Get your little learners revved up for writing with these exciting printable Letter Road mats! With both uppercase and lowercase letter mats, they'll be
Need help teaching your preschooler letters? Here are some tips to help your preschooler learn letters & letter sounds with sensory activities
Learning letters is the first step in learning to read. Children in preschool and kindergarten largely focus on letter identification and letter sounds. While some kids are naturally inclined to learn letters from a young age, others take longer and that's okay. My mission is to making learning letters and how to read fun and
You will LOVE these SUPER CUTE alphabet coloring pages perfect for helping kids learn their ABCs and work on phonemic awareness. NO PREP, free printable.
How to learn letters and sounds using the Montessori Method.
Do you have any students who are struggling to remember the letter sounds? In this post, I share some helpful strategies and a FREEBIE!
Get your little learners revved up for writing with these exciting printable Letter Road mats! With both uppercase and lowercase letter mats, they'll be
Did you know that phonemic awareness is the foundation of learning to read? Yep! Without it, learning to read through phonics is not possible! Here's everything you need to know about phonemic awareness...and more!
Are you ready for spring? I am! If you’re not, you can get in the spring mood with this FREE Build a Flower Letter Sounds Sort! This pack features 25 beginning letter sound sorting flowers {excluding x}. *The free download link is towards the end of this post. Just look for the teal, oval button! *This ... Read More about Build a Flower Letter Sounds Sort
These FREE alphabet review worksheets for kindergarten kids will help them review letters and letter sounds, and practice proper letter formation.
Practice letter recognition and letter sounds with a fun game that gets kids moving.
If you have been following me for a while, you will know that I LOVE teaching young ones how to read, and the alphabet is where it all starts! Truly one
These games help pre-K children practice Letter Sound learning in a fun, hands-on way. Sound Cups Use 26 disposable clear punch cups and label
Your students will LOVE using this apple initial sound match up! The perfect addition to your early literacy center.
If you have been following me for a while, you will know that I LOVE teaching young ones how to read, and the alphabet is where it all starts! Truly one
Should you introduce letters to your preschooler in their order in the alphabet? Surprisingly, no. There are actually better ways to introduce letters.
Learn your alphabet letters and their beginning sounds with this super cute PIRATE letters sounds activity. Pirate printable game for kindergartners.
Test your child's knowledge of letter sounds through this free printable- Free Beginning Letter Sounds Worksheets! These preschool worksheets are in PDF format so they're easy to download and print.
This ladybug cover up alphabet activity is a fun way to learn letters and letter sounds. This alphabet game is perfect for your insect theme this spring!
Teach letter sounds and phonics using these letter sounds videos and lessons. Lots of ideas to teach letter sounds in kindergarten or first grade.
Here are the most popular alphabet and letter activities from Early Learning Ideas. Find lots of ideas to help teach the letters of the alphabet, letter sounds, letter formation with fun hands-on alphabet activities that are perfect for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten classrooms, and at-home learning. 200 Ideas for Alphabet Activities & Collages 9 Activities to Teach the Alphabet How to Make a Salt Tray for Letter Writing Practice How to Make Tactile Letter Cards 20 Letter Formation Activities for Preschoolers Teaching the Alphabet with Multi-Sensory Activities How to Make Environmental Print Word Cards Letter Recognition Activities with Free Alphabet
Wondering how to teach the alphabet? Preschool and kindergarten teachers can find all they need to know right here. Learn veteran teachers' wisdom.
These 10 Environmental Print Activities are the perfect way to get preschool and kindergarten children excited about reading!
