If you're like me, you're always looking for meaningful literacy centers that will engage your students; however, getting those centers prepped and ready can be overwhelming at times! Now, I love a themed literacy center {proof here}, but there are times when I need center activities that are low prep and non themed so that I can pull them out any time I need a group of students to work on a specific skill.
When all of that in mind, I started working last summer to create some phonics activities for my students that I could use when they got to a certain phonics skill. Because I teach phonics in small group, and my groups are usually on different skills, I wanted something I could easily print, laminate, and cut. That's when I decided to make mats!

I started by making mats for my visual discrimination pack {read about it here}. When my students first started literacy centers at the beginning of the year, these were perfect to get them exposure to letters as well as sorting.

With most of my mat activities, I use them in a sensory bin. The students have the mat in front of them, and they use tweezers to find the pieces for the mats. 

For my kiddos working on beginning sounds, I have mats for sorting pictures by sound/beginning letter. These are perfect in the beginning of the year, and for mid-year for students who may need some extra reinforcement of those letter sounds.

Now that the majority of my students know their sounds, many of my students are working on sounding and blending CVC words, and CVC mats are perfect for this. There are two versions of these mats - one has the word and the pictures get sorted while the alternate has pictures on the mat and the words are sorted.

Our cards for the CVC mats are currently in our big sensory tub, which is filled with fake snow - messy, but the kids love it!

For my kids who came to me knowing the majority of their sounds and have mastered CVC words, we're now working on long vowel patterns. This week, we were working on long a spellings, so I only prepped those mats from my long vowel pack. I love that since they've been working with these mats this week, they're already so much more fluent in these words!

The thing I love most about these mats is that they're super easy to prep - print, laminate and cut {and it's all squares, so the cutting is easy!}. Because of that, I have a wealth of phonics resources at my fingertips whenever my students need to move to a new skill.

Update: :)
I was asked if I would bundle my mats, and I bundled all of them except for the letters, since they're part of my visual discrimination pack that has other activities. You can grab the bundle by clicking the picture below :)

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Vickie

Somehow, we've managed to already make it into our 7th week of school...7 weeks! Truthfully, it all feels like a bit of a blur, and in a few more months, I probably won't remember any of it {everyone says the beginning of kindergarten is like childbirth - right?}. However, right now, we are in the swing of workshops {what we call literacy centers}, and my kids are doing a great job! We have been working hard to work on our whisper voices, not interrupting my group, and using Rally Coach in many of our workshops {another Kagan structure I hope to share about soon!}.
At the beginning of the year, I have so many students on various levels, so I try to start meeting their needs immediately. For some, that means basic visual discrimination and fine motor. I've been using these lowercase letters and mats in a small sensory tub {this one has leaves for fall right now}, and having the kids use tweezers to pick a card, then put it on the correct mat. Best of both worlds!

When the kids finish finding all the cards, they can use a highlighter to do a little letter detective activity. They love highlighters!

We've also been working on our fine motor skills while practicing matching lowercase to uppercase letters. For this center, I got some paint sticks at Wal-Mart, wrote letters on them, wrote letters on clothespins, and that's it. Super easy! I also have a group that is matching lowercase to lowercase or uppercase to uppercase.

Some of my students began school already knowing many of their letters, so they've been working on beginning sounds. In my large sensory tub, I have dyed noodles, and my kids use the tweezers to find pictures and match them to the correct letter mat.

Another area my kids need a lot of practice in this year is letter formation/handwriting. We've been doing lots of roll and write with our letters and sight words and making our letters out of playdoh.

As we were getting deeper into small groups and workshops, I realized I was going to need more centers that worked on letters and sounds that were simple, quick to make, and still fun for the kids. So, I created a new pack of simple alphabet centers that can be used any time of year {each center comes in color and black and white!!}. So far, my kids have used the beginning sound clips, letter match puzzles, and beginning sound puzzles. For the puzzles, I don't have pre-made lines to cut the pieces. I free hand the cut so they are self correcting.

 To see more from my new center pack, you can click the picture below.

I'm also using, and will use in the coming months, some of my themed centers. It's a chore some times to change them out, but my kids love themed centers year after year! To see other centers from this post, click the pictures below.

If you don't currently use literacy centers in your classroom, I urge you to start taking baby steps to using them. It is truly amazing how much differentiation you can get in during this time, and the growth the kids make!

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Vickie

This week, we wrapped up our second full week of reading small groups and literacy workshops. We are still working on whisper voices with our partners, and not interrupting my group, but overall, our small group time is a million times better than when we started!
I posted a picture on my Facebook page when I started groups, and many of you asked what I do in small groups to start the year, so here goes! :)

 A few years ago, our district was blessed to have Beverly Tyner as a consultant and we began using her small group model. Ever since I started using it, I've been hooked! The gains my students make in their reading are amazing, and I'll most likely have a hard time ever changing the way I do groups. This is the book we use the most:

Because I meet with all my students in small groups every day {and I know I'm blessed to only have 20 kids}, the bulk of my phonics instruction is done at this time. Any phonics I teach whole group is very short and sweet. I firmly believe that differentiating my phonics instruction during my small group time has led to higher reading achievement the past few years. Kids who come in knowing their letters aren't sitting through a long lesson on something they already know, and kids who come not knowing what a letter even is, aren't frustrated.
We do begin the year with her 26 alphabet lessons, which are not in the book above. I'm going to try and figure out where the lessons are available for purchase {I think she gave our county the lessons when they hired her, and mine are in my small group binder}. We teach letters in this order with Tyner:

Lessons 1-5: B, S, M, A, C

Lessons 6-10: D, F, T, R, I

Lessons 10-15: L, N, O, P, H

Lessons 15-20: W, U, G, J, K

Lessons 20-26: Q, E, V, X, Y, Z

Typically, I do the 26 lessons with all my groups because some of my students who come in knowing letters and sounds can't always segment or isolate sounds, so the skills covered in these lessons give us the base for when my 3 groups are all working on something different. *Side note - I don't do my lessons exactly like they are written. I adjust them to meet my needs based on my kids each year.
At my table, each student has a little box that has a dry erase marker, eraser, pencil, smelly marker, and magic rock {stones from the dollar store}. I got these boxes at Wal-Mart a few years ago on clearance for .10 each!

