FREE printable Symmetry drawing activity for preschool and kindergarten kids. A fun art and math activity in one! Kids will complete the symmetrical pictures by drawing the other half.
K-1 POETRY UNIT I love teaching poetry to kindergarten and first grade students! Even though I have this labeled as Unit 8 in my Writing Series , I actually teach poetry throughout the entire year. We follow the same routine and students look forward to our poetry week every month.
Have a child learning to read? Try this missing sounds reading activity to work on decoding skills. A hands-on, phonics based reading game.
Teach your child to recognize and read consonant digraphs /th/, /sh/, and /ch/ with a digraph garden!
Make reading exciting for your students with these fun phoneme segmentation activities for kindergarten! They are a fun way to support these essential literacy skills so you can set your students up for reading success. Thanks to new research about how we really learn how to read, we now know that it's more important than ever to fully develop our students' phonemic awareness skills before we expect them to read the written word! Students learn best when they start with something concrete and gradually move to the abstract. This new research about synthetic phonics tells us that our students’ reading abilities are directly linked to how well they can identify and manipulate the sounds in words. This makes sense. Speaking is a physical act; all of us understand it intuitively. Reading, however, is an abstract skill that requires consistent and explicit instruction. Our kindergarten kiddos need us to start with what they know - spoken language - so they can learn to read more efficiently and to ensure all our students are set up for literacy success. What is phoneme segmentation? Although it's easy to lump this skill in with the whole bubble of phonemic awareness skills, segmentation is about breaking a word into individual sounds. It's an intermediate phonemic awareness skill preceded by phoneme isolation and phoneme blending. They all fit within the umbrella of phonological awareness skills. Learn more about these different terms in Phonics vs Phonemic Awareness. Levels of Phonemic Awareness Phoneme isolation Phoneme blending Phoneme segmentation Phoneme addition Phoneme deletion Phoneme substitution At this stage, your students should be able to hear a word and break it into sounds. The word frog should become /f/ /r/ /o/ /g/. The word cat should become /c/ /a/ /t/. This can be taught in many different ways, and it's an essential skill to practise throughout kindergarten. How do you make phoneme segmentation fun & engaging for kindergarten students with a short attention span? I highly recommend getting hands-on! Use manipulatives and include a variety of physical movements, like drawing, playing, clapping, and more, to help make this learning as engaging as possible. To them, it will feel like play, but they’ll be laying the foundation for their future phonics skills and reading abilities every single day! 7 Phoneme Segmentation Activities for Kindergarten There are countless ways to practise identifying and segmenting phonemes! You can turn almost any material into a tool, depending on how you use it. You don't need to buy all of the tools right away, and you can often get by using materials you already have on hand! Be creative and focus on the skill, not the stuff. 1. Listening to Sounds in Words This is the easiest and most simplistic phonemic awareness activity. Your kids need only their ears (and maybe some fingers) to identify and segment the individual phonemes in different words. It will take time for your kindergarten students to get used to this concept at the beginning of the school year, but if you keep modelling and practising, they'll get it! Start by modelling this practice yourself. Break apart words verbally. Starting with your thumb, lift a finger for each phoneme you hear. Examples Dog: /d/ /o/ /g/ House: /h/ /ow/ /s/ Chin: /ch/ /i/ /n/ 2. Sound Boxes Also known as Elkonin boxes, sound boxes are a phenomenal way to support your students to identify the individual sounds in words. This practice supports orthographic mapping, which helps your students encode these spelling patterns to their long-term memory more efficiently than traditional memorisation. These are best to use when your students have had a chance to isolate and blend sounds together, but you can also use them from day one of your instruction. Essentially, students listen for the different sounds in a given word to get used to breaking them up. When they're ready to start writing, add the letter or groups of letters representing that sound in each box. For example, digraphs would go in one box since they represent one unique sound. This visual approach really makes this abstract concept easier to understand. It's such an effective skill that I recommend using it with your whole group, small groups, or independent practice every single day. Any time you introduce a new word from your word list, run it through a sound box first! You could also use these googly eyes to make it even more fun! There are a bunch of great sound box activities and templates on my site to get you started: Animal Word Mapping Mats CVC Orthographic Mapping Activities Free Printable Word Mapping Templates 3. Interactive Digital Slides Since we have so many little things to track every single day, I highly recommend incorporating custom digital slides! I created them to be interactive to keep interest high, evidence-based to make them powerful and effective, and convenient so you won't have to worry about hunting down missing materials again. I have a variety of slides to support different phonemic awareness skills, including: Phonological awareness slides: These are perfect for the beginning of the school year! Practise counting the words in sentences, identifying the beginning and ending sound in words, and more. In the 'count the sound' slides, the sound buttons are animated to flash as you say each sound. Heart words interactive slides: Instead of teaching sight words the old-fashioned way, teach them using the best evidence-based practices to help your students learn them faster than ever. As part of The Hive, you'll also have access to my plethora of sound boxes and phonics activities! The Hive is an intuitively designed and nimble digital teacher planner, but it’s also so much more. It includes literally hundreds of custom-built apps, downloads, printables, and more, so you can set up your entire day in just one program. You'll be able to incorporate these phonemic awareness activities into your daily lessons and routines with no extra prep at all! Join The Hive today and check it out! 4. Rhyming Games One of the best ways to teach young children phoneme segmentation is by playing rhyming games! Kids love listening for rhyming words, and there are so many great rhyming books for kindergarten to reinforce this skill. Most rhyming focuses on the vowel sound, which can be tricky to identify as they often sound similar. Start by identifying word families (-all: ball, call, fall, etc) and then incorporate these rhyming words activities. Once they're ready, challenge them to listen for rhymes in longer passages, like with these poetry games. 5. Missing Sound Task Cards One fun, accessible way to practice this skill is to incorporate picture cards with missing sounds. Students will need to say the name of the item on the card to identify the lost sound. Note- this is a more advanced way to practise segmenting, as it also incorporates phonics skills. For example, if there is a picture of a pig and the letters __ig, students will need to think or say the word
Free printable length comparison worksheets for preschool and kindergarten. Perfect introduciton to measurement skills.
