TBT: Phonics: Involve the Whole School!

Happy Throwback Thursday!

TBT is saving me again! It's been crazy busy here, but I hope it slows down enough this weekend to share all the things my students have been up to. In the meantime...last January:


I wanted to share something new I'm doing with phonics this year!

My 1st graders have LOVED this!

We use the Open Court sounds and spellings in grades K-2nd at my school. By midway 1st grade, our students have been exposed to all the sound cards, including the vowel dipthongs and digraphs.

We continue to work on blending, dictation, and applying our skills while reading across the curriculum.

The question I ask maybe two three dozen times per day is:

"What do you notice about this word?"

This probably sounds very familiar :)

I also like to highlight what we notice, like this:

font by Jessica Stanford

This year, I snapped photos of the teachers and staff to create "environmentally-friendly" flashcards. Although my colleagues looked at me a little strange, my students have gotten SUCH a kick out of it. I can't display the actual cards without teachers' permission, but here's a sample of what they look like:

Let's pause to think about what it would be like if Becks actually worked at our school...

SIGH...moving on :)

Side Note: isn't that a terrific picture of Meryl? Sooo classy!

I hope you can use this quick & easy phonics idea with your students!

Have a wonderful week(end)!