-Uck Word Family Reading, Response, and Craftivity

Summer is finally here, but the teaching continues! I am spending part of my summer vacation teaching a First Grade enrichment program at my school. We will do LOTS of fun activities this summer and I am thrilled to share our first project with you!

Ducks in Muck Intro

This week we worked with the digraph -ck and made a fun craftivity to apply the skill.  I began with a read-aloud of Ducks in Muck. I love this book because it uses repetition of about 15 words and strong picture support to tell a very detailed story of ducks being captured, then escaping happily into a muddy pond.

After the story, I taught a mini-lesson on digraph -ck and we practiced using the digraphs to record words from the story.

The Craftivity

Then the real fun began. We did a craftivity in response to the story of Ducks in Muck. For this project, all students received a background page with the project title and recorded their name at the top. Next, each child added some muck by painting a large spot of brown paint in the center of their paper.

While we waited for the “muck” to dry, students cut out a truck and 3 ducks to add to the scene.

As a final step, the children cut out 4 word cards featuring -uck words from the story and completed the words by adding -ck to the end.

All pictures were then glued on to the green paper and were labeled by the word cards. The children loved this project and it was a fun way to use their new skill in response to the story.

Practicing Skills with a Prezi

To wrap up the lesson, the I shared the –uck Word Family Prezi developed by Ms Jessica at A Turn to Learn. It's a very simple, attractive Prezi with just enough animation to keep my kiddos engaged without being a distraction. Jessica makes great Prezis – you should check them out.

If you love Prezis but aren't quite sure how to create your own, check our Miss A's Kindergarten. Sarah has created a very helpful Prezi tutorial. She is generating buzz among edu-tech bloggers and is working to create additional tutorials to share with you.

Purchase Ducks (and Truck) in Muck Craftivity

The Ducks (and Truck) in Muck Craftivity is available in Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook for $1.50. It includes master copies for all papers used in the project as well as an instruction sheet for teacher reference.