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https://app.livestorm.co/lalilo/distance-learning-with-lalilo

Also Interactive slides and sign up to check it out https://lalilo.com/blog/2020/04/30/lalilos-interactive-worksheets-for-google-slides-beginning-digraphs/

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District Literacy Center Training Exit Pass

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District Literacy Center Training Exit Pass

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Segmentation Activities and Counting syllables

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Segmentation Activities and Counting syllables

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I'm always looking for new word work ideas and activities for literacy centers. And new ways to make them fun and engaging for students. Here are some ideas for using using plastic hammers, Play Doh and paint strips! Some of the the links below are referral links, which means, I will earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

I have one kindergarten student who is just stuck at segmenting words for phonemic awareness activities. One way I found to keep her engaged and help her stretch out those sounds is by using small plastic hammers, paint strips (I use these for so many things!) and Play Doh! I roll out 3 small balls of Play Doh and place these in the paint strip boxes. She needs the visual boundaries of the boxes to help her separate the sounds. Then we draw a card of a word to segment. She uses the hammer to tap out the sounds in the words. You can also use the hammer on phonics posters and ABC linking charts. Call out the picture clue and have students tap the picture and name the letter that goes with the picture. Students can also use the hammers as they read inflection charts. Or the teacher can make the ing sound and students tap the picture that goes with your sound. For fluency ideas and activities, these hammers really help with reading words in phrases. They tap and read- She can. Then tap and read- be there. If students are having difficulty reading in phrasing this can really help having a visual and the movement of only one tap per phrase. Students enjoy Bang It Out using the hammers to break the word cards into syllables. Then they Tap It Out for the sounds in each syllable. Breaking words into syllables and then hearing the sounds in closed syllables really helps students to spell multisyllabic words. Which also helps them to be able to break and read them too. You can find these fun hammers here. Of course, you have to set clear examples for how these hammers are to be appropriately used. My students have really enjoyed them and ask for them in our activities!

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Counting Syllables and Closed Syllable Word Work

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I'm always looking for new word work ideas and activities for literacy centers. And new ways to make them fun and engaging for students. Here are some ideas for using using plastic hammers, Play Doh and paint strips!

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I would put stickers on dice and hand write letters and put in old pill bottles. Kids roll and build word and decide if it is a real or nonsense word.

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Roll a Word Phonics Dry Erase Activity - Fantastic Fun & Learning

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By · This content may contain affiliate links. In our domino math activity I shared how we love to use dry erase markers to get a lot of practice on specific skills without going through a ton of paper. But dry erase activities aren't just for math, there are a ton of ways to use them for reading instruction too.

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Sight Word Organizational Idea for independent or Peer Practice

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Sight Word Organizational Idea for independent or Peer Practice

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Last updated on October 28, 2019

Decoding Drills for fluency are here! So you've taught a new phonics skill...now what? Sure, your students can remember short a says /a/ when they are staring at an a, but what about when there are other letters there, too? What about when they read a sentence and there are words with other vowel sounds? *gasp* If your students struggle to apply phonics when reading, this resource is for YOU!

Why should I use Decoding Drills?

If you know me at all, you know that I read research for pleasure. Seriously! Find me lounging by the pool tanning with publications from the National Reading Panel in hand. That stuff fascinates me! Decoding Drills were born out of an abundance of research and experience teaching struggling readers. Research shows that students learn to read most effectively when:

The teacher models how to blend 1-2 words before the student attempts to blend/read. (Don't forget this part! 😉)

Students read nonsense words (with the target phonics skill) first, so the sole focus of the activity is in decoding.

Students read real words (with the phonics skill) to gain exposure to vocabulary.

Students are provided with spiral skill review: learn a new skill, but continue practicing the old skills.

Decoding Drills incorporate all of the above in a fun, engaging, and convenient format. Ta-da! Decoding practice problems are now solved. 🙌

What about fluency?

When the things I mentioned above are incorporated into a repeated activity, student decoding/reading will increase in speed. Thus, they will see great gains in reading fluency! #winwin Your students will be fluent decoding rock stars in no time!

When should I use Decoding Drills?

I've been using decoding drills at the beginning of intervention blocks. Students pick up where we/they left off and read the words across the row. Once they are able to fluently read and decode a page, we move onto the next page. However, be careful not to "drill and kill"! This is a quick and effective phonics warm-up activity. We have lots to learn, so this will only last a few minutes.

Decoding Drills can be used in so many ways!

Guided reading warm-ups

Lesson introductions

Quick lesson review/close-out

Whole group (using student copies - see below)

Intervention

One-on-one with a paraprofessional/volunteer

Homework

Informal assessment

Data collection (see below)

How can I use Decoding Drills to build fluency?

Using Decoding Drills consistently will help build fluency. There are two ways that you can use Decoding Drills:

1. Make a class (or small group) set

I printed these on colored card stock. You can also laminate for durability. Cut, hole punch, and keep together with a binder ring. Since there are two per page, you only need half the copies.

I made enough for each student in my small group to have their own copy.

I use them in small groups.

2. Make individual student copies

Print on plain copy paper, staple, and cut in half. Since there are two per page, you only need half the copies.

This is the set you want to copy if you want/need to track student data. See below for more information!

You can use these whole group since every student will have their own set. They can also read in partners/groups.

Collecting data with Decoding Drills

You may notice that the student copy has a data table across the bottom row. This is for you to monitor/track your students' data. I've labeled the boxes "1st read," "second read," "3rd read." The box next to each of those is blank. I know that we/our principals/our districts all want different data points, so I left it blank on purpose. Here you can monitor whatever YOU choose. Here are some information on the types of data you can track in the data table:

Date student read the page

Number of words read correctly

Time it took to read the page

Differentiating with Decoding Drills

Each page has 1-5 stars in the bottom left corner. These indicate the level of difficulty for that decoding page. It also provides the spiral review that we talked about above (because...research!). You can use the stars to differentiate pages for your students, or you can use them to help students progress through a decoding sequence.

Decoding Drills - the Bundle

The short vowel edition of decoding drills is now available in a complete phonics bundle!

Thus bundle includes decoding drills for phonics fluency in the following categories:

The bundle, which includes all of the skills listed above, is available for 20% off.

The bundle is available in my online store as well as Teachers Pay Teachers.

Click here to find the Decoding Drills on Teachers Pay Teachers

FAQ

How do I color code the paper?
I don't! I take a stack of Astrobrights paper, "shuffle it" and stick it in my printer. Since I keep them on rings, I don't need them color-coded. I use to the brightly colored paper to keep it fun and engaging!

What order should I put the Decoding Drills in?

There are a few ways you can organize/order your drills:

by vowel sound

by real/nonsense

by level of difficulty (stars)

Personally, I have mine on rings by vowel sound. However, once students master the vowel sounds, I plan to mix them up and organize them according to level (stars). That's the beauty of the class set on rings...change it to fit what you need!

