Touch Spelling

Do you have students that struggle with spelling? Spelling is an area all of my students struggle with in their writing.

When students are "touch spelling" I always have them hold their pencil in their dominant hand and use their other hand to touch spell. Students will say the word slowly and touch one finger for each sound they say. After the student says each sound, they can then write the word.

Touch spelling has been HUGE in helping my students write down all the sounds they hear in a word. This is especially helpful with blends. As I watch my students touch spell, I can pinpoint where they are not hearing the sound, such as the 'l' in the word sled. 

If a student has written the word wrong, I will touch spell directly over the word they have written. This helps them easier see if the sound matches up to the word that they've written.

If a student doesn't know how to spell a word, my go to response is always say the sounds and touch spell. I rarely spell a word for a student since I want to encourage them to write independently.

Here are some other activities I use to help students understand the spelling of words and how to manipulate sounds.

Building words is an activity that I use frequently in my classroom. I try to fit this in weekly. It's great for my students to practice listening to sounds, manipulating sounds, and making sure they understand phonics patterns in a hands-on way. You can check this activity out more by clicking {here} or the picture below.

I use this Making Words activity with my students who have stronger writing skills and have a larger base of spelling/phonics patterns and known words.

There are 4 different themed words for each month of the school year. Students cut out the letter tiles and try to make as many words as they can. They love trying to figure out who can find the mystery word first. You can see more about this activity by clicking {here} or the picture below.

I hope these tips are helpful in your classroom!

Teaching Without a Classroom

Last year, I told you guys about the hard decision I made to leave my teaching position and take a leave of absence.  You can read about that {here}.  One thing that experience taught me was that sometimes you really do have to close one door for a better door to open.  My leave of absence gave me the opportunity to take a part-time intervention position at the same school my sweet friend, Courtney from Teaching in Paradise, works. 

Let me tell you, I love the hours.  Part-time is perfect for those of us that have families and spouses with demanding jobs.  Even better though, I love the students, staff, and school.  I've been able to fall in love with teaching again!

Although there are some logistical challenges to my "classroom".  Much like every school, there just isn't extra room for intervention teachers.  Since we're in Hawaii and get to benefit from this amazing year-round weather, I teach at a picnic table outside.

This is my classroom.  

 A little unusual and does make for some different obstacles to overcome compared to what you would face in a classroom.  But we make the best of it everyday, and I'm constantly reminded how teaching is all about being flexible.  :) 

The big thing is I HAVE to stay organized, and I really had to think about what supplies I really need on a daily basis.  First thing was to order a super cute 31 bag to store all my stuff.

This bag has been a lifesaver!  I keep all the stuff I use everyday inside the bag.

 I've tried to keep a consistent routine with my intervention groups, so I can use the same type of supplies.  Inside the bag, I keep these things:

1.  A wooden chart stand that has a pocket chart on one side and dry erase board on the other.

2.  My The Next Step in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson book.

3.  Making Words folders for building words.  You can find out how to get the cover page and the letter tiles {here}.

4.  My Erin Condren lesson plan book.  Love that thing!

5.  My small group materials binder with all of the pages I use for word work.  You can read a post about those pages and find out how to get your freebies {here}.

6.  Dry erase boards and markers.  I use baby socks for erasers.  :)

7.  A binder where I keep all of my curriculum guides and materials we're currently using (like math pages and reading passages).  I love these pocket folders to keep all of my groups neatly organized.

I use all of the pockets to store things that are smaller like pencils, pens, and all of my Fluency Task Cards.

So there you go!  A little glimpse into my "classroom".  And this just goes to show that sometimes a little thinking outside of the box can help you come up with alternative solutions to get things done.  Now if only I could make the VERY large cockroaches and ants go away!  :)

All About Word Work (Freebies!)

When I pull my 3rd grade intervention groups, we always start with a phonics lesson.  I try to have a variety of word work activities on hand to keep our lessons engaging and not the same boring activity every day.

I keep all of my small group materials in a binder.  I've printed off 7 copies of each activity and placed them in a page protector.  That way I can reuse all of my materials and kids love writing with a dry erase marker.  Of course, I had to make a cute cover for my binders.  

You can download a copy of my covers by clicking on the picture below.

With my low group, I like to start off reviewing the short vowel sounds.  Why is it that 'e' and 'i' are so tricky?  I love using these vowel sound cards that you can download {here} for free.  The graphics and hand motions really help my students remember the correct sounds.

When we are introducing new phonics patterns, I typically start with a card sort.  I give students several cards (depending on group size) and let them take turns sorting the cards into our pocket chart.  We then read the cards up and down, as a group and individually calling on students.

After the first introduction to the phonics patterns, I try to switch up our daily activities.

The sound boxes are really great if you're wanting students to concentrate on middle sounds, blends, or digraphs.  We just spent last week working on R-blends.  Oh man, I didn't think we were ever going to gr, tr, and dr with my lowest group!

