Word Family Fluency Stories, Charts, and Comprehension Questions!

Today, I am SUPER excited to tell you about our newest product: Word Family Fluency Stories, Charts, and Comprehension Questions!  They are aligned perfectly with our Sounds Fun Phonics set of videos, songs, word building kit, poster, multisensory flashcards and worksheets!  This fluency set will complete our set of phonics word family materials, giving children a chance to apply what they have learned and practice becoming fluent readers with those new words!  Plus, the comprehension check is the perfect way to finish off the unit.




I first started using fluency stories and word charts three years ago when I taught that first and second grade combination class.  My students in both grades really seemed to need to practice reading fluency, and giving them fluency word charts and stories to practice reading those words seemed to be exactly what they needed!  At the time, though, I had not yet developed my own fluency stories yet, so I used others that I found on TpT.  See each photo with my students below to find out where I got the ones in the pictures.  :)






So these new Word Family Fluency Stories, Charts, and Comprehension Questions are exactly what I WISHED I had had for my first graders that year, and even for some of my second graders, depending on the level!  This project is something that I have wanted to accomplish for a very long time, and I certainly hope that it is useful to those of you that are teaching first and second grade!  (I rather doubt that it will be appropriate for any kindergartners, LOL!)




This was my routine for using the fluency charts in my first and second grade class.  Before I left each day, I put the charts on each desk so that they would be ready to go for the children as soon as they walked in each morning.  This was their "bell work."  The fluency word chart was on one side and the fluency story was on the other side.  I chose to put mine in page protectors, but that was simply my personal preference.




As soon as the children came in, they were supposed to put their things away and be seated.  I gave them just a couple of minutes to accomplish this, and then started the timer at one minute.  The children were to begin with the word chart and keep reading it for one minute until the timer went off.  Then I would have them shout out the number of words they read in one minute!  After a quick congratulations, I had everyone turn the page over and read the story on the back.  Once again, after the timer went off, I had them call out the number of words they read per minute.

I also attached these fluency sheets to their homework and asked parents to listen to them read them each night and record how many words per minute they read.  (We did not write down their fluency scores in class, only on their homework.)

At the end of the week, I did some spot checking to see how they were doing.  Not everyone got checked each week, because that was simply impossible!  I just wanted to get an idea of how they were reading, and whether or not their fluency was improving.  I also walked around the room and listened to the kids as they read through the fluency stories together each day.  (I know what you are thinking.  Working on fluency without testing them weekly???? GASP!)

But you know what?  I decided that the fluency test score was not the most important thing.  The PRACTICE was the most important thing!  And so that is what I did.  And guess what?  It WORKED!  The kids made OUTSTANDING progress in reading and language arts in general!  Fluency was only one component, of course, but I am confident that it played an important part.






My wonderful friend Katie Knight of Teacher to the Core was kind enough to give me the fluency stories that my first graders needed, in the photo above, and then I created some word family fluency charts to go with them.

Here's a list of the every story from each word family in our new fluency stories set!  The stories with a star (*) next to them, have a chart to match the story. This chart includes words from the story and words for that phonics spelling pattern from the phonics word lists found on Sounds Fun Phonics worksheets.