As a primary teacher, it can be very difficult fitting in grammar instruction into your day. I also have a little secret you might not know about me. I used to loathe teaching grammar. Can any of you relate? It's so difficult to even WANT to teach grammar when we have so many other things we could be doing with our day. Plus, many of us are expected to "spiral" it in with the many other subjects we are expected to teach throughout the day. Although all school districts, programs, and teachers are different, I have found something that students love doing, and that is applying new information into something called an interactive notebook!! And so I created these for grammar...and the students loved them!
Unplugged Coding activities for beginning coding skills. No tech needed for this fun, hands-on activity to practice how to code with kindergarten students.
Learn word family with this game. For more word fun and teaching Kindergarten, check out our Editable Word Work Board Games!
Decoding drills for building fluency helps students apply phonics skills when reading. Perfect warm ups and a great tracking tool, too.
How to Avoid the Summer Slide! Summer is right around the corner! We all LOVE our summer vacation, but not the "Summer Slide!" The Summer Review Packets
PRIMARY PHONICS - UNIT 6 We are ready to tackle digraphs ! I can’t believe we are already here. My kiddos were just starting school it seems like, and I remember most students couldn’t even identify their letters. Now we are reading sight words , CVC words , short stories and MO
#MamaLovePrint 「 我的身體 」 工作紙主要的學習目標是讓小朋友更清楚知道自己的身體構造，以可愛的人體圖去表達身體的不同部份。小朋友經常看電視和圖書，會接觸到不同的名詞是關於身體的各個部份，但有些時候他們不確實知道那些專業字詞所代表的意思，對我們的身體一知半解。
Phonemic awareness is an important pre-reading skill. Phonemic awareness is understanding that words are made up of individual sounds.
Looking for fun and educational resources to help your child learn and practice beginning sounds? Look no further! We are delighted to offer...
April is nearly here and we are geared up for some fun spring-filled learning! This month we are keeping it rigorous and FUN! The following April
Looking for a fun way to teach 2D shapes? This marshmallow geometry activity will do the trick - and fill your tummy!
Download 19 worksheets on 3D or solid shapes (i.e. sphere, cone, cylinder, cube, rectangular prism or cuboid and pyramid) suitable for kindergarten class.
FREE science emergent reader book about the human body systems. Great science activity for preschool and kindergarten.
So many ways to explore some extra creativity! These fun art challenges are perfect for kids and adults to stretch their imaginations!
