Sight Word Key Rings: Idea #92

You might think I'm crazy, but kids actually like to do homework. They think it is fun to take books home and have something to do. I saw it as a teacher year after year. My students would remind me to give them homework sometimes. 

Something kids can do to practice sight words is put each word on a 3x5 card, then hole punch the corner of the card and put the words on a key ring. Have your student add a couple of words a week to practice. You wouldn't want to give them twenty words all at once. Every day they can take the key ring home and practice the sight words. Your student will be so pleased to have some homework for once!!

Sight Word Practice: Idea #91

When your student has mastered letter sounds, have them practice sight words. Sight words are words that kids see all the time when they read but are more difficult to sound out. You can find a Kindergarten Sight Word List on the following website: http://www.education.com/magazine/article/prekindergartensightwords/. 

When practicing these words with your student, have them do four simple things with each word:

1. trace the word

2. write the word (on their own)

3. read the word 

4. draw a picture of the word

You will be amazed at how much this helps your student learn the sight words. Have fun watching your student progress in their reading skills.

Spelling Bee: Idea #90

Do you remember participating in the Spelling Bee as a kid? Pretty nerve racking, huh? Well, it is actually a very effective way to practice letter sounds, reading, and of course spelling. Try having a simple Spelling Bee with your student. 

You do not need more than one student for a Spelling Bee. Have the first round of words be really simple, so that they for sure will complete the level. Then provide a small reward after each round. You can make the rewards larger and more exciting after they pass each level. If they don't pass a level, let try the level over again.

Here is an idea of some words and prizes you could use for the Spelling Bee:

Level 1 List:

at

as

if

is

on

us

up

Prize: Sticker

Level 2 List:

pan

cap

pet

men

kid

top

fun

Prize: Pencil

Level 3 List:

fast

clap

best

west

spit

spot

jump

Prize: Eraser

Level 4 List:

scrap

strap

splat

crest

admit

trunk

grump

Prize: Candy bar

Rubber Stamps Book: Idea #89

Kids love to use rubber stamps. To get your student excited about mastering letter sounds, have them make an ABC book using stamps. It might be fun to have a theme like: 'My Christmas ABC Book' or 'My Animal ABC Book' or 'My Food ABC Book'. This just forces your student to be a little more creative. Naturally, you would make this ABC book like any other, but use letter stamps. You can find some great stamp options on the following website: http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/.

Here is how to make the ABC stamp book:

1. Give your student 27 pieces of paper (1 page for the book cover and 26 pages for each letter of the alphabet).

2. Have your student chose a theme for their ABC book (whether it be Christmas, or animals, or food, etc.).

3. Your student should use the stamps for the letters. So one page your student would put a letter A stamp. On another page the letter B and so on.

4. Once your student has a letter stamped on each page, have them think of something that begins each letter sound. Let them use markers to draw something on each page (since kids LOVE markers). They may draw a snowflake on the s page or reindeer on the r page. They don't need to write the word, just draw it.

5. When your student has completed each letter sound, have them decorate the cover and staple the pages in ABC order. Your student can use this book as a reference and review. What a fun way to practice letter sounds.

Have an enjoyable time!

Alphabet Ornaments: Idea #88

I realize that Christmas is over, but I have a few more ideas you can use for next Christmas. Try putting your Christmas tree up on November 30 so that you have 26 days until Christmas. Each day add an ornament to the tree that begins with a letter from the alphabet. Your student can make the ornament or buy one. 

Here is an idea of how you could do it:

November 30- Letter sound: a       apple ornament
December 1- Letter sound: b          bell ornament
December 2- Letter sound: c          candy cane ornament
December 3- Letter sound: d          drum ornament
December 4- Letter sound: e           elf ornament
December 5- Letter sound f             Frosty the Snowman ornament
(continue the rest of the sounds through December 25)  

Have your student come up with the idea for the ornament, then you can help them make or buy it. There are lots of ideas online. Check out www.pinterest.com! What a fun way to help your student master letter sounds.

Letter Sound Twister: Idea #87

Are you looking for ways to motivate your child over the holiday break? Why not try teaching them how to play Letter Sound Twister? This game should be played with more than one person, so please invite others to come play with your student.

Here is what you do:

1. Preparation before playing: Choose 4 letter sounds your student needs to practice.

2. Write on your twister board and mat the different letter sounds. For example, if you choose: E, I, G, and Q, write each letter on a different color dot. You would write E on all the red dots, I on all the green dots, G on all the yellow dots, and Q on all the blue dots.