-ay: By the Bay
-ai & -ea: Mr. Read's Store
-ai: A Few Riddles with -ai Words*
-ay & -ai: Sailing with Dolphins
-ai: The Painted Train
-ar & -or: Picnic at the Orange Grove*
-ar: Secret Agent*
-au & -aw: Riddles with -au and -aw Words
-au & -aw: The Movie Studio Tour*
-au & -ou: Autumn & Austin's Awesome Cheese Sauce* -au: Paul's Haunt*
-aw & -ow: Raven's Tricks
-ew: Witches Stew
-ea: The Beast
-ea & -oa: The Amazing Beasts Zoo*
-ee & -ea: -ee and -ea Riddles
-ee: This Week's Dancing Queen*
-er: The Model Cat*
-er, -ir, & -ur: Which Super Hero Would You Be?
-ir: Three for the Game*
-ink & -ing: Plink and Brink Rock*
-ing: The Prince Who Forgot His Glasses
-igh: Knight Fights
-igh: Dessert Delight*
-igh: The Night Fright*
-ink: Pink's New Drink*
-ou & -ew: Mikey Mouse Cooks*
-ou: Counting Clouds*
-ou & -ow: Mouse's Daring Escape*
-ow: King Owl's Crown*
-oi: Teach a Droid to Make French Fries
-oo: The Zoo School*
-or: Dragon Sports Games
-oy: Cowboy's Horse
-unk: The Skunk
-ur: Pretty Kitty the Surf Cat
-unk & ink: Skunk and Chipmunk at Camp
ch-: Cheering Chicks
ch-: The Cheer Chums
ch-: The Chomping Champ*
sh-: Shoe Shop*
sh-: The Shy Sheep*
th-: Be Thankful*
th-: The Three Ducks*
th-: These Crazy Things!*
Final Y: The Kitty and the Puppy
Bossy E & -ee: The Box Kite by the Bay
Bossy E & -oa: Christmas Wish List
Bossy E: Cookie Shapes
Bossy E & -ai: On the Train to Grandma
Bossy E (Long Vowel A): Dave's Dog Jade Bossy E (Long Vowel E): The Sphere in the Sky Bossy E (Long Vowel I): The Hike
Bossy E (Long Vowel O): The Mole's New Home Bossy E (Long Vowel U): The Surfer Dude

This whole BUNDLE of stories, charts, and comprehension questions is only $30 on my website!! You can get a few of the word families individually on my TPT store such as: -Ee and -Ea, Bossy E (Final E), -Ai and -Ay, -Ing -ink and -Unk, -Ar -Er -Ir and -Ur, -Ou -Ow and -Oo. These TPT downloads range from $5.50 to $8.00, depending how many word families are in that mini set.

I hope these will be useful to you! I would love to hear your feedback! :)

Thanks!!

-Heidi

P.S. Our Sounds Fun Phonics Classroom combo goes SO WELL with these new stories, charts, and comprehension questions!!




This discounted combo includes all of the following for only $75!

• Sounds Fun Phonics CD
• Sounds Fun Phonics Animated DVD
• Sounds Fun Phonics Workbooks Vols. 1 & 2 (Printable Files on Disc)
• Sounds Fun Phonics Printed Flashcards
• Sounds Fun Phonics Poster
• Sounds Fun Phonics Word Building (Printable Files on Disc)
• Sounds Fun Phonics Bingo Game (Printable Files on Disc)
• Sounds Fun Phonics Bang Game (Printable Files on Disc)
• Sounds Fun Phonics Vol. 1-2 Word Family Coloring Worksheets (Printable Files on Disc)

And here are some samples of our Phonics and Word Family SONGS! :)








----------------------------------
Follow me! Did you enjoy this post? Do me a favor and share it with your friends! And follow this blog by signing up for my email updates here, or follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on TPT! I'm also on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, too! Don't forget to sign up for our email newsletter for special deals and promo codes that you won't find out about anywhere else.

Popular posts from this blog

Creepy Crayon: Free Craft Template!

Image
Today, I am going to give you a link to our free Creepy Crayon craft that we made to accompany the book Creepy Crayon by Aaron Reynolds!   Yay!  If you are a fan of Creepy Carrots and A Creepy Pair of Underwear ,  then you were probably just as excited as I was for the next book in the series, Creepy Crayon !  And so by popular demand, we have have included the Creepy Crayon craft here as a free download!  We have also included links to our other crafts for Aaron Reynold's creepy books, too.  They are such fun! The Illustrations are FAB! I definitely need to give a shout out to illustrator Peter Brown, whose wonderful illustrations play a huge part in the popularity of these books!  I love the way he made almost all of it in gray tones, except for the crayon, of course!  The illustrations really give the story a creepy, but friendly tone.  I know I'll be a Peter Brown fan forever! This is a photo of my Creepy Carrots crafts samples in my classroom before I retired. Check Ou
Read more

