Vocabulary Book Lists

Vocabulary:
Make a word maps, pick a word then ask for a synonym, antonym, example, and non-example.

Books
The king who rained
by Fred Gwen
Baby Buggy Buggy Baby
Harriet Z
(compound words) Once there was a bull...frog
rick walton
Baloney (henry P.)
Jon Scheszka Play with words, asks kids to pay attention
C D B!
William Steig
Miss Alaineus: a vocabulary disaster
Debra Frasier

Word Jars Books
Cowboy Christmas
Owl moon

Make a jar for "like" or "good" have kids put words like "tremendous" or other synonyms then kids can come pull words from the jar to use in their writing.

As we are reading to students stop and say "look at that word, we can't forget that word" then write it down on the board for use later.

Compare how the author wrote something descriptive to a simple way to write something

Adjectives:
have students write about their moms then take out all the adjectives and say they all look alike. then students can see the power of adjectives. Try reading the Clifford the Big Red Dog without adjectives

Verbs:
Wiggle words. Look at words that move, then send the kids to recess with homework to come back with wiggle words they did at recess. to generate a whole new list of verbs "fought" "threw" "cried"

Lon Po Po

Lon Po Po (Chinese little red riding hood)

"The brain is not a rule follower...."

"The brain is not a rule follower, it is a pattern detector"
Patricia Cuningham

Alphabet Books

• Bembo's Zoo: All the letters of the animal name to make an animal.
• The absolutely awful alphabet
• A is for....?
• Jambo Means Hello?The swahili Alphabet book
• Caldecott (for Illustrations)
• Ashanti to Zulu
• Read anything good lately?
• The Graphic Alphabet
• The Extinct Alphabet
• Fly With Poetry (an abc of poetry)
• Autumn (an alphabet acrostic)
• There's a Zoo in Room 22 (phonemic awareness alphabet)
• Alphabet City (would be really fun to do a photography art unit with)

Getting Ready for Phonics

1. Language Readiness: being read to and talking about reading
2. Visual Readiness: Learning to recognize similarities and differences in shapes and colors help to talk about letters
3. Auditory Readiness similarities and differences in sounds like rhyming
4. Manual Readiness: Phonics is spelling instruction ability to write words makes a difference

Sight Word Activities

Word Walls
High Frequency Words that students just need to know: like "The"
Ideas for teaching "the" to students struggling to remember:

• Illustrate the word "the"
• put it on the wall
• Rainbow write it, use favorite colors to trace the letters

109 words are 50% of our text
important because off the bat they know how to read most of text
i.e.--the, because

Word Wall

• Word walls should be in alphabetic order

• Star next to word with a star is a word that you can transfer to another word the word "like" Teach high frequency words with phonics focus on pattern then students can refer to the word wall to help match new words to familiar sounds. For instance the word like on the wall might help a student spell hike.

• "Is there a word on the wall that would help you spell hike?"
• Make a word wall in the beginning of their names and then start adding high frequency words
• Use 5 words a week, a word a day for 1st grade
  
• Once a word is on the word wall the students need to spell it correctly

In this way reading, writing, spelling are integrated. At the same time as Phonics, whole language helps attack from two angles at the same time as working on sounds and spelling


Secret word of the day: always in plain sight, couldn't tell when they found it
tape the new word to the ceiling, on a orange paper on the rug
"Has anybody found the secret word? Point to the word?"
Ask them to read the word to get out to recess, start with students that know the word
use the word frequently

Clapping and Chanting
Revisit the word later by clapping and chanting
clap each letter "b" "e" "c" "a" "u" "s" "e" repeat three or five times
then have the students write it.

