Sight Word Linky Party

Time for another linky party!! I love linky parties--I find so many great ideas and stumble across tons of awesome blogs! Today, I'm linking up with Katie at Teacher to the Core to share some of my sight word ideas.

I am so excited about this party...sight words are HUGE in first grade, I can't wait to get some new, fun ideas!

I'll share a quick, easy no-prep game I play with my kids and an organization tip.

The game is called The Flyswatter Game. My kids always cheer when I bring out the fly swatters. They LOVE it!

Here's how you play:

• Write some sight words on the white board. 
• Split the class into 2 teams. Have 1 person from each team come up, stand facing the class and holding a fly swatter. 
• Call out a sight word and they turn around, find the word, and slap it with the flyswatter. Whoever slaps it first, gets a point for their team. I let them choose someone on their team to come up next. 
• (I also give 'bonus points' to teams that are being respectful and being good sports..and take points away for teams who are not)

I absolutely LOVE the way my sight words are organized. With the help of co-workers, friends, and pinterest, I have (almost) perfected my sight word system and it works amazingly well!

I have written a blog post explain exactly how I manage sight words in my classroom. Click the picture above to take you to the original blog post! There is also a little sight word freebie in that post as well!

And of course check out the linky party for more fantastic ideas or link up to share your own!

Free Planning Sheet

I'll be honest...keeping up with my blog during the school year has turned out to be more difficult than I thought! I've had so many things going on (with work and also outside of work) that my blog has been pushed to the back burner these last few weeks:(

Mr. Abeyta and I went to California for a week where his bagpipe band competed in a bagpipe competition (they got 1st place!...and of course we had to go to Disneyland while we were there! :) While I was sitting at the airport, I cutesied up one of my planning sheets and thought I'd share! Click on the picture to download.

SELF-START
Every morning when my students come in, they do a 'fix-up' sentence for their self-start. I have a sentence written with 3 mistakes in it. My students find the mistakes and circle them, write the sentence correctly, then draw a picture to match the sentence.

SIGHT WORDS
We learn 4 sight words each week. By the end of the week, my students are expected to be able to spell them and read them.

• On Monday, I introduce the sight words and we write a sentence with each sight word.

• On Tuesday, we spell the sight words using magnetic letters. 

• On Wednesday, we sing a sight word song. (You can find two fun songs HERE and HERE)

• On Thursday, my students get to pick out a movement card and follow the directions on the card for how to spell the word. (I found my set somewhere online...I can't remember where though! I've seen a few different sets floating around Pinterest)
• On Friday, I pull out a stack of sight word flashcards. I tell them which sight word to look for and tell them to put the 'stop' hand signal when we get to that word.  As we go through the stack, they read the words out loud. This way, they are not only watching for our weekly sight word, but they are reviewing previous sight words as well.

 TIME FILLERS
Our darling firsties have so much to learn....every minute counts in first grade! Last year I started planning out time filler activities for the week so that when we had a few minutes here or a few minutes there, I wouldn't be wasting those few, precious minutes.

A lot of my time fillers come from these sing-along flip charts (I purchased both from Scholastic)

 The rest of my time fillers are just random songs/poems/activities I got from co-workers or found online.

And....here's a picture of Mr. Abeyta and I at Disneyland! Love that place...If I could go there every day, I would!

Sight Word Organization and a FREEBIE!

I don't know about you, but I am ALWAYS looking for better way to organize and manage things in my classroom so that things run smoothly! 

I wanted to share with you how sight words work in my classroom. I have been doing this system for a few years now and I LOVE it! (Just as a side note...I cannot take credit for everything you are about to see. I have picked up things here and there from co-workers and friends and combined it all to make a system that works for me)

Every week our firsties have 10 spelling words. 4 of them are sight words and the others are word family words.

I put the sight word cards for each week in an envelope. Each envelope has the week number, week date, and a list of the 4 sight words. We focus on 1 word per day. After the spelling test, the words are then put up on the word wall. Then...

The empty envelope is put in at the back of my sight word box. Then the envelope for next week is at the front, ready to go! 

Our students are expected to spell AND read the sightwords by the end of the week. 

I made flashcards for each word and put them all in a coupon binder, separate by weeks. 

I have all of my flashcards organized for the entire year and in a basket. 

This is the check off list for all of the sight words. There is a spot to check off whether they can read the sight word as well as spell it. I have 1 of these printed off for each student and put into a 3 ring binder. 

Here is a closer view (*Note: Weeks 1&2 have more than 4 sight words...this is because these are words they should have learned in Kindergarten.)

Every Friday, I have a parent volunteer (usually my room mom) come in to have the kids pass off their sight words for the week. She grabs my binder (which contains their check-off sheets) and the 4 flashcards for the week. She then pulls the kids back one by one to see which words they know how to read. If they can read it, she crosses the word off. If they can't, she just leaves it blank so I know which words they still need to practice. I look at their spelling tests to mark off which ones they can spell. 

The sight words they can read are also marked off onto this paper. This one stays in their homework folder. This way, the parents know which words to have their child practice at home. 

And....now time for a FREEBIE! I am in the process of making an AWESOME sight word packet. Here is a little sneak preview! (Click on the picture below to download)

These are activities your parents volunteer can do with your students on a moments notice! There is NO prep for this... all they need this Sight Word Practice paper and flashcards! 

I hope everything in this post makes sense. If you have ANY questions whatsoever, PLEASE let me know and I will be happy to clarify! 

xoxo,

Jackie