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Blast Foundations Student Kit | Really Great Reading

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The Blast Student Kit provides letter tiles and SyllaBoards. It is designed for grades K-2 to work with the Blast Foundations lessons, a phonics and phonemic awareness supplemental program.

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The Reading Teacher - 2021 - Duke - The Science of Reading Comprehension Instruction (4) (1)

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Phonics Friendly Books: Teaching Phonics Through Children’s Literature

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Phonics Friendly Books: Teaching Phonics Through Children’s Literature [Carroll, Joyce Armstrong] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Phonics Friendly Books: Teaching Phonics Through Children’s Literature

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A_READ ME: Word Family Pockets AMorris.docx

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Sorting rhyming pictures allows the student to visually connect words with similar sounds, which can further solidify their understanding of rhymes

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Playing rhyming bingo can turn learning into a fun game, helping students identify rhyming words in an interactive setting. You can adapt this game to many features, such as rhyming and initial consonants.

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Pamela Pig Likes Pencils: Beginning Sounds and Alliteration

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Pamela Pig Likes Pencils: Beginning Sounds and Alliteration

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This activity uses a variety of animal puppets that can be named with matching beginning consonant sounds. Explain that the animals only like to eat things that start with the same initial sound as their name. This will help students focus their attention on beginning consonant sounds in sequences of spoken words.

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This fluency game uses dice to give the student the opportunity to read in different voices.

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This activity focuses on teaching children how to use punctuation as a guide to help with fluency.

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There's no place like space! All about our solar system

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Wacky Weather: All About Odd Weather Events (The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library): Tarpley, Todd, Ruiz, Aristides, Batson, Alan: 9780593433836: Amazon.com: Books

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Wacky Weather: All About Odd Weather Events (The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library) [Tarpley, Todd, Ruiz, Aristides, Batson, Alan] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Wacky Weather: All About Odd Weather Events (The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library)

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This activity is a collaborative literacy practice where the teachers and students co-create text.

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This activity sees the student rearrange cut-up sentences from text that was read. Once the new sentences are formed, have the student write them down.

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One of the best ways to help children make connections between speech and print is to record what they say in a dictation and then read it back. This activity does just that by connecting visual with written expression.

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Letting students do activities such as playing with play-dough helps strengthen the small muscles in their hands and fingers, which are essential for gripping a pencil and forming letters.

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A list of the books that can be used to fill the students' heads with rhymes.

Ricky the rock that just couldn't rhyme.

Ricky the rock that couldn't roll.

There's no place like space! All about our solar system.

Sadie Sprocket builds a Rocket.

Wacky weather: All about odd weather events.

Cows can moo! Can you? All about farms.

How do you Wokka Wokka?

There's a wocket in my pocket.

Fox in socks.

Rhyme crime.

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A vocabulary wall provides a visual representation of words, placing them front and center so that students can better remember and understand them. Students can help create the vocabulary wall by adding any new words they encounter during reading.

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Students can construct their own vocabulary cards to master new words they may come across while reading.

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This activity encourages students to think about the subtle differences between word meanings as they work with antonyms and synonyms. Students will need to come up with opposites such as hot/cold, yes/no, in/out, up/down, and write them on cards or a list.

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Vocabulary Continuums - a synonyms and antonyms word family graphic organizers

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This visual tool helps students break down each reading strategy, prompting deeper understanding of the text.

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That's a complicated sounding term, but it's meaning is simple: the ability to hear, recognize, and play with the sounds in spoken language. Phonological awareness is really a group of skills that include a child's ability to:

Identify words that rhyme

Count the number of syllables in a name

Recognize alliteration (words with the same beginning sound)

Segment (break) a sentence into words

Identify the syllables in a word

The most sophisticated phonological awareness skill (and the last to develop) is called phonemic awareness - the ability to hear, recognize, and play with the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. When playing with the sounds in word, children learn to:

Blend individual sounds to make a word

Stretch out a word into its individual sounds

Swap in a different sound to the beginning, middle, or end of a word to make a new word

Strong phonemic awareness is one of the strongest predictors of later reading success. Children who struggle with reading, including kids with dyslexia, often have trouble with phonemic awareness, but with the right kind of instruction they can be successful. Learn some of the warning signs for dyslexia in this article, Clues to Dyslexia in Early Childhood.