Spelling Book List

Making Words
Making Big Words
Teaching kids to think about language

Spelling Best Practices

1. Don't ask kids to spell things they can't read
2. A classroom won't have the same spelling words
1. Use a diagnostic spelling test to check reading/writing level
2. group kids at least in threes, they will progress best if at their appropriate level
   
3. "group 1 your word is...."
4. Giving kids words within their level allows them to progress and build confidence
5. focus on patterns and sorting not on memorizing a list
1. ie- you spelled pain, now spell rain, oh I know you can spell brain
1. Better to sort then to write and rewrite as a way to teach spelling
1. sort helps kids because they need to make choices about the word

How to Correct Spelling While Encouraging Inventive Spelling

If forced to correct spelling say "if you saw that word in a book it be spelled like this...."
Or an "a kindergartner would spell it just like that, an adult would spell it like this..."

If Your Stuck While Your Writing

If your stuck while your writing:

1. Speak/Talk to your ears--say the word to yourself what do you hear?
2. Look at the Word Wall
3. Ask a neighbor
4. Ask an adult

Phonemic Awareness Activities

Circle game
start with the word lion then the next person would start with the last sound in the word so "lion" would be followed by "nickel"

Teddy the Turtle
What is the starting sound of this picture? "B" for boat.
Teddy wants to change the pictures on his shell can you find a picture that matches the sound "b"?
Then the student can find the sound of the picture on his shell and place the new picture-shapes on the shell above the picture they match sounds with.

Name song
Hello "Jaclynn"
How are you?
Can you tell us
whose sitting next to you?

C-C-C-Christy

Hello Christy
How are you?
Can you tell us
whose sitting next to you?

Beanie Baby Name Game:

"Beanie Babies have a name
Beanie Babies aren't the same
Take your name and change a sound.
Rearrange and twist around!"

Students pull a beanie baby and replace the first sound of their name with the sound of the beanie baby they pulled out.

For Fox:
"Jaclynn Jaclynn becomes Faclynn"

Body Part Rhyme Game:
Touch the part of your body that rhymes with the word:
farm...arm
boulder...shoulder
key...knee
Can anyone tell me a word that rhymes with a body part?

What's in my bag?
I have something in my bag, its name makes the sounds "C-A-T". Can anyone tell me what's in my bag?

One Smart Kindergartner
One smart kindergartner has a picture card that starts with "D". Which smart kindergartner has a picture card that starts with "D"? Then the student holds up the card for Dog. Look at three cards and have students choose which starts with the "D" sound.

Beat Rap Song
slap table, clap... slap table, clap
"I'm thinking of a word that starts with a "B" and ends with the "t" ....B-A-T"
Whole class: "B A T"
"I'm thinking of a name that starts with a "C" and ends with "n"...."C-arme-n"
Whole class: "C-arme-n"

Thunder:
TH-UH-N-D-EH-R
Th- rub hands together
UH- snap
N- pat thighs
D-
Eh-
R-fists on table

Big 3 Prereading Skills

1. Concept of print
2. Knowledge of letter names and shapes
3. Phonemic Awareness

Tracking Readers

*substitute number of books for minutes read while tracking reading

Phonemic Awareness Activities

Types of Actvities
Sound Matching
Sound Isolation
Blending
Sound addition or substitution
Segmentation

Activities
*Substitute first letter of name with one phoneme
*count words in sentences, clap sounds in words
*list words that rhyme, "cat rat mat" then "what rhymes with mat?" listen to what they shouted out
*take a book like a There's a Wocket in my Pocket and have each child write a page
*"take cat in your head, take off the c what do you have left?" "Now add a r sound what do you get?"
*The boat is loaded with cheese. throw the mouse to the
next person who says "the boat is loaded with fleas"

Hink Pinks and more....
*Hink Pink (one syllable rhymes)
What do you do when you throw your supervisor?
Boss Toss
What do you find on the stove?
Hot Pot
*Hinky Pinky (two syllables that rhyme)
What do you call a clever cat?
Witty Kitty
*Hinkity Pinkity (three syllables that rhyme)
What do you call flying produce?
Tomato Tornado
What do you call a
Vacation location
What do call something strange that happened long ago?
History Mystery

Phonemic Awareness Books

Some books that are good for phonemic awareness....

I Can't Said the Ant
There's a Wocket in My Pocket
One Sun: a book of terse verse
The Hungry Thing