Homophones Go Fish Game

My 2nd grade students were learning homophones and I decided to make it fun by creating a Go Fish game. I used some blank game cards I got at the teacher store. I wrote the homophones on the cards (each word a different color). Students had to match the words to keep the cards. I had some sets of three, but most of the words were sets of two.

Look Who Got Caught Reading

Over Spring Break, I encouraged students to read books and have their picture taken of them reading. Parents then sent me the pictures. I had pictures of kids on the beach, at a water park, etc. I posted the pictures in the front of the school along with the sign I made below. I got the giant google eyes from Amazon.

Lalilo Website

 

This past school year I discovered the website Lalilo.

"Lalilo is a literacy web-based app for K-2 teachers.

Using Artificial Intelligence, Lalilo customizes reading exercises depending on each student’s needs, prepares individualized printable worksheets, and helps you organize centers… just like a TA would."

To learn more about what Lalilo does, you can go here. 

I used Lalilo with my emergent 1st grade students and struggling 3rd grade readers. All my students enjoyed using the program because it makes it fun. There is a map that marks lessons once they finish.

It's a fairly new website, so they are constantly adding things and value teacher feedback. It is free for teachers to use, but there is a paid version that does give you some more features. I used the free version all year.

It is very easy for students to use. I save the link on the computer desktop and they just opened it up and began to use it.

Lalilo is a great website for early phonics lessons. Check it out!

Keeping Erasers on Pencils

I don't know about you, but my students have a huge problem with keeping erasers on pencils. I put the pencil top erasers on and they usually disappear. I decided to tape them on and it solved the problem for the most part. Some of the kids mess with the tape, but most of them leave it alone. I just used regular Scotch tape but duct tape would probably be better.

Ending "ed" and "ing" with Double Consonants

I am a big fan of using sentence strips. They can be a quick and easy way to make a phonics activity. For this one, I used them to add the endings "ed" and "ing".

First I wrote the base word on the left side of the sentence strip.

Then I folded it over, covering the part of the word that would be replaced with the ending, and wrote the ending on the back of the folded part of the sentence strip.

Students lift up the strip to read the base word and then fold it down to read it with the ending!

Organzing Magnetic Letters

 I use magnetic letters a lot with my students and I finally found a solution to letters getting lost - I numbered them!

I found these blue pencil boxes at Walmart awhile back and they are perfect! They fit a full set of letters and keep them together.

 

 I decided to number each box and the letters in them. Now if a letter ends up on the floor, the student will know where it goes! It's saved a LOT of time when it's time to put the letters away or getting them out. The six boxes fit perfectly in a small crate.

Making Words with Suffixes -ly and -ful

 

 

My 2nd graders were studying words with the suffixes -ly and -ful. I used colored playing cards to make the base words and suffixes.

 I used these colorful playing cards and used a different color for each suffix and base word. I then trimmed them so they would line up with each other.

 

Long i Sort

This was a quick and easy activity I did with my 2nd graders. I wrote long i words (y, igh, i) on cards and then had students sort them. I made a document with a table for them to write their answers on.