color words, and/or match the shapes to the shape words.

For more scarecrow-themed letter fun, click on the link for a set of scarecrow alphabet cards.

The following scarecrows are wonderful for vocabulary building and Daily 5 word work: Carl is the Compound words scarecrow; (Click on the link for a FREE alphabetical list of over 3,000 compound words.)

Connie, is a contraction action scarecrow; (With an alphabetical list of 72 contractions)

Sam, is a scarecrow that loves 37, 3-letter words that begin with S; (CVC practice!)

Scott, is the SC blend scarecrow, with a list of 50 word cards as well as pocket chart cards.

The packet also includes an entire SC blend section, with lots more activities.

Sophie, is a scarecrow with 47-picture patches, for simple words starting with the letter S. 

For a quick review, I've also included 4, Ss word, picture posters.

Rodney, is the Rhyme Time scarecrow, with 56 words that rhyme with scare and a list of 274 words that rhyme with crow.

Write the words that rhyme with scare on the front of Rodney, and have children choose some words that rhyme with crow and write them on the back.

In the sample, I chose 24-scare rhyming words and wrote them on the shirt, and then wrote an equal amount of words that rhyme with crow, on the pants.  The alphabetical lists include rhyming words that start with every letter except U & X.  I chose one of each.

Finally, the number scarecrow, has several options and serves double duty.  There are number patches from 0-30, which  I traced in a variety of colors. 

You can make Odd Todd and Even Steven scarecrows (front and back) or put the odd numbers on the top and the even numbers on the bottom.  (See photo.)

For more math number practice, I've also included skip counting patches.  Children can skip count by 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's. 

There are matching worksheets in the packet as well, along with number cards, plus number puzzles in color & black and white. 

The puzzles review counting from 1-10, counting backwards from 10-1, as well as skip counting to 100 by 10s.

Two emergent readers also reinforce numbers, as well as colors.

For more odd and even scarecrow number fun, click on the link to practice numbers from 1-120, in the Scarecrow's Pumpkin Patch packet.

If your kiddos are familiar with that concept, but need to work on matching numbers to their number words, use the Norman & Nancy number scarecrow patterns, with numbers 0-10, along with their matching number word patches.

Glue the numbers on the shirt and the number words on the pants.  For more practice, have students write the words above their matching number patch.

The Common Core Craftivity Scarecrows are part of a whopping 184-page jumbo packet in my TpT shop for just $5.95. Click on the link to pop on over. Patches, The Standard Scarecrow Packet.

Thanks for visiting today.  It's a really hot July afternoon, with temps expected to flirt with the 90's, which is too hot for this midwest gal.  Time to put the AC on and make some lemonade.

“I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year.” -Edna ST. Vincent Millay

1-2-3 Come Do Some More Green Eggs and Ham Activities With Me

Did you know that Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham on a bet that he couldn’t write a book with fifty or fewer distinct words?  After doing some checking, I discovered that the bet was made in 1960 with Bennett Cerf, the co-founder of Random House, and was for $50.  Ironically, even though Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham using EXACTLY 50 words, it's been reported that Cerf never paid up. 

Green Eggs and Ham ranks in the top 3 best-selling Seuss books, so it's definitely worth reading.  I wondered what the 50 words were?  Did he use lots from the Dolch word lists? 

I was intrigued, so I grabbed my copy and painstakingly found all 50 words, then alphabetized them in a handy list, as well as on an anchor chart poster, and YES(!) all but 8 of those words (6 of which are nouns) are also listed on our Dolch lists. (Happily, 6 of the other nouns that he used, ARE listed on the Dolch list of nouns.)

For quick and easy printing, I made 50-mini word cards that fit on one page.  Use them to play a variety of games like "Speed", Memory Match and "I Have; Who Has?". 

Students could also pick a partner, and play "Speed" against them, to see who can arrange their set of cards in alphabetical order first. The packet also includes a 2-page tip list of ideas, like "Kaboom!".