Your first grader should be able to recognize rhyming words and create their own rhyming word pairs or sets ( big, dig, fig). See if your child can also identify the first, middle and last sounds they hear in a word, and show you how many sounds are in simple one-syllable words using their fingers ( sit = s-i-t = 3 sounds).

Parents can make a big difference in helping their children become readers by practicing these pre-reading oral skills at home. Try some of the simple rhyming and word sound games described here.

Try these speech sound activities at home

Syllable shopping

While at the grocery store, have your child tell you the syllables in different food names. Have them hold up a finger for each word part. Eggplant = egg-plant, two syllables. Pineapple = pine-ap-ple, three syllables. Show your child the sign for each and ask her to say the word.

Rhyme time

"I am thinking of an animal that rhymes with big. What's the animal?" Answer: pig. What else rhymes with big? (dig, fig, wig)

Road trip rhymes

While you're out driving in the car, spot something out the window and ask your child, "what rhymes with tree or car or shop?" Then switch roles and have your child spot something and ask you for a rhyme. This can turn into a game of nonsense rhymes ("What rhymes with tree stump?") but that's great for practicing sounds, too!

Word families

Word families are sets of words that rhyme. Start to build your family by giving your child the first word, for example, cat. Then ask your child to name all the "kids" in the cat family, such as: bat, fat, sat, rat, pat, mat, hat, flat. This will help your child hear patterns in words.

Silly tongue twisters

Sing songs, read rhyming books, and say silly tongue twisters. These help your child become sensitive to the sounds in words.

Sound games

Practice blending sounds into words. Ask "Can you guess what this word is? m - o - p." Hold each sound longer than normal.

One sound at a time

Certain sounds, such as /s/ or /m/are great sounds to start with. The sound is distinct, and can be exaggerated easily. "Please pass the mmmmmmmmilk." "Look! There's a ssssssssssnake!" It's also easy to describe how to make the sound with your mouth. "Close your mouth and lips to make the sound. Now put your hand on your throat. Do you feel the vibration?"

Tongue ticklers

Alliteration or "tongue ticklers" - where the sound you're focusing on is repeated over and over again - can be a fun way to provide practice with a speech sound. Try these:

For M: Miss Mouse makes marvelous meatballs!

For S: Silly Sally sings songs about snakes and snails.

For F: Freddy finds fireflies with a flashlight.

"I Spy" first sounds

Practice beginning sounds with this simple game: ask your child questions like, "I spy something red that starts with /s/."

Sound sleuth

Choose a letter sound, then have your child find things around your house that start with the same sound. "Can you find something in our house that starts with the letter "p" pppppp sound? Picture, pencil, pear "

"I Spy" blending

Here's an easy phoneme blending game you can play while talking a walk. For blending, you can say, "I see a sign that says s-t-o-p" Then your child has to blend the sounds to guess your word - stop. (Remember to say only the sounds in the word - not the letters.) Keep the words short, moving from two to three to four sounds depending on your child's skill level.

Jump, skip, hop!

Create simple picture cards that you draw or cut out of magazines. Have your child, identify what's in the picture, and then break that word into its individual sounds. For example dog is d-o-g, three sounds (phonemes). Three sounds? You and your child do three jumping jacks, skips, or hops (followed by a high-five). You can also do this game outdoors without the cards, just call out simple words for your child.

Snail talk

Tell your child you're going to communicate in "snail talk" and they need to figure out what you're saying. Take a simple word and stretch it out very slowly (e.g., /fffffllllaaaag/), then ask your child to tell you the word. Switch roles and have your child stretch out a word for you.

