Oh Lovely Sight Words!

Well my kinder class is still working on learning sight words. As I have shared before, we use the sight words from the 2011 edition of Houghton Mifflin Journeys reading series. As we have been going through each unit this year I have been creating activity sheets for the sight words. These units are for sale in my TpT store. My kinders have really enjoyed them and I think it helps them to have more practice with each of the words. I use the sheets for morning work or independent work throughout the day as well as homework. 

I have just posted my newest set: 

Kindergarten Journeys Sight Words Unit 5 (2011 edition)

This unit is $4.00 in my TpT store. 

I think this is my favorite unit so far. This unit included a bonus sight word reader for the kids to read and color. My kinders love these activities!

New Sight Words Units on TpT!

Well I have been busy teaching sight words to my class of kinders and as I told in an earlier post I have been working to create activities to go along with our reading series list of sight words. We use the HM Journeys 2011 edition. I have created activities for units 2, 3, and 4. I am also offering a bundle that will include all of the units at a discounted price.

Here are some examples of activities included in the units.

If you would like to purchase any of these units please click on the links below! Thanks!

Journeys (2011 edition) Unit 2 Sight Words Unit

Journeys (2011 edition) Unit 3 Sight Words Unit

Journeys (2011 edition) Unit 4 Sight Words Unit

Journeys (2011 edition) Sight Words Unit Bundle

Learning Sight Words

As is every kindergarten teacher in America, I am working hard to teach sight words to my kinders. Our school district uses the 2011 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Journeys reading series so that is where our 40 sight words come from. I have not found all the activities that I wanted for these sight words so I have started making my own. On the push of a fellow teacher, I am going to start putting them into unit packs for purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers. I am starting with Unit 2 because that is the unit we are getting ready to begin next week. I will try to go back at some point this year and create the same kinds of sheets for Unit 1, but I am planning to make the other units as we go along.

This unit contains:

• Search, find, & color pages
• Fill in the blank sentence pages
• Trace, write, color, cut & glue pages
• Review pages (all unit 2 words)

Please click on the link below to purchase at TpT!

Kindergarten Journeys Sight Words Unit 2 (2011 edition) 

 

Journeys Unit 2 Sight Word Review

As I have told you in the past, our school district adopted the Houghton Mifflin Journeys reading series last school year. In order to help my kinders learn their sight words I have been following the series and focusing on one sight word per week. At the end of each unit there is a review week. For unit 2, I created this little review sheet. It will be a couple of weeks before I use it but I am sharing it now for those of you that are ahead of me in your school year. I hope you enjoy this little freebie! Happy Friday!

Journeys Unit 2 Sight Word Review

Sight Words Fun

This is an idea that I saw at the SC Kindergarten Teachers Conference. 

Brain research says that a person's eyes are drawn to the middle of a circle while your eyes are drawn to the edges of a square or rectangle shape. Since my kinders' eyes are obviously drawn to the middle of a circle as well, I typed up all of our sight words from the Journeys reading series on circles. They are enjoying reading the sight words this way. 

Another idea to review the sight words is to use the word worm circles. I created a different set for the first 3 units and last 3 units of the Journeys reading series. These word worms are available on TpT for $2.00 but they are on sale until Sunday night for $1.50. 

Journeys Kindergarten Sight Word Worms

To play the word worm game: 
Each student gets a circle. The teacher puts down the head of the word worm on the floor. The first student puts down his/her sight word and reads it. Each of the other students must read the sight words that are already a part of the word worm before they add their sight word to the worm. If a student has difficulty with a word, he/she may ask a classmate for help.  

Since I am in a giving mood, I am giving away 2 sets of my word worm games. All you need to do is enter through the Rafflecopter below. I will draw for my winner on Saturday so make sure you enter now.  
  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Teaching Sight Words (Journeys Units 4 & 5)

Today is a Flex Day for me so I am out of school. YAH! I am heading out to enjoy the day with my mom but I wanted to leave you with something I used this week with my kinders.

For another way to have my kinders practice their sight words from units 4 and 5 of Journeys, I created a sight word bingo using those words. I used these during my small group time this week and it helped some of my kiddos. There are still some who are struggling, but hopefully the more exposure they are given the better they will get at knowing the words.

