Friday Flashback Linky- Don't know how to do it, but I'm giving it a whirl!

 
I'm not sure how to do a linky, but if someone does... let me know!  (Amanda?)

Ok, so I've kinda been reflecting on the week already and I stick with what I said yesterday that the persuasive writing we did with our presidential speeches takes the cake for the week!  Unfortunately, today the space on my iPad ran out and I couldn't record anymore speeches, but I will take care of that by Monday!

Due to technical difficulties, I do not have anything new to post about that, but you can read my posts from Tuesday and Thursday to see all the good stuff!  Here's one fun picture I already posted:

Kids' campaign posters that are in the hallway with their speeches.

Of course, we couldn't JUST do election stuff, so here's another new thing I tried this week.  (After 9 years, I have to say that I am so happy that I don't repeat everything year after year, even if it would be easier.  I still get so excited to learn and try new things!)  Anyway, I've always had trouble getting kids to remember to try both vowel sounds when decoding new words.  If we're working on short vowels, they try that every time, and if we're working on long vowels, same thing for the most part.  It's frustrating!  And when I say, "Try both sounds," or, "What's the other sound that vowel makes?" what do I get?  Crickets!  Arrrgh!  So my blogging buddy Jill showed me all about the Beanie Baby strategies and I love the "flip the sound."  For some reason, I really think that this little change in wording helped me teach this strategy better this time around!

I have some flashcards with vowel sounds on them and usually just stick them in the pocket chart or up on the wall as a reference, but with the whole "flipping" idea, I wanted something to go with that.  I taped the long and short vowel cards back to back and physically flipped the card over when we flipped the sound.  It sounds so easy, but for some reason the kids did seem to "get" it more than in previous years.  I know their background knowledge wasn't any better, because I got the crickets at the beginning of the lesson and this definitely was not a strategy kids were using in guided reading groups.

The cards before I taped them together for flipping.

Next, we practiced some one syllable words, flipping the sound and deciding which one "sounds right" or sounds like a real word.

It seemed like some of the kids were seeing a visual pattern with the words (yay), so we sorted the short and long vowel words and then they talked with their partner.  I'm trying so hard this year not to just give the information away... they are so much more invested when they come up with the rules and strategies themselves.  Even if it takes longer, it's worth it because it sticks with them.  They did indeed notice the e on the end of the long vowel words- yay!

I took all of the vowel cards and photocopied them.  I made it so that when the kids cut around short and and long a, they can fold them so they are back to back like when I taped them together.  They will be on cardstock and I will hole punch them and put them on rings so the kids can put them in their browsing boxes for independent reading time.  I actually made two copies per child so that one copy can stay in their reading bags for home.  It took FOREVER to shrink these and fit them all on one page, especially since the copy machine had a mind of its own today, so I hope the kiddos use them!

I know this isn't anything prolific, but it was new to me!