Do you give spelling tests in Kindergarten? While there are some benefits to spelling practice in Kindergarten, I don’t think spelling tests should be required in Kindergarten. Students are just learning how to segment words and make letter-sound connections. Spelling is an important skill, but there are some do’s and
As students are learning how to read, write and spell, word work activities are a great way to practice their phonics skills! Word work gives students an opportunity to play with words, and develop into better readers and spellers. During my ELA center rotations, one of my go-to centers was
Which phonics skill do you teach after letter recognition and letter sounds? My answer is phoneme isolation, also known as identifying the beginning, middle, or ending sound (phoneme) in a CVC word. While this is a phonemic awareness skill, I’ve found great success with tying phonemic awareness into my daily
We all know those tricky letters that students confuse with one another. Usually “b” is confused with “d”, “p” gets switched with “q” or even the number “9”, and “n” and “u” always trip up your students. Even “m” and “w” or “z” and “s” can be challenging. Next thing
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
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
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
