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Creativity to the Core

Literacy Centers, Misc

Little Boo Lesson Plan Ideas for a pumpkin life cycles unit

Fall is my favorite time of year! My students are working hard, we have established our rules and procedures for a month or so, and…we get to teach about pumpkins! Little Boo is a brilliant book that I just discovered last year. It is about a pumpkin seed named Boo who travels through many seasons of the year as he transforms into a pumpkin. Ladies and gentlemen, this book is amazing. Talk about content integration at your fingertips! This fiction story will allow your students to truly see the cycles that a pumpkin seed goes through to become a great big orange pumpkin. I plan to use this book as an introduction to our two-week pumpkin life cycle unit which begins in the middle of October. After reading the book, I will introduce each stage of the pumpkin and connect it to this text. During the last week of the unit, I always host “Pumpkin Day” for students and any parent volunteers. We transform the classroom into a pumpkin paradise complete with about 10 different pumpkin math, literacy, and science centers. On this day, the class plants individual seeds into a small clear cup at one of the center rotations. We water the seeds Continue Reading

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Literacy Centers, Misc

All About America Minibook - Perfect for September 11, Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, & american symbols!

Every year, September 11th brings back memories for all of us. We all remember that day. However, most of our students were not even born before 9/11/01. So, as a classroom teacher…Do you mention anything? Do you teach like any other day? I think it depends on the school environment you are in. My school usually plays a memorial video and has a moment of silence for Patriot Day. I enjoy reading the book The Man Who Walked Between the Towers during the week of September 11. It is a positive way to remember the day without showing graphics to young children. My students are always so engaged as we read the book because they cannot believe that someone would walk on a wire THAT high in the air! I also teach about America, American symbols, and citizenship during this week. I feel that this helps us pay tribute to our nation and all those who’s lives were changed on September 11th. One of my favorite activities is this All About America mini book. It is easy to complete in a few days, or you can complete one page each day as you take time to focus on each part. Students color a picture Continue Reading

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Decor, Misc

As the new school year approaches, I just love taking {digital} peeks into everyone’s classrooms. Teachers are so full of inspiration and bright ideas. What would we do without each other? Our classrooms would probably just look like my before picture below…how sad….how drab. I want to thank all of you in advance because you inspire me daily with your posts and ideas on social media. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Here is a little photo tour of my kindergarten classroom. I hope you enjoy! As you walk up to my classroom, you will see this adorable sign. Simple, clear, to the point. I’m in love with it. Just inside the door to the left is my rolling big book cabinet. I was sad to discover that the white front (under the drawing paper) is not magnetic, so I decided to add a sign instead! On top of the cabinet are the 1, 2, 3 collapsable bins from IKEA. This is where I keep my early finisher activities. When my kinders have “nothing to do” they can go to one of these bins. Currently, the bins are filled with snap cube letters, plastic spoons to practice number sense, and two Kaboom games (one for Continue Reading

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Decor, Misc

If Meet & Greet or Open House is coming up soon, you may want to add this fun idea to your repertoire! The idea is that you send parents, students, or both on a scavenger hunt around your classroom. By the end of the scavenger hunt, families have completed all necessary paperwork, received necessary information, and signed up for volunteer opportunities within the school. Of course, you can change each station to fit your needs and event. But today, I thought I’d give you an inside look at mine! We host Meet & Greet the Friday before school starts each year. Students receive their teacher placement and visit the classrooms with their families. As a teacher, there are so many things I need filled out, dropped off, taken home, etc. by the end of this one hour. This year, the morning was glitch free and convenient because parents led the way! My Writing Center was the first stop. Parents walked right in my door, signed in, and found their child’s folder. The scavenger hunt was stapled inside the folder. I also placed each student’s “Detective Badge” inside the folder. They wore it during the Meet and Greet so that I Continue Reading

