phonics Archives - Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Spelling Switcheroo – Word Building

January 10, 2020 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching Leave a Comment

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…]

Guided Spelling Ideas

November 14, 2019 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching Leave a Comment

It can be tricky to support your emergent writers who are tackling spelling. Early writers may have a delicate confidence when it comes to spelling, and they often don’t realize that guessing and making mistakes is an important part of learning.
It’s our job as teachers to explain that they are not expected to know how to spell every word! Always take time to let your students know that you’re looking for the effort and the attempt. Our mantra is “Make [Read More…]

Phonics Strategies and Ideas

October 13, 2019 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching 6 Comments

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

June 20, 2019 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching Leave a Comment

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…]

Teaching Reading with Phonics Centers

January 16, 2019 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching 2 Comments

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…]

Tips for Teaching Letter Sounds

October 28, 2018 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching 3 Comments

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

August 11, 2018 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching 2 Comments

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…]

Making Phonics Fun and Interactive

July 29, 2017 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching 1 Comment

Teaching phonics can become a bit monotonous day after day, but there are lots of ways to keep it engaging!
Here are a few examples of the ways I’ve tried to keep phonics lessons interactive, hands on, and FUN!
Phonics instruction can also be differentiated with a little creativity.

BUILDING WORDS & SENTENCES
This activity allows for differentiation because the tasks get more complex as you work down the page. Some students will only be required to print the letters and build the [Read More…]

Phonics Centers for Back To School

July 8, 2017 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching 2 Comments

When do you start teaching phonics?
There are so many things going on at the start of a new school year!
We are getting to know new personalities, watching them interact with each other, and at the same time, we are taking notes and assessing abilities.
One of the first things I set up are my EASY and independent literacy centers.

These take very little explanation, and students can happily work on literacy skills while I use valuable time to assess their abilities before moving [Read More…]

Secret Sentences for Phonics Fun!

April 16, 2017 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching Leave a Comment

One of the most engaging activities in my classroom over the last 20+ year has been Secret Sentences. Students LOVE to solve a secret mystery, and even better when they are practicing their letter sound knowledge at the same time!
WHERE TO BEGIN: SIMPLE WORDS
We begin with simple words. We use word tiles, scrabble tiles, or homemade tiles with n

As shown, student place tiles to match the FIRST SOUND of each little picture. They can also use dry erase marker on [Read More…]