Short and Long i with Freebies Oh My!

Happy October! We finally have a nice fall day today. Sunny, chilly and crisp. LOVE this weather. I sort of have to break away from my usual cup of coffee and get a pumpkin spice latte on days like this.  Today we took full advantage of the weather and went to the apple farm with my family. Hay ride, huge blow up apple bouncy house, hay maze, and an amazing apple slingshot. Yes, a huge slingshot to launch apples with. SO fun! So speaking of apples... (do you like my little segue there), I made this activity to practice short i with my students. The i is on the board and there are apples cut out with consonants. On the board are uncolored apples on either side of the i. First, we practiced segmenting skills. I would say a word and we would break the word (w-i-n), then they would find the letters to build that word on their board. 

 

Click here for this freebie!

Next, they chose their own letter to put on the board to practice blending. They would sound out the word they made and tell me if it was real or nonsense. 

Here, we practiced more blending. Each had a different board with a different word family. I would tell the group to add a letter. Then they would sound out their word for the group. 

I introduced the strategy of chunking. They covered up the first letter and sounded out their word family. Then they put it together with the initial sound. 

You can find these word family boards and a lot more in my Short i practice pack. If you already have it, make sure you go back and download it. I added a couple things. :)

I made this sight word tree. I am embracing the apples, my friends. I'm not really sure what I want to do with my sight word tree yet. I feel like there are some good possibilities and they will come. For now, we just read the words each day. These are sticky note apples so we can take them down from the tree to do some activities (and I can move them around from time to time). Each day they had a different apple to focus on, making the word with magnets, playdo, or alphabet beads on pipe cleaners. 

When they have mastered the word, they will color that word on their own sight word tree. 

You can download this freebie here.

With some of my other groups, we did some hands-on long i activities:

adding the ending -s to words. 

Silly (but totally lovable) poems with long i:

Here, we chose the correct way to make the long i sound (y, igh, i_e)

then sorted them:

We went on another word hunt:

and sorted words (I know, again with the apples)

We practiced the "drop the y, make it an i and add es" with this little french fry activity I made. This was a hit simply because of the fries. :) 

I haven't been taking pictures during the guided reading portion of my classes, but I did snap one shot. We read this silly book (an oldie but a goodie) called The Giant Pumpkin.  Then they filled in this graphic organizer:

I made a generic blank one to use with other pumpkin related books. You can download the editable one here or the pdf here. 

I am working on a Fall literacy pack with ready to go activities. Hopefully be done in a week... I know, I'm SO behind. Fall is here already! I'm also working on long vowel packs at the same time. I really need to focus myself! I want/ need both right now! 

My sweet little guy turns 2 tomorrow!