Word Families

Last year my district created a new word study program to take the place of the phonics/spelling curriculum we had used for years.  In first grade this program focuses on word families.  My colleagues and I were thrilled, but there was definitely a learning curve involved.  Now that we know what to expect, things should go a lot smoother and our instruction should be much more effective!
I've been creating some activities to reinforce the word families we will be covering. The first activity is themed to go along with my "Popcorn Words" word wall. Each week we add words that represent the word families we are studying.  These words have a ticket on them to show that they are a ticket to reading and writing new words.

My word wall waiting for words!

An example of my "ticket" words.  The district high frequency words have a popcorn picture in corner.

The activity I created will help me highlight other words from the families and keep all of the word families visible.  This packet consists of the 37 common rimes from Wylie and Durrell as well as some additional families used in my district.  The cards can be used for display and can also be used with the workmat and recording sheet at a literacy/word work station.  Head over to Teachers Pay Teachers to check it out!

TPT

I also created a" Bang"! type Freebie game to practice the short a families.

Freebie!

Teacher Created Resources is going to be giving away an Ipad!  Click here to enter.  If you win by following my link, I win an Ipad mini!  You can enter every day!

Plural Noun Practice

We are reviewing nouns this week.  I have noticed that a lot of my friends are adding an apostrophe and the letter s  to words to make them plural, so I decided it was time for a review on how to make a plural noun.  Since I was going to have to do some reteaching anyway, I decided to go ahead and do a thorough study of plural nouns, discussing adding -es, changing y to i and irregular plurals.  Then we will move on to possessive nouns.  Most of these skills are not specifically addressed in our district objectives, but the kids' writing is showing they were ready.
On Monday, I used my morning message to re-introduce plural nouns.  Almost everybody could tell me that the underlined words meant more than one, and most even remembered the term plural.  But I could tell by their comments that they didn't realize that -es had been added to sandwich to make the plural.

Tuesday I had a list of nouns on the easel, and I ask the kids to tell me the plural.  I included words  like sandwich,  kiss, brush, bus and witch. As we said the plural, we clapped the syllables so that they could hear that the plural had an additional syllable.  I then explained that since every syllable has a vowel, we had to add -es to some words.  Then I introduced the rule for adding -es.
We will continue to review throughout the week by forming plurals on the pocket chart, writing sentences using plurals and completing word work activities during Daily 5.  Next week we will talk about possessives and move on changing y to i and irregular plurals after spring break (less than 2 weeks away- Hallelujah!)
I've created some workstation activities to help my friends practice plurals and have decided to test the waters of Teachers Pay Teachers.  I still want to share the things I create, but I thought that maybe by selling a bit I can justify my new clipart obsession!  (I made 3 different purchases just on Sunday afternoon!)  Here's a link to my first product- it's a freebie!

Click to download

I hope to have some more plural activities completed in the next few days.  I don't know if it was the full moon or the front that moved in, but my kids have been CRAZY the past 2 days, and I'm exhausted!  10 day 'til Spring Break and the great outdoors!