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Teaching Rhyming at a young age is what allows children to grow and adapt during the early stages of development. Kids find rhyming to be fun and will even began to say nonsense words but they enjoy rhyming. Not combining that with rhyming books and there is a whole list of vocabulary that a student could be learning now instead of later.

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Rhyming is an important part of the early childhood experience, both in and out of the classroom. But WHY is teaching rhyming to young children so important?

After posting about teaching children letters, a friend of mine (from my kindergarten days) asked me about teaching rhyming. She works with kindergarten English Language Learners and wanted more ideas about how to incorporate rhyming. In speaking to her, I was inspired to write a short series about rhyming in early childhood.

What is rhyming?

Yes, I'm sure all of you already know that rhyming words sound the same at the end! 🙂 It's a phonemic awareness skill, meaning that it's all about manipulating oral language. Rhyming is just a part of phonemic awareness . . . of working with language, sounds within language, and playing with language.

Why is teaching rhyming important?

Oh, teaching rhyming is important for so many reasons! To begin with, a multitude of research has shown a correlation between rhyming mastery and eventual reading preparedness. Now, if your child isn't a rhyming machine right now, please don't freak out! This doesn't mean she's going to be a below-average reader when she's older. It just means that you can incorporate more rhyming activities into your day. I'll be touching on that later on this week, so keep an eye out.

On top of that, rhyming helps kids improve their oral language skills overall. It helps them to playfully manipulate their language, which gives them a kind of "permission" to manipulate language in other ways. Children have more ownership over their language when they're encouraged to change it and play with how they speak.

As previously mentioned, rhyming is an aspect of phonemic awareness (awareness of how to listen to, identify, and change around the sounds in spoken language). Phonemic awareness lays the groundwork for written language. Rhyming is a precursor to learning how to read and write.

Rhyming is fun. It just is, especially when kids get to throw in some of their own nonsense words. This sense of fun shows children the learning can be entertaining and interesting!

The Rhyming Series

This is part of a week-long series of posts regarding teaching kids about rhyming. Click below to be directed to the rest of the series.

1. Why is teaching rhyming important?
2. Introducing rhyming to children
3. Rhyming books and songs
4. Rhyming activities for children
5. Even more rhyming activities for kids

Do you have any questions about teaching children how to rhyme? If so, I would love to hear them!
originally published April 15, 2013

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here. Rhyming is an important part of the early childhood experience, both in and out of the classroom. But WHY is teaching rhyming to young children so important? After posting about teaching children letters , a friend of mine (from my kindergarten days) asked me about teaching rhyming.

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Developing a game or activity early on while a child is just learning the differences between nouns, verbs, and adjectives is extremely useful. As a kid these meanings are very confusing to remember and comprehend. Developing sorting games like the one shown below can really educate students on the differences which will make it easier for them to utilize this information in school.

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In this activity, a child is learning how to tell the difference between basic colors on the color wheel. While this may not seem that big, it is. A child is learning at a young age the difference between colors meaning that that child can adapt to learn numbers and the alphabet early on before most children do.

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This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy.

Today is Day 15 of our 31 Days of Indoor Fun for Toddlers series and we had a little fun with cereal. We used Froot Loops (don't judge) for this super simple sorting activity. :)

Sorting is such a beneficial cognitive development activity for toddlers and preschoolers because it first requires the child to identify objects and then classify those objects based on similarities and differences. A lot of wheels turning in the brain for something that seems so simple!

After I printed out the mat, I laminated it so that we can use it over and over again!

Give your child the cereal and the mat and let him/her get busy! Inevitably, your child will end up eating just as much as she is sorting, but that is sort of the point. :)

Little Sister needed some assistance from me, but did a lot of the sorting on her own.

This simple activity offers a great opportunity to review color names.

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Printable Cereal Sorting Mat - I Can Teach My Child!

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by - This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy. Today is Day 15 of our 31 Days of Indoor Fun for Toddlers series and we had a little fun with cereal. We used Froot Loops (don't judge) for this super simple sorting activity.

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As I have previously stated, babies can learn at a very young age. Using tools such as sensory bins can help a child become more intwined with their senses, which can lead to exponential cognitive and social growth. In Lev Vygotsky's Social Development Theory, he believes that social interaction plays a huge role in a child's cognitive development. Therefore, adapting the use of a sensory bin into play at an early age may assist in the baby's cognitive and social growth because the baby is receiving interaction and attention from not only a person but from all of his or her sense as well.

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Early Childhood Literacy Development essentially means early reading and writing development. Once a baby's born, he or she can begin to learn language based off of what it hears, sees, feels, and experiences.

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Early Childhood Literacy Development essentially means early reading and writing development. Once a baby's born, he or she can begin to learn language based off of what it hears, sees, feels, and experiences.

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Magazines, like National Geographic Kids, are some of the best tools for students to learn from. Not only are students learning how to be stronger readers through the various levels of vocabulary used in them but students are also learning about important events that are going on in the world. The magazines focus on pleasing children's interests while assisting them in their academic growth.

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Books, in general, help all readers learn how to become stronger readers. For instance, The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfizer was one of the first books that I remembered reading and truly enjoying at a young age.

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Rhyming Stories, or books, are a great way for students to learn and expand their vocabulary. For instance, A Cat in the Hat is a great rhyming book. In fact, most Dr. Suess books are great for that matter because students are taught at a young age through these books and slowly adapt to higher level books with ease.

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Music is something that many people utilize in order to learn. Some people need to listen to music to concentrate and other people need to listen to the information in song form in order for them to fully understand it. In Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, he mentions the Musical intelligence, or being music smart, as one of the intelligence. Throughout his theory, he explains how everybody learns different and that you can not always teach a class one way because there could be handful of students who will not fully comprehend you. Using concepts such as songs when teaching a lesson can engage students and keep them focused on what point of said lesson.

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Children's literature, also known as juvenile literature, consists of stories, poems, books, magazines and all information that is enjoyed by children.

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Children's literature, also known as juvenile literature, consists of stories, poems, books, magazines and all information that is enjoyed by children.

