Blends and Digraphs in a Cup

For my class, Teaching Language Arts, we had to come up with a learning center having to do with Phonics.  The week before it was due, we drew a grade level from the basket that we had to do.  I drew 2nd grade...okay I like 2nd grade! I was slightly panicking though because never have I had to think and create a learning center in one short week.  I quickly came back to my room thinking about it and researching different ideas online.  My freshman year roommate (an el ed graduate) happened to be online.  We talked a bit, and then I thought....what better resource then someone who has already been through the class?  I asked her if she had any ideas and to my sadness, she did not.  A half hour later, I got an email from her with two suggestions!  I fell in love with one of her ideas and my mind just took off--I began making the idea my idea by tweaking it in different ways.  I am so thankful though for her giving me the idea...thanks Kelly!

It isn't just as easy though as deciding, "okay, I have 2nd grade, I want to do...this!"  Oh no.  In education (specifically in WV, other states have different names for them), we have these nice (aka: horrifying) things called Content Standard Objectives (CSO).  These CSOs are a teachers guide to what they must teach their students in what subject and in what year.  So when I got 2nd grade I had to go to the CSOs and pick a specific CSO that I was going to address.  For those who care, I chose RLA.O.2.1.1 (Reading Language Arts, Objective, for 2nd grade, 1st section, 1st point).  Now don't you feel educated in education?  This CSO states: "identify and practice basic elements of phonetic awareness: syllabication, dipthongs, digraphs..."  So there you have it!

Daniel helped me out a lot too by helping me think up words to go with the blends or digraphs.

Quick lesson for you all....

Digraph: when two letters make one sounds (ch, sh, ae, etc.)

Blend: when two letters blend together, but still hold their seperate sounds (bl, cr, st, etc.)

Enjoy the fun learning center!

 I was setting it up so that four students could it at once, hence the four colors.  Each color had different blends and digraphs though.  I got to cut out each individual picture, after making them all on the computer.

 Can you see the blend and digraph groups in this one? cr, fr, sn, and tr.  After getting cut out, each individual square was laminated and then trimmed.

 The different groups would go in a cup.  I laminated the labels, and then hot glued them to the dixie cups.

 Printing things off...color coded!

 Here is the finished product!  You can never forget directions, and who doesn't like it when there are pictures in the directions!

 The green bag...can you decide which cup each picture should go in?

Another aspect of learning centers is that they must be self checking.

I had fun, learned lots, and pleased with how it turned out.  Now to hopefully be able to use that in a future classroom or with my children when they are in 2nd grade!