Hip Hop. Hippie to the hippie, the hip, hip a hop, and you don't stop

Oh Sugar Hill Gang! 

You make me believe I can be a rapper. 

Until I realize I've mispronounced 3/4 of your famous

Rapper's Delight

That's okay, I'll stick with what I do know...

Sight words and hip, hip hopping on them.

DOLCH HOP ON IT sight word games

I've always had great success with these simple activities that get students moving and practicing sight words all at the same time. 

Kids WANT to keep playing! 

There have been many times when I've had bring the game out to the playground. 

Each sight word set comes with a START & STOP card and sight word cards are placed in a path between the two.

Beginning at START, kids hop on each sight word card, picking up any cards of sight words they do not know or try to sound out. 

When they reach STOP, they use the stack of unknown sight word cards to fill in the recording sheet.

A few tips: 

I like to have my friends match up the sight word card to the sight word on the sheet and keep their finger on the word so they don't mark the wrong word. 

The sheet indicates to use checks and Xs, but highlighters are FUN!

So if you have them and trust your babes with them, use them.

They really do make those unknown sight words stand out. 

This has helped my friends have record of and focus on the sight words they need to practice. 

And parents REALLY love this on-going record so they can help too!

Watch Hop On It (DOLCH Pre-Primer) in action:

This sweet friend LOVES this game!

Trying to beat HIMSELF. 

Once your sweeties have mastered all the words in a set, he/she earns an achievement certificate!

I've bundled all 5 DOLCH sight word sets (Pre-Primer, Primer, 1st, 2nd, & 3rd) 

to save you money.

{Click on image or HERE to buy}

Or you can purchase each set separately.

{Click on image or HERE to buy}

{Click on image or HERE to buy}

 {Click on image or HERE to buy}

 {Click on image or HERE to buy}

{Click on image or HERE to buy}

Stop, SWAP, & Roll Product Swap & GIVEAWAY

Over the past few weeks, I've been chatting with Monique over at 

(Click on image to go to her blog)

We've been teamed up by Melissa, over at Jungle Learners, for her 

( Click on image to go to Jungle Learner's Product Swap post) 

There are so many teacher bloggers, from around the country, that have been teaming up to swap products and give you all the great details about what other teachers are doing in their classrooms. 

* * So go check out Jungle Learner's post to see more bloggers sharing! * *

It's an awesome opportunity to talk to other bloggers 

AND...

Monique and I got to pick a product out of each other's TPT stores to try out with our own students. 

She chose The Day the Crayons Quit - RTL & Comprehension Game 

from my store

(go check out her blog to get the inside scoop on how she put 

it to use in her classroom)

*** Hint, hint: I'm putting it on sale until the giveaway ends ***

and 

I chose her Sight Word Practice Puzzles: Pre-Primer Dolch Words 

(click on image to purchase) 

and then that lovely gal sent me her 

Sight Words Bundle: Read, Color, Circle, Create to go along with it! 

(Click on image to purchase)

She knew it would definitely come in handy and 

pairs VERY well with the sight word puzzles!

I, immediately, wanted to put these products to use.

Starting with the puzzles, Monique has offered them in 

3 different printing options:

Full Color - colorful clipart and patterned backgrounds

(I used this option)

Simple Color - printer friendly with colorful clipart, white backgrounds

Full Black & White - copy friendly

Also, she has divided up the Pre-Primer words into five lists of 10 words each.

The lists are split based on word frequency.

The 1st list contains the 10 most frequently used/seen Pre-Primer sight words (the, to, and,...) while the 5th list contains the Pre-Primer sights that are used/seen less frequently (all, on, that,...).

I used the 1st list and prepped the station so that students would have the list of all 10 words in order to insure they completed all 10 puzzles. 

Using the word card of the puzzle, students matched the word card to the word list and read the word. 

This step just helped to keep track of covering each word on the list and reinforcing sight word recognition ; )

Next, using the sight word card, students built the sight word by collecting letter (puzzle) pieces from the rug and assembling them in the correct order to match the word card. 

Once the puzzle was assembled, I asked students to spell the sight word then read the word aloud. 

One of the best things about the Full Color printing option is that the puzzles are self-correcting!

If assembled correctly, the background pattern/color should match. 

This came in handy when this sweet guy tried to use the "o" from for in place of the "o" from you.

Not a huge deal, but the different background color gave him a hint that something wasn't right. 

After assembling all the puzzles, we focused on one of the sight words for extra practice.

Using the printables from the Sight Word Bundle: Read, Color, Circle, Create, we practiced the word the

(Click here to purchase)

These two products are awesome by themselves but man do they really drive the learning home when paired together. 

So now that Monique has let me try out her wonderful sight word products, you should too!

Want a chance to put the SIGHT WORD PRACTICE PUZZLES: PRE-PRIMER to use in your classroom?

