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
Teaching Kindergarten Writing? Look Out for These 6 Mistakes!
I recently got the chance to sub in a kindergarten classroom. I love getting back in the classroom and spending time with the kids. And, best of all, I got to spend some time doing one of my favorite things... teaching kindergarten writing! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… teaching writing is not easy. And, with anything that’s challenging, we’ll undoubtedly make mistakes along the way. We all make mistakes and sometimes we can learn a lot from those mistakes. This is definitely one of the cases! That’s why today, I’m sharing some mistakes I learned not to make when teaching writing. You may be making them, too, so I'll give you some tips on what you can do instead! If you’re struggling to teach writing, make sure to read this Beginner’s Guide to Writing Workshops in Kindergarten and First Grade. And, check out 6 Critical Steps to Launching a Smooth Writing workshop in Your Classroom. Here are ... read more
Why a Speech-to-Print Approach to learning Letters is Best (and How to do it!)
If you're anything like me and LOVE watching true crime documentaries, you may have noticed how far science and technology have come in the last 30 years. With DNA, GPS, and cameras everywhere, it's amazing people still do some of the crazy stuff I see on TV! Just as the world of investigation has completely changed in the past 50 years, the same thing is happening in the world of teaching literacy. As we learn more about the brain and how it interprets the written word, we need to shift how we teach young children to read. Instead of teaching starting with the letter symbol, we now know that the science of reading (SOR) backs up a speech-to-print, or sound-to-letter, approach. One of the most basic tenets of teaching is building on what kids already know. When kids come to us in a kindergarten classroom, they already have language and sound knowledge. They've heard all ... read more
11 Tips for Oral Storytelling Practice in Kindergarten and First Grade
Even if children cannot yet write, they can still learn to tell stories. This is why oral storytelling practice is such a valuable tool for our emergent writers! Learning to tell stories with detail will help your students write with detail later on. Yet, with all the rich benefits, oral storytelling is often a skill that's skipped or not done enough in kindergarten and first grade. But we're going to change that! Let me share some easy ways you can incorporate oral storytelling practice into your curriculum. Make sure to read through the entire post for a FREE story sequencing and retelling lesson! And if you’re looking for more strategies for supporting struggling writers, check out this post! If you’re new to teaching writing, read A Beginner's Guide to Writing Workshop in Kindergarten & First Grade. When I tell you the skill of oral storytelling is chock full of benefits, I am not kidding. Oral ... read more
5 Tips to Support Emergent Writers in the Drawing Stage
Teaching writing can be hard, especially in Kindergarten! I often see the initial focus of writing workshops placed on text as opposed to spending the necessary time supporting emergent writers in the drawing stage. I think this can be one of the things that makes teaching writing to these littles so hard. If you’re new to writing workshops, make sure to read this Beginner’s Guide to Writing Workshops in Kindergarten and First Grade. And, check out 6 Steps to Launching a Smooth Writing Workshop in Your Classroom to make sure your writing workshop gets off on the right foot. Too often, the early focus in writing workshops is placed on text. Students are rushed into writing words without taking the appropriate time to learn about storytelling through pictures. It’s important to me to never rush these emerging writers through this drawing stage. They may be 5, 6, or possibly even 4, and they’re all at different ... read more
6 Critical Steps to Launching a Smooth Writing Workshop in Your Classroom
If you’ve been here before, you know I LOVE teaching writing. I think there are so many benefits to incorporating a writing workshop into your kindergarten or first-grade classroom! If you are not familiar with the writing workshop model, it is a method of teaching writing that consists of four main components: Mini-Lesson, where you teach and model a strategyIndependent writing time, when kids put the strategy into practiceSharing timeConferring, where you get to talk with students about their writing and provide targeted instruction, either 1:1 or in small groups The goal of the writing workshop model is to expose children to different genres, and teach them how to compose a writing piece in each genre, all while learning about the writing process. Very cool, right? If you’re new to writing workshop, make sure to read this Beginner’s Guide to Writing Workshops in Kindergarten and First Grade. And, ... read more