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Children's Rights to Read
This site advocates for the basic rights that children have to learn to read and write. On the homepage, you'll find documents containing all of the things that the site stands for on the topic.

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Pledge to be an advocate for every child, everywhere.

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Reading Resources
This site has it all from professional opinions on just about any topic to recommended books for the grade level you're looking for. They even have a tab that takes you to a page containing very valuable advice on how to help struggling readers.

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

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Scholastic's programs that provide books to kids has been a major part of my entire life. In fact, I found one of my all-time favorite books in fourth grade by going to the book fair in our school, "Paint the Wind" by Pam Munoz Ryan. There was never a year that I missed the book fair or didn't buy any books, so this particular site means a lot to me.

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Scholastic | Books for Kids | Learning Resources

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Find the best kids books, learning resources, and educational solutions at Scholastic, promoting literacy development for over 100 years.

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This website is great for any teacher looking for that little bit of extra help or advice that they can't get from the teachers within their school. It has five main topics to look at: Assessment, Classroom Resources, Intervention, Professional Books, and Professional Development. Under "Assessment", you'll find a few resources, hard copy and digital, as well as an app. These can be used to assess reading levels of students in many different ways.

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Welcome to the Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™ Community

Designed for teachers, literacy leaders and district administrators - Make fountasandpinnell.com your daily literacy retreat to reflect, recharge, research, and redefine your literacy instruction.

Become a member and gain exclusive access to tools, resources, conversations, videos, tips, inspiration, transformative thinking and so much more.
Join Today for Free!

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Fountas and Pinnell Information and Teacher Community

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Fountas and Pinnell product information, news, and question and answer community forums

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Language Arts Rubric Makers
Language Arts happens to be one of my areas of concentration in my upcoming Bachelor's program at the Ohio State University. I can see this being very useful in my area, as it can generate rubrics for almost any topic.

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Booklist Online
This site gives a few suggestions of new books from new authors and other popular topics, all within the grade levels you are looking for.

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The best book reviews, readers' advisory, and collection development guidance from the experts at the American Library Association.

For over 100 years Booklist magazine has helped tens of thousands of librarians as a book review source, and readers' advisory, collection development, and professional development resource. Booklist magazine, and its quarterly supplement Book Links, deliver over 8,000+ recommended-only reviews of books, audiobooks, and reference sources each year, spanning every age and genre.

Booklist Online includes a growing archive from more than 25 years of reviews, as well as a wealth of free content offering the latest news and views on books and media. Now you can read the digital editions of Booklist - online or through a mobile device.

What's happening with books? Visit The Booklist Reader, the blog for librarians and other book lovers, to find out.

Together these resources offer in-depth coverage of the latest books, new authors, publishers, publishing trends, curriculum standards, award-winners, and more through Top 10s, read-alikes, interviews, feature articles, and classroom activities.
Resources:

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Booklist, Book Links, Booklist Online, Booklist Reader

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The best book reviews, readers' advisory, and collection development guidance from the experts at the American Library Association. For over 100 years Booklist magazine has helped tens of thousands of librarians as a book review source, and readers' advisory, collection development, and professional development resource.

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Between the Lions
This website offers some video links that are snippets of the TV show "Between the Lions". These particular videos are aimed at the Preschool level and they focus on Phonological Awareness.

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Phonological Awareness | Between the Lions Early Reading | PBS LearningMedia

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Here are segments selected from Between the Lions, the series that helps kids "Get Wild About Reading!" This special collection provides a set of early Reading/Language Arts resources, organized by early elementary and preschool literacy skills.

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This is the homepage that also offers membership to teachers. This organization focuses on forming new ties with valuable resources. Their goals are antiracism and making sure every child has a right to a modern and thorough education.

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The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is a professional organization dedicated to "improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education.

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Word Sort Activities
While this site focuses on the concept of spelling, I believe it can also fall under vocabulary because the child is working with many different words and to identify and sort them into categories. More about the site, there are a few different at-home or in-classroom activities that you can do with kids to practice their spelling, or vocabulary, abilities.

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This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
PS PK K 1 2 3 *

Here some word sort activities that make spelling fun!

(This post contains affiliate links.)

Are you ready to dive into teaching spelling? So far in my Word Study series:

1) We've addressed why we need a different approach to spelling instruction.

2) We've looked at how children move through developmental stages as they learn to spell.

3) We've discovered how to determine a child's spelling level so we can begin instruction.

A lot of this has been theoretical. Are you ready to get practical?

What are word sorts?

Instead of receiving a list of 15-20 spelling words, children receive a group of words in table format. They cut them out and arrange them in columns according to pattern. Here are some sample sorts, progressing from easy to hard:

sort the -at (cat) and -an (pan) word families

sort short vowel words that end in ck (-ick, -ack, -ock, -uck, -eck)

sort short a words (mat) , long a words spelled with a silent e (cake), and long a words spelled ai (rain)

sort the long i patterns: i-consonant-e (kite), igh (might), and i-consonant-consonant (mind)

sort words with diphthongs: oy, oi, ow, ou

sort words that have the ed ending: by doubling the final consonant (robbed), doing nothing (walked), or dropping an e (amazed)

The word sort is the heart of Word Study - without it, Word Study doesn't exist. Word sorts allow children to make generalizations about words which they can apply to new words as they read and write. Instead of being passive learners, students are active: they are comparing, contrasting, and analyzing.

Still not sure not sure that word sorts are the way to go? Then check out This Reading Mama's six benefits of word sorts. I don't think anyone could say it better!

Where to find word sorts

You can find a list of word sorts (in order from easy to hard according to the levels of spelling development) at the back of Words Their Way. You choose the list based on your students' level of development (which we talked about in Part 3). Then type up the sort yourself or purchase companion volumes which do the work for you.

The above widget shows recent editions of Words Their Way as well as the companion volumes which can save you some time when you're preparing word sorts. If you purchase the companion volumes, I'd love if you'd leave a comment to let us know what you think of them!

One caveat: you are the judge as to what your students need to learn next. If a group is struggling, add a review week. If a list feels like too much too soon, save it for later. That's one of my favorite parts of Word Study: you are not a slave to a curriculum - you, who know your students best, choose what to teach - not a group of curriculum developers who've never met your spellers!

How to introduce a word sort

1. Once you've chosen your sort, you'll decide how many words to include and type up the list in a table format. As a teacher I made every list 20 words - even for my first graders. I felt that since the students were learning patterns and not simply memorizing 20 words, this was not unfair. But there is nothing sacred about a 20-word list.

