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FREE Short Vowel Word Building Pack {13 Days of Learning Printables}

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Last year, my son (currently 5 years old) worked through Reading the Alphabet and was introduced to word families and short vowel words. This year, we’ve taken it very slow as it’s his last year as a preschooler. He loves to learn and loves to read, so I wanted him to savor all he could as a preschooler before “big kid school” starts…
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Find the Oddball: a Phonics Activity to Review Vowel Patterns

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As we began to reach the end of this school year, I started thinking of a phonics activity I could use to review many of the vowel patterns my 2nd grader has studied this year and last. That’s when Find the Oddball popped into my head. *This post contains affiliate links. The idea for Find the Oddball is adapted a bit from the word…
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50 Hands-On Spelling Activities

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Has your spelling practice become dry or boring? Well, brush off the dust and try some of these hands-on spelling activities! Since readers need to have BOTH phonics and sight words understanding to become good readers, focusing on both phonics AND sight words during spelling instruction is a great way to help words “stick” in a child’s memory.   When words are taken out of…
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Scoop & Spell – a word building and spelling activity

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Planning for and making learning hands-on for kids does require some prep work. It isn’t as easy as ripping out a workbook page and plopping it down in front of your child. But I’d also “argue” that hands-on learning is typically more meaningful, makes more connections with the child’s brain and way of learning, and is just more fun. Still,…
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Helping Children Write by Sharing the Pen

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Welcome back to Preschool & Kindergarten Writing Lessons, a 10-week series from The Measured Mom and This Reading Mama {that’s me}. I don’t know about you, but I have thoroughly enjoyed this series so far! The great thing about it is that even though we are targeting young children, older children, who may be reluctant or struggling writers, can also…
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