Letra I/Short I sound

This is our circle map for the letter I.  Again we are just listing words that begin with the letter not the sound. I introduce the new letter on Monday and we continue to add words to it through Friday.  As the students are reading their leveled books or during one of my read-alouds they might hear a new word that begins with that letter. They very quickly make a mental note of it and the next day they are quick to remember to add it.  I also expose them to new vocabulary when I go over our weekly goals which they are now very good at picking up on.  For example;  "Es importante no interrumpir la maestra" "Vamos a aprender interesante informacion sobre el Dia de los Muertos", "ustedes son los estudiantes mas inteligentes de toda nuestra escuela".  I get a great joy from seeing my students access these charts later when they are writing during our writers workshop.

Letra E/Short E sound

This is our circle map for short E and letter E in Spanish.  We are only identifying words that have the initial sound. One again you can see the color distinciton for the language. At the top we started adding high frequency words the students already new and that I have a hard time drawing a picture or finding clip art for. Doing this activity really gives me insight to what vocabulary my students already come with.

Letra A/Short A sound

Circle Map Aa

We are working on learning vowel sounds in Spanish and comparing them to the short vowel sounds in English. We start by creating a circle map of all the words my students know that begin with that sound. I use red to differentiate Spanish words and blue for the English words.  I use this pattern on all my charts.  I also add clipart as a scaffold for my non-readers.  Some might argue that both languages should not be on the same chart but I find it helps my students notice the difference in the sound of the English short a and the Spanish a as well as which words make a similar sound.  We spend a week on each sound....I'll post pics later this week of the follow up projects to each letter.