3. Now that the preparation is done, you can start playing. The only difference in playing Letter Sound Twister is when you spin the dial to a certain letter, everyone playing must think of one thing that begins with that sound. If someone can't think of something, they are out of the game.

4. If you spin and it lands on the yellow dot for the letter G, all players must tell you a word that begins with that letter sound. They should all be different things. Proper nouns are okay. Then they must move their hand or foot to the correct location.

5. The first player to fall down or to not think of a word that begins with the letter sound, looses the game.

I hope your student enjoys this active game!

Letter Sound Gift Bags: Idea #86

A fun activity you can do on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day is make some letter sound gift bags. These can be gifts you buy, or just things you found around the house to give your student. This activity is a great way to excite your student to practice over the holiday. You can make one letter sound gift bag, or several depending on your student's progress.

Here is what you do:

1. Buy a gift bag you would like to use.

2. Choose the letter sound you would like your student to practice and write it on the tag.

3. Buy the items or find items that begin with that letter sound.

P items: 'Playtime Peek-a-boo' book, pad of paper, pen, picture, pajamas, and a pig blanket

4. Put the items in the gift bag.

5. When you give the bag to your student to open on Christmas, make sure they say each item as they take it out of the bag. They need to make the connection that they all begin with the same letter sound. 

I found this idea on the following website: http://www.pre-kpages.com

Have a Merry Christmas!

Stay Positive: Idea #85

In order to motivate your student to learn to read, make sure you stay positive. Focus on the things that they are doing well. Before telling them things they can work on, make sure you are saying the good things they are doing. Everyone tends to perform better when given compliments. Even if you can only think of one thing they are doing well, it can really help them improve and give them that little encouragement to keep going. Every lesson you give, try to find a little thing your student is doing well. This will not only make your lessons more enjoyable, but will make your student pleased with how they are progressing.

Reading-With-Kids.com: Idea #84

Check out the website: http://reading-with-kids.com/ for great reading activities and games. You will also find coloring pages, fairy tale pages, holiday pages, and nursery rhyme activities. I like the ideas on this website. You will find some wonderful things to do with your student to encourage them and motivate them to progress in their literacy skills.

BrainPop Jr: Idea #83

As a teacher I loved using the following website: http://www.brainpopjr.com. It is a wonderful educational website that focuses on science, health, reading & writing, social studies, math, and arts & technology. The video clips are great at explaining concepts in a simple way for kids. I particularly liked the video clips on phonics and comprehension. 

Some select movies you can see for free, but most of them you must subscribe to the website to see. Have fun checking out this awesome website!

Christmas Word Matching: Idea #82

Another fun worksheet you can give your student is Christmas Word Matching. This is a great way for students to practice letter sounds. They can try to sound out the entire word or try to match words to pictures based on sounding out the beginning of the word. 

Here is an example of a Christmas Word Matching worksheet:

I found this worksheet at the following website: http://primaryleap.co.uk

Here are some other websites with great Christmas matching worksheets. Have fun checking them out!

1 http://www.allkidsnetwork.com
2. http://www.archjrc.com
3. http://en.islcollective.com
4. www.abcteach.com
5. www.enchantedlearning.com

Christmas Fill in the Blanks: Idea #81

Most teachers do not like to give worksheets. As a teacher I felt better giving worksheets if they were beneficial and fun. Any Christmas worksheet you give your student is automatically fun. Just the pictures alone get them excited. Try giving your student a 'Fill in the Blanks' worksheet to practice letter sounds. 

Filling in the blanks gives your student the opportunity to sound out words and fill in the missing letters sounds. It is great practice! The difficult part for your student might be the middle and ending blanks. If this is the case, make some adjustments on the worksheet, so that they only have to fill in the missing beginning letter sound:

When students are learning letter sounds and are in the beginning stages of reading, it is so important that we give them opportunities to succeed. Sometimes making a worksheet a little bit easier is just the thing to boost their confidence. 

You can find these worksheets on the following website: www.ActivityVillage.co.uk.

Christmas Coloring: Idea #79

Hopefully your student has learned all of the letter sounds by now, but if not, you might try some Christmas coloring to motivate them. Each time your student has mastered a letter sound, let them color in part of a Christmas picture. After they have learned all 26 sounds, their Christmas picture will be completely colored!

Here is what you do:

1. Print off a simple Christmas coloring page (or rip one out of a coloring book). I found my coloring page on the following website: http://www.thecolor.com/

2. Write in the 26 letters A-Z on 26 different objects on the page.

(I apologize for the horrible shadow in this picture)




3. Have your student color in the objects of the letters they have mastered. It will be very obvious what sounds they need to practice. When they have learned all the sounds, let them hang up the picture.