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This chart helps students learn how to describe what they or a character is saying or feeling without blatantly saying it. Essentially, it helps writers learn how to adapt their way of writing into higher level thinking

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These charts list all of the things that writers can write and explains why some writers might write. Explaining this to students as they are still developing can go a long way. For instance, in the concrete operational stage of Piaget's Cognitive Development theory, Piaget believes that students begin to think about their thinking more and work things our mentally in their head. This chart would explain the emotions that a writer goes through and this could get the student to think about their writing. This also ties in with Chapter 7 in Cohen's textbook which emphasizes on establishing clear rules for the writer's workshop and the emotions that a writer can go through goes with it.

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I've always been a big fan of writing. I love to see the progress my kids make throughout the year...it's always so remarkable!! No matter what stage they're at when I get them, they always grow. Even a *little* growth is A LOT! I was excited to start Writer's Workshop this week. Even though I love teaching writing, I always feel like this is an area where I can improve. I mapped out this week's writing plans to a T and so far, we're off to a great start!

My littles were excited to get their draft books on Monday. I had some advanced writers, a few reluctant writers, and everything in between. On Tuesday, we talked about WHY writers write and made an anchor chart with all of our ideas...

Then we read Click, Clack, Moo and talked about why the animals & farmer in the story wanted to write.

We revisited our anchor chart today and made another. Today we learned all about WHAT writers write. I brought in a few examples of things I write...grocery list, to do list, thank you note...and showed them my blog{s} and my email, too! It was fun to see their little wheels turning realizing there are LOTS of reasons we write...not just to write stories!!!

After I showed them examples of all of my writing, we made another little anchor chart all about WHAT writers write...

I'm hanging all of these up in our little "Do you have a writer's eye?" center area.

LOVING our Writers Workshop time so far!!!

Tomorrow we'll be creating a "What Can Writer's Write About?" anchor chart and making our maps of our hearts. I was inspired by these awesome heart maps I found via Pinterest {click on the pic to take you to the original source}.

On Friday, I'll be passing out their mini offices and we'll be decorating our draft books and celebrating our first full week of writing!!!

I'd love to hear about any fun activities you do to kick off writing in your classroom!!

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Writer's Workshop Anchor Charts - The First Grade Parade

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I've always been a big fan of writing. I love to see the progress my kids make throughout the year...it's always so remarkable!! No matter what stage they're at when I get them, they always grow. Even a *little* growth is A LOT! I was excited to start Writer's Workshop this week.

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This chart is a simplistic version explaining to writers the writing process that one must use to be an effective writer. By following this chart, students have an easier time understanding how the writing process works.

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This is one of the techniques that I used back in school when learning how to construct a paragraph, however, we constructed a "sandwich" not a "burger". I feel like making these methods fun will allow for students to have an easier time comprehending the method or strategy that is being taught to them.

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Writing as a Process & Writer's Workshop

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Writing as a Process & Writer's Workshop

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Essentially the Writing Process consists of 4 or 5 steps (Depending on how one looks at it):

Prewrite/Brainstorm
Draft
Revise
Edit
Publish

Writer's Workshop basically teaches students these steps and other tips on how to become great writers

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In this activity, students would be in their literacy centers and they would create their own questions for them to answer once they have read the story or passage. This provides students a chance to think of their own questions, which will make them wish to answer them more, and give them a chance to do the reading in hopes f answering them.

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Reading is fun v. Reading is the worst Chart

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Reading is fun v. Reading is the worst Chart

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This chart provides students with a couple bullet points on how to make reading fun. I think that this would be used within the first session or so of readers' workshop or literacy centers.

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This chart provides a set of questions that each student must be able to answer during reader's workshop. This teaches the students to be accountable for their actions or, in this case, whether or not they wish to read and follow along.

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In this activity, students will go to a literacy center that has an activity where they pick a picture out of each row and create a story out of the pictures. This will give the students a chance to free write and the teacher can see how far they have come in their learning.

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Readers' Workshop & Centers are highly effective when teaching students reading and comprehension strategies.

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Readers' Workshop & Centers are highly effective when teaching students reading and comprehension strategies.

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Graphic Organizers are extremely helpful when you are focusing on comprehending a story. Students can sort out their thoughts on t the paper while keeping it organized so that they do not struggle to remember or forget what they wrote or read about.

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One of the most important aspects of comprehension is asking questions when necessary. This worksheet provides students space to write down any questions that they may be having about the story that the class is reading.

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In this activity, there are popsicle sticks, with words or phrases on them pertaining to key parts of a story, in a cup. Once we finish reading the story, the teacher can ask each student to pull one of the popsicle sticks  and do as it says. Once they are done, we can come together as a class and go over what everyone said. as our textbooks stated in Chapter 6, "The activity require that the student read for one or more purposes..." This activity calls for students to be able to recall a specific moment or theme in the book in order to complete their task, therefore, pushing the reader to read for more than just one purpose.

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In this activity, students learn how to retell a story through the use of their fingers, which represent a different key point of retelling the story. This is important because it is a fun and simple way for students to remember the key parts of a story that one should remember.

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Learning to retell a fictional story isn't something that comes easily to students in the detail we're expecting as educators. I've tried many different strategies for teaching students to retell in primary grades, but my kiddos' retells were always lacking. For example, if I asked them to give me a "beginning, middle and end" summary that's about all I got... no mention of characters or setting. Needing more, I created this Fist to Five retell strategy.

I watch my little ones use their fingers to make all sorts of learning tangible, so why not this? Standardize it so we're all thinking the same things, and the retells are all-of-a-sudden complete and thorough!

First is the thumb: I ask my students to tell me who the main characters are and explain the setting (where and when the story takes place). I love that they use their thumb for this part... it is separate enough from their fingers that they recognize the connection to the retell of the story, but know that it is really additional detail information beyond the retell itself.

Next, students also raise their index finger and explain the beginning of the story.

The middle and ring fingers are raised to give two important details for the middle of the story, or how the story progresses.

Finally, the little finger is raised to explain the ending. Here, my students are expected to tell how the problem in the story is resolved.

I'm SO impressed with how this structure has helped my students organize their thinking when retelling a story. We created an anchor chart to help us remember the steps:

I LOVE the little hand graphics from Teacher Laura on TpT!
Once my students are successful with the oral retells I begin to introduce how to use graphic organizers to create a written retell using the gradual release model. I begin the process by modeling on the SMART Board and moving toward my students writing independent retells on paper. My"Good Readers" Reading Response Graphic Organizers are perfect for this!