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Literacy Centers, Misc

Glad that you were able to join us for the third annual Orange Ya’ Glad it’s a Blog Hop! I am the fourth stop! If you have hopped with us in the past, some things will be familiar, and some things will be new! This year, all of our bloggers are focusing on free tips or ideas that they can share with you to get your school year off to a great start.  Some ideas will have a freebie, others might just be a stand alone concept.  The idea is to try and share things that will solve problems and create a happy and stress free first few weeks! Let’s talk about Feature Friday. This year, I really want my students to take ownership of their writing. I want them to be engaged and to interact with each other throughout the process. My hope is that Feature Friday will make this happen. What is Feature Friday? Feature Friday is an interactive way to integrate technology and writing. Students take photos throughout the week on iPads, iPhones, or with cameras (whichever you have access to!) of any classroom happening, activity, or student that interests them. Then, on Friday, you pick one photograph Continue Reading

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Misc

Do you love lollipops? I do! …and I know for a fact that my kindergarteners do! I am thrilled to be working with Laura from Laura Kelly Designs & Me & My Inklings to share these tasty {personalized} treats with you! Yes, I said PERSONALIZED. If you’re a teacher like me, chances are you love a fancy monogram or freshly labeled bin. So, you can imagine my excitement when I discovered I could personalize a lollipop!    Laura has designed some adorable clipart that is just right for your classroom, school, staff, or community. Her easy to use site even allows you to upload any image that you wish! When ordering my lollipops, I had to things in mind. 1 – Meet the Teacher night and 2 – How can I keep these going all year long? In the image below, you can see my Meet the Teacher lollipop which says “You color my world!” with a cute crayon doodle. These will be a HUGE hit with students and parents. I mean, what kid doesn’t love a large rainbow candy?! I will definitely be sharing more of these once I get all set up for that night! On the right, is Continue Reading

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Decor, Misc

Hello friends! As back to school time approaches, bulletin boards are a constant topic. Today, I am linking up with Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd and Angie from Lucky Little Learners to share some tips and tricks to make your bulletin boards beautiful (and not too stressful!). Hope you enjoy! If you haven’t noticed already, I am (just a tad) OCD in my classroom. There is a place for everything, everything is in its place, and everything is tied together with COLOR. I have used blue, green, and brown with small pops of yellow for the past two years and absolutely love it! Why do I keep my color scheme the same? 1 – It’s expensive to purchase this stuff! Using it from year to year is important to me. 2 – A color scheme can go with almost any theme you wish. Why blue, green, and brown? There has been research done that shows the color blue produces a sense of calm. Yellow on the other hand, can be a very strong color for students who struggle with attention disorders or students who have autism. Think about ambulances and stop/yield signs. They are either red or yellow. These Continue Reading

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Misc

Do you wear enjoy wearing fun teacher t-shirts in the classroom on Fridays? I do! I cannot wait to grab a few new ones this year as I move to kindergarten! If you are on the lookout for adorable teacher shirts, look no further. Aplusimages.com, teachershirts.com, and classroomfaces.com have everything your teacher heart could desire! Last month, as I was prepping to travel to Las Vegas for the SDE and Teachers Pay Teachers conference, I heard about a company offering bloggers a FREE t-shirt with their logo. Of course I jumped on that opportunity! The online editing tool on aplusimages.com was very simple to use. I picked a t-shirt style and color, and poof! I had a beautiful new teacher shirt! Within a few days, my t-shirt was on my front steps. Just in time for Vegas! Let me tell you…this shirt is perfect! The color is bright, and my logo is not one bit blurry. A+ Images was so thoughtful to include blogger instructions as well as directions on how to get the best results when you first wash the t-shirt. While in Vegas, I loved seeing all the other bloggers showing off their blog with a shirt. 🙂 Continue Reading

