Posts containing the following tags:
literacy

I give my class a new sight word book every week. They each have a plastic bag full of books and also a word ring with all the sight words. They love these books. They can read them, they can color them, and they are successful readers when they practice with these books. My sprouts practically beg me to read them and I’m more than happy to ...

In my classroom, I kneel all the time. Kindergartners are short. I’m not so short. If I want to look them in the eye, I’ve got to kneel. Today, while working with my friend Sonya on some writing, I knelt down next to her and leaned in. As I was helping her sound out a word, she reached over and started rubbing my face. This was something ...

We learn nursery rhymes in my kindergarten class. I’ve always heard today’s kids don’t know the basic nursery rhymes and research shows the ability to rhyme is one of the greatest indicators of reading success… plus they’re just fun. I have a few CDs that have them set to cool funky music (we had an entire discussion about reggae music once) and ...

First, the good news: I have a follower! Woo-Hoo! Sounds kind of silly after nearly a year of blogging, but understand that I recently moved How to Teach Novel from WordPress to here at Blogger. In doing so I kept my posts, but unfortunately lost my comments, my followers, and my Google rank. But as they say in sports, this is a rebuilding year! ...

Teachers are magicians. We’re constantly looking in our bag of tricks for ways to engage and enamor our students. Usually our tricks are magnificent marvels, but sometimes they fizzle. Yesterday, while attempting to teach the spelling of the final ‘L’ sound to my class (two ll’s, as in hill, fill, and mill), I figured I’d better peek into my ...

As I’ve mentioned many times before, I’m not a crafty guy. Somehow they let me teach kindergarten anyway. I decided (recently) that one of my personal goals was going to be more art. This week, I started with my first craft… I figure one project a week is a safe way to ease myself into things. Our project this week was based on the Letter ...

A few weeks ago, my school required all kindergarten students to be given the DIBELS assessment. If you don’t know what DIBELS is, it’s basically three assessments that focus on letter naming and sound identification. Each child has one minute for each of the three assessments. The school’s Title One staff administers DIBELS – most kids don’t ...

Everybody loves to play with magnets. I still have my refrigerator covered with magnets although all the children are grown. You can bring that fun to your computer, your interactive white boards and your classroom with Word Magnets. Find out how Word Magnets makes word walls, teaching with graphic organizers and improving students' higher ...

When Jaime contacted me to co-write a post about Bill HR3101, she indicated she would like me to write about the educational aspects of this Bill.  For those of you who missed the post, basically Bill HR3101 would make all video capable devices have the option of showing captions.  It would mean that many different devices that access the internet ...

Reading books aloud is one the easiest ways I have found to help connect students with books...and it doesn't matter the age. In Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever! author Mem Fox says that reading aloud is the spark that can light the fire of literacy in children.  I couldn't agree more!  There are so ...