Christmas Color-by-Letter: Idea #78

Kids love those color-by-number worksheets. It's fun for them to discover what the picture is when they have finished coloring all of the numbers. Since this blog focuses on literacy, I looked up color-by-letter worksheets, specifically Christmas themed ones. I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a few fun ones. 

Here is my idea for what you can do with these color-by-letter worksheets to practice letter sounds:

1. Print off a color-by-letter Christmas page (or make your own!). I found this coloring page on the following website: http://www.reading-with-kids.com under 'Christmas'.

2. Cut off the part that shows what to color each letter on the page.

3. Your student must listen to you as you tell them how to color each letter. For example, you might say, "Color all of the letters that begin like reindeer, red" or "Color all of the letters that begin like bells, black". This way your student is thinking and practicing those letter sounds, not just following a worksheet. 

I hope you have success doing this simple activity with your student.

Little Literacy Learners: Idea #77

It is always fun to find other educational blogs. Check out the following blog: http://littleliteracylearners.blogspot.com/. On this blog you will find wonderful ideas, activities, and worksheets. It is updated regularly and includes fun things to do for the holidays and other exciting events. There are also opportunities to purchase the materials on her website. Have fun looking through this really cute blog!

Early Learning Activities: Idea #76

I came across this great website called Early Learning Activities. On the website you can find: Free Printables, Free Daily Learning Sheets, Free Daily Art Projects, How To/Teaching Ideas, and Flash Learning Pages. 

As the website states, "This site features developmentally appropriate hands-on learning activities for pre-k and kindergarten children. There are file folder games ... flip books ... matching games... learning sheets ... craft projects ... video teaching tips ... teaching ideas ... and so much more!" 

Have fun checking out this wonderful educational resource!

http://www.earlylearningactivities.com/ 

Santa Alphabet Boards: Idea #75

A fun way to get your student excited about learning letter sounds is to make a simple alphabet board. Since it is the Christmas season, it is especially fun to make a Santa Alphabet Board. Here is what mine looks like:

 

All I did was put 26 small Santa faces on a page. Then I printed it and wrote each letter of the alphabet on the beards. When your student has mastered a letter sound, have them color in the Santa that has that letter. 

Make sure that this alphabet board is posted where your student can see it and can be frequently reminded of what letter sounds they still need to work on!

I got this idea from the following blog, so go check out their Santa Alphabet Board! http://littleliteracylearners.blogspot.com/

Santa's Alphabet Beard: Idea #74

As a kid I LOVED school crafts. Especially the ones we would make for the holidays. One of my favorites was making Santa's beard out of cotton balls. We would add a cotton ball every day in December until we got to Christmas day. I loved watching the beard fill up and realizing that Christmas was getting closer. Then, my wonderful mother would hang up the amazing Santa that I had made at school. I am sure she still has it to this day!

Since this is an educational blog, you may be asking how making a beard out of cotton balls could be educational. Well, what if your student could only add a cotton ball after they had mastered a letter sound?

This is how you could do it:

1. Print out a cute picture of Santa's face. Your student can color everything except for the beard. The website I used was: http://www.coloringpages7.com/

2. Draw 26 cotton ball size circles on his beard. You can trace the cotton ball if you want. It doesn't have to be perfect since the cotton balls will cover it up anyway. This is what mine looked like:

3. Write one letter of the alphabet on each circle.

4. Have your student glue a cotton ball on each letter sound that they have mastered. By this time in the year they should know more than just A and M! Once they have filled the beard with cotton balls, let your student add cotton balls to Santa's hat.

Hopefully by Christmas they will have all 26 letter sounds mastered and Santa's beard will be complete! Have fun!

Christmas Alphabet: #73

It is always fun to add the holidays to what you are teaching your students. Christmas is typically the favorite holiday, so it's exciting to integrate something Christmasy. 

While your student continues to master more letter sounds, you might try having them learn the Christmas Alphabet. This is a great way students can make the connection of letter sounds to Christmas things. For example, B makes the bbb sound, like bells. Or C makes the ccc sound, like candles.

Check out some of these websites for some great Christmas Alphabet ideas:

1. http://www.crewsnest.vispa.com/alphabet.htm
2. http://www.dltk-bible.com/alphabet-poem.htm
3. http://www.bry-backmanor.org/actpag75.html

If your student really enjoys learning the Christmas alphabet, you might have them make a book with all of the words, similar to what is shown on this website: http://www.bry-backmanor.org/actpag75.html. 

