Word Wall

Hi friends!

I've been meaning to post about my word wall FOR.EV.ER! I posted about it on Instagram this summer and had a lot of feedback from you guys! I wanted to wait until we were a little further into the year to post pictures so you can see what it looks like in action! I am loving it this year!

Each square is a 9x9 sheet of cardstock that I bought in this pack from Hobby Lobby. I originally wanted to use the whole 12x12 sheet but it was just too big when I started laying it out. The 9x9 size has worked out perfectly! You can snag up the little letter labels HERE for free!
The word wall is a huge statement in my classroom and my kids use it all the time as a reference! I printed my sight words in colored cardstock, also {so I can say "the blue word under letter T" to help a student who is having a hard time finding a word} I backed it with black to break it up a little bit and make it pop. Maria has some wonderful printable sight word labels you can snag for free!

My favorite thing this year is the addition of pictures on each letter. I got the idea from Kaci! For homework once a week, I have students cut out pictures that begin with the letter or 2 that we focus on each week from magazines, sales circulars, or whatever they have on hand. This is a GREAT way to differentiate for those kiddos who need the little extra support. Especially in the beginning of the year, we can look to the word wall to generate words that begin with a certain letter. It's fun to watch the word wall get fuller as the year goes on!
With this addition, my kids take ownership in the word wall and they LOVE the environmental print! Do you see the "Target" on T? Minnie and Mickey on M? Dalmatians on D? Ninja Turtles on T? 
I LOVE teaching sight words! I'll be back tomorrow to show you a few fun things I do to teach them!

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Green Eggs and Ham

You guys!

Green Eggs and Ham is right up there with my all time favorite kids-lit. I *may* be a little partial because it was the first book that Ella could read completely by herself...but, still- it's a good one! I love teaching rhyming words and there's nothing like Green Eggs and Ham to make rhyming fun!

We started off by reading the book and took several pauses to complete the rhyming phrases. Then we made some connections- what kid has not been FORCED to try something they just KNOW they will not like?! And then they end up liking it after all! {like every night at my dinner table! ha!}
 We made a little chart with our connections:
{you can see some here..tomatoes, broccoli, peas, spinach, mustard, lettuce}
And then we wrote about that time.. This one is my favorite! "My mom made me eat peas and my dad too so I tasted them and they were good" HA! Nothing like honesty, right?!
After that, later during the day we made a fun little class book. I will warn you on this one!! Next time, I will either have clip art pre-cut or pictures already printed. So many of the things they cut out from magazines were too hard to think of a real rhyming word so we had to make nonsense words (in Seuss fashion!) but it made it hard to draw for them, too. Lesson learned, right?! {what rhymes with poptart? spaghetti? cereal?! My eyes were starting to cross!}
Go snag this awesome freebie from Christie HERE!

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