A Winter Wonders Celebration

January has hit.  It means a couple of different things to me.

1.  It marks the ONE YEAR anniversary of Adventures in Literacy Land. Time has flown by and I have really enjoyed being part of such a strong literacy community.  I have learned so much.

2. It is mid-year for my firsties.  Things start to really click at this time of year and fluency becomes more of a focus for us.
What better way to celebrate both of these milestones than through a Winter Wonders Blog Hop!

There are so many ways to integrate fluency practice into your daily schedule.  Some things that you can do to work on fluency include:

*repeated readings
*poetry
*reading phrases
*buddy reading
*listening to a fluent reader
*listening centers

But some struggling students need even more.  I have found that some students struggle with fluency because they still have not mastered the high frequency words.

I wanted to combine some of these fluency strategies into one lesson (because I know our time is always limited!) And we are going to call it a 2-Way Fluency Scoot.

During this game students will buddy read, listen to others, read phrases, and read high frequency words repeatedly.  Students will read "growing sentences" to each other in the form of a SCOOT game!

The way these sentences are set up students should be able to read the text fluently by the time they get to very bottom of the page.
Students record this type of activity by evaluating the fluency.

Please click on either image above to grab this freebie!  I hope this game can help to work on fluency in your classroom this winter!

If you would like to find out about the other winter activities we will be doing this year you can follow us on bloglovin'!

Head on over to your next stop and find out what Winter Wonder Erin from I'm Lovin' Lit has in store for you!

Adding More to My Phonics Instruction--Part 2 (freebie included)

Yesterday I told you all about my phonics learning but my need to change, grow, and SHOW my students how phonics really worked.

Well, I also needed to make phonics more fun (I just admitted it!)  I was not adding enough of the "fun" into phonics.  I am pretty sure they were getting bored with the routine and I certainly was.  Changes needed to happen.

That's when I learned about SCOOTs.  I am pretty sure I was late getting on the bandwagon.  That's okay.
I created what we needed at the time and have improved them as we've gone.

I even jumped out of my box  (a little) and created a place value SCOOT and a fluency SCOOT (this took a lot of thinking!)  Natalie and I were trying out the place value one and I found out that she had no idea what SCOOT was and neither did my other teammate.  So I decided to write about how I have used SCOOT and hopefully it will spur some ideas (or suggestions) that you might have!!

Step 1:
Looking at the skill and how I wanted my students to work on it.  Some of the games I created just have the students add one particular vowel sound, while other games have them choose between vowel patterns.

Step 2:
Set-up.  For a SCOOT game, you need one answer sheet for each student.  You also need enough skill cards.  Here is what they look like:

There should be the same amount of skill cards as kids in your class.  If there are more than 20 kids, I make extra cards with the blank sheets I include.  If there are less than 20 kids, I just subtract some cards.

Step 3:
Set up the kids.  I place one skill card on each desk.  I give each student one answer sheet.  Then they stand up behind their desk.  We talk about how the skill card on their desk has a number on it.  That same number is on their answer sheet and that is where they need to write the answer.  (I make them circle the first number that they start on).

Step 4:
Directions.  I write on the board what the phonics skill is that we are working on with this particular game.  Sometimes they have to choose between phonics patterns by looking at the word.

I always explain to them that after they write the word on their answer sheet, they are to read the word aloud.  This is my primary goal with our phonics SCOOTS.  Can they read the word?  Many times they will read it to a student standing next to them or to me as I walk around.

Step 5:
Get started!  Students look at the skill card.  Decide which vowel pattern to add.  Then they write the word on their answer sheet, not the skill card (I have done lots of erasing!)  Here are two examples:

Once they have had enough time to write and read, I say, "SCOOT!"  And they rotate.

Step 6:
Finishing up.  Once they have completed all the skill cards, I like to have them partner read the words quickly.  I have also started adding a sort component to some of the SCOOT games.  They have to cut out the words and sort them by vowel pattern.

Additional Ideas:
I had so much fun with the phonics SCOOTs that I tried out a place value one and a fluency (with nursery rhymes) one.  They actually turned out really well.  I was super, super nervous about the fluency one because it took some thoughtful planning and set-up.  But it was great (capital G-great) practice for them.

I look forward to making some more of these fluency SCOOTS as the new year come around.  It is just a matter of finding the texts I want to use :)

Here are the SCOOTS I have made so far:

I thought it might be helpful to make a FREEBIE so that you could try one out with your class. Find out if the phonics SCOOTs are helpful or just too easy.  Let me know what you think!! Suggestions for how we use SCOOT or ideas of more games that I could try to use with my kids!

You can see this freebie here: