[back in the saddle again...with a super great preschool resource]

Whew. This preschool thing has been a whirlwind of activity, hard work, tears, smiles, frustration, accomplishment, and joy.

After not finding a curriculum that I loved, I started creating my own. Week after week, I wrote, edited, rewrote, edited, experimented, rewrote, and finally found a system that I am super pleased with.

Not all components are complete. But they're close. :)

Today I want to share with you a favorite from my Fireflies class (4-5 year olds). They're in that early stage of discovering how letters work together to make words. They are writing phonetically and asking me how to write all sorts of words. It's so fun!! Early on, I decided that my 4s were going to leave preschool with a foundation of letter understanding [correct formation, sounds], beginning spelling skills, knowledge of reading [title, words in a sentence, tracking], and a base of early sight words.

We've been using these foldable mini books for a few months now, and it's been magical! ;) 

Every day my littles beg for reading time. They can correctly identify the sight words from these books [is, for, I, see, a, the] in other passages and in environmental print. I get frequent texts from parents with their littles pointing to one of these words in the newspaper, in books, and on signs. My heart smiles a little bigger with each text. 

We use the first book on Mondays [class meets M/W/F]. First they highlight each time the focus letter appears in the book. Together we identify the pictures and discuss any unfamiliar pictures [umpire for example] so they "know" what the last word on each page is. Then we read together the whole book. I watch carefully for correct tracking and correct as necessary. Each student circles the word "is" on each page and checks with their partner for accuracy. Each student then draws a line under the word "for" and checks for accuracy. Next, they whisper read to themselves. Again, I'm watching for tracking. Finally, as they color, I go to each student and have them read at least one page from the book to me. This book goes home to read and keep.

The second book we use on Wednesdays and Fridays [I just keep their copies on Wednesdays and send the books home on Fridays]. Because the books use both "a" and "the," they're a little more challenging. We go through the books in a similar fashion as before. We simply focus on the word "a" on Wednesday and the word "the" on Friday. "I" and "see" are reviewed each day.










Our complete ABC curriculum includes these mini books, an upper/lowercase sort [Mondays], an initial sound sort [Wednesdays], and a tracing/alphabet activity page [daily]. 

You can find the foldable mini books here [Teachers Notebook] and here [Teachers Pay Teachers]. 

The sorts and activity pages will be finished and listed soon.

I love the print and go ease of these books. I love that my littles beg to read them. I love how quickly they're giving my Fireflies a base of high frequency sight words. But mostly, I LOVE teaching preschool!!

[stuff]

Yesterday was a less than spectacular day in first grade.

Honestly one of the toughest, most frustrating days I've had in my career.

It was a day full of discipline needs from the very moment the first bell rang.

Disrespectful to adults in charge.  Bratty attitudes.  Lying.

And that was the first 10 minutes of school.

It went downhill from there.

Sigh.

I hate, hate, hate days like that.

Went to bed with a headache.

Woke up with a headache.

Got the 6th grader off to school without incident.

Thankfully. 

Last night he had a major meltdown about a math problem.

We might have had some yelling and crying.

And am currently dealing with the crying 2nd grader.

She's not feeling well.

And is exhausted from not sleeping well.

Yep.  Looks like a grand day here.

BAZINGA!

**If you are the first person to comment explaining the BAZINGA comment, I'll send you either the pre-primer sight word smash game or the primer sight word smash game that are available exclusively at Teacher's Notebook!  Maybe brightening someone else's day will help me find my smile this morning?**

So. . . today's going to be a day of survival.

An attempt to be more patient.

More thoughtful.

It has to get better than yesterday.

Many thanks to all who left such kind and supportive words about the SMASH game yesterday!  You made me smile!  It's a new favorite in my classroom.  My littles LOVED the challenge of the "bonus" cards (the ones where they had to say the whole phrase with the correct mathematical comparison term - ie: 28 is "ten greater" than 18).

I'm working on some add-on sets of cards.  Some of my littles need very specific practice with numbers of a smaller value before being thrown right to the larger value numbers.

How do you deal with days like yesterday?



[WINNER!!} and Sight Word Smash

Big thanks to those of you who entered the give-away!
I had random(dot)Bubba choose a winner (while he was eating breakfast, lol).

His choice was "2" - congrats, Laurie!

Of course, random(dot)Goose wanted a vote, also, so here she is all sleepy eyed and crazy haired, marking her vote for "9" - congrats, Delighted!

I've e-mailed your files.  Enjoy!  :)

My class LOVED this game yesterday!
I am working on a few additional card sets to go with In the Doghouse and will let you know when those are available.

Today's FREEBIE is a Sight Word Smash game.

Words for this game came from the DOLCH FIRST GRADE list.

Image is linked.

Let me know what you think.  :)

It's THURSDAY!!!!
(And opening night of Pirates of Penzance for my Bubba who plays Lt. Samuel!! Just a bit of excitement at our house today!)