The Elementary Entourage: vowels

At the beginning of the year, when we are working on letter sounds, we use these building word cards. Students fill in missing beginning, middle, or ending sounds and record the answer on the worksheet. You can find this activity here.

Another way to work on filling in missing sounds is at our stamping center. Students LOVE using stamps! I use this center all year and just simply switch out the worksheets for the alphabet, letter sounds, CVC words, etc. You can grab a few of these stamping worksheets FREE in my TPT store here.

I made these sound spinners so students can easily see that by substituting just 1 sound, they can make new words! I created spinner for beginning, middle, and ending sounds. Students simply spin the wheel to show a new sound, read the word, then lift the flap to see if the picture matches the word they read. Then students will spin a new sound to make a new word! Each set of sound spinners comes with a worksheet for students to provide their answers. You can grab these sound spinners in my TPT store here.

These CVC word cards are an easy way to help students practice building simple words. You can use magnetic letters, playdoh, dry-erase markers, etc. for added fun! You can find them in my TPT store here.

During my small group, we use these mini cups to work on word families. I gave students a cup with a red word family on it. They then had a stack of blue letters, and put one letter in front of the word family to make a new word. Next, they could stack another blue letter on top of the other cup to make a new word. The word family cup (red) doesn't move until they've built 5 words. They can then get a new word family and start making new words. Eventually, I'll add harder word families and blend/digraphs instead of just 1 letter on the cups.

Another way to work on word families is with these word families mats I got years ago from Lakeshore. I love that they are dry-erase and give the students a picture clue for the word family. My students really enjoy using these mats, and they seem to catch on to the idea of word families quickly. My students love to show me when they use a blend or digraph to make a bigger word. Word families are an easy way to help build student confidence in reading!

One of my students FAVORITE activities is Fluency & Fitness! I have created over 50 different sets so we can work on these for any and every skills possible. I love doing these because students can work on academics, get in some exercise for a brain break, and I don't lose any instructional time. You can find all of my Fluency & Fitness bundles here.

Hey everyone!! I'm Brittany from Tickled Pink in Primary and I'm super excited to be apart of this blog with all these other amazing ladies!! Isn't our blog design just adorable! Read on to find out a bit more about me, grab a FREEBIE along the way, and enter our fantastic giveaway!!!

I just started blogging in August and am loving it. It's been a great way to connect with other teachers. I'm a girly girl and love makeup, shopping, shoes, jewelry, and anything pink! I love taking picture, I just wish I knew how to do it a little more professionally. You'll see that my posts always include lots of pictures.

I've lived in southern Indiana my whole life, but recently moved to the Indianapolis area. I love it here! There's so much more to offer than the small town I grew up in. My husband, Blake, and I have been together over half my life! In February, we'll be celebrating 5 years of marriage, but 16 years together. I feel so lucky that I met him at such an early age. We get along SO incredibly well and love spending time together. We recently got back from a trip to Hawaii (which you can read about on my blog) and took a helicopter ride with the doors off! It was amazing and probably the most adventurous thing I've ever done.

We have two Puggles that we have a love/hate relationship. I love them, but hate how much they shed!! Barkley has a bit of anxiety and follows you everywhere, which gets annoying. :) Barkley is on the left and Zoey is on the right.

I have 3 sisters and we are all 2 year apart. We are really close to each other! We took a sister trip a few years back to Clearwater and had a blast! I'm looking forward to our next sister trip! The bride is my youngest sister that got married a few months back. I'm #2 in the family.

My oldest sister (far left) has 2 little boys which are spoiled to death by his three aunts and grandparents! Colton is 3 1/2 now and Brady is 5 months. These pictures show their personality to a T! Colton can be a little stinker, but he is crazy smart for his age! Brady is constantly happy, always smiling, and much more chill. They live in Texas, so I wish I could spend more time with them, but I guess that means our time together is just that much more precious. Love these cutie patooties!

I taught Kindergarten for 7 years and 2nd grade for 1 year. Kindergarten is my love!! I love seeing how much the kids learn in that one year. I'm currently taking the year off to help my husband with our business. We helps schools around the Indianapolis area raise money with our 1 day mattress fundraisers! Crazy huh?!? Check out how much money these schools have made!!! Our company, Custom Fundraising Solutions, is all over the country and one school in Louisiana recently raised over $24,000. It's been really rewarding to help these schools that are losing funding for their music and athletic programs. Doing the check presentations are my favorite part! Having a more flexible schedule also allows me to focus more on my TPT store and create better products to help students enjoy learning.

Here is one of my student's favorite games because they love being able to use BINGO daubers. Click the picture below to get the vowel sounds game for FREE!!! If you like it, you can find the whole Dot It! Literacy Games bundle in my store here.

I almost forgot to mention...I recently hit a big TPT Milestone!! Today is the 1st day of my SALE! All of my Fluency & Fitness Bundles are 20% OFF. Click here to check them out.