Do you have students who struggle with reading comprehension? We know our young readers need a toolbox of reading strategies to help them comprehend texts, but it’s hard to not get lost in the seemingly complicated lessons to teach them. One great strategy to help students become better readers is questioning. But, there are so […]
Motivating students to master sight words plays a large part in helping them learn the words, but how can we do that without reinventing the wheel? Before I figured out a simple and easy way to practice words and make fun sight word games, I constantly searched for the latest and greatest to practice. Scouring […]
Amazon affiliate links are used below at no cost to you. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my links, which helps to support the blog. We were sitting at my guided reading table for the hundredth time. We had been working on the same sight words in guided […]
Balanced literacy is truly a passion of mine. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing teachers who took me under their wings my first few years of teaching and really taught me how balanced literacy in kindergarten and first grade should look. I have had several questions about when to do guided reading and […]
92 words. 100 words. It doesn’t matter which list you use – Dolch, Fry’s, or your own. Mastering sight words is a key factor in reading success with little learners. That makes progress monitoring for sight words important. But the task of tracking it all can seem so daunting. How do you keep students motivated? […]
Shared reading is a valuable part of the balanced literacy approach. You may be wondering what it is or how it’s different than a read aloud. Because it takes up such a small amount of time, it often is left out. But I am here to tell you that the 15 minutes spent on shared […]
I talked a little last week about how much I loved using anchor charts in the classroom. We would use them time and time again to “anchor our learning”. From introducing topics, to exploring more about topics, recording our learning, and being referenced later—they were always a part of our classroom environment. Today I want to highlight […]
This week we have been exploring Penguins through nonfiction, or expository, text. The kids always enjoy nonfiction. We started by reviewing nonfiction with this wonderful Mr. Harry’s Kindergarten video. The kids absolutely LOVE it! We have read several books. Our curriculum has us using the cover of the books to make predictions about the […]
Books. One thing every elementary teacher can’t ever have enough of! I can’t tell you how many Friday nights I spent at Half Price Books my first two years of teaching! My husband who was my boyfriend at the time sacrificed lots of evenings to help me hunt for just the right books! HA! Here […]
Happy Thursday! I hope you survived the day! I thought I would pop in and show you what I have put together for the Winter Olympics fun that is JUST around the corner!! I seriously hadn’t been this excited about a product in a long while! As a matter of fact, it came together rather […]
Since we have returned to school about two weeks ago, I have been hitting several important concepts hard with my students! It’s January so now I pull out the ‘ole “We are getting ready for 1st grade!” phrase quite often. I am working with my struggling little ones on many skills that I wish they […]
I’m going to do a quick flash back to about two weeks ago to share what we did in our class as we learned that great readers infer as they read. I started the week with a great lesson from Comprehension Connections. We safety-pinned emotion cards to the back of a child’s shirt and then […]
WHEW! Where has the week gone?! September has come and gone and I am excited as can be for this cooler weather that is in the forecast for the weekend. I thought I’d pop in and share a little bit from our week! We needed to hit compound words hard this week! We covered them […]
I, like most of you, are busy, busy, busy getting ready for the new school year!! I know I have said this before, but I seriously am just SUPER excited about going back to Kindergarten! As I am preparing for my little ones, I am keeping in mind that most have not been to pre-school […]
Shared reading is one of my most favorite parts of the day!! It is a time for me to model what great reading looks like, sounds like, and even how great readers think. The best part is that the students get the joy of reading the on-level text with me! When I taught Kindergarten in […]
I must admit, my excitement for going back to Kindergarten is just through the roof!! Oh how I will miss my old team. Talk about a dream team, guys! I’m excited about working with a new team and learning new things, though! I am in charge of planning ELAR for the team next year. It’s […]
One thing I know can be difficult and tedious is tracking and monitoring sight words in first grade. From teaching the words and practicing to remembering to assess students and record data, it can be more than overwhelming. I remember in my early years of teaching struggling to assess each and every student on 1000 […]
Have you ever had a student struggle with reading comprehension? Maybe a student can read with a high accuracy score, but just can’t seem to grasp what the text is telling them. I sure have! When I put all the pieces together, I realized that my students needed more practice with reading fluency. As soon […]