Each week we focus on 5 letters. When my students first come to group, they start working on matching uppercase to lowercase letters. Because my some of my students have limited interactions with the alphabet, I have the matches displayed on my mini pocket chart.

Excuse the marker stains all over my table and on this sweetie's arms ;)
After they match their letters, we point to each one, say the letter, and the sound. Then, we do our alphabet chart chant {you can grab the chart here}. We point to the letter, say the name, sound, and the picture. For example, a /a/ apple.

After our chant, we play guess my word. I say a the sounds of a word {for example, /b/ /i/ /g/} and the kids blend the sounds to tell me what word I've said. Then, we bring out Stretchy the Snake to do the opposite of blending - segmenting. Every year it never fails that my kids love Stretchy! My kids use their magic rock and Stretchy to practice stretching words. I give the kids a word, we say it, then bump the sounds. This past week, my high group started writing the letters for the sounds they heard on Stretchy. You can grab a free copy here from Deanna Jump :)

We keep our magic rock and use it with our sound and letter strips next. These strips were given to us when Dr. Tyner consulted for our district. We start with our picture strip. I say "Find the picture that starts with the sound /_/," and the kids cover the picture with their magic rock.

Then, I give my kids letter strips and say "Find the letter that is the first letter in ___." They find the letter, and cover it with their magic rock.

The last thing we do at group is work on production. Some days, I will give Stretchy back, and we'll use the other side to write letters that I call out. Every day, we work on handwriting using some simple sheets my friend Deeanna made. We use our smelly marker to rainbow the large letter {we pass to our neighbor 3 times}, then use our pencil to trace and write the smaller letters.

After our handwriting, we switch groups. Pretty simple right now, but when the 26 lessons are done, each of my three groups will be working on completely different phonics skills during small group {and we'll start actually reading books!}.
During my small group time, my kids not in group are working in literacy centers on skills targeted to their phonics needs. I'm hoping to have a post written soon showing what they're working on right now. As you can see in the backround, they're already pretty comfortable with it!

I hope this helps you visualize some of what I've mentioned before. I'd love to hear how you set-up your reading small groups!

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Vickie

Oh my word, friends! Can y'all believe back to school comes Monday for me?!? I may be freaking out just a little bit since I haven't really done much in my room this summer! However, I have had school on my mind lately, and I've been thinking a lot about the new babies I will get in just over a week. I always have a wide range of levels, especially with letter and sound knowledge. I get students that have never heard of a letter, students that are sounding and blending, and those in between. When I get home from my vacation this weekend, I will start working on all the resources I love to have handy for the beginning of the year and beyond to help my students work on letters and sounds.

Since I have students with such a range of phonics knowledge, I don't do a great deal of phonics instruction whole group. However, at the beginning of the year, I do more than usual. First, I always review this little chart every morning with my students. {You can grab it free here}

Another thing I do whole group is sorts. I love sorts so much! They are quick, low-prep, and such great formative assessment! Here is how we do letter sorts - as a group and individually. We also do beginning sound sorts, but sadly, I don't have a picture. {You can see more about there here}

Another easy activity for the beginning of the year that gives students exposure to words that begin with a letter, but also gives them cutting and gluing practice are these alphabet printables. I usually put them out for morning work the first month because after the first few, they require no directions!

As soon as I can after we start school, I like to get my kids into literacy centers {we call them workshops}, and there, they can work on skills specific to their needs. Some will need basic visual discrimination activities {you can read my post on that here}, some will need letter matching activities, some will need sound matching activities, and a few will need something a little more advanced. Here's a few of the beginning of the year centers I will use:

Visual Discrimination Alphabet Sensory Tub

Letter Matching Clips - this is so easy! Get paint stirrers, write uppercase letters on them, then write lowercase letters on clothespins, and the kids match! Letter practice and fine motor!

Letter Match - another super easy and cheap center is to buy notepads and write uppercase and lowercase letters on them, cut them down the middle, and have kids match them.

Beginning Sound Mats Sensory Tub

Now, the beginning of the year is not the only time we need letter and sound practice. For many of my students, it continues throughout the year. Here are more examples of various ways we practice letters and sounds throughout the year:

Matching letter cards to pictures that start with that letter

 Rolling a die and covering a picture that begins with that letter

 Pulling an uppercase letter card and coloring the corresponding lowercase letter

 Clipping a letter for the beginning sound of a word

 Matching letters to beginning sound pictures with puzzles

 For some of my students, letters and sounds practice in literacy centers continues long after Christmas. However, for the most part, my students have a pretty solid foundation by Christmas, which means lots of reading the second semester!
I hope to blog lots more about our alphabet activities once school starts and I have a new group of sweeties to teach! If you're looking for lots more alphabet activities, be sure to check out Abby's Alpha-Boom post from today!

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Vickie