This 40-page resource is perfect for scaffolding student responses as they move from oral retells to written, and includes a SMART Board file with every graphic organizer for whole-class display, and blackline copies for individual student use! Click the image to check out the details!

This resource is also available in a Google Drive format!

You might also be interested in the ideas I've shared in this blog post:

The resources and strategies on this Pinterest board might also be helpful:

Pin this post:

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Teach this retelling strategy to your students for a complete retell every time! Using this retell activity and retell anchor chart, your primary students will share a complete account of their fiction text. When an oral retell has been mastered, move on to written retell skills with these resources!

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Comprehension is one of the most vital parts of ELA. It centers around learning how to understand what a reader is reading.

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Comprehension is one of the most vital parts of ELA. It centers around learning how to understand what a reader is reading.

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As we have discussed in class, this is a fun and educational site where you can make your own quizzes, or use someone else's, and have your students answer questions pertaining to important lessons. This can be used as a review game or as a pre-assessment to see what your students might know already. This can also be used to teach or review comprehension, fluency, and phonemic awareness.

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This is a piece of technology that I never thought of using before. If your school or classroom has iPads. students can scan these codes and go to the attached link. It could assist with online reading or online scavenger hunts.

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Using QR Codes in the Classroom to Enhance Learning

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Have you used QR Codes in the classroom yet? Here are a few easy ideas that will get you started using QR Codes in your classroom.

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Another useful tool is the keyboard. Some students can not read the letters on the keyboard because they are so tiny. Another reason behind different colored keyboards is that some are meant to depict which key each finger on a person's hand is supposed to press down on. These keyboards can basically help students become stronger readings and stronger when on the computer.

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Assistive Technology for Education

Although assistive technology has been in classrooms for many years, recent technological advances have given schools many more assistive technology devices to choose from. The proliferation of this technology has enabled many children to work their way around very specific learning disabilities or weaknesses. Many are now successful when completing academic tasks that were previously inaccessible. Assistive technology can be used in any classroom, mainstream or sheltered, from kindergarten to university.

What is Assistive Technology?

According to the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, an assistive technology device is "any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities."

What this means is that assistive technology can be as simple as a pencil with a special grip on it to help children who have difficulties writing or as complex as a specialized input device for a computer to help a severely disabled child communicate basic ideas.

Who Uses Assistive Technology?

Students who use assistive technology range from individuals who struggle with handwriting or organizational skills to children who are severely disabled and need assistive technology to perform very basic communicative tasks.

Sometimes assistive technology can be used to benefit an entire class, whether all of the individuals in the class have a disability or not. An Elmo is a digital capturing device that teachers frequently use. It projects the pages of a book the teacher is reading onto a large screen so that all students can follow along as well as seeing the print better, as it is in a larger format. It can be used to project many other things as well, creating a more hospitable learning environment for students whose primary learning modality is visual.

Assistive technology can benefit all students, whether they are identified as having a learning disability or not.

Types of Assistive Technology

Many assistive technology devices are meant to help students access technology itself. Examples of this are alternative input devices, such as joysticks, touch screens and voice recognition devices. Assistive technology includes programs that check spelling and grammar.

Reading machines and CD players for audio books are invaluable for students who have comprehensive skills yet cannot decode text.

If a student has a writing disability, a laptop can be an assistive technology device used for him to take notes at his desk.

Students who cannot speak are able to use speech synthesizers to make themselves understood.

How Does Assistive Technology Help?

In order for assistive technology to help, a student must first have an identified disability. Otherwise, the teacher will not know which device will help the student.

If a student is diagnosed with a reading disability, there are a variety of assistive technology devices that can help with the physical mechanics of reading, from turning the pages to increasing the legibility of the words. If a student is blind, there are braille devices that will make the schoolwork in a mainstream classroom more accessible to them. There are assistive technology devices available for almost all disabilities.

If a student has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), the IEP will specify that the student be provided with the assistive technology device during class. The device is meant to compensate for the disability, allowing the student to perform at a higher level of functioning in the classroom.

How to Get Assistive Technology for Your Child

If you believe your child needs an assistive technology device in the classroom, the first thing to do is ask your child's teacher. It may turn out that the school has the device and can accommodate your request without any special education paperwork being completed. If this is not the case, you will need to begin proceedings to get your child on an Individualized Education Plan or 504 Plan. This process varies from district to district. You may want to begin with your school district's special education office. Be prepared to be persistent. Assisitive technology devices and special education services can be expensive, and many schools make the process long and arduous.

When the IEP or 504 plan is being developed, assistive technology devices that the student needs will be documented. After being documented, it is federal law that they then be made available to the student.

A plan that incorporates assistive technology can be a benefit to students for their entire educational career.

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Assistive Technology for Education | Synonym

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Assistive Technology for Education Although assistive technology has been in classrooms for many years, recent technological advances have given schools many more assistive technology devices to choose from. The proliferation of this technology has enabled many children to work their way around very specific learning disabilities or weaknesses.

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If you are lucky enough to have a Smartboard in your classroom, take advantage of it. Smart boards are some of the most helpful technology that one could have in their room. As our textbook stated in Chapter 10, "teachers can use many different applications in all content areas, including literacy". These tool can be universal if one really thinks about all of the possibilities it can have. Plus Smartboards are very eye-catching for students. For one, students love to draw on the board if they can. Secondly, it is a larger screen which can help students read better. Slideshows are great as well because they help you to organize your thoughts while keeping it entertaining for those who are watching.

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Integrating Technology into the Classroom is one of the most effective strategies that an educator can do.

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Integrating Technology into the Classroom is one of the most effective strategies that an educator can do.

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Integrating technology in the classroom through the use of laptops, tablets, and smart boards are just a few of the simple ways to explain it.
It can also be done through...

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In this activity, there are giant flash cards that depict pictures and their corresponding sentences below them. The students will have to figure out which out of the three options is either the synonym of the underlined word or the antonym. This will help students understand the different between antonyms and synonyms while discovering more words that they can add to their vocabulary.

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In this activity, students will have to correctly match the word that fits with each definition. This activity is good as a review for the students on some vocabulary words.

