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
Scrabble Magnetic Letters: Easy Ideas for a Word Work Center
It's been fun and interesting having a kindergartner at home while teaching kindergarten! I especially love when I sing a song or read a book her teacher has read and she thinks I'm a sorcerer because I know it too. One of the best things about teaching the same grade level as your child is getting creative ideas from your child's teacher, as well using many of the activities you use in your classroom, at home, or vice versa. An example is my refrigerator Scrabble center. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I am a word nerd and LOVE Scrabble, Words with Friends, and any other word game. So, when I saw these magnetic Scrabble letters, I knew I had to have them. We've used them in so many ways at home and I am incorporating them into my classroom centers. All the printables below are available FREE! Just scroll down for the link. Here are some ideas: Upper-lowercase match: Place the tiles on your magnetic surface- file ... read more
Reading Strategies: Tips for How to Teach Decoding
Have you ever had students who stop reading and look up at you when they get stuck on a word? They may be afraid of making a mistake or just unaware of the decoding strategies they can use. So they look at you, expecting to be given the word. "Sound it out." It's what children often hear from teachers, parents, and even peer helpers. Sometimes it's all kids do when approaching difficult words. I've had students who only say each sound in words and it takes them forever to get through a page; by the time they reach the end of the sentence, they've forgotten the beginning. We can help guide students to use several decoding strategies as necessary. Read my step-by-step guide to helping kids decode here. When students rely on just one decoding strategy, they get frustrated when it doesn't work and easily give up. Students can learn to be flexible readers, trying different strategies and alternate sounds to help them decode ... read more
Tips for a Smooth Meet the Teacher Night
Meet the Teacher Night. Do those words make your palms sweat and knees wobble? I have to admit that after 17 years, I still always felt sick to my stomach just before parents walked in! Once I got talking, everything would go smoothly, though, and fortunately, I never had any disasters. Well, if you also get nervous, or would like some help, I have a few tips and a freebie to share with you! Tip # 1 Decorate with Stand-in Children! Have your kids make these adorable 'Who Am I?' crafts and have parents guess which is their child! Not only does this make your room look lively and fun, but it also helps crack the ice and get parents engaged right away! You'll find the freebie with directions and a template for the clues at the bottom of this post! Tip # 2 Add a poem and some sweets to each table! I can't take credit for this adorable poem. I got it yeeeaaars ago on the internet and just typed it up with some fancy bubble letters. ... 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
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 my ... read more
Class Behavior Management: Individual, Group and Whole Class Systems
One of the biggest areas teachers have anxiety about is behavior management. Will our students listen to us? What if they don't? How can I gain their trust and respect? Of course, it's important to build relationships, have engaging lessons, lots of patience, understanding, and build a caring community in your classroom. These can all contribute to positive behavior in the classroom. However, some years that's not enough. Some years you can have positive discussions till you're blue in the face, wait for quiet until the entire period goes by, or plan lessons that are so much fun, Chuck E. Cheese would be jealous. And still, there are students who need more. After trying several different behavior management systems, I realized I needed 3 levels of support. Why 3 Levels of Behavior Management? I don't like to point out specific students for negative behaviors, so I avoid that as much as I can. Having group incentives often ... read more
How to Quiet a Talkative Class: 14 Attention-Grabbing Tips
In the middle of a lesson on Chaucer, my high school English teacher suddenly started mooing. You read that right- MOOOOOOOOOOO! We all stopped our side conversations, doodling, note-passing, and looked up at Mr. Block. He then continued his lesson as if he hadn't just done the weirdest thing. But now, he had our attention. Besides mooing, Mr. Block stood on tables, tapped shoulders, made jokes, and misspelled words on the board to make sure we were following along. Even though he was a great teacher and made English fun, we didn't listen to him all the time. He was a genius at 'bringing us back,' however, and had a bag of attention-getting tricks to refocus us. Every teacher will have times when students will be off-task, whether they're chatting, dozing off, doodling, or any other inattentive activity. I don't know if I'll ever be as good at getting kids' attention as Mr. Block (what beats mooing??), but here are some ... read more
Using Anchor Charts and Graphic Organizers on Your Whiteboard
I love anchor charts and use them daily. They are such a great tool in my classroom, for my students, as well as for myself. Read this blog post for ideas on how to create and use them, tips, and free anchor chart pieces. In this post, I wanted to share one more way you could use anchor charts that needs NO MATERIALS! Simply take a picture of your anchor chart (or find one you like on Pinterest), and save it. Project it onto your interactive whiteboard and you can write on it, highlight parts, and have your kids stick post-it notes on it. The best part? The chart will be large enough that all of your students can read it from their seats. The downside to this is, of course, that you will probably need your whiteboard to project other things on, so you can't have this chart up all the time. You also won't be able to keep all of your writing and highlighting since you'll have to erase the board. But, this is great for anchor charts ... read more
Anchor Charts: Why They Work and How to Use Them
Do you love anchor charts as much as I do? Anchor charts may look pretty, but there are so many benefits to anchor charts besides just adding to your class decor! First of all, what IS an anchor chart? An anchor chart is a poster created to record and display important points about your lesson. For example, if you are teaching a lesson on decoding strategies, your chart might include bullet points with different strategies children can try when stuck on a word. GET THIS FREE ANCHOR CHART plus MINI-CHARTS (scroll down for link) These charts can be displayed in your classroom for kids to reference while working. To learn more about the reading strategy anchor above, click here: Reading Strategies What are the Benefits of Anchor Charts? They provide great visuals for kids- what a great tool for visual learners! Read more about different learning styles here and kinesthetic learning here.Students are involved ... read more