2. Have your students cut apart the words and save them in an envelope or bag. Here's the first word sort I taught my daughter. Since her spelling inventory told me that she's at the beginning of the Within Word Pattern stage, I started with the first list in that stage. In a classroom you'd want to prepare word lists for each group of instruction. When I taught Word Study I would assign each group a letter (the lowest group would be Group A). I would write "Group A" (or "Group B," etc.) in the center box on the top of the table.

3. Introduce the pattern and assign header words.

Here's how it might sound: "You know that the letter a makes different sounds. Sometimes it makes the short a sound, and sometimes it makes a long sound. We spell words differently when the a makes different sounds. Today we're going to sort words that have short a and a-consonant-e. You'll also find some words that don't follow either pattern. We'll call them our oddballs. Here's our first header word: hat. Does that have a short or long a sound? Where should we put it? Here's our other header: cape. Can you tell me where this one will go?"

4. Guide your student to finish sorting the words herself. Some students will need more guidance at the beginning, but let them go when they're ready. In my teaching I usually found that my students did not need me to do this initial step after several months of sorting. They were able to discover the pattern themselves.

5. Have your students read the words aloud. Focus on the sounds the words make. At this point your speller may find that a word was sorted incorrectly. At first my daughter did not catch the oddballs "what" and "have." But as she read the sort aloud I was able to show her that have does not make the sound you would expect - so it's an oddball. And what looks like it should be wat. So that's an oddball too!

6. Explain any unfamiliar words. This list is pretty straightforward, but I might ask my daughter how any different meanings she can think of for "jack." As the lists progress in difficulty, there will be more challenging vocabulary.

7. Form generalizations. In the case of the above sort, the generalization would sound something like this: "When you hear a short a sound, you spell it with just the letter a. When you hear a long a sound, you put an e at the end of the word."

A more complicated generalization - which is above my daughter's head - would sound like this: "When you hear a short a sound in a single syllable word, use just an a between the consonants. When you hear a long a sound in a single syllable word, spell it a-consonant-e."

A rule of thumb: Word generalizations according to what your students can understand.

8. Have your students shuffle and resort the words themselves. Before I dismissed a student from a word study meeting, I required him to sort the words all by himself and read them aloud one last time.
Be sure to read This Reading Mama's post about how to introduce word sorts.
9. Have your students record (or paste) the word sort into a Word Study notebook. I had each of my students copy the word lists into their spiral notebook. I checked for spelling errors, which they corrected. Looking back, it might have been better to have first graders glue the words into the notebook at the beginning of the year. Copying 20 words was a real chore for some of those little ones! I chose the pasting option for my daughter.

Word sort activities

1) Teacher-directed closed sort (as described above): You define the categories, model the sort, and and then have your child complete it. (This sort is for short a words and long a-consonant-e words. I'm going to start with hat and cape. My next word is glad. It will go in the short a column under hat. Can you finish the sort?)

2) Student-directed closed sort: As kids are ready, they create the categories and sort. You check for accuracy. (Can you tell me how you sorted? That's right - this week is short a words and long a words. What do you notice about the long a words? Yes, they use a silent e at the end. Tell me about your oddball words.)

3) Blind sort: A friend or parent reads each word to the child. The child points to the column (on a clear desk or table) where each word should go. Mistakes are addressed as they occur.

4) Writing Sort: Follow the same procedure as with a blind sort - but this time, students write each word in its appropriate column. This is a good one to use toward the end of the week when preparing for the weekly test.

5) Speed Sort: Some students will enjoy using a stopwatch to time how quickly they can sort their words and work toward improvement as the week progresses.

6) Draw and Label / Cut and Paste: Young spellers are given drawing paper that has been divided into columns headed by a key letter. They cut out pictures that begin with each letter and glue them into the appropriate column. Some students may be able to draw the pictures instead.

7) Word Hunt: Sometimes I would assign a word hunt as homework. Students would hunt through reading and writing, in books, on signs, etc. for additional examples of the sound or pattern they were studying. They would write the words they found in the appropriate columns.

Read the rest of the series!

Part 1: There's a better way to teach spelling

Part 2: How to understand the levels of spelling development

Part 3: How to know which spelling words to teach

Part 4: Word sort activities

Part 5: Meaningful spelling activities

OUR VERY FAVORITE PRINTABLE SPELLING GAMES

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How to make spelling interesting (Word Study, part 4) - The Measured Mom

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This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. PS PK K 1 2 3 * Here some word sort activities that make spelling fun! (This post contains affiliate links.) Are you ready to dive into teaching spelling?

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Fry Word List
Included in this link are 1,000 words for kids to practice. It is an extremely extensive sight word list containing the most common words used in the English language.

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This is just a PDF for sight words, an easy review of some quick and easy words that always deserve practice.

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Book Finder
Here, you can find books by any means of filter including grade level, author, age range, and more!

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Use our Book Finder tool to create your own customized list of fiction and nonfiction books. Search through more than 5,000 books on Reading Rockets - by author, illustrator, age, reading level, genre, format, and topic.

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While included in this website is not necessarily books, they are resources to improve language understanding and you are able to filter your search by any means.

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Figure out figurative language with our worksheets, workbooks, games, and more.

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This website offers a ton of different articles categorized into each grade level to practice reading. The articles are relevant, real, and abundant. It does require an account, but it's free to sign up!

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ReadWorks | Award-Winning, EdTech Nonprofit Organization

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ReadWorks is an edtech nonprofit organization that is committed to helping to solve America's reading comprehension crisis.

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I. Love. Leap Frog!
My siblings and I had so much of their tech growing up! I love the advanced technology that they have today. Particularly, we had the older version of the book pad where you placed a book on it and you could touch things as you read the book or interact with different things in the book. It was the coolest! I fully advocate for these technologies and not only will my future children have the best of the best from them, but my future students as well.

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Learn to Read Systems for Kids | Reading & Writing Systems | LeapFrog

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Get your child excited about a variety of subjects from counting, problem solving to learning to read with fun, replayable activities. Learn more about LeapStart and LeapReader today!

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Not only does this site feature articles about anything and everything relevant today, there are some articles actually written by kids! I included this site because it was highly recommended through many sources.

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As of Monday, October 24, content that was on TweenTribune.com will now be available here on our new educational resources page and on our learning pages. While much of the content that you enjoyed will still exist, educators will unfortunately no longer be able to assign content to students. Tween Tribune has been a valued educational brand of Smithsonian magazine, and we appreciate your continued support.