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Cute vocabulary development worksheets. If you like this worksheet you can get additional ones in my store! Please be sure to follow my store for future new products and freebies. Please leave feedback.

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In this activity, students will have to find the list of words with the -an ending. Once that is done, students will then need to figure out which word would complete each sentence at the bottom of the page. This is a fun and simple activity that can be a good start to a lesson on vocabulary.

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In this activity, students will have to complete a simple worksheet that asks them to list the words that they know, have never seen before, words that they are familiar with, or words that they think they could teach someone. The teacher can display a word or two in each group and these students can take a couple minutes to look at the word and decide which column this word belongs in for them. This provides the teacher with an idea of how to gage her students' vocabulary.

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I want to share my favorite vocabulary activity with you! One of the great things about this Vocabulary Graphic Organizer is that it can be used K-5 and across all subject areas. There is a free copy of the organizer later in this post.

This graphic organizer is separated into four parts
1. Unknown Words: I have never seen the word.
2. Familiar Words: I have seen it but I am not sure of the meaning.
3. Recognized Words: I know this word.
4. In-depth Words: I can teach this word to someone.

Before reading, I give each student their own organizer and we go over each quadrant and talk about why we might put a word there. The sentences under the main headings are great to guide this discussion.

I display one word at a time, read it to them, and give them a few moments to write it in the appropriate quadrant. You can display the word on your Promethean Board, dry erase board, or even index cards.

Once everyone's organizers are complete, it's time to go over them! There are two formats I like to use to go over the vocabulary words.

1. One way is to use the list of vocabulary words and go through them one at a time. If the word was pollination I might start by saying "Has anyone every heard of this word before? Did anyone mark this as an in depth word?"

2. Another way is to go through the word list by quadrant. I might ask students to look at their In-depth Word list and have them take turns "teaching us" about the word. Next we would look at the Recognized Words and so on. Hopefully by the time we make it to Unknown and Familiar Words we have addressed most of the vocabulary and students will have a better understanding.

In both scenarios the student(s) who marked a word as In-depth can lead our vocabulary discussion and teach us what the word means.

We often google images of vocabulary words to help further our understanding. I freeze my Promethean board when googling images just in case...you never know what will pop up!

I have included TWO free version of the Vocabulary Graphic Organizer: A printable paper and a google slide template!

Click HERE to download your copy. There is a pre and post assessment included. This is helpful if you want to check back in to see if students have moved the words to different quadrants after going over the vocabulary and reading the text.

Click HERE to access the Google slides version. It is View Only so to use it with your students go to File > Make a Copy!

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and read this post! Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions!

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I want to share my favorite vocabulary activity with you! One of the great things about this Vocabulary Graphic Organizer is that it can be used K-5 and across all subject areas. There is a free copy of the organizer later in this post. This graphic organizer is separated into four parts 1.

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Vocabulary Development is the process by which people acquire their words

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Vocabulary Development is the process by which people acquire their words

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In this activity, the teacher takes a bunch of paint sample strips and writes rhyming words in each color. The teacher will then pick a color sample strip and the student will have to tap out each word on the strip. This helps students comprehend rhyming words while being able to decode each word with minimal difficulty.

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In this activity, students will take a paperclip and place it on the paper spinner that's on the worksheet. Once they've done that, they will spin the paperclip to land on an beginning. As he lands on the beginning sounds, he will go through each list of endings and match them up in order whether they are real words or nonsense words. Then when they are all done, they will go through each word tapping them or and then count up all the words that they created.

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Hi friends! I'd love to show you my favorite digraphs activities for first grade and kindergarten that you can use to teach those tricky digraphs. Digraphs can be difficult, especially for English language learners, but they can also be a lot of fun!

I really think the key to teaching digraphs is picture support. My activities include a ton of visuals to go along with the words to help reading easier. Bottle cap centers are great for this because they are hands on and you can start your small group out at their level since the cards are differentiated for all different levels.

For example, this set of cards (above) is missing the vowel sound so kids don't have to actually know the digraphs perfectly to complete them but are getting a lot of practice and exposure to them when they look at the picture and say the word out loud to figure out the missing vowel sound. As they say the word out loud, they are also saying that digraph that is written in front of them. Even though they might not know the digraphs, it's still a center they can complete without knowing the digraph sounds yet because they DO know their vowel sounds. It's also great vowel sounds review so you're practicing a lot of things.

For students who typically need more reading practice than others, you can have them put the bottle caps on top of the letters already there, too, to really hammer in the spelling of the focus sound. All of the digraphs cards also come in an "all letters" format where all the letters are already there so they can simply match the letters to spell each word so those are great for the students who really struggle.

You can also have them do the set that is missing the non-digraph consonant(s) part of the word like these:

I love to use this type for blending with the digraph. They would look at the picture of the boy's chin and have to blend CHI to figure out that it ends in N. This is a tad bit more advanced but will really get them starting to read those digraphs.

My digraphs bottle cap centers also include versions of every card where there are NO letters to completely build the word, cards where only the vowel sound is there ( _ i _ _ for fish, for example), and cards where the digraph is missing like these:

So there are 6 different kinds of each card. :) I just love using recycled bottle caps for centers. You may remember them from my CVC Words Bottle Cap Centers post or how I use them for my Secret Sight Words center. I also have a bundle of different math bottle cap centers. They're so nice to have because not only are bottle caps free but they're a classroom manipulative you can make as many of as you need! They're hands on and fun so kids love them and they're easy to prep - just throw the ones kids need in a baggie with the cards and it's even self-checking.

Speaking of Secret Sight Words, I made a bunch of different packs of Secret Word centers for all of the different phonics sounds too and one of the packs is just for digraphs!

For my Secret Word activities, kids look at each picture to figure out its beginning sound then place the letter underneath it. You can use bottle caps or alphabet magnets. (I love my alphabet magnets by the way - you can see where I get them here)

Kids love these because they're mysterious and they get to figure out the "secret word" - make sure you tell them to keep it a secret so they don't spoil the card for their friends (they actually get a kick out of this). It's a lot of practice for the sound you're learning as well as for beginning sounds. I always like to combine learning skills when I can.

