Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Teacher Clip Art, Literary Resources, Classroom Ideas

Phonics Strategies and Ideas

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Phonics: Classroom Practice
Much of our phonics instruction comes from our daily practice. Most of the activities are embedded into PLAY. Apart from some direct full class and small group lessons (including guided reading lessons), most of our phonics practice takes place through game boards, sorting, word building and creative writing.
Here are some specific ways to find phonics practice happening in our classroom.

PHONICS BOARD GAMES
The easiest to prep, and a big class favorite through the whole year is phonics game boards.
I have [Read More…]

Phonics Posters – 5 Ways To Use Them

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I recently updated my classroom phonics posters to match my classroom decor. There was nothing wrong with them – I just wanted an update to match my new themes.
That got me thinking about ways I could use them to teach about phonics.

Here are some ideas I came up with in my classroom:
BE THE TEACHER CENTER
My students LOVE to be the teacher! One of my most popular centers is also the easiest to prep for. Students get a fancy hand pointer [Read More…]

Writing In Primary – 12 Simple Book Projects

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As teachers and parents of beginning writers we want to encourage our students to see themselves as authors. This can be so challenging when working with emergent writers. Students can be overwhelmed by a blank page. The idea of “sounding out” all those hard words can prevent them from enjoying the creative process and instead fill them with anxiety! This is NOT how we want students to feel during writing time!

SUPPORTING NEW WRITERS
Here are some examples of how I support [Read More…]

Math Doodles: First Grade Math Skills + Fun!

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Here’s an easy way to make math time more fun!
Integrate math, art and writing to practice ANY math skill through the whole year!

HOW DOES IT WORK?
Here’s how it works:

Choose a math skill to practice. (ie: Addition Doubles)
Use the built-in spinner to choose a number to double. (ie: Spin a 2)
Write the equation in one of the spaces provided. Find the answer. (ie: 2+2=4)
Use the answer (4) to choose which doodle design to use on the Doodle Chart.
Use that design to [Read More…]

Life Cycles : Free Activities

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Looking for a quick, hands-on way to review your study of life cycles?

 
Here’s a free pack of life cycle spinners and cut and paste printables – you can choose which one to use with your students, or mix and match for variety!
Each option comes with life cycle details for four different topics:
Frog Life Cycle
Chicken Life Cycle
Apple Life Cycle
Butterfly Life Cycle
 
4 LIFE CYCLES SPINNERS
For this activity, all of the work is on one page so it’s easy to prep.
Students cut out [Read More…]

Social Skills Poetry

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I’m always looking for new ways to integrate social skills into my teaching.
Poetry is a fun new way to teach social skills!

This year, we decided to integrate social skills in our teaching with our Poem of the Week! Each week we focus on a different social skill and use it to read, write, discuss, sort, and so much more!
Here are some of our poetry topics:
For Carpet Time:
Hands In My Lap, I Can Raise My Hand,  Meet At The Carpet, Ready To [Read More…]

Teaching Reading with Phonics Centers

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Phonics centers are the core of my teaching when it comes to emergent readers. As an early literacy teacher for over 25 years, I’ve learned a thing or two about how children successfully acquire and practice reading skills. In Kindergarten, our focus is letter sounds. That is the foundation of decoding letters as symbols for sounds we hear in language.
Once students can tell you which letter makes which sound, we are ready to move on to isolating those sounds. The [Read More…]

Animated Stories for Social Skills

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I’ve recently started to incorporate online read-aloud stories into my daily routine, and have discovered there are so many great books out there online!
Here are three different sources where you can find FREE online stories!

Howard Wigglebottom Stories
My favorite find in the last year is the site dedicated to the Howard Wigglebottom stories. These cute animations focus on character building, social and emotional development, and lots of other essential ingredients for the primary classroom.And guess what? They are all animated on [Read More…]

Tips for Teaching Letter Sounds

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How do you teach letter sounds?

Teaching letter sounds can be tricky, and takes a LOT of daily practice. I try to use as many different approaches as possible so that I am addressing the many different learning styles in my classroom. I use songs, videos, books, small group intervention, and whole group lessons.
Here are some ideas for you to try!
LETTER SOUNDS: VIDEOS
Below are some videos that my students enjoy.
Click on any picture to watch the video with your class!
Jack Hartmann [Read More…]

Reading Lessons and Intervention Made Easy

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This post is all about teaching reading, and it also contains a FREE alphabet printing activity for you to download!
You may have seen my recent post about my HUGE teaching dilemma last year: a new teaching partner who had no experience with teaching primary math!  How could I make sure that my new partner stayed on track without spending HOURS talking about math lessons, planning, intervention and reporting?

My solution? I had the idea to make a whole year of paperless daily [Read More…]

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