For writing practice, print, laminate and trim the cards.  Toss them into a Seuss hat and have students choose 2-3 and incorporate those words in sentences.  Remind them to use proper spacing, capitalization and end punctuation. 

So that children can practice long and short vowels, I've also included two green eggs vowel sorting mats.

For some rhyming practice, run off the two "trace, write and alphabetize" worksheets, which use words that rhyme with Sam and green.  All of these activities are perfect for your Daily 5 word work block. 

Click on the link to view/download the Green Eggs and Ham Word Work packet.  As always, everything on my site is FREE. 

If you use my activities, I'd love to hear from you.  Comments help keep me energized.  You can leave one below, or contact me via e-mail: diane@teachwithme.com  I also design quite a few items from requests.

To see all of the Seuss FREEBIES on my site, simply click on the link to zip on over to that section.  I also have an entire Seuss board on Pinterest, featuring lots more creative ideas, free educational activities and crafts.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for visiting. I try to design and blog daily, so do pop back often for the newest freebies hot off the press. This week I'm working on St. Patrick's Day and kite-themed activities. 

 The sun is FINALLY shining, so I'm off for some much-needed fresh air.  Chloe, my poodle pup will be thrilled.  The ground is still littered with dirty piles of snow, but the promise of spring in now in the air; at least for today.  Wishing you an energy-filled day, with the sounds of spring in your heart.

"Sometimes you may never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory." -Dr. Seuss

1-2-3 Come Make A Name Ornament With Me

I'm not sure about your kiddos, but as the last day before vacation neared, I could sense the energy levels climbing.  To help them stay focused, I always tried to do a few hands-on "craftivities" that my students would really enjoy, but also wanted to include standards to keep the administration content as well.

With that in mind, I designed the Keepsake Name Ornament packet.  It's a quick, easy & fun Christmas ornament that helps reinforce your students' names, letter recognition, vowel identification, capitalization, graphing, counting and addition!  Woo hoo! 

This would be a wonderful center on the last day before vacation, or a special "craftivity" to do for your Christmas party day. 

I've included upper as well as lowercase letter tiles that your students trim and glue to a strip of construction paper.  I used red & green, but just one color looks nice too.

While children are at lunch or recess, laminate your students' completed projects and have a room helper cut them out, punch a hole at the top & add a yarn tie.

Gluing on a school photo makes them even more special, and even though the ornament spells their name, have them write their name and the date on the back.

For some math fun, I've included two point value charts, so your students can practice a bit of addition, by adding up the point value of their letters. 

Use the chart with point values to 4, with younger students, and the chart with numbers to 26, for older students. Because their total will be large, have children figure out the place value of their name using this grand total.

There's an ornament worksheet to record their answer, along with other data, so that you can review consonants and vowels as well.  Students can color this ornament, or simply run off on a variety of colors of copy paper.

Vowels are also reviewed, with a graphing extension. There's a graph for the total number of letters in your students' names too.   As you can see, I've packed in all sorts of math extensions in this simple ornament "craftivity".

To add to the fun, I've included a "secret" coded Christmas message that you can challenge your students to solve.  Students refer to the point value poster to figure out what the sentence says. 

Make it a "speed" game, and see who can decode the message first. To save you time, I put two on a page for quick printing, and included an answer key.  Click on the link to view/download the Keepsake Name Ornament activities. 

Thanks for visiting today.  As always, my December days fly by.  I've got to get to the post office today or my family in Wisconsin, won't get their goodies in time for Christmas.  Wishing you a stress-free day.

"May voices join with the multitude of the heavenly host to proclaim His glory. May hearts be filled with His everlasting song of joy and peace this Christmas season."  -Unknown

 1-2-3 Come Play Some Long E Word Games With Me

Word work and vocabulary building was part of my Y5's every day activities.  Daily 5 came along and simplified or complicated things, and gave teachers something else to try and find "stuff" for.

