Rhyming Puzzles and Pure Joy

First of all, I have to say that I absolutely love teaching K and mainly for the pure comedy that a 5 year old can provide.  One of the students in my class can turn a bad day upside down so quickly and it is definitely a great way to keep going throughout the day!

Today with my strugglers I was able to differentiate the rhyming word puzzles that I made this weekend and are available here -- http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rhyme-Time-882786

I only pulled out enough cards for each student to complete 2 puzzles and we went through them all together and then I gave each student 4 cards, 2 matches, and they were able to tell me the rhyming words!

They were so proud of themselves for their hard work and were excited to tell my assistant and anyone they could that they had figured out some rhyming words!  This was a HUGE gain for them, because before this they would tell me any old word rhymed, and this FINALLY broke through with them!  Tomorrow we are going to review the same material and then they are going to use the circling words sheet that is in the packet!

I was also able to differentiate the puzzles whole group by playing a whole group game.  Each student received a puzzle piece and they had to find the match that another student had -- I also made sure to give each of my strugglers a word that they already knew so that they could continue to feel successful. To find the match the students had to go around and match the pieces, if they found their match they went to sit on the carpet to whole group time and if it wasn't a match they said "see ya later" and found another friend to see if they had a match.... I was a bit worried there would be chaos, but the students did so well and loved it, we traded cards and did it again!  

I am going to keep modeling how to use this activity whole group and make it a center next week!