It felt SO good to jump back into the blogging saddle yesterday!

Today's deals center around ELA units.  The Final Digraphs Mini-Unit is one I created for my 1st graders a couple of years.  We always had a blast with it!  The other three were specifically made for my 2nd graders in the last year or so.  Convention Camp is one of my best selling units and it just so happens to be a favorite! Here is a closer look at my Convention Camp Unit!  I put this packet together so I could spend about 2 weeks with my kids going over some concepts that they learned in first grade, but I wanted to make sure they were SOLID as we are big 2nd graders now! These posters can be used packed into a couple weeks OR they can hang as reminders of past concepts! And here are the centers that come in this pack.  I use these centers during Daily 5 and Small Group to make sure my students fully grasp these concepts. I love this Homophones Unit mostly because I LOVE seeing the light bulb go on for my 2nd graders! Here are some snapshots of my whole class intro to homophones.  We used Brainpop Jr, because my kids listen to Annie ten times better than me.  It's okay, I'm woman enough to admit it! ha! The video also gave us a chance to clarify homonyms vs. homophones.  Then I projected our chart on the Smartboard.  The kids chose homophone pairs and wrote sentences for each on their whiteboards. During my planning I was able to take my chart to our workroom and use the **MAGICAL** Poster maker. Do y'all have one of these??? I don't know how I lived before I worked at a school that had one.  This is incredible!  I scanned the chart, pressed 4 copies, and the machine printed and cut posters for my entire team completely on its own!  Magic I tell you! I wanted the kids to really, really focus on the to, two, too set so we used some of the printables in my pack to discuss the differences in each word's meaning. Kids referred back to this mini-poster several times to remind themselves of the meanings of the words too! Here is a snapshot of how I started using these resources in guided reading.  I printed out the flashcards and Homophone charts for discussion and referral when we do word work in small group.

I also printed off the cards that are separate from the words so my cute little girls could practice matching them to the correct pictures! We also loved the interactive journal pages too! They wrote the words, definitions, and example sentences underneath.  This served as great practice, and an excellent resource for reference throughout the year! I used this next resource ALL YEAR LONG.  That is the beautiful about small group.  Some kids are ready and willing for some concepts way before other students! I put up the posters at the beginning of the year and I referred to them all year long!  We also kept the charts in our Daily 5 folder for reference during Word Work and Writers Workshop. I backed my posters in black cardstock, but you should use whatever color works best in your room! And last but not least, my Final Digraphs Unit for 1st graders!  I put together this unit filled with games, posters, and handouts for you (and me!) to use with your students. I just LOVE how it all came together! Not that it is super important, but I thought the colors were just so pretty in this unit!  I used the posters and word family posters during my small group instruction.  My lower reading group used a huge heaping of this unit for the last couple of weeks in First Grade!  The games we used as whole class review to make sure we were prepared for Second Grade! PHEW!  I actually really enjoyed looking back at these Units that I worked so hard on over the years!  I hope that some will be helpful for you and your students!
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