Embedded Files
Congratulations on your hard work and dedication over the past few months! Your commitment to exploring new instructional strategies and integrating best practices has not only strengthened your teaching but has also enriched your students' learning experiences. Each of you has shown incredible adaptability, curiosity, and resilience, embracing new approaches and refining your techniques to meet the diverse needs of your students. Your efforts in implementing these strategies are making a real difference in building engaging, effective, and supportive learning environments. Thank you for all that you do—it truly makes an impact! Keep up the fantastic work!
Let's celebrate our students' growth!!!!
BVES Data August - October 2024
At the beginning of the year, we looked at the Grade Level State Standards reports in ELA and Math to establish goals on priority standards for Unit 1. I have taken the goals you set and analyzed our current State Standards Report from the progress monitoring assessment in October. WE DID AMAZING AND YOU SHOULD ALL BE RECOGNIZED FOR YOUR HARD WORK!!!!!
Click the upper right icon in the document below to take a peek at your grade level goals and how all your students did!!
Use the section to the left to access all the data for the goals that you set with your grade levels at the beginning of year Action Planning Days for ELA and Math.
Bella Vista Data Goals October 2024.pdfProblem based math lessons with graham fletcher
Watch this video for a deeper dive into High Impact & Problem Based Learning in Math! Learn from one of the best - Graham Fletcher!
TK-2 Kid Lips & Sound Spelling extension Activities
Sound Wall Flashlight Tag
Turn off the lights and give students flashlights. Have them find a sound on the wall and shine their light on it. Can expand to also spelling words by saying a word and having students segment by flashing the light on the correct letters.
Phonics Scavenger Hunt
Click image above to watch a video on this activity.
Have students search for objects that represent a phoneme. You can hide objects or cards with images around your classroom or outside.
Guess the Sound
Pair students up with either an Individual Sound Wall or Sound Spelling Cards printed and cut out like cards. Students take turns making the sound with proper mouth, tongue, and lips formation while their partner tries to guess which sound it is.
I Have, Who Has?
How to Play: Each player has a set of sound wall cards. A player begins by saying, “I have [card’s sound]. Who has [another sound]?” The player who has that sound responds and continues.
Goal: Cycle through all the cards while reinforcing each sound.
Skill Focus: Sound recognition, sound sequencing.
Card Games
Use smaller versions of the cards
(click images for link) and play card games.
Go Fish (Phonics Version)
How to Play: Each player is dealt 5 cards. Players take turns asking others for a card that has the same initial sound or matching letter-sound correspondence (e.g., asking for a card with the /s/ sound).
Goal: Match pairs by sound (beginning, middle, or end sounds). The player with the most pairs at the end wins.
Skill Focus: Phoneme identification, sound-letter matching.
Wonders Sound Spelling Card Mat double sided.pdfPhonics Slapjack
How to Play: Deal the cards evenly, with players taking turns flipping their top card. When two cards with the same sound appear consecutively, the first to slap the pile wins the cards.
Goal: Win the most cards by recognizing matching sounds quickly.
Skill Focus: Quick phoneme identification, concentration.
A fun UFLI spelling game
Spelling/dictation are crucial to comprehension and writing!
Here's a simple spelling/blending game for 2-6 players, in which players have to blend two sounds together and practice ending vowel spellings.
To play, deal out the cards, build a word with two cards (a consonant and a vowel, e.g. ch + ew to make "chew"), then take turns creating a new word by putting a new card on top of one of the existing cards (e.g. put "n" on top of "ch" to make "new").
The winner is the person who gets rid of all their cards first, or whoever has the fewest cards once nobody can make any more words.
Click here to access the printables from UFLI.
A simplified phoneme-grapheme map for tk.kinder
Click the upper right corner to access a Google Slide that has a simplified version of the phoneme-grapheme mapping activity that is the perfect way to teach our students how to spell and read at the same time. Thank you to Michelle Summers and her Kinder teachers.
A teaching best practice
Click the image above to learn more about reflective teaching and how to incorporate this into your daily routine.
Student Feedback Surveys - click this link for ideas on how to ask your students for feedback.
Reflecting
Good teachers reflect on what, why and how they do things in the classroom. Great teachers adapt as a result of this reflection, to continually improve their performance.
Asking for feedback from students is a great way to reflect on the daily. Here are some reasons why it’s so valuable:
Improves Teaching Practices: Student feedback highlights what instructional strategies are working well and what may need adjustment. Teachers can then refine their approach to better align with students' needs and learning styles.
Increases Student Engagement: When students feel their voices are heard, they’re more engaged and motivated to participate in class. It promotes a student-centered environment where they feel empowered to contribute to their own learning experience.
Builds Stronger Relationships: Seeking feedback shows students that teachers respect and value their opinions, fostering a culture of trust. This can strengthen the teacher-student relationship, leading to a more open, collaborative classroom environment.
Supports Reflective Practice: Gathering feedback encourages teachers to reflect on their instruction from the perspective of the learners, which is a key component of professional growth and reflective practice.
Identifies Misunderstandings: Students often provide insights into concepts they find challenging, allowing teachers to address misunderstandings or misconceptions early and tailor support for deeper comprehension.
My Personal Coaching Reflection
As part of my Instructional Coaching position this year, I decided to focus on goal setting and reflection for my formal evaluations with my Director.
With so many initiatives occurring over the last couple years, I wanted this year to be about my goals as your coach and how I would reflect on them throughout the year.
I created 5 goals and determined realistic success criteria to go with each one. This month I am focused on the Phonemic Awareness/Phonics goal as well as Small Skills Group Instruction.
Below you can read the goals as well as the success criteria I am using.
Throughout the year I will be asking for your feedback on my goals. In order to do this, I will be using a platform soon to be determined.
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