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Decoding Drills for Building Phonics Fluency

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Last updated on October 28, 2019 Decoding Drills for fluency are here! So you've taught a new phonics skill...now what? Sure, your students can remember short a says /a/ when they are staring at an a, but what about when there are other letters there, too?

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This is a little glimpse into the past couple days:

Foam blocks: Dollar Spot @ Target

Primary colored buckets: Dollar Spot @ Target

Magnetic letters: Dollar Spot @ Target

Printing, laminating, cutting, buying, preparing, organizing. You know how it goes!

As I was shopping and preparing, I found those counting blocks which I knew could have many, many uses. I was thinking back to last year and what my students needed lots of extra help with. BLENDING!

It is a skill that takes my 1st graders a longgggg time to perfect, so I thought I would get a head start on the year and create this cheap and easy center!

All you need is two bags of these foam block sets from the Target Dollar Spot. There are 18 blocks and I used each side making 36 different onsets and 36 different rimes.... and all for $2!

I then created this simple recording page for students to record the real and nonsense words they make:

*I created these onsets/rimes with 1st graders in mind so I wrote lots of beginning blends, digraphs, ending blends, and long vowels. I was sure to add some simple CVC options as well. You could, of course, do all CVC options, all digraphs, or all blends if you want to use them in small groups.

The best part about these blocks is that they already come with storage:

I just slapped a few labels on the original bags they came in and re-zipped 'em!

Easy and cheap. My favorite!

I put all these printables together as a freebie for you in case you want to snag up these blocks yourself!

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Cheap n' Easy Phonics Center - Onset and Rime Activity - Susan Jones Teaching

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Free onset and rime phonics center for primary students. Students practice blending together real and nonsense words and record on the sheet available.

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Teaching children to pick out all of the phonemes (or sounds) in a given word can be tricky! This requires good listening skills and well developed phonemic awareness in general. For some children, mastering phoneme segmentation can seem just about impossible! Here are some teaching tips that have worked for me in the past.

* The best advice I can give is to practice segmenting words with a designated MOTION for a short time every single day with your whole class. Even just one or two minutes per day will help! Look for suggested motions on this post. There is also a downloadable list of words to use, plus a homework sheet that you can download here.

Here is where you can get another word list for practicing words with two, three, and four phonemes.

And here is another post with lists of words with four, five, or six phonemes.

* Give kids beads to slide down a pipe cleaner as they segment the word. I made these "Segmentation Sliders" out of pipe cleaners and Push-Up Rings that I found here. My students absolutely LOVED doing this in small groups and BEGGED for them every time they thought I might give in! It was totally worth making them! I also found these same rings on Amazon! Just search for "stringing rings." (They sure look like Froot Loops!) They come in different shapes as well, so you could also use them for patterning and sorting, etc, and they fit nicely on pipe cleaners, so the children would be using their fine motor skills as well- always a plus!

* Have children practice segmenting words by pulling stretchy toys apart and letting them snap back together when they say the whole word. My students LOVED this! Hint: Practice first with empty hands, and then switch to holding the stretchy toys.

Use stretchy toys to help kids practice sound segmentation! These can sometimes be found in dollar stores, but only after you pay $2.99 for them elsewhere. :)

* Slide chips or tokens into Elkonin Boxes as kids segment the word. Elkonin Boxes, also known as "Sound Boxes," were developed by a Russian Psychologist named D. B. Elkonin. Click here for a free download of some Elkonin Boxes made by ME and a complete explanation of how to use them.

Here is how to use them:

-Give each child in your group a sheet with the boxes on it and some tokens to push.

-Say a word, and the children just slide one token into each box for each sound they hear.

-When your kids get good enough at this, give them the sheet like the white one below, so that they have several choices of how many phonemes there might be in the word you call out. So if you call out a word with five sounds in it, then it will be their job to find all of the phonemes in the word and count them, and then figure out which of the boxed rectangles on the page to use.

-The next step is to slide plastic letters or letter tiles into the boxes.

-The last step is to write the letters in the boxes.

* Give a struggling child a hand mirror and have him or her look at it while he says the word. Have him say the word quickly, and then again in slow motion, and then like a robot- one sound at a time. His lips should be doing the very same thing each time.

* Give the child a phonics phone at the same time as the hand mirror, and have him or her listen carefully while saying the same word you said. The phonics phone amplifies the sound in the child's ears.

A Phonics Phone and a mirror at the same time can help children that struggle with auditory processing issues and phonemic awareness.

* To help add a visual cue to this VERY auditory skill, try touching your finger to your lips each time you say a word that the child is supposed to segment. I trained my kids to watch my lips and then say the same thing back... but slowly. I kept repeating, "Watch my lips... (and then I said the word.) I say to the child, "Watch my lips as I say the word slowly. Now you say the word. Are your lips doing what my lips are doing? If not, then you are not making the right sounds.

This worked GREAT- but- I needed to "wean them off" of that practice in order for them to do well on their assessments. We were not allowed to add in extra instructions like that when testing, so this threw many of the struggling children off when they were tested, unfortunately.

* Sometimes recording the child's own voice saying the word to segment helps. First have him or her say it the normal way, and then have him say it again "in slow motion." If the child is listening to HIMSELF speak, the "light" might go on! I use an iPad or iPhone to make recordings.

Have children record their own voices on a mobile device to help them "hear" the sounds better.

* Double check whether or not the children really understand the directions. The academic vocabulary we use when we give the instructions is sometimes a little above their heads. One thing that helps is giving each phonemic awareness skill a specific motion and sticking with that movement each time you teach it.

Make sure you teach the academic vocabulary that is in the question! Do they know what the word "segment" really means? Try adding a unique motion to each phonemic awareness skill to help keep them separated in their minds. Then USE that same motion consistently.

For example, each time we try to find ending sounds, we say the word and then PUNCH the ending sound hard!

However, when we try to find the middle sounds, we "roller coaster" the word every time. (See photo.) The middle sound is always at the top of the roller coaster.

When we segment the word, I say, "Tell me all of the sounds that you hear in the word, ____." You can have them pull their hands apart as they segment it, as if they were pulling on a giant rubber band.

Here is one motion for word segmentation that works.

We switched to a different motion halfway through the year to try to put some novelty into the lesson, because there were children that weren't getting it that seemed to be tuning me out. So we slid our hands down our arms from the shoulder to the hand, as I described before.

Here is a alternative motion for segmenting words or for blending sounds together.

* Make SURE that you do NOT always stick with three sound words (like CVC words) for a very long time, or your students may begin to expect that all words will have just three sounds!

* Get parents on board if you can. I have included a downloadable sheet with words to practice on. It also has a homework sheet that I developed. It is very simple; kids are supposed to practice the words that you give them on a cover sheet (you'll have to pick the words that you want that week yourself and write them on some kind of cover sheet) and then draw a star or happy face in each box after they try to segment them for an adult. You can download my editable cover sheet for my homework on this blog post here.