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Literacy Centers, Misc

Because August marks the beginning of the school year and we are just starting to focus on classroom rules, I love reading Interrupting Chicken! This book is all about…how did you guess??…an interrupting chicken. The little chicken wants a bedtime story, but he constantly interrupts his father throughout the book. David Ezra Stein uses powerful illustrations and speech bubbles to show how and when the little chicken interrupts. I use Interrupting Chicken during the first week of school to teach students the importance of being respectful and not interrupting others.  There is some repetition throughout the book which helps students to participate actively the entire time. One of my favorite aspects of this book is the fact that the chicken appears inside a book inside of the book! This is an excellent opportunity to show students the difference between the actual book and the story within the book. My students are always thrilled to read this story again and again! After we have read the book one time, I show my class this video as a review. Then, we use this freebie from Mrs. Wheeler (see the pictures above) to apply the book to our real lives. We sort the Continue Reading

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Decor, Misc

Hey everyone! I am thrilled to be sharing some improvements with you today as part of the #2getherwearebetter monthly link up hosted by Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd & Lucky Little Learners. Today, we are talking about classroom improvements. We are thinking about this past year, learning from it, and making improvements throughout our teaching and our classrooms! REFLECT After co-teaching in two third grade classrooms this year, I have learned a lot about myself and other classroom management techniques. I have seen my co-teachers do things that I would NEVER have done or even thought to do in my own classroom (positive things, I promise!). I watched as they allowed a child to read and come to centers on his own time in order to not “throw him off” or provoke a meltdown. I have worked daily in classrooms that were so completely different than mine, but have grown to love their differences. This year was also an important one in my professional career. I completed my master’s degree in Reading and began assisting in and teaching professional development opportunities at my school. As I look back on my first major presentation to staff, I laugh. It seems like I have come leaps Continue Reading

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I'm Meredith, a South Florida teacher who loves coffee and creating.
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creativitytothecore

Keys to success when tutoring.🔑 ⭐️Plan in Keys to success when tutoring.🔑

⭐️Plan in advance. Write a lesson plan every time. Be prepared. Share a digital Google Doc with parents so that they can see what was done and what is to come along with comments.
⭐️Prep every single sound, word, or sentence you want kids to write. Write those down before hand. Set yourself up for success.
⭐️Organize your sessions so they follow a format. Students feel comfortable when they know what to expect. This also helps you to determine which sections of the plan are difficult or lack student interest or attention.
⭐️Use a variety of materials. Nothing fancy necessary, but using a group of materials each time diversifies the tutoring time and keeps attention.
⭐️Be flexible. If a student needs a break or an activity change, then be prepared for that. Including lots of hands on items allows you to make activities into games in an instant. Freeze dance is also a great way to get wiggles out midsession or as a reward.
⭐️Fill the time with many activities. I’m an hour session, I usually do 9-10 activities. Each takes about 1-5 minutes. They all build on each other and relate to the same skill and goal. Using many short activities keeps engagement up and gives you the ability to switch gears immediately if something isn’t working as you’d hoped.
⭐️Keep a folder of finished and unfinished work for the student. Date everything. Students can practice from that folder at home and always have something to reread as fluency practice. Dating papers allows you to see progress over time and works well when schools want to see progress.

📚Do you tutor? What tips do you have? Leave them here!👇🏼

#tutoring #tutoringtips #readingtutor #structuredliteracy #iteach #iteachfirst #iteachsecond #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram
👋🏼Let's chat about the Language Comprehensio 👋🏼Let's chat about the Language Comprehension part of the Simple View of Reading:

Word Recognition✖️Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension

📚Language comprehension has an initial focus on vocabulary and background knowledge. These are two strands of Scarborough's Rope that are very closely linked and interdependent. Vocabulary knowledge is shown in reading and listening (receptive vocabulary📖) and writing and speaking (expressive vocabulary📢).

"One of the most well-established findings of educational research is that reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge are highly correlated with one another, and that knowledge of individual word meanings accounts for as much as 50-60 percent of the variance in reading comprehension (Adlof & Perfetti, 2014; Stahl & Nagy, 2006). While the Reading Rope model indicates that other factors are also important in accounting for reading comprehension, 📣vocabulary is the most important single factor, once children have learned the alphabetic code."📣

⭐️Moats and Tolman explain that it is important to remember that sound, symbol, and sense are connected.⭐️ Great phonics instruction includes decoding and activities that explore word meaning. When we know a word well, we know all or most of the parts of the dimensions of the word's meaning. If we build a strong, well developed network of connections around each new word (swipe to see picture 3), the new word will be stored deeply and retrieved quickly. 

