On the Language Shelves in February

In another post, we shared some of the Valentine themed activities we had in the Fine Motor and Art areas of the classroom… like this heart-tonging work.

This time we’re sharing some new activities we have on the Language shelves for February

If you (or some of your students) are on heart-themed materials overload, you may enjoy our Valentine Vehicles activities for a change of pace!

Sorting vehicles by color

(Source: Valentine Vehicles)

Sorting by size (Source: Valentine Vehicles)

Picture matching grid (Source: Valentine Vehicles)

Shadow matching(Source: Valentine Vehicles)

Sorting vehicles found on the land, water and air (Source: Valentine Vehicles)

Phonological Awareness

Most of these phonological awareness activities are done with an adult. They are good options for when you need to gather a group of children who can’t seem to find a work to do.

One of my goals this year is to create a set of phonological awareness activities for each month. For February I picked the book “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose!” by Lucille Colandro as my inspiration. It’s a silly little rhyming book which the children enjoy because it’s just so absurd.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose!

Word awareness cards. This is a teacher led activity that can be done individually or with a small group. Read a card and have the child line up a heart for each word he/she hears. I like to do this a few times and then let the child “read” the card to me. We sometimes use a little wand to point to the dots under each word as we read. (Source: February Phonological Awareness)

Syllable sorting. We gathered a few objects mentioned in the story and will sort them according to how many syllables they have. You can really use any objects you have on hand. The children like laughing at the idea of the old lady swallowing all these strange objects. (Source: February Phonological Awareness The printable pack comes with pictures you can use instead of objects)

Rhyming riddles! Distribute the picture cards among a small group of children, or line them up along the edge of a rug or table. Read one of the riddles and find the right picture. (Source: February Phonological Awareness)

Broken Hearts: Beginning Sound Matching (Source: February Phonological Awareness)

Point and Slide Cards. These are for segmenting and blending the sounds you hear in a word. Touch a heart as you say each sound in isolation, then blend the sounds together to say the whole word as you slide your finger across the arrow. We’re going to place little heart beads on the cards instead of just pointing. By the way, the Point and Slide activity is something I learned from a workshop at an AMS conference by Mary Ellen Maunz, author of Learning to Read is Child’s Play. (Source: February Phonological Awareness)

What’s the New Word? This is a phoneme substitution game. Read an instruction card and have the child identify the correct picture. For example, “Lazy. Change /z/ to /d/. What’s the new word?” (Lady) (Source: February Phonological Awareness)

Practicing Letters

Upper and Lowercase letter trucks (Source: Valentine Vehicles)

Also used for matching with objects (Source: Valentine Vehicles)

Love Letters. The children can sort the picture cards into the correct envelopes (Source: Love Letters)

They can make their own heart envelopes too

and cut and collect the pictures that start with the letters they’re working on. This is a fun variation on making a booklet of letters. (Source: Love Letters)

The pack also comes with printed envelopes in case you don’t want to make your own set. These can just be used as matching cards. (Source: Love Letters)