Do you get anxiety over knowing how many assessments students need each year? Or, how much data do you need to collect? You are not alone in these concerns! Elementary students have to undergo so many assessments each year to ensure they show academic growth. Thankfully, this year-long process does not have to be miserable for students! Students will be smiling and happy while completing these Phonological Awareness Assessments. The Importance of Phonological Awareness Does ... continue reading...
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What are the other kids doing? Literacy Centers POST TWO with Freebies!
click on the picture above to download the large icon Freebies. Each day this week I will share you with you some of the things we do in each center. The activities above will be included in Alphapalooza 2 which will be posted this week! Any flashcards that you have are perfect for matching games. These flashcards can be used for a variety of purposes in a variety of ways. Have them match ... continue reading...
Phonological Awareness Lesson Plans for Kindergarten & First Grade
Phonological awareness lesson plans and digital slides to make daily instruction simple! A systematic way to teach students to decode and spell words. Phonological Awareness Lesson Plans What if I told you that your students could develop into confident readers and writers who can decode and spell words, with just 10 minutes of phonological awareness instruction each day? Would you be running to get in line to find out how? As a teacher, I would be the first one there! Phonological ... continue reading...
Guiding Readers Questions and Answers
Last November Deedee and I had a conversation about her desire to do more with the books she was using for Read Alouds. Her kids loved many of the books she was reading to them, and they wanted to hear them again and again. She felt that she had a great foundation with writer's workshop (more on that later) but she wanted deeper connections and interactions with the texts that she was reading to her class. So we created Guiding Readers. What are Guiding Readers? Guiding Readers started ... continue reading...
How to Start Teaching Writer’s Workshop in Kindergarten & First Grade
Do you struggle with how to get started? Writer's Workshop in kindergarten and first grade classrooms is one of the most powerful components. In Writing Workshop in kindergarten and first grade, students are encoding words that come from their thoughts and feelings, which is a much easier skill than decoding. Successful writers become successful readers! So, how do you get started? The answer is simple. Just jump right in!! I usually start at the beginning of the ... continue reading...
Alphapalooza Session handouts
Hey There! I had a great time presenting my Alphapalooza session today in Orlando, Florida. I promised the participants that I would share the handouts and some of the slides from the session. So here goes.... :) Spot the sounds is a fun small group game for identifying where sounds are heard in words. Three in a Row fun! Use the names of your students to work on identifying letters and their ... continue reading...
Beginning Sounds Digital Centers
Teachers spend hours creating lessons students will love. They know that students understand the material deeper when they show engagement in the lesson. However, there are some topics that students may grow bored of learning. Or, the topic is so challenging that the stress negatively impacts learning. Thankfully, teachers know they can add in special elements, such as technology, to help overcome any obstacles! For instance, the Beginning Sounds Digital Centers bring exciting ways to practice ... continue reading...
Kindergarten Math Lessons and Activities for the First 20 Days!
Kindergarten math lesson plans for teaching numbers to 5, 2D shapes, and 3D shapes. This resource provides detailed instruction for your first 4 weeks of math! Kindergarten Math: The First 20 Days The first few weeks of school are a hectic time for kindergarten teachers! You are making sure to cover all procedures and routines, all while beginning to teach the kindergarten math curriculum. Many teachers get started with academics right away in order to stay on track for the expected ... continue reading...
Skill Review to Engage
Teachers are continuously developing fun ways for skill review. For instance, playing various games is an exciting way to review content. Additionally, allowing students to create projects is a creative way to show all they’ve learned. However, both of these strategies may have been used throughout the year. Now, there is nothing wrong with repeating these activities! However, using something new is the perfect way to help students focus as the year winds down! Thus, turning students into ... continue reading...
St. Patrick’s Day Math and Literacy Activities
Wouldn’t it be nice to find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow? While it is not actually possible, the excitement this would cause is coming alive in the classroom! However, many students are looking forward to building leprechaun catchers or pinching people not wearing green during St. Patrick's Day. No matter what the excitement is over, it will be essential for teachers to create engaging St. Patrick’s Day Math and Literacy Activities. By doing this, student excitement for St. ... continue reading...
Guided Reading Lessons and Activities for your Favorite Traditional Tales
Guided reading lessons, books, and activities for reading levels AA-J. Digital and printable options for teaching guided reading to K-1 students. Guided Reading Lessons & Activities Guided reading lesson plans can make your daily guided reading instruction simple! With lesson plans, books, running records, and word work activities you will have all you need to organize and effectively teach during guided reading groups. Our traditional tales guided reading pack is full of ... continue reading...
Skill Surgery
Need a fun way to review and practice some of the skills that you've been working on this year? We had so much fun performing Surgical Procedures on previously learned skills. We rotated through 8 different activities. Here are a few of them. Silly Sums The surgeons were given equations that had a problem! There was an extra addend that didn't belong. Once, they diagnosed the problem they extracted the extra addend and stitched the equation back together. Punctuation Problem ... continue reading...
ESGI Assessments Made EASY and a BIG FREEBIE
ESGI Assessments Made EASY! Do you struggle with keeping up with mounds of paper assessments? Do you struggle with what to do with the data once you've assessed your students? Do you struggle with how to analyze the data and use it to drive your instruction? Do you struggle with how to notify parents and provide them with the tools they need to help their students? If you answered yes to any of the questions, then this post is for YOU! Just like you, I struggled with all of the above, and ... continue reading...
Writer’s Workshop for Kindergarten: 5 Easy Steps
During my travels and presenting at conferences around the country there is one question that I'm most often asked, "HOW can I teach my kids to write ?" Many teachers are intimidated by the thought of teaching writing, and they often ask, "Where do I begin?" The answers to these questions are really quite simple. Model what writing looks and sounds like and provide your students with opportunities to write each and every day. Each ... continue reading...
Fall Digital Centers for Kindergarten and First Grade
ELA Digital centers that are perfect for the Fall season. Students practice rhyming, syllables, beginning sounds, word families, letter recognition, and more! Digital Centers Kids love using technology and are easily engaged while using it. As teachers, we want to incorporate that excitement into their learning. Use these centers to infuse technology into your classroom and practice math and literacy skills, all at the same time! These NO PREP, digital resources can be used in ... continue reading...