How to Help Children That Have a Hard Time Learning the Alphabet

Image
Is your child (or student) having a hard time learning the alphabet?  Are those letters just not "sticking?" Does your child seem to know a letter one day, and then forgets it the next day- or even just a few minutes later? In this post, I will share my most recently developed techniques for helping kids learn and remember the alphabet. Check Vision- Thoroughly! During the past 30 years as a teacher, I have tried many things for all of the different types of learners that I’ve had. One thing that I would highly suggest is that you have your child's eyes checked, just in case you have not yet done that. I know that most schools have their school nurses do this, but I would suggest that a nurse is really not an optometrist, nor is he/she an ophthalmologist. I wrote about one little guy with vision issues in my post, Tips for Teaching the Alphabet to Struggling Learners . In that post, I shared that I had been teaching one child that had had such a difficul
Read more

Fun with STEM: A "Punkin Chunkin" Catapult with Craft Sticks!

Image
In this post, I am going to tell you about a really FUN, seasonal STEM project that I did with my first and second graders:  they made "Punkin" Chunkin" catapults with craft sticks and masking tape!  Then we measured to see who's pumpkin went the farthest!  The "punkins" were actually orange pompoms, so we had to use our imaginations, but none of the children cared.  They had an absolute BLAST! For this fun activity, we invited our new fifth grade buddies to come in and give us a hand, but I really think that the first and second graders could have done it on their own as well.  So if you are thinking of doing this with your own young students alone and without the help of older students, go for it!  I think that Kindergartners could do it too, but I would do it in small groups so that I could help those that needed it. My inspiration for this came from many different child constructed catapults that I have seen on Pinterest- along with a
Read more

Teaching Kids to WRITE the Numbers! – FREE Number Poems!

Image
Teaching children to write the numbers  correctly can be very frustrating for early childhood teachers! Also, attempting to GRADE their writing can be equally TRICKY! What does a number written correctly look like, versus one that is not?  In this post, I am going to tell you how I teach my students to write the numbers. I’ve posted some examples of student work showing numbers that look correct and some that are not, in my opinion.  I explain under the photos why certain numbers “would pass” or not.  I also have some FREE number formation poems to share with you, plus a FREE download of a parent guide that explains what those correctly formed numbers should look like- and the incorrect ones! So it seems that every year, getting the children to write those numbers can be something like pulling teeth: it comes slowly, and getting them to just “CARE” seems to be half the battle!  Perhaps the reason for this is that we know that the most important learning in math comes from wo
Read more

Getting Control of a Very Difficult Class: TAKE TWO

Image
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tomorrow, and be fine with it?  This is a repost of a piece that I wrote several years ago when I was teaching Kindergarten.  I'm now in second grade, and finding that I have many of the same problems!  Since I actually went back and read my own post again, I thought I would post it here for you again, too, with a few of my updated comments inserted in italics.  Hope it's helpful! This is the original post. ********** This year, I have one of the most challenging classes I have ever had. I am still working on training them to do what I want them to do, but I know that in the end, I will win! Meanwhile, we are spending a LOT of time on classroom management, modeling routines and procedures often. Here is a list of some classroom management tips and techniques that I have used successfully in Kindergarten, but I think that they would prob
Read more

An EASY Critical Thinking Game for K/1 Kids!

