Valentine’s Day is almost here! I just updated the Valentine Lotto activity for CVC words. This activity is ideal for centers or for small group instruction so be sure to click the link below to download this freebie! Just click the following link: Valentine’s Day Lotto Enjoy and Happy Valentine’s Day!
If you’ve spent anytime on Pinterest, you know it’s full of really cool DIY projects. There are soooooo many great ideas and just not enough time! I really think I could make creating DIY projects found on Pinterest a full time job. Melting crayons within molds has been pretty popular on Pinterest lately and, although my children can now be considered young adults, I’ve really wanted to give it try and thought Valentine’s Day would be a great opportunity. So, all you need to make your own melted valentine crayons are crayons (you can use old crayons too), the mold (I purchased mine at Walmart), foil and a cookie sheet. That’s it. First peel the paper from the crayons and
Many of my preschool and kinder friends are now working with the concept of rhyme. Rhyming is an important early literacy skill as it helps our young readers understand that words are comprised of sounds which can be changed to make new and different words. This rhyming activity is ideal for your centers during the early months of February. When you download this activity you will receive 48 colorful hearts containing rhyming words. You’ll want to be sure to differentiate this activity by choosing which and how many rhyming hearts to use. The Valentine Rhyme Matching activity can be found in my online Teachers Pay Teachers store or through the Make, Take & Teach website.
Kyle (fabulous artist) created this cute little bear and rabbit for decorating Valentine’s Day bags for collecting cards. Aren’t they just adorable?? Your students will have tons of fun creating their very own collection bags. Simply copy the bear or rabbit for each child and have them color and glue the pieces on a paper bag. Super simple! Be sure to have your kiddos write their name on the heart. To download the patterns for your own classroom set, just click the following links: To download the pdf file of the Valentine Bear, just click the following link: Valentine Bear To download the pdf file of the Valentine Rabbit, just click the following link: Valentine Rabbit
Gotta say- it’s all about winter. We absolutely LOVE winter and it’s so much fun celebrating this season with winter-themed activities. We created these phonics-based activities for centers and small group instruction just for the blustery months of December, January and February. The Winter Themed Activities for R-Controlled Vowels contains 5 interactive activities for practicing this phonics skill. The activities within this bundle include a sorting activity (60 colorful penguins) , Lotto, multiple 4-In-A-Row game boards, the I Have Who Has card game and 175 word cards to practice reading r-controlled vowels within words. The Make, Take & Teach Winter-Themed Activities for R-Controlled Vowels is available through my online Teachers Pay Teachers store. Of course, we didn’t stop with just r-controlled vowels.
Just working away at updating a few oldies-but-goodies from years past. If you’ve downloaded the Valentine’s Day Sight Word Game Boards last year you’ll want to be sure to click on the link below and grab the new version. I’ve added a few new game boards and spruced them up a bit. There are now 9 game boards with color-coordinated borders per Dolch sight word list. The games are great for small group instruction or as a literacy center activity. Even print them and send them home for added practice! The Valentine’s Day Sight Word Game Boards can be downloaded for FREE in my online Teachers Pay Teachers store. Enjoy and Happy Valentine’s Day!
Those short vowel sounds can be tricky. It’s so important that our young readers have a good handle on vowels. The best place to start with kiddos who are confusing the sounds is with discrimination activities. These types of activities help our students to first hear the differences between the vowel sounds. The first step is to find out which vowel sounds the student is confusing. An easy way to do this is to take a look at the student’s writing. The Make, Take & Teach Sorting Snowballs activities have several differentiated templates with varying number of vowels and different vowels combinations. Students sort either the picture or the word according to the vowel. There are 60 colorful short vowel
The Cookie Sheet Activities have certainly been popular with my kindergarten and first grade teacher friends. They are so versatile- they can be used within small group instruction or as independent literacy center activities. It’s always so important to incorporate hands-on learning especially for our young and struggling readers and these activities do the trick. Our Cookie Sheet Activities for Pre K – K Bundle incorporates the skills of ABC order, rhyme, beginning sounds and early numeracy. The first grade bundle contains a little more advanced skills. The first activities within this bundle focus on learning and practicing sight words. The first sight word activity requires your students to build the words with magnetic letters. There are 43 templates in
Here in Northern Michigan winter can last for months (and I mean months and months). We often have snow from late November through mid-April. Well, up in the north, putting on your boots, mittens, hats, coats, and snow pants is an everyday event. It can take up to 10 minutes to get our little kindergarteners ready to go outside–and then another 10 minutes to get undressed! Multiply that routine by three times a day–craziness! Whether you live in a winter wonderland or in warmer parts of the world, the Mitten Match activity is sure to be a hit with your kiddos during the winter months. Last year, my fabulous artist created these adorable mittens. They were perfect for creating a
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile you may know that I’m just a little (okay, a lot) addicted to professional books. I really love keeping up with the current research in reading and learning difficulties. One of my favorite authors is Isabel Beck. I love her book, Bringing Words to Life – it’s the go-to book on teaching vocabulary. Her most recent book, Making Sense of Phonics: The Hows and Whys is an equally valuable resource for phonics instruction. I was re-reading the book the other night and came across a strategy for blending that I thought would be helpful for many of my kindergarten and first grade teacher friends. The strategy is called successive blending. After students