* Tip: Figure out how the question is phrased on your phonemic awareness tests, and use that same exact phrasing when you teach. That way, when it is time to test, there should be fewer surprises. If there are sample questions, use the hand motions that you always practice with when cueing the children on those samples. That will help them follow your directions.

I believe that the main "take away lesson" for me as a teacher is that the more that the child struggles to learn, the more important it is to keep the academic vocabulary (and gestures!) that you teach the skill with AND the testing vocabulary IDENTICAL. This will help your low students do the very best that they can on their tests! That way, they can feel GREAT about their results, and YOU can get the credit for being the good teacher that you are!

If your students are working on sounding out words, try the sound blending songs from our Word Family Songs DVD and CD!! They work REALLY well for teaching children to sound out words!

Here are some other blog posts of mine you might find helpful on this topic!

Click HERE to go to this blog post!

Click HERE to go to this blog post!

Click HERE to go to this blog post!

-Heidi :)

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Teaching Phoneme Segmentation: Separating Sounds in Words (Freebies!)

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Teaching children to pick out all of the phonemes (or sounds) in a given word can be tricky! This requires good listening skills and well developed phonemic awareness in general. For some children, mastering phoneme segmentation can seem just about impossible! Here are some teaching tips that have worked for me in the past.

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As a teacher, one of the things I get asked the MOST about is teaching kids to read. For some children it comes so quick and naturally. And for others ... it doesn't. So this post is for the Mama of one of those "others" (and I say that in a kidding and kind way of course. I have two "others" myself).

Now, since this is the topic I get asked about ALL. THE. TIME. I created a special resource to ensure you feel confident with this important step. This resource reveals the very best way to teach letters, sounds, and reading to children. Get ready - it's going to blow your mind! Did you know that you should actually teach your children letters in a different order than A, B, C?
Grab this FREE Guide so you can see exactly how to teach the letters and sounds (and why!) Once you have this guide, you are set to begin with the activities in this post!
Okay ... ready? You know now which order you are going to teach the letters, AND why you are going to do it in this way. Feeling confident? You are going to rock this! Here we go!

Learning to Read: Name Letter Activities

Teaching kids to read actually begins with your child's name, so I hope you chose it carefully! Ha! The letters that make up a child's name hold meaning to a child - those letters are important. So important, in fact, that I wrote an entire post all about this very first step:

Name Letter Activities for Kids - Here are loads of ways to play and practice name letters with kids. Whether you are looking for crafts, activities, or games, I have got you covered.

Teaching Kids to Read: Wonderful Word Blending Activities

The free guide you downloaded at the beginning of this post shares with you how to teach children their letter sounds. Once a child knows the sounds letters make, they can start "sounding out words" letter by letter. Slowly but surely they can then push those sounds seemlessly, faster and faster, into the sound of a familiar word. This skill is called word blending.
Please Note Two Things: First of all, these activities use all sorts of letters. Please use the letters shared in the groupings in the guide provided to you at the beginning of this post. Small groups of letters shared in a sequential manner really, really benefits young children learning to read. Secondly, some of these activities allow for children to build nonsense words like GAT or JIT. Do not worry about this confusing your child or encouraging poor spelling. This is a necessary skill when teaching kids to read. A child that can sound out any word blend correctly, whether the word exists or not, is a confident child that deeply understands their letter sounds. Down the road, this skill will help them read complex words that are new to them.
Active Word-Blending Fun

Quiet Time Bins - Little ones love to play with skills they are learning all on their own. I made learning to read quiet bins for my boys to use during their rest time. These were a huge hit!

Driving Word Blends, By The Balanced Literacy Project via OISE - Drive slowly through each letter and pick up speed as your kiddo blends each word with greater ease.

Frog Hop, By Fantastic Fun and Learning - Your child can help their favorite animal blend sounds by hopping from one letter to the next. Monkeys can hop on trees, chickens can hop into nests - my favorite! - you get it.

Sponge Bowling, By Toddler Approved - If your child sounds the word out correctly, they get a chance to knock it down. Keep it fun if they don't knock down every letter. They ca sound out the ones they did knock down or the ones that are left over.

Gross Motor Word Blending Activities

Snowball Toss, By I Can Teach My Child - This shows more of a sight word activity, but we can easily turn it into a word blending game. Write single letters onto your ping-pong balls and word endings onto the cups. Kids say the word they are about to create (adding B to AT written on cup) before tossing the ball into the right cup.

Word Blend Hop, Source Alumnoon.com via My King's List - Kids will have so much fun hopping to each sound to build words. They will even forget they are learning!

Word Blend Stomp - On cue cards, write then tape a few word family endings to the floor in one column. Then add a second column of single letters. Call out a word like "can" and have your child jump on "C" then "AN."

Musical Blending, By The First Grade Parade - Place paper plates with word endings in a circle and give each child an index card with a letter. When the music stops, children face a plate and say the word built by adding their letter to the paper plate ending. If it's a nonsense word, they're out, if it's a real word they keep playing.

Large Matching Games, By Hands on as We Grow - Instead of matching sight words, one column can have consonants, while the other has word endings for children to match and build words. Add a column with photos of the words to be built as an additional cue.

Crafty Word Blending

Vowel Tree, By Living Montessori Now - Get creative with your kiddo and craft this tree together on a wall or on your fridge using your choice of materials. Use laminated letters that attach with magnets or velcro and place them in an envelope beside the tree. I can see little ones playing with the letters independently, experimenting with different sounds, or trying to re-create words provided.

Word Blend Flowers, By A Blog from the Pond - This cute craft is a fun and tactile way for your child to practice their word blending.

Ice Cream Word Families, By Surviving a Teacher's Salary - Craft and decorate these ice cream scoops and cones then have fun playing the suggested games.

Play Dough Word Families, By I Can Teach My Child - Kids use their alphabet stamps or magnets to build words they copy or to add letters to pre-stamped word families. Add a creative twist and challenge your little one to create a model for the word they made.

Playdough Phonics Squish, By Katelyn's Learning Studio - Strengthen fine motor skills and appeal to a kinesthetic learner in one go. Kids squish a play dough ball each time they sound out a letter.

Word Blending On-the-go

Magic Spoons, By Teaching Bits and Bobs - This fun game really is as easy at it looks. Use spoons or popsicle sticks, paper or a whiteboard.

Word Roll, By Laughing Kids Learn - Kids will love playing with these word rolls at home or on-the-go! This idea can be applied again later when your child is ready to practice sight word families. More advanced ideas are also provided.

Paint Chip Word Families, By Joyfully Weary - Have a little chat about colours while word blending in different word families. Take this activity on-the-go or toss it in a quiet bin for kids to write the words they create.

Teaching Kids to Read: Sight Word Games

Sight words are commonly used words that we want kids to be able to read at sight. Many of them do not follow the regular rules of spelling, so sounding them out each time would be cumbersome. It is especially important to keep learning fun when practicing sight words and teaching kids to read. We are essentially asking kids to memorize and that can get dry pretty fast.