Though the Girl Scouts of the USA initially declared itself a space for all girls, the reality was different for girls of color

Erin Blakemore

Get Smithsonian Educational Resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As of Monday, October 24, content that was on TweenTribune.com will now be available here on our new educational resources page and on our learning pages. While much of the content that you enjoyed will still exist, educators will unfortunately no longer be able to assign content to students.

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This article lists a bunch of different strategies and ideas to maximize the quality of your phonics lesson. It includes videos, and activity suggestions. This would be an excellent resource to reference when doing a lesson plan for phonics!

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An Introduction to Phonics and learning to read

Throughout this article, I aim to provide you with a clear understanding of teaching phonics effectively in the classroom and offer a variety of strategies and proven ideas to teach phonics.

WHAT IS PHONICS? A DEFINITION FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS.

Phonics can be defined as a body of knowledge and skills regarding how the alphabet works.

In the context of this article, phonics refers to the method of teaching a student to read by developing their phonemic awareness and an understanding of the links between these sounds and how we use the letters of the alphabet to represent them.

This understanding is essential not only to read well but to bridge the gap between reading and writing.

With a good foundation of phonics knowledge, students can quickly become confident readers and independent solid writers.

PHONEMIC AWARENESS IMPROVES READING FLUENCY

When students develop phonemic awareness, it dramatically enhances their reading fluency which is a reading "superpower", allowing students to read with speed, accuracy and expression. Reading fluency dramatically enhances students' ability to read with intonation and energy that translates into expressive writing skills.

A COMPLETE DIGITAL READING UNIT FOR STUDENTS

How To Teach Reading Using Phonics

The use of phonics, or synthetic phonics as this method is technically known, is an effective and efficient means of teaching young students how to read. For this reason, phonics is the primary methodology for teaching reading in the school systems of many English-speaking countries.

In English, there are around 44 sounds or phonemes. Given that there are only 26 letters used in the language and that many sounds have more than one possible spelling, it is helpful that students learn the relationships between the letters and sounds in a straightforward and explicit manner.

To achieve this, phonics centers on the relationship between sounds and how they can be spelled.

It focuses on the letter and sound correspondences to enable students to break written words down into their component sounds before later recombining them to read the whole word. This process is known as segmenting and blending.

SEGMENTING AND BLENDING

Rather than allowing students to struggle to recognize complete words, as in the whole word method, or to look for contextual clues to figure out what is being said in a text, phonics teaches students to look at the letters of a word and segment it into its component sounds, before blending these sounds back together to read the entire word.

For example, when faced with the word cat, a student might run their finger under the first letter and make the initial /k/ sound, then /a/, and, finally, /t/.

Once they have successfully segmented these individual sounds, they then blend them together to say the word /kat/.

With practice, the speed with which students can look at a word, segment the sounds, and then blend these sounds together to read the word rapidly increases. This makes learning to read through the phonics method the most efficient way for most children to learn not just to read but to write too.

DECODING AND ENCODING: THE BRIDGE BETWEEN READING AND WRITING

Initially, phonics reaps rich rewards for students in terms of the passive skill of reading. This is also known as decoding.

Later, the student's knowledge of phonics can help them develop the active skill of writing or encoding.

For this reason, teachers will often weave emergent writing skills, such as letter formation, into their phonics lessons to take advantage of the opportunity to bridge this gap between reading and writing skills.

WHAT ABOUT SIGHT WORDS?

As effective as synthetic phonics are in teaching students to read, they won't be enough on their own to unravel all the opaque mysteries of English orthography.

English is something of a mongrel language. Over the centuries, it has been influenced by the German, Latin, French, Greek, and Celtic languages, among others.

This fact has led to many inconsistencies in spelling surviving in the modern language. Sometimes phonics won't be enough to decode these words. That's why students need to learn to read some words by sight alone.

Sight words, or high-frequency words as they are also known, are those extremely common words used time and again in most texts. Many of them are phonetically irregular and follow no conventional spelling rules. For children's reading books, sight words can account for up to 75% of the words in the text.

Therefore, it's best to combine the study of phonics with the learning of these sight words for maximum effectiveness. This is something to consider when engaged in your long-term planning.

The most effective strategy for learning these sight words is for discussion another day; for the remainder of this article, we will focus exclusively on the teaching of phonics.

THE STAGES OF PHONICS TEACHING

Before beginning to teach phonics, it is helpful to have a broad overview of the various stages that comprise a comprehensive synthetic phonics program. The following outline can serve as a practical general guide.

1. THE PRE-PHONICS STAGE

Before beginning to learn phonics in earnest (e.g. sound/letter correspondences), certain prerequisite skills need to be developed, including:

LISTENING SKILLS:

Children must be able to listen carefully to the sounds of speech. They must learn to filter speech sounds from other unrelated environmental sounds. This is usually best achieved by playing various listening games. When children have developed good aural comprehension, the game Simon Says is a fun way to further develop listening skills.

SOUND REPRODUCTION SKILLS:

Once the children have learned to discriminate between various sounds, they should learn to reproduce these themselves. This is usually achieved by modelling the sounds carefully for the children and encouraging them to copy these with particular attention paid to the shape of the mouth when making each sound. The popular fun game Telephone is excellent for this.

SEQUENCING SKILLS:

It is essential for children learning to read to be able to sequence not only the events of a story but the individual sounds of the words they hear. They must be able to recognize which sound comes before or after another. They should also be familiar with sequencing language such as first, second, before, after, then etc.

We have a complete guide to sequencing for teachers and students here.

2. SOUNDS AND ACTIONS

With our younger kids, it can be challenging to give them an anchor to 'hold on to the sounds of language.

To help build such an anchor to these sounds, which will later help link sounds to written letters, actions are often connected to each sound to aid in memorizing them. This is especially useful in the early stages as it works well for the most basic of sounds.

For example, when making the /m/ sound, children could be taught to rub their tummies as if they have eaten something delicious while saying " mmmmm ".

Or, they could open their mouths wide as if they were eating an apple while saying the /a/ sound.

It is easy to devise customized actions to go along with the various sounds of English and then teach these to your class. Ensure you consistently use the same actions every time for a specific sound to avoid confusion.

Later, when students come to segment words into their individual sounds, they can use these actions to help recall them.

3. THE LETTER AND SOUNDS CORRESPONDENCES

Explicitly teaching the letter and sound correspondences lie at the heart of good phonics teaching.

