Build It-Write It for CVC Words

admin September 7, 2014 No Comments

You may know by now that I’m all about those cookie sheets.  I love activities that use cookie sheets as manipulating magnetic letters provides for great hands-on learning activities and the cookie sheet keeps all the materials in one area!  The Build It-Write It activity for CVC words is perfect for either small group instruction or for independent literacy centers.  When you download this activity you will receive 14 colorful CVC templates.  There are templates for working with a specific vowel and also templates with mixed vowels.  This makes differentiation a snap! The Build It Write It activity for Consonant Vowel Consonant Words is available through my Teachers Pay Teachers store or through the Make, Take & Teach website. Call me

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Just Another Fun Find at Walmart

admin August 28, 2014 No Comments

You gotta know I love my local Walmart.  I always seem to stumble upon something a little unique that’s perfect for creating an activity.  Well, my newest find are these dry erase sticky circles from Elmer’s.  They were in the sale basket too! So what can you do with these sticky circles?  They are perfect for sound sorting!  I simply placed a sticky circle on a cup and wrote a letter on the circle.  You can change the letter/sound matching activity by simply erasing the letter and writing another. So simple. I’m sure there are many uses for these dry erase circles.  If you’d like to use the circles for sound sorting, these pics are just one activity contained in

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Alphabet Cupcakes

admin August 25, 2014 No Comments

It’s always important to incorporate hands-on activities into learning letters and sounds.  Our little preschoolers and kindergarteners really enjoy matching activities.  Matching activities are great for independent centers or as an activity for direct instruction.  These activities can be easily differentiated as you can choose how many and which cupcakes to use.  Simply  place the cupcake tops and bottoms on the table and have your student(s) match the beginning sound of the picture to the lowercase letter.  An upper- to lowercase matching activity is also included in the downloadable file. I like to store my activities in baggies.  A label for each activity is included. The Alphabet Cupcake activity is available through my online Teachers Pay Teachers store or through

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3 Freebies for Teaching and Practicing Short Vowels and CVC Words

admin August 17, 2014 No Comments

Here are a few of my favorite activities for introducing and teaching short vowel sounds and CVC words.  There’s a little bit of assembly involved for each activity, but you’re done, you’ll have three activities that will last for years!  Enjoy! 1. Vowel Sticks Those short vowel sounds can be so tricky!  It’s so important that our kiddos learn to hear the differences between the short vowel sounds so that they can decode and write words correctly.  These vowel sticks are quite helpful in teaching students discriminate the sounds.  You can easily differentiate the activity by choosing which and how many vowels to use during your lesson.  For students who are having a great deal of difficulty with vowels, I recommend

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Hands-on Activities for Teaching Contractions

admin August 12, 2014 No Comments

Last year I created the original File Folder Phonics activities and they fast became a favorite for introducing and practicing phonics concepts.  They are great for independent centers as well as first introducing the concept during small group instruction.  Since creating the initial file folder activities bundle, I’ve been receiving request after request for additional activities.  Two of my new favorite file folder activities are the ones that introduce the concept of contractions.  This is a skill that is typically introduced mid-first grade; however, I find that many second graders could use added practice.   As with all the file folder activities, an explanation of the concept or a statement of the rule is included as well as a hands-on

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Dry Erase Pocket Phonics

admin August 8, 2014 No Comments

I just love working with dry erase pockets.  They’re great for small group instruction as phonics pages can slide right inside and then later erased so that they can be used over and over again.  Last year I was able to pick up quite a few dry erase pockets at Walmart during the back to school sale and I have been using them ever since.   I created these dry erase pocket activities for working with short vowel sounds and dry erase pockets.  There are 17 differentiated templates.  They’ve been great for our little learners. The Dry Erase Pockets Phonics Activities for Short Vowels/CVC Words can be found in my online Teachers Pay Teachers store or on the Make, Take

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Recycle those bike tubes!

admin July 29, 2014 No Comments

This summer I took up biking.  We are so fortunate to live right by a “rails to trails” path which connects two of our cities.  The path is a gorgeous tree-lined trail which extends 15 miles through rural Northern Michigan.  Every bike ride brings with it a new adventure.  There’s always turtles at the pond, snakes who quickly scurry across the path and, occasionally, a deer stops for a quick pic. Well, last Monday was quite an adventure in a different-sort-of-way.  Two miles into my bike ride, I blew a tire.  Oh, boy.  That has never happened.  Fortunately, I was with my dad who is an avid biker.  Little did I know that pack he always carries on the back

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Using Focus Sticks to Improve Student Writing

admin July 25, 2014 No Comments

I love my job.  I really, really do!  One of the favorite parts about my job is that I get to network with a whole bunch of very talented teachers.  I love hearing about and seeing them implement creative strategies to improve student learning.   During the past several years, many of our local school districts have focused on improving writing instruction.  All of our schools, from elementary to high school, received training in the Collins Writing Program.  In addition, teachers were able to participate in other inservices such as the 6 Traits of Writing to enhance their instruction in this area. My good friend and colleague, Michelle (same job, just different schools) came back to our office one day so excited to share what she had seen in

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Even MORE! File Folder Phonics

admin July 23, 2014 No Comments

I absolutely love activities that are super easy to set up and can be used over and over again.  Sure, it takes a little bit of cutting and laminating on the front end, but when they are all assembled you’ll have activities that will last for years!  Last year I created file folder activities for my second grade teacher friends to address higher level phonics concepts.  They were such a hit and the students absolutely loved them.  I just couldn’t wait to create a series for kindergarten and first grade.  The File Folder Phonics for learning the Alphabet is just one in a series that I have in the works.  When you download this file you’ll receive 26 file folder

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Fun Little Finds at Walmart

admin July 16, 2014 No Comments

One of my favorite pastimes is perusing the aisles  at our local dollar stores and the toy sections of Walmart and Meijer for ideas for center activities.  My three children are now in college and instead of spending my time on the soccer fields I’m now spending that time shopping.  Insert HUGE sigh– I really miss my kids and I would go back to those days in a minute.  I’m not adjusting very well to my empty nest.  While shopping at Walmart the other day I stumbled upon the card section in the toy area and found a few relatively inexpensive games that would be a nice addition to your literacy centers. The first treasure was the Scrabble Slam! card

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