Melissa Spence, 2019-2020 Conway District Teacher of the Year and 2020 Arkansas Teacher of the Year Semi-Finalist, wants to put teaching resources in the hands of teachers, parents, and students while they are learning at home and in virtual classrooms.
With the launch of her website, cluebuddycrew.com, she hopes that the visual clue-based system geared toward early readers, writers, and mathematicians, will help make learning fun, accessible, and memorable.
Included on cluebuddycrew.com are free resources providing insight into how the visual clue-based system works. The free Sick Rick Digraph Buddy, a student favorite, is for helping teach -ck after a short vowel.
When students are introduced to Sick Rick with the Poster they are immediately grossed out! The kids want to know how he got sick, why he is sick, and what they can do to not get sick. This opens up good discussions about hygiene practices for washing our hands, sneezing, and coughing.
The emotional reaction, empathy, and discussion about the character has done the work of a poem, rhyme, or chant. They now “know” Sick Rick, who he is, and what he is teaching them. All of the Clue Buddies work in this way.
After students are introduced to a Buddy, they are ready to begin building words and practicing with the free Sick Rick Digraph Buddy Card and Alphabet Word Building Cards. These cards are great for letter and sound recognition; word building with the Sick Rick Buddy,
CV (consonant-vowel), CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant), CVCe (consonant-vowel-consonant-silent e) word building; and vocabulary discussions.
In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, Clue Buddy Crew is offering 50% off for Arkansas teachers and parents until 8/1/2020. Go to cluebuddycrew.com and complete the form to get a code for half off your digital download order!
You may also gift or donate Buddy Bundles to a parent, teacher, or classroom.
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Congratulations, Melissa. We are proud of you!