Free Christmas Dot Marker Picture Activities

We love using dot markers! They are so great for a variety of ages, and the best part is....less mess! I've pulled out 4 activities (2 sight words, 1 numbers, 1 alphabet) from my sets of Dot Marker Mystery Pictures and put them together in this free Christmas download for you and your kids to enjoy!

Free download HERE

If you don't have dot markers, you can certainly just use regular markers or crayons. 

If you'd like to get some dot markers, our favorite are the Do-A-Dot Art packs that you can find HERE! 

I like having the different packs so we can have more variety of colors (like pink and brown).

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Launching Off With Educents

Are you ready for some EXCITING news?! Educents is a now opening a marketplace! If you haven't heard of Educents before,  it is website that offers great daily deals on educational products and resources. And now they have opened up seller storefronts as well!

I'm excited to be opening up a store, and I've teamed up with some other awesome sellers to bring you a GIVEAWAY of $50 in Edubucks that you can spend at any store on Educents!

 

 

I've also got a great FREEBIE to share with you! These Sight Word Dot Marker Mystery Pictures are some of my favorite creations! Students love using the dot markers and discovering the pictures, and teachers love that it gives students practice with sight word fluency! Click the picture to visit my store and grab this FREEBIE!  

 

 

Don't forget to enter the giveaway below, and be sure to spend some time browsing around all the great new stores!

 

Educents Marketplace $50 in Edubucks Giveaway #6 - First Grade Stores

 

Grab more freebies in our blog hop! Start here at Georgia Grown Kiddos 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Learn to Read With CVC

One of my favorite things to do is teach kids how to read! It used to be so intimidating, but I have grown to love it. There is nothing like watching a child read a sentence or a book for the first time and seeing the excitement and joy on their face!

My favorite 2 things to teach students as they are learning to read are CVC words and sight words. (If you'd like to read more about the best ways to teach sight words, you can read my post here.)

CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words are so great for students to put into practice all the sounds that they have learned. With so many words in the English language that don't sound like they look like they should, it is nice to have predictable words for students to learn.

When introducing CVC words, I like to do it in the context of word families. It groups them together in a way that forces repetition, which is a key to building fluency.

I use a CVC interactive notebook that lets students interact with the word families in different ways. First, we make the words from letter tiles.

Then we move on to reading a word and matching it with the picture.

 

Next, we trace the word, read it, and match again.

 

Finally we make a flip chart, practice reading, and write the words on our own.

Making reading fun is something I strive to do. So, I also love incorporating some mystery pictures using color by CVC words to review.

To get my CVC Word Families Interactive Notebook plus the CVC Word Family Mystery Pictures, you can find them HERE in my TpT store.

I have also just recently added a new CVCe Interactive Notebook, that takes the next step in learning to read by teaching students long vowels with silent 'e' at the end.

After learning how to decode CVC words and learning a few sight words (which make up 50-70% of most texts), students will have a great start on their path to reading!

Secret Santa Blog Hop

Even though we are done (or almost done) with this semester and are READY for a break, I know for me, my mind is never completely able to take a break from thinking about and planning stuff for my kids! We're here to bring you some fun Christmas gifts to give you a head start on next semester!

Here are 2 free activities from my All About Penguins - Print & Go Pack.

Don't forget to hop around to the rest of The Elementary Entourage pages and grab all the great freebies! Have a great break and Merry Christmas!!

An InLinkz Link-up

6 Ways to Use Dot Markers (Bingo Daubers) in the Classroom

Do you use dot markers (also known as bingo daubers) in your classroom? They are such a great invention! They are easy enough to use for preschoolers, but still fun for older kids. Here are some ways you can incorporate them in your classroom or at home with your kids to have fun while learning!

1) Practice the Alphabet - Have students write capital and lowercase letters using dot markers. You can write the letters yourself and have students trace the lines with dots, or you can get these Dot the Alphabet sheets that have circles as a guide, as well as pictures to go along with each letter to reinforce the sound.

 

 

 



 2. Addition Practice - Have students do simple addition problems using the dot markers instead of counters.

3. More Math Practice - Use the markers to indicate the correct answer instead of writing or circling it. Sometimes just adding the element of the dot markers can make a seemingly boring lesson more fun! I've made a fun and free multiplication practice page called, "Roll, Multiply, and Color" that you can grab from my "Freebies" page.

4. Sight Word Fun - Have students use the dot markers to find and dot sight words to help build reading skills and practice fluency. You can type up some sentences yourself, or to save you time, I've created a few resources that you can get in my TpT store!



Find & Dot Sight Word Fun

 

Dot Marker Sight Word Mystery Pictures

 

5. Art projects - We love using the dot markers instead of real paint and brushes sometimes. It's much easier and less messy! Of course there's a time for letting kids make a mess and experiment with real paint, but sometimes you just need a quick and easy art project! One thing we like to do is tape a cutout shape onto paper, dot all over, then gently lift the taped shape off.