Head over to my TpT store to download these for free. The set includes the call card for the teacher and 6 different bingo cards. My kinders are loving these games and it is helping them learn those sight words. 

Click on the picture to download. Please leave me some feedback if you download these. Thanks!

 

Teaching Sight Words (Journeys Units 4 & 5)

My kinders have been practicing these sight words for months but many of them are still not fluently reading them and finding them in books so I made a concentration game for my assistant to use in small groups as extra practice. My kinders love playing these kinds of games and they don't even realize they are learning through the game.

Journeys Units 4 & 5 Concentration Game

I am sure many of you teach these same sight words even if you don't use the Journeys reading series so this may be something you can use too.

If you download this game, please leave me some feedback. If you have another suggestions for ways to practice sight words with my kinders, I would love to hear them too!

Teaching Sight Words (Journeys units 1, 2, & 3)

This week I am on unit 4 lesson 17 in my Journeys reading series. This year my kinders seem to be having more trouble than usual learning their sight words. I have also had to adjust some of the words I teach since the sight words are not the same in Journeys as they were in our old reading series.

I have created a sight word bingo game to use with my small groups next week to review the sight words from units 1, 2, and 3 of Journeys. I hope you can use it too. If this goes well, I plan to make one for units 4, 5, and 6.

I am sure many of you teach these same sight words even if you don't use the Journeys reading series so this may be something you can use too.

Journeys Sight Word Bingo - Units 1, 2, & 3

 

If you download this bingo game, I would love to hear from you. I always love to hear your suggestions.

Friday Freebie: Beginning Letter Sounds Review Sheets

I have shared with you before that this year we are using the Houghton Mifflin Journeys reading series for the first time so I am redoing my letter sequence to follow the reading series. We teach all the letters by Dec. so they can be assessed in January so we are going in the order of the reading series but doing 2 letters per week. I redid some beginning sounds sheets with the new sequence. I hope you can use these too (even if you aren't using Journeys!).

G, R, D, & O beginning sounds review sheet

J, E, L, & W beginning sounds review sheet

N, F, B, & I beginning sounds review sheet

If you download and can use these, I would love for you to leave me a comment and also rate me on TpT. Thanks so much! You are fabulous!!

Writer's Workshop Wednesday: Labeling things & parts

We are using our new reading series - Houghton Mifflin Journeys for our writers workshop. For the past 2 weeks, we have been working on drawing and labeling our pictures with nouns for things and labeling parts of things. Here are some pictures of our writing.

Writer's Workshop Wednesday: Labeling (Nouns for People & Places)

This year in writer's workshop we are using our new reading series - Houghton Mifflin Journeys. I love how this series starts with simple things like labeling. For the past 2 weeks, we have been working on drawing and labeling our pictures with nouns for people and nouns for places. Here are some pictures of our writing.

So how is your writer's workshop going?

Do You Use HM Journeys Reading Series?

This year our school district adopted a new reading series - Houghton Mifflin Journeys. I am amazed at the amount of materials included with this reading series. When I walked into my classroom, I had 8 boxes of materials including extra large flipcharts and a tub of big books and other materials for each of the 6 units. The materials look great, but I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer volume of materials. 

Our kindergarten team has been trying to plan for the upcoming school year with this series, but I am still unsure. 

So here is my question for you:

Do any of you use this reading series? If you do, what words of wisdom do you have for a new teacher to this series?

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If you haven't already entered my giveaway for the Kindergarten Math CC Assessments Pack, please head over here to enter! The giveaway ends on Tues., Aug. 14th!

Too Long Without a Post

Melonheadz

Sorry that I have been MIA for the past couple of weeks. When I got out of school, I had to have some down time. Here is what I have been up to:

I spent a couple of days at the beach with my toes in the sand with some great friends at Myrtle Beach. This was the view from our hotel room.

Our oldest niece turned 12. She is my husband's brother's child and we love her to pieces. We took her out to eat for her birthday.

Last week, I had a full day of PD about the Common Core math standards and revising our district's pacing guides for the new school year. We are getting a new reading series this year - Houghton Mifflin's Journeys. Is anyone else using this reading series yet? If you are using it, how do you like it?