Word Work

Let me begin by saying I am EXHAUSTED.  We had a snow day on Friday and I am still. not. caught. up. *Sigh*  We had a round of parent-teacher conferences last Tuesday night.  They went well.  We have our final night coming up this Thursday.  Between that, being ready for the week without having been at school on Friday, trying to complete all my homework for my reading endorsement, doing laundry, cleaning the house, paying bills, working on new products, trying to get everything ready to file my taxes, and everything else...I'm just wiped out.  But, c'est la vie, right?  ;)

Needless to say, I needed a little "retail therapy."  Enter: GroupDealz.  Please tell me you've been there, right?  I have purchased countless accessories on this site!  It's AMAZING!  They have the best deals EVER!  This is what I just purchased for $9.99!  A lot of their deals aren't on there very long and they add new ones everyday.  This deal expires tonight at midnight.  If you want one, you'd better run!  If I remember correctly, you have to sign up with an e-mail address first before they let you view the deals. It's totally worth it, my friends!  And there's no obligation at all.  You can just browse forever and not buy anything.  But you might just get hooked like moi...

I wanted to let you all know that my March Math Centers - CC Aligned are finally up!  I have put them 10% off for the next 24 hours.  :)

Now on to some Word Work talk!  I do a modified version of The Daily 5, due to our crazy broken-up schedule.  One of the components of it is Word Work.  I have created Word Work packets for every spelling pattern known to man, haha.  I think there are something like 28 packs in my shop!  They range from short vowels to long vowels to digraphs and everything in between.  Let me show you how they work!

Each pack contains 10 different activities that have to do with the phonics pattern for the week.  I bought these fun drawers over the summer.  On the left side, each drawer contains one type of Work Work activity.  I printed off labels and stuck them on each drawer so that the activity stays the same each week.

The first activity is called "Shake Up."  I filled water bottles with colored rice (you pour white vinegar into a bowl of rice, add several drops of food coloring, and mix it up).  Then I copied, laminated, and cut little pieces of cardstock with the phonics pattern within each word.  They shake it up and search for all the words they can find and then write them on a sheet of paper.  The students LOVE this one!

There's also a simple board game using words with the phonics pattern.  Students practice reading words in order to progress on the board.

Next we have the ever popular "I Have, Who Has" game.  This game is best played with 3 or more people, but in all honesty, they have just as much fun doing it with a partner!

Then we have "Build a Word."  In the packet I have letter tiles for this activity, but I actually found a tub of foam cubes on Amazon that I use in my class.  They practice building words with the phonics pattern for the week.

Next is "Word Sort."  They practice recognizing words with the phonics pattern and words without the pattern.

Another activity they like is called, "Line 'Em Up!"  There are 12 words with the phonics pattern that they must put into ABC order.

There are 4 more that I don't have pictures of.   One is "Satisfy the Sentence," which is simply a fill-in-the-blank with words with our phonics pattern.  Looking at them in context helps them learn it!  Then there's "Mystery Word," in which the identify scrambled up words that contain the phonics pattern.  Next is "Locate the Hunks," which are poems where they highlight words with the phonics pattern.  The final one is "Rainbow Words" where they write a particular word with the pattern 3 times, each time using a different colored crayon.

You can find all the Word Work packs HERE!  I hope you enjoy them and get as much use out of them as I do!  My students truly look forward to Word Work each and every week.

Have a blessed week with as little stress as possible!  :)

Teacher Appreciate Sale and a New Blog Title!

I don't know about you, but to me this such an exciting time for teachers!  Our PTO does all sorts of giveaways and luncheons and little treats for us during Teacher Appreciation Week!  We are truly blessed to have the jobs we do to be able to serve our wonderful communities.  Speaking of which, many of you are already aware, but Teachers Pay Teachers is having a HUGE sale today, tomorrow, and Tuesday!  I'm offering 20% off all of my products, and TpT is offering another 10% off as well!  It's a SPECIAL treat!  I'm excited to download some things I've had my eyes on for a while.  :)

Thanks to Erica for creating this awesome banner for the sale!

CLICK HERE TO GET TO MY STORE!

Now I'm going to unveil something I've been working on, and I finally finished it this morning at 3 a.m.  Ah, the life of a teacher. :P  I know that is NOT normal, but sometimes I just get the energy to get stuff done!  I've started a Word Work section for my store.  With moving down to 1st grade next year, I'm ALREADY thinking about how I want to do things next year.  And being a new mommy, I want to keep things simple and easy!  So in honor of this huge project, I have listed my FIRST Word Work packet for FREE on TpT!  That's right, folks.  Short a Word Work.  It's 47-pages of 10 activities for a short a study.  The activities will stay the same each week, fostering independence and confidence so that YOU as a teacher can worry about other things (working with small groups, individuals, teaching lessons, assessing, whatever it is you need to do!).  I've already uploaded the Short i Word Work and will keep on adding others throughout the next several months.  Here's a preview!

One more thought for the night...since I'm moving to first grade next year, I have decided to go with a new name for my blog.  You may have noticed the address is different.  So that I don't jinx myself again, I'm changing it to "Permanently Primary"!!!! :D  Because even if I get moved again (which I'm hoping, praying, and crossing my fingers and toes that I don't!), I will only be teaching a primary grade because of my certification.  I figure I can't go wrong!  ;)  So the title of my blog and everything will be updated soon.  Don't freak out, it's still me!  :)

Have a great week and I hope you're all able to stock up on some fun stuff! :)

I will be back with pictures from our World's Fair and some decorating projects I've been working on for my classroom!  I didn't want to make this post really long and random, so I will post again in a few days!  :)