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
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
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
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
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!
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…]
Phonics Strategies and Ideas
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…]
Fairy Tales – Masks, Scripts, Writing and Phonics
Fairy Tales are well proven vehicle for Readers’ Theater, but the engagement and learning increases significantly when you also incorporate masks and interactive play.
Here’s how we explore fairy tales in my class.
Character Masks
Creating masks is a fun way to incorporate art into your literacy activities. They are so fun, and sometimes I almost can’t recognise the students underneath!
I love that there’s lots of laughing when the kids walk around with these on!
Letter Writing
Letter writing to the fairy tale characters is also [Read More…]
Phonics: Interactive Fun with Pop-Ups
I am always searching for fun new ways to teach core skills: phonics, phonological awareness, spelling patterns, etc. One day, one of my students brought it a pop-up book, and I saw students’ eyes light up with interest. How do they work? Are they magic? Can we make some?
With this in mind, the newest addition to our writing center is a class favorite: Pop Up Phonics booklets!
Each booklet is made with just one page, folded twice, and cut once on [Read More…]