For your high kids and fast finishers, I recommend introducing a fun, completely new concept like American Sign Language to your reading centers! The Secret Sign Language Digraphs cards are an easy thing to throw in a baggie for them to do when they're done with center work. They're a lot like the Secret Words but kids are learning the sign language alphabet to do them. Each of my sign language phonics packs comes with a sign language alphabet chart so your kids can do the activity independently.

Word building with activities like these are a great way to solidify the spelling of digraphs for students so they see how C and H together say /ch/, S and H together say /sh/, etc.

Another great place for word building is in the pocket chart center!

I have A LOT of picture word cards for each digraph that I love as pocket chart centers to build words, sort words, etc. I have these for almost every phonics sound in a big bundle so it's a great yearlong literacy station for word work. I also have them in individual sets like just SH words, just TH words, just CH words, and a set of WH QU PH words.

So let's say you learn the TH digraph first. Give them the cards where the word ends in TH and have them use the alphabet letter cards (they come with each sounds pack) to spell them out. The words are on the picture cards so they look at them to spell the word. As they look at each picture, say the word, and spell it out, they're really cementing that sound.

You can also cut the words off the bottom (I leave space between the picture/word so you can do that easily) so they have to figure out how to spell the word but I don't recommend you start that way. Letting them copy the correct spelling will help them learn the sound and see how the words are spelled.

If you did want to make it a challenging center, you could save the little word strips you cut off and put them in a baggie for them to check (and correct) their work after they're done attempting spelling them independently.

Once they've spelled the words that END in TH, give them cards where the word STARTS with TH to spell.

Then, once they've had practice spelling the words, you can also have them sort WHERE the sound comes in the word. Does the TH happen at the start of the word or at the end of the word?

This is a lot of great phonics practice because they'll be saying a lot of TH words out loud to figure out if the TH comes at the beginning or end of the word.

For your high kids, add in the TH in the middle cards!

As you can see, a lot of differentiation can be done with the pocket chart cards. I showed a lot of different ways I use the picture cards in my Short A activities post if you want to see more ways to use these.

One of the ways, I'll just share really quick, is to give kids a stack of the cards and have them stamp them! Kids love stamping with these alphabet stamps and it's an easy center you don't have to do any prep work for.

My favorite way to actually teach the phonics sounds, though, is with my phonics no prep packs. You can check out all the sounds I have here. The following pages I'm about to show are from the SH and TH pack, CH pack, and WH pack.

I created these big worksheet packs because I wanted FUN, engaging phonics classwork that could just be printed and immediately used with kids. These are no prep whatsoever and kids really love the activities. They're a lot of practice but don't feel like worksheets. Plus, I keep the activities the same throughout the different sound packs so you only have to explain the directions once! Each week, when the phonics sound changes, kids already know what to do for each center and can get right to work without the teacher saying a word. Isn't that just the dream?! :)

The packs are differentiated so you have something for all your learners for the phonics sound. There are a lot of pictures for support like the above activity where they color the picture and match it to the word. Again, the activities repeat so the above picture is from the TH pack and the one below is from the WH pack - same activity but focusing on a different sound so kids can focus on doing the activity, not how to do the activity. :)

One of my favorite activities from the packs are the Circle & Sort pages. You can start kids off with word families like whether the SH word is an -ish word or -ash word for a lot of reading practice. Have kids circle the 2 kinds in a different color then write them below. These are also great to have them read to (or with) a friend when they're done.

You could also have them circle & sort whether the word ends with SH or starts with SH.

Once they really have it down, or for your high kids, you can also mix in another digraph to sort. For example, sorting whether the words have the SH sound or CH sound.

Like I said, I do the same type of activities for every phonics pack so there are a lot of different kinds of these as well as for all the different sounds. I love phonics, can you tell? :)

Another activity that puts the digraphs words in sentences are the "I Love to Read" activities. For these, kids read the sentence and match the picture that represents the sentence.

I like to also highlight, underline, or circle the words with the focus sound for added practice.

As you can see below, they highlighted the words with the TH sound to help them read it better then matched the correct picture.

For kids who are REALLY ready for sentences... they will love A-maze-ing Sentences! This is always a favorite because it's a mystery. Have your kids read the digraph words to color their way through the maze to figure out the secret sentence.

So fun, right?! This one is from the SH and TH pack so most of the words in the boxes, even the ones they don't use, are going to be SH words for as much practice packed in as possible!

See how this one is focused on the TH sound so most of the words in the boxes have TH? Tricky, tricky teacher :)

Most of your kids will looove these but you may have a few that need to start at the word level before tackling sentences... enter Secret Word worksheets!

These are another favorite mystery activity of all kids but they're especially great for your kids who are still at the individual word level to feel smart (because they are!) when they figure them out.

For these, kids look at the picture and color it then build it with the letters they cut out (and write it). BUT FOR THE FOURTH BOX... dun dun dunnnn... it's empty! So they use the letters they have left over to unscramble them and figure out the secret word. Once they figure it out, they draw the picture for it. Kids love figuring out what the secret word is! Just like for the secret word cards, make sure you tell them to keep the secret! :) They'll be really excited to tell you though so be prepared for them to whisper it in your ear if you let them!

For your kids who are still at the word level, there is a lot of practice for them like straightforward "Write the Word" worksheets.

These are great for that explicit practice of words with the sound for everyone to do. I also love them for homework so parents see the types of words you're learning.

A fun twist on "Write the Word" though is to put it in a crossword format! Your high kids will eat this up but all the kids love it.

They're doing the same amount of work (actually 1 word less with this example!) and the same complexity of work (look at the picture, write the word) but the crossword format makes it look like a game. Score!

Any time you can make reading seem like a game, that's a win in my eyes! A really fun game from the no prep packs that does this is Spin a Word!

For this activity, kids use a pencil and a paperclip to spin. Whatever they land on, they add it to the next line. If it makes a real word, they circle it. They want to make as many real words as possible! This is a super fun game to play with a partner - whoever gets the most circles wins, plus it keeps them accountable for reading if each spin is really a real word or not; if winning a game is at stake, trust me they'll be blending those words to try to get a circle. :)

It's great to practice making words with different word families with the focus sound.

It's also great for putting at the beginning of words too! Once your kids have learned all the digraphs, let them do the Spin A Word for digraphs review.

