Bowling For Sight Words

admin May 30, 2012 No Comments

Kids love playing games.  So why not incorporate teaching and practicing sight words into active and fun activities designed to keep them engaged while still learning!   Bowling for Sight Words is a kid-endorsed, absolutely awesome game for practicing sight words.  This bowling set was found at my favorite store (that would be Walmart, of course) in the toy department.  I created the stickers using the labels tab in Microsoft Word and then simply placed a sticker on each bowling pin.   To play this game, students take turns “bowling for sight words” and reading the words on the pins they knock down.  They can keep score if they wish, but it’s just as fun taking turns without keeping track. To make the sight word

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Parent Handouts for Learning Sight Words and Improving Reading Fluency

admin May 27, 2012 No Comments

As the school year ends, parents often ask for suggestions on how to help their child at home over the summer months.  Last year I developed several parent handouts to address specific areas of reading.  The Learning Sight Words handout provides suggestions for teaching and reinforcing sight words.  This handout is most appropriate for kindergarten and first grade students. Click the following link to download this free two page handout.  Learning Sight Words For first, second and third grade students, the Oral Reading Fluency handout may be helpful. Click the following link to download this free two page parent handout. Oral Reading Fluency-Parent      

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Spring Math and Word Family Activities

admin May 24, 2012 No Comments

Just before heading out for a walk the other day, my friend showed me a robin’s nest complete with three chirping baby robins who took up temporary residence in her garage.  That reminded me that I haven’t yet posted the Robin’s Nest Addition Freebie on the blog.  I know there’s only days left until summer vacation (technically 8 day for me), but this activity is pretty quick and easy to make. The Robin’s Nest Addition Addition activity can be found in my online Teachers Pay Teachers store. If you like this activity you may also want to check out these other Robin’s Nest themed activities. The Robin’s Nest Short Vowels activity is also available in my TpT store. The Robin’s Nest Word Families activity

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Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

admin May 22, 2012 No Comments

Several years back all the K-6 and special education teachers in our districts participated in the Language Essentials for Teachers of Language and Spelling (LETRS) training.  One of the beginning sessions introduced the the five key areas of reading instruction proposed by the National Reading Panel.  Phonemic awareness and phonics are two of these components.  During this session, there seemed to be quite a bit of confusion over the terms of “phonological awareness”, “phonemic awareness” and “phonics” and knowing the difference between those terms.   So, let me see if I can help provide clarification. Phonological Awareness- Phonological awareness is a general appreciation of how spoken language can be divided into its components.  For example, we speak in sentences.  Sentences can be broken

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Bead Slide: A Tool for Teaching Phoneme Segmentation

admin May 17, 2012 No Comments

The bead slide is one of my favorite tools to use when teaching the phonemic awareness skill of phoneme segmentation.  They are so simple to make.  Check out the video to see how to use and make the bead slide.     Sometimes it’s just hard to come up with words right off the top of your head while you are working in your small groups.  Here is a little cheat sheet for you. Click the following link to download this handout.  Phoneme Segmentation Words Did you Know–Segmenting and blending are the two phonemic awareness skills found to have the greatest impact on learning to read. The Bead Slide is one of 15 hands on activities contained within the Response

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DIBELS Next Parent Handouts

admin May 11, 2012 No Comments

Oh, Yeah! It’s DIBELS testing week.  I absolutely love listening to those kiddos read and seeing the progress they’ve made since the beginning of the year.   Okay, I’d admit, after the 5th day of testing, I nearly have the story of the “Cocoa Stand” memorized and I am a little giddy.  I test over 200 students in a week, and typically first graders, so I can almost recite those oral reading passages verbatim. Over the past few years we’ve developed numerous versions of our parent handout that we provide for parents following each benchmark period.  It’s a little tricky coming up with a handout that explains the assessment and the results in a way that provides them with the information we feel that they

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A Mother’s Day Note

admin April 28, 2012 No Comments

My graphic artist, Kyle, is so sweet.  She created this adorable Mother’s Day note template that she would like to share with you to use with your students.  She remembers writing a letter to her mother on a note just like this when she was a child.  Awwww.   She made a colored template and a black and white template with wider lines for  younger students and thinner lines for older students.  You may wish to use the black and white tempate if you’d like your students to color their own flowers. Click the following link:  I Love My Mom Note Wide Lines Click the following link:  I Love My Mom Thin Lines Click the following link:  I Love My Mom Wide Lines

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Strike Me Out! Fun Baseball Game for Addition

admin April 25, 2012 No Comments

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 12.  Enjoy! Click HERE or on the above pic to download this freebie.  

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April Showers Bring May Flowers Vowel Sorting Activity

admin April 23, 2012 No Comments

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 to be sure this skill is solid.  Adding a little variety and a seasonal-twist helps keep what may seem like a drill and practice activity fun!  My inspiration for this activity–of course, a stroll through the aisles of our local Walmart.  I found these cute little watering cans in the toy section towards the back of our store.  They were only $1.00. If you cannot find the watering cans, a flower

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Why Students Reverse Letters

admin April 20, 2012 No Comments

  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 they see such confusions.  As educators, it is important for us to understand why students reverse letters and to provide parents with the best information possible. Learning to Read Before we talk about reversals, let’s take a moment and think about what we are asking children to do when we are teaching them to read.  In our system, learning to read is based on the alphabetic principle.  This means that a child must understand

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