First sounds

When you're reading together with your child, pick a word from the book and say it with emphasis on the first sound. Pick another word and compare them. "Zzz-zookeeper and rrr-rhinoceros. Can you hear what sound zzz-zookeeper starts with? Is it the same as rrr-rhinoceros?

Sound counting

Using LEGO bricks, beads, or pennies, say a word and have your child show you how many sounds the word makes. For example, top = t-o-p = three sounds, so your child would place three objects in a row. Then have them tap each object as they say the sound. Remember, your child is just showing you the sounds they hear. So the word bike would be = b-i-k (silent e) = only three sounds.

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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Activities for Your First Grader

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Phonological and phonemic awareness are important pre-reading skills, related to the ability to hear, identify, and play with the sounds in spoken language - including rhymes, syllables, and the smallest units of sound (phonemes). Children with strong phonological awareness skills are ready to become readers.

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The latest edition of our classic print curriculum manual for teachers.

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Coogam Wooden Magnetic Fishing Game, Fine Motor Skill Toy ABC Alphabet Color Sorting Puzzle, Montessori Letters Cognition Preschool Gift for Years Old Kid Early Learning with 2 Pole

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Amazon.com: Coogam Wooden Magnetic Fishing Game, Fine Motor Skill Toy ABC Alphabet Color Sorting Puzzle, Montessori Letters Cognition Preschool Gift for Years Old Kid Early Learning with 2 Pole : Toys & Games

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Spring Word Scramble - A Word Game for kids - Treasure hunt 4 Kids

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Explore ‘Spring Scramble Adventure’, an engaging word scramble game for kids that makes learning spring vocabulary fun and adaptable for all ages.

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Sight Word Treasure Hunt // fun sight word games and activities for first grade

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Students can choose from thousands of books digitally, read them, and then take comprehension quizzes. The better the score, the quicker your rocket ship will move towards the planets.

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Pause Animations Play Animations

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© Copyright 2023 Renaissance Learning Inc. All rights reserved

v4.15.0.1 (Niles) b166118

All logos, designs, and brand names for Renaissance's products and services are trademarks of Renaissance Learning, Inc., and its subsidiaries, registered, common law, or pending registration in the United States.

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myON reader personalizes reading for students by recommending books based on their interests, reading level, and ratings of books they've read . myON reader tracks book usage and reading growth over time and can project a student's future reading score based on their current reading activities within the system.

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Weighted Gloves for Tremors-Adjustable Hand Gloves Stability Aid for Parkinson’s Hand Tremors, Enhanced Grip & Writing Support for Elderly

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Buy Bottle Pouch Weighted Gloves for Tremors-Adjustable Hand Gloves Stability Aid for Parkinson’s Hand Tremors, Enhanced Grip & Writing Support for Elderly: Hand & Wrist Braces - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

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Magic Grooved Writing Practice for Kids - Grooved Handwriting Practice for Kids 5-7 8-10- Magic Copybooks for Kids Letter Tracing Books for Ages 3-5 - Preschool Learning Activities - Summer Toys

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Buy Magic Grooved Writing Practice for Kids - Grooved Handwriting Practice for Kids 5-7 8-10- Magic Copybooks for Kids Letter Tracing Books for Ages 3-5 - Preschool Learning Activities - Summer Toys: Reading & Writing Materials - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

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Guidelines for instruction

Provide children with opportunities to read and reread a range of stories and informational texts by reading on their own, partner reading, or choral reading.

Introduce new or difficult words to children, and provide practice reading these words before they read on their own.

Include opportunities for children to hear a range of texts read fluently and with expression.

Suggest ideas for building home-school connections that encourage families to become involved actively in children's reading development.

Encourage periodic timing of children's oral reading and recording of information about individual children's reading rate and accuracy.

