If you teach kindergarten through 2nd grade, you know that guided reading is an essential component of literacy instruction. The way I’ve conducted guided reading has changed over the years and some people aren’t fond of the term guided reading, but small-group reading instruction is essential in order to differentiate and meet your students’ needs in reading. Planning for guided reading used to be very time-consuming. I found myself trying to find resources from different places in order to fill the gaps my students had. And sometimes I'd plan a lesson, then notice something else my kids needed while reading, so I'd want to teach that skill but didn't have a resource on hand to help. So I created guided reading warm-ups to help get my kids’ brains ready for reading, remind them of important phonics skills and reading strategies, and have everything I needed for any necessary skills that popped up during small-group ... read more
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Stretching Words Out: Emergent Writing Strategy
It can be daunting for emergent writers to stretch out words, especially long words. Many kindergarten students are very artistic and can add details to their pictures, but when asked to add words, they sometimes hesitate or say they don't know how to, even if they do have some letter-sound knowledge. Writing Warm-Ups To get kids to see that they are able to write some words, I started doing writing "warm-ups" at the beginning of our independent writing sessions, and it has helped many of my students become more risk-takers with spelling. First, kids need to understand what saying a word slowly is. If you tell a student to stretch out a word, they may not understand what you mean. However, if you remind them of Dory in Finding Nemo and show them a clip of her "speaking whale," they'll be sure to quickly learn how to say a word slowly (and they'll likely not want to stop)! Here's an adorable clip: Dory Speaking ... read more
How to Teach Digraphs: 8 Ways to Make it Fun!
I love cheese and I love salsa both on their own. Yum, yum, yum. BUT... when you put them together and make queso, it's a match made in heaven! The cheese and the salsa come together to make something even better together than they are on their own! That reminds me of digraphs! You take two things, put them together, and they make something completely new and different! Let's get into how to teach digraphs. What is a digraph? Digraphs are two letters that come together to make one new sound. That one sound is different from either of the sounds the two letters make on their own. There are two types of digraphs: consonant digraphs and vowel digraphs. Vowel digraphs are sometimes called vowel teams instead. For this post, I will be focusing primarily on consonant digraphs. Examples of the most common consonant digraphs: sh, ch, th, wh Most teachers will introduce digraphs to their ... read more
14 Fun and Engaging Phonics Activities for Young Learners (Part 2)
This is part 2 in a two-part series. To find the first seven activities, check out:14 FUN AND ENGAGING PHONICS ACTIVITIES FOR YOUNG LEARNERS (PART 1)! In my last post, I shared with you seven fun and engaging phonics activities for young learners. Well, today, I’ve got seven more activities to share with you! We know phonics is one of the five key concepts at the core of early literacy and reading instruction, and we know we need to make phonics fun to keep our young learners engaged… However, one question that’s come up since I sent out my last post is this: When should I start with phonics instruction? Well, according to the experts, kindergarten is the most effective time to begin phonics instruction! Perfect for us! Just know, phonics is not something that should be limited to kindergarten. It is just as important to continue phonics instruction in the older grades, too. What Phonics is not! In part 1 of ... read more
14 Fun and Engaging Phonics Activities for Young Learners (Part 1)
Ahhhh phonics. One of the keys to helping our young learners read is understanding phonics. The National Reading Panel lists five key concepts at the core of early literacy and reading instruction: And there's phonics... right at the top! Since phonics is so important to learning to read, it’s also important to make phonics fun! When learning activities are fun, we can more easily keep our students engaged, focused, and most important… learning! This is just part 1 in a two-part series. You’ll find the first seven activities in this post and then seven more activities in part 2! What is Phonics, anyway? Simple! Phonics is teaching kids to match sounds (phonemes) to letters or letter patterns (graphemes). For our students, phonics is the key to decoding new words. Breaking our words into sounds and syllables helps young learners connect the words they see on paper to the words they hear and ... read more
5 Exciting Ways TO USE SIGHT WORD FLUENCY FLASHCARDS
Over 20,000 teachers use my sight word fluency flashcards to help their students with sight word practice! When I saw that number, my jaw dropped! It’s amazing to be making such an impact in classrooms all over and I am truly honored to be part of so many classrooms. And, teachers are so creative! Over the years, I’ve seen many of you use my sight word fluency flashcards with your students in so many ways! So, I thought I’d share how I used them in my classroom, as well as some of the creative ways I’ve seen teachers use them with their students! Getting Started Start by assessing students to know which group of words they should start with. Once you know what group of words they should start with, give students a word ring to get started practicing! You can incorporate this practice into centers, small-group reading, partner reading, as morning work, or as an early-finisher activity. I’ll get into some of my most ... read more
How to Use Phonics and Fluency Pages for Small-group Reading Lessons
