Team {word} Building!

It's still a "get to know you" period in my classroom.  We are finishing our 3rd full week.  Getting into our new and exciting curriculum and also learning to work together!

Today, we had a fun team building activity.  But really it was a phonics lesson!  SHHHHH!!!  Don't tell them!

Each table got some letters.  I gave them the "wheel of fortune" usuals plus ALL of the vowels.  We were only working with short vowels.

I gave the class a word.  The team challenge was to find the letters and hold them at their bellies.  Rule #101 was that each student could only hold ONE letter.  They had to build quietly so they didn't give away any answers to other teams.  (THAT in itself was a challenge, but I found that even though they were a bit noisy, no team looked at another team to help them out!)

Once all teams were standing with the word in order, each student said their OWN sound.  (SO if the word was "cat" Student C would say /k/, student A would say /a/ and student T would say /t/.  Then I would clap my hands together and ALL three would say the word they made.  Blending, segmenting, sounds, team building, cooperation all bundled up in giggles.  PERFECT, simple activity.

Click {HERE} to grab a copy of the letters I used.  (Well, it's the entire alphabet.  I didn't use them all.  That would have been a bit overwhelming at this point in the year for my firsties)

Have a wonderful Friday and weekend!  It's so great to finally be back in the swing of things and have things to share again!!!