Yesterday was it. The final chapter on the 2016-2017 school year.

School years begin and eventually they end. However predictable that fact is this year had a surreal ending. Even as I pen this blog entry I don’t feel like the year is over. Honestly, I don’t want it to be.

But alas all good things must come to an end. My caterpillars have become butterflies and are more than ready to tackle kindergarten – whether the rest of us are or not. They are going to do great things, these little wonders, but this Pre-K teacher is going to miss them so very much.

I think I put my unexpected four day weekend to good use. Finished the final book in Jillian Kent’s Ravensmoore Chronicles, watched Pride & Prejudice for the second time this year. Yes, the best one with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle! Started packing up my house for the big move and…… I even finished something to share with you! Tis’ been a great break!

I could put something scholarly here today but I don’t want to. I would like to introduce myself to those of you joining me on this blogging adventure. Many of you already know me or about me as a teacher or friend but I’m hopeful that there are those reading who don’t but would like to.

My Career

Lets’ skip over the things you already know like I teach pre-k in a large urban school district. I have been there 9.5 years. I have taught both pre-k and kindergarten. I taught in a tribal Head Start – loved it! I completed my undergrad work at Oklahoma Christian University – highly recommend it! Graduate work I did at the University of Central Oklahoma. I am passionate about educating young children! I enjoy ages 4-7 the most. The learning that goes on in those tiny brains during that age span is astounding!

My Family

I have a boxer/great dane mix, he’s my baby. I also have an African Pigmy hedgehog, he’s my class pet. Nocturnal thing has been moved three times to get him far enough away from my bedroom his squeaky wheel doesn’t keep me awake. Then there is Fredrick… I don’t feed Fredrick, I don’t pet Fredrick, I really don’t like Fredrick over much. Fredrick is a chubby brown squirrel who has decided that my front porch is his buffet. Seriously, he eats the wood, paint and all! Matter of fact I thought when I repainted he wouldn’t come back – no such luck.

I am an aunt! An occupation I absolutely adore! Who knew being one was so amazing?! I have two adorable nieces whom I love with all my heart. My two, almost three, year old niece and I love playing together. My five month old niece is starting to join in the fun now that she is sitting up by herself. Life with these two is going to be a fabulous adventure.

Random Facts

I like the color green. I like pretty things. I enjoy reading – regency is the era I’m consumed with currently. I enjoy crafting although I don’t do it much anymore. I very much enjoy creating in general. Whether it is something for my classroom, adding touches on things I have already done so I can share them with you, writing, painting, designing, dreaming, I love letting my mind roam. I like quiet time alone. Peaceful snow covered landscapes and craggily cliff beaches. I sing along to musicals at the top of my lungs and watch those heartwarming Hallmark movies all year long.  Worship re-calibrates my soul and God’s word guides my steps.

Milton & Prescott Trivia

Milton is the name of the moose in our logo. Prescott is the name of the hedgehog on his head. Why you ask? Moose are my favorite animals and hedgehog because I have one and they are unique critters. Very scientific right?

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Please comment – I would love to hear from you as you use the printables on Milton & Prescott. Are they making a difference? I hope they are. I hope they are making early childhood educators’ lives a little less hectic while growing young minds.

Enjoy!

Sight words, popcorn words, high frequency words, focus words – no matter what we call them children must know them on sight and be able to recall them quickly. There is no way around teaching sight words, it’s a must. Seriously, try sounding out the word you using basic letter sounds. Sounds pretty far from reality doesn’t it. You is one of my favorite words to sound out for parents during conferences because it drives home the fact that some words just don’t follow any rules.

If that’s the case then what about the color word red or go, up and not? These words follow rule patterns and the letters make their common sounds. Why are they considered sight words? Another label for sight words is high frequency. Red, go up, not and other commonly accepted sight words are really high frequency words. They do follow rule patterns and are easily sounded out. However, they appear so often in texts that to be dependent on sounding them out would dilute the readers understanding. Sounding out … /C/ /a/ /t/ /s/ /c/ /a/ /n/ /r/ /u/ /n/ /f/ /a/ /s/ /t/. Is much more difficult, not the mention time consuming, then reading… Cats can run fast.

Put the two types of words together and you get what we refer to as sight words or high frequency words. These labels are used interchangeably and accepted to describe both types of words.

Dolch Sight Words are the most commonly used list of sight words in the education setting – home, public or private. Dr. Edward William Dolch’s research of children’s books resulted in a list of words he termed “service words”. Dolch states that knowing these 220 words on sight, many which do not follow established phonetic rules, increases a budding reader’s fluency.

Dolch Sight Word lists are easily found all over the internet. dolchword.net has several lists available in various formats.

Thoughts from my classrooms…

I am a strong believer that patterned procedures create a learning environment where students are more focused on the concept than the process used to teach the concept. This belief is the foundation upon which I build many of my units. My sight word units are perhaps the best example of patterned learning in my classroom.
I teach sight words in both kindergarten and pre-k. Kindergarten because I had to and pre-k when they are ready. The Pre-Primer Unit Overview explains in more detail how I taught sight words in Kindergarten and teach them now in Pre-K.

I teach sight words using the sequence below.

Many number and color words are spread throughout the Dolch word lists. Since we use number and color words so often in pre-k and kindergarten I have created a separate unit combining all the color and number words. I will post the Color and Number Word Unit soon.

I look forward to hearing how these activities help you and your students.

Enjoy!