It is essential to understand a little of the theory of synthetic phonics to be effective here. Here are a few important points to consider:

● Letter Names vs. Letter Sounds

It is crucial that children understand the difference between the names of the letters of the English alphabet and the sounds, as these are two very different things. For example, the letter c is called / see/ but the letter itself usually denotes either a /k/ or /s/ sound. It may seem obvious, but many teachers not trained in the teaching of phonics overlook this distinction and unwittingly make learning to read much more difficult for their students as a result.

● Letters Don't Make The Sounds

As the limited letters used in English are needed to represent many different sounds, it's important to point out to students that letters don't make the sounds; they are simply an option for showing the sound. Often there will be more than one way to show the same sound; for example, the sound /s/ can be encoded in several different ways, including as s, c, and ps. When you are asking your students to write something, you can make the sound and ask them what letter they could use to show this sound. This type of phrasing reinforces the correct relationship between the letters and sounds.

● Avoid The Lazy Vowels

It is also important to remember that when teaching the letters and sounds to avoid making the lazy vowel or schwa sound at the end of a sound. For example, when pronouncing the /k/ sound, make it crisp and short, rather than adding in an extra -uh sound at the end. This will make it much easier for the students to blend sounds together later.

HOW TO PLAN A PHONICS LESSON FOR YOUR CLASS

The detail and delivery of your phonics lessons will depend greatly on the specific situation of your students. However, some general points will be helpful to consider when planning a phonics lesson for your class.

● Keep Phonics Lessons Short and Sweet

To avoid getting bogged down and boring your kids, keep phonics lessons short. In and around 10 to 15 minutes is ideal and no more than 20 minutes. Remember, we want our kids to be lifelong readers, and that means they need to enjoy it!

● Be Consistent

There is a lot of ground to cover here, and consistency is key. If your students are learning to read, they'll need to practice and study their phonics every day - preferably at the same time each day too.

● Keep on Moving

While a lot of reinforcement will be required over the course of the year, research has shown that keeping a brisk pace through a phonics program achieves the best results. Don't get bogged down waiting for everyone to get everything before moving on. You will be revisiting the material.

● Keep Things Fun!

Learning to read should be a positive experience, particularly as learning to read means acquiring one of the most empowering skills a child will ever have. To keep things fun, be sure to incorporate lots of enjoyable activities and games into your phonics lessons.

TEACHING ACTIVITIES FOR ANY TEXT - GREAT FOR GUIDED READING

Phonics Games and Activities
I Spy
This perennial classic is a fun way to get some phonics practice in. You can adapt it to say, "I spy with my little eye something beginning with..." and say a sound rather than a letter. If you wish to work on letter recognition rather than sound, simply hold up the letter itself quietly.
Sorting Activities
Sorting activities are a great way for students to practice their phonics knowledge and can take on an almost infinite number of variations. For example, younger kids may enjoy sorting objects into two hula hoops on the floor, which are labelled with their initial consonant sounds, while older kids might work on consonant blends.
Bingo
Bingo is another very versatile game that can be used to practice sound and letter recognition. Simply decide what you want to work on and place those into suitably sized grids (9×9 works well). These could be initial consonants, vowel digraphs, or pictures of nouns. If you set up some blank grids on laminated sheets, you can save yourself a lot of prep time too. Simply write a broad selection of sounds you are working on onto the whiteboard. Students can select 9 of them to fill in their laminated grid. Now each student will have their own unique bingo card!
Partner Reading
Partner reading is a great way to practice listening skills, as well as reading. Organize students into pairs and provide them each with a copy of the same text. One partner reads the text while the other follows closely with their own copy. The listening partner helps the reader decode difficult words when they have trouble. After a time, partners switch roles. This usually works best when partners are of a similar ability. You can further differentiate here by choosing different texts to suit the abilities of each pair.
Shared Writing
Shared writing is an effective means of introducing independent writing activities. For beginning students, it may take the form of simply spelling a basic CVC word together. For example, to work on the spelling of the word cat, you could draw three cradles on the whiteboard and say each sound; in turn, challenge the students to come up and write the corresponding letter in the cradle until they have written the word - -.

As we can see, the teaching of phonics is a highly efficient and effective means of teaching our children to read and, ultimately, write. It works on training students to be able to hear the various sounds of English, identify these sounds, and link these sounds to the symbols we call letters.

While there are other methods of learning to read employed with emergent readers in the classroom, in two decades of teaching, I've never seen another methodology come anywhere close to phonics for overall effectiveness.

And, best of all, phonics can be a lot of fun to learn and teach too!

OTHER GREAT ARTICLES RELATED TO PHONICS

The content for this page has been written by Shane Mac Donnchaidh. A former principal of an international school and English university lecturer with 15 years of teaching and administration experience. Shane's latest Book, The Complete Guide to Nonfiction Writing, can be found here. Editing and support for this article have been provided by the literacyideas team.

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Teaching Phonics: A Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers

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A guide to teaching phonics to students including phonemic awareness, reading fluency, phonics sounds for reading and, phonics games and activities. Teach kids to read through a logical research based method.

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These "word mats" are collections of worksheets that include a wide variety of practice between vocabulary and spelling. They can come in individual collections, or as one big bundle, to keep what the students are learning relevant to the time of year.

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Word Mats BUNDLE ~ Daily Language Practice and Language Review for the Whole Year include 20 printable and digital ELA worksheets for 10 months of the school year. Great for small group instruction, literacy centers, homework, and morning work. These activities cover different language arts skills and standards for students to practice and review.

This resource is comprehensive and provides a lot of spiraling ELA practice each month. Questions and activities to review phonics, sentences, punctuation, rhyming words, sight words, printing, grammar, vocabulary, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and more!
Buy the bundle and SAVE $9 (2 packs for FREE)! This COMPLETE BUNDLE is a collection of my monthly Word Mat resources. Each pack is NOW included!
View the previews and products included BELOW.

Look at the PREVIEW for a look at the 4 ways to use Word Mats and a breakdown of what a Word Mat looks like and how it can be used.

The activities align to the Common Core standards for first grade.

This is perfect for first grade, but could also be used for a challenge in Kindergarten and for extra practice/as review for second grade.

Additional pages are provided for Canadian users. Additional pages include Canadian spelling.

4 ways to use Word Mats in your classroom!
1. Print Word Mats on cardstock, laminate, and use with whiteboard markers!
2. Shrink and print Word Mats and use in your interactive notebooks!
3. Copy Word Mats back to back with the cover page to create a booklet!
4. Copy and put into a folder. Use for morning work or fast finishers!