Games to Play with a Friend

Sight Word Bingo, By Squarehead Teachers - Tap into your competitive early reader's heart with this fun variation on Bingo. Children must say their word correctly before using it in the game.

Sight Word Dominos, By NurtureStore - I just love do-it-yourself activities for teaching reading - especially those I can use time and time again as my child's learning progresses! Match dominos based on their first letter sound or based on their rhyme. The possibilities are endless!

Sight Word Walk, By Conversations in Literacy - Tape sight words to the floor in a boardgame-like path. Roll a die and have your child walk the number of steps rolled then say the word they land on. Additional sight word games are mentioned that are especially suitable for classes and small groups.

Sight Word Go-Fish, By Life Sew Savoury - Using a classic game like Go Fish to practice sight words makes teaching kids to read so much more relaxing. Create your own cards or use the printables provided.

Showdown, By Playdough to Plato - This fun 2-player game will really tickle the interest of the competitive kids (inside each of us... *ahem*).

Sight Word Games for Independent Play

Sight Words on the Stairs - popping those sight words on the stairs is a great way to practise sight words daily. Every time little ones go up or down the stairs they can say those words aloud!

Word Family Spoon Sort, By Planning Play Time - Little ones love sorting almost anything, and many kiddos love it even more if it's a race. Invite (or challenge!) or child to sort their sight words into word families using spoons or other familiar.

Object-to-Word Match, By Busy Toddler - The objects in the box serve as visual clues for the words your child may struggle with. This hands-on activity gives them just enough of a challenge to keep them on their toes.

Sight Word Sort-O-Roo, By Growing Book by Book - Have your child sort sight words in different categories by placing them into the correct muffin tin row. Three additional fun muffin tin games are shared.

Sight Word Scavenger Hunt, By Kinders in NY - Rip out a few child-friendly ads or title pages from a magazine or newspaper and set your kiddos out on a sight word scavenger hunt.

Squish and Seek Sight Words, By Playdough to Plato - Write your list of sight words on one side of a large paper. Randomly write those same words on the other end of the paper that will be covered by a paint-filled ziploc bag. Once you're set up, invite your toddler to squish and seek her sight words!

Games to Play When Reading Simple Stories

Don't throw out those baby board books and simple stories just because you have a "big kid" at home! You can build confidence when teaching kids to read if you revisit those simple, cherished stories that you read to them over 100 times. Playing these fun games gets them to see a familiar book in a new way, applying all the fabulous reading skills they are slowly acquiring. In this blog post, Learn to Read using any Simple Story, I share numerous games you can play using simple stories when teaching your child how to read. The following few give you an idea of what you can do:

Find a Vowel - Ask your child to point and identify a vowel. They can show you the sound it makes.

Find Consonants - Alternatively ask your child to find a word that starts with two consonants; what sound do they make?

Sight Word Hunt - Begin by telling your child that you two will be hunting for sight words as you read together. Make it a race!

Follow with their Finger - Invite your child to hold on to your finger as you point and read. Encourage them to eventually try pointing out the words on their own, especially if the book follows a pattern.

Fill-in-the-blanks - Again, if you are using a book that repeats a certain sentence structure, invite your child to "fill-in-the-blanks" with their own ideas. A book that comes to mind is Eric Carle's Head to Toe. "I am an elephant and I stomp my foot. Can you do it?" could turn into "I am a bunny and I wiggle my nose. Can you do it?" They could follow with their finger to know when to add their choice of words.

Silly Rhymes - Go through your favorite rhyming classic and stop reading just before the final word. Invite your child to finish the sentence with a different rhyming word even if it makes no sense! How hilariously silly!

Alright friends - you are set! I hope you and your little ones have so much fun playing some of these games as you teach your child to read. Learning to read can be so fun! And teaching kids to read can be so fun too!

Of course, it is not always fun and games. Sometimes it can get frustrating, and you can start to feel lost as to how to best help your little reader. If this happens, I am just an email away: HowWeeLearn@gmail.com

Happy reading!

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As a teacher, one of the things I get asked the MOST about is teaching kids to read. For some children it comes so quick and naturally. And for others ... it doesn't. So this post is for the Mama of one of those "others" (and I say that in a kidding and kind way of course.

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Do I know everything about how to run literacy stations?

Well {I'll admit it}, no.

I would like to think that I do, but I know each individual is different. I know that the skill sets for all of our kinders vary. You have to find a system that works for you and your students. It has to flow and be manageable. Hopefully, you can at least take away bits and pieces that will help you manage your literacy stations.

I've had a lot of people ask me how I run stations in my room, so I figured I would just take some pictures and do a post about it.

Let me start off with how I set my stations up. I got these baskets off of Really Good Stuff. I've seen similar ones at Target in the dollar section. You just have to keep your eyes peeled for what works best. I found this stand at Walmart. I have to tell you that I would prefer baskets that were a little slimmer. As you can see, the baskets are hanging off the edge a bit. For someone that is a (ahem) bit Type A...this drives me crazy.

My first principal told me that she liked how we had the stations labeled as to what the students were expected to do. This is something that has stuck with me so I haven't changed that. If they are rhyming then the names of the station is "Rhyming Road". If they are expected to look up words in the dictionary then the name of the station is "Dictionary Drive"...etc etc. There is also a picture that matches each station. When they find their picture and their stations for the day on the work station board, they go find the corresponding image on the basket with their station. I just used a binder ring and a hole punch to make that happen. Nothing fancy 🙂

Here is the workstation board. There are 2-3 kids in a group for the ten day rotation. They are literacy station and math tub partners. After the ten day rotation, they switch partners. I change it up as much as I can. I try to put kids at varying levels together in groups. If you look at the top row, those two students will go to ABC Station, Dot Paint (and then if time), Book Buddy Bags. For math tubs, they will do tub 1. This post is only for literacy...I'll come back and do a math tub post at some point. I don't want to overwhelm 🙂

After a day of literacy stations and math tubs, the students on the bottom move to the top and everyone shifts down.

Like I mentioned, I like to name my stations. Some teachers might do images or numbers. If this is a system that you think you would like to implement, you can find all of these cards and the list that has more here:

Here is dictionary drive. The students get a kids dictionary and look for the five words. It builds alphabet awareness and word recognition. I typically put things that we are studying at that point in time. For example, the week we do pumpkins the words might be: pumpkin, sprout, seed, sun, and vine. The students have to find each word, write the word, the page number and then draw a picture.

This is a great kid dictionary to invest in.

After that have searched for the five words, the finished product would look something like this.

I always have a syllable station. I put hand clappers in there with it. The students look at the picture and read the word. Then they clap how many syllables the word has and then circles the number.

There is always some sort of alphabet station. For ABC order, students highlight the beginning letter of the words. After they do that, I have them go find the letters on the alphabet strip at the top of the page. That way, they can see what order they need to either write or glue their words down.

