Structured Literacy is an approach to reading instruction that is explicit and systematic, with a focus on the structure of the English language.

Short vowel sort Short and long vowel x2 I can read CVCe sentences Long vowel story I can make fall sentences Fix it up sentences x2 Fall sentence scramble Noun Verb Noun or Verb Types of noun Proper noun vs common noun Proper noun or common noun Sound it out- L blend x2 Five senses word list Fives ...

I am a WORD NERD. No really. I am, and I’m totally okay with it! I LOVE collecting words, and I have so much fun with language. I love playful sounding words like “hullabaloo”… descriptive words like “crestfallen” in place of overused “sad”… and words that have an extra flair to them like “aficionado”. …

So a little while back I shared my guided reading toolbox with you. If you missed that post, click {here} or the picture below. It talks about some of the goodies I keep on hand to use during my guided reading lessons! Then a few weeks ago I was guest blogging over at the Hameray Publishing blog, where I shared a few more ideas about how I use some of my favourite tools. I also shared a freebie guided reading notebook cover that you can download. Go check it out {here} or by clicking the picture below. Today I am going to share with you how I set up my guided reading lessons. Here's a peek at my guided reading plan book. I keep my reading and math group plans in the same planner. I just keep a sticky note on the current weekly pages. I split my kiddos into five groups based on reading level, but these groups are fluid and change throughout the year. My groups are colour-coded and each group has an animal--the blue dogs, green frogs, yellow ducks, pink cats, and purple fish. In my guided reading planner, I have a laminated page for my groups. I can write the names in dry erase marker, but I prefer to use little post-it flags. I can move them around easily as the groups change. Plus the colours match. Love it! I keep each group's books and lesson materials in a matching tub. Of course the tubs are buried in a box somewhere, but I use these tubs from Really Good Stuff with these cute labels. I only have about 40 minutes a day for my guided reading time, so I see two groups a day for 20 minutes each. I usually try to see my lowest group three times a week, my middle groups twice a week, and my highest group once a week. I have to make the most of that 20 minutes, so I break my lesson into 4 mini parts: {1.} Reread/Fluency - 2 minutes {2.} New Read - 8 minutes {3.} Comprehension - 3 minutes {4.} Word Work/Writing - 7 minutes Here's a close up of how I plan my lessons. It doesn't take a whole lot of planning. Just a few minutes to jot down the name of the group, the title and level of the new book we will be reading, some tricky words that I want to address, check off the reading strategy we will focus on, a comprehension activity, and a word work or writing activity. Here is a break down of the four parts of the lesson: The group that is working with me grabs their book box, sits at the horseshoe table, and picks a previous guided reading book from their book box to start reading while they wait for me. This gives me a chance to make sure that everyone else is at their correct station and there are no problems before I settle in for (hopefully) 20 minutes of uninterrupted guided reading time! In their book boxes, students keep about 2-4 guided reading books from our previous lessons and four books of their choosing from the class library. Once we're all ready to go, I introduce a new book to group. We usually do a quick book walk, look at some tricky words we might come across, and make some predictions. We might also review the reading strategy we are focusing on before we read the book. Then I give each student in the group a copy of the book and have them whisper read the book to themselves. Sometimes they just read normally and sometimes I let them use the whisper phones (made out of PVC pipe and duct tape). And if anyone is struggling with one-to-one matching, we might use some of my favourite tools such as glow-in-the-dark fingers, mini laser pointers, googly eye rings, or highlighter strips. I take turns listening to a few or all the students reading, making notes about who used what strategies and who struggled with what skills. If someone finishes their book before the others, I make them go back and reread! Fluency, fleuncy, fluency! After everyone has finished the book once, we do a quick and simple comprehension activity. It might just be orally answering questions from a spinner, beach ball, or task card. We might do a story map together, practice sequencing the events of the story, or make connections to the story. Guided Reading Beach Balls from Carson Dellosa Guided Reading Dice from Amazon Guided Reading Spinners from Amazon Various spinners and cards from TpT sellers Then the last thing to do is a word work or writing activity in our guided reading notebooks. It usually has to do with the book we just read, a phonics skill we are working on, or some sight word practice! You can now download ALL of my guided reading and math pages (planner cover, group organization page, group labels, group schedule, and weekly lesson plans) by checking out TpT:

Use the FREE literacy manipulatives to create a literacy toolbox for kinder, first, & second grade for small groups, centers, or at home.

Games make learning fun! Read this post for tips on games to repurpose for your literacy lessons without breaking the bank!

This ESGI Learning Tool Box for Parents and Students is helpful for increasing communication and helping students at home.

