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10 Picture Books for Goal-setting with Students
This time of the school year is perfect to work on goal-setting. The students are returning back from break and it’s a great time to wipe the slate clean and make a fresh start. Students will of course need some guidance with setting their goals. Using picture books is always a great way to help…
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Anecdotal Notes in Small-Group Reading: Tips and Free Templates
There’s nothing worse than sitting at your small-group reading table without a plan. Do the students in front of you need help with blending? Do they need support with digraphs, magic e, comprehension? Time flies when you’re working with a small group, so having a clear understanding of what your students know and need can…
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How to Choose and Use Nonsense Words in Structured Literacy Lessons
Imagine walking into a kindergarten or 1st-grade classroom where the students are hard at work decoding words. As you walk from table to table, you see the students looking confident in their decoding skills and you hear words being read, like: “tup,” “lun,” “jop,” and “rit” Wait, WHAT?!? Those aren’t real words. You’re right, they’re…
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Tips for Teaching Capitals and Punctuation using Multisensory Strategies
i love baking my family and friends Wait, what?! Before you cast me as the wicked witch of Hansel and Gretel, I promise my cooking habits are nothing to be alarmed about! Let’s try that again: I love baking, my family, and friends. Suddenly, the narrative shifts completely – less like a horror story and…
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How To Assess Students in Reading Using Decodable Running Records
The goal of our small reading groups is to help kids make progress at their individual levels. Using decodable texts has been a game-changer in reading the past few years! We know that each student’s reading journey is as unique as a fingerprint, but finding tools to assess students in reading that align with the…
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7 Key Components to Elevate Your Small Group Reading Lessons
Are you comfortable teaching small-group reading? Do you always know what you’re going to do and have no problem planning your lessons? Or, do you struggle to plan your lessons and visualize how they will work in your small groups? With the shift happening in guided reading to follow the research behind the science of…
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All About Decodable Texts: What They Are & How to Use Them!
Are you tired of watching your young readers struggle with reading like they’re trying to decode hieroglyphics? For years, I used mostly leveled texts in my guided reading groups, before I learned about the power of decodable texts. When students are learning to read, they need decodable texts! Providing your students with text they can…
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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…
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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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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…