Reinforce blending and segmenting skills with engaging and easy-to-use compound word activities. Students will have to segment a word into its word parts or use word parts to blend a compound word. These are valuable phonological awareness skills that students need to develop in order to become readers and writers. I developed some activities to work on how …
How to Use Games in Kindergarten
Playing games in kindergarten can help develop a variety of essential skills. There are so many great games out there, and I can always find one my students will enjoy playing. There are so many benefits of playing games with your students; here are a few: Problem-Solving Skills Educators know that developing problem-solving skills with …
Silly Decodable Sentences Literacy Activity
After teaching my students the phonics skills they need to start decoding words, I want them to use those skills to practice reading and writing decodable sentences. This is a big step for our young learners, and they need a lot of practice. Not only do I want my students to use the literacy skills …
3 Kindergarten Book Ideas to Nurture a Sense of Self
Creating class books with your students is an amazing way to promote a love of reading and writing in the classroom. As I sought to find more ways to promote a positive sense of self with my students, I came up with some kindergarten book ideas that were a hit! (This post contains affiliate links) …
Printable Decodable Readers for Short Vowel Sounds
As I have learned more about the science of reading and how to teach my students to read, decodable readers have become a powerful tool in my classroom. I want students to be using the skills that I am teaching them in order to read. That’s why I love these decodable readers so much – …
Engaging Literacy Lesson Ideas For Your Kindergarten Classroom
As educators learn more about the Science of Reading and implement a Structured Literacy program, we must develop new ways to keep students engaged and learning during a literacy lesson. You can find even more ideas in my Kindergarten Morning Meeting Ideas post! During the school year, I try out a variety of lessons that …
Multisensory Learning Alphabet Activity
Teaching students how to read has many components that they need to master. One of those strands is knowing the alphabetic code (including phonics). Some students will quickly pick up on letters and sounds, but others will need more direct, small-group instruction. Using a multisensory learning approach can help target key skills. Since I learned …
Teacher Book Club Podcast Series for Literacy Instruction for English Learners
Reading professional development books is one of my favourite ways to learn and grow as an educator. They allow me to pause and reflect on my practice as needed. I saw the book Literacy Instruction for English Learners (affiliate link) and knew I wanted to do a teacher book club series on it! This book …
Teach Problem-Solving Skills With an Easy, No-Prep Activity
Explicitly teaching problem-solving skills to your students will have multiple benefits: easier classroom management, improved social-emotional learning, better self-regulation skills, and so much more. Finding the time and the resources to do it, though, can be tricky. My problem-solving task cards are here to help! (I have used some affiliate links in this post) Problem-Solving …
Have Fun With Dot Day Activities!
International Dot Day takes place on September 15th of each year. The day is a celebration of creativity, courage, and collaboration. I love giving my students different opportunities to be creative and work together on that day. This post contains affiliate links. Read The Book Of course, you need to start your day off by reading …