For a fun, hands-on activity to strengthen fluency skills, try this super simple CVC Spelling Tray Activity for early readers!

These meaningful activities were created to help you teach your students about simple and compound sentences. They follow the second grade Common Core Language standards.

Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!

Our focus sound this week is the ou/ow dipthong. Each Monday, I introduce the new sound and we add it to our "phonics chant". I made up a little song several years ago that goes with all the sounds we learn in first grade. My husband is in the Marines, and I was inspired by cadences. I start with "Oh, we're first graders and we're here to tell you" (they repeat this line) "learning to read is fun to do." (they repeat) "We know so many sounds, we practice everyday" (they repeat) "We sing a little song and this is what we say:" (repeat) then we go into all of the sounds. Every week, we add a new line to it. We use the the sign language alphabet in the movements that go along with the chant. For the /ou/ sound, we make an o with one hand and a "u" with the other. We say "O - U" then crash our hands together and say "/ou/!" We repeat this with "O - W - /ou/!" Each week, I lead the new sound and then on Friday I assign the line to a new student. The kids have to pay attention and do their part on cue. The rest of the class echoes after them. It is pretty darn cute! I will have to record it sometime. Just a few weeks ago we had long o spelled ow. I had a few who were really trying to read ow as long o this week even though we had gone over the new sound. I wanted to drill in the ou sound so I we played HILARIOUS jokes on everybody at our school today. (Okay, so they might have only been hilarious to six year-olds!) I put band-aids on all of them and wrote ou on one side and ow on the other. We pretended we were really hurt saying "ou! ou!" and pOUting until someone asked what was wrong. Then we responded with "I have two /ou/s. Look o-u /ou/ and o-w /ou/." They thought this was pretty funny. Throughout the day I sent them to the office because of their /ou/s. Our secretary is such a doll that she played along and even kissed somebody's /ou/ better! LOVE HER! Just look at that pout! She got an /ou/! While they were at recess, I made a quick worksheet to go with this theme. I had them work with their group to brainstorm words that contained ou and ow /ou/ sounds to write on band-aids. I printed on tan paper and they turned out great! Click here to download my band-aid template. I also read a Scholastic Phonics Tales story each week. This week we read Mouse in My House. You know I love scanning books, so this is totally on the smartboard! (To read more on scanning books, click here!) The kids love searching for words and pictures with the sound we are working on. When we are finished, I give them a mini-book that goes with our Scholastic Phonics Tale story. Their job is to highlight all of the words with our sound and color ONLY the pictures that have this sound. They love this and they can take it home to share with their families. We make phonics crowns that correlate with our focus sound. Here are the two crowns that correlate with the /ou/ sound. We did ou spelling on Monday and ow on Thursday. To read a previous post on phonics crowns, click here. The kids wear their crowns while they go on a hunt for the sound. They can look in their reading books, good-fit books, and dictionaries for words. They can also read the room to find words. They write words they find in their word work notebooks. I usually give them about 20 minutes to search then we go over words they found. We make a "jail" on the board for words that broke our rule. For example if somebody wrote "you" because it has ou, it would go to jail because that does not follow the rule we are learning. I shine a PowerPoint slide on my board and write over it. I write the focus sound on the yellow badge and words on the lines. (I also LOVE to have kids come to the board and write for me so that we can talk about handwriting!) This slide was made using graphics from Krista Wallden at Creative Clips. LOVE her work! I am trying to collect it all! To download my jail/cops PowerPoint slide, click here. This shows my "rule breakers" slide in action. There are no "wrong" answers because every word gives us an opportunity to discuss other rules and spelling patterns. Students have an opportunity to write more words in their notebooks as we review as a class. We do this every week and the kids love it. My school subscribed to United Streaming and I downloaded TONS of videos. I sorted them into files that correlate with what we are focused on each week. On Friday, we will watch "Between the Lions - Out in Outer Space" and eat sOUr gummy worms. The kids get so excited to see our sound in action! I love, love, love teaching reading and am so happy to share some of my weekly routines with you. Please leave me any questions or comments. Have a super week!