Magnetic Mountain is a station that is there all year. This is a staple station that never ever leaves. I explain it one time and that is it. Students have to build the sight words and then color them in. I have them read all of the words that they built.

The magnets are from Lakeshore and the recording pages can be found here. There are editable options so you can plug in your own sight words.

There is always a computer station. We have moved on to words, but the students did beginning sounds at the start of the year. Now students are typing words. We are working on correct hand placement on the keyboard...but that's a work in progress. Right now, we are trying to integrate phonics and technology as best as we can. Students love printing their work when they are done. The best part about it is that they are not able to mess with the images or move anything in this program.

These are also stations that I have made and plan on making more. There just aren't enough hours in the day

You just have to have a listening station. It's the quiet corner.

Kidding...sort of.

Again, it is a station that I don't have to explain. Which is glorious if I do say so myself.

Word Way can be anything. For awhile, I was having students write their three sight words for the week Rainbow style. Any chance they get with markers is highly exciting since I feel almost the same way about markers that I do about glitter...almost.

This is one I have on hand for ya. All you have to do is enter a text box and type in the words {or letters} you want them to practice.

There is always a book of some sort for students to publish for "Publishing Place". You can always just put some stapled book-lets of white paper in this station and let students write.

I usually have a stamp or sticker station. For this station, students have to type in the beginning sounds for each picture.

Stations don't have to be paper driven. You can find a lot puzzles at the dollar store, Lakeshore, Really Good Stuff, Amazon...etc. There are also some on TpT that are free if you don't have funds to buy anything. Start your collection early and if you do print a puzzle out, laminate it so you can reuse it!

Why go to all of this trouble?

First off...you want to make this time meaningful for the students that aren't meeting with you at your reading table. That's why we are doing these stations, correct? Please tell me that you are doing small groups...right?

Ok, good. I thought so.

While you are meeting with small groups, you want the other students to be engaged in independent learning. They also should be practicing working together. If you are at a reading table, they can't run up to you to ask for help. They have to learn how to depend on each other. I teach them how to look for students that did the station that they are doing from the day before if they have questions. The students from the previous day might be able to help if they can't figure it out together.

It runs like clockwork in my class. I hope that there is something that you can take away from this post!

How do stations run in your room? I would love to know!

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Do I know everything about how to run literacy stations? Well {I'll admit it}, no. I would like to think that I do, but I know each individual is different. I know that the skill sets for all of our kinders vary. You have to find a system that works for you and your students.

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The ability to separate the sounds of a word is called "phoneme segmentation". It's a critical skill in both learning to read and write. By six and a half/seven years of age students should be able to tell you the sounds in a word. So, for example, if given the word "cat", the student should be able to tell you that the sounds in "cat" are /k/ /a/ /t/. Understanding that words are made up of separate speech sounds is an important foundational skill. Phoneme segmentation is considered a "phonemic awareness" skill which falls under the broader category of "phonological" skills.

Around the end of kindergarten/beginning of first grade we should be directly teaching students to segment words into their separate speech sounds. As it is when teaching any skill, it's important to scaffold our instruction and provide clear and concise directions (explicit teaching). When introducing the skill, we often begin with words containing 2 and 3 phonemes.

I have to say that the bead slide is one of my all time favorite activities for teaching this skill. It's super easy to make. I purchase the wooden beads through S&S Worldwide. It's important that there is some resistance with the shoelace and when the beads slide too easily it just defeats the purpose. The shoelace is just a lace I picked up at Walmart, tied at one end and then strung 6 beads to make one slide. I can usually make 3 bead slides with one lace.

For the bead slide activity have your students slide the beads to one side. Provide a word and then have him/her slide a bead for each sound.

It's sometimes difficult to think of words with varying number of sounds so I included a "cheat sheet" in this post. Just click the link below if you'd like to use it.

Just click the following link to download this FREEBIE: Phoneme Segmentation Cheat Sheet

Phoneme segmentation is one skill addressed in the Big Box of Phonemic Awareness Activities. This kit contains activities and picture cards for teaching 5 phonological/phonemic awareness skills.

The Big Box of Phonemic Awareness Activities is available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store or through the Make, Take & Teach website.

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Phoneme Segmentation Freebie! - Make Take & Teach

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The ability to separate the sounds of a word is called "phoneme segmentation". It's a critical skill in both learning to read and write. By six and a half/seven years of age students should be able to tell you the sounds in a word. So, for example, if given the word "cat", the student should ...

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Rainbow Salt Tray is a fun and inviting pre-writing activity.

Why would you need crayons, textas, pencils and paper to draw when you can have more fun with a Rainbow Salt Tray! Draw pictures, create patterns and practise writing your name with this simple to make Rainbow Salt Tray. The greatest thing about a Rainbow Salt Tray is that it is cheap to set up, educational, you will find all the items around the home and it will entertain the littlies for hours!

A Rainbow Salt Tray is a great activity for kids of all ages, my 22 month old had a go and my 6 year old also had a play. I just adapted and encouraged some ideas for them to try as they played.

What you will need?

You will need 5 basic things to create your very own Rainbow Salt Tray: about 100g cooking salt, sticky tape, coloured paper, a tray (see below for some ideas) and a paint brush.

1. Cut the paper to fit and cover the base of the tray in order of the colours of a rainbow.

2. Place sticky tape over the joins of the paper to avoid the salt moving underneath the coloured paper.

3. Cover the paper lightly with salt.

Tip: Only a small amount of salt is required for this activity as too much can make it harder to see the drawings. You can also make your tray any colour you would like, possibly your child's favourite colour, whatever motivates or interests them!

Some ideas to use for a tray:

The lid to a plastic tub or container.

A cardboard box with the side cut down to size if needed.

A medium to large plastic container that has low sides.

There are SO MANY things you can do with a Rainbow Salt Tray - here are a few ideas to try!

The Rainbow Salt Tray is a great activity for Miss 4 to practise writing her name and for Miss 22 months exploring the cause and effect of what happens when using the paint brush in the salt. I think the look on her face says it all - FUN!

The Rainbow Salt Tray is a fabulous motivator to get kids who need that extra support to learn how to write their names. The fun is watching the colours come through when writing and drawing in the salt.

Let's Learn

Miss 4 loves her numbers at the moment but is reluctant to try and write the 'more difficult' shape numbers such as 2 and 5. She was more willing to have a go in the salt tray because she could so easily shake the tray and try again! I also lightly formed their shaped in the salt for her to copy and trace over.

Miss 6 practising her current sight words, no boring paper and pencils here!

Let's Explore

The Rainbow Salt Tray is great for encouraging creativity, with the freedom to make patterns and pictures.

Shake it and start again! Hours of fun!!

Learning benefits of playing with a Rainbow Salt Tray:

Creativity

Fine Motor Development - Pre-writing skills

Hand-Eye Coordination

Cause and Effect

Spatial awareness - experimenting with shape and space

Available in our Learning 4 Kids Shop

Please click on the images to view products.

