At this time of year, it can all be too much. The last few weeks of school can be tiring, so I always try to add festive cheer to my sessions. This year I thought I would share some of the activities with you.
Mini books are a great tool for instruction to motivate and engage. They are bite-sized activities to use after explicit instruction or are perfect to send home to show parents what you are doing in the classroom. I often leave activities like this with my students so they have something to do each day before the next session.
The activities in each little book are for revision and repeated practice
The activities combine reading and spelling and help students develop phonemic awareness and phonics knowledge.
· Build a word – segmenting sounds in words to spell · Read the word after building – blending sounds and mapping the letters to read/say the word. · Segmenting speech sounds– the ability to pull words apart into the smallest unit of sound. · Build vocabulary and comprehension through rich discussion about the words, sentences, and picture-making. To draw the pictures, the student has to reread the word or sentences. Students often need to read a text more than once but can sometimes be reluctant. Drawing together is a scaffold for conversation. The discussion with an adult can fuel vocabulary development and comprehension.
Book 1 Xmas
We discussed the word Xmas. All my students knew the word. Most use it, and surprisingly half the students understood the X stands for Christ in Christmas. I love to add pictures, the images help make the little books look engaging. The pictures are in colour. Colour printing is lovely but optional if you have a printing budget.
We also discussed plurals,
gift/gifts
present/presents
and how these words can mean the same.
Read and match
Don’t let your students guess from the first letter. Ask your student to sound out each word, then blend to read, matching each word to a picture. My preprimary and year one students have covered the digraphs in this book. They have also covered double letters ff,ll, ss, zz, so the double ‘dd’ is an excellent opportunity for me to see if they can transfer this knowledge. I am happy to report that every student read the double ‘dd’ as 1 sound! The words pudding and stocking required my students to chunk rather than sound out letter by letter. I modelled this step. This is an excellent practice as they are moving years soon. They all felt so big and strong as these are long words to read. It was a happy moment for all!
Sound/Elkonin boxes
The boxes help students link speech sounds to graphemes. Get your student to say the word and listen for the sounds to use the boxes. If you have a student who struggles to hear sounds use counters before writing. Read the word, count the sounds, place the correct number of counters in the boxes as you say the word. Next, replace the counters with letters.
A movable alphabet can also be good to link speech sounds to graphemes (letters)
Read and draw
Read isolated words and connected text. In the beginning, it is hard to read a whole sentence. The space for pictures is a scaffold for conversation. I recently noticed most students drawing a tap for the word dish in class when using a /sh/ mini book. When I asked them to read me the word — all read dish. So, I said, “I don’t see a picture of a dish. I see a tap. Tell me more about your picture.” As young children do, they looked at me perplexed, and the unanimous answer was — it is the tap for doing the dishes —because obviously, I should’ve known this!
This was the perfect opportunity to discuss this misconception.
100% of the class, when asked, have a dishwasher. We discussed the types of things that go in the dishwasher? Why do we use a dishwasher? We discussed the word dishes — to mean plates, bowls, pots and pans etc. that we use to create a meal. It is a collective term. On the other hand, the word dish is any shallow concave container usually made of ceramic, wood, or metal that holds food. We put the word in a couple of sentences to show meaning. We didn’t discuss that ‘dish’ can also refer to a prepared food item. This is a discussion for older grades — not the first year of school.
I hope your students find the little book engaging at this time of year.
Book 2 Christmas
Notes and links to discuss the spelling and history of the word Christmas
Partner reading Christmas themed list click here to read more about partner reading
Yes/No Christmas quiz – students love a quiz. This could be an individual or partner activity.
Christmas word search
Read and Draw sentences.
Finish the sentences poem about Santa.
Check out my mini digraph books
A set of 16 mini digraph activity books to develop phonic skills through explicit, playful repeated practice. These little books are perfect for guided literacy centre groups and repeated practice in the classroom and at home.
A5 little books. Print in colour or black and white.
4 pages in each book.
2 fonts
Sassoon South Australian The pack includes:
6 single digraph books ng, ck, ch, sh, th, tch to be used after whole class explicit phonics teaching
10 books that contain two sounds and spellings or 1 sound two spellings for repeated practice.
Teaching guide
Picture and word cards for playful learning
Resources to send home to share teaching and learning with carers
The books include the following activities:
Partner reading lists Word building activities Yes/No questions Read and draw single words and connected text. Decodable sentences for reading practice. Plus space, to draw a picture to encourage talk about the words and sentences.
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