I drive past the baseball fields everyday on my way home from work. It's always fun seeing the baseball fields filled with kids playing this all American sport. To celebrate the beginning of baseball season, I'm posting this fun little freebie for practicing addition facts to … [Read more...]
April Showers Bring May Flowers Vowel Sorting Activity
I know what you must be thinking. ANOTHER vowel sorting activity. I know... but it is SO important that our kinders and first graders learn to read and write those vowels correctly. Even when you think they mastered the sounds months ago, it's always good to go back and review … [Read more...]
Why Students Reverse Letters
Many parents become quite concerned when looking at their child's writing and see that their child is confusing letters such as b/d, p/q or m/w. Letter and word reversals have become so strongly associated with dyslexia that it's no wonder why parents are anxious when … [Read more...]
Cookie Sheet Challenge Volume 2: Number Order, Number Concepts
I've been having so much fun with the Cookie Sheet Challenge! For those of you just joining me, I set a goal to see how many fun activities I can make using cookie sheets purchased at Walmart and a can of metal spray paint. The challenge is to make as many activities as I can … [Read more...]
Ohhhh…. The Things You Can Do With an Oil Drip Pan
You have to hand it to teachers-- they are SO creative! Who would ever think an auto oil drip pan would make such an awesome center activity. If you are joining me on my "Cookie Sheet Challenge" I know what you're thinking. An oil drip pan is "technically" not a cookie sheet. … [Read more...]
Fly Swatting Sight Words
Using a fly swatter to swat flies (with letters, words or math facts) during small group intervention or in literacy centers has been an all time favorite spring activity in our schools for years. I only wish I knew who came up with this idea years ago- it's brilliant! To … [Read more...]
Four Ways to Build Reading Fluency
I'm on spring break now and before leaving had to decide which book to pack for reading on the beach. I came oh so close to purchasing the Hunger Games, but grabbed Timothy Rasinski's book The Fluent Reader from our loaning library at work instead (sad, I know). I've read … [Read more...]
Helping Students Move to Blending Consonant-Vowel-Consonant Words
Our seven school districts changed from using the DIBELS 6th Edition to the DIBELS Next this school year. Following each benchmark assessment we were just a little bit nervous (actually, really nervous) as to what our data would look like. Would any changes we see be a result … [Read more...]
Bunny Hop Sight Word Game Boards
Game boards are always a favorite activity for practicing skills during literacy centers. Even more fun than a regular game board is a HUGE classroom sized game board! Kyle (my very talented graphic artist) created these bunny feet to make the perfect game board for celebrating … [Read more...]