Image
Today I'm going to tell you about a fun and EASY game to help boost critical thinking skills in Kindergarten or First Graders!  I call it The Critical Thinking Comparison Game, because in it, the kids are simply comparing one thing to another and telling what they think are the similarities and differences between two objects.  Believe it or not, my first graders LOVE this game and often ask me if we can play it again!  I think they like it because the game makes them feel successful and "smart."  I have also played it with Kindergartners, and they enjoyed it, too! The Critical Thinking Comparison Game is really very easy to play!  All you need is a few questions like the ones below, and something for the children to color, just to keep them busy while they wait for a turn to talk.   ( I also used my Critical Thinking Comparison Cards as a visual aid, but you can certainly play it without them! ) Here is the type of question that I ask in this game: How
Read more

Teaching Phoneme Segmentation: Separating Sounds in Words (Freebies!)

Image
Teaching children to pick out all of the phonemes (or sounds) in a given word can be tricky!  This requires good listening skills and well developed phonemic awareness in general.  For some children, mastering phoneme segmentation can seem just about impossible!  Here are some teaching tips that have worked for me in the past. *  The best advice I can give is to practice segmenting words with a designated MOTION for a short time every single day with your whole class.  Even just one or two minutes per day will help! Look for suggested motions on this post. There is also a downloadable list of words to use, plus a homework sheet that you can download here. Here is where you can get another  word list for practicing words with two, three, and four phonemes. And here is another post with lists of words with four, five, or six phonemes. *  Give kids beads to slide down a pipe cleaner as they segment the word.  I made these "Segmentation Sliders" out of p
Read more

20 Hands-On Ways to Build a Sight Word, (And Research to Back it Up!)

Image
Today I am pleased to share TWENTY great ideas for building the sight words to help kids learn them in a hands-on way!  Making sight words (AKA high frequency words) in lots of different ways allows kids to choose their best learning modality and really take charge of their own learning. I'm super excited about this way of teaching, and I hope you will be, too! When my teammate and I do this, we focus on just ONE of the trickier sight words per week and have the kids BUILD JUST THAT ONE WORD over and over again in many ways.   If there happens to be a parent volunteer at that center, they are to ask the children to spell it and tell what the word is often. This is what our Sight Word Building Table looks like.  We put out a variety of choices, and the children can change seats each time they finish to keep building the word.  If there happens to be a volunteer, she ask them what word they are working on and to spell it, and will hand them a different manipulative.  
Read more

A Creepy Pair of Underwear Craftivity FREEBIE!

Image
Today I have a fun and easy craft based on a SUPER fun book by Aaron Reynolds called A Creepy Pair of Underwear .  After reading this book just ONCE with my class last year, it instantly became the class favorite, and I KNEW we had to make the project!  The illustrations by Peter Brown provided the perfect inspiration.  We are providing the master and instructions free for you today at the end of this post.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! If you are unfamiliar with this fun book,  you can read the synopsis here on Amazon, where you can also purchase the book .  Another great book to go with it is Creepy Carrots, by the same author and illustrator.  Both are instant Halloween classics, in my opinion!  Don't miss them! My teammate Jeff Pang is super creative, and he adapted the design from the book to make it into a craft that would be simple enough for the children to make into their own little Creepy Pair of Underwear!  So kudos to Jeff!  He seems to be able t
Read more

A Twist on the Headband Game!

Image
Here’s a fun, new, twist on the classic Headband Game that makes it reusable and adaptable to any subject and any level!  AND it gets the kids up and moving as they learn, so that’s an even greater bonus!!!!  This awesome idea was suggested by a participant in one of my workshops when I presented the Sight Word Headband Game and wondered aloud how to make this adaptable to kids in higher grades that learn their new words much more quickly.  So I tried it out myself, and voilá!  It worked out great!  My own class has done this now a few times and they LOVE it! So here is how it works; I’ll remind you of the my original version first.  With the original  Sight Word Headband Game , I wrote a word on a strip of paper and formed it into a headband.  The kids all put one on, and then walked around the room and wrote the words that they found on their friends’ heads next to their friends’ names on a sheet of paper. Now with this second “twist” on this “Advanced” Headband G
Read more