👩‍🏫👨‍🏫Teachers can help to create these networks by focusing new word instruction on the following:
1️⃣Talk about pronunciation, spoken syllables, phonemes (sounds), morphemes (base words & affixes)
2️⃣Look for graphemes (spellings)  or patterns/generalizations that you know
3️⃣Identify and talk about synonyms, antonyms, examples, categories.
4️⃣Bring connotations of words into discussion
5️⃣Talk about and describe multiple meanings in context

(Moats & Tolman, 2019, Volume 2, p. 6, 14)

#vocabulary #vocabularybuilding #vocabularywords #vocabularyinstruction #languagecomprehension #structuredliteracy #scienceofreading #iteach #iteachk #iteachfirst #iteachsecond #teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers
The face you make when it’s time for your nightl The face you make when it’s time for your nightly Heggerty brain workout. 🧠🏋️

#musictomyears #parentsupport #parentadvocacy #phonologicalawareness #phonemicawareness #heggerty #primethebrain #structuredliteracy #scienceofreading 
*Shared with permission
The Science of Reading is not just phonics. I repe The Science of Reading is not just phonics. I repeat, evidence based reading instruction does not mean we teach only phonics.⭐️

Drs. Moats and Tolman describe all components of effective reading instruction: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and language comprehension. These 5 components have been front and center since the National Reading Panel report in 2000. We should look at our instruction and our curriculum with this lens. Are all 5 components present and prominent?💭

It is imperative to develop word recognition in order to support students reading comprehension as they grow to be independent readers. Scarborough’s Reading Rope (2001) also shows that it’s imperative to build students’ language comprehension: background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures (syntax, semantics), verbal reasoning (inference, metaphor, etc.), and literacy knowledge (genres, print concepts, etc.).📚

We know from the Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) that reading comprehension is the PRODUCT of word recognition and language comprehension. This means neither word recognition or language comprehension can be lacking if we want to achieve proficient reading comprehension.🙌🏼

Word recognition & language comprehension are dual goals, as Moats and Tolman stated. They should be strengthened together. While it is necessary to focus more time into phonics instruction in the early grades, a phonics only lens will never support this dual goal.

#teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers #iteach #iteachtoo #structuredliteracy #scienceofreading #wordrecognition #languagecomprehension
If you’ve been following along this year, you pr If you’ve been following along this year, you probably know that I homeschool for a family. I teach 2 siblings each day, full time.❤️

Well, this morning I walked into a classroom decorated with hearts and pink post it’s. They found all the pink and red books and put them up on the display shelves.📚

And...drumroll please...they made this hilarious shirt for me. Before to the word “Academy”, they wrote their last name. 😂 So now we have a legit one room school house. And I’m the ONLY teacher...soooo apparently I win Teacher of the Year at this school.😝

I’m still laughing, and my heart is full. Enjoying all the humor in this crazy year.
Happy Valentine’s Day, friends! 

#teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #iteach #iteachtoo #iteachfirst #iteachsecond
Drawing attention to the syllables, onset and rime Drawing attention to the syllables, onset and rime, or phonemes in words is extremely helpful when students are learning to orthographically map words AND when they are learning new vocabulary words. It helps the brain form a connection between the spoken word, and the printed word.🗣

We’re working on -EST in words, but I wanted to increase the difficulty by focusing on meaning a bit more. I chose words that had -est as the rime or word family unit. I also chose words that contained the suffix -est at the end of a base word.📚

Each time I said a word, they would repeat the word. I would give a sentence and then students would segment it into either onset and rime or into syllables, depending on the length of the word.🤍

If the word had an onset and the rime -est, they would quickly notice that the onset was not a word on its own (n - est). BUT, if the word had an onset and a longer rime (f - astest), we would try to divide it by syllables instead (fast - est). We would ask ourselves if the base word (fast) was a real word. If they said yes, we talked about how -est changes the meaning of that word and how it is a suffix.⭐️

