Word Families SMARTboard and Cut, Paste and Spell Worksheets

Hi Friends!

The year is winding down and summer is on the horizon.  The sand and sea is calling me and creating SMARTboard centers is one of the way I am passing my time until school is out.  It is nice to be able to do this now, because in the beginning of the year there is no time to create SMARTboard files.

I love my SMARTboard, but creating good centers is soooo time consuming.  And I do not want just any centers, I have high standards.

SMARTboard files need to meet 3 criteria.  First, they must match my word study/spelling for the week.  I mean, they don't have to match perfectly, but if I am teaching short vowels to a group, they need centers that target their level.   Second, all centers have to be self-checking.  I cannot have a center that will pull me away from my word study groups.  Finally, the center needs to be long enough to last the whole time, which means 15-20 minutes or more.

My latest SMARTboard files have turned out wonderfully.  I wanted some SMARTboard files to start off next year in first grade that targeted beginning short vowels.  I specifically wanted short vowel word families and a high rate of student success.  Here is what I came up with:

 

I contrasted many word families that had voiced and unvoiced consonants.  If you are not familiar with that, the /b/ sound is voiced, because when you make the sound, you use your voice and vibration.  The /p/ sound is unvoiced because when you make the sound, you do not use your voice, but a puff of air.  However, you use your lips in the same way to make both of the sounds.

Teaching students to feel for the sounds in their mouths is vital at this stage of developmental spelling.  The more you can call attention to this, the quicker you can move them forward. 

After dragging the pictures to the boxes and writing the words on the lines, students click the purple octagon in the right hand corner and this is what appears:

They are able to check their work independently.

In addition to this center, I wanted matching cut/paste/spell worksheets, so I created a set that matches each slide perfectly.  This way I can either use them for an assessment after they have been in the center, or at seat work as reinforcement.

 You can download the mini-files here:

Free Word Families SMARTboard With Matching Cut, Paste & Spell Worksheets


Would you like to win all of the Short Vowel Word Families SMARTboard and all of the matching Cut, Paste, & Spell Worksheets?  Follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers and enter to win it all!  (If you don't have a SMARTboard and would still like to win the Word Families Cut, Paste, and Spell Picture Sorting, I can just send you that file if you win). 

(CONTEST ENDED, WINNERS HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED)

Happy May!

Anna

SMARTboard Teaching Time Presentation and Interactive Math Center

I am proud to say that my students (all first graders) can tell time to the minute.  I just posted two brand new SMARTboard products for teaching analog clocks and time that will help you teach them how to do this.  Both products took me a long time because of the graphics—clocks are labor intensive! 

The Common Core Messed Up!

The first product is intended to help you teach time.  I fully believe that the Common Core messed up in this area.  No other area of math do we ask students to memorize over learning the concept, yet that is what we do in first grade for time.  We ask kids to memorize what hour and half hours look like without explaining anything. 

Brainpop Jr. Responds!

I believe in teaching the concept over memorization.  So I created a SMARTboard that helps you break it down and show kids that analog clocks are really two clocks (the minute clock and the hour clock) on top of each other!  I also contacted Brainpop Jr. and told them that one of their videos seems misleading.  In it, Annie says that when the big hand is pointing at the 3, it means 15 minutes.  NO!  It is NOT pointing at the 3, it is pointing PAST the 3 at where the 15 on the other side is or is assumed to be!  They responded to say that it was an interesting way of teaching it and they are looking into it.  Lol. To read my original post, click here:  Measuring Time

My Teaching Time Presentation SMARTboard will help you explain this to your students and they can come up to the board to slide the hour clock over the minute clock and Voila!  An analog clock!  I break the whole explanation down to make your job easier. 

You can preview/buy it here:  

SMARTboard Teaching Time Presentation

It also comes with “My Time Book” and 8 leveled assessments/worksheets. 

Perfect Math Center

To complement the Teaching Time Presentation or use as a standalone practice in your math center, I created a 25 slide, multi-level, Time practice SMARTboard.  I don’t know about you, but it took me 4 years to let my kids use the SMARTboard as a center.  First, I didn’t have enough good SMARTboard files to use as centers.  Next, I was not comfortable with the distraction it could cause.  But now I have the files (especially for word work centers) and I found out that with 3 other computers and an Ipad,  the SMARTboard isn’t the novelty that it once was.  I really enjoy creating centers that last a week, and I think that you could probably get 2 weeks out of this center. 

The product is called SMARTboard Interactive Telling Time and can be found here:

SMARTboard Interactive Telling Time

There is a bundle for both of them here:

SMARTboard Time Presentation and Interactive Telling Time Center

P.S.  If you missed the free clock template, you can  find it here:  Blank Clock Template