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Story retelling is an ongoing core kindergarten skill and takes place when a student is able to comprehend a story and retell it in their own words. A retell should include key details like characters, the setting, the problem, main events (BME) and solution of the story. Kindergarten students do most story retells from listening to a story read aloud. Because of this, I feel it’s super important to select high quality and engaging texts to help develop a real love for reading. For me, I’m drawn to a silly or feel good story that opens up the floor for a great conversation. I want it to be a memorable and lovable story that they'll want to tell and retell! My Master's is actually in Library Science, so I'm extremely passionate about book selection AND story retelling for littles. So much that... I've married them into a series of monthly retelling activities, using high quality picture books, that work perfect in a kindergarten and first grade classroom. Pre, During and After Reading: Set your students up for success! Book talk the text prior to reading. When reading, an interactive read aloud goes along way with comprehension, I love to occasionally stop and really dig into an illustration or get student input when reading aloud. Whether you retell on day one or later, your kiddos will need to recall key details, and I love doing it with multiple and varied exposure using a single story. Retelling Hand: I like to start and review with a retelling visual like the retelling hand! You can grab a free retelling hand by clicking here. Review the parts of a story retell and then give the kiddos time to "turn and talk" to recall information in the story together. Retell Games: I love board games and just games in general. They're engaging, casual and get you TALKING and moving a little bit! After the kiddos have spent time with a partner, I like to take it up a notch and retell it in a gaming setting. My retelling activities generally include a low-prep game to help the kiddos start chatting alongside some visual support. Anchor Chart: Shared Writing and Sequence: After double exposure with a buddy, it's time to come together and discuss the retell. Review and record the characters and setting. For the sequence portion, students will help you order the events. Once the events have been sequenced, students will help come up with the beginning, middle and end to wrap up the retell (great shared writing practice). If you're looking for interactive writing opportunities, scripting the BME sentences would also be a great way for students to come up and assist with writing. The picture card activity works great on chart paper, a pocket chart or even repurposed later on using a pocket chart in a literacy center. *all corresponding activities can be found here. The Retelling CRAFT or Printable Option: To offer a chance for independent practice, the story craft or cut & paste printable will allow the individual student to practice sequence and retelling the story at their own pace and sharpen fine motor skills. I've always told my students a retell activity is a keepsake... because it's almost like you're taking the book home to read it to a loved one. This retell activity supports the mentor text Florette by Anna Walker. *all corresponding activities can be found here. Written Expression: The written and illustrated graphic organizer is another way for students to show their comprehension of the story after reading and practice writing. If you're making a follow-up literacy center with the picture cards in a pocket chart, this printable (or any of the others within the kit) would be a great add-on. For more retell activities, click here!
Make teaching coins, coin value, and money easy with these kindergarten money activities from a real kindergarten classroom!
Ready? Set. GO! Blast off with this EASY balloon rocket experiment! Learn simply physics with a fun summer science activity for kids.
These 5 fun 3D shapes activities for kindergarten are a great way for students to learn about shape attributes while having a blast.
I can't even believe May is almost here…. time flies in the spring! This might just be my favorite time of year to teach kindergarten.
This kindergarten blog post will illustrate 17 different activities that can be used to build fine motor activities into your curriculum.
This simple buoyancy kids' science activity requires just a few common household supplies. Kids will love learning why things sink and float!
It seems like every day there is an endless stream of students reporting behaviors or incidents that happen in the classroom. On one hand, we want to help our students feel heard and validated so they know we are a safe person for them to talk to. On the other hand, we certainly don't want to feed into the tattle machine. It's a fine line to walk. So how do we handle tattling in our classrooms?
KINDERGARTEN MATH - UNIT 3 I am so excited to have my new Measurement and Data kindergarten math unit posted and ready to share with you. So far this year, my sweet kinders have learned so much in math. We have mastered 1:1 correspondence, reading and writing numerals to 20, counting to 10
Click the following link to download this free poster Homophones Poster Many reading programs introduce the concept of homophones in second grade. Homophones are words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have a different meaning. Our students need to be able to tell the difference in the meanings of these words and to use […]
#MamaLovePrint 「 我的身體 」 工作紙主要的學習目標是讓小朋友更清楚知道自己的身體構造，以可愛的人體圖去表達身體的不同部份。小朋友經常看電視和圖書，會接觸到不同的名詞是關於身體的各個部份，但有些時候他們不確實知道那些專業字詞所代表的意思，對我們的身體一知半解。
Help those kids from getting the “summer slide” with this 100 page packet! Included is 50 pages of math and 50 pages of literacy including reading and comprehension, grammar, writing, and word work. This would also make a great addition for any beginning of the year work for 1st grade too! Click here to download. here …
Learn about six syllable types and why we must teach them to our students. Make sure to download the free syllable types resource to get started explicitly teaching them in your classroom!
Basic vocabulary, like knowing prepositions, is necessary for beginning readers. Teach prepositions with this simple game.
These 5 fun 3D shapes activities for kindergarten are a great way for students to learn about shape attributes while having a blast.
If you want to teach your little ones about the concept of opposites you will want to check out these fun opposites worksheets and activities.
Learn about Orthographic Mapping & get details about the Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping resource for k, 1st & 2nd grade students.
PRIMARY SCIENCE UNIT 1 - THE HUMAN BODY We are so excited to dig into Unit 1 in our science sequence! We kick off science this year with My Body and My Five Senses . It is the perfect place to start science with our primary kiddos. This year we are going to explore and learn about the
Need to help your students get more hands on practice for their vocabulary words? I've got 5 fun vocabulary games you can use right away!
Most children can identify living and nonliving objects, but can't explain WHY something is living or nonliving. These hands-on activities will help!
Today I wanted to stop by and share some strategies for teaching vowel teams and diphthongs in our classroom! It’s always challenging to teach spelling patterns that aren’t easily decodable! […]
Prefixes and suffixes in first grade? Kindergarten ? What?! I'm not sure who decided teaching them so early was the way to go but never fear...
