Hi everyone,
Did you all start the countdown? I did! 43 days left for us!
For the past few weeks I have been tutoring a few times a week. I am really enjoying it and so is the first grader that I am working with. He is doing really well with the things we have been doing and I wanted to share the routine. I am working mostly on reading, writing and sight words with him. This is great for working with a child one on one, but I am sure it would work well for small groups too.
1. The first thing that I do is test him on the sight words. I divide the sight words that I want him to learn into smaller lists and work one small list at a time until the whole list is done. Once he masters the list I let him pick out a sticker to put on the top so that we know he has mastered that list.
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| Here is the first list that we have mastered. |
2. The next thing that we always do is pick one of the sight words that he doesn't know. I have him tell me a sentence for that sight word and I write it on a strip of paper with the sight word in a different color than the rest of the words (I just cut a piece of green paper into thirds but, you could also use a sentence strip.). Then I cut the sentence apart in between each word and mix the words up. I have him put the words in order and then glue it onto a piece of white computer paper. Then he reads the sentence to me and I have him point to the sight word. After reading it, he writes the whole sentence underneath and circles the sight word. I will sometimes put a mistake in the sentence, like a capital letter in the middle or no period at the end, and have him find the mistake. Every once in a while throughout the time that I am with him, I will take out the sentence and ask him to tell me the sight word, by the end he usually knows it pretty well.
3. The next thing that I do is my favorite part. I use the making words folder from Teacher Bits and Bobs. You can get the template for free here. You just have to print out the template from her blog and glue the two pages to the inside of a file folder. You can laminate them opened if you want to (I didn't and it is fine). Then, I used the small size post its and cut them in half. You just write the letter from the template underneath and put it on top. I have him create words and then write them down on a piece of paper. I think this really helps with writing words and blending sounds together. In the beginning, he wanted to make really simple words that he already knew how to spell. Now, I have him "experiment" and put a beginning consonant and a vowel and we will try out different endings until we find a word that makes sense. It is a little bit of work to put together, but is definitely worth it!
4. Usually at this time we take a 3-4 minute break.
5. Next, I like to do writing and reading. I will usually bring a book that he can read and have him read it and then we will do some kind of writing about it. Sometimes I will bring a reading response sheet that will ask questions like, "What is your favorite part?" and "What was the setting of the story?". One day we read a non-fiction book about dolphins and wrote facts about them. Sometimes we will read a book and do some writing that has to do with the book, but may not be a question. For example, a few days ago we read a book about a birthday party and wrote things that you need to do to get ready for a birthday party.
6. I always like to end with a game, I think that they need it after working for a while and they leave happy. I have been playing a few different sight word games lately. I created sight word go fish cards that he LOVES. They are so much fun and really are great for learning sight words. I use the dolch word lists and I have them in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop and my Teachers Notebook shop if you are interested.
Another game that I have been playing with him is sight word Candy Land. I got the cards from
Ironic Adventures. You can get the cards from her blog
here. This is great, you just use your regular Candy Land board and pieces and use the sight word cards instead. They have to read the words correctly and if they do, they get to move the amount of spaces that are on the card.
I hope this is helpful to any of you that are tutoring or working with small groups.
I will be posting more things that I do while tutoring soon.
Have a great (hopefully fast) week!
