I made my very first materials for Teachers Pay Teachers!
Personally, I get a little overwhelmed by the amount of worksheets out there. I think as teachers we can get a little bogged down by the worksheets. They can make our lives so much simpler…but there needs to be a balance. Please don’t get me wrong, I know there is a need for worksheets, i use them in my classroom and I love them. I teach first grade, and we need our kiddos to practice, with pencil and paper, what they are learning! (Side note – Am I the only one being told to try to use less paper, try not to make the kids write “so much”?? I mean, they are in first grade…they need to learn how to write…with a PENCIl…on a piece of actual PAPER…we are still working with formation of letters and making sure our writing is legible. I mean can you imagine a world where students never learn to write correctly…- Sorry soap box moment! Back to worksheets…)
The main thing to me is to give our students variety! Give them games, centers, partner activities, as well as mixing in the worksheets. The point is to make sure they are learning the concept, yes, that does mean be able to write the words out, but it also can mean giving them a plethora of ways to master that concept.
Above, I have posted a picture with link to the Short Vowel/CVC Activities and Worksheets BUNDLE. Each short vowel packet has a similar format with individualized elements that make it unique, fun, and engaging to students! I am going to showcase the Short Vowel/CVC FREEBIE – yes, I said FREE – which includes pieces of each short vowel packet!
So, here’s what is included in the FREEBIE product!
An interactive short vowel word work activity/center – where students can be hands on, manipulating the learning materials (it does come with an optional recording sheet).
This one happens to be the Short Vowel O center with these adorable frogs and logs. Students sort the frogs to the correct Word Family logs.
It is a low prep center (I love low prep!! With all that we have to do, spending hours making things for our classroom and class isn’t usually possible!), all you need to do is print, laminate, and cut apart the pieces. How you play is up to you! I have used a pocket chart and I have just laid everything out on the floor and allowed my students to have at it! We have done this whole group, however, I usually do it in small groups during centers.
A Roll, Read and Color Activity that can be used for so many different things. I love using these as small group centers where the students are listening to their classmates read and keeping each other accountable. However, this would be great for homework or early finisher work, individually, partners, or small group. I love it because it focuses on REPETITION and ONSET RHYMING – two things that really help automaticity in learning to recognize similar words.
The Spin and Find Four in a Line activity is one of my most favorites because students are made to recognize words families in a way that is fun and engaging because it’s a game. Students spin the spinner, land on a short vowel word family, and then have to find a word in the table that ends in that family, WHILE thinking through some kind of strategy to create four in a line (and perhaps even prevent their partner from achieving that goal)! I love games/activities that get students thinking in the ways of PROBLEM SOLVING and STRATEGY!
Then there are four short vowel/CVC worksheets, which can be used for whole-group instruction, literacy centers, phonics practice, small-group work…the list goes on.
The first (top left corner of the picture above) is Read, Highlight, and Write. Let’s face it, kids don’t always like to read and write, but give them a “special tool” like a highlighter for the activity and you have them right where you want them! This activity has students read the sentences, locate and highlight the pertinent short vowel words and then write them out.
The next (top middle of the picture above) is a Word Family Cut and Paste. It is similar to the word sort activity because students are sorting the short vowel words into families, however, this time the students are working on those motor skills of cutting – and again because they are able to use scissors they are loving the learning!
Then, there is probably my favorite activity – The Word Maze! I love this activity because every time I do this activity it amazes me how much the kiddos feel a sense of obligation to solve the maze and fix the problem (whether that is help the pig get to the party like the one in the picture above, or help the duckling find his mom – short u, or help the frog catch the fly)! They LOVE the CHALLENGE of finding only the correct words and then connecting them to solve the maze! (Side note – I am kinda wanting to make mazes for everything!!)
Lastly, there is a Read, Think, and Draw and I love this activity because so many words mean different things to our students and this is the chance for them to read a word, think about the meaning and what that means to them and then capture it by drawing it! I LOVE seeing what my students come up with!
That wraps it up! GO DOWNLOAD THE FREEBIE! (please rate, share, comment – I welcome all your feedback!)
And you can click any of the resources in the pictures above or below in my TpT Store! You can also browse around to see other resources on my website!
