It's no secret that sounding out words is still a bit of a struggle for my now 2nd grader. Of course, I don't want this to be her go-to reading strategy for every word because that just wouldn't be appropriate. But truly decodable words, like track or stump, still often trip her up. Instead of reading through the word, she takes bits and pieces of the word to guess a random word. For example, she may take the ck, a, and t out of track and guess CAT. *This post contains affiliate links. **The free printables can be found at the END of this post. Look for the teal download ... Continue Reading
Phonics and Word Study
Phonics Dice Games for Blends and Digraphs
If your learner is working on blends or digraphs, you'll want to grab a copy of these free phonics dice games for blends & digraphs. *This post contains affiliate links. **The free download can be found at the END of this post. A little background... My daughter, now in 2nd grade, went to a part-time school for half of last school year. The pace of the phonics program they used was too fast for her {not to mention, it wasn't my favorite}. We spent much of the last half of the year filling in gaps. And while she did make progress, I felt we needed to back up and start some ... Continue Reading
What is Word Work?
We've arrived at word work in our balanced literacy series. What exactly is word work? What are some ideas and activities? And how do you fit it into a balanced literacy framework? I'm so glad you asked. That's exactly what we're exploring in this post! *This post contains affiliate links. What is Word Work? Word work is a hands-on time to explore the spellings and/or meanings of words (vocabulary). Making time for word work is vital because it helps patterns and words move into long-term memory. Word work can help our learners become better readers, spellers, and ... Continue Reading
Beginning Spelling App for Word Study
Do you teach beginning readers and spellers? You're sure to LOVE our beginning spelling app for word study called Alphabetic Spellers! It's FULL of word study activities for letter sounds and short vowel words. It's PERFECT for advanced preschoolers or Kindergartners or any child in the Alphabetic Spelling Stage. And now, you can easily share data from your device to all your learners! Beginning Spelling App for Word Study We have 5 learning apps already, so what makes this one different? It covers all of the phonics skills that beginning readers and spellers need ... Continue Reading
Using Nonsense Words with Readers
Mig. Nup. Clag. These are nonsense words. I've been using them with readers for 12+ years now. And I've been asked several times why I do. So today, I'm tackling the subject of using nonsense words {and defending them...to a degree} with readers. Be sure to click on the teal download button to grab a printable nonsense word list. Using Nonsense Words with Readers Yes. It's obvious. We don't use nonsense words {also known as pseudo words} when we read. So why in the world would I ever suggest we use them with readers? Let's take a look at decoding for a second. By the ... Continue Reading