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Rainbow Salt Tray is a fun and inviting pre-writing activity. Why would you need crayons, textas, pencils and paper to draw when you can have more fun with a Rainbow Salt Tray! Draw pictures, create patterns and practise writing your name with this simple to make Rainbow Salt Tray.

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Hi, friends! I'm here today teaming up with my friend Elyse from Proud to be Primary for a little bit of teacher talk regarding alphabet instruction. Let's be honest... letter and sound retention can be a struggle for some of our little learners. Some of them need repeated practice to make those letters and sounds stick!
This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. Any purchases made through one of our links earns us a small commission, which helps to support the blog so we can continue sharing content like this with you. All views and opinions expressed are purely our own.
The majority of my introduction of letters occurs during whole group instruction. My number one alphabet teaching tool is my alphabet chart. For each picture, we have a little mnemonic strategy to help us better remember the letter and sound. On my alphabet chart, Aa is for alligator. The students say, "Aa is for alligator, /a/, /a/, /a/," while opening their hands like an alligator mouth. We also learn the long vowel sound by saying, "and Aa is for /a/, /a/, /a/, /a/ long and strong," while extending our right arm on the first /a/, extending our left arm on the next /a/, flexing our muscles on the third /a/, straightening them back out on the word "long," and flexing them again on the word "strong."

You can grab a copy of this letter chart by clicking HERE or on the picture below!

By the end of the second week, we have learned all of the mnemonics for each letter. This does not mean we are finished with the letter chart. We continue to run through the entire alphabet a few times a day. We use the letter chart to rhyme through the alphabet. This means I choose a word to rhyme with, and we make a rhyme for each letter of the alphabet (excluding the vowels and letter x)... so if I chose the word "man," I would point to Bb and say /b/, /b/, ban; then, point to Cc and say /c/, /c/ can; then, point to Dd and say /d/, /d/ Dan; and so on.

I have to take a time out to thank my teammate for the idea for this awesome alphabet chart and the accompanying hand motions! She is truly genius!

The students keep a copy of this letter chart inside their writing folders. I also keep a drawer of these back at my small group table to use with my letter/sound strategy groups. We begin by using this chart to warm up our brains. Sometimes, I call out a random letter and the students have to finish with the rest of the words and the hand motion. Other times, I might say "cover the letter that says /m/," "find the letter that comes before c," "point to the letter after d," etc.

I introduce the letters in the sequence outlined in Recipe for Reading by Francis Bloom and Nina Traub. Typically, we cover three letters per week. On the first day, I introduce the letter and we look at the items inside the letter box. Prior to introducing the letter, I choose a student to take home the letter box. I slip a little note inside the box, so the parents know exactly what to do once they get the box. Each student finds 3-5 items beginning with the focus letter to share with the class. You can read more about my letter box here.

After looking at all of the items inside the letter box, we practice writing the letter in the sky with our index finger. I like to play the Hooked on Phonics path of motion videos, which you can find on YouTube. Just type in "hooked on phonic (letter you need)" into the search bar. We practice writing the letter with our index finger a few times, making sure to recite the language for the correct path of motion. Then, we take out the white boards and continue practicing the correct path of motion for that letter. Here is the video for the letter M.

On the second day, we review the letter. This is accomplished a number of ways... sometimes we complete an alphabet craft, such as this little cat made from the letter C.

During small group instruction, we dig deeper into letter/sound recognition. We always begin with reciting the alphabet chart. Then, we practice forming the letter. My kiddos love to write the letter in salt/sand. I simply filled a pencil box with some decorative sand from Michaels.

You could also use regular table salt. As the students are forming the letter, I have them say the language for the correct path of motion. This is a great tactile approach to letter instruction.

Speaking of tactile approaches, my kiddos also enjoy using these alphabet rubbing plates from Lakeshore Learning. I like to tape the plate to the back of the paper to prevent slipping. As the students are creating their alphabet rub, I have them say the name of the letter and the object(s) that begins with that letter... so "Z is for /z/, /z/ zipper." Sometimes, we will touch the rubbing plate with our finger and trace along the letter while saying this.

One of our favorite games to play is KABOOM! This game is so simple to make. Just jot a letter on the end of each popsicle stick. Then, on a few random sticks write the word "KABOOM!" To play, a student will pull a stick from the cup. If he/she correctly identifies the letter or sound, he/she gets to keep the stick. If not, the stick is placed back inside the cup. If the KABOOM! stick is drawn, that child puts back all of his/her sticks. The idea for this fun game came from the amazing Jillian of Starr Spangled Planner!

Let's just take a moment to remember the range of academic needs in our classrooms... we all have those high flyers, average Joe's, and those sweet kiddos who know very few letters and sounds. Because of this range, it's important for me to differentiate instruction during our small group time, especially since we need to kick it into high gear as we move from emerging readers to independent readers. The rest of the activities in this post are perfect for easy differentiation!

One differentiated activity I like to use in the beginning stages of letter/sound recognition are alphabet puzzles. My lower group works on matching the uppercase and lowercase letters; while my middle group(s) work on matching the uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as a picture beginning with that sound. My high group matches four pieces (uppercase letter, lowercase letter, and two pictures beginning with that sound).

Some days, we use our Alphabet Clip Cards to identify letters. Some of my groups work on marking uppercase or lowercase letters. Others work on matching upper and lower case letters. My highest group works on identifying beginning sounds for each letter.

We also like to use bingo daubers during small group instruction. Spot It! Dot It! is a quick activity that my kiddos can complete independently while I am working with one or two students in the group. First they dot the letter, reciting the correct path of motion. Then, they trace the letter with the correct path of motion. Last, they spot the letter and dot it with the bingo dauber.

Once I have introduced a set of letters, we practice our letter fluency using this Roll and Read activity. The kiddos roll the die and quickly read the letters in that row. My lowest group focuses on uppercase letter recognition, while my middle group focuses on lowercase letter recognition. My highest group uses mixed upper and lowercase Roll and Read boards. I may even have them name the sound. The goal of this activity is to make letter recognition automatic.

As we become better at identifying letters/sounds, we play Alphabet Dominoes. Some kiddos work on just matching the letters, while others work on matching upper and lowercase letters. We even match letters to pictures, as we are working on identifying beginning sounds.

You can grab each of these differentiated games and more in our Reaching Readers Differentiated Alphabet Games Unit 1! Reaching Readers is a program designed to help teachers with their small group, guided reading instruction. Each unit in this program will contain lesson plans, small group games, assessments, paired texts, fluency activities, and more. Each portion of the each unit will be released separately as they are completed. There will be 6 units in total for the Reaching Readers program.

In Reaching Readers Unit 1 Differentiated Alphabet Games, you will receive 9 different games for your guided reading small group instruction. This unit covers all the letters in the alphabet and helps build phonemic awareness. Students will build their upper & lower case letter identification skills and letter sound to picture knowledge. What makes Reaching Readers so special? Every component of this program is DIFFERENTIATED! Each of the 9 games included comes with 3 differentiated levels. This means you will have the same activities/materials for your different leveled groups, but it will be at their level!

