Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Teacher Clip Art, Literary Resources, Classroom Ideas

Spelling Switcheroo – Word Building

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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…]

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…]

Number Bridge No-Prep Math Game – Bright Ideas October

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Today I’m sharing one of my favorite no-prep ideas for math or spelling.
All you need is paper and crayons.
I call it Number Bridge.
 

 

This simple game can be adapted to any grade level, but here are the basic rules to play for my little ones.

That’s all there is to it!
This is great practice while making the number board themselves, and more practice creating the bridges. Each student will have a uniquely different board, and it’s a great tool for [Read More…]

Phonics: Interactive Fun with Pop-Ups

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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…]

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