One week down! And many more to go.... :)

One week down (whew)...and several more to go (ahhh)! The summer may be over but the fun never stops! This is my first year teaching kindergarten and boy am I excited! Ever since I was asked to loop up with my class from last year I have heard several kindergarten teachers talk about how the number of sight words our kindergarten kiddos are expected to know at the end of year keeps increasing. Right now they are expected to know 125 words! That is a lot! Over the summer my sister, my mom and I decided that we better come up with a fun way to teach all of these words, so we made the Star Wars Sight Words Packet. Now that we are back in school and I have tried some of these activities, I can truly say that the kids LOVE this packet!

My class is very eager and energetic, like most kids! I am always looking for ways to teach that allows them to get some of their energy out while learning! This packet has a craft where you can make each student in your class their very own light saber! YES, I said it, LIGHT SABER! Don't worry, they are inexpensive light sabers! I know, I know, how do you use light sabers to teach sight words? Each morning, during calendar, I introduce a new sight word. Once I show the class the new word and we have practiced reading it several times I get out the light sabers for Jedi Training Academy. I have this awesome button that plays the Star Wars theme song, I think I got it at Hallmark. I push this button and my class has until the end of the song to get a light saber and find a place to stand in the classroom in Jedi position. Check out this cute picture of one of my Jedis!

So once the kids are ready I pull up a powerpoint I created that has the sight words that I have introduced so far this year. For example if we are practicing the word "the", we start with the first letter and point with our light sabers to the top of the "t" and trace the letter in the air and then say "t"! Then we do the same thing with the letter "h" and "e". After the class traces and spells the word I say, "What's that word?" and they point with their light sabers and say "the"! My class LOVES this activity! They look forward to it every morning and they are so well behaved during this activity because they do not want to miss out! After we have gone through the words I push the button and they know that they have until the end of the song to put their light sabers away and meet me back on the carpet. Each day, I watch during this activity and choose a Jedi of the Day! Check out this picture of my class during Jedi Training Academy! They are getting into it!!

Check out the rest of the Star Wars Sight Words Packet here:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Star-Wars-Sight-Words-Teach-the-First-300-Fry-Words-and-Make-It-FUN