So I didn't win Power Ball...

I had my ticket (or ten) and was sure that I was going to wake up a multi-millionaire. I even drove 35 miles across state lines to get said tickets..and no such luck! I still had something to look forward to today because....

Chillin' at the Overhead Station

our elf made his debut! I channeled my inner thespian and pulled out all the stops to make it a magical morning for my little scholars. After reading the book, we voted on our name for the little fellow. I pulled 5 popsicle sticks and each of them suggested a name. I wrote the names on chart paper and each kiddo voted on their favorite. I suppose I should explain the names...so the first suggestion was Tinker Bell and I explained to the sweetie that our elf was a boy so she shouted, "Well, Tinker Boy then!" Not sure where King came from. Obviously Diego and Boots are from Dora. And Cone? Well, my only guess is we've been learning about solid shapes. I may or may not have skewed the votes. An elf named Cone, really?! :)

Moving on...I have been terrible at snapping pictures of centers/stations but I managed to get a few today!

My assistant worked with our little scholars on segmenting CVC words. We start by just segmenting the sounds and then eventually graduate to moving the chips and writing the letter that makes the sound. Just like my Road to Reading: Phoneme Segmentation Fluency packet, we color-code the sounds. Green for the first sound, yellow for the medial, and red for the final sound.

One of our literacy centers is working with cookie sheets. I whipped this little goodie up and my kiddos just loved it! There's something magical about magnetic letters I think. Notice the green border? Color-coded because students have to listen for the first sound and find that letter. The medial sound mats have a yellow border and the final sound have a red border. Make sense? Some of my kiddos are still working with identifying beginning sounds while others can decode the word after finding the letter that makes the beginning sound.

I've been busy printing, laminating and cutting until my fingers bleed but I am just in LOVE with Caitlin Clabby's Yummy Batch of Literacy and Math Centers.