To keep my students interested and semi enthusiastic about word work, I changed the theme of these activities each month, so although the skills were repetitive, there was variety because the theme was different. Doing this little adjustment was very successful and helped avoid tedium.

With that in mind, I wanted to create an activity with a November theme.  When I taught kinders and first grade, we continued to practice vowels at this time, particularly "When two vowels go walking the first one usually does the talking." so I went in search of a symbol that I could use.

A sheave of wheat was pretty prominent and perfect for the ea vowel grouping.  Some of my kiddos were often confused with that long E sound wanting to spell these words with an ee, so I decided to make up a list of words for both.  Need, became needle and the haystack idea was also born. 

The Haystack Howdy packet is a quick, easy and fun way to practice words with a long E vowel sound, which have the double ee or ea letters in the middle of the word.

The packet includes the Needle in a Haystack whole group file folder game, with 130 double ee "needle" word cards, plus an alphabetical list of the words in poster form. 

The cards are small, with 22 on a page for easy printing.  Choose the ones you want your kiddos to work on.

Print, laminate and trim the cards.  Toss them into a container and have students choose 1 or 2.  Using the list, ask for a word. 

The child holding that card, shows it to the class, everyone reads it together, then they put the "needle" into the haystack.

To make the haystack, simply print off a copy, trim and glue to a file folder. (I've included 2 color options, plus one in black & white.)

Using an Exacto knife, cut a slit wide and long enough for the needle cards to be slipped through the slot. 

Hold up the file folder, by putting a small basket in the back.  The cards will drop through the slot and into the basket.  Keep the cards in an envelope, in the folder and tuck into your file drawer.

The Sheaves of Wheat game works the same way,  with 107 ea "wheat" word cards to choose from, plus an alphabetical list of those words. 

There are plenty of other ways to use the cards as well.  For writing practice or a Daily 5 activity, have students choose 3-6 cards and use those words to create sentences. Afterwards, have them select 10 cards to alphabetize. 

If they are not familiar with a word, they can look it up and add it to their writing journal or student dictionary.  Children can also work with a partner and play Memory Match, Slap, Speed etc.  I've included a 4-page tip list of ideas.

For more teachable moments, there's also a background page about the idiom "needle in a haystack" as well as a definition page for the word sheaf.

Finally, whenever a nursery rhyme fit in with a particular theme, I'd plug it in, so I could also review rhyming and this genre. 

I used to have an entire week for a nursery rhyme and fairy tale theme, but as standards became more demanding, I ran out of time.  I'm sure you all can relate with "so much to do, so little time to do it in..."

Adding rhymes here and there, solved the problem.  Because a haystack is featured in the Little Boy Blue nursery rhyme, I've included some activities for that in this packet. 

There's a poster poem of the rhyme in black and white, as well as color, plus 8 pocket chart picture word cards, and a paper "strip" booklet for students to make. 

I call these "strip" booklets because I fit anywhere from 5-8 "strips" on one page that students complete, trim and collate into a mini booklet. 

My kiddos LOVED making these emergent readers that they could take home and practice with.  Click on the link to view/download the Haystack Howdy packet.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by. 

This Nana is in serious need of some snuggle time, with her new grand baby Kaitlyn and little grandson Kaiden, so I'm off to visit my daughter. Wishing you a love-filled day.

"One machine can do the work of 50 ordinary men.  However, no machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." - Elbert
 Hubbard  

 1-2-3 Come Make A Multi-Purpose Scarecrow With Me

Since there are so many standards on our plates these days, there never seems to be enough time for everything, let alone a fun seasonal craft that we know our students would enjoy. That's why I spend so much time designing hands-on "craftivities" that revolve around all sorts of standards. 