Enter our giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

1/2 off Week : A half way through OCT sale

We're half way through October...can you believe it?

I feel like we should celebrate that fact!

So this week is 1/2 off Week at The Take Home Teacher's TPT store!

This week, I've slashed the prices of 3 BIG (lots of pages!) products.

#1

5-Alarm Fire Activities 

(normally $7) 

SALE price: $3.50

#2

The Day the Crayons Quit Response to Literature & Comprehension Game 

(normally $8) 

SALE price: $4

#3

Put Me In Coach ELA, Reading, & Math pack 

(normally $20) 

SALE price: $10

Now, go half-way celebrate with your half-priced product(s)!

Oh! Don't forget to ENTER the Apple Pickin' Giveaway too.

You only have a few days left!

This girl is on FIIRREE! (you can thank Alicia Keys)

It's finally here...my favorite time of year! 

FALL

Apple pickin', cool breezes, lattes in hand, and my neglected scarves are seeing the light of day. 

I'm sooo excited for an apple orchard field trip. 

I actually get to go on my son's first field trip to Rocky Brook Orchard. 

What a wonderful experience for both of us. 

Want to know another great thing about FALL [other than apples, Halloween, and all thing associated with cooler weather]?

October is officially FIRE SAFETY month.

Ok, well actually it's Fire Prevention WEEK, but I like to make sure my kiddos spend a good bit of time on the subject since it's uber important to their well-being. 

So, here's the jist:

Fire Prevention WEEK is the 2nd week of October (Oct. 5-11 this year) and while most fire departments are VERRYY willing to host field trips and/or do classroom demonstrations, I'm a big advocate for incorporating fire safety into everything we do in the classroom (at least for the first half of October). 

In my last post, I mentioned that, in the past, I've used several fire-safety themed resources from TPT sellers which have been AMAZING! But due to my limited funds and time restrictions, I had to come up with some "rough draft" letter and sight word recognition activities as well as some math games. They were super ROUGH, ya'll. I mean, I was a bit worried that if any other teachers asked for copies of these activities, I'd have to admit that I didn't have any written instructions or aligned standards. 

Lucky for me, my kiddos LOVED the games and activities I created to supplement those awesome resources I found on TPT and I vowed to come back to them and clean them up so I could share them. 

And that's just what I did...

( Click on image to purchase from TPT)

I've gone over these ELA and Math activities with a fine-tooth comb to make sure they're as clear as water to anyone who wants to use them. 

I'll give you a brief run-down of what you'll find in this HOT (get it?) pack:

Here's a real quick independent activity for students to do individually while you get the games distributed.

Students use the word bank to cut & paste vocabulary words to the picture. (Color & B/W options)

I've always have a few artists in my ranks, so I like to give those friends the opportunity to let their inner Picasso out. Well, within reason. There are still standards to address.

Each student is responsible for giving his/her dalmatian black spots and then using 1:1 correspondence to count the dots in order to tell his/her dalmatian apart from other dalmatians in the class. 

** I do let those budding artists add flare to their puppies, because who am I to restrict their creative sides. **

Want a number recognition and 1:1 touch correspondence game?

Here it is...

Individually or in a game setting, students use 1:1 correspondence to count the number of black dots on each fire hydrant card and then determine if they have the matching number on their 9-square flame game board. If they do, the player(s) covers the number with a water chip. Covering all nine spaces wins!

8 different 9-square flame game boards

31 dotted fire hydrant game cards for 1:1 touch counting

(I do 31 to reinforce calendar numbers)

100 water chip pieces to cover up numbers on flame boards.

 You may want to make more than 1 copy depending on how many students are playing.

As we're talking about fire safety, I do use a lot of idioms with my kiddos...

"I'm on fire!" is one my friends have REAALLY loved saying in the past. 

So what do you do when your bunch of 20 lovelies won't stop saying "I'm on fire!" when you praise them? You roll with it and make it a part of their learning!!! 

Ta-da!

I present On Fire for...

3 different playing mats

Letters, Letter Sounds, and Sight Words

4 sets of cards

Capital letters, lowercase letters, DOLCH Pre-Primer sight words, and DOLCH Primer sight words

These games can be played individually, in partners, or in a group.

Students select letter or sight word cards to identify. Using 1 of the 3 playing mats (On Fire for Letters/Letter Sounds/Sight Words), correctly identified cards are placed on the left side (I’m on FIRE for…) while incorrectly identified cards are place on the right side (I need to keep up the FIGHT) for future practice.

I really like the idea of students self assessing and creating two stacks of cards: 1 stack for secured knowledge and 1 stack for areas of needed practice. 

I'm feeling much better about these activities now than I was this time last year. 

I hope you're prepared for Fire Safety Month Week too.