Phonics Dance- Day 1

Last spring after seeing the good things that so many bloggers had to say about the Phonics Dance I decided to go to a training offered here in Austin. I was completely blown away by Virginia Dowd's presentation and I knew immediately that this was the kind of program I wanted to implement into my first grade routine. If you aren't familiar with the Phonics Dance it's a series of chants and movements that go with each letter sound and "hunks and chunks" of letters. (There are a few cute videos on You Tube of classes performing the chants if you want to see an example.) I'll be writing about my Phonics Dance experience with my class all year and will label each post if you want to catch up.


Day 1-

In the Phonics Dance manual you are supposed to start the chants on the first day of school. Let's just pretend today is the first day of school instead of the third. I brought out my magic wand and my "magic sound glitter" as suggested by Mrs. Dowd in her training and her manual. My magic sound glitter was really glitter eye shadow from Claire's for $2.50. The magic sound glitter helps my first graders know their letters and sounds apart. They all got a smudge of glitter on their foreheads. It was so fun!  At the end of the day an aide came in and the class decided that she needed some magic sound glitter too so we did the whole chant as a class. *I wish I had emailed parents this morning telling them to notice that their children seemed smarter when they picked them up after school. *

I'll tell you I was nervous about remembering all the chants. I listened to my chants cd all the way to school. I'm sure I looked strange to the other drivers making a sad face or digging in the air with one hand! I can't wait until my whole class has the chants down pat!

*Products I'm Using:
"The Phonics Dance- Six Steps to Literacy in the Primary Grades" manual and audio cd $55.

5 comments:

  1. I've used The Phonics Dance for years! You're going to love it! I got caught jamming to it a few times in my car too! :)

    A Pirates Life for Us

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  2. This will be my 5th year of "sort of" doing the phonics dance. Because of the reading curriculum i must teach i do what i can. I was making my list of things to get at the store and knew that i needed more sprinkles...we like to eat them! I have been really nervous about knowing the chants and movements, but what is fun is that sometimes you just have to do what works for that class. Each year my phonics dance seems a little different. It's so fun! Have a great time with it! I can't wait to keep reading your post about how you incorporate it into your classroom!

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  3. To introduce this to your class are you using the original Manual & Audio CD pack or the the Phonics Dance the First Grade Way? I'm interested in looking into this further, but don't want to spend money on components that aren't the best for my kids. Thanks. veronicam81000@yahoo.com
    Veronica

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  5. I am looking into purchasing this program for my firsties! Love reading your opinions on it :)

    Sammy @ The Rustic Apple

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