Sight word Game Cards

This resource can be used to play two games: Pelmanism (memory) or Snap.  You may think of other games as well.

Game One: Pelmanism

In Britain it is called Pelmanism after Christopher Louis Pelman, who founded the “Pelman Institute for the Scientific Development of Mind, Memory and Personality” in London in 1899.

You need to create two sets of word cards –  two of each word.  Shuffle and place them face down.  The first player turns over a card and reads the word.  He then turns over another card and reads the word.  If the cards match he gets to keep the pair and play again.  See the ‘How To Play’ file included for more details.

    

Game Two: Snap

I could vouch for this game being fun, fun, fun!  My students love this one.  You need only one set of word cards – one of each word.  Shuffle and place the cards face up.  One person (teacher or student)  calls a word from the set.  Students ‘snap’ the word (cover with their hand).  The first one to snap the word gets to keep it.

   

Both games enhance memory, visual discrimination and of course reinforce instant recognition of high-frequency or sight words taught.

The package includes:

• 1 .pdf file with 2 pages which you need to print back and front.  The front is blank for you to insert your own words.
• 1 How To Play word document
• 1 Terms of Use notepad file

I hope you and your students enjoy this resource as we work, play and grow together.

 

Alphabet Work

Here is another resource that you can use in so many ways.  Its main use if for sequencing letters of the alphabet.

The package includes six pages for you to print and laminate, as follows:

1)  Page with capital (uppercase) letters for matching

2)  Page with common (lowercase) letters for matching

3)  Page with blank spaces for putting the alphabet in order

4)  Page of capital (uppercase) letters for cutting out

5)  Page of common (lowercase) letters for cutting out

The resource can be used in many different ways. The child can first match the letters, both uppercase and lowercase.  The child can then use the blank card to sequence the alphabet either on his own or by looking at the cards with the letters.  However it is used, this resource supports children who may have difficulty sequencing the alphabet by allowing them to go in stages until they can do it on their own.

     

  

The clip art was taken from mycutegraphics.com. Please see Laura Strickland’s terms of use here.

Of course you can store in this handy plastic bag and label.

Now here’s the great news!  This resource is free for you to download, print and use in your classroom.  You can print as many copies as you like.  Even the label is there for you.  It is in .pdf format.

If you are a teacher in Trinidad and Tobago the learning outcomes from the Primary Curriculum Guide for Infant One, are listed in the file for your convenience. (Colours are different from those showed here).

If you like this resource I would appreciate a comment and if you want to get updates you can subscribe to my blog.  Look out for more from me!

 

 

 

Parking Lot for Sight Words

Here’s another nice resource I saw online and thought I would make it myself for my class.  It is a parking lot for sight words.  The word is called and the child drives a car into the correct parking space.  As usual I changed the original one a bit.  Here‘s the original one.

Here’s mine.    Since I’m working with limited resources, I laminated these and wrote the target words on with a dry erase marker.  In this way, I can use the lots over and over again.

I wanted to use it whole class and wanted to be able to tell at a glance if the child had parked on the right spot.  So, I put in ‘bumpers’ just before the word.  The cars cannot cross the bumpers.

  Here they are, getting ready to enter the parking lot.  They made little engine noises as they drove and when another word was called, I encouraged them to reverse and go forward like a real car would, instead of jumping lanes.

  On the right, they are driving towards the word ‘his’.  Someone may be going the wrong way!

 

  In order to prevent copying, I put the words in different places on each lot so the children look for the word rather than just follow the person next to them.

 

Here’s the entire set.   The cars were purchased locally at a variety store.

      

 

My main reason for making resources is to allow further reinforcement and learning to take place in the children’s free time.  They can use this resource on their own.  A child who knows the words well can use the flashcards to call the words.  To facilitate that, I included the flashcards with the target words and a dry erase marker.  The entire set fits nicely into a plastic zip bag (the kind you get when you purchase curtains).  Isn’t that just handy?  After all, we’re working with limited resources here.

