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 ...
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Math Doodles
Let’s face it- students love to doodle! So, they will doodle even when they should be paying attention, working on assignments, or collaborating with classmates. However, doodling also helps some students pay attention. This means teachers work to find the perfect blend of incorporating ...
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Social Skills Poetry
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, ...
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Math Crafts – Math + Art
Math can be so much more engaging when you teach concepts in a new way. This year, I added some new math crafts to my math lessons, and the results were amazing!
HANDS-ON FUN
In my experience, teaching math has always been more effective when there are a lot of hands-on activities included ...
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Teaching Social Skills: Daily Group Lessons
Using Morning Meetings for Teaching Social Skills
Even though social skills are so important, it's often difficult to fit the lessons in each day. When they do happen, it's often in reaction to a conflict that has occurred, and there's usually not much time to really discuss the topic ...
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Teaching Reading with Phonics Centers
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 ...
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Animated Stories for Social Skills
Using stories to teach social skills is an engaging and effective strategy. This post outlines some quick and easy ways to incorporate social skills stories into your daily lessons!
Howard Wigglebottom Stories
My favorite find in the last year is the site dedicated to the Howard Wigglebottom ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Social Emotional Learning Tips
Social Emotional Learning, or S.E.L., has always been a critical element of a successful classroom. However, it is being taught more explicitly in recent years. As primary teachers, we have probably already been doing many things to foster and encourage SEL in our classroom. ...
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Math Videos for Primary Classrooms
I start my math lessons with math videos almost every day.
They are a great way to warm up and start thinking about numbers. They're a great review of the concepts we're working on.
Most of all, they are so fun and interactive that my students LOVE math time!
Here are some of our primary ...
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Kindness in the Classroom
Welcome to the Social Skills Ideas Bank!
The Social Skills Idea Bank is a series of related posts, each dedicated to sharing strategies for teaching a particular social skill.
As teachers, our strength lies in sharing our ideas, experiences and strategies!
This is a growing list, and you are ...
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Online Stories for Book Companions
WHY USE BOOK COMPANIONS?
Book companions allow teachers to use one story to practice a number of core reading and writing skills.
In my classroom, it ensures that I continue to use literature to explore things like story structure, sequencing, character traits, letter writing formats, ...
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Math: 5 Steps to a Successful Program
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, ...
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Directed Drawing Videos – Reindeer
Do your students love directed drawing? Mine do!
Read all about how I use directed drawing and writing prompts, and even directed drawing VIDEOS with my class!
DIRECTED DRAWING VIDEOS
Using Directed Drawing videos is a fun new way to practice drawing with your students! It saves a lot of ...
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Christmas Kindness Around The World
Teachers have so many goals each year. While many focus on academics, others focus on social skills. Honestly, this is essential as students build relationships with classmates and become positive community members. Therefore, I strive to make my classroom a place where students feel safe, ...
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Teaching Social Skills
CHOOSING A PROGRAM
There are several programs to choose from. Take a look at the details for each program below to ensure you have the right materials for your students. Programs outlined below include:
Social Skills Monsters: Includes 16 printable monster books, each ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Father’s Day Directed Drawing Ideas
Looking for some new ideas for Father's Day?
I've got two Father's Day ideas for you - and they're free!
FATHER'S DAY DIRECTED DRAWING
Do your students love directed drawing?
Parents just love the personal touch of a drawing made by their child.
It's a simple idea but ...
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Directed Drawing Videos: Cute Santa
WHY DIRECTED DRAWING?
There are many reasons to try directed drawing with your students! Here are a few skills and benefits:
improve skills in following directions and attention to detaila fun way to practice fine motor developmentincreased stamina in focus and attentionincreased ...
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Directed Drawing For Math!
Most of my students have a good understanding of our math concepts, but could definitely use some practice with basic math facts and speed of recall. Fast recall of facts will help them in later grades when the concepts become more complex. Daily repetitive practice helps with speed of recall, ...
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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 ...
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Directed Drawing Videos: Crab
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 ...
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