We would look at our T chart and decide if it should be written on the “rime unit” side or the “suffix” side. I carefully chose base words with a variety of endings so that we could practice doubling the final consonant (biggest), changing y to i (happiest), and dropping one e (largest). We did this entire activity guided and with manipulatives, talking through each word together.📝

#speechtoprint #phonologicalawareness #phonemicawareness #spellinginstruction #wordstudy #structuredliteracy #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #iteachtoo #iteachfirst #iteachsecond
Teensy post-its make everyone’s day.📝 Word s Teensy post-its make everyone’s day.📝

Word sorts are a great way to practice new skills, review previous ones, or a combination of both! Here we reviewed many phonics patterns while working on syllable types.🔍

I like using word sorts when students do not have to write because it creates more time for me question. I’m constantly asking questions and providing clarifications. Students answer aloud and explain their thinking. I often think aloud with them to model how to analyze certain tricky words. Soon, they’re able to think aloud on their own which builds a deeper understanding.💭

Sort from Flyleaf decodable homework handouts (free online) which are provided for every digital decodable that they have.

#teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers #iteach #iteachtoo #wordsorts #phonicsfun #phonicspatterns #syllabletypes #structuredliteracy #flyleaf
Flyleaf has the most beautiful and engaging decoda Flyleaf has the most beautiful and engaging decodable readers.📚

We love switching between their nonfiction and fiction decodables. The pictures and illustrations are beautiful. The fiction books have great story lines. The nonfiction books are so informative and fun! They have tons of real pictures and text features.🙌🏼

They are free online, but cannot be printed. There are weekly handouts supplies for each book. They include handwriting practice, orthographic mapping, syllable division, reading comprehension with text evidence, and essay prompts. My students do some of this work as independent work throughout the week.✏️

Swipe to watch my first grade reader.⭐️

#iteachtoo #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram  #iteachfirst #iteachk #iteachsecond #structuredliteracy #decodablereaders #scienceofreadinginstruction
Teaching reading IS rocket science (thanks, Dr. Lo Teaching reading IS rocket science (thanks, Dr. Louisa Moats!) but curling your hair doesn’t have to be. 📚😂

I know this isn’t reading or teaching related. I’m also not a fashion blogger. 🤪 BUT the gram needs to share this tip. Thanks to my friend @ally.applegate, I can do this more often because it’s speedy and it works!

I have THICK long hair. If I want to curl it, it could take 30 minutes! And it won’t hold longer than a few hours to a day. I have two littles (as you can hear in the background), so that doesn’t work. But this hack! This makes it doable in just 7 minutes!!! SEVEN! 🙌🏼 

It’s the little things. That is all. ❤️ 

And don’t worry. I won’t change from sharing reading tips to sharing beauty tips. Just this one.😝
Since I first started virtually teaching about fou Since I first started virtually teaching about four years ago, I have been amazed at how quickly relationships are built through a screen. When I first started with VIPKid, I had friends in China and students who are excited to learn every class. I’m not currently teaching for VIPKid, but still keep up with a few regular students and hope to meet them one day. 😍

Today I started virtually tutoring a kindergartner in Canada. 🇨🇦 We have only had an assessment and one session together & the same is true. We’re learning and giggling together. Having fun, getting to know each other, and learning to read.📚

Teaching is hard, but little moments make it so worth it to me!💓
💻DIGITAL PORTFOLIO🗄 In 2017, my husband was 💻DIGITAL PORTFOLIO🗄

In 2017, my husband was starting a new job in a different city and I needed a job. I wasn’t going to be able to travel there to interview as it was about 4 hours north of us. So I decided to create a digital portfolio to essentially allow principals to get an inside view of my classroom from afar. 