Plus, you can grab a sample of each of the games below!

If you're looking for more great alphabet ideas, you can check out my Alphabet board on Pinterest!

Don't forget to head over to Proud to be Primary to check out all of her small group ideas for alphabet instruction!

Thank you for tuning into this edition of Teacher Talk!

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Hi, friends! I'm here today teaming up with my friend Elyse from Proud to be Primary for a little bit of teacher talk regarding alphabet instruction. Let's be honest... letter and sound retention can be a struggle for some of our little learners. Some of them need repeated practice to make those letters and sounds stick!

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It's summer break and I think my kids ask me for ice cream every day. Every day. Do you have this problem? We're not all about the sweet treats in our house, but I may be partially to blame because we are ice cream obsessed with all of our activities lately! Instead of eating the ice cream, we've been learning and playing. Our Ice Cream and Sprinkles Alphabet Writing Practice tray is a new favorite activity in our house, and my preschoolers would absolutely love it! The writing tray can be adapted for different learning levels and it's super easy to put together.

Affiliate links included in this post.

Setting up this super inviting, super simple sprinkles writing tray takes no time at all! Here are the supplies that you will need:

sprinkles (I think rainbow work best!)

printable ice cream alphabet cards

Oh, and you'll also need a child who is eager to play in sprinkles! But I predict as soon as you start pouring the sprinkles into the tray, finding someone to play in them won't be a problem.

Print and cut apart the ice cream alphabet cards from the file below.

Fill the bottom of your tray (or box top, cookie sheet, baking dish) with sprinkles. You just need to cover the surface. If you have leftover sprinkles in your pantry, those will work! You can even mix and match sprinkles that you have on hand.

The sprinkles in the tray are as inviting as a sensory bin full of rice. All 3 of my kids had their hands in them!

The basic goal of the Ice Cream and Sprinkles Alphabet Writing Tray is for preschoolers and kindergarteners to practice forming letters without the stress of holding a pencil. This is a great way to strengthen fine motor skills while encouraging pre-writing skills.

We made a pile of the ice cream alphabet cards and one by one wrote the letter on the card in the sprinkles. My youngest would write the letter with her finger. Sometimes she would trace it forwards and backwards a few times, and sometimes she would just write it once and move on.

After the letter was drawn, she would take the ice cream alphabet card off the tray, give the tray a gentle shake to erase the letter, and get ready to play again!

If your child is ready to recognize and spell his name, add all of those letters above the tray for your child to practice.

If your child has mastered her uppercase letters, encourage her to write the lowercase letter that goes along with the ice cream alphabet card in the sprinkles instead!

If your child is ready to work with site words, spell those words above the tray to work on identification as well as writing the words in the sprinkles.

Even if your child is not ready to copy the letter in the sprinkles, just writing straight and curvy lines in the sprinkles is a pre-writing skill in its own!

Our writing tray was use for a long time and it's still set up a few days later because everyone keeps going back to use it again and again!

Grab your ice cream alphabet cards by clicking the pink box below and get your Ice Cream and Sprinkles Writing Practice tray set up at home or in your classroom.

We're slightly ice cream obsessed right now, so you won't want to miss these activities!
Fine Motor Ice Cream Cone Ice Cream Counting Play Dough Mats

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Ice Cream & Sprinkles Alphabet Writing Practice

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It's summer break and I think my kids ask me for ice cream every day. Every day. Do you have this problem? We're not all about the sweet treats in our house, but I may be partially to blame because we are ice cream obsessed with all of our activities lately!

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One of the best ways to teach a child something (anything!)
is to make it .

I firmly believe that FUN = Memorable for kids.

That's why I am always coming up with different ways to makelearning

those basics, like ABC's, Colors & Sight Words, that can get boring - FUN!

So, armed with a few index cards, some tape and a sharpie

I turned Twister into a fun learning game for the Lil Divas.

There were tons of giggles, a few falls, many body part tangles,

countless laughs and lots and lots of learning.

or you can create your own game -

inside on a large sheet of paper or blanket

1. Fill each circle with a target sight word, letter of the alphabet, number, etc... (so many fun possibilities for this!)

2. Play, Laugh & Learn!

The Road to Reading can be FUN!

This post is being shared as part of a special
"Add a Little Learning to Your Playtime"

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Learning Through Play: Sight Word Twister

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One of the best ways to teach a child something (anything!) is to make it . I firmly believe that FUN = Memorable for kids. That's why I am always coming up with different ways to makelearning those basics, like ABC's, Colors & Sight Words, that can get boring - FUN!

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How to Make Gel Bags for letter formation or spelling practice

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How to Make Gel Bags for letter formation or spelling practice

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Have you ever used a Ziploc to try to make a gel bag? This works in a pinch, but you may find they are thin, floppy, and break easily. If it's hard to find bags that don't have writing on the side, or your students are tempted to try to open the Ziploc, you might want to give these a try!

To see more posts like this, make sure to follow my blog!

Here are a few resources that use Gel Bags.

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Have you ever used a Ziploc to try to make a gel bag? This works in a pinch, but you may find they are thin, floppy, and break easily. If it's hard to find bags that don't have writing on the side, or your students are tempted to try to open the Ziploc, you might want to give these a try!

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Phonemic Awareness Activities for Segmentation

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Phonemic Awareness Activities for Segmentation

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Kinesthetic Activities for Teaching Reading

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Kinesthetic Activities for Teaching Reading

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I am excited to be a part of iHomeschool Network's Summer Hopscotch! To see a list of all the amazing bloggers, please click here. This week, my topic is Multi-Sensory Activities for Teaching Reading. If you'd like to read more about multi-sensory teaching, please read my post from yesterday!

Today, I want to focus on kinesthetic activities that you can do with your child. Kinesthetic {also known as tactile} is a way to get your child moving and doing; using his body in some form or fashion as he learns to read. The ideas I will share cover all kinds of areas of reading, from learning letters and their sounds to comprehension. Enjoy!

