Chicka Chicka…

BOOM BOOM!

This is one of my VERY favorite books to read at the beginning of the school year when the focus is on letters and letter sounds!  You can hit on so many different letter concepts with this: ABC order, beginning sounds, upper/lower matching, letter characteristics (tall, short, etc.).  So naturally, I created a little activity or two to go with it.  Lucky for you…it’s a FREEBIE! {Click the picture below to download!}

Clipart from DJ Inkers.

This little freebie pack has: 2.5x2.5 upper, lower and picture cards.  These are great for pocket charts or centers!  Then I made up a few recording sheets as well.  There are three upper/lower matching recording sheets.  I love differentiating this kind of stuff!  One sheet gives uppercase and students write lowercase, one gives lowercase and students write uppercase, and one is a mixture of upper & lower give and students write what is missing.  There are also 2 beginning sounds matching recording sheets.  One has the pictures in ABC order and one has the pictures in random order.  For those kiddos that already know ABC order by heart the random order sheet is a better gauge of whether they understand the beginning sounds concept.

Another FAVORITE thing of mine to do with this book is to show the video from YouTube!  They LOVE…I mean L-O-V-E the song!

And now for a little something I found on PINTEREST! {Click the picture to head to the pin!}How stinkin’ adorable is that!!  You could also have kiddos spell their names on the tree part! So fun!

Enjoy the freebie!  If you download, leave a comment and let me know how you liked it!

Also….don’t forget my HUGE, MASSIVE 500 follower giveaway ends TOMORROW night at midnight EST!  Head on over to enter by clicking the picture below:

B & D Reversals and a FREEBIE!

I had an email from a teacher today asking about strategies to use for students who struggle with identifying/writing lowercase "b" and lowercase "d".   I told her what I normally do and did a little Googling. :) Teacher Tipster has a GREAT video resource:

So I made two little anchor charts to go with this!  I didn't have clipart of a doorknob or a door, so I had to do a little creating. {Don't judge! :)}  I'll be on the lookout for some doorknob and door clipart to make it look a little more appealing.  I'll post it here again if I find it!

Here's the FREEBIE!

What other strategies do you use to help with this?

Letter Formation-SMART Notebook

At the beginning of the year, I wanted to find a way to incorporate technology into my handwriting lessons.  I had a SMART board in my room so I wanted to use it as I introduced letter formation to my kiddos.  So, after some brainstorming I created a SMART Notebook file with a page for each letter.  On each page there are "instructions" on how to form the letter and at the bottom there is a little control menu.  If you press the magic play button, you can see the letter being written! :) The kiddos loved it and gave a visual representation of how to form the letter.  After we practiced in the air a few times the kiddos did some "rainbow" writing.  They got to come practice writing the letter in their favorite color.  We just kept layering on the colors.  They LOVED it!  Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers site to get all 26 letters (upper and lower)!