Do enjoy!  The children certainly do!

Here’s the best part.  You can download the template for this parking lot if you like.  Just print, laminate and rev up those engines!  Here you go.

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5 Year Old Children – Authors and Illustrators

This story was written by 5-6 year-old students of the Infant Year I class of my school.   It was part of a class project in keeping with the school’s theme: “Making Every GLMS Child Literate”. The sub-theme chosen for the class was “Exploring our world.”

The idea for this book started off when I presented the class with a picture of a fish as a stimulus for a Reading lesson using the Language Experience Approach. Apart from oral reading, I wanted to use it to introduce capital letters at the beginning of sentences.

After the lesson the students wanted to continue the story and this led to five chapters of the story of Aries The Fish! The children were very eager and excited to work on the story and they looked forward to adding to it every day.

Many, many lessons came out of this including: Phonics, Capitalization, Punctuation,  Identifying sentences, Types of sentences, Media Literacy, Comprehension—main idea,  sequencing, self-to-text connections, answering literal and inferential questions, Oral reading, Grammar, Sight words and more.

We were sad to end the story but the cliff-hanger left it open for a Part Two! Hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it!

 

Sending Them Off

This post is rather late.  I had it laying in ‘draft’ stage for the longest while and reading it today almost brought a tear to my eye.  The children are already gone but here goes.

“I’d rather be jumping around with some noisy children than doing all this paperwork!”  This I said to the clerical officer at my school yesterday.  The school year is coming to a close and for some reason I had a lot of paperwork to complete.  I didn’t know that the paperwork was a blessing in disguise.  It kept my mind off of the fact that I was sending these children off to another teacher next year.

It was my first year in the Infant Year One class.  I wasn’t sure that I wanted to deal with a bunch of crying five-year-olds entering school for the first time but what a rewarding experience it was!   I had a lovely group of children and even the most troublesome one I love and will sorely miss.

She is the girl whose name is known throughout the school.  The Principal knows her, the teachers of the upper level classes know her, the cleaners know her.  She is the girl whose name is always followed by dramatic sound effects in my head.  You remember Darla from “Finding Nemo?”  Try it.  Say “Darla!”  Did you hear the dramatic sound effects?  Now that’s my girl.  Yet, I miss her when she’s absent and I will miss her when she’s gone on.  By the end of the year she’s hugging me and telling me that she wished I was her mom.

Then there’s my ‘popular girl.’ From the very beginning she declared that she wanted to be a popular girl.  It took only a little while to realize that she wanted to be a pop singer.  She is the girl who wants to sing for you every minute of the day.  She is also impulsive and blurts out answers while raising her hand and standing up.  She is helpful and respectful, constantly wants to hug you and verbally expresses her love for you.  By the end of the year she had a song book with written songs in it.

Then there’s the tiny boy.  His shoe size is amazing to look at.  They are the tiniest shoes ever and they still fall off his feet when he walks.  The uniform is huge on him but it’s the smallest size.  He is obsessed with tops and would spin them throughout the day even when he should be working.  He is heart broken when the top breaks but always seem to have another soon enough.  He is an excellent reader and although he takes all morning to complete one writing exercise, he is right on target.  By the end of the year he is patting his friend on the shoulder and telling him not to worry about his (the friend’s)  broken top, and that he’ll get another one.  Awwww.

Then there’s the shouter who cannot speak softly but is enthusiastic about school and life; the chubby dancer boy who never, ever stops dancing and who never, ever stops laughing; the all round, mature girl who is always neat, polite, well behaved and gets everything right; the quiet, shy boy who now takes part in class; the boy with the bright smile who you can never be upset with no matter what; the boy with the small smile and a mischievous look in his eyes who says the most funny things very softly; the girl who struggles with Reading and is the kindest, most helpful one of all; and all the others.

I will miss these children who made me laugh and made my life so much better for knowing them.  I will miss these children who have grown and blossomed and who will continue to do so as they move on.  God bless them.

See you next door!