For the past 13 summers I've happily gone to Lakeshore Learning, in St. Louis Park, MN, to spend my hard-earned money on things I and my classroom have needed. Over the years, I've spent less money there because I felt confident of the things I had in my classroom and didn't need as much new stuff. Since I moved up to Alaska 8 years ago, this is my yearly pilgrimage and I keep a running list all year of the things I'm going to look for. But of course I get in there and it's overload because there is SO much stuff to look at and drool over. I stick to my list (and my budget) and get the things I need (stickers, borders, etc.). But I always find something, usually a game, that I must have! I make a lot of my reading and math games, so when I find something it's really a treasure. This summer I found two things. One was a short vowel sorting box game and the other was something called Word Stretchers. Three thoughts crossed my mind upon picking up the Word Stretchers box: #1. AIMSWeb....phonemic segmenting task, #2. I could totally make that, #3 What a simple idea that somebody came up with and is now making tons of money on! So I decided to make some word stretchers that I can use in small reading and RTI groups to help kiddos differentiate (aurally and visually) all the sounds in a word.
