Happy Wednesday everyone! Today was my kind of day in the classroom! I have a group of lovelies who NEED to be up and moving throughout the day. It is very rare this year to see my group sitting at their desks for an extended period of time. My group needs engagement, opportunities to work cooperatively, and time to interact with the content they’re learning. What my firsties need, I am happy to provide!
We have been working throughout this week on the very tricky Bossy R spelling pattern with /ir/, /er/, and /ur/. Last week we focused on /ar/ and /or/. We had Smart Clark visit our classroom and help guide us through the week with his awesome /ar/ activities. Today we didn’t just get a visit from super heroes, we got to become one!
On Monday we were introduced to the Bossy R triplets with this simple yet effective SECRET STORIES® by Kate Garner about the sounds!
‘ER /IR /UR’
They LOVE to go driving in cars,
but they are terrible, awful, horrible, ‘no-good’ drivers-
so they always have to slam on the brakes!
but they are terrible, awful, horrible, ‘no-good’ drivers-
so they always have to slam on the brakes!
“ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!”
 |
| For more SECRET STORIES® make sure to visit Katie Garner’s website at www.TheSecretStories.com |
We were slamming on our brakes ALL day on Monday. So much so that my next door neighbor peeked her head into see what we were up to. Ooops fun learning needs no explanation!
As we continued to practice our Bossy R sounds today, we were introduced to the Bossy R triplet super heroes from Jessica at Wild About Firsties and her fantastic freebie! We sorted some of our Bossy R sounds as a whole group, built words on the SMART board, and watched one of our favorite videos from the Electric Company!
After some review, it was time to become our very own Bossy R super heroes! We used the mask template from Jessica’s freebie, cut them out, and glued them to popsicle sticks. Once we all had our masks ready to go I told them what their jobs would be! We were going to “fly” around the room to super hero music that I played from my SMART board. When they heard the brake sound like in our secret story, they had to stop and save the day! The kids were told to stop at the closest /er/, /ir/, /ur/ poster and write a word on their own to show they were super hero material! Once the music started playing again they were allowed to continue to fly around the room with their super hero friends.
I used the brake sound effect from this video to play at random times once I stopped the music. Our super heroes did such an awesome job writing down their Bossy R words once they heard the signal!
This little cutie wrote his name on the mask and circled the /or/ in his super hero name!
After a few rounds of super hero music and stopping to record our Bossy R words, we stopped flying and went over the words we had collected.
We had a few mistakes that we needed to discuss but other than those, my super heroes did a fantastic job recognizing the Bossy R sounds and writing the correct spelling pattern for their words! Not only did we get to interact with each other and learn our phonics pattern but we had a blast protecting the classroom in the process! Way to go superheroes!
How were you a super hero today?
I hope you enjoy the rest of your week!
9 Comments
Love everything about this!
The Bossy R is really tricky and it looks like your students nailed it 🙂 Thanks for the tips – I just downloaded Jessica's freebie! Can you share more about using Secret Stories? I've found Snap Words (associated picture/gesture with sight words) successful with my students and wondered if Secret Stories was similar. Thanks! Jen
Hi Jen! Thank you so much for stopping by! I'm so glad you liked the idea! My kids had such a good time with it and it was a great way to see who still needs a little extra support with the sounds. You will love Jessica's freebie, the triplets are adorable. Secret stories are a way I have found online to introduce different letter sounds through short stories. They have motions probably similar to Snap Words but are fun and engaging for the students. They were created by Katie Garner to teach letter and phonics sounds through kinesthetic, visual, and auditory means. I don't own all of her products, I definitely need to invest more into the program but she has sample stories on her website here thesecretstories.com/, that can get you started! Have a great day!
Hi Jayme, That sounds like a great day! When we started all day kindergarten they bought the Secret Stories program for us. I love it! Some of the concepts are a little hard for our kiddos to understand, but I pull out the super hero vowels every year and they just love it. (They love the sneaky y story too!) Now you have me thinking about doing something similar, but instead thinking of long and short vowels. Thanks for the tip, I'm going to download the mask! 🙂 Have a good day.
Diana
Thanks so much Diana! I've never used the sneaky y story but I'll have to check it out! You could definitely use this for long and short vowels! I'm sure your kids would love it! Enjoy your weekend!
Love using the sound brakes make to connect the sound. My kiddos always understood the sounds when we give it a little action & PIZAZ! I love how you get them moving around and out of their seats. Definitely helpful with nearly any class.
Fishing for Education Blog
Thanks so much for stopping by Stephanie! I completely agree with the fact that students learn better with some pizaz infused in the lesson! My students need to be moving and interacting constantly. I'm always trying to think of new ways to get them up and out of their seats. I hope you have a great weekend!
Jayme – the brag tags look awesome! I love the kinesthetic component of it. I feel like I have a few kiddos that would definitely benefit from this – great idea! The summer writing institute sounds incredible – I'm always looking for learning opportunities in August, since I usually work in July. Although next year I'm determined to take the month off so I can go to TPT! Hope you're having a great weekend! 🙂
Nicole
Why Pencils Have Erasers
Thank you so much Nicole! I'm so glad you like them! My kids have really loved wearing them so far and are so proud of themselves when they earn one. I want to go to TpT so badly! We'll have to motivate each other to get the ball rolling next year for the conference! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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