Struggling with having writing conferences with each child every week? Every writer has different needs. Your writing lessons may not address the individual needs of all your writer’s when they are all at different stages of their writing development. Yet, your grade level curriculum forces […]

Confused with the terms of phonological awareness and phonemic awareness? Phonology is the study of vocal sounds. There is no print involved in this stage of literacy.  It is an “eyes closed” stage in identifying and manipulating the sounds of oral language.  Beginning with sentences, words, syllables, onsets, rimes and ending with phonemes.

Creating an appropriate individual behavior plan for students in need and finding time to document it all has ALWAYS been a struggle for me, even after 20 years of teaching. Yes, it took me that long… With all the demands of teaching. it is easy […]

Managing Phonics Workshop supplies can be a challenge. If you are looking for a better way to organize your whole group supplies… if you are anything like me, saving minutes throughout the day is a struggle!  Transitions from one lesson to another while gathering and […]

Which are the best sight word activities to boost fluency? Is it the traditional word wall, a portable word wall, a phonics notebook, a word wallet or a personal word wall? Let’s take a closer look at all our options with a Word Detective theme! […]

Ever sit down to plan for your guided reading groups only to find yourself up and out of your seat hunting for a set of leveled readers that are stored in a far corner of your classroom or in a closet… somewhere? I bet there […]

When you are introducing your classroom rules at the beginning of the school year, you hope they stick! As teachers, we make every effort to repeat, rehearse and restate our classroom expectations, but will our students remember them and follow through? Setting personal behavior goals […]

There is nothing like seeing one of your young authors beam with pride when they are recognized as being a published author during your Writing Celebrations. Your students have grown so much throughout the year that you should do something special to honor their determination […]

The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown is hands-down the best writing mentor text to teach young writers how to organize a nonfiction paragraph. It is the perfect picture book to show students how to include a topic sentence, details to describe the main idea, […]

Tis’ the season to bust out the glue gun!  Trust me, you won’t get “burned” with these Christmas ornaments. You might get a little glitter in your hair though! TeeHee. This.  This Christmas ornament has been in my life since I was in first grade! […]