Model fluent reading, then have students reread the text on their own.

What students should read

Fluency develops as a result of many opportunities to practice reading with a high degree of success. Therefore, your students should practice rereading aloud texts that are reasonably easy for them – that is, texts containing mostly words that they know or can decode easily. In other words, the texts should be at the students' independent reading level.

A text is at students' independent reading level if they can read it with about 95% accuracy. If the text is more difficult, students will focus on word recognition and will not have an opportunity to develop fluency.

The text your students practice rereading orally should also be relatively short – probably 50-200 words, depending on the age of the students. You should also use a variety of reading materials, including stories, nonfiction, and poetry. Poetry is especially well suited to fluency practice because poems for children are often short and they contain rhythm, rhyme, and meaning, making practice easy, fun, and rewarding.

Model fluent reading

By listening to good models of fluent reading, students learn how a reader's voice can help written text make sense. Read aloud daily to your students. By reading effortlessly and with expression, you are modeling for your students how a fluent reader sounds during reading.

Repeated reading

After you model how to read the text, you must have the students reread it. By doing this, the students are engaging in repeated reading. Usually, having students read a text four times is sufficient to improve fluency. Remember, however, that instructional time is limited, and it is the actual time that students are actively engaged in reading that produces reading gains.

Have other adults read aloud to students. Encourage parents or other family members to read aloud to their children at home. The more models of fluent reading the children hear, the better. Of course, hearing a model of fluent reading is not the only benefit of reading aloud to children. Reading to children also increases their knowledge of the world, their vocabulary, their familiarity with written language ("book language"), and their interest in reading.

Activities for students to increase fluency

There are several ways that your students can practice orally rereading text, including student-adult reading, choral (or unison) reading, tape-assisted reading, partner reading, and readers' theatre.

Student-adult reading

In student-adult reading, the student reads one-on-one with an adult. The adult can be you, a parent, a classroom aide, or a tutor. The adult reads the text first, providing the students with a model of fluent reading. Then the student reads the same passage to the adult with the adult providing assistance and encouragement. The student rereads the passage until the reading is quite fluent. This should take approximately three to four rereadings.

Choral reading

In choral, or unison, reading, students read along as a group with you (or another fluent adult reader). Of course, to do so, students must be able to see the same text that you are reading. They might follow along as you read from a big book, or they might read from their own copy of the book you are reading. For choral reading, choose a book that is not too long and that you think is at the independent reading level of most students. Patterned or predictable books are particularly useful for choral reading, because their repetitious style invites students to join in. Begin by reading the book aloud as you model fluent reading.

Then reread the book and invite students to join in as they recognize the words you are reading. Continue rereading the book, encouraging students to read along as they are able. Students should read the book with you three to five times total (though not necessarily on the same day). At this time, students should be able to read the text independently.

Tape-assisted reading

In tape-assisted reading, students read along in their books as they hear a fluent reader read the book on an audiotape. For tape-assisted reading, you need a book at a student's independent reading level and a tape recording of the book read by a fluent reader at about 80-100 words per minute. The tape should not have sound effects or music. For the first reading, the student should follow along with the tape, pointing to each word in her or his book as the reader reads it. Next, the student should try to read aloud along with the tape. Reading along with the tape should continue until the student is able to read the book independently, without the support of the tape.

Partner reading

In partner reading, paired students take turns reading aloud to each other. For partner reading, more fluent readers can be paired with less fluent readers. The stronger reader reads a paragraph or page first, providing a model of fluent reading. Then the less fluent reader reads the same text aloud. The stronger student gives help with word recognition and provides feedback and encouragement to the less fluent partner. The less fluent partner rereads the passage until he or she can read it independently. Partner reading need not be done with a more and less fluent reader. In another form of partner reading, children who read at the same level are paired to reread a story that they have received instruction on during a teacher-guided part of the lesson. Two readers of equal ability can practice rereading after hearing the teacher read the passage.

