Alien Code Read and Write Around the Room

 I absolutely love interactive learning games. They are a great way to allow students to have fun while practicing the skills they need. This is the reason I like this Alien Code Read and Write Around the Room Phonics Game. Students can definitely have fun with it as they practice CVC, silent "e" or vowel team words. Students are completely engaged as they move around the room working to break the code. 

Each game set consists of 30 alien code cards, 6 blank cards, an Alien Code Breaker sheet (in both colored and black and white), a recording sheet, and an answer sheet. 

The game is easy to prep and easy to play. The Alien Code cards are hung around the classroom. Students stand in front of a card and wait with their Alien Code Breaker and recording sheets. Once everyone is ready the game begins. Students read the card and use the Alien Code Breaker sheet to break the code on the card. This is a little tricky, because the codes are written with random symbols that represent a letter.  

 After students have figured out the word then they write the word on their recording sheet. Students move to the next word when the teacher rings a bell, or somehow indicates that it is time to move.    

After students have moved around the classroom and completed their recording sheet they get to check their answers to see if they broke the codes correctly.   

The games are sold separately, or in a bundle. This blog post shows the phonics bundle, but there are also games for sight words. 


Here are the links to both the Phonics and Sight Word Bundles:

Alien Code Read and Write Around the Room Phonics Bundle

Alien Code Read and Write Around the Room Sight Word Bundle

*Individual games can be accessed from each bundle

Desert Demon Spider

One thing about living in the desert is that you never know what kind of creature you will find creeping around your house. This morning I found this spider on my garage floor. It was not alive, but still very fresh and very interesting to look at. I'm still new to Arizona, so I wasn't familiar with this kind of spider. I had to look it up. This kind of stuff fascinates me, so I wanted to know more about it. 

It turns out that it is a Desert Spider also known as a camel spider, wind scorpion, sun spider, or solifuge. I can see why it would be called a wind scorpion. At first sight, I wasn't quite sure what it was. They are also very fast (like the wind). Fortunately, these spiders are not venomous. I think I would have been a little more freaked out over having one in my house if they were. 

This spider has some very unique features. One is the coloring. It is almost transparent. The size is pretty amazing too. This one is about 2 inches long. It also has really large jaws and fangs. I've never seen a spider like this before. It is very cool. 

I put the spider on my outdoor bench to take a picture of it. It is not a close up and you can still see how big it is. 







This is a close up. Look at the amazing features. It actually looks like they have 5 pairs of legs, but only the back 4 are actually true legs. 

I turned it over to show the bottom of this spider. Again very fascinating. 





Anyways, I love learning and sharing what I find, so thanks for visiting my blog. I hope that you enjoy these pictures.