i give a gonski...

Last Friday, after school, an email came through to all staff advising that we were now all on 'photocopying rations' due to the school budget! And we are only 3/4's of the way through the school term. It is going to be one long 11 week term now. 

I guess that the Gonski review for funding needs to be implemented quickly, as my school is in desperate need of extra funding for the basics. Considering we are only allowed 5 sheets per student per week it isn't really hard to cut back, so now is the time for me to whip up some work centres that don't require any sheets. Most of my literacy stations have an accompanying activity sheet, so I need to think quickly.

First off is a Silly Sentence activity that Monica has at her TpT store, and I adapted it to fit in with what my class is learning at the moment,  pulling in a lot of our sight words, and changed the American words to Australian (Mom to Mum).

Each Silly Sentence is based around the Who, What, Where, When model, and colour coded to match. Using the spinner each student has to collect 1 piece of the sentence from each colour, before creating their sentence. Now normally I would have the kids then record their sentence on the accompanying sheet and illustrate, but for now it will have to be completed in their literacy books. Guess it will now be extra handwriting practice between the red and blue lines!

The spinner is an easy one that works every time. The child uses a pen and a paperclip and simply flicks the paperclip. It spins soooo easily. Covers a little of fine motor for the day!

The next one I pulled together over the weekend is based around the School's Multilit words. 

There are 300 words in lists of 10 (nothing new there!) and each list is coloured in the same colours across the school. I laminated up the first 100 words to display in my room this week.

I am also planning on taking deeper look at how ...

... has organising her sight words. She has put together a brilliant expanding folder to organise the different levels.

So I can see lots of rainbow writing, playdough words etc happening in group time, all without the dreaded photocopied piece of paper. 

Now I am on the asking side, I am after any and all of your best and fun ideas for literacy centres that don't involve photocopying. Activities that you rely on or find that the class just love....

Reinventing Sight Words...

Lots of very creative teachers around the globe use the Dolch word system,  Fry words, or the Magic 100 and have made up many, many brilliant games to help kids practice and learn these words. And they have published these games on their blogs, or Pinterest, to share with others.

There are bingo games, flashcards, posters, songs  and 100's of games made, all ready for use in our classrooms, and all created with a fun element. So, why am I reinventing the wheel???

MULTILIT game lists 1 - 10

Well, my school is using a system called MULTILIT - Making Up Lost Time In Literacy! It helps struggling students pick up the basics. There are 200 words in the sight word component, presented in 30 groups of 10 words. But when I went to the usual spots to get some inspiration (yes, I'm talking Pinterest!) there is nothing. Not a single solitary flashcard  or sheet to be had!!! But, worst still, no fun games for rotational groups!!! 

Result is - time to make my own...

First game is just a basic roll the dice, move and say the word game. The above photo covers games for the first 10 groups of words. The school has 'modified' the way we display the words. Instead of working from list 1 to 30 we cover a 5 colour system (very confusing, I must say). Lists 1 and 2 are blue, 3 and 4 are pink etc.....so the kids progress through the colours as their sight word knowledge increases. So you can see why I need to reinvent this poor old system, quickly!!!

Game for Lists 1 and 2 (blue)

This is the first 'blue' level, lists 1 and 2,  which basically covers all the initial words. For each level I glued the game onto backing cardboard that matches the level, and made the picture and arrows on the game in the same colour as well.

Game for Lists 9 and 10 (orange)

These are the words for the first 'orange' level, covering lists 9 and 10. You can see that the progression of words is increasing in difficulty. I made up 5 copies of each level so that the class can play in pairs, at their level during group time.

Recording sheet

And a quick little recording sheet for the kids to write down the words they land on!

So my plan of attack is to create one or two new games each week using the MULTILT words. Fingers crossed that I stay motivated enough to stick to this goal...

By the way, has anyone else ever used this MULTILIT system at all??? Would love to hear how you made it work successfully...