Teaching Students to Blend Words

admin December 21, 2013 No Comments

Blending sounds into words–what an exciting step in learning to read.  Once students know a few consonants and vowels, we can begin to teach them how to blend those sounds into meaningful words.  Blending, for some students, is a challenge.  Do you have students who know their letters and sounds and can sound out any word sound-by-sound, but yet haven’t figured out how to smoothly connect the sounds?  Their reading may sound something like this:  “The /b/ /u/ /g/ bug is /u/ /n/ /d/ /e/ /r/ under the /r/ /u/ /g/ rug.”  For these students, direct instruction in blending will be needed. One way to begin instruction is to help students recognize patterns within words.  We can do this by

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Mitten Match Math FREEBIE

admin December 9, 2013 No Comments

Looking for a fun winter-themed activity for your math centers?  The Make, Take & Teach Mitten Match activity for addition may just do the trick.  Simply print, laminate and cut out the mittens and your center activity is ready to go.  Put a few clothespins in the storage container and have your students clip the problem and the answer.  They absolutely love it! The Mitten Match Addition FREEBIE is available in the online TpT store. If you like this activity, you may also enjoy Mitten Match for Rhyme and Mitten Match for Beginning Sounds.  These activities are available through the Make, Take & Teach website or through my online Teachers Pay Teachers store.

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7 Syllable Types Classroom Posters

admin December 6, 2013 No Comments

It’s always so much fun listening and watching our  young readers figure out those “longer” words.  Many of our little ones are pretty solid decoding one-syllabe words and are now ready to learn strategies for decoding multisyllabic words.  So, really, what is a syllable?  Simply put, a syllable is a unit of pronunciation containing a single vowel sound.  “Syllabication” is the process of analyzing the pattern of vowels and consonants in a word to determine where a word is broken into its syllables. The ability to break a word into syllables helps students decode those longer words as well as helps the student remember spelling patterns.  Understanding the 7 syllable types helps students to become better readers and writers. There

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Word Building Mat- A Quick and Easy DIY Project

admin November 24, 2013 No Comments

As soon as students learn a few sound-symbol correspondences, it’s important that they begin putting those letters/sounds together to form words.  Nearly all reading programs begin phonics instruction by introducing a few common consonants with a vowel so that students can quickly begin reading and writing simple words (e.g. m, a, s, d, t…).  How exciting is that for our young readers!  By learning only a few letters and sounds, they can actually read!  For example, just by learning the sounds of m, a, s, d and t, students can read and write words such as:  mad, mat, Sam, and dad.  Word building activities with known letters and sounds is a crucial component of our phonics instruction.  During a word

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Free Magic e Game Boards

admin October 29, 2013 No Comments

The Magic e Game Boards activity is available through my online Teachers Pay Teachers store. Many of my first grade teacher friends are looking for fun and interactive center activities.  Here’s a fun little freebie for practicing the magic e rule.  When you download this freebie you’ll receive 4 colorful game boards. Enjoy!    

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Halloween 4-In-A-Row FREEBIE for Math

admin October 20, 2013 No Comments

Click HERE to download this free activity from my online TpT store.  Here’s a fun little freebie for practicing addition and subtraction facts.  It’s great for either your small group instruction or as an activity for your math centers.  The game is super simple to play.  To play, you’ll need two players each with different colored chips.  Each player takes a turn solving a math problem and then placing their chip in the square.  The first player to have 4 of their colored chips in a row wins the game.  Sounds simple?  Not so fast- players have to be sure to block their opponent as they try to get their 4-In-A-Row.  When you download this file you’ll receive 4 colorful

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Teaching Phonemic Awareness Skills

admin October 17, 2013 No Comments

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words and the understanding that spoken words are made up of sequences of speech sounds.  The child’s level of phonemic awareness upon entering school is one of the strongest indicators of how well he/she will learn to read.  Children must have an understanding that words are made up of separate speech sounds that can be broken apart and put together to form words.  Without this understanding, learning the alphabet doesn’t make much sense.  Although some children enter school with an appreciation of the sounds of language, many do not.  The exciting part is that, as teachers, by assessing our students’ phonemic awareness skills early on, we can identify those who

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Are You Ready For Some Football?

admin October 10, 2013 No Comments

Are you ready for some football?  I absolutely love football!  From our friday night high school games, to traveling to Michigan State University to watch the Spartans to weekend pro games.  Love it all!  Your little football fans just might get a kick out these activities. Here’s a little football FREEBIE for you.  The Make, Take & Teach Football Addition Game makes for a fun center activity for practicing math facts to 12.  Super quick to make. Need a little activity for practicing sight words?  When you download this file, you’ll receive all Dolch 220 sight words printed on these colorful footballs.  This game is a fast-paced game with lots of opportunities for practice.  To play the game, students take

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D.I.Y. Letter Tiles and a Freebie!

admin July 10, 2013 No Comments

I just love it when you can find a way cheaper way of creating educational items.  Sometimes ordering from a catalog can be so expensive.  Word building activities are very important for our kindergarten and first grade kiddos as they learn that letters can be put together to make words.  It’s so much more effective when each student can have their own set.  Creating your own letter tiles is quite easy.  All you need is a fine point black Sharpie marker and plastic tiles.  I like to buy the plastic tiles in bulk as I use them for several other activities. It’s super easy to make your letter tiles.  Simply write the letters on the tiles with your Sharpie marker.

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Fun Little Alphabet Games

admin May 17, 2013 No Comments

Kyle created this cute little ladybug for another activity and I thought he would be ideal for a fun little springtime and summer themed alphabet activity.  When you download the ABC Ladybug game you’ll receive 4 free ladybug game boards and letter circles.  To play the game, provide each child with a game board and place all the letter circles face down on the table.   Players take turns choosing a circle and matching the beginning sound of the letter to the picture on their game board.  The first player to have all the dots on their ladybug covered wins the game. Click the following link to download this fun little freebie Ladybug Alphabet Game Maybe your students are more into

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