The skills covered in Word Mats include:
*Rhyming Words - Word Families
*Printing/Handwriting
*Nouns
*Verbs
*Pronouns
*Adjectives
*Prepositions
*Sentences
*Capitalization
*Punctuation
*Commas
*Spelling
*Phonics
*Vocabulary
*Sight Words
*Opposites
*Blends
*Digraphs
*Vowel Teams
*Final -e
*Letter Sounds - initial/medial/endings
*Vowels (short & long)
*Affixes
*Root Words
*Categories
*Compound Words

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Word Work Daily Language Practice Mats BUNDLE

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Word Mats BUNDLE ~ Daily Language Practice and Language Review include 20 printable and digital ELA worksheets for 10 months of school. Great for small group instruction, literacy centers, homework, and morning work. The activities cover different language arts skills and standards for students to practice and review.

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This is an article that gives a lot of great suggestions about how to run a curriculum that gets vocabulary running through students' minds every day. If you decide to go with the "meetings" that she suggests, you'll definitely instill learning first thing in the morning.

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Instructions, curriculum, and tips for teaching a word study program to young children in the classroom. Includes free morning message ideas for teachers.
By Proud to be Primary

Teaching a Word Study Program

In my first grade classroom, I've used a combination of strategies, programs, and activities throughout the year to teach my students phonics, words, and spelling in order to learn to read and write. Most years, I usually teach a grade 1/2 combined class so that means a lot of differentiation is needed to meet the needs of all my learners. This post will explain how I go about teaching a word study program.

I am a firm believer in a balanced literacy approach where I adapt my instruction every day to meet the needs of my learners in order for them to develop reading and writing skills. That being said, my program is not completely phonics-based. I incorporate a balance of phonics (word families, vowels), sight word instruction, as well as spelling and word study.

I will explain a few of the key components of my program today.

Sight Words: Why are SIGHT WORDS important?

I am a firm believer in a language arts program that teaches and reviews sight words. Sight words are those words that have a high-frequency presence in printed materials that children read. As children build their sight word recognition, they are able to read more books.

I have seen how beneficial it is to my early readers once they have learned new sight words. Their confidence goes way up, they enjoy reading books, and they feel successful!

Word Families: Why are WORD FAMILIES important?

Word families are chunks or patterns within words that rhyme. They provide predictable patterns to help emergent readers understand our language. Once students understand the 37 most common word families in English, they are able to decode 500 words!

I teach the patterns in word families throughout the year because they help my students develop their decoding and ability to sound out words. Once they learn those word families, they are able to decode so many words quickly. This puts them well on their way to reading and decoding success!

Spelling: Why is a SPELLING program important?

I use a spelling program in my classroom so every student has a list of words to learn and practice at home. My spelling program is mostly phonics based and each unit I teach reviews the short and long vowels, digraphs and diphthongs, blends, and more.

Here is the chart I use in my classroom to keep things organized. It has my spelling words, sight words, and word families for the week all in one place.

I use each week to review the phonetic concept that is present in that spelling unit. My students develop not only the ability to spell words, but read and understand a new phonetic pattern or rule. They can then use those skills to read new material and write independently.

Daily Five

Word study and phonics lessons and activities occur frequently during our week. I usually have a designated time of the week to work on spelling, sight words, and word families. This coming year I plan on incorporating the Daily 5 system of word work, where my students will be working on something every day. With the Daily 5 system, you need to organize your literacy blocks throughout the day, instead of the whole class working on the same activities at the same time.

During this time, I pull small groups to work on word study concepts, while my students are completing their word work activities.

Morning Meetings

Morning meetings are a very important part of every day in my classroom. I use morning meetings to review and introduce new word study concepts.

Activities Completed Each Morning:

1. Introduce or review spelling words for the week.

I have the words posted in a chart and we review these words in different ways each day.

2. Complete our morning message.

I change the type of message every day. I write them related to what we are doing during the day or our current themes. Sometimes I leave words out, letters out, or vowels or consonants out for students to figure out and fill in as a class.

Here is an example of a morning message where I have left out consonants for students to figure out and fill in.

3. Work with word families and practice phonics skills.

We complete different activities each day to mix things up and reach all learners and styles. Some of the activities I like us to do together is brainstorm words that rhyme, fill-in sentences with words missing, and come up with sentences using the short or long vowel pattern we are practicing that week.

If you are interested in a copy of my morning meeting schedule for the week to use for teaching a word study program, click HERE to download!

Word Study Curriculum

I have created a sight word program called Learning to Read & Spell with Sight Words. I have created a resource to use when teaching each of the Dolch words lists: Pre-Primer, Primer, First Grade, and Second Grade. You can see how I run my sight word program using this program HERE.

I have used this complete curriculum in my classroom with great success. It has allowed me to differentiate for all my learners in a kindergarten, first, and second grade combined classrooms. It is sequential and we are able to continue at the end of one list (pack) and move on to the next list (pack) and materials after. The activities are the same, with a few variations and levels of difficulty.

Sight Word Resources

If you are thinking of purchasing the curriculum and want to see a sample, you can grab this FREE unit HERE which includes a week's worth of materials and activities for your classroom.

To see the Learning to Read & Spell with Sight Words curriculum, click HERE.

Grab the complete curriculum in a giant BUNDLE HERE.

Phonics Resources

To teach phonics and rhyming word families, I have created a phonics program called Phonics are Fun. I have created a resource to use when teaching each of the short vowels. Check out how I teach word families using this program HERE.

I am excited to use this curriculum because it is comprehensive and I have all the materials I need in one place. I am able to differentiate for all my learners and have multiple activities at different times of the day.

Grab the Phonics are Fun BUNDLE featuring 5 short vowel packs with materials to teach 19 word families at a discount.

What are the key components of your word study program?
Learning Sight Words Teaching Sight Words Sight Word Books for Kids
More Ideas for Teaching

PIN

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Instructions, curriculum, and tips for teaching a word study program to young children in the classroom. Includes free morning message ideas for teachers. By Proud to be Primary In my first grade classroom, I've used a combination of strategies, programs, and activities throughout the year to teach my students phonics, words, and spelling in order to learn to read and write.

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Elementary books
This list of books comes not only with a cheap price, but it is recommended by book experts. Added bonus? You are able to buy in bulk! (Hence the name)

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Buy New Books in Bulk for Elementary Schools | Free Shipping

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Choose from over 3 million book titles and save up to 55% off publisher prices when you buy books in bulk. Easy ordering. POs accepted. 25 copy minimum order. Free Shipping in continental USA.

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This website offers many games based on the TV shows aired on PBS. Kids can interact with their favorite characters to practice vocabulary skills.

