Time spent in small reading groups is so important, and we have to make the most of our time while I have them at my reading table. I like to start with some type of quick warm up to get their brains working before we get into our lesson. I was constantly scrambling to come up with ideas, or I was stuck on doing the same things, so I came up with Reading Warm Up Cards.
These cards are full of quick reading warm ups that we can use in our small reading groups, as a whole group, or when we have a couple of extra minutes in our day. They are also great to use before lining up for lunch or recess. I printed, laminated, and placed each set on a metal ring. This way, they are easy to grab and use.
I created five sets of Reading Warm Up Cards to reach many aspects of teaching reading and language arts; Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Grammar.
Phonological Awareness is the ability of hear and manipulate sounds. I like to remember that phonemic awareness can be done with your eyes closed. It truly is the foundation for learning to read. This set includes cards for Sentence Segmentation, Rhyming, Alliteration, Syllables, Onset & Rime, Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Segmentation, and Phoneme Manipulation. (48 Warm Up cards in all)
The Phonics Warm Up cards include 120 cards in all working on Letter Sounds, Short Vowels, Beginning Blends, Ending Blends, Digraphs, Long Vowels, R-Controlled Vowels, and Dipthongs.
The Vocabulary set includes 80 vocabulary warm ups. These cards include a variety of vocabulary words as well as work with synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, and suffixes.
The Fluency Warm Ups include 124 fluency cards working on Letter Fluency, Sight Word Fluency, Short Vowel Fluency, Long Vowel Fluency, Blend and Digraph Fluency, R-Controlled and Diphthong Fluency, Expression, and Short Story Fluency.
Grammar Warm Ups include 104 cards working on Sentence Structure, Word Order, Sentence Fragments, Ending Marks, Nouns, Plural Nouns, Possessive Nouns, Proper Nouns, Irregular Plural Nouns, Verbs, Present-Tense Verbs, Past and Future Tense Verbs, Commas, Contractions, Adverbs, Combining Sentences, Adjectives, Pronouns, and Abbreviations.
I have also bundled all 5 sets, 476 Warm Up cards in all, which includes the Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Grammar sets. Click on the picture below to take a closer look and to download the preview files.
If you have any questions or comments, let me know. I love hearing from you and knowing how things are going in your classrooms.
We will be performing our 
To gear the lesson towards 1st graders, I have them actually measure their strips and cut them appropriately. I cut out 8×1 inch strips from a packet of scrapbook paper. Then, the students each picked 5 strips. They glued the first 8 inch strip on the bottom, cut the second strip into a 7 inch and a 1 inch piece, the third strip into a 6 inch and a 2 inch piece, and so on until they created their tree. Then, we used white paint and Q-tips to make snow. They make a really easy bulletin board display.
The students absolutely LOVED this activity. The first set of students delivered the candy canes to the office staff. When they came back, two of the boys immediately told me how good it made them feel to give something to someone else. Too cute! You can download this editable note 
The Five Step Fluency Process includes:
We used this for the first time last week, and the students LOVED it! It allowed them to practice their reading and get up and moving. After doing a story together, the students tried their own. I gave each of them dice and a story from my 
Now, I will say, if you are adamant about a perfectly quiet classroom, this will not be your favorite activity. It’s noisy. The kids are reading and exercising. It’s what you would expect 🙂
One of the first things they told me was that our P.E. teacher would LOVE this!
In each packet, there are two options to choose from. The first set allows the students to move WHILE reading. (March in place while reading, raise up and down on your toes while reading, etc.) The second option allows the students to move AFTER reading. (Do 5 pushups, Do 10 jumping jacks, etc.) The second option is definitely your better option for those students that may still need to track their print with their finger.