 

 

6. Pattern Practice - Start a pattern of colored dots and let your kids finish! Or give them a pattern type (AB, ABB) and have them choose the colors and show a pattern.

 

There are different brands of dot markers, but our favorite are Do-a-Dot Art Markers. They are sturdy, and one pack lasted our family a whole year! There are several different color packs you can get. Here are some links to different packs on Amazon if you'd like to try some of these activities out!

 

 



Five for Friday!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday to share with you 5 random things we did this week!

 

1. We made a visit to the children's museum this week with some friends! This is the best picture we could get with 8 kids ages 6 and under :-)

 

2. I'm always looking for fun ways to practice sight words with my daughter - so I printed out some words she knows and let her paint them!

3. We started learning about action verbs, so we looked through magazines to find words or pictures that showed verbs.

4. We finished up our ocean life unit this week. One fun experiment we did was to put some sand and water in a bowl and then added a little bit of oil. My son's job was to "clean up" the ocean - and we found out how hard it can be!

5. I put up a new Thanksgiving freebie in my TpT store! Color by number and color by sight word pages. Grab them here!

 

 

 

Have a great weekend!

 

How to Build Fluency in Young Readers

Some kids learn to read and just begin to naturally read with fluency (speed, accuracy, and proper expression). Many kids, however, need some guidance and practice! Here are some things you can do to help build fluency in your young readers!

1. Model, Model, Model: Reading aloud to kids is the first step in building their fluency. Even before kids know the ABC's, they can learn what fluent reading sounds like. Read to your kids every day, even after they can read by themselves.

2. Reader's Theater: Find some scripts at or slightly above the students' reading level. Practice reading and performing the play - lines don't need to memorized, the focus is reading with proper speed and expression.

3. Re-Read & Partner Reading: Rereading short picture books again and again can build fluency and confidence. Even if the student has the words memorized, they are practicing the flow of the words. Reading with a partner is also a great way to get kids reading out loud and working together to build fluency. Students can take turns reading pages, or have a higher level reader read first, and then the lower level reader can repeat.

4. Fluency Strips - These are great for building up fluency as students practice reading short sentences. You can bind sentence strips together with a small ring to put in a literacy center, or you can turn them into a fun interactive notebook!



You can create your own by typing up some sentences and cutting them into strips, or if you'd like to get some that are already made, you can get my Fluency Strips Interactive Notebook here!

5. Another way to increase fluency and comprehension is to have students interact with the text they are reading. You can do this by asking questions about what the students are reading and have them actually show you in the text where they found the answer or information. This can be an oral activity, or you can use resources that are specifically designed for finding text evidence. Here is an example from a resource I created that has really helped my kids:

If you'd like to try some passages like this, you can get this FREE resource that includes several activities at different levels.

Above all, make sure students are given tasks that they can be successful at. They will gain confidence, and enjoy learning to read with fluency!

How to Teach Sight Words: Ideas and Activities

This post may contain affiliate links.

Sight words are so important in helping little ones learn to read! After learning about 200 words, a reader will know over half of the most common words in English! That's so amazing to me.  Since many of the words do not follow the normal phonics rules, it's best to learn them by memorizing. Easier said than done for most kids!

I feel that teaching in a way that appeals to all different learning styles (visual, auditory, logical, physical, social) is the best approach when teaching sight words! Make it fun, make it engaging, and watch your kids grow into amazing readers!  Here are some ideas to get started:

• Have students look through books they are familiar with and find sight words. Start by focusing on one word at a time and make tally marks each time they find it!

Check out some best selling sight word books HERE! 

• Try playing a matching game. It's simple to make with some construction paper cut in squares, then write 2 of each sight word you are practicing. Mix them up, turn them over, and take turns with a partner turning 2 over and trying to make a match.

• Give students a mix of cards with sight words and pictures and have them create sentences. They can just play around with making and reading sentences, or take it a step further and copy their sentences onto paper.



• Get them moving by playing games! Get some fly swatters (clean of course), have a list of words on the floor, and have kids smack the word as you call it out! Or try putting words on the wall and have students try and hit the correct word with a ball.

• Practice writing sight words with different mediums: paint with water on concrete or a chalkboard, use real paint on paper, draw in sand, cornmeal, or shaving cream, make the words with playdough or stickers.

• Do something unique and fun, like these dot marker mystery pictures! These best sellers are a hit with students and teachers alike! These are perfect for students who are bored or tired of other reading activities.

• Fill the chalkboard or whiteboard with sight words, then have kids erase the words as you say it. Split the board into 2 sides and make it a contest. Anything is more engaging when it's a competition!

• There are a ton of resources available that are great for practicing and reviewing sight words. One of my favorites that I'm using right now with my kindergartener is my Sight Words Sentence Practice pack. It gives her practice with the words in the context of sentences, and it starts from the beginning and builds on itself, so she always feels successful! You can get a couple of these practice pages in this free download!

                                                  Sight Words Sentence Practice Freebie