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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…
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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!…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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!…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Teaching Kindergarten Writing? Look Out for These 6 Mistakes!
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…
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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…
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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…