📸 I used @weebly because it was easy to create and free! I keep the URL to myself since there are some pictures of student faces. I organized my portfolio by Marzano domains (the teacher evaluation system in FL). Pictures were a must and I linked many videos as well. Essentially, I showed proof of each domain and many of the categories within each domain. ⭐️Swipe to see some snapshots⭐️

💌When I sent emails to principals, I included the link so they could view at their convenience. When I applied online, I dropped the link into the section labeled portfolio or even “Is there anything else you’d like us to know.”

🏆I got a phone call within an hour of sending the email to principals. And I was then hired immediately from that phone interview. I sincerely think that the portfolio helped my principal to “see me in the classroom” without physically seeing me.

👌🏻Ever since, I’ve updated it and used it in every job inquiry and interview. It works every time and I often get comments about how convenient it was for admin.

❤️Do you have a portfolio? Is it digital or in a binder? Has it helped you secure a job? I truly think that digital portfolios will be a huge benefit with interviews under cov!d regulations.❤️

#teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #iteach #iteachtoo #teacherinterview #teachingportfolio
Keep reading books to kids, no matter the age!🙌 Keep reading books to kids, no matter the age!🙌🏼

Do you agree? Like, share your thoughts in the comments, and share with anyone you know!!! 🥰

#teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers #readaloud #listeningcomprehension #booklover #structuredliteracy #iteachfirst #iteachsecond #iteachtoo
📢Sound on📢 CC: Students are telling their mo 📢Sound on📢
CC: Students are telling their mom about the word “have”. They say “No English word ends in a V. So you have to put an E after it. But it doesn’t make it “hAve” (long A).🤩

Tonight when I received this video from their mom with the text “I learned something new from them today!” I laughed hard, but I was so so so proud!❤️

My students are continuing our homeschool routine via my lesson plans while out of town. So tonight they taught their mom about the orthography of the English language.🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

💭No English word ends in V. They also don’t end in I, U, or J. (3 exceptions: you, thou, and I)
This explains why HAVE has a silent E at the end, but is not pronounced with a long A. Words that DO end in I, U, V, or J are loan words borrowed from other languages or abbreviations. For example, “menu” is French and “taxi” is an abbreviation.

🤷🏼‍♀️Did you know this? I did not know this until this past year...my 7th year of teaching. If you do know this...when did you learn it?

#teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #thelogicofenglish #structuredliteracy #phonicsinstruction #english #linguistics #iteachfirst #iteachsecond
This is what we call progress. Week 1 & Week 20. A This is what we call progress. Week 1 & Week 20. Almost 6 months to the day.🙌🏼

📝My second grader needed lots of phonemic awareness, phonics, and writing intervention. We have hashed out those skills nonstop since the first week of August. It’s been an amazing journey to watch. 

📚When I look at these two samples, I see text understanding, sentence structure and variety, written comprehension, and significant phonics growth. Both of these are reading responses to decodable passages. 

❤️On the first page, I had to assist with finding facts, writing sentences, and spelling words. On today’s writing, I only had to help with the EA in “defeated” and when to use -ED. I watched as a previously reluctant writer, finished an entire page of writing while I worked with another student. THAT is called a win.

🤩This is not to toot my own horn. It’s to celebrate my student and his hard work. It’s to focus on the fact that if we are CONSISTENT with foundational skills, they will translate into reading and writing improvements. 

📢Keep on keeping on, friends! Light that spark and watch for these moments that warm our teacher hearts. Progress over perfection!

(Curriculum is a phonics book titled: “From Phonics to Reading” by Wiley Blevins, Sadlier Publishing)

#teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #iteachtoo #iteachfirst #iteachsecond #phonicsinstruction #structuredliteracy #writeeveryday
🤍If there’s one work thing I’ve been thankf 🤍If there’s one work thing I’ve been thankful for over the last year in this pandemic life, it’s online professional development. Countless webinars, live chats, and courses are available digitally now for free or low cost. It’s been such a year of growth for me!

🤍During most breaks you can find me lesson planning or sitting watching a webinar of sorts (or doing both simultaneously). I enjoy the bit of quiet & cozy up in my swivel chair while highlighting or taking notes. Enneagram 3 for ya...always doing something. I can’t help it.