Sequence of Events My students were really struggling with sequence of events. We focused on transition words, read and reread stories, organized the events in a thinking map, but they were still having some trouble. Today, I made a story and then cut it up into strips. I picked 3 team captains and gave each group an envelope containing the story strips. (They all had the same story) IT WORKED!!1 I think giving the students the opportunity to manipulate the text and move things around, really clicked with them. They were forced to rely on the transition words, and had to pay close attention to the details to put the story back in order. The story turned out to be a funny tale of our entire class going to the beach, ending with me jumping out of an airplane. They LOVED it! Try it out in your class and see what happens! Check out all of my sequence of events activities here! xo Mrs. O’Brien

So a little while back I shared my guided reading toolbox with you. If you missed that post, click {here} or the picture below. It talks about some of the goodies I keep on hand to use during my guided reading lessons! Then a few weeks ago I was guest blogging over at the Hameray Publishing blog, where I shared a few more ideas about how I use some of my favourite tools. I also shared a freebie guided reading notebook cover that you can download. Go check it out {here} or by clicking the picture below. Today I am going to share with you how I set up my guided reading lessons. Here's a peek at my guided reading plan book. I keep my reading and math group plans in the same planner. I just keep a sticky note on the current weekly pages. I split my kiddos into five groups based on reading level, but these groups are fluid and change throughout the year. My groups are colour-coded and each group has an animal--the blue dogs, green frogs, yellow ducks, pink cats, and purple fish. In my guided reading planner, I have a laminated page for my groups. I can write the names in dry erase marker, but I prefer to use little post-it flags. I can move them around easily as the groups change. Plus the colours match. Love it! I keep each group's books and lesson materials in a matching tub. Of course the tubs are buried in a box somewhere, but I use these tubs from Really Good Stuff with these cute labels. I only have about 40 minutes a day for my guided reading time, so I see two groups a day for 20 minutes each. I usually try to see my lowest group three times a week, my middle groups twice a week, and my highest group once a week. I have to make the most of that 20 minutes, so I break my lesson into 4 mini parts: {1.} Reread/Fluency - 2 minutes {2.} New Read - 8 minutes {3.} Comprehension - 3 minutes {4.} Word Work/Writing - 7 minutes Here's a close up of how I plan my lessons. It doesn't take a whole lot of planning. Just a few minutes to jot down the name of the group, the title and level of the new book we will be reading, some tricky words that I want to address, check off the reading strategy we will focus on, a comprehension activity, and a word work or writing activity. Here is a break down of the four parts of the lesson: The group that is working with me grabs their book box, sits at the horseshoe table, and picks a previous guided reading book from their book box to start reading while they wait for me. This gives me a chance to make sure that everyone else is at their correct station and there are no problems before I settle in for (hopefully) 20 minutes of uninterrupted guided reading time! In their book boxes, students keep about 2-4 guided reading books from our previous lessons and four books of their choosing from the class library. Once we're all ready to go, I introduce a new book to group. We usually do a quick book walk, look at some tricky words we might come across, and make some predictions. We might also review the reading strategy we are focusing on before we read the book. Then I give each student in the group a copy of the book and have them whisper read the book to themselves. Sometimes they just read normally and sometimes I let them use the whisper phones (made out of PVC pipe and duct tape). And if anyone is struggling with one-to-one matching, we might use some of my favourite tools such as glow-in-the-dark fingers, mini laser pointers, googly eye rings, or highlighter strips. I take turns listening to a few or all the students reading, making notes about who used what strategies and who struggled with what skills. If someone finishes their book before the others, I make them go back and reread! Fluency, fleuncy, fluency! After everyone has finished the book once, we do a quick and simple comprehension activity. It might just be orally answering questions from a spinner, beach ball, or task card. We might do a story map together, practice sequencing the events of the story, or make connections to the story. Guided Reading Beach Balls from Carson Dellosa Guided Reading Dice from Amazon Guided Reading Spinners from Amazon Various spinners and cards from TpT sellers Then the last thing to do is a word work or writing activity in our guided reading notebooks. It usually has to do with the book we just read, a phonics skill we are working on, or some sight word practice! You can now download ALL of my guided reading and math pages (planner cover, group organization page, group labels, group schedule, and weekly lesson plans) by checking out TpT:

Last week my class learned about homophones during Language Arts. These word pairs are very difficult for my English Language Learners, but we made it

Does your reader sometimes sound like he’s just saying a string of words? Is it sometimes choppy? This can happen to all kinds of young readers, especially struggling readers. Instead of focusing on reading fluency and phrasing, struggling readers are often just trying to make sure they can say all the words correctly. Last week, The Measured ... Read More about Reading Fluency and Phrasing {Using Scooping Phrases}

Learn how to teach silent e words through explicit phonics instruction. Use orthographic mapping, connecting sound to symbol. Learn about the many jobs of the silent e!

