How to Use the Sound Spelling Cards (Grades K – 5)

Greetings,

I hope you had a great Easter Holiday.  Today I will be sharing with you how to use the Open Court Sound Spelling Cards.  When I was a Second grade teacher, we would practice the sound spelling cards two - three times a day.  The purpose of the sound spelling cards includes the following:

* Teaches children how to sound out words to read

* Teaches children how to spell words and to recognize spelling patterns

* Teaches children to recognize words in print

* Teaches children to speech sounds to combine with other words

* Teaches children the relationships between the letters of written language and the individual sounds of spoken language

* Teaches children to read words isolated and in connected text

* Teaches children to correctly remember the sound and meaning in their mind when reading

* Teaches letter sounds and simple patterns to remember through letter introduction

It is very important for the teacher to display the cards and model the use of the sound spelling cards.  Cards can easily be referenced by children in the classroom as a reference.  The children should be able to easily see all the sound spelling cards. 

There is also a sound spelling card chant and song we used when reviewing the cards.  Click here to download it.  When using the chant and song, make sure your children are standing and facing the cards.

Once you have the spelling chant memorized then you can add the actions that make the cards come alive.  To view these movements click here to download it.  I hope you enjoyed these wonderful resources on the Open Court sound spelling cards.  I will see you next week with another exciting topic.

Update August 2011: For those of you who have found my Sound Spelling Cards Blog, I have a YouTube channel with 72 Instructional videos, including 10 blending videos to help you and your students.  To check out the blending videos, simply click here or play the video below.



Here is a training video on the Open Court Reading Sound Spelling Cards.

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What is BrainPOP ESL?

Good day,

Hope you are doing well.  Today I will be blogging about BrainPOP ESL.  For those of you who have not heard of BrainPOP ESL, it is a web based program for English Second Language (ESL) learners or English Language Leaners (ELL).  This program can also assist anyone who wants to improve their English language skills.  This program improves listening, speaking, reading and writing skills for second language learners.  The ESL curriculum instructions on the site can be used with the following:

1. Whole class teaching or discussion

2. Used in a computer lab setting

3. Small groups or center activities

4. Used on a one to one basis as an intervention

To learn more about brain pop, simply click on the picture below.

As you learned in the video, the lessons continue to scaffold the learning process by building on previous lessons.  This program assists students who have difficulty with their English skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing.  BrainPOP ESL has two levels and four to six units of instructions, which are broken down into mini lessons.  The exciting part of the program is BranPOP continues to work on adding more content.  They are currently working on building a third level.

Brain POP ESL offers lesson overviews that outline important curriculum objectives.  BrainPOP ESL also provides different engaging activities, resources, quizzes and fun games.  You also can make the movie bigger on your screen and use the close caption feature for students who are learning how to read.  If you have questions about this program, they have answers.  Simply click below and you will be taken to the About Us Page.

BrainPOP has many additional activities to increase student learning such as the following:

1. Know More - This feature explains the lesson in greater detail.

2. Words, Words, Words - This feature is used for vocabulary enhancement with interactive flash cards.

3. Read It – This feature will teach your students alphabet letters to building words, sentences and increase reading comprehension.

4. Write It – This allows students to continue working with the alphabet to progress into writing paragraphs in a composition.

5. Hear It, Say It – This is an interactive language lab where an animated character will ask the student to repeat words.

6. Play It – This is an animated game, which allows students to review the lessons taught.

7. Warm Up – This is an activity that allows students to test what they have learned.

8. You Can Do It – This activity allows students to take a graded quiz, which they can review their results after they are done.

9. At A Glance – This allows you to pick a topic in an organized manner by level, unit or alphabetically. This feature is great for teachers who are looking for the perfect ESL lesson.

10. BrainPOP for Educators – This is where teachers submit ideas on how they are using the program in their classrooms.

11. Word Lists – This feature allows the user to view all important vocabulary words used in each lesson.

12. Help – This is a question and answer information page. If you do not see your question, then you can contact BrainPOP either by phone, email or through their mailing address.

If you have not tried any of the BrainPOP programs, click on the picture below and fill out the information to get a free trial.

Hope you enjoyed this blog article on BrainPOP ESL.  Next week, I will be sharing with you the final program in BrainPOP, BrainPOP Español.  See you next week.

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What is BrainPOP Jr.?

Greetings,

Hope you are doing all well.  I know you have all been waiting for this topic.  So let's get started.  BrainPOP Jr. is a web site similar to BrainPOP, except it is related to grades K - 3. 

The exciting thing about BrainPOP Jr. is every week they are continuing to add more animated videos.  If you look at the picture above, this is what you will see when you go to http://www.brainpopjr.com/.  Simply click on the picture above, and it will take you to there.

BrainPOP Jr. also has free videos you can preview.  Each video is on average 4 - 8 minutes long. If you look at the picture below, this is what the interface looks like when you click on the free video Science Projects.  I have labeled the video controls underneath the video screen.  Click on the picture below, and it will take you to the video.

As you can see in the picture above they have games, activities, jokes, vocabulary word walls, quizzes, drawing activities, writing samples, and more.  They also have close captioning which means the words will appear on the screen as the video plays.  You can even print a personal notebook on the video you are playing. 

Here is a list of science units that BrainPOP Jr. has to offer.  Click on the picture below and it will take you to the particular page on the BrainPOP Jr. site.   If you scroll down on that page you will see a list of the videos for science.  When you get to the web site, scroll down and click on the pictures that have a FREE Tag in the upper left hand corner and you can play the video.

To subscribe to BrainPOP Jr. click here.  Hope you enjoyed the article on BrainPOP Jr.  Next week I will be sharing with you BrainPOP ESL.  We will see you next week.

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Valuable Writing and Brain Based Resources!

Hello,

Today I will be sharing valuable writing and brain based research resources. My first web site has numerous writing resources you can use with your elementary writing class. The web site is located at: http://tinyurl.com/Writing201 I attended three full days of training in which most of the ideas came from Colleagues/Teachers who attended the New Jersey Writing Project and shared their wonderful ideas with us. Here is a list of the recommended books that were given to us at the NJ Writing Workshop.





The next web site has many brain based research resources that Eric Jensen shared with us at a Workshop in San Diego, California. Eric Jensen is a major leader in the brain based research area and speaks at numerous engagements every year. Also there are resources and ideas from another work shop I recently attended in Dallas, Texas. Most of the ideas can be used as topics for discussion with teachers to facilitate collaborative discussions in Professional Development settings. The web site is located at: http://tinyurl.com/ErikJensen Hope you enjoy these two resources. Here are a few of the resources that were mentioned in his workshop and I have already added these resources to my library.

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