Oh, my goodness! Did you know that syllable types were first standardized by Noah Webster in 1806? Let’s thank Noah because syllable types make life easier for teachers and students, alike! For children who are learning to read, studying syllable patterns helps with mastering vowel sounds, one of the most challenging parts about decoding. For us teachers, introducing syllable types is a great way to reinforce phonics instruction, no matter which approach we are using. Showing students one syllable type at a time keeps decoding instruction simple. As you know, a syllable is a word or part of a word...
Now you can pick exactly the resources you need from my Teachers Pay Teachers store at a 20% to 30% discount! Make a custom bundle by following these quick and easy steps. Choose the resources you want (minimum $10’s worth).Email that information to me. (See download for email address.)Wait 24 (usually) to 48 hours for me to make the bundle for you.I will email you to let you know that your custom bundle is ready! Download this FREEBIE for detailed instructions for creating your custom bundle. Enjoy the resources you want! Click below to download the free directions. By creating...
I love teaching children about morphemes, because the payoff is so great! Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units of a language (e.g., -s, re-, spect, fly). After spending decades focusing on phonemic and phonological awareness, educators are now realizing how important it is to teach morphological awareness as well. Morphological awareness—the ability to use the smallest meaningful word parts to determine a word’s meaning—helps young readers by improving their: word recognitionspellingfluencyvocabularycomprehension We can start teaching morphemes in kindergarten, or even pre-K, and our knowledge of word chunks can expand into adulthood. Word Recognition and Spelling The earliest morphemes a child...
Keeping the students focused on school work during the weeks before winter vacation can be challenging for a teacher, under normal circumstances, but with the pandemic this year, holding their attention may require even more effort. Whether you are in the building, teaching remotely, or both, here are a few ideas to help you keep your primary grade students on task as their winter break approaches. (more…)
It’s that time again, but, as we all know, Halloween is going to be different this year–because of COVID! (more…)
Although my regular topic is beginning reading, today I want to share some tips for overcoming the fear of creating digital products. Although this post is written primarily for Teachers Pay Teachers authors/sellers, it could help anyone. If you have been hesitant about making digital learning materials for children, delay no longer. Transforming your paper-based products to Google AppsTM can be overwhelming at first, but it’s really not difficult once you get the hang of it. Students are especially motivated and engaged when working on computers, Chromebooks, or tablets, so it’s worth the effort to learn how to do it....
I’m so excited! I just uploaded my first animated GIF Pin, and it was so easy! Making an animated GIF is not only simple, but fun. (more…)
When Thanksgiving is over, many children start thinking about the presents they want Santa to bring them at Christmas time. For teachers this presents a wonderful opportunity for an authentic writing activity—a letter to Santa. For years, I had my students write Dear Santa letters, but I hated encouraging that “gimme” attitude in children, so one year I decided to try something different. (more…)
Some educators argue that teaching children to memorize sight words encourages guessing. But is there a place for teaching sight words? I believe there is. What are sight words, anyway? The term is often confused with high frequency words and irregular or nonphonetic words. These categories overlap, for sure, but sight words are simply words that can be immediately recognized as wholes, without being decoded. There are several reasons why I teach sight words to beginning readers. (more…)
Do you use PowerPoint to make resources in your business? If so, I encourage you to check out my trick for saving time while using this presentation software. (more…)
The days are getting longer. Spring will be here before you know it—then summer. Some people are shopping for warm weather clothes. Others are looking forward to spring break. But then there are those of us who are beginning to think about… summer tutoring! (more…)
It’s that time of year again! At the middle of the year, the honeymoon is over for reading teachers. We have to face the fact that, no matter how carefully we have chosen books and planned our lessons, there are going to be some students in our guided reading groups who aren’t progressing as they should. And, contrary to what you might think, these children aren’t always in our lowest reading groups. But don’t feel bad. (more…)
Boo! I love teaching guided reading at Halloween time—especially to emergent readers! I’d like to share some of my teaching points and materials with you. Most kindergartners and 1st graders like to be a little bit scared, but, even more than that, they love to scare adults! This is why they are eager to learn to read and write boo, and much of my teaching this time of the year centers around the word. Boo! (more…)
Guided reading time is so precious! Don’t you agree? As a classroom teacher, it was one of the few times I got to observe my students up close. Even as a reading specialist I was hyper protective of my guided reading sessions. (Just ask the classroom teachers I worked with…I probably drove them crazy! Ha-ha!) During my years of teaching guided reading, I’ve come up with a number of techniques and materials to make the best of that special instructional time. I’ll share a few of those with you. (more…)
Don’t you love that look of surprise in a student’s eyes, when he realizes that he’s not struggling with reading anymore? I do! That’s one of the reasons I teach fluency early on when working with young readers. The other reason is that fluent reading produces a wonderful domino effect. You don’t have to wait for fluency to evolve on its own, after a child has mastered decoding in 3rd or 4th grade. Fluency can—and should—be taught, and earlier than you might think! (more…)
