Literacy Kits

 When I taught first grade I had literally a gazillion (this is a real number, I'm sure of it) picture books. Then I moved up to third grade and I wasn't sure there was a place for them in my new "big-kid" classroom. Turns out, there totally is. Still, I had so many that I wanted to at least reduce the amount of book tubs I had to make room for dictionaries, math reference books, etc. I certainly didn't want my picture books sitting in a tub in my basement so I made them into literacy bags that my third graders can now check out. I put the books into a plain canvas bag that I decorated with puffy paint and cloth markers to match the theme. You can read more about them here if you are interested.


Really all that rambling up above  is just a bit of background for ya as to where my literacy kit idea stemmed from.  This past summer I created these literacy kits with a similar idea in mind to my literacy bags. I wanted something the kids could take home for practice. I filled them with high frequency reading and writing word activities that can be checked out on a weekly basis. I got these durable holders from Really Good Stuff this time around because I didn't want to decorate any more bags. I have four kits in total, two that focus on the second and third grade high frequency reading words and two that focus on the second and third high frequency words for writing.

This is a shot of the folder I included in each kit. Each kit has a plastic folder with an informational letter about sight words for families. On the left you can see a class list peeking out behind the letter. I left it up to my third graders to pass the kits around so that I wouldn't have to keep track of them. I started by passing them out. That person checked off their name on the class list. When they brought them back to school, they passed them to the very next name on the class list, and so on and so forth. Some kids were able to breeze through the activities. Others were able to take them home multiple times throughout the year to change up their typical word practice at home. I included a numbered set of activities with directions in the plastic sleeves for families to refer to. All of the materials that were needed for the activities were included in the kit.





The two reading word kits also include a plastic folder filled with fluency phrases. The phrases are made up of lots of third grade words. Kids can practice reading them with expression for accuracy and speed. 

This is what the fluency phrases look like...nothing cute, but it works!





 Here are some of the informational sheets and directions to the activities that I use in my folders, as well as the labels I used. They might provide you with a starting point if you are interested in creating some for your room.