When it comes time for our Penguin Unit in the classroom, I get all kinds of giddy. Students LOVE researching and learning about the different types of

Last summer I introduced a mini-series on my blog where I took everyday objects and totally transformed them. I really need to get back to this series this year because I absolutely loved it! Today I am throwing it back to one of my previously transformed items and adding in a corresponding freebie worksheet for you! Be sure to read all the way to the bottom to grab the freebie. One of my favorite resources to use in my kindergarten classroom are CVC sliders. They really help isolate each sound and get across the blending action. I use all kinds of sliders but sometimes the paper ones just don't add that wow factor to hook my learners. In order to solve that problem, cue the transformation... That's right! Pez Dispensers are my favorite way to use CVC sliders in the classroom! I can easily hook my learners by introducing different holiday themes or favorite movie characters. I'm thinking this year these Minion themed dispensers would be a huge hit after the summer movie success! What little one would not be rushing to complete this center activity if they got to play with these adorable Minions? (Source) These are the easiest to put together and don't require spending a ton of money on ink and lamination. These are perfect for the kinestetic learner and you never have to worry about mixing up any pieces during a center activity. I always ask for Pez Dispenser donations from parents and purchase on after holiday clearance when I can get them for 25 cents or less. Here are the steps on how I made my CVC sliders. The words can easily be changed out whenever you want to mix it up. You can ever add the picture to the other side of the slider if you want to make it self correcting. This shows your students how you can make anything from their real lives into a learning experience. However, most of all, it makes learning FUN which is a must in my kindergarten classroom! I created this quick little freebie for you all that corresponds with the Pez Dispenser CVC sliders that would be perfect to use as a literacy center, during guided reading, or as a fast finisher drawer. To download this freebie, just click on the picture below. The kids slide the Pez sliders out one letter at a time and write one letter per box. After blending the sounds together, they illustrate the word in the circle. I really hope you find this idea useful as it is a huge fan favorite in my classroom and I know it will be with yours as well! If you do re-create these, I'd love to see how you use them in your classroom! Be sure to tag me on instagram so I can see what you created!

Transform your classroom and celebrate the end of the year with these 20+ unforgettable glow-in-the-dark math and literacy Glow Day activities!

FUN cvc words activity for kindergarten students to work on cvc ending sounds. Downlaod pdf with self-checking, final sound clip cards.

Kindergarten is a big year for many milestones! They walk in the first day of school knowing very little about reading. By the end of the year, they are reading their first books. They move from reading consonant-vowel-consonant words to words with digraphs and blends. After we introduce and practice blends, we then move on to

I gave my students a phonics assessment in the beginning of the school year. You know what I found? My students had some major gaps in their knowledge of the sound(s) that a combination of letters makes. For example, many of them couldn't tell me that ph sounds like /f/. I realized that I needed to address this issue ASAP, in order to improve my students' decoding skills. One way I've decided to tackle this problem is with flashcards. These flashcards that you can download for free below include various letter combinations (blends, digraphs, vowel pairs, ets). I use them in a small group or when working one-on-one with a child. It only takes a couple minutes and really builds that automaticity they need for successful decoding. It also makes a great time filler when you finish a lesson a few minutes early! When we get to a card where the children hesitate to answer or answer incorrectly, I stop and quickly teach the sound(s) and give one or two examples. This has been really helpful for my kiddos! Click here to download the cards.

Reading fluency brings the words to life!

These fun, engaging, NO PREP word work activities help students practice their words effectively and are the perfect option for your 1st or 2nd grade class!

Reading fluency activities to help you focus on fluency in your classroom. Weekly fluency activities that can be completed in class or at home!

Phonics bundle contains 11 hands-on activities for teaching and practicing the aw au Diphthongs. Great for small group instruction or independent centers

Cultivate lifelong reading skills.

A blog for elementary school writing teachers!

Tips, Tricks & Resources to Send a Furry Friend Home With Little Worries When I think back to my FAVORITE thing I did in second grade, I can vividly remember the excitement each week that came when my teacher would pull out a blue sparkly backpack, with a stuffed animal Arthur the Aardvark inside of […]

Stop wasting money buying lined paper! Grab our FREE Printable Handwriting Paper and print as many as you need. Lots of choices!

Free phonics sentences activities perfect for primary grades. Practice reading, phonics and fluency by reading phonics-based sentences.

For 10 years, I built a balanced literacy classroom with an emphasis on guided reading. I worked hard to master the art of intentional small

Printable Phonics Charts, Colour Coded A5 Size Phonics Sounds and Graphemes Charts to print with phonics lesson plans and ideas for use.

Teaching asking questions in reading with these ideas, activities, centers, and more is easy! Get a free asking questions in reading activity

Prepping your toddler for early reading lessons at home? These 13 fun phonics games and activities will keep your kids having fun as they're learning to read! Teaching phonics to toddlers can be fun and creative!