This Phonological Awareness Curriculum is a Daily program that will only take about 10 minutes of instruction per day. This systematic approach to instruction will build confident readers and writers who can decode and spell words. Small amount of time.... BIG impact! What is Phonological Awareness? Phonological Awareness is the foundation for Reading and Writing success. Students who have phonological awareness know that language is made up of words, rhymes, syllables, and ... continue reading...
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Book study: In Pictures and In Words
Hey Friends! Nothing says summer like, book study! Woo-Hoo...I love diving into a great book that will help me learn and grow as a teacher. So put down your copy of Fifty Shades of Gray ;) and grab this book! This year we will be diving into Katie Wood Ray's Book, In Pictures and in Words. I'm so excited to participate in this book study with all of my bloggy friends. Who better to help me think more deeply about this text than you guys? When does it start? On June 22nd, ... continue reading...
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Activities & a Freebie
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Activities for Back to School. Kindergarten and first-grade classroom ideas with a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom directed drawing, science, and writing! Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is simply one of those books that is perfect for back to school time. See how we use this book throughout the week! Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Activities: Reading Ideas I always seem to start the year off with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, I bet you do too! But just because it is the ... continue reading...
Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion | K-2 Read Aloud Lesson Plans
Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion reading lesson plans and activities that your students will love! Have fun teaching with these engaging ideas! Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion This book adds a fun twist to the classic, Little Red Riding Hood. Alex T. Smith wrote this story about a little girl who is off to visit her Auntie with some medicine. The girl quickly discovers what the lion is up to and comes up with a little plan, herself. You and your students ... continue reading...
After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again | K-2 Lesson Plans
After the Fall (Humpty Dumpty) reading comprehension lesson plans. Students respond to literature while developing reading comprehension strategies, vocabulary, and grammar. After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again This story is so great! I love that it teaches us the lesson to get back up after a difficult time. In the book, Humpty Dumpty becomes afraid of heights after he falls from the wall. He finds himself back up the ladder and something pretty amazing happens... he ... continue reading...
CHIT-CHAT! This n that!
This is another poem that I use at the beginning of our Mental Images unit. I read the poem the first time for enjoyment and then I read it slowly a few times while the kids drew their Mental Image. Our dragonflies... these turned out beautiful. I forgot to take a picture of their writing. Our story elements chart. Going Buggy Glyph. I've had a lot of emails asking me about my schedule and how I ... continue reading...
Halloween and Pumpkin Fun!
Build a Pumpkin! Last year at Wal-Mart I found these plastic pumpkin pieces and I created a spinner and recording sheet to go along with them. The parts remind me of Mr. Potato Head parts and come with several different noses, mouths, eyes, ears, etc: The game is a two player game. Player 1 spins the spinner and if the spinner lands on nose the player chooses the nose for the pumpkin. Then it's the next players turn. Play continues until the pumpkin is completed. The kids love this game ... continue reading...
Walruses, Literacy Centers and Guided Reading, oh, my!
We made these adorable walruses from my Arctic Animals unit today. I love how they all turned out so unique. Our penguins are still fishing on our bulletin board so the herd of walruses won't be hung up until next week when we use them to decorate our polar bears and walruses venn diagram. I will post a pic next week when they are all hanging. So, I've had some questions about how I do Literacy Centers.This is a picture of my Literacy Center board. The pirates on ... continue reading...
Mega Math Giveaway, a Freebie and a Bonus!
Last summer Deedee and I talked about how our District's math curriculum just wasn't cutting it. It wasn't fun to teach and it wasn't engaging for the kids. AT. ALL! Out of those conversations our math units were born. We are amazed at the growth we've seen in Number Sense and Problem Solving. And the best part? These units make math workshop so much fun! We've had lots of feedback from teachers telling us that their students love the hands-on math lessons and activities. Deedee and I ... continue reading...
The First Week of School! Pirate sheet added per request!
Shoo-Wee! I always forget how exhausting (but fun) the first week of Kindergarten is! Here are some of the things we did the first week. Mercy! Please excuse the spelling error above (listening)... Hello?! There's a big red line to call my attention to the error but I didn't see it until I had already saved the slide. So my error will just have to live on forever! :) Free Downloads To School Emergent Reader Handprint Puzzle Poem The Rainbow Names and ... continue reading...
Phoneme Segmentation! Make and Take Freebie and Book Talk Tuesday
Segmenting words is an important skill that we work on throughout the year. Kids need a variety of hands on ways to work on this skill in order to make it more concrete. We use a variety of manipulatives to work on phoneme segmentation. Building words with unifix cubes as we say each sound, stretching the words with a slinky, sliding a pony bead for each sound and using our stretchy the word stretcher (as seen above). To make the word stretchers you need the template (below) ... continue reading...
Initial Sounds Activities for Phonological Awareness
David Kilpatrick said, “Phonological and Phoneme Awareness is the foundation upon which all the other layers of literacy are built.” Honestly, this quote does an incredible job of explaining the importance of phonological awareness. Since it is the foundational layer for students to read and write, it is essential for students to work on these skills from a young age. Teachers know this importance and work hard to create enjoyable activities. Thankfully, the Initial Sounds Activities for ... continue reading...
Chapter 10 Tone: In Pictures and In Words
Chapter 10 Tone. You know the expression, "It's not what you say, it is how you say it." Tone is an important part of composing. Katie Wood Ray says, "...tone refers to the overall blend and intensity of color, light, and shade in a picture, all of which evolve an emotional response." She goes on to say, "When speaking, people use the tools of volume, pitch, gesture, and intonation to set the tone." Illustrators and writers must be able to set the tone visually. Carl's Nose is a funny ... continue reading...
Oceans and Pirates and Fun, OH, MY!
Good News...... After next Wednesday I only have two more days of school left! Bad News....First, I have to survive until then. :) SERIOUSLY! What makes the last two weeks of school so tough. The kids start acting all kinds of crazy and us teachers are just plain TIRED!!! I think that this is God's way of helping us send those little ones off without it crippling us with sadness. Think about it.... we've spent 180 days with these little people. They've hugged us 1,000 times, told us they ... continue reading...
Zoo unit Day 1 Giraffes
I LOVE this time of year. My little sweeties are becoming independent thinkers and learners who have blossomed into readers and writers AND all of my Favorite units are in the Spring!! Zoo animals, Dinosaurs (my fave), and Insects (my fave), What???!! I can have more than one favorite! :) I spend two weeks on each of these units. There is just something about these topics that get kids super excited about learning! Today we learned all about Giraffes. ... continue reading...