Freebie Making Words with Digraphs

Well, it's been one of those memorable teaching days. You know, the kind you won't ever forget but would like to. I had a kiddo throw up. Yeah, and it wasn't a good one either. Bless his poor little heart.
I was teaching my math lesson, using pattern blocks and all. I had them all sitting on the kiva, (2 leveled benches my husband made me) engross in my lesson, when the poor little thing just let it rip. Thank goodness he was on the front row and no one else got hit.
Yeah, that happened in my room 3 years ago, when a girl threw up while sitting on the top row of my kiva and got 7 other kids. It was the worst one I've ever had!! All 7 kids had to go home to change clothes, a few just stayed home for the rest of the day. Really couldn't blame them.
Glad this one wasn't as bad. I did have to wash and sterilize some of the pattern blocks and throw away the game board I was using. But it could have been worse. Isn't it part of our job?
I guess I should be used to anything by now looking back at what I did two weeks ago. While in an assembly, watching a very talented ballet company perform, we noticed the kids just all of a sudden part and move away from one of the kids. I saw mud on the floor. So I jump up, go grab some paper towels and my trusty spray bottle of disinfectant and start cleaning the mud. But it wasn't mud. Must be dog poop because of the smell and the firsties were just out at recess, right? One of the other teachers found the kiddo and took him out while I continued to clean up the mess. But I was having a hard time getting it off the tile and the paper towels were getting pretty wet. So one of my teammates runs and gets more paper towels for me. Meanwhile, I realized I hadn't 'gloved up'. Duh! So I started spraying my hands with the trusty spray bottle. Well, to make a long story short. The ballet assembly continues on around us, I clean up the 'poop' and all was well. No way. Come to find out it wasn't 'dog' poop! Yup, the little kiddo had had an accident! Believe me, I have never washed my hands so much in my entire life. And I used a whole bottle of hand sanitizer, EXTRA LARGE. It still gives me nightmare! So, like I said- it's part of the job and I still LOVE my little firsties! I realize they are only human too. However, I've learned my lesson-ALWAYS glove up even for mud, you never know!
Okay, now that I've grossed you out, let me give you a freebie I've been working on. We've been working hard on our digraphs and word families. My kiddos loved the blender activity I shared in an earlier post. You can check it out HERE. So I came up with one for making words with digraphs. I used it for a mini lesson during Daily 5. But you could also use it in a literacy center or a whole class lesson. The borders are a free download on TpT by Karen Cox. Click HERE for a link to the borders. And the graphics are Scrappin Doodle. There are 2 cards, so you could use it for 2 separate lessons and a recording sheet.

Click on the picture to grab a PDF.

I hope I didn't gross out too many of you. I'm sure you all have similar stories to tell. I'd love to hear them!

Hodge Podge of Activities

I LOVE to watch the fun the kiddos have dressing up for Halloween. I LOVE to watch their faces during the school parade as the variety of costumes come dancing into the room. I LOVE the laughs and giggles at the class party. But I am certainly glad when Halloween is OVER!!! I need to get down to some serious teaching! This is going to be a hodge podge of activities we've done this week or will do next week. Click on the picture for a PDF.
GRAPH OF THE WEEK

We've been working on the seasons in science so this is a great time to do this graph.

L-BLENDS

We are reviewing the l-blends this week and I needed a little paper and pencil activity to see how they are doing.

MAKE THE CAKE
Here's a little partner game for practicing the -ake and -ail word families we'll be playing this week.

ROLL AND WIN
I have had a dice game forever called 'Phase 10'. I thought I could make into a math game and the idea finally hit me. There are 2 different dice. One has 1,2,3,4,W,W on it. The other one is 5-10. The kiddos roll both dice together and write a number sentence for the numbers they roll. If they happen to get a W, they make a tally mark in the box. When they get 5 tally marks the game is over. The two partners compare their number sentences and the one with the most wins. I put this in my math stations and the kids love it. You can buy the dice at Wal-Mart or Amazon.com. Click on the picture for a link to Amazon.

I hope you find something you can use in your classroom! Have a fun Halloween!