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Learn new vocabulary words and play games with your favorite PBS KIDS characters like Molly of Denali, Super Why, Curious George, Clifford, and Elmo!

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The tips and tricks expressed here are simple, but important. There are also a few links to additional resources that may help in some topic areas. It is all relevant to the literacy assessment topic because they focus on how to monitor reading progress.

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Assessments that provide reliable and valid information about student performance and instructional implementation data are used to inform instruction in important, meaningful, and maintainable ways. Successfully implementing this element will promote schoolwide assessment and analysis of reading achievement data.

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Assessments that provide reliable and valid information about student performance and instructional implementation data are used to inform instruction in important, meaningful, and maintainable ways. Successfully implementing this element will promote schoolwide assessment and analysis of reading achievement data.

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This is a link to a FREE online spelling test. You do need to be able to hear the word they are saying and then attempt to spell it. The website will give you a prompt of what to do.

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What? Spelling is a foundational skill that is necessary for reading and writing proficiency. More...Less

Spelling instruction begins with phonics and phonemic awareness, two major components in reading instruction. Through spelling, students draw on their knowledge of letter and sound relationships and they can begin to decode and encode words.

When? In kindergarten, students begin to explore letter-sound correspondence and the written English language through inventive spelling. More...Less

Throughout the primary grades, students become familiar with basic spelling patterns, like the CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) pattern. As students progress into upper elementary grades and middle school, they are exposed to more complex patterns, such as root words and affixes.

How to teach: Spelling TestMe can be used as a pretest to identify which words students need to practice, as a practice test before a graded test, or as a formative assessment.

Play to learn: Spelling TestMe provides students the opportunity to practice, review and assess their spelling. More...Less

Each word is read aloud and presented in context. Students have the opportunity to listen again by clicking on the "Word" and "Sentence" buttons. Before the final submission, students have the option of reviewing their words. When words are submitted, the test is immediately graded. Students receive immediate feedback on words spelled correctly and incorrectly. Students have the opportunity to further practice their misspelled words.

Teaching Tip: Spelling TestMe allows for differentiated spelling instruction. Teachers can assign different spelling words for students and assess them at the end of the week using Spelling TestMe. It automates the assessment process, generating and grading tests.

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Students can take their Spelling Tests online and get immediate feedback! Results include the correct spelling of incorrect responses, plus additional review activities and the ability to be retested on missed words. Printable spelling test reports and certificates are also available.

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Provided by Mrs. Judy Araujo, this website contains a lot of tips and links to free online tools in order to determine the best assessment for your topic.

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My Favorite Free Online Assessments! TEACHERS, CHECK THIS OUT: A Great Assessment Resource ~ CLICK It is a data base of assessments! You can hone in on exactly what you want to assess and at what level. There's also a handy test comparison chart! Reading Readiness Assessments: AASSA ~ Click on "Assessment." This is a great resource with testing from PreK - 2nd grade. You can assess in Spanish, as well: Core Phonics Survey # Known Phonemes (number correct/ 47= %), Auditory Deletion (grade level), Yopp Singer (number correct / 22 = %), IOTA (grade equivalent), Morrison-McCall (grade equivalent ~ ignore the column where it says spelling age), Sight Words (number correct / 92 = %) Sight Words: Other Assessments: Reading Comprehension: Here are great FREE comprehension tests from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System: I am always asked how I track comprehension. I use the DRA2 kit. On my Expectations By Grade Level page, the expectations are based on the DRA2 standards. Ask your district to purchase you a kit! 🙂 The DRA2 assesses oral reading as well as comprehension! ------ Word versions of my pages are available for $10/page but do NOT include graphics due to copyright laws. Please pay via the PayPal DONATE button located on the bottom of the left hand menu and email me the names of the pages you would like: judithearaujo@gmail.com. Thank you! Heggerty Phonemic Awareness

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Free Literacy Assessments - Mrs. Judy Araujo, Reading Specialist

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Free literacy assessments! I am always asked how I track comprehension. I use the DRA2 kit. On my Expectations By Grade Level page, the expectations are based on the DRA2 standards. Ask your district to purchase you a kit! :) The DRA2 assesses oral reading as well as comprehension!

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This website offers many suggestions for early elementary students to read, and their suggestions are backed by sources. They even categorize their books by how many sources have recommended them.

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Interested in the very best books for early elementary? The following list includes the most highly rated books for first and second graders based on several published, authoritative sources as described in the Best Books for Kids Methodology.

If you'd rather save a hard copy for reference, download and print an authoritative guide to all the most well-love, highly recommended books for kids in early elementary.

Click here for more Best Books for Kids book lists.

If you're interested in more great books for early elementary (first and second grade), be sure to follow my board on Pinterest:

Related Links:
Best Books for Kindergartners
Best Books for Mid Elementary
Learning Activities for Kids

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Best Books for Early Elementary - ResearchParent.com

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Interested in the very best books for early elementary? The following list includes the most highly rated books for first and second graders based on several published, authoritative sources as described in the Best Books for Kids Methodology.

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Contrary to the title, there are sections dedicated to each reading level. This link is dedicated to 3rd grade readers. I remember reading a lot of these books as kids, they are popular choices. They give you a brief description next to each book suggestion.

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3rd grade reading books for children aged 8-9

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Reading books for 3rd grade children with stories and chapter books by Judy Blume, Roald Dahl, Judy Blume, Joyce Sidman & Beverly Cleary.

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This website has been up and running for many years, I remember it being advertised when I was younger. If you click on the "educational games" button, it will prompt a video explaining the purpose and goal of the whole site.

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ABCmouse.com helps kids learn to read through phonics, and teaches lessons in math, social studies, art, music, and much more! For kids ages 2 to 8.

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Here are a few more alphabet games for kids to play on a PC. There is a wide variety, so it is able to connect to each kids' personal interests.

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Learn Letters and Alphabets by playing the ABC games. The games offer a range of interesting exercises to help kids easily learn all the letters. These alphabet games are fun for everyone.

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Here is another website with some more great advice on how to teach the alphabet in a Kindergarten classroom!

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Teaching the alphabet is core of what we do in kindergarten for many months! There are many moving parts in the classroom that work together to get kids learning the alphabet. So The Kindergarten Connection, Sweet Sounds of Kinder, Kindergarten Smorgasboard, and I have have teamed up to overload you with resources for teaching the alphabet!

How to Effectively Teach the Alphabet in Kindergarten

1. Just read! Seems silly to say but the best way to teach kids the alphabet is to just submerse them in it! As you are doing your normal read alouds, point out the letters and how you are using what is printed on the page to say the words. And then it's also fun to read books about the alphabet; below are some of my favorites!