30+ Kinsethetic Activities for Teaching Reading

1. Sidewalk Chalk and Sight Words {learn letters or add a hopscotch game like Mom to Post Lil Divas}

2. ABC Puzzle Racing

3. Spelling with LEGO Letters

4. Sensory Play/Bins- hide objects that start with the same letter, magnetic letters, sight words, or phonics patterns in there {1+1+1=1}

5. Counting syllables or phonemes with objects {snap together Unifix cubes, links, or LEGOS for each one you hear}; Elkonin boxes or Learning Resources Sound Boxes are great, too! You can even clap, stomp, race, or integrate toys into phonemic awareness. {I Can Teach My Child}

6. Sight Word Twister {Mom 2 Post Lil Divas}

7. Write letters and words in shaving cream, oatmeal, or cornmeal or look at this great list of 9 multi-sensory ideas for teaching sight words {Make, Take & Teach}

8. Sandpaper letters {Living Montessori Now}

9. Manipulating Words with magnetic letters, bottle caps, letter tiles, stamps, or puffy paint {123 Homeschool 4 Me}

10. Glue a Bumpy Alphabet {Education.com}

11. Roll It with Education Cubes-We use ours A LOT. This is a purchase I would highly recommend! They work not only for literacy, but for other content areas as well. {I also have a FREE 68-page "Roll-A" activity pack for all Facebook likers!}

12. Scavenger Hunts to spell words or find letters

13. Physically matching or sorting words / pictures on a pocket chart or work surface of some kind

14. Stack the Blocks- for each rhyming word your child can say {or words with a particular phonics pattern, such as long a}, stack the tower one block higher. How high can the tower be built? {from Phonics Instructional Activities pg. 66, The Struggling Reader}

15. Magnetic Letter Builders {Confessions of a Homeschooler}

16. Integrate the Nerf gun {shoot letters or words on a dry erase board}

17. Integrate water {Hands on as We Grow}, get in the TUB {Bath Activities for Kids}, or wash those letters! {Little Bins for Little Hands}

18. Alphabet Bowling {Toddler Approved}

19. Create motions to go with the letter sounds or phonics sounds {such as pinching or gently slapping your hand for the "ow/ou" sound}

20. Learn the letters in sign language and sign the letters in words

21. Race to spell words {Playdough to Plato}

22. Promote Early Literacy with ACTION - there are a TON of ideas here that can totally be adapted for other literacy skills {Playdough to Plato}

23. Act out the story after listening to it

24. Facial Expression- re-read passages, select a few sentences to ask the read to re-read, using various facial expressions as they do {Fluency Instructional Activities pg. 63, The Struggling Reader}

25. Use puppets to re-enact the story or a scene. This can also be a GREAT way to build fluency, especially if the child needs to practice his lines for it to be performed for others. {Comprehension Instructional Activities pg. 15, The Struggling Reader}

26. Create a comprehension ball with a beach ball {super easy AND cheap}. Throw it to your child and have your child answer the questions one at a time on the ball.9

27. Rainy day? Use your stairs to move it and learn, too! Letters can be replaced with various phonograms {such as ai or ea}, sight words, or comprehension questions.

28. Clipping rhyming words, syllables, phonics sounds, or sight words with clothespins {great for fine motor as well}

29. Write- When kids write {especially when they are allowed to invent their spellings}, they can "feel" the letters in their mouths, helping to stretch their phonemic awareness

30. Swat the Word {or sound, letter, etc.} Write words or letters on a piece of chart paper or dry erase board. Give your child a {clean} fly swattter. Say the sound/word and have them swat the word.

31. Spell words out of playdough; stamp words {with cookie cutters} in playdough

What other kinesthetic activities have you used to teach your child to read? I'd love to hear them!

Enjoy!

~Becky

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Kinesthetic Activities for Teaching Reading

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I am excited to be a part of iHomeschool Network's Summer Hopscotch! To see a list of all the amazing bloggers, please click here. This week, my topic is Multi-Sensory Activities for Teaching Reading. If you'd like to read more about multi-sensory teaching, please read my post from yesterday!

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You can write it

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Express Your Emotions

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Jess Luczynski -
You can have the most elaborate center activities; but if you do not set up procedures and expectations with students it won't do any good!

Teach/model students what you want them to; have students model for the group what you expect and then slowly release them.  Throwing students into a center without expectations won't get the results you're hoping for.

Example: library center
I go to the classroom library I model how to get a good book, how to sit, how to read it, how to put it back in the correct place , how to get a new book and when the bell rings (however you transition) how to clean and line up.  The next day, we review what I did, but have a few students model in front of the class and then we talk about it.  The next day add a few more students at a time to model and talk about what students saw.  Continue this as you see needed, then once you think they're ready practice in a center group for 3-5 minutes as they get the hang of it, gradually add more time.

This may take some time in the beginning, but it will pay off.

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Jess Luczynski - After introducing a nursery rhyme to students, write the nursery rhyme out on sentence strips. Students can locate letters, sight words, punctuations, etc. Students can also read rhyme and have them take it down and rebuild it, having them read as the go to make sure they've put it back correctly.

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Jess Luczynski - Used in K - using a picture of each student (laminated) and name of each student on sentence strip (also laminated) have students at a center match names and pictures in a pocket chart or on the floor. Write the name on the back of the picture for students who might need more help.

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From Lara Ungethum - This station is used to combine both visualization strategies, Wilson concepts, and fluency practice. Students practice reading the poem aloud, then they mark up their poem according to Wilson concepts that have been addressed. Once complete they draw a picture of what the poem is about.

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From Lara Ungethum - Wilson concepts are used for a write the room. An example digraphs are hung around the room. (use pictures and words if needed for differentiation) students find the pictures/words write them down then mark up the words according to what has been learned in Wilson. I also have students use the words to create sentences,

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From Jan Henderson-words were sorted by beginning or ending sound, vowel sound, word family, digraphs, glued sounds, etc.

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From Jan Henderson- Students are given envelopes of letters and a list of sight words. Then arrange the letters in order to make a sight word that is listed. Each envelope has a different sight word.

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Scholastic Writing and Reading graphic organizers

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Scholastic Writing and Reading graphic organizers

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From Linnzi Patten- Graphic organizers are a great way to differentiate for students. Some students can draw a picture, write a word, phrase, or sentence to communicate what they read or organize their thoughts for writing. I used graphic organizers for all content areas.

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From Linnzi Patten- All activities with these cards were differentiated. Some students had to match all three (they were given the answer card) while others were not given the answer card and were expected to tap the sounds to make the match. Some students had to copy the words down while other students were expected to create a sentence for each match.

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From Linnzi Patten

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From Linnzi Patten: This is great for all students but especially beneficial for students that need a sensory diet. I would hide/bury little trinkets from Lakeshore or from a Montessori company that spell CVC patterns. For example, a cup, fan, rug, hat, pig, bug etc. Students would have to match the trinket to a flashcard with the correct CVC word or write the word on a piece of paper for each trinket they found.

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From Jan Henderson-Write down sight words that students are practicing then roll a die and write that sight word the number of times on the die.  Once finished sight words can be written into complete sentences and illustrated.

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Step by Step Drawing for a Student Writing Center 

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Step by Step Drawing for a Student Writing Center 

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I would read trade books teach the students how to draw the pictures step-by-step. Then I would move it to a center and they can write and illustrate a new story with that character

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Setting Up For A Successful Year Of Daily 5 In Kindergarten - Differentiated Kindergarten

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Take a look at how I set up my class and organize my stations for a successful start to Daily 5 in kindergarten.

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C.Werntz Students can build the words with letters for kit. They also can use markers to write the words. Picture clues