Because it's so comprehensive, it took me several days to complete this Common Core scarecrow, and even more hours to make a sample of all 11 scarecrows, but it was time well spent, as they turned out so cute, are easy for your kiddos to make, and reinfore the following: 

Upper and lowercase letters, vowels, sc blend, beginning s sounds, matching words with pictures, numbers 0-30, odd and even, skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s & 10s, shapes, telling time, colors, contractions, number words, color words, compound words, CVC words, and rhyming words.

Completed projects make a wonderful fall bulletin board, or look sweet hanging back-to-back from the ceiling.

To make this extra special, fold a sheet of white construction paper, have students trace their hand and then cut once, to get two hand prints for their scarecrow's "gloves".  I ran yellow construction paper through a shredder to make the "hair". 

Run off the scarecrow's body templates on a variety of colors of construction paper.  Students trim and glue together. 

For more fine motor practice, cut yellow rectangles with a paper cutter.  Have students snip the bottom portion and glue the "hay" to the back of the scarecrow's pant legs, then crumple.

I purposely made these patterns super simple to cut out, but if you think this is too much for PK kiddos, have a room helper trace once and then cut 3-6 shirts and pants out at a time,  leaving just the head for preschoolers to cut out.  

There's a blank head so children can draw their own scarecrow face, as well as a completed template for little ones to color.

 Students make their scarecrow and then trim and glue on the appropriate patches.  The vowel scarecrow is especially versatile, as it not only covers vowels, but shapes and colors too.

For extra practice, when everyone is done, play an "I Spy" game and give students a piece of candy corn to use as a manipulative.  Choose a student to call out a "patch". 

Children locate that letter, number, shape or whatever, cover it with the candy corn, and then raise their hand. 

This is a fun way to practice and review standards, as well as a quick and easy way to whole group assess, as you can see at a glance who is having difficulty. 

I've also included blank patches for you to fill in with whatever, plus ideas and templates to use the number, letter and shape scarecrows for matching games.

i.e. match the lowercase patches to the uppercase letters; match the number word patches to the numbers; and/or match the shapes to the shape words.

For more scarecrow-themed letter fun, click on the link for a set of scarecrow alphabet cards.

The following scarecrows are wonderful for vocabulary building and Daily 5 word work: Carl is the Compound words scarecrow; (Click on the link for an alphabetical list of over 3,000 compound words.)

Connie, is a contraction action scarecrow; (With an alphabetical list of 72 contractions)

Sam, is a scarecrow that loves 37, 3-letter words that begin with S; (CVC practice!)

Scott, is the SC blend scarecrow, with a list of 50 words. The packet also includes an entire SC blend section, with lots more activities.

Sophie, is a scarecrow with 47-picture patches, for simple words starting with the letter S. 

For a quick review, I've also included 4, Ss word, picture posters.

Rodney, is the Rhyme Time scarecrow, with 56 words that rhyme with scare and a list of 274 words that rhyme with crow.

Write the words that rhyme with scare on the front of Rodney, and have children choose some words that rhyme with crow and write them on the back.

In the sample, I chose 24-scare rhyming words and wrote them on the shirt, and then wrote an equal amount of words that rhyme with crow, on the pants.  The alphabetical lists include rhyming words that start with every letter except U & X.  I chose one of each.

Finally, the number scarecrow, has several options and serves double duty.  There are number patches from 0-30, which  I traced in a variety of colors. 

You can make Odd Todd and Even Steven scarecrows (front and back) or put the odd numbers on the top and the even numbers on the bottom.  (See photo.)

For more math number practice, I've also included skip counting patches.  Children can skip count by 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's.  There are matching worksheets in the packet as well, along with number cards, plus number puzzles in color & black and white.  

For more odd and even scarecrow number fun, click on the link to practice numbers from 1-120, in the Scarecrow's Pumpkin Patch packet.

If your kiddos are familiar with that concept, but need to work on matching numbers to their number words, use the Norman & Nancy number scarecrow patterns, with numbers 0-10, along with their matching number word patches.

Glue the numbers on the shirt and the number words on the pants.  For more practice, have students write the words above their matching number patch.