It's also great to put these books into your writing lab to inspire writing! They are great jump starters for stories!

2. Teach the students the letters in their names. Children have seen the letters in their name more and heard the sounds in those letters their entire life, so it only makes sense to start there. Be sure to visit our Names Pinterest board for TONS of ideas on working with students names!
Follow Simply Kinder's board Names on Pinterest.
3. Add music and movement! So important for little learners and there are so many great videos on YouTube that do this! I also love to incorporate tunes the students already know into our learning and so the below video is perfect for daily practice!

And then as the school year goes on, you still want to continue to teach the alphabet but the kids get a little bored with the same old songs, so we sing it backwards! (They can do it and so can you!)

4. Follow your curriculum (or create a map of how you want to teach the letters.) This is so important because you don't want to confuse your students. If your district has a prescribed curriculum, embrace and make it work. Supplement it where you can with fun and engaging activities. If you don't have curriculum, decide how you want to teach the alphabet. There are many theories on what works, but honestly you will find research that says a letter a day is appropriate and a letter a week is as well. In my perfect work, we would teach 2 letters a week but that's a decision you will have to make if you are able to.

If you don't have curriculum, our Letter of the Week files can help. They are fully comprehensive units that have posters, printables, anchor charts, centers, and lots more! We call it Letter of the Week because it is literally a weeks worth of activities for each letter, but you don't have to be a Letter of the Week teacher. You can definitely use whatever timeframe and all sorts of reading programs and approaches with these printable.

5. Put learning the alphabet into your centers! Centers are where the students really practice and get comfortable with the skills you are teaching! So it's super important that all year you have the alphabet covered in your activities. One of my students favorite centers is our boring old flashcards on binder rings that I keep in a drawer in my writing center. (This is of course more of a spring sentence but at the beginning of the year students can draw other pictures and label them with the same letter they pick.)

6. Track your students growth. Another super important part of teaching the alphabet. I use Checklist Assessments to record what letters my kids can and cannot say the name, sound, and write. This helps me to be able to pull targeted groups and really instruct on what my students are needing!

7. Include crafts and make it fun! So important to understand that our little learners need crafts and activities to create meaning! Again so many crafts and activities you can do, but I love Alphabet Hats because they go home with the students and the parents adore them! (Be sure to click over for a free hat!)

Making it fun does not have to mean arts and crafts either. Kids love doing Interactive Alphabet Notebooks where they can cut, glue, and assemble all sorts of little flip flaps. Can kinders do them? YES. Our Interactive Notebooks are make with easy cuts that repeat again and again. You will model the first couple times and then kids will get it. These are truly a great tool because it is fun and academic.

8. Practice for fluency! Once your students have a good basis of the letters, you will want to have them pick up the speed and create some automaticity in their knowledge! Letter cards or word searches are great resources to do this. Students can start by just identifying specific letters by circling the or dotting them with a bingo dotter. This will get them used to seeing the letter all mixed up and then as the year moves on they can read those letters for speed and fluency!

9. Keep your families well informed. We really need our families to help reinforce what we teach in the classroom and that is especially important when learning the alphabet. We need our parents to be on the same page with how to form the letters, teaching upper or lower case letters first, and etc. These Alphabet Brochures can help with that.

Alphabet Bracelets are also a great activity to do in class that lets parents know what letters we worked on in class.

When all of those elements fall into place, teaching and learning the alphabet is a lot more effective!

So I have teamed up with some of my friends to get you more information on teaching the alphabet!

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How to Teach the Alphabet - Simply Kinder

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Teaching the alphabet is core of what we do in kindergarten for many months! There are many moving parts in the classroom that work together to get kids learning the alphabet. So The Kindergarten Connection, Sweet Sounds of Kinder, Kindergarten Smorgasboard, and I have have teamed up to overload you with resources for teaching the alphabet!

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This is just a list of a few interactive activities that do not involve a computer screen. I love the idea of making monsters or funny faces out of letters during a crafting time!

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Alphabet activities make learning their ABCs more fun for kids. There are so many ways to practice your ABCs, you might be able to do one alphabet activity a day for a year without repeating. We've gathered 36 super-fun alphabet activities so kids can play and learn every day. Share this article with parents too so kids can practice at home!

1. Read alphabet books

Always our number-one go-to, especially with little ones: Read, read, read! There are hundreds of books to choose from that explore the alphabet. Here's a list of 16 of our favorite alphabet books to help you get started.

2. Play alphabet hide-and-seek

Set up a sensory bin with sand, rice, or cornmeal and hide plastic alphabet bins inside. Challenge students to find a letter, identify its name and sound, and keep track of the letters they find on a whiteboard or piece of paper.

3. Write letters on dried beans

Large dried white beans are inexpensive to purchase and easy to write on. Grab a Sharpie and write all the upper- and lower-case letters on them. Then put each set in a pile (or baggie) and ask your kids to match them.

4. Line up in alphabetical order

Give each student an 8 x 11 piece of card stock with one letter written on it. Call out the ABCs one at a time and have students line up in alphabetical order. For example, call out the letter A. Students will look at their cards and whoever has A will start the line. Next, call out the letter B. That student joins the line. Continue until you get to the end of the alphabet.

5. Match uppercase and lowercase letters

Help your students learn to match uppercase and lowercase letters with this fun game. Using a Sharpie, label a divided container (like a mini quick pan or muffin tin) with lowercase letters. Give students a collection of uppercase alphabet beads and have them place the corresponding letter in the right compartment.

6. Use alphabet tracing strips

Sometimes learning a new skill takes repetition. Give students time to practice writing the letters in the alphabet with alphabet tracing strips.

7. Letter sort with sticky notes

Write individual letters on sticky notes and then place them all over your house or just on every stair in a staircase. This practice game has a lot of variations-all tied to sorting. Ask kids to sort by:

Lowercase letters

Uppercase letters

Letters in their name

Straight lines (H)

Curved lines (c)

Both curved and straight lines (B)

Consonants

Vowels

For even more practice, have them sort their finds into alphabetical order, match lowercase letters to uppercase letters, and then, find a way to sort them that's new.

8. Use Q-tips

Let students dip Q-tips into paint and fill in letters on these Q-tip Letter Cards. Other tools you can use are pencil erasers or pushpins that students can use to poke holes.

9. String together letter beads

Letter recognition is the first step on the way to literacy. Help your students learn their letters with this fun bead-stringing activity. All you need is pipe cleaners, large alphabet beads, and small alphabet beads.

