Sight Word Wands

Hey'all! If you follow me on Instagram (@funwithfirsties), then you may have seen this pic I posted a couple weeks ago:

These are sight word wands! 

There are so many different ways to use these magical little sticks, but right now, I use about 5 different wands a week as reinforcement when introducing a new set of sight words. 

I usually introduce between 2 and 5 new sight words at the beginning of each week. I pick words based on how I can use them in a catchy phrase to help kiddies remember. For example, this week I am introducing the words "the," "little," "can," and "jump," and will introduce them using the phrase, "the little frog can jump." We will add these words to our word wall, sight word celebration board (stay tuned! I'll be blogging about this later in the week!), and I also have the words displayed on our magnetic whiteboard with alphamagnets all week (throughout the day, I mix up the letters in one of the words and the kiddies get to put them back in order for a little extra practice...they LOVE this!).

ANYWAYS, the wands featuring our sight words of the week are left in the reading center/library (along with any sight word wands from previous weeks). The kiddies can choose a wand and see if they come across that word in their book as they read. Whenever they find a word, they get super excited and show all of their friends in the library...you'd honestly think they had found a pack of Skittles hidden in the book. It's honestly as simple as that!

I have three sets of sight word wands ready to go (pre-primer, primer, AND first grade) since the majority of my little learners this year are coming in at a beginning SK level.

Okay, so here's how I made them!

First I printed off the stars:

Click any of the following options for your FREE copy: Pre-Primer -- Primer -- First

Next, I folded each page in half and cut each star out so when I opened up a star, it was still attached at the folded point (this way the stars are double-sided and will leave a "pocket" in between the front and back...this will make sense shortly!)

I laminated each star and cut a little groove at the bottom (yes, this was totally tedious, but my theory is: once you've done it once, you never have to do it again!). 

The point of cutting out a groove is to break through the laminating which was "gluing" the front and back papers together, leaving a space in the middle to slide a popsicle stick in:

(this photo is taken looking at the bottom of the star, down into the cut groove)

For most stars, I could just pinch the two sides of the star together and the pocket would pop open. But some stars were being finicky so for those I just used tweezers to get between the two sides and slide my popsicle stick in. I used a hot glue gun to put a bit of glue on the end of the popsicle stick and then slide it in to the star. 

Did any of that make sense???!?! 

I feel like it sounds so complicated but it was really super easy...just somewhat time consuming. 

That's it for now, have a great week everyone!

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Built with Kit

September CURRENTLY

I'm super excited to be linking up with Farley for her infamous Currently...September issue!

Here's mine:

Listening- I don't know why but I *have* to run the dishwasher at night...running it in the morning is just throwing me right off!

Loving- HUGE shout out to Kassie for her brilliant design!!! Some of you may have noticed that I already had a makeover about a month ago, and although I liked it, it just wasn't me. So this time, I followed my instincts and went with bright, bold, and colorful....that's more like it! Kassie was *so* fabulous to work with; I started off not having a clue of what I wanted but grew more and more particular as we went along. Kassie was super patient and so quick to constantly send me visual updates of what was going on with my little blog. It made the process so smooth, and I cannot believe how fast she got it all done (despite working on several other blogs at the same time!). Thanks, Kassie!!!

Thinking- I've just begun reading The Happiness Project and am inspired by her first challenge (I won't say much more in case some of you want to read it!). Since then, I've been dying to clean out one black-hole of a closet and my "craft room" (that is currently more full of things that just don't have a place rather than craft supplies). I'm not done it yet, but I already recommend you read this:

Wanting- I just woke up and every morning I have my ginormous mug of green tea...I went straight to my blog today so I'm craving my daily dose!

Needing- almost every morning now I wake up with lower back pain. Stupid mattress.

My three goals for September:

1. Fall is my absolute *favourite* season. I love watching the leaves change, getting to whip out my fall wardrobe, the crisp air, the smell of my pumpkin candles....so my goal is to go for a walk EVERY day. It doesn't have to be a long walk, but it will be enough to "make my heart happy," as Farley says ...Plus my puppy will thank me, too!