Wondering about the order for teaching letters to your little ones? I'm on it! I feel as though I am always writing about waiting to teach letter recognition. Wait and let little hands get strengthened by other activities. Wait until little minds have had ample time to hear different words and sounds. But a day
Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! (Effie style, minus the whole Reaping Day thing.) This is my very-first post here in my new blog. I'm crazy-excited! I hope you like it! You are probably here to learn how I SIGNIFICANTLY improved my student’s letter/sound fluency this year. Mind you, I did write SIGNIFICANTLY in capital letters for a reason. I’m screaming it at you: SIGNIFICANTLY!!!!!!!! This great change came after our incredible Reading Specialist suggested that I add motions to our letter/sound practice. She actually told me this last school year but I waited too long to implement it. Sad face. :( So, I jumped on board head-first this school year. In all honesty, it was the BEST change I've ever made. After practicing for only two weeks, I noticed that my new Kindergarteners were already latching on and internalizing their letters and sounds! It was amazing, and I’ll never do it any differently ever again. Watch this video and then I’ll explain a little more later down the page. If you are interested in trying this (which I highly recommend with all of my strongest, tingly-est, most heartfelt Kindergarten vibes), I’ll explain my process. (If you have a better way, I’d love to hear about in the comment section. I love new ideas! :D) First, I created the posters. I actually printed two sets: one for my wall and one for flashing when we practice. You can check them out HERE on my TPT store, or you can easily create your own motions using any set you may already have. On the first day of school, I explained to my students that in our classroom, we use a lot of “secret signals.” We are… after-all… super, stealthy Ninja kids. “Even our letters have signals! Isn’t that awesome! Today we will learn a few of them.” I go on to explain that each letter makes a sound, and we make the sound while we do the signal. “The first letter is A. A makes the /a/ sound. Our picture for Aa is apple. Have you ever had an apple? What does it look like when you eat it?” (Students demonstrate.) “Perfect! While we pretend to eat an apple, say ‘A, apple, /a/,/a/,/a/. Great! Let’s practice that again!” Connecting the motion with something students are familiar with really helps them recall them later on. (I’ll explain all of our motions below, in case the video left you wondering what in the World we were doing. hehe) Also, holding a poster with the letter and picture helps students begin to identify the letters in written form. I constantly remind students to focus on the actual letters when we go over them to assist in this identification. I went on to teach my students 5 letters/sounds that first day. After teaching each individual letter, I would go back and repeat all preceding letters until all 5 were taught. I did 5 new ones each day (while repeating all previously taught) until we had covered them all. After two weeks of daily practice, at least 85% (of my 26 students) already knew the entire alphabet! I felt like it took me months to accomplish this same milestone the year before. It was a great feeling! We continue to have this as a part of our routine each day even though students have already mastered them all. I notice the more we practice, the quicker they can access this knowledge when decoding and reading words. Plus, they wouldn’t let me forget a day of this practice anyway. They just love this routine! We also do an extension to this routine with Blends & Digraphs. I will post a video demo of this very soon too. You can find those posters HERE. On a side note, I always add motions to our SIGHT WORD PRACTICE and our CLASS RULES too. You just can’t go wrong with some fun ole’ hand motions. I hope you found something useful here today! God bless you and yours! <3
With these low-prep, free printable Link Capital Letter Mats, kids will work on letter recognition, letter tracing, and fine motor skills.
Make practicing alphabet letters, literacy activities, counting, addition, and more with these super cute Free Camping Worksheets.
Phonemic Awareness Activities for Preschoolers, activities to help support the beginning stages of literacy with these fun, easy ideas!