Click on the link to view/download the "craftivity" portion of the Common Core Scarecrow Packet.

This section will be FREE for an entire year!  After that, you can pick up the whopping 184-page jumbo packet in my TpT shop for just $5.95.  Click on the link for Patches, The Standard Scarecrow Craftivities packet to pop on over.

Thanks for visiting today.  I need to unclutter my brain, so we're off to a nearby fall festival.  It's a beautiful autumn-weather day, if the rain just holds out for awhile. 

 "If stars can shine with darkness, so can you." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Work On Vowel Digraphs With Me

I think most everyone has heard the reading rule “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.”  It was probably thought up by a teacher or parent who was trying to make learning to read a bit easier.  

I learned this rule, and I’ve also taught this rule.  While doing so, I made sure that my students said, “but not all of the time.” after they repeated the rhyme.  For as we all well know, the English language has many aggravating exceptions to our rules. 

It’s one of the reasons non-English speaking people have a rather difficult time sorting through all of it.  Just as soon as they learn that cute little ditty, they trip over said, weight, shoe and so one.

Keeping that in mind, I wanted to discover what sort of percentage the rule had at bat.  After about an hour of surfing and many articles later,  I was surprised to find that educational gurus gave this rule a rather low score. Averages for being “correct” ranged anywhere from as high as only  57% to as low as 36% depending on their word list.

One must also keep in mind that if you list all of the possible vowel digraph combinations (two written vowels together that make one sound), the results also vary.  

Clymer’s study (1963/1996) seems to be the most referred to reference; he found that when two vowels appear side by side, where the long sound of the first one is heard and the second is usually silent, happens only 45% of the time!

I let my students know that the ai, ea, ee, and oa digraphs, have the most success with this rule.  Some teachers also like to add the ie digraph, and although I can think of quite a few examples where it’s true, (pie) I can think of many more words that are an exception to the rule. (piece)

Prompted by a request, I decided to make a "When two vowels go walking..." packet.  In it, I’ve provided a list of words with the above vowel digraphs that are age appropriate. 

Quite a few teachers seem to be calling these "team words" as the vowels work together like a team, to make one sound.  Starfall.com, a popular educational site, also refers to them in this way.

To provide more teachable moments, and build vocabulary, as well as practice spelling, I’ve also included a list of words that are exceptions to the rule.  I call them "rule breakers."

To make coming across exceptions less frustrating and more fun, have students toss these rule breakers into jail. 

Instead of moaning and groaning that they’ve found another exception, they will take delight in tossing those words into a cell. 

I've included empty jail cell templates for the ai, ea, ee & oa vowel diagraphs, as well as filled-in ones for you to use as an example, after your students have completed theirs. 

Bobbi, a visitor to the site, e-mailed me an adorable walking vowel bookmark,  she did not know the source, and despite some effort, I could not find it either, so I made up my own version.   

I thought others, who also teach the When two vowels go walking...rule,  would enjoy making them as well.  That request led to lots of research and creating an entire When two vowels go walking... packet!  (Thanks for the adorable idea Bobbi!)

There are several tops and bottoms your students can choose from. 

Use the black line versions, so that your students can color, cut them out, and then attach them to whatever vowel pairs you’re working on.   I've provided the color versions, so that you can easily make laminated samples for yourself.

The vowel digraph “body” also has several options, and comes filled in with the ae, ea, ee, and oa pairs, a blank set, where you can have your students fill in other vowel digraphs that you want to cover, as well as a pattern, where students choose a vowel pair and then list examples of words in the empty boxes. 

I've included filled-in teacher samples too.  Click on the link to view/download the When two vowels go walking... packet.

This packet will be FREE for an entire year, after which time it will be revamped and then put into my 137-page jumbo "Vowel Villains & When 2 Vowels Go Walking" packet.

I'm forever searching YouTube to see if some creative person has posted something that will help students learn. I found 3 rather short and very cute videos about the When two vowels go walking... rule.  The pictures are screen shots from those clips. 

