When considering my structured literacy program, I want to ensure that I provide my students with all the skills they need to become readers. In kindergarten, read-alouds are an essential way to build comprehension and vocabulary skills. I have been using a 3-day interactive read-aloud plan, and it has been great for helping me plan …
Whenever I am teaching or reinforcing skills with my students, I always think to myself: “How can I add fine motor practice to this activity?” Fine motor skills greatly impact our students’ abilities: writing, self-help skills, coordination, and so much more! That’s why I knew I had to figure out a way to work on …
Once I have taught my students some phonics skills, and they have an understanding of how to write words, I can start working on writing simple sentences for kindergarten. This is a big leap for students. They go from putting a couple of letters together to make a word to putting a few words together …
Need a fun way to reinforce identifying 2D shapes with your students? These free winter-themed cards are the perfect pairing for a variety of activities. (this post contains affiliate links) 2D Shapes Cards You can use these math cards with loose parts, play dough, in a sensory bin, and salt/sand tray. There are so many …
There are so many fun ways to celebrate Lunar New Year with your classroom. Here are some ideas that I’ve done: (this post contains affiliate links) Paper Lanterns Students decorated pieces of yellow and red construction paper with gold glitter, then we cut them to make lanterns. I used some string to hang them from …
Once I finish teaching my students letter-sound correspondences using my phonics routine and reinforcing long and short vowel sounds. I move to teaching them consonant digraphs. These are two consonants that make one sound- wh, sh, ch, th. Just like with my phonics routine and vowel review, I used a systematic way to learn and …
I don’t know about you, but my students love play dough! So I created a fun space-themed 2D shapes kindergarten activity that my class LOVED! This is such an easy activity to set up. All I did was print and laminate the cards, then add some play dough. Play Dough As you can see in …
Continuing professional development is a commitment that all educators should make to their practice. I try to pick a focus for my professional development for the school year so that I do not get overwhelmed. Setting a goal for myself helps me pick which PD to do and what to look for. This post contains …
I love playing I Have, Who Has games with my students. There are so many different variations that you can do, but I love playing it as a letter recognition game. Pass out the cards Start by passing out all the cards to your students. If you have more cards than students, give some students …
When I first started researching the best methods for teaching students to read, I often felt overwhelmed by everything I was learning. I wanted to make sure I was keeping my students engaged in my literacy lessons for kindergarten but still teaching them important skills. So, I started coming up with games to play. These …
