Whether you’re teaching CVC words or working on different vowel sounds or focusing more on complex words, your students need lots of practice. Literacy resources including games, worksheets, fortune tellers, posters, literacy walls, and fluency boards all help students develop the segmenting and blending skills they need to read—and you can never have too many options at your fingertips.
Literacy resources you want to have on hand
You need literacy resources that you can use for independent work, small groups, literacy centers, whole class, and homework. And you need them for each new sound or skill that you focus on. That’s a lot of literacy resources to create. Here’s where it gets easier.
Literacy cootie catchers and fortune tellers for vowel sounds
My students always love using cootie catchers (you may know them as fortune tellers or chatterboxes). Here’s how I use them in the classroom:
- Students work with a partner, and one person operates the cootie catcher.
- The second person picks one of the pictures.
- The operator opens and closes the cootie while saying the sounds of the word the second student picked. For example, if the picture is of a tooth, the student would say: /t/ /oo/ /th/. The student would open and close the cootie catcher 3 times.
- The second student picks one of the words shown.
- Again the operator opens and closes the cootie catcher to match the number of sounds in the word.
- The second student picks another word.
- This time the operator opens the flap to reveal a spelling for the sound focus. For example, the spelling could be ‘oo’.
- The second student then writes a word that includes this spelling of the sound. Students can use a word from the cootie catcher or come up with their own. For example, the student could write: hoop.
- Lastly, students then switch roles.
Cootie catchers provide practice for many different sounds and word skills. Students get the hang of using them quickly, and the most challenging thing about them is setting them up. Fortunately, with the Literacy Cootie Catchers and Fortune Tellers for Vowel Sounds, all you have to do is print and fold (there are even instructions on setting them up)!
What teachers are saying: “Amazing resource (Kids love chatterboxes!) Very cute pictures/layout” and “LOVE LOVE LOVE these! What kids don’t love a cootie! My kids are wanting to play with their words all the time!”
You can get these now or become a member of the Top Notch Teaching Members Club when it opens in March and get access to this and other resources to make your life easier!
Print and play CVC words games
With five different games for seven sets of words, Print and Play CVC Words Games is a fabulous tool for small groups. The games and activities include:
- Build the Balloon
- Flashcards
- Concentration
- Fish
- Snap
Students can play games in pairs or small groups. Many of the games may be familiar, allowing students to focus on the literacy skill at hand, All of them come with clear instructions to make it easy to teach or even send home for students to play with parents, siblings, friends or caretakers for extra practice.
What are teachers saying: “This is awesome for a small group, but I can see me using this as a target center game as well.”
Print and Play CVC Words Games are ready to print (and laminate if you choose) and play. They cover the following letters:
Set 1: a, i, m, s, t
Set 2: n, o, p
Set 3: b, c, g, h
Set 4: d, e, f, v
Set 5: k, l, r, u
Set 6: j, w, z
Set 7: x, y
Print and Play CVC Words Games is just one of many literacy resources that save you time and that will be available as part of the Top Notch Teaching Members Club when it opens in March!
Long E worksheets and activities
Multiple spellings often confuse my students when it comes to long vowel sounds. For long E, you have e, ea, ee, ey, and y. To help kids get on top of these different spellings, I use posters and a word wall to keep words and sounds in front of them all the time. I use worksheets for independent work and homework, and I mix in plenty of games. The more practice the better.
The Long E Worksheets and Activities include:
- Cut and Match
- Draw the Words
- Draw and Match
- Choose the Correct Spelling
- Find the Words
- Read and Write
- Match the Words
- Sort the Words
- Finish the Sentences
- Fluency Board
And those are just the worksheets. You also get a poster of the words sorted into the spellings of the /ee/ sound, 20 individual posters for each of the words, and 20 word wall cards for each of the words. Plus there are three games to keep things fun. Altogether these literacy resources provide practice in segmenting and blending, reading aloud and writing.
What are teachers saying? “Very thorough resource for my intensive tutoring” and “My first graders loved these activities!!!”
This is another of the literacy resources that will be available when the Top Notch Teaching Members Club opens in March!
More resources at your fingertips
The Top Notch Teaching Members Club will have all of these literacy resources and so much more, including exclusive new products not available anywhere else. And it’s not just about literacy. We’ve got you covered for math and PE, plus classroom organization and time management.
You’ll find tools like the literacy resources here that are done for you—just download and print. You’ll also find videos to help you use resources along with tips for managing time, stress and much more.
Think of it as one-stop shopping for the resources you need to make life easier. And it’s coming soon!
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