This unit focuses on Long o with oa, ow, and o_e.  It includes 30 word cards, headers, games, game pieces, mini word book, cut and paste sort, word search, assessment, parts of speech headers and graphic organizer.  I wrote about these units in more detail with more pictures in the 2 posts below.  Scroll down to read how I use this units and see pictures of the units in action.

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I am making these units for a few reasons and here are the things I needed them to address in my own classroom and where in the heck I use them. 

1)  Back Ground Knowledge:  First off, I realized sometime back my "littles" did NOT have a whole lot of background knowledge. We usually always have a kid or 2 that knows something about what we're reading or talking about, but this year - NADA.   I am not talking background knowledge with regard to science, social studies, and thematic units but just basic background knowledge of words in their books.  

2)  EL and RTI Students:  I have a few EL students in my class and one is from Spain.  Such a smart kiddo but he needed the basic vocabulary.  I love all the cute clip art out their but my "littles" need real pictures and that stuff is hard to find!

3) Vocabulary: I use the Reading A-Z Decodable books and a lot of times their decodable books have words that my "littles" just don't know like - Coast.  So most of the pictures I use in the unit work along side of the decodable to help them make meaning of the story, understand the words, and build a larger vocabulary base which has helped with their writing.

4)  Writing: I have included many ways to teach writing/grammar in the units so you can pick and choose which skill you want to address.  I also created the writing activities in a way that students learn the format, use the same booklets in stations, and simply change out the cards so students become independent and you can pull small group.  Like the word-work, students can rotate through 5 different writing activities a week once you train them, do the activities whole group, or pick a focus. I  always teach them the focus for the week until they understand the writing expectation then add them as choices in future units. This is separate from our Writer's Work-Shop time (I'll do a post at a later time on how the writing center looks and what my "littles" are doing).  Grab the Writing Headers HERE or they are included in the unit HERE.

5)  Word-Work:  I try to do the Daily 5 or 4 the best I can because it allows me to pull small groups.  I have had to adjust and tweak things as we all do to fit our own needs.  That's where this unit and the other same phonics focus mini-unit comes in.  In Word-Work I needed my "littles"working on the sound spelling for the week so here's what I do.  I have 5 activities in Word-Work and they must get through all 5 by Friday.

6)  Simplicity:
I have a hard time managing all the little pieces and prepping a zillion stations.  These units allowed me to create a balance and add variety for different learning styles with less prep and more independence on the students part. The unit enables students to learn to work together which they need more than the activities sometimes!

Here is a glance at what WORD-Work looks like:

 2) Making Words:  Student's Use the Picture Cards with sound boxes to make the words and record the words they made.  I also have an organizer with ceramic letter tiles and stickers on them with letters where they can make the words from the list, spelling words or sight words from the week as a 2nd activity in the same station. I was having early finishers so I  needed 2 activities: a FIRST and THEN activity.

3) Sort Words:  From my mini-unit that matches the sound that goes along with this unit I use the sort words backed with flannel for kids to sort and they fill in a graphic organizer with the words.

4) Game boards:  I have 2 games in the mini-unit as well that I use for my "littles" to play.  I had early finishers so I needed 2 games (easy prep on those as well).

         
 5) Computers:  I have 2 phonics Programs on 2 computers and on the 3rd computer I put together picture links to games, on-line activities, and videos that go with the sound-spelling focus skill.

Each Day I do a mini-lesson between rotations.  1 of the lessons is always a phonics, decoding, or a phonemic awareness type activity that goes with word-work.  These activities are sometimes at their seat and are the printables I want them to do from this unit or the other mini-unit.  Those activities or mini-lessons usually consist of - whiteboards (students write the words I give them which will include phonics for the week grammar, and sight words for an informal assessment.  Listening for the sound and touching nose, jumping, etc. if they hear it.  Ex: If you hear the long o in the middle clap 2 times. If you hear the long o at the end - Jump!  Charting the words on the board and looking for word patterns. Decoding strategies /reading the new words (I use the Beanie-Baby strategies - AMAZING)!

Not all my mini-lessons take place on the carpet.  Sometimes after stations/they go to their seats and apply the phonics skill from the mini-lesson then they can pick their clip out of the basket and make their next Daily 5 or 4 Choice.  Let me tell you - I have learned it works wonders for speeding your "littles" up.  SOMETIMES, I direct students to an activity and sit with that group so I can work with them there on skills and strategies.

30 Cards, 2 Games, Parts of Speech, Tree Maps (2), Word Search, Word Sort, Mini-Word Book, Assessment, Headers

Click on the picture to take you to the mini-unit.