If you don't like any of the Christmas alphabets listed above, you can make up your own words, or have your student come up with them.

Have fun learning the Christmas alphabet with your student!

Alphabet Puzzles: Idea #72

Don't you just love puzzles? Kids love doing them too, as long as they aren't too difficult. A fun way to practice letter sounds with your student is to have them do an alphabet puzzle. Here are few different kinds of puzzles that are out there to use:

1. A simple puzzle that just has the letters. Have your student say the sound each letter makes as they put it in the correct spot. Check out this puzzle here: http://www.meijer.com/s/melissa-and-doug-upper-and-lowercase-alphabet-puzzle/_/R-193896;jsessionid=A08B3977F6CFCC158B3396321733530A.instance01?cagpspn=pla&cmpid=Google-G_US_Meijer_eCom_PLA_Toys&kpid=47

2. An alphabet puzzle that says the correct name of each letter when it is placed in the right spot on the puzzle. Check it out here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/toys-games-alphabet-sound-puzzle/14956112

3. An alphabet puzzle that has pictures and words on the actual board. It is up to the student to match the correct letter sound with the picture and word.  Check it out here: http://kydzedu.com/products/1050-Puzzles

4. An alphabet puzzle where the student must put two pieces together: the letter with a picture that begins with that letter's sound. Check it out here: http://www.google.com/shopping/product/819805346134492009?q=abc%20puzzle&hl=en&sqi=2&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bpcl=39650382&biw=1525&bih=695&sa=X&ei=SLDHUPe0D4TwrQHqrIHACw&ved=0CIUBEPMCMAU

5. For even more ABC puzzle ideas, check out this website: http://www.puzzlewarehouse.com/product/search.cfm?criteria=abc&page=1

I hope these puzzles are effective tools in helping your student master letter sounds!

Flannelboards: Idea #71

When you were a kid did your mom or school teacher ever tell you stories using a flannelboard? They are very effective. Kids are so captivated with them. Kids seem to love the way flannelboards look and feel. 

Try using a flannelboard to get your student excited about learning letter sounds. A great resource is the book 'Alpha Stories: Learning the Alphabet Through Flannelboard Stories'. Check out this book to discover how to incorporate these stories when introducing a new letter sound.

You could also make your own flannelboard alphabet stories. Here are some great websites with wonderful ideas and tips:

1. http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Easy-Felt-BoardFlannel-Board-Pieces/
2. http://babyparenting.about.com/od/activitiesandplay/a/flannelboard.htm
3. http://www.ehow.com/how_2046677_make-flannel-story-board.html
4. VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NNGAQxfZj8
5. VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZja62kZaUA

After you have made one flannelboard story,  you can use it over and over again. If this idea works well for your student, you could try it with another student or child later on down the road. I think you will enjoy making flannelboard stories. Your student will appreciate it too!

enchantedlearning.com: Idea #70

It's time to give you another GREAT website. Check out: www.enchantedlearning.com. This website not only covers literacy, but also math, art, science, history, geography, and even foreign languages. You will never get bored looking at this website! I particularly enjoyed looking at: Preschool and Kindergarten activities, Nursery Rhymes, Alphabet Activities, Books to Print, K-3 Theme Pages, Picture Dictionary, Preschool Activities, and Writing ABC's. This website is a great resource for worksheets and educational activities. Take some time to look through this website, you can thank me later.

Alphabet Scrapbook: Idea #69

A fun way to get your student excited about learning their letter sounds is to make an alphabet scrapbook. 

This is what you do:

1. Give your student a camera (with your supervision). The student is to take a picture of something that begins with each letter of the alphabet. They can go outside or stay inside. They could go to the park or to a school or to a museum. They just need 26 pictures of things that begin with each letter of the alphabet.

2. Once they have 26 pictures representing each letter of the alphabet, they need to put all of the pictures in alphabetical order. 

3. The student then pastes each picture on a separate piece of cardstock to make a book. Another option is your student could get a photo album and put the pictures they took in the album. 

4. If your student is super crafty, they may want to make their scrapbook fancy and creative. Let them have fun with it. This is something that they can refer back to for years to come.

I hope you enjoy taking pictures with your student and watching them get excited about letter sounds.

Word Families: Idea #68

A great way to get your student reading quickly is to introduce word families. Word families group words together that all end the same way and have the same sound. It is wonderful because a word that once had three sounds, now only has two. 