Kindergarten is TOUGH, in all capital letters. If you're a new Kindergarten Teacher, brace yourself. If you're a returning Kindergarten Teacher, give yourself a hug and buy yourself something nice, you deserve it for re-entering the jungle by choice. I LOVE Kindergarten, and have dedicated the last four years of my life to mastering the art of Teaching the Little People. <3 With that being said, I've decided to let go of my deep passion for solely teaching Kindergarten and leave it for an even deeper love... teaching READING. An opportunity came open in my building to switch to 2nd Grade READING teacher. I am now readying a new room and new curriculum, but will never lose my love for creating resources for my first love, Kindergarten. So, I'm here to share something with you all that made my life in Kindergarten MUCH easier. It never gets EASY, teaching Kindergarten, but things can always be easier. :) Assessing student knowledge of Letter & Sound Identification is time-consuming and stressful at times, so I created this resource to ease some of the trouble. This FREE Letter & Sound Assessment Binder resource will help you assess students, track their growth and compare their overall performance in a neat and organized fashion. To get started, you'll need: My printed resource. Find it here on TpT. Please follow my store and leave feedback so I can continue to provide this as a FREE resource. A big BINDER Enough tab dividers for your class. Assemble Your Binder 1.) Place your cover in the front. If you're like me, this helps your O.C.D. problem of needing everything to be beautifully labeled. If you're a normal person, you can save yourself some ink and skip this step. 2. Place your whole-group monitoring sheet in the front of the binder. Fill in your student names. I have created space to accommodate 30 students. If you have more than that, Lord bless your soul. :D I like to keep mine sheet-protected because I use it quite often. This saves unnecessary wear and tear. 3.) Place Student-Progress Monitoring sheet at the beginning of each tab divider. You will date and record student performance each time you give the assessment. This gives you a quick over-view of each individual student and the specific number of capital letter/sound and lower-case letter/sound they have mastered. I like to have this view (rather than only a percentage) so I can discuss this info quickly with parents during conferences. This also gives me an insight as to whether the student has a better understanding of letter names or sounds. During my experience, many students catch on to the sounds of letters more quickly than the name. 4.) Make plenty of copies of the Student Assessment and Student Assessment Results sheets and store in the binder pockets. Now, you're READ Y to assess! Assessment Procedure When assessment time comes, grab your binder from the shelf and start tracking student performance. I would pull the Student Assessment Sheet from the front pocket and a results sheet from the back. In the beginning of the year, students will need your assistance in tracking the letters. Use a pen, pointer, colored-chip or any other tool to help them visit each letter. As they identify their letters/sounds, record the information on the results page. I like to use an X to signify that they do not recognize the letter/sound. This seems like a lot in the beginning of the school year, but as time passes, they will learn more and the X's will become fewer. At that time, you'll want to focus more on the letters missed and will be able to spot them more quickly. Store your dated assessment results behind the Student Progress-Monitoring page in your binder. This way, if you want to see specific letters/sounds missed, you can turn to the correct assessment and see quickly which were missed. As you can see here, on August 27th, little Jessica missed every Capital Letter name except for 3 (Q, J and V). She missed ALL Capital Letter Sounds. She went on to recognize 2 Lower-Case Letter names (j and x) and identified 1 lower-case sound (letter j). After assessing that individual student, record their performance on the student progress-monitoring sheet. After calculating the percentage correct, record this info on the Whole-group monitoring sheet. This sounds like a lot of work, but in the end, you'll be glad you did. You'll have a perfectly documented story of how that child performed throughout the school year. As you can see, little Jessica had 100% mastery by January. If you didn't have this information, you might forget how little she knew in the beginning. Don't you love seeing student growth?!?! I also use a highlighter to mark students who have reached 100% mastery. This motivates me to work hard until each student has had their name highlighted. I would have demonstrated that here, but I'm on SUMMER BREAK (wooohoooo!!) and apparently don't own a highlighter outside of school grounds. Yikes! I love free stuff, but I especially love USEFUL free stuff. If you find this to be useful, let me know! If you see need for improving this product, let me know that too. If you need ideas of how to get these little people to be successful during this particular assessment, visit my most popular blog post, How to Increase Letter & Sound Fluency in Kindergarten. I've had oodles of positive feedback from really GREAT teachers. Be sure to check it out! :) Happy Kindergarten Assessment to you! I'll be in 2nd Grade this year, but I'll still keep all of you crazy Kindergarten people in my prayers as you take on a new group of angels. God bless you and yours!
Reviewing the alphabet and teaching letter sounds can get tedious if you are always doing it the same way. I am always trying to come up ...
Free printable letter cut and paste worksheets. A preschool alphabet letter activity where kids color beginning sounds images and paste them.
In today's post, I'll share ideas and free materials for teaching beginning Spanish phonics. I'll cover letter sounds, open syllables (sílabas abiertas), syllables with blends (sílabas trabadas), and closed syllables (sílabas cerradas).
My husband and I have a running inside joke. We always joke that we're making our kids better people by employing lazy parenting. :) We aren't truly lazy, we just called ourselves lazy any time we choose to take the easy route out of a parenting situation instead of struggling to work against our kids. We much prefer to work WITH them than struggle against them. This post contains the story of how I struggled and struggled to make my preschoolers sit down and learn their letters before Kindergarten and how it became a complete breeze once I found the