10. Write letters in shaving cream

Squirt shaving cream on a table and let your kids write letters in the cream. Smooth it out to erase and start again. Bonus: Their hands and your table will be cleaner than ever!

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11. Serve up some alphabet soup

Teach kids name recognition with this alphabet soup game. Get instructions at Play Teach Repeat.

12. Take it outside

Take your little ones outside with sidewalk chalk and let them practice their letters in the sunshine. Give students letter cards attached to an O-ring to work from.

13. Bend letters with pipe cleaners

Pipe cleaners have always been a trusted source for fine motor practice as well as a fun craft resource. Now use them to have kids create uppercase and lowercase letters.

14. Use an ABC floor mat

Invest in an inexpensive interlocking foam alphabet floor mat for your classroom. Kids can get down on hands and knees and trace each letter with their finger. Or do a little one-on-one with a student and have them hop to the letters you call out. For more ideas, check out this list of activities.

15. Make sensory ABC bags

This one is great because you can change up what you put in the bags and even move to sight words. You'll need a gallon bag with a ziplock top. Add letters written on pieces of paper, magnetic letters, scrabble tiles, or anything else you can think of with letters. Then fill the bag with rice or oatmeal and seal it. Kids dig through the rice in the bag to find the letters. When they find them, they write down the letter they find until they locate all 26 letters of the alphabet.

16. Find invisible letters with watercolors

This is a classic. Using a white crayon, draw letters on a piece of white paper. Give your kids watercolors, let them paint the paper, and watch the letters appear.

17. Play musical alphabet

Set up letters in a big circle on the floor. You can use magnetic letters or just write them on index cards. Put music on and have your child walk around the circle to the music. When the music goes off, your child tells you the closest letter. Expand on it: Ask your child to name three things (colors, animals, etc.) that start with that letter.

18. Sponge the alphabet

Cut sponges into letters and use them for sponge painting letters or playing in the tub, or at school at a water table.

19. Put together name puzzles

Write the uppercase and lowercase letters in a name and then cut them apart in a simple zigzag. Mix up the letters and ask a child to match them up and put them in the right order.

20. Make letters from nature

Discover the alphabet right outside your door. Choose natural objects that already look like letters, or arrange them to form letters of the alphabet.

21. Eat your ABCs

We know from Alphabet Soup that eating your ABCs is plain old fun. So think of all the ways you can practice the alphabet at mealtime. Pancakes can be made into letters, Jell-O can be cut into letters, noodles can be used to make letters, and there's even a recipe from Raspberri Cupcakes for making alphabet marshmallows.

22. Go on an alphabet scavenger hunt

The fun part about this for grown-ups is that there is no prep. Tell kids to go find objects that start with each letter of the alphabet. To make this game take longer, designate spots for them to bring each item back-one at a time. Every item must be approved before they can move on to the next. This allows for fewer meltdowns at the end when an item is deemed inaccurate.

23. Make your own ABC book

Personalizing the ABCs helps kids process and retain their learning. One of our favorite alphabet activities starts by creating a book out of 26 pieces of paper and staples or hole punches with a ribbon. Have kids write an uppercase and lowercase letter on each page. Finally, have them draw or cut out pictures of things that start with each letter.

24. Create ABC pop-up books

Use the tutorial video to learn how to make different kinds of pop-up pages. Then, create a page per week for 26 weeks for each letter. At the end, use a glue stick to glue them all together to make an ABC pop-up book!

25. Stamp letters in play dough

Roll out play dough and push letter stamps right into the dough. Alphabet activities using play dough are both tactile and great for practicing pre-reading skills.

26. Make tactile letter cards

There's lots of research (and experience) to support the value of using all the senses to learn. Making these tactile alphabet cards will be fun and have lasting benefits.

27. Trace letters in spices

This one combines touch, smell, and sight. It gives you an opportunity to talk about what we use spices for as well. Put the bottle in front of a child and have them write the spice name in the spice to make things a bit more challenging.

28. Study a letter of the week

Many pre-K and kindergarten classes do a letter of the week, and for good reason. Teaching instant recognition of letters and practicing writing them is so important for learning to read. Doing alphabet activities for one letter each week reinforces knowledge and recollection.

29. Do the yoga alphabet

Show kids this video and take the time to learn each yoga pose. Connecting the mind and the body is great for learning.

30. Sing songs about the alphabet

Everyone loves to sing The Alphabet Song, but did you know there are lots of other songs to sing that can help you remember the alphabet? Try out this Sesame Street favorite.

31. Draw pictures from letters

Using letters as a starting point, teach kids how to draw. If this is too difficult at first, just write a letter and then draw a picture around the letter.

32. Highlight letters on a page

Print a page of text or grab your favorite magazine and a highlighter. Ask kids to highlight as many of one letter as they can find. This is also great for sight word recognition. Here's a freebie from The Inspired Apple to get you started.

33. Do-a-Dot letter tracing

These fruit-scented dot markers you can buy on Amazon make tracing letters more fun and help kids with directionality and remembering how to write and recognize letters.

34. Play letter slap

Make two sets of index cards with all the letters on them (52 cards in all). Shuffle the cards together and deal them so each kid holds 26 cards. Together each player takes their top card and turns it upright. The player with the letter closest to A wins the hand and takes the card. If two of the same letter are played, the players slap the card. The one on the bottom of the slip wins the hand. The game ends when one player holds all the cards.

35. Match plastic egg letters

Surely you have some plastic Easter eggs hanging around your attic. Use a Sharpie or letter stickers to put an uppercase letter on one half and a lowercase letter on the other. Then separate the two and throw them all in a basket. Kids pull them out and match them up. Tip: Add difficulty by not coordinating the colors.

36. Create loose-part letters

Loose parts are exactly what they sound like-a collection of loose materials or objects. These can be small pebbles, bottle caps, random LEGO bricks, seeds, keys-anything. Draw big letters on a piece of paper and have kids line up loose parts to make the letter.

Recognizing letters is a fundamental part of learning how to read. Without it, children struggle to learn letter sounds and identify words. Beginning readers who know their alphabet have a much easier time learning to read. Making alphabet practice a part of every day in fun ways helps create a lifelong love for letters and words.

What games and activities do you like to use for practicing the alphabet? Come share in our We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Plus, check out our favorite activities using alphabet beads and the best alphabet books.

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36 Fun, Easy Ways for Kids To Practice Their ABCs

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Alphabet activities rule the early childhood classroom. Here are 36 different ways to give kids the practice they need to be ready to read.