For example, the word sat is in the -at family. When your student first sounded out the word sat, they had to make the three sounds: s-a-t. Your student will be able to read words more simply by knowing two letters together can make one sound. Now they can sound out the word sat, like this: s-at. Only two sounds! Kids will enjoy learning about word families and how to make reading easier.

Check out this website that has many word families listed: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/rhymes/wordfamilies/. I would recommend starting with the short a word families. Students tend to grasp those the quickest. Obviously word families with long vowel sounds will have to come last.

Have fun practicing word families with your student!

Easy four letter words: Idea #67

A couple days ago I gave you a list of good three letter words to practice with your student. Today I'll be adding good four letter words to practice. Make sure your student has mastered three letter words before going on to four. You don't want to overwhelm them! 

My list includes only words with short vowel sounds that are extremely simple to sound out. Try making flashcards with these twenty words and see how your student does. Enjoy practicing!

Short a:
fast
glad
clap
flat

Short e:
tent
went
best
west

Short i:
grin
spin
flip
spit

Short o:
frog
drop
spot
trot

Short u:
jump
plug
slug
spun        

Sounding out words: Idea #66

When sounding out three letter words with your student, try different techniques to see what is most effective for them. You could cover up each letter as they say the sound in the word. You could even have them sound the word out on their arm. In my experience, using the arm was very successful.

Here is what you do: For a three letter word, the first sound of the word is on the shoulder, the second sound is at the elbow, and the last sound is at the hand. After your student has made the three sounds at the three points, have them touch each part again quickly and put the sounds together. From the top of the arm to the bottom. 

For example, for the word hat, your student would: Touch the shoulder and say the h sound, touch the elbow and say the a sound, and touch the hand and say the t sound. Then touch the shoulder, elbow, and hand quickly blending h-a-t together to say: hat.  

I made a video of this because I realize that this can be very confusing. The words I sounded out were: cap, pet, kid, mop, fun. I know I look silly, but hopefully it will give you an idea of how to teach your child to sound words out on their arm! 

Don't laugh too hard at the movie!

Three letter words: Idea #65

Yesterday I gave you a list of good two letter words to practice with your student. Today I'll be adding good three letter words to practice. Make sure your student has mastered two letter words before going on to three. You don't want to overwhelm them! They will be reading books in no time. 

My list includes only words with short vowel sounds that are extremely simple to sound out. Try making flashcards out of these words and see how your student does. Enjoy practicing!

Short a:

1. pan

2. sat

3. ham

4. dad

5. cap

Short e:

1. pet

2. hen

3. set

4. hen

5. men

Short i:

1. hit

2. fin

3. kid

4. zip

5. win

Short o:

1. lot

2. mom

3. top

4. dog

5. mop

Short u:

1. tub

2. bug

3. fun

4. rug

5. sun

Two letter words: Idea #64

By now your student knows ALL 26 letter sounds, or close to it. Begin teaching them how to read two letter words. You might try making flashcards of these short words. This a great way to help them gain some confidence and start on their path to success. 

Here is a list of 15 two letter words that are easy to sound out. Have fun making flashcards for your student and practicing these simple words!

1. at
2. am
3. an
4. as
5. ax
6. Ed
7. if
8. in
9. is
10. it
11. of
12. on
13. um
14. up
15. us

Storyline Online: Idea #63

There are some wonderful websites out there! As a teacher I read to the students A LOT. Sometimes it was nice to have someone else read to my class. When I heard about this website I fell in love with it instantly. This website has famous people reading children's books. Most of these people are actors, so they do voices and are very expressive when they read. The pages in the book are also shown to the student as they are being read.

Some of my personal favorites were watching Betty White read 'Harry the Dirty Dog', Sean Astin read 'A Bad Case of Stripes', and Elijah Wood read 'Me and My Cat?'. I enjoyed watching and listening as much as my students. Have fun watching these famous people read at: http://www.storylineonline.net/.

Margaret Hillert Books: Idea #62

Once your student is sounding out short two and three letter words and knows a few sight words, you may want to get them started on some easy reader books. One of my favorite authors is Margaret Hillert. Her books are repetitive and simple. Students are able to gain confidence from reading them. She writes books about things from the holidays to  fairy tales. Check out this website to find a list of her books: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/bookwizard/books-by/margaret-hillert.

TIP: Before your child tries to read one of her books to you, look through it and see if there are any words that may be difficult for your student. Make a list of the hard words and practice them with your student before your student begins to read. This will help your student get more excited about reading and feel successful. 

ALSO, all of her books are Accelerated Reader books.