Apple Literacy Center Activities

admin September 25, 2013 No Comments

Creating fall themed center activities is so much fun.  Living in northern Michigan, you just can’t help but love autumn.  The colors up north are absolutely gorgeous!  We planted an apple tree in our backyard three years ago and this is the first year that we’ve actually been able to harvest a few apples from the tree.  Actually, we have more than just a few.  It’s been a great year for apples and we’ve been cooking up a storm!  I love making applesauce and my husband enjoys apple crisp.  Okay, okay, back to school…. here are a few apple-themed activities.  The Apple Orchard- Alphabet and the Apple Orchard- Word Families activities are great for either your small group instruction or

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Write It Phonics Cards for Vowel Teams

admin September 20, 2013 No Comments

The Make, Take & Teach Write-It Phonics Cards have been one of the all time favorite activities for literacy centers for practicing targeted phonics skills.  I started with the beginning and ending sounds and am slowly but surely working my way up the phonics ladder. I just finished the Write It Phonics Cards for Vowel Teams!  When you download this product you’ll receive 47 colorful cards with pictures of words containing the oa, ee, ea and ai vowel teams.  They are so easy to assemble.  All you need to do is print the pages, laminate and secure them together with a 1″ loose leaf ring.  Super simple!  Have your students write the correct vowel team on the card and when

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Popcorn Words

admin September 14, 2013 No Comments

The Dolch sight word list is a list of 220 words that make up between 50-70% of the words we encounter in text.  Most of these words are “service words” that must be quickly recognized in order to read fluently.  Many of the words cannot be sounded out and they need to be learned by “sight”.  Because the words must be identified quickly (just like a popcorn kernel pops quickly) many teachers tell their students that these words are “popcorn words”.  The words just need to “pop”.  Our little kindergarteners and first graders love this concept and you can have tons of fun using the popcorn analogy to teach sight words.  When you download the Dolch 220 Popcorn Words file,

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Research-Based Reading Intervention Strategies

admin August 22, 2013 No Comments

  I found this really great book.  I mean A REALLY GREAT BOOK!  I attended a conference a few weeks ago and came across Elaine McEwan-Adkin’s book 40 Reading Intervention Strategies for K-6 Students: Research-Based Support for RTI.  I opened the book, took a few minutes to look it over and headed right over to the check out counter.  I needed this book- and NOW!  Here’s why I love this book! All 40 intervention strategies are listed in this handy table!  Each strategy is then categorized per instruction or target area and THEN the grade level in which the strategy is appropriate is checked!  OMG!  Is this awesome or what?  The book then has a chapter for each strategy in

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Another Fabulous Walmart Find!

admin August 21, 2013 No Comments

It’s another fabulous Walmart find in the school supply section!  These dry erase pocket charts were only $1.97!  I love ’em.  They’re great for small group intervention.  It’s a fun alternate to paper-pencil worksheets and quite a paper-saver.  All you do is place your sheet in the pocket and have your student write on the pocket with a dry erase marker.  Simply wipe clean with a dry erase marker or a cloth and use again. I especially like the pockets for handwriting practice.  Instead of running tons of copies, just use one sheet with the pocket and students can practice with the same page multiple times. The pockets can be used with most any skill.  If you’d like to check

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Multi-Sensory Activity for Teaching Letters and Sight Words

admin August 13, 2013 No Comments

I love using plastic screens for introducing and practicing letters and sight words.  Plastic screens can be found in any craft store (Michaels or JoAnn Fabrics) or in the craft section of most department stores.  When I use the screens for teaching letters, I typically cut one sheet into quarters and then for the sight words, I’ll cut 3 long strips.  You can use ready-made templates of letters or sight words or you can simply write the letters/words on paper yourself.  First have your students place the paper on top of the screen and, with a crayon, trace the letter or letters of the sight word.  When they remove the paper, the letter/word will be “bumpy” on the paper.  If

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DIY Dry Erase Slant Boards

admin August 9, 2013 No Comments

Okay, I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I don’t really have a life (just kidding, of course).  My kids think it’s absolutely silly how excited I can get over new items we find in the aisles of Walmart.  I was shopping at a Walmart out of town and found these dry erase sheets!  Incredible!  I’ve seen the decorative dry erase colored circles and dry erase adhesive calendars, but just plain sheets- oh, endless possibilities! My first thought?- using one of the sheets to make a dry erase slant board.  Our Occupational Therapists often recommend using a slant board for students with handwriting difficulties.  Using a slant board improves overall writing posture and encourages the most efficient hand posture for

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More Pocket Chart Pictures!

admin August 6, 2013 No Comments

I’m having so fun creating activities for the table top pocket chart I purchased at Walmart last week.  You never know what you can find at Walmart and I was so lucky to come across these super cute pocket charts which are perfect size for our small group intervention area.  They came in two colors- and of course, I purchased both red and blue. Right after purchasing my first pocket chart, I quickly made the Pocket Chart Pictures for Early Literacy – I just couldn’t wait.  The file contains pictures for teaching beginning sounds, rhyme, counting syllables and counting sounds (phoneme segmentation).   I’m just kind of moving up the phonics ladder now and the Pocket Chart Pictures for Short Vowels/CVC Words

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Pocket Chart Pictures

admin August 3, 2013 No Comments

I love going into stores during their back-to-school sales!  I especially love perusing the aisles of Walmart and our local dollar stores.  There’s always super cheap items that can be used or changed into activities for our little kiddos.  Just last week I found these pocket charts at Walmart.  They are the perfect size for your small group instruction area.  Well, just across the street from Walmart is the Dollar Tree.  I found these colorful snack containers with the snapped-topped lid–so perfect for storing pictures! I thought it’d be fun to create an early literacy packet for the pocket charts and use the containers to store the pics.   So, in the spirit of color-coordination, all the beginning sound pics

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D.I.Y. Wax Covered Yarn

admin July 26, 2013 No Comments

I love using Wikki Stix for multi-sensory activities.  Wikki Stix are simply wax covered yarn that can be shaped.  It’s great to use when teaching letters or sight words as the students shape the yarn into letters.   Although Play-Doh is an awesome multi-sensory activity, the clean up with the Wikki Stix is quicker and easier.  Now Wikki Stix can purchased commercially, but they are quite expensive.  Recently I found a similar product at Walmart- Bendaroos.  Bendaroos are a bit cheaper especially if you can get them sale. To even drive the cost down further and in the spirit of D.I.Y., I found a recipe for making your own wax covered yarn.  I was so anxious to try this. To

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