Executive Decisions & Blender BINGO Freebie

Just spent the whole morning watching the Presidential Inauguration! Yes, we had off today and I'm so glad we did because, I don't think I've ever been able to watch the entire inauguration. :) With that said, I'm making some executive decisions of my own this week. Instead of trying to squeeze another week of Treasures into a 4 day week (Treasures is a 5 day/weekly Language Arts program by Macmillan-McGraw Hill...), I'm canceling Treasures and initiating a review week.  Less is more, right??? 

I'm making the EXECUTIVE decision (word of the day, HA) to close the Treasures and use this as a review/MLK/inauguration celebration week! This will give me more time to delve deeper into the story of Rosa Parks & Ruby Bridges!!! We may even have time to watch the Ruby Bridges movie. SWEET!

When I was in school, review days were soooooo boring. I just remember packet after packet after worksheet after worksheet. So, in my class I try to make review days our best days. :) Here are some activities/games that I plan on playing this week to review blends, word families, and sight words.

• Around the World with Word Wall Words: Students sit on to top of their desks. I hold up a word wall word card, they have to read it correctly to stay in the game. Incorrect responses result in the student having to sit down in his/her chair. They LOVE sitting on the desks and this game takes very little prep time. You can do this with math facts, etc. Only negative, it really puts your shyer students on the spot. I try to give them nonverbal cues before their turn so they can prepare mentally, but this can be anxiety-provoking. 
• Word Wall Dice Roll: This one's a center, but good for word wall review. Students roll a dice and then have to find a word on the wall that has the same number of corresponding letters and write it down. So, if you roll a 2, you have to find and write a word with 2 letters. I LOVE that this game requires students to use and visit the word wall. As the year goes on, I require student to write a sentence using the word.
• Hunt the room! I have students hunt for items/objects with certain sounds. This is how I'll review some of the short vowel word families. They may have to find 2 objects in the -ake family, 3 in the -at, etc. I actually hunt around my room when I create this activity and I always require far less objects that there really are in the room. For example, for the -ack family students might find, write, and draw a picture of a tack (thumbtack). 
• BLENDER BINGO. This is a newbie! Inspired by this image from Pinterest below, I've created a Blender BINGO game/freebie for you! 

Serious Pinspiration here!

Click on the image for your freebie! Enjoy!

Oh P.S. As we play BINGO, I have students use BINGO chips, markers, or simple counters (snap cubes, pennies, etc.) to mark the blends that are called on their blenders. To win the game, a student has to cover all 6 of the blends on their blender and shout out "BLENDER BINGO!" I think I'll give tickets to the winners. In our classroom, students use earned tickets to purchase various items like lunch with teacher, sticker, classroom job, etc.