When you think of Kindergarten, you probably think of learning the alphabet. It is one of the first skills you will teach. It is also a stepping stone for so many phonemic awareness and phonics skills. However, you may be wondering, “How do I teach letter recognition?” Today, I am
My favorite part of the morning was always our morning meeting! This was where I really got to know my students and everyone had a voice in my classroom. It always started my day off on a positive note and I know my students loved it too. If you are
It’s back-to-school season again and chances are you’re looking for some back-to-school read-alouds for Kindergarten. The two main books that may be popping up everywhere are The Kissing Hand and First Day Jitters. While they are great books, I wanted to find some different options for that first week of
Do you know the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics instruction? To be completely honest, I did not realize these two were different until my second year teaching Kindergarten. I thought the two terms were interchangeable. Let’s talk about the difference between phonemic awareness vs phonics instruction and HOW we
You’re nearing the end of the year, hooray! Now that your students are writing independently, this is the perfect time to add more creative writing activities to your lesson plans. I love using the end of the year and summertime as a focus for our writing time, it gets your
It’s almost the end of the year and your Kindergarten students have learned so much! It is amazing how far they have come, especially in the area of phonics. At the start of the year, they were just learning their letter sounds, and now they are blending CVC words, or
Should you be using worksheets in Kindergarten? YES! Worksheets don’t have to be just busy work or boring. There are plenty of ways to make them meaningful, hands-on, and fun. Here are a few simple ways to make phonics worksheets more engaging for your students. Build fine motor skills with
Teaching phonemic awareness daily is the best way to get your students decoding effectively and becoming strong, confident readers. There are many different skills you will want to focus on with your phonemic awareness instruction. Your students will catch on to some skills quickly, while others take a lot of
Teaching middle sounds in words can be a challenge for your students, especially when it comes to distinguishing short vowel sounds like /e/ and /i/. Stretching out a word slowly to isolate and identify that tricky middle sound takes practice and the right strategies. If you’re looking for ways to