The Science of Reading is like a recipe for success in literacy. And just like a recipe, it requires multiple ingredients to make it work. Phonics is an important ingredient, but it's not the only one. We also need to make sure we are teaching our students comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, and writing to help our students become proficient readers! One way to do this is by incorporating phonics and fluency instruction into your small group reading lessons. As a kindergarten or first-grade teacher, I know that you are always looking for ways to make the most of your small-group reading time. That's why I'm excited to introduce you to my new resource- Phonics and Fluency Lesson Pages. In this blog post, I'll share what they are, how to use them, and how they can help you maximize your small-group reading time. What are Phonics and Fluency Lesson Pages? Although I called them Phonics and Fluency Lessons, these actually ... read more
5 Children’s Dental Health Month Activities I Love
For such a short month, February sure is busy! Black History, Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, the 100th day for many, Presidents Day, and Dental Health Month make for lots of planning and celebrations. To help you plan, I'm sharing some of my favorite Dental Health Month activities for the classroom. Many are from my Dental Health pack, but you can grab some ideas to use without the pack as well. This year's theme announced by the American Dental Association is Brush, Floss, Smile! Why is children’s dental health so important? It's not news that kids do not love to brush their teeth! For many, it's like pulling teeth (if only they knew, right?) Fun activities that teach and reinforce proper tooth brushing can help your students develop strong oral health habits at a young age. Kids may not realize just how important oral health is... so, one of my goals for this unit is to show them just why dental health is so ... read more
3 Steps to Incorporate Writing in Reading Lessons with Small Groups
Small group reading is such a HUGE part of literacy instruction. I often hear from teachers who are wondering what's best to do in these small groups after they’ve read the text. My answer… reinforce phonics skills with writing! Reading and writing go hand in hand. Incorporating writing into your reading lessons reinforces these important skills! I talk a lot about Writing Workshops, but there are multiple types of writing done in the classroom and each serves a different purpose. These include... In this post, we’re focusing on the last one on that list… how you can incorporate writing into your reading lessons with small groups. While the purpose of a writing workshop is for students to learn the writing process through different genres, writing in reading lessons with a small group is teacher-directed and the focus is to practice phonics skills or respond to reading. Here are Three Steps to Follow for ... read more
My Top 10 Favorite Picture Books of 2022
The end of each calendar year always brings lots of round-ups, listicles, and best ofs… (Spotify unwrapped anyone?) I thought I’d jump into the mix but with a literacy twist! How about some favorite picture books? I love really good picture books! Today I want to share with you some of my favorite new picture books that were released this year. These books will all be great to share in your classroom as read-alouds, to put on display, and to keep in your classroom library. Here are my 10 favorite new picture books of 2022: 1. Bathe the Cat by Alice B. McGinty I've never tried to bathe a cat but if it's anything like bathing my dog, it's a wreck! In this book, the cat does NOT want a bath, so when he sees it's on one of the dads' to-do list (written in magnetic letters on the fridge), the cat rearranges the letters to make a new to-do list that is absolutely bananas: feed the floor, bathe the lawn, mop the fish. . . ... read more
5 Tips for Kindergarten Personal Narrative Writing
If you know kids, you also know that kids love to tell stories… like, a lot. If you’ve ever asked a room full of Kindergarteners or 1st graders what they did over the weekend, you know! And, we don’t see all those memes out there about having to sit through your kids' never-ending stories for nothing! (Hint: there’s something to them!) So, kids have lots of stories to tell and they love to share them. That’s awesome, right? So, how can we transfer this enthusiasm to writing? We can teach them with a kindergarten personal narrative unit! Personal narrative writing allows students to share their stories with structure and detail! What is a Personal Narrative? When you begin to introduce personal narrative writing to your students, you’ll first want them to understand what it even is! You can start here… Additionally, a personal narrative has to be true, something that really happened. And, it has to have a ... read more
Christmas Classroom Activities to Keep Students Engaged
The holiday season is a time for family, friends, and fun. But teachers know it can also be a time of pure chaos! If you're looking for ways to keep your students engaged in this busy and exciting month, here is a round-up of my Christmas classroom resources and activities that are sure to spread the holiday cheer! Now, although I'm sharing Christmas classroom activities in this post, I do think it's important to be inclusive of other holidays as well. Find out ahead of time which holidays your students celebrate, if any, and research them before planning. Ask your students to share about their holidays and traditions, read books, and make virtual visits to learn about other celebrations! And if you prefer not to have holiday-themed activities, two great theme options are snowmen or animals in winter. Here are Christmas classroom activities that will keep your students engaged throughout the season: the 12 Days of ... read more