Word Ladders are always fun and my kids love manipulating the letters to make new words.  This is also a really great tool to see if your kids are catching onto the patterns.  They really have to listen to your directions to know what letters to change. 

Analogy charts are great if you're wanting to kids to compare 2 or 3 different patterns.  I used this last week when I wanted my students to really focus on gr- and dr- patterns.  They were having a hard time determining when to use which pattern.  The Analogy Chart made them really have to pay attention to the sounds.

I usually save the Spelling Sort for the last day of our work on those specific patterns.  This is another tool that really makes students think about which vowel sound they hear in the word and which phonics pattern they need to use.

I wanted to give you guys all of my Word Work Printables as a freebie.  I've added them as a Facebook Fan Freebie.  All you have to do is visit my Facebook Fan page {here}, "like" my page, and click the Fan Freebie button.  Then you will be able to download these for yourself.

Do you have any tips to help make word work interesting with your students?

Construction Zone - Building Short Vowel Words

One of my favorite small group activities is having my students build words.  I typically have them write a word on a dry erase board and then tell them to change one letter to make another word.  The only problem is that I have to come up with this on the super of the moment and I'm not always super quick on my feet.  

So I created this super cool Construction Zone - Building Short Vowel Words unit that I know my boys will LOVE!

There's 2 different mats for students to build words on depending on your preference.  You can print the colored mat off and use the letter tiles provided or whatever letter manipulatives you have on hand.  I always have a hard time finding enough letter manipulatives for each of my students to have enough letters.  That's why I've included letter tiles that can be printed off and cut out for each set of words you build.

 If you want to save ink, you can print the black and white version.  Students can write directly on the page or you could place it in a page protector and have students use a dry erase marker.

I've included directions for students to build words for all the short vowels, short vowel words that end in ck, and 4 sets of mixed review that contain all short vowels.

My students are going to love the construction theme and the hands-on fun of building words.  If you want to check out this unit more, please take a look at Construction Zone - Building Short Vowel Words.

Don't forget that there's an awesome TpT sale going on in my store right now.  Use code TAD13 at checkout to get 28% off everything in my store.

Sleigh Full of Goodies Blog Hop

I'm so excited to link up with some great blogs who are giving away freebies!  After all, it is the season of giving now that we're officially into December.  Yikes, that means Christmas is coming soon!

First, I'm linking up with Beth at Thinking of Teaching for her Sleigh Full of Goodies Blog Hop.  

And, I'm linking up with Teaching My 3 for her Twelve Days of Teacher Freebies.

For my freebie, I'm giving away a Reindeer Making Words activity and a Gingerbread Kids Sight Word Game that you can download from my TPT store by clicking on the picture.

Don't forget to head back to Thinking of Teaching for Day 2 of the Sleigh Full of Goodies blog hop!

Happy downloading everyone!!!

3rd Grade Word Study

Last year, I used Words Their Way for my 3rd graders' spelling program.  There were a lot of things I did like about the program.  Mostly, the way spelling patterns were systematically introduced.  Due to time limits, I wasn't able to fully implement the program the way that I wanted.  I only had about 30 minutes daily to teach spelling and writing to my students.  Let's be realistic, there was no way to teach spelling or writing in a way that I felt like I was giving my students everything they needed (especially since they are below grade level).  I did have some students who were really good spellers and that was their strength.  Those students would move on weekly with the next word pattern.  Then I would have other students who would need weeks on the same pattern.  By the end of the year, I had students in 4 different groups, and it was a nightmare.

This summer I came across this GREAT post by Beth Newingham:

http://blogs.scholastic.com/top_teaching/2010/10/my-november-top-ten-list-word-study-in-action.html

I LOVE the way she teaches and introduces the spelling patterns.  I really felt like this is something that could be doable this year for me.  I'm redoing how I teach reading and spelling this year.  I plan on focusing on a phonics pattern a week (such as my Long A CVCe Unit).  I decided that I would just focus on the phonics pattern and spelling pattern together each week.

1.  This will help me save time.  I can do it as part of my reading block.  My students that I do not see for Language Arts will still get the same instruction but just won't have to do the spelling tests or spelling homework.
2.  My students need this systematic instruction anyway and A LOT of practice in the spelling and reading of long vowel patterns.
3.  I hope that this can free up some time for me to teach writing next year.

So instead of making games the last few weeks, I've been busy working on the Word Study plan for spelling.  I've done the first 16 units for the year.  I really liked how Beth Newingham has setup her forms and plans, so I copied her format.  I hope to finish up the word lists for the rest of the year by next week (I have family coming into town this weekend).  Then I plan on tackling the games and activities that will go along with each unit.

I don't know if anyone will find this useful but here is what I have come up with so far.  It is pretty tedious finding the words and trying to not use the same words twice.  I hope I can be done with this part soon, so I can move onto the fun stuff........making and posting games!!!

Click the picture to view my lists. It's still a work in progress and will be completely updated once I have done the lists for the whole year (updated 1/7/12).