🤍I should’ve kept track of each session I watched, each course I attended, each article I read. That would’ve been a great addition to a digital portfolio. “The Pandemic PD.” 😂 But I didn’t.

🤍I have really loved The Reading Teacher’s Top Ten Tools course. YouTube videos from The Reading League & PaTTAN are also top notch. If it’s podcasts that you need, check my highlights for suggestions.

🤍The resource pictured here is The Reading Science Academy. It’s a monthly subscription created by Dr. Stephanie Stollar who is a professor at Mount Saint Joseph University in Cincinnati. (MSJ is well known for their masters and doctoral programs in the Science of Reading). The subscription is $9 and offers core and monthly content from experts in the field. I love it so far!

🤍Have you taken virtual PD this year? What has been your favorite? Let us know below so we can all share!👇🏼

#iteachtoo #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #virtualpd #iteachfirst #iteachsecond #structuredliteracy #scienceofreading #growthmindset #alwayslearningalwaysgrowing
Just a reminder to myself and any other mamas out Just a reminder to myself and any other mamas out there - get IN FRONT of the camera from time to time and have someone else capture some moments for you. ❤️ You won’t regret it!
Sight word = ANY word that is orthographically map Sight word = ANY word that is orthographically mapped and permanently stored in memory so that it is retrieved automatically.

•Sight words are not only Dolch and Fry words. It is not as effective or efficient to memorize irregular words as whole words or by shape.

🎉Spellings of words are bonded to their pronunciations and meanings. (Phonemic awareness and vocabulary instruction are SO essential here!)

•Building your sight word knowledge leads to reading automatically, without decoding each word as you come to it. Reading automatically therefore leads to fluent reading which leads to higher comprehension of what you are reading.

💡When words are mapped and become sight words to us, the connections in our brains are activated EVERY time we see the word, REGARDLESS of if we want to read it or not. If someone flashes a word and takes it away immediately, you will still read the word automatically without even trying to. This is why we can look at something and know what it says before thinking, “Hmmm let me read that!” We cannot keep ourselves from reading a word that we see and we can also not forget how to read a word that we have mapped.🤯

Swipe to read each of the four quotes as they go together and are taken directly from her published work.

Source: Linnea Ehri 1992, 1995
Linnea Ehri is a well known psychologist who has developed and published research on orthographic mapping and the stages of reading (and much more!).
Merry Christmas from our family to yours! ❤️ G Merry Christmas from our family to yours! ❤️ Glory to the newborn King! 👑
We’ve been working on syllable deletion in three We’ve been working on syllable deletion in three syllable words this week and last. Students have been ROCKING it!🌟 

This specific example was our last of an E2 set from Kilpatrick’s Equipped for Reading Success book. I love how she, suddenly and unprompted, realized that the word was like another word she knew.❤️ I went with it and showed her how to manipulate one syllable within 3 syllable words as an intro.

This was randomly caught on video but made me so excited. It shows why phonological awareness is important. It helps students to identify, read, and interact with multi-syllable words.📚

We have manipulatives out and students can use them if they wish. Eventually I notice students rely less on tapping the manipulative and simply answer quickly and automatically.🙌🏼

💭How have you seen manipulatives help with phonological awareness instruction?💭

#iteachtoo #iteachfirst #iteachsecond #phonologicalawareness #equippedforreadingsuccess #syllabledeletion #syllables #multisyllablewords
Quick Tip!💭 Print out a one or two page versio Quick Tip!💭

Print out a one or two page version of a sound wall and use it to track the data from your auditory drills!📝

Auditory drills - ask the student to write all the graphemes or all the ways (that they’ve learned so far) to spell a particular phoneme.🗣 

I just date it and give it a check if it was correct or almost correct. Then I can visually see which sounds we haven’t practiced yet. We do auditory drills about every other day and I just had this idea last week. It’s now saving my sanity!🤣

#iteachfirst #iteachsecond #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #structuredliteracy #auditorydrill #soundwall
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