Who doesn't love brand new, shiny, just-out-of-the-package back-to-school supplies? Ever since I was a kid, shopping for school supplies was one of my favorite end of summer activities! And as a teacher, I always felt like Christmas when unboxing my supply orders or shopping school sales. Amazon is a great resource for must-have teaching supplies and I've listed some of my FAVORITE, must-have teaching supplies from Amazon here. This post includes affiliate links, so I earn a small commission if you purchase through them, BUT I have only included items I've used myself, so you can rest assured these are great supplies! And I'll also mention if I've seen these items cheaper elsewhere. I've organized these supplies into categories to make it easy to find what you're looking for. Also, look for the *TIP note to read little tips for each school supply. Must-have supplies for Centers Plastic sleeves-huge paper saver! I used ... read more
Search Results for: back to school
Back-to-School Read-Aloud for Phonemic Awareness
Don't you love when you find a great book to read aloud? I am always looking for amazing read-alouds and when I found The Hungry Thing by Jan Slepian, I hit the jackpot! It's such a funny story that's perfect for rhyming and phonemic awareness. If you don't have the book, I included links in my Hungry Thing freebie (in my free resource library) that you can use to purchase it (about $5) or to watch it on YouTube for free. Summary: It's about a monster who comes to a village and asks for food but people don't understand its language, then they realize he is just changing the first sound of what he wants. For example, he asks for shmancakes instead of pancakes. Some townspeople make up what the words mean, but a little boy explains what it is the monster wants. The food is revealed each time you turn the page, so it gives kids a chance to guess what the monster wants before finding out. So cute, right?! Every year I use it with ... read more
What To Do on the First Day of School
The first day of school always brings me joy, excitement, and..... some anxiety! What will I do? How do I set routines up? How do I keep students engaged? What if I don't have enough planned? After 16 years, I still get the 'first day jitters'! Once I meet my sweet students and my day gets underway, though, everything goes smoothly and I can breathe a sigh of relief! If you are wondering what to do on your first day, here are some sample first day lesson plans (and FREEBIES) that I've saved from past years. I always overplan and sometimes don’t even get half done, but I definitely would rather have too much planned than not enough! Take your time, though, and don’t rush through anything because the kids will feel it and your day may not go smoothly. I’d rather not accomplish as much and have a smooth day than accomplish everything but feel rushed and harried. There are 179 more days to go, so don't worry about anything you didn't get ... read more
Tips for New Teachers
Hey there, new teacher, and welcome! Right now, you are probably feeling so many different emotions and have tons of questions. My goal is to help answer some of those questions with this mini-survival tip kit and help make you feel more confident in getting started in this amazing career! Now, I said amazing, not easy! The first piece of advice I want to share is to NOT try to do everything perfectly this year. It took me many years to realize that “Done is better than perfect.” There are SO many different aspects of teaching, that it’s impossible to be an expert in all areas, especially when starting out, especially on the elementary level, and ESPECIALLY with the added unknown factors of Covid and distance-learning. One of the most important things to do is to stay organized, as it’ll help you work smarter (not harder!). So, in an effort to be efficient, I’ve organized this post into the following ... read more
25+ Classroom Organization Tips For the New Year
If you're anything like me, you love to start the new year very organized! It may not always last as long as I plan, but I do take some measures to refresh, improve, and organize my systems for the remainder of the year. When I started this list of classroom organization tips, I had no idea I would have so many. Talk about the mother lode of organization tips! I asked the teachers in my FaceBook group for their best tips as well and they came through with some gems! You'll see them quoted throughout. To make it a little less overwhelming and to save you time, I've organized them into categories. Make sure to grab your organization freebie before you go! ORGANIZE YOUR TASKS: PRIORITIZE! Organize your to-do list! A comprehensive to-do list in one place is overwhelming and wastes time! Use the freebie below to organize and prioritize your tasks. Edit the headings to meet your needs, print and laminate, then use post-it notes ... read more
13 Picture Books for Teaching Phonological Awareness and Phonics
Using read-alouds to practice phonological awareness activities is a great way to motivate your little learners while exposing them to lots of important skills. Here are some great picture books for teaching phonological awareness and phonics. I also added ideas for activities to do with most books! *You can click on any title to purchase the books via Amazon. These are affiliate links, which means I earn a small percentage if you purchase through these links, at no extra cost to you. I always only recommend resources I love! Of course, you can also check your library for these titles instead of buying and sometimes you can find read-alouds on Youtube! Did you Take the B From my -OOK? by Beck and Mark Stanton Adorable! The author loves the letter B but when he sneezes, the Bs disappear from all the words! SO the book is left with -utterfly and other words missing the letter B, until the end where the kids call for the ... read more
Wordless Books for Writing Bundle
Ever have students who struggle coming up with a topic for writing? How about students who struggle with organization or story concepts? Or do some students spend so much time drawing, there's little time left for writing? Beginning writers have a lot to think about! These books make a great scaffold and bridge to help your students become more confident when writing! Pictures are already included and kids write their own words! Each book has 3 versions, so you can easily differentiate: Completely blank, so students write all of the text. First few pages completed, so students continue the story. Sentence starter on each page. Each book also includes a picture word bank, perfect for spelling and vocabulary! Plus, 2 cover options (with and without title) and 2 editing page options! How to Use: Guide students through ... read more
6 Important Things about Phonemic Awareness
Phonological (and phonemic) awareness is an essential part of reading. If kids don't have strong P.A. skills, their reading will likely suffer. Here are 6 important things to know about phonemic awareness! 1. Phonemic awareness is not the same as phonics. While phonics includes the letter representations for sounds, phonological awareness is an auditory awareness of sounds and the ability to hear and manipulate them. Phonemic awareness is an awareness at the individual-sound level. In simple terms, if you're using letters, whether in print or using letter names, it's phonics. If you're doing auditory activities that don't include letter names, it's phonemic awareness. PHONICS activity examples: Looking at letters and making their soundsIdentifying a letter that makes a soundBuilding new words by switching letters PHONEMIC AWARENESS activity examples: Isolating the first sound in a wordBlending sounds to ... read more
How to Make an Easy Yearlong Writing Portfolio
The beginning of the year is so crazy busy and exciting, that we often don't have time to plan ahead, let alone think about memory books! Then, when we start to make memory books at the end of the year, it can get a little difficult. . . Students are asked to remember things that happened throughout the year and it can be like pulling teeth to get them to write about their memories. I mean, I have a hard time remembering what I went to Target for! There's no way I would remember what happened months ago in detail. So, what happens? Students just write a sentence or two to get the pages done and it's not their best writing at all. You know what I'm talking about. We've all seen this kind of writing: It was field day. I had fun. It is so frustrating when you know a student can write so much better! Everything you taught them about writing, thrown out the window. Ugh! Anyway, I have a better solution. Make a yearlong ... read more
Phonological Awareness Activities and Games to Engage Your Students
"C-a-t. . . . MAP!" Ever have students who do that? Even when students know letter sounds, they may still have trouble reading because they don't blend the sounds correctly. The likely cause is a lack of phonological or phonemic awareness. Phonological, Phonemic: What's the Difference? First things first, phonological awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate sounds in spoken words. While phonological awareness can include syllables or parts of words (ex: onset and rime), phonemic awareness deals with individual phonemes, or sounds. For example, blending or segmenting the sounds in the word CAT is a phonemic awareness activity. Identifying the number of syllables in the word CAT is not. They are both phonological awareness activities, but phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness that deals with phonemes, or individual sounds. So, in a nutshell: phonological = individual ... read more