I like to do A LOT of activities that differentiate between the digraphs. It's really easy to mix them up so the more activities you can do to solidy S and H together says shhh, C and H together says chhh, etc., the better.

These worksheets are really easy for practicing differentiating between the digraphs:

Kids simply look at the picture, say the word out loud, then circle which sound the word has. They can also color the pictures when they're done like this example if you want them to.

Definitely do a lot of practice differentiating between SH and CH. A lot of kids, especially English language learners, struggle with mixing up those 2 sounds.

I have a lot of different worksheets like this. Another worksheet format I love for differentiating between the digraph sounds are coloring pictures by their digraph sound.

You can use the easier ones too for kids who struggle where it just has kids decide between 2 sounds to color by. For example, this one is just for SH and TH:

You can also have them physically manipulate the pictures to sort them by sound.

& of course for the tricky SH/CH mix up...

Like I said, I differentiate as much as possible so if you feel like your kids can handle 3 digraphs at once, give them a page like this:

Do you explicitly teach WH and QU with your digraphs? I'd love to hear from you! Even though kids seem to pick them up really quickly, I think wh and qu should be taught explicitly in at least a few activities. Once they get them down, you can add them in with the other digraphs for practice.

Even though it's "easy," I think it's important to still show them how words that start with the /w/ sound can sometimes start with WH like whale and whiskers. :) I also like to do worksheets specifically for things like that like this where kids circle the correct spelling. It really makes them think and see that sometimes it's W and sometimes it's WH.

I also like to highlight the WH in the words in sentences so they see it spelled that way in context. Here's an example:

Same with when they're reading sentences WITHOUT picture support:

A lot of my activities have pictures but I think it's important to wean them off of the picture support as the week (or however long you teach each digraph) progresses. Once you feel like your students can soar without the picture support, switch to words-only. An easy place to start is with word sorts.

As always, encourage them to say the word out loud as they sort them. You could also have them highlight the focus sound they found within the word before gluing it down if you wanted to. I love word sorts - there are so many different ways to sort words, all of which provide a lot of reading practice. Two examples are that you can have them sort by sound like above or by where the focus sound occurs within the word like below.

Another way to sort words is alphabetically! ABC order is an important concept that some kids immediately get while others need to practice it constantly. I include them in all the phonics pack so they can practice it every week while also reading words with the focus skill.

I'd love to show you more activities from my no prep phonics packs but wow this is already getting long and I have so much more to share! Just one more... I love letting kids write creatively. Sometimes, though, kids can get stumped so I created these primary writing pages with words on the side for kids to use for inspiration and reference for correct spelling. I have them where it's a writing box and lines and also this 3 box version for your really reluctant writers to just write sentences with the focus sound! See how they're all SH words to choose from? I also have a year set of these if you just want those pages for each phonics skill. They're really great to throw in your writing center! For the version with multiple lines, you can also challenge them to use as many of the words on the side as possible in their story - you get some pretty funny stories that way! :)

So that covers a lot of practice... but what about reading fluently with these words?? To help your students build fluency reading digraphs in context, I recommend targeted reading fluency passages. I wrote Digraphs Reading Fluency Passages that each focus on a specific digraphs skill found in the upper right corner.

For example, some focus on words that end in SH like this (see it in the corner?):

Then other passages will focus on any word with the SH sound like this:

See how that one incorporates both words that end in SH (cash) and start with SH (shop)? That way, you can differentiate for your students and really hone in on where their skills are lacking.

I really love using them because they are so specifically focused. I also try to make the other words (that aren't practicing the focus skill) as decodable as possible so they can flow really easily and only "struggle" on the words with the focus sound. I try to do this with all of my reading passages - I have a ton of them if you click on "Fluency" on the left side of my TpT shop, it'll show you them all!

I also include a little bit of comprehension on the bottom of them to throw that in there. Remember I said I love to combine skills? Okay well these add even more... sequencing!

Meet: Digraphs Reading Fluency and Sequencing PUZZLES... yes, puzzles... I love puzzles!

For these, kids read the passage then put the 4 puzzle pieces in order to correctly sequence the story. I made them by phonics sound so they are practicing reading words in context with the focus skill AND practicing sequencing and comprehension. They were such a hit that I made them for pretty much every phonics sound which you can find all the different packs in the big bundle of them if you want them for other sounds too.

They come in color like this to make hands on centers but I also have them in black and white so you can use them to create phonics fluency notebooks. I wrote all about my phonics fluency notebook in this post if you want to read about them!

A quick summary of that post is that you print the black and white versions with the mixed up pictures. Make sure you select the versions labeled "Mixed Up Pics" so that the pictures are mixed up. A black and white version with them already in the correct order is also included if you just want them to read and color the pictures in the story or for your really struggling kids) but if you're creating notebooks, you want to select the mixed up ones!

Then, have kids highlight words with the focus sound. They read the story and put the events of the story in order. They also write the words with the focus sound from the story under it if you want! It combines a lot of skills in one activity.

I like to do the notebook versions first then put all the color hands-on puzzles from the last few months out as a review center so they can do stories they've already done in their notebooks for extra practice.

Another hands on activity you can do to practice digraphs are little sorting books. I also have these for a ton of different sounds and word families but these are the CH TH SH and QU WH PH books.

Each book comes in 2 levels... you can have kids simply create the book where the words are already sorted under the correct sound. It's also a quick way to make an example book. The bottom book in this picture that sorts QU, WH, and PH words is this kind.

What I prefer, though, is to make the sorting book version which the book on top (CH, TH, SH) shows - see how there are dotted lines around the picture cards in that one? That's because you make the book with blank pages THEN sort the picture/word cards under the correct sound by cutting and pasting them. It's great word sorting practice! I only use the pre-made version to make examples or if there's not enough time in the week to make the sorting version. They're awesome little books for them to flip through and read and take home to show their parents.

For even more sorting practice, bust out the Digraph-sicles Centers! They're just fun ice cream themed centers to practice digraphs. It practices ch, sh, th, wh, qu, and ph so you could have them sort words by their digraph sound OR pictures by their sound OR both pictures and words like this:

You could also just have them match the picture to the sounds without sorting them by sound. So if you're only learning TH, they'd just match sloth to the sloth picture, bath to the kid taking a bath, etc.

