Long time no chat friends! Life has been one crazy party around here, but I’m back and ready to catch up with you all.
As you know, phonics is a huge skill in first grade and most of the time, it is pretty boring for most of our kiddos. Last year I knew I had to jazz things up in my phonics instruction and create something meaningful, engaging, and something that helped the sounds stick with my students. That’s when Phonics Friends entered my classroom, and lemme tell ya’…they have been life savers!
My students remember their sounds. It blows me away how well they remember them! When they are stuck on a word, all I have to do is say, “remember our friend _______”…and they can tell me the sound right away.
Here is a look at the r controlled phonics friends we have been working with.
A few weeks ago we learned about the Bossy R Triplets.
We discussed how they all made them same sound, and how they like to play tricks on us and try to confuse us on which letters go in different words. They thought they were hilarious. We sorted sticky note words under each sister. I left this chart up throughout our learning. We also sorted words in our interactive journals…
and matched pictures to words…
We also completed a Write the Room activity and made a Bossy R hat. You can find all the Bossy R activities here.
You can find the old version of this pack here for free on my Facebook page.
We also learned about the ar sound. I remember when I first started teaching 1st grade (7 years ago), we always connected the ar sound to pirates. Last year I decided we needed a phonics friend to spice up our ar learning, so Captain SmARty is was!
He takes us on a treasure hunt for AR words.
Along the way we Walk the Plank and find Ship Wrecked words.
You can find all the above activities in my AR pack.
Another r controlled friend we met was Mrs. Smore-gan.
When she comes to visit, we build words with mini Oreos, make smores, sort words, and write the room.
You can find all of her activities here for FREE.
What is your favorite r controlled vowel to teach?