Readers' theatre

In readers' theatre, students rehearse and perform a play for peers or others. They read from scripts that have been derived from books that are rich in dialogue. Students play characters who speak lines or a narrator who shares necessary background information. Readers' theatre provides readers with a legitimate reason to reread text and to practice fluency. Readers' theatre also promotes cooperative interaction with peers and makes the reading task appealing.

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Fluency: Instructional Guidelines and Student Activities

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The best strategy for developing reading fluency is to provide your students with many opportunities to read the same passage orally several times. To do this, you should first know what to have your students read. Second, you should know how to have your students read aloud repeatedly.

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Using Latin Jeopardy for vocabulary is beneficial because it turns review into an engaging, interactive activity. The game format motivates students to recall and apply Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes in context rather than just memorizing them. It reinforces learning through repetition and provides immediate feedback, helping students retain new words more effectively

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LATIN PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES Jeopardy Template

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The student receives a stack of cards consisting of the most generative prefixes, suffixes, and base/word roots. Then they create words that may be found in a standard dictionary.

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The 4 Corners Vocabulary Strategy helps students learn new words by breaking them into four parts on a sheet divided into four squares. Word, Picture, Definition, and sentence. This method supports understanding by combining writing, visual, and contextual learning.

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Sticky notes can be a powerful tool to boost a student’s reading comprehension because they make thinking visible and interactive.

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Pairs take turns reading paragraphs; the listener gives gentle corrections or praise.

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Students sort spelling words by patterns:

vowel teams (ai, ay)

plurals (–s, –es)

endings (–tion, –sion).
This strategy helps students strengthen pattern recognition

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Teach students to break words into
syllables, prefixes, roots, and suffixes
( un + help + ful).
This can help students with long or multisyllabic words.

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Have students set small, achievable goals such as “I will read 10 pages today”. This will helps them feel ownership and see progress.

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Give students choices in:

which book to read

which activity to complete first

which tool to use (markers, tech, notebook)

Giving our students a choice increases engagement and responsibility.

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Anything can become an award such as:

Sticker charts

Classroom jobs

Extra center time
Intrinsic motivation grows when rewards acknowledge effort rather than control behavior.

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Students can practice their spelling words with games such as roll and spell. The key is to understand the different parts of a spelling word and test how well your skills are when it comes to putting it all together.

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1 Assessing motivation to read profile.revised (1) (1) (1) (1) (1)

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2 Evaluating agency_Student agency profile survey (3) (1) (1) (1)

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3 Motivation to Write Profile_Gambrell et al. (1) (1) (8)

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The Vocabulary Quilt Strategy works by having students fill each square with a new vocabulary word they come across while reading. In the space below the word, they write the meaning, definition, or drawing of that word. Each square becomes a “quilt patch” that represents one word, and together the patches create a full “quilt” of vocabulary from the text. This strategy helps students collect and organize new words in one place, making it easier to remember meanings and see how many words they’ve learned as they read.

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Poems help build fluency because they’re short, rhythmic, and easy to reread. Their patterns and repetition support smooth, expressive reading, and activities like choral or echo reading make practice fun and confidence boosting. Since poems are engaging, students naturally want to read them more, strengthening their fluency even further.

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Reading comprehension sticks are popsicle sticks with questions or prompts written on them. Students pull a stick while reading and answer the prompt, which might ask them to predict, infer, summarize, or make connections. This simple tool keeps students engaged, encourages active thinking, and helps them practice key comprehension skills in a fun, interactive way.

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Use specific praise:

“You improved your writing stamina today!”

“I noticed you stuck with that tough word.”
Celebrate the students effort, not just accuracy.

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This activity can be used to spell words that follow a specific pattern, keeping the student engaged while reinforcing their understanding of letter-sound relationships. This interactive game focuses on phonics skills such as short vowels, long vowels, digraphs, blends, silent words, diphthongs, etc.