I think that PBS does the best job at grabbing children's attention with their catchy "When two vowels go walking..." song.  In fact, some say that it is one of their most popular tunes.  It's from their Emmy-winning literacy education series, Between the Lions. Click on the link to view this less than 2-minute video. 

Another adorable clip, was made by a creative teacher and her sweet kindergarten kiddos.  I love the fact that she had them make vowel t-shirts, so they truly could walk side-by-side.  

I'm sure they all had a great time making this 1.54 minute video.  Click on the link to view the kindergarten vowels go walking.

Starfall, (one of my favorite sites for kids) also did a good job of portraying two vowels walking. Click on the link to view this less than 3-minute video.  Starfall's When two vowels go walking...

If you'd like some anchor charts of the most popular vowel digraphs that fit this rule, click on the link When two vowels go walking..." poster packet.  

Use them as anchor charts to hang in your room, or run some off for your students and have them write a list of words that conform, on the back. 

If you're looking for a few more vowel activities, The Vowel Owl packet is a popular download: Students sort the 570 CVC & Dolch word cards  into the various long and short vowel owl cups, making it a fun "Word Work" activity for your Daily 5.

I've also included a Vowel Howl game board, as another fun option for practicing long & short vowel sounds.  Click on the link to view/download the Vowel Owl packet.

My personal favorite vowel activity is the Old MacDonald Had Some Vowels packet. 

My Y5's, kinders and 1st graders, all enjoyed singing the song and substituting the EIEIO with the vowels AEIOU. 

Because children are familiar with the tune, the emergent reader booklet, is a fun way to reinforce long and short vowels. 

The repetitious-simple sentences, are filled with common Dolch sight words.  

Click on the link to view/download the Old MacDonal Had Some Vowels packet. 

Finally, for a set of vowel anchor charts/posters click on the link.  To take a look at all of the vowel FREEBIES on teachwithme.com click on the link to pop on over to that section.  Simply scroll down to pick and choose.

Thanks for visiting today.  I hope you found some useful items. Wishing you a stress-free day. 

"Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only that the cat died nobly." -Arnold Edinborough

1-2-3 Come Review Vowels With The Cat and the Hat and Me

As you add vocabulary words to your word wall, it's a good idea to continue to reinforce vowel sounds with your students.  With this in mind, I thought it would be fun to do something with a Seuss theme to review vowels.   The Cat in the Hat seemed like the perfect helper. 

Using the sweet clip art of myclipartstore.com,  I designed Seuss's tall cat to represent long vowels, and then made a shorter cat for the short vowels. 

There's a template with all of the vowels on one page, (upper and lowercase versions) as well as patterns with all of the cats showing one letter.  This way you can choose to work on one vowel at a time, or all five, picking your pattern accordingly. 

Run the cats off, trim and then glue them to the appropriate short and long vowel boxes.  I used turquoise paper for the long vowels, and yellow paper for the short vowels.  Glue them together, laminate, trim and attach to a Popsicle stick with glue dots.  

To easily sort and differentiate, use a different colored Popsicle stick for each vowel group. (For example, all of the A's are on red sticks, the E's on yellow etc.) 

I've included a comprehensive list of words for all of the long vowels, as well as a list for all of the short vowels.  I drew from elementary word wall lists, as well as the Dolch lists (PK-3rd) so that you have a nice variety to choose from.

Pass out whatever vowel cat paddles that you want to work on, call out a word from your list, and have students flip and hold up their cat paddle with the answer.  You can see at a glance who is having difficulty. 

If you want to cover all of the vowels at the same time, only the students with that vowel cat hold up their stick.  Click on the link to view/download the Vowel Cat in the Hat Paddles packet. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  I have an entire Dr. Seuss board on Pinterest.  Click on the link to pop on over.  

To see more Dr. Seuss articles, packed with FREEBIES, simple scroll down.   

"Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one. " -Dr. Seuss