Magic E lesson and ideas...

We have been working on the vce word pattern in our room since before Christmas.  I had seen a few ideas on Pinterest about ways to use paint sample cards for literacy...hey a little elbow grease and a trip to Wal-Mart and I have new manipulatives to play with...I'm in!  So that's what I did.  I made a trip to Wal-Mart and picked up all different kinds of sample cards...solid squares, rectangles with graduating degrees of a certain shade, and these really cool Better Homes and Gardens ones that have a hole to punch out.  I'm assuming that you are to try to match paint or coordinate, but being a teacher I saw a word family slide waiting to be born!  Here is a picture of the final project, along with the ideas that it inspired (sorry it's sideways...I always forget to turn the phone I use to take the pics!)

To make this slide, simply punch out the hole in two Better Homes and Gardens sample cards (save the pop-out circle for later use).  Turn the two cards back to back and tape together.  I just used scotch tape, which we all know won't last 30 seconds with a group of first graders...wait, what am I thinking...they won't even make it two seconds!  So when I make them for my class I plan on getting some of that cool, decorative duct tape to bind the edges together.  Anywho...once they are taped, simply write your favorite word family to the right of each hole.  Then take one of the graduated tint sample card and write a different consonant in each box.  *Word to the Wise* Slide the strip into the card and write the consonants through the punch out...this way you guarantee the letters will be the right size.  Instant word practice.  Kids can make their own, or you can send them home for practice...who cares if they come back...they are free and take about a minute and a half to make!

*Sidenote-you will notice in the picture that I have also made a set to use for Magic E practice...that has been part of our New Year review this week, and I decided to make one at the same time.

This idea started those creative juices flowing and I thought..."Hmmmmm, what could I use those circles for?"  Well, we made glittery Magic E's on index cards today and the plan is to have them use their Magic E cards to find words around the room that they could try to add the E to and make a new word.  So, I finally found a way to use those foam snowflakes I bought.  I put the short vowel words that we had written down from the book "Hop on Pop" onto address labels and stuck them on the snowflakes which I posted around the room...but our Magic E's were too large.  :(  Then WHAMO!  I have all those little circles and popsicle sticks...what if I make Mini Magic E's on popsicle sticks?  Excellent!  So I got out all my stuff and started putting them together.  Then I thought, but what if I want to use these on book print?  LIGHTBULB!  I have all these little round dot labels that someone donated and I thought, "Eeny Meeny E on the other end would be great!  Multi-tasking manipulatives...love it!"  Here is a picture of how they turned out.

My class will be using the Magic E Wands and the words posted around the room to do a whole group word sort.  I am going to give them a recording sheet to write down which words can make a new word with Magic E and which words can't. 





Here is a picture...if you would like me to send you the master, leave a comment in the box with your email address and I will send it to you.

We will check back in on the carpet to compare notes before doing our next rotation.  Happy teaching this week everyone!