Sounds of y FREEBIES

I love teaching with a theme! It isn’t always possible for me, but I am thrilled when it works! Last week, we had a blast using two amazing characters to help us meet all of our ELA objectives. Here are some of the skills we were tying together: sounds of y, point of view, and persuasive writing. 


We read oodles of Fancy Nancy books as we learned about when y sounds like long e. We called these words fancy words! We practiced reading and writing words that fit this pattern. Some of my kids wore feather boas to look fancy throughout the week too!

The kids loved reading Fly Guy books and finding words with y that sounds like long i. We practiced reading these words and writing them too!

We are also studying persuasive writing so this was a great way to tie everything together. Each learner chose who would make a better friend, Fancy Nancy or Fly Guy. They had to write three reasons to explain their choices. They came up with some fabulous reasons….Fly Guy could fly in the sky to find our house if we were lost. Fly Guy could eat my family’s garbage. Fancy Nancy is confident! She likes to learn new words and so do I!

We used our writing planning pages, edited our sentences, and then wrote a complete persuasive paragraph. It was our first persuasive writing piece, so I was very happy with their work!


I planned a surprise lunch celebration for my learners based on the characters they selected as friends. While my class waited for their lunches in the cafeteria, I quickly set up the classroom. (I was literally running around the room like a crazy party planner!) The Fly Guy tables were covered with black table clothes and decorated with “trash” and fake bugs. I put a selection of Fly Guy books on the tables too. Each little learner got a “You’re so FLY” certificate and bugs. They were in love!

My girly Fancy Nancy friends sat at a table covered with a pink table cloth, faux topiary tree, and silk flowers. They each got a “You’re so Fancy” certificate and jewelry. They were thrilled to accessorize themselves at lunch and read some Fancy Nancy books together. 

During our lunch, we watched Fly Guy on BookFlix. Fancy Nancy books are also available on YouTube so you can watch those too! We had so much fun throughout the week, and the lunch was the perfect way to wrap things up. You can grab ALL of these activities for FREE here. I hope you love trying these with your learners too!