2. I'm always grumpy when I get home, have to make dinner, but don't know what to make. This month, I'm going to make my life easier and plan (and prep, if possible) our week's meals ahead of time. Just thinking about it makes me happy.

3. Getting back into school routine always stresses me right out. There are so many unanswered questions and it takes next to noting to overwhelm me and make me panic. In September, I'm not going to sweat the small stuff and not think 5 days ahead. one.day.at.a.time. And if that doesn't work: red wine and a bubble bath should do the trick! 

Okay, your turn! Head on over to Oh'Boy 4th Grade to share your Currently!

Monday Made It: Word Work Dew Drops!

Heya'll! I'm posting my Monday Made It early (4th Grade Frolics is only hosting on the second Monday of every month now that school has begun) so I will be linking up later. Here's what I made:

They are what I am calling "dew drops" for a making words activity during word work centers. I originally got this idea from 4th Grade Frolics but could not find little round alphabet stickers AN.Y.WHERE. So I had to get a little crafty. First I grabbed my trusty neon paper pack:

And got a couple bags of those clear vase fillers, or "accent gems" from the Dollar Tree.

I sorted through them to pick out the truly clear ones (some of them had a reflective sheen on them that made it more difficult to see the letters....you can skip this step but I am just that anal).

Then I traced one of them on my neon paper to create a "stencil" to quickly cut a bunch of circles in bulk. After I had all the paper circles cut, I wrote out the alphabet twice and vowels a couple more times just to be safe (I wanted there to be enough dew drops in order to allow multiple students to build words at the same time without fighting over letters).

I did not have any ModPodge so I just used regular old school glue to paste the letters onto the gems. I painted a thin layer of glue onto the bottom of the gem, stuck the letter onto the gem, and then painted over the paper and around the sides to seal everything together. Once the first layer had dried, I painted another thin layer of glue over the paper just in case. Tedious, yes. But strangely therapeutic!

Once everything is good and dry, your dew drops are ready to go! You can use these in SO many different ways. I'm going to be using them for a making words activity in my word work center. Students can either spell words they see around the classroom and on the word wall, spell their names, or copy sight word cards for extra practice.

After making their words, students complete this extension worksheet:

This worksheet is available in my Word Work pack:

And that's that for today! I'm always looking for ways to keep my word work center interesting and I just know my kiddies are going to flip over this...I hope yours will, too!

Let's be friends!

Get teaching tips, ideas, and FREEBIES every now and then.

Built with Kit

Just Hangin' Around the Room (Teacher Tips!)

Hey'all! So it's the last day of this fabulous #teacherweek13 linky. THANK YOU to the fabulous ladies over at Blog Hoppin' for hosting, and thank you to all of you who commented, pinned, and just visited my blog this week...I know I sure have gotten a TON of great resources and ideas from all of you!

Today I will be sharing a Teacher Tip.

It is no secret that, as the year goes by and we are developing more and more anchor chart resources by the minute, that you quickly run out of space to display charts in your classroom!!!

Well, my friends, I have a cheap and easy solution to share with you! One day, I walked into my brilliant first-grade-teacher friend's (I've featured Stacy in the past HERE and HERE) classroom and saw this:

Can you see how the charts are hanging? Here's a closer look:

I just about *died* with excitement (I must be a teacher haha). But seriously, how smart is that? You can use any kind of pant hanger to display your anchor charts: 

(those cheap plastic ones you get with pants from Walmart are awesome)

Whether you hang them off a push pin, over a cupboard/door (that's why it's great to get the one with the spinning handles so you can turn it like I did in the first pic), or on the back of a bookshelf/storage unit, etc. The possibilities are endless! I ended up grouping my anchor charts and having one hanger at my word work center, one hanger at my writing center, etc. So that the kiddies could flip through ALL of the relevant anchor chart resources we had been creating since the beginning of the year.

Love it! Thanks for your ingenuity, Stacy ;)

Let's be friends!

Get teaching tips, ideas, and FREEBIES every now and then.

Built with Kit

Psst...check out THIS POST for another mind blowing anchor chart solution!

Okay, your turn! Click the pic below to head over to today's topic and link up!