You can make it as simple (just word to picture) or as difficult (word, picture, AND 3 different sounds) as you want!

Another easy center you can throw out is clip cards. These are the Digraphs Clip Cards but I also have a bundle of them if you like them and want them for all the sounds.

Kids simply read the word in the middle and clip the picture it says. I don't know why kids love clothespins so much but hey, whatever works.

Okay I think that's enough digraphs fun to show! I actually have a lot more digraphs activities I could show but I appreciate you sticking around this long if you did!!

If you want EVERYTHING I showed in this post (and more!), ALL of the activities I showed in this post are included in the DIGRAPHS ULTIMATE BUNDLE.

I hope you enjoyed this post and seeing some different ways to practice digraphs with your kids! If you like any of these activities but want them with different sounds, I probably have them - just look :) I try to make each activity in every phonics sound so that things are consistent.

Happy teaching, friends!

I'd love if you took a moment to follow me on Also - don't forget to join Pinterest, Facebook, and Miss Giraffe's Class so you never miss out on fun ideas and exclusive free stuff from me only for subscribers! IG for more fun ideas like this. Thanks!

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Digraphs Activities for First Grade and Kindergarten

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Hi friends! I'd love to show you my favorite digraphs activities for first grade and kindergarten that you can use to teach those tricky digraphs. Digraphs can be difficult, especially for English language learners, but they can also be a lot of fun! I really think the key to teaching digraphs is picture support.

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For this activity, students would talk word stamps and push them into the sand to leave the imprint of the letter they wanted. As they did that, they would match the cards in the sand indicating the picture and works that they are try to stamp out. As the students stamp it out, they say each phoneme in the word and then says the word as a whole while preparing for the next word

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This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. By clicking on these links I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Have your kids fallen in love with kinetic sand? Mine have! In fact my 8-year-old had it at the top of her very short list for Christmas. So this week as we work on compound words, we are using our kinetic sand for stamping the words. Stamping compound words with kinetic sand is a great way to work on spelling & fine-motor skills while using the kids' favorite "dough".

Materials needed for Stamping Compound Words:
Paper Laminating Pouches Laminator Educational Insights jumbo lowercase alphabet stamps Kinetic Sand Tray with edges (to contain the sand)
To prep: Print and laminate the word cards. Cut them apart.

I chose to display 4 of the 16 word sets on the tray with the kinetic sand. You can choose to display more, but that is what we had room for. I will switch out the words as we use them to create a "new" activity.

We selected one of the picture-only cards that represent the compound words and then found the matching word-part cards to learn the correct spelling.

Moving to larger words can seem difficult to new readers. It's hard for them to see the individual sounds within the words. By starting the transition with compound words, kids quickly learn that larger words are made up of smaller words or sounds that they are already familiar with and they can decode the words using the sounds they know.

Kids can easily recognize the words on the picture-supported cards and use them to create the bigger compound words.

We displayed the cards on the kinetic sand and then used the jumbo lowercase alphabet stamps to press the letters into the kinetic sand.

I noticed that as she pressed the stamps into the kinetic sand that it was giving her fingers a good workout. Which is great for building her fine-motor skills.

You could choose to have the kids record the finished words in their notebooks for additional practice. Or take pictures with an iPad or iPhone for a quick assessment of understanding.

Another fun activity is to have the kids think of more compound words and draw pictures in their notebooks to represent the word parts.

Stamping Plural Nouns from Still Playing School

Car Crash Preschool Letter Stamping from Learning 2 Walk

Sight Words with Alphabet Stamps from Mom Inspired Life

Big Letter Little Letter Stamping from Powerful Mothering

Alphabet Clay Letters from Sugar Aunts

Spelling Practice with Alphabet Stamps from Line upon Line Learning

Alphabet Stamp Handwriting Pages from The Kindergarten Connection

Name writing with Stampers from Adventures of Adam

Stamps on the Light Table {Learning with Alphabet Stamps} from Squiggles and Bubbles

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Stamping Craft from School Time Snippets

Stamp It Letter Sound Activity for Kids from Raising Little Superheroes
Stamps & Play Dough ABC Learning Activity from Play Dough & Popsicles
Make Your Own Stamp Pad for Letter Stamping from Books and Giggles

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Stamping Compound Words with Kinetic Sand - Life Over Cs

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Have your kids fallen in love with kinetic sand? Mine have! In fact my 8-year-old had it at the top of her very short list for Christmas. So this week as we work on compound words, we are using our kinetic sand for stamping the words.

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In this activity, the teacher will create an anchor chart with his or her students about the sounds that some endings make. For instance,the ending -ed doesn't always make the same sound. This anchor chart can be created with the students and the teacher can have a list of their own words they thought of in case students have a hard time coming up with words.

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Phonics is the ability to teach reading and writing through learning different sounds and spelling patterns.

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Phonics is the ability to teach reading and writing through learning different sounds and spelling patterns.

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Independent Reading Activity- Questioning Stars

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Independent Reading Activity- Questioning Stars

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In an independent reading activity, students choose and reads a book that they wish to read. In this activity, students will read their independent reading books and as they read, they will go to the questioning stars cups and pick out a star to answer. Essentially, there are questions for before, during, and after the story written on a star.

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Shared Reading Activity- Before, After, & During Reading Anchor Chart

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Shared Reading Activity- Before, After, & During Reading Anchor Chart

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In a shared reading activity, the teachers and students read together and it is a highly interactive and effective practice. In this activity, the teacher will create an anchor chart with sticky notes that have questions on them. Each color represents whether the question is about before the class reads, as the class reads, and after the class finishes the book. The teacher will ask someone to volunteer to get a sticky note from whichever color/ part of the story that the class is unto. Once it is picked, the teacher will ask the question to the class and proceed to listen to answers.

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In a read aloud activity, the teacher reads out loud to his or her students. In this activity, the students will have to draw what they think is going on in the story based off of what the teacher has read aloud to them. This will help them will learning to focus on the important details when reading or listening to a story and it helps students learn to multitask.

