Everything you needed to know about teaching phonics, you learned in college….right? Wrong! My professors were great, but there really wasn’t a course dedicated to teaching phonics. Once you have your own classroom it doesn’t take long to realize that the phrase “sound it out” will only get your students so far. Don’t worry! I’ve…
Research and best practices for teaching vocabulary in the elementary classroom. I’m back this week linking up with #TeacherMom for her Building Back to School series. This week we’re talking about language tools. I’ve done some digging to see what research tells us about teaching vocabulary. Here’s what I found: A Strong Vocabulary Is…
What should I read next? Looking for something new to read? Get a picture book recommendation based on which classics you (or your class) know and love! Whether you’re into the silly monkey antics of Curious George, the sequential style of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, or the imaginative adventure of Where the…
Mixed Up Chameleon Craft If your students love The Mixed Up Chameleon by Eric Carle then this is the perfect craft for them. Students cut out different animal parts from old magazines and put them together to make a new mixed up animal. It also includes a template for writing about what the animal would…
If you asked the average person off the street what they would say to help someone struggling with a tricky word, I bet a lot of the responses would be, “Tell them to sound it out!” And then the average person off the street would say, “What kind of question is that, anyway!” : )…
Happy Monday! I dug back through some old pictures to find this synonym and antonym anchor chart for Anchors Away Monday with Crafting Connections: Synonym cinnamon bears (there’s a tongue-twister for ya!) and antonym ants. My students referred to this chart quite a bit.
I just love anchor charts so I’m linking up again with Deb from Crafting Connections for: This week my anchor is about author’s purpose. There’s no sense in looking for the author’s purpose just to look for the author’s purpose. If we can figure out the author’s purpose, then we can read purposefully. If kids…
Ideas for teaching low reading groups for maximum effectiveness My stomach tightened a little as I pulled out my small group data sheet. I had been working with a group of some of the lower readers pulled from each class in my grade level. I was taking care of the other teachers’ babies and…
Fairy tales are old stories told and retold again, but do they deserve a place in a modern language arts curriculum? Besides the fact that the Common Core standards require exposure to fairy tales, there are other reasons why fairy tales should be included in reading instruction. Fairytales spark the imagination – Can you imagine…
What is close reading? If you look around Pinterest at anchor charts about close reading, it gets really overwhelming really fast! It seems like it’s about every reading strategy you’ve ever seen all put together at the same time. How the heck do you craft a lesson around that? It’s time to take the rocket…