Spelling Cards

I will be presenting how to incorporate QR codes into literacy at a convention in February and although I have used them for many things in the past I am always trying to come up with new ideas.  This time I am using the QR code as a way for students to check their work when trying to sound out words.  I have made about 24 cards.  Each card has a picture of something, lines for the number of letters in that word, and a QR code that when scanned shows the correct way to spell the word.  I laminated the cards so the students can use dry erase markers on them.  The idea is that students try sounding out the word that goes with the picture, writes it on the lines, and then scans the QR code to check their spelling.

Sight Word Journal

Sight words are a big focus in kindergarten.  I am always trying new ways to help my student learn sight words.  This year I have started to have my students make sight word journals.  We just use plain notebooks (with lines).  Every time my students are introduced to a new sight word they get an activity sheet.  This activity sheet has about 3 things for the students to do with that sight word.

 Some of the things I have done are:
- Rainbow write the word (5 times with different colors)
- Color in the word
- Find the word in a magazine and cut and glue it in
- Stamp the word with letter stamps
- Trace the word
- Circle the word in a sentence
- Find the word and circle it in a word scramble
- Write the word in letter shape boxes

The students glue this activity sheet into the journal and write the sight word at the top of the page.

Then next day the students get a sentence with a blank spot.  They write the sight word on that spot to complete the sentence then glue it in and color a picture to match. 

Baseline Reading Assessments

I can't believe how fast the school year is going already!  We are already into our fourth week of school.  Over the past few weeks I have been doing baseline assessments on my students.  This summer I took an online PALS-K assessment class.  Since my school does not have an official kindergarten screening program I have taken some of the tasks from the PALS-K assessment and created my own to align with them.  After sitting down with each student I completed the baseline part of the assessment (I use the same packet for every subject) I took the "letter identification" and "letter sound" assessment and using a highlighter and a class grid sheet (I know very high tech) marked the letters or sounds that each student didn't know.  Now I have a visual of the needs of my students and can focus on those specific areas.

Here is the link to the assessment checklist I created: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7rxkDqYdsHMeURwUi1WNkZOdms/edit?usp=sharing