Super Star Vowel: Aa

In Lively Letters (readingwithtlc.com), the vowels are named "Super Stars." Our Super Star Aa was a shooting star. Overnight, it flew into our classroom, greeting the children with a sparkly mess in the morning.


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"Lively Letters" Works

I took a course over the summer that was recommended to me by the school's speech pathologist. She and the literacy specialist used Lively Letters as a Tier 2 intervention for last year's kindergartners. I took the course in hopes of learning some new strategies to help with any speech issues my kids might have, and phonemic awareness ideas.The website is readingwithtlc.com and I have used Lively Letters and Sight Words You Can See. Both programs are worth the money and time for the course!

Sight Words You Can See have mnemonic clues drawn on the flashcards. There is a story for EVERY sight word, so the students remember the story, too.

I have seen a tremendous growth in letter recognition and MOSTLY SOUND PRODUCTION. The growth far surpasses growth I have seen in previous years.

I bought a lot of the products, but to save the program as a Tier 2 intervention, I only use the letter cards and tell the story. Every morning with the children on the carpet, we review the letters we have learned and produce the sounds. I use Trophies' letter sequence and not Lively Letters. There is a a combined sequence, too.

In small groups, we use the letter tiles to blend and segment. Sometimes I set them on taplights and we turn on the light for each sound.

If you live in Las Vegas, there is a Lively Letters workshop Saturday, December 3rd at the Red Rock Casino!

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Potpourri

I recently took a professional development class. The instructors stressed the importance of entry tasks. Typically, my entry tasks for my kiddos are finding their birthdays, unstacking chairs, putting away their belongings, getting out notes for me, and a welcome worksheet. I gave them a hands-on activity that focused on Trophies' letter of the week.

Students were asked to make the letter "y" using a pipecleaner that fits the flashcard.

Entry task supplies have to be ready for the students, as they enter the room, so they can dive right in!

I displayed my example on the overhead.

At the PDE class, they encouraged us to make flashcards and randomly in the stack, add pictures of familiar faces to keep the students' attention. They love looking to see who pops up next!

We made frog puppets, during our Frog-themed week.

At my class, they encouraged us to get fun, new pointers for students to track print. Here's a water squirter.

We did the same writing activity as previously posted here.