Making Sense of Vowel Valley
When I first saw a sound wall I was …confused. After teaching reading intervention for 25 years, I didn’t understand why letters were posted in a V-Shape. I also wondered why there were pictures of mouths everywhere! Fast forward to the present time… I now view sound walls as an integral part of reading and writing instruction. I’d like to share with you what I’ve learned so far.
PS: You can download a free quick guide [Read More…]
Here’s another bunch of socially distanced learning activities that you can use in a primary classroom. You can see the first 8 ideas in this previous post! These are activities I used with my student when we went back to in-class teaching, but still had to maintain social distancing rules. These are chosen for simplicity, lack of prep needed, and student engagement!
Socially Distanced TARGET GAMES
I was talking to a student recently who told me about how her family loved going [Read More…]
There are many fun teaching activities that we can do while still keeping students socially-distanced! With a bit of creativity there are a lot of adaptations we can make – preferably with very little preparation. I’ve listed eight activities below (and seven more here) that were popular in my classroom when we went back to in-person teaching!
Socially-Distanced OUTSIDE PHONICS
Unless it was pouring rain, we spent as much time outside as possible. A lot of learning happened out there! We made [Read More…]
Confession time: When I first heard of Boom Cards my thought was, “I can’t learn another new thing right now!” But when distance learning became a reality, I decided to give myself 20 minutes to read and learn, and then decide if it was something I wanted to try.
Guess what? TOTALLY worth my time! And I think there’s a good chance you might agree with me! I’m going to break it all down into a few small steps so [Read More…]
Have you tried directed drawing with your students? There are so many ways to use it in the classroom!
COMBINE DRAWING AND WRITING
Use your drawings as writing prompts! You can see more photos of the directed drawing activities we use in my classroom by clicking HERE.
USING DRAWING VIDEOS
These directed drawing videos allow you to walk around and assist students while the video plays – much more relaxing than trying to draw and assist at the same time. Just project [Read More…]
Do you use social skills stories in your classroom? One of my favorite things about teaching is sharing books and stories with my students. Even better if students can learn about important topics while they enjoy the stories and characters!
Bunny And Bear Social Skills Stories
This post focuses on our series of books called Bunny and Bear. Bunny and Bear books are social stories which teach essential social skills to young children. My own students immediately fell in love with [Read More…]
Segmenting and blending sounds can be tricky when students are first learning to read. Reinforcing these skills, particularly with hands-on manipulation of letters, can be a great help for reading development.
Segmenting (separating sounds like /d/ /o/ /g/) and blending (combining sounds like /dog/) are core skills for phonological awareness, and necessary for learning to read.
Assessing Spelling Readiness
Are your students ready to blend and segment sounds? There is a general progression for most students: 1) identifying alliteration and rhyming words [Read More…]
Have you ever noticed that, after New Year’s celebrations, when students come back to school after winter break, they act like they’ve never been in a classroom before? Sometimes it seems like they’ve forgotten everything you’ve taught them in the past months!
Of course they haven’t forgotten…but it’s a good time for a refresher! Take some time to remind and re-establish routines and expectations with your students. Review your class rules and even some of the academic goals you reached [Read More…]
Looking for a clickable link for something spotted on my Instagram account? Click on the images below!
MORE FREE DOWNLOADS
You may also be interested the FREE downloads in the posts listed below!
I hope you find some helpful resources!
Free Downloads: First Grade Writing
Free Downloads: Simple Art Templates
Math Centers: Free Downloads
Free Directed Drawing Videos: Students Draw Along
Free Letter Sounds Song Posters
Free Educational FUN Math Videos To Play In Class
Free Math Posters Collection
Free Poetry Collection (20 pages)
Free Online Stories Collection
Free Directed Drawing and [Read More…]
A look at practical solutions for a primary math program.
Today I’m sharing a list of simple but effective changes I made in my classroom to make my math program more successful. Hopefully they will help you, too!
THE PROBLEM…
Does this sound familiar to you?
I’d finish a math lesson, and then before students went off to work, I’d ask if there were any questions. All the little heads would shake no, and everyone seemed happy and confident skipping off to their desks.
HOWEVER…
Soon [Read More…]
