Kindergarten and first grade teachers: Have you found lessons or activities for early readers that you use every year? It seems like we are always adding new ideas and strategies to our teacher toolbox. Here are a few of my favorites.
Slide and sound is a good warm-up activity to use with your small groups. It is a hands on way to show how letters blend together to form words. You can get a free copy of the multi-sensory slide and sound cards, task cards, and worksheets here.
Organize a tub of song books. Include books with songs that students are familiar with like the ones in the picture above. Students will read and sing, practice their book handling techniques, and gain confidence.
Soundboxes are a great phonological awareness tool. Use these to practice segmenting words into individual sounds. I love to use seasonal themed soundboxes and small erasers like the ones in the picture above. You can get a free copy of these soundboxes here.
The Bubble Gum Homework program was one of the best things I did to improve my students’ reading skills. The structure of the program keeps the students – and parents – motivated which is why I think it had such an impact.
There has been quite a bit of debate in the news lately about whether students should be given homework. With this program, students are encouraged to study a minimum of 3 words per week. There is not a paper (printable) assignment for the students to complete. Parents and students can study the words the way they feel works best.
Early readers need to work on fluency. It is fun to work on fluency with a partner. You can get a free Fluency Check here. I just added a bigger Fluency Check file with 10 reading passages – kindergarten level and 10 reading passages – 1st grade level plus other activities this week. You can see it here.
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