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Guided Reading Activity- Sequencing Cards

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Guided Reading Activity- Sequencing Cards

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In a guided reading activity, the teacher works with a small group of students on their reading and guides them so that they stay on the right path. In this activity, the teacher would point to each word, like "First", and the students would have to tell the teacher what happened first in the story. This is also very universal and can apply to all books.

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Read Alouds
Shared Reading
Guided Reading
Independent Reading

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In this activity, students will take dry erase boards and draw three boxed on them with a plus sign in between the first two and an equals sign in between the second and third box, It would look something like "__+__=__". Once that is done, students will take the dice and roll them. One one die is a letter on the other is endings such as -at, -ed, -et, etc. Once they have rolled the dice, they will have to fill in the blocks with the corresponding letters or sounds then combine them together to create a word. Last but not least, the student will then have to tell me if the word is real or not. This will teach students how to pronounce and hear the different phonemes, whether it is a real word or not.

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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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Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual phonemes, or sounds, in words.

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Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual phonemes, or sounds, in words.

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In this activity, students will take blocks with letters drawn on them to create a word, which they will then have to ta out or pound out. This is an interesting activity because it keeps the students engaged and they can even try creating multisyllabic words with the blocks. In our textbook, Cohen brings up the point that the literature on emergent literacy recommend phonemic awareness activities that young children should practice at an early age to improve their reading achievement (Ch. 3). This activity is perfect for this theory because children would have an easy time building words with the blocks versus trying to write the words out.

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In this game, students will have to try to knock out an ice block without making the little figurine in the middle fall. Once they knock the block out, the student has to tap out the word before proceeding to the next player. I think that this would be a fun review game towards the end of a lesson.

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In this activity, students have worksheets where they have to figure out which bossy R sound is in each word, which is below its corresponding picture. They would have to figure out if each word as an ar, er, or, ir, or ur sound in them. Once they have figure out which Bossy R sound it is, they used a marker to draw and color a dot on that sound.

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For this activity, students would have a worksheet with four boxes in each row. The first box would show a picture leaving the next two boxes for the student to glue/paste the multisyllabic word cut outs that match the picture. Then the student would have to write the word in the fourth and final box. Once they've done that, students would then have to tap out the word as they sound it out.

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In my class, we do a lot of chunking. Both when reading and when writing. I know we've made progress when we can see words in chunks and not individual letters. When students use Chunky Monkey, they record the word on Post It notes to show visually how they have used and applied this strategy.

Once students have been taught to read and spell in chunks, they need some practice at it. Students color the picture, glue in the chunks and write the word as a whole part. That is important that they move across the continuum from individual sounds to chunks, to whole words. Then they apply this knowledge by reading a sentence and highlighting the chunks. Last, students demonstrate comprehension by doing a quick sketch of the sentence.

These word family Chunk Its are no prep- just print and go to make it an easy go-to resource!

When students write the words, teach them to write it in the chunks- beginning sounds and chunks and not looking at each individual letter. Struggling readers/writers need lots of encouragement and modeling to do this automatically.

There is a Chunk Its CVCe Long Vowels too!

One area that so many students really need to build and strengthen is multisyllabic words. This Chunk Its does that with short vowel 2 syllable words. They get practice with compound words, double consonants, and breaking 2 syllable words where at least one of the syllables has a short vowel sound. I have also bundled all 4 of the Chunk It resources into one bundle to help save you some money. You can click any of the pictures to be taken to see these resources and how they can help your students practice moving out of individual sounds and into chunks of sound!

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In my class, we do a lot of chunking. Both when reading and when writing. I know we've made progress when we can see words in chunks and not individual letters. When students use Chunky Monkey, they record the word on Post It notes to show visually how they have used and applied this strategy.

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Fluency is the ability to read with accuracy, speed, and expression.

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Fluency is the ability to read with accuracy, speed, and expression.

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These decoding drills, in the form of mini-flashcards, can be used to help students understand words with short e, short u, and many more other sounds. Once a student has gone through each and every labled card, the student can then tackle the last card which has a couple of words with different short vowel sounds. It's almost like a final review flashcard at the end.

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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:

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.

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.

For the short vowel edition, the stars/levels of difficulty breakdown is as follows:

Decoding Drills - Short Vowel Edition & the GROWING Bundle

Are you ready to try the short vowel edition of Decoding Drills with your students? You can find it in my TpT store, or by clicking here. However, I know we need Decoding Drills for ALL the phonics skills, so I've created a growing bundle! By purchasing the growing bundle, you get a 50% discount on all Decoding Drill sets. Plus, you'll get an email notification as SOON as new sets have been added. That way, you can have all your decoding drills printed and ready to go before you head back to school in the fall. (I know. I can't believe I said that either. Let's take a moment of silence for summer.) Click here for more information!

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!

If I buy the growing bundle, do I get the other Decoding Drills sets for free?
Yes! Purchasing a growing bundle means that you are "pre-ordering" some items at a discount before they are released. There are dates listed in the preview and description (see below) that outline when you can expect each addition to the bundle. In order to get the additions:
* Log into TpT
* Go to "My TpT" -&gt; "My Purchases"
* Choose: Sort by &gt; Recently Revised; find product
* Click "download now" to download the product again. The new PDF will be in the zipped file.

If you have any other questions, feel free to leave me a comment in the boxes below or email me at aTeachableTeacher{at}gmail{dot}com .

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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?

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Using Sight Word Flashcards teaches students how to read and speak fluently. To read and speak fluently, the reader has to be able to read the card slowly and quickly. If the student struggles with being able to read the sentence, the teacher can have him move to another one in the color set or to a completely different set of flashcards.

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Sight Word Fluency Flashcards: FRY Words 1-100

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sight words Part of a huge Sight Word growing bundle: ⭐The ULTIMATE Sight Word Bundle Ever have students who are just not learning their

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For this activity, the students would get a worksheet with a picture to the left of what each sentence represents then the students have to color or highlight which words would make the sentence that best connects to the picture. Once a student colors in the words to make the sentence, the student then has to say the sentence out loud while following the path, or maze, the sentence makes. This can be seen as the student has to be flexible in order to complete the task, which is one of the strategies for fluency that our textbook mentions to be extremely helpful on the topic. If the strategy is focused on flexibility, then it puts the students to change directions at any time, self-correct, and adapt to a continuous train of thought while doing the activity.