These FREE Spelling Test Printables are such a hand, NO PREP resource. Lots of options to use with any spelling list for kids of all ages.
This post will give you more than 360 pages of 1st grade common core language arts worksheets with answer keys and posters to help your students learn!
Inside you'll find an easy step-by-step how to draw a Minecraft Self Portrait & Minecraft Coloring Page. Stop by and download yours for free.
K-1 NONFICTION WRITING My nonfiction writing unit is here! This is the perfect way to introduce kindergarten and first grade students to what informational writing is. This unit is so engaging for students because it uses real life photographs and animals. We discus
Teaching grammar and language art skills can be a challenge for anyone. How do you hit all of the skills...effectively? How do you know your students are
Hi Friends…. The past two weeks we have been working on Prefixes and Suffixes in our second-grade classroom! My kiddos were having such a good time brainstorming words with prefixes and then figuring out the meaning. They really had a strong grasp of the concept… I was pretty impressed. After our whole … Prefixes, Suffixes and a FREEBIE Just for YOU! Read More »
Learning to spell is not for sissies! There are so many rules and nuances to the whole operation, and it can seem overwhelming for children.
These 4th grade anchor charts reinforce concepts for reading, science, math, behavior management, environmentalism, and more!
This past week, we learned about synonyms. The kids really grasped the concept by mid-week! I am excited to see them start using synonyms...
Winter is just around the corner and I have been working hard on our Winter Math and Literacy Packet for Kindergarten! I am happy to say that it is
Grab these free spelling dictionaries for kids in first, second, and third grade! I love how they come in different versions depending on the needs of your learners. They're great to support children's writing and their learning of sight words. #spelling
Since I shared my visual plans on Sunday, I wanted to pop in and show you how we've done with staying on track! First, I forgot to show you some of our
Make the most of your writing block with these funny picture prompts! Go here:
It amazes me how much class size affects my teaching and my students. I started the year with 31 students. I just lost my second one at the beginning of this week, so I'm down to 29. I've had 2 kids out all week on long vacations and 2 more out sick. So I've had a class of 25 ALL week!! It's been a big difference. Even though the ones gone are little angels and I still have all the hard ones, it really makes a BIG difference!! Our district and researchers keep telling us that class size doesn't make a difference but I have to beg to differ with them. It makes a HUGE difference in first grade. With a smaller class I can spread myself out more- work with more kids, more often, for longer periods of time. We can get more done- 25 kids take less time to finish an assignment than 31. With all the activities we do in first grade through out the day it can really add up. With less kids, fighting for my attention, I can give more attention to those that really need it. During class discussions, there is more participation by more kids. The shyer kids start to open up. It just feels more like a close knit community rather than a big city. I can hardly imagine what it would be like to teach less than 20. What a dream!! Back to reality. Our school has been doing training in SIOP this year. It stands for Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol. You can find out more HERE. It actually is training in teaching English Language Learner but our school does not have a very high percentage of ELLs. We actually have only 3 out of 180 in our grade level. But the SIOP model is really best practices and a great review in how to teach better. With the new common core our principal thought is would be a great help. We've had to do lesson studies and just finished one yesterday. Our team did ours on Synonyms. It's great to collaborate and work together as a team developing and analyzing a lesson. Here's a practice page we used and a cute song we found. I don't know who to give credit for the song but our kiddos really liked it. Click HERE if you'd like to grab a copy. Hey, believe it or not but it's FRIDAY tomorrow- again! Gotta love FRIDAY! I hope you all have a GREAT one.
If you are looking for comprehensive and kid-friendly no-prep 2nd grade language arts worksheets, you've come to the right place.
One of my projects this summer was to plan out how I wanted to teach sight words and phonics skills next year. My curriculum does not dictate what phonics skills we have to teach and which sight word lists to practice, so I came up with a yearly scope and sequence that I am pretty happy with! At the end of this post you'll find a link to a bunch of freebies. This chart is in there (and it's editable). I have set aside about 20 minutes a day for sight words, poetry, and phonics. It usually works out to be about 5 minutes sight words, 5 minutes poetry, and 10 minutes phonics. My plan is to teach five sight words a week. My word lists come from Dolch, Fry's, and a few randoms thrown in! The phonics skills are based on what I feel my students need to work on Grade 1. We spend the first few weeks reviewing the alphabet sounds (I like Beverly Tyner's sequence.) Then we move onto short vowels, silent E, digraphs, long vowels, blends, bossy R, and some diphthongs. Even though I teach this stuff whole group, I do spend time in my guided reading groups doing more focused work on sight words or phonics skills too, depending on the group's needs. Each week I display the five sight words of the week on this little board. I bought a little white board from the dollar store, added the title and some clipart, and stuck on five little Stikki Clips. (Have you heard of these things? They are pretty neat. I bought them from Really Good Stuff. Apparently they stick super well to cinder block walls!) Each week I just stick the words in the clips. Easy peasy! At the end of the week we retire the words to the word wall and on Monday we put up five new words. Here's a peek at what we do all week long with these words: On Monday we introduce the sight words and practice them using some free chants from Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade. Then we make a little mini book. Students cut apart the squares, staple it in the corner, and then practice tracing each sight word and colouring it (or rainbow writing it). They keep these mini books in their book boxes for a couple weeks to practice the sight words. They can read them during "read to self" time. On Tuesday we make and break the words. I scramble up the letters in each word and we practice putting them back together. I do this on the Mimio, but you can just use magnetic letters. On Wednesday we play Guess the Word. It's like hangman. I put dashes up for each letter in the word and the students take turns guessing letters. I cross off the letters they guess and cross off a section of the picture each time they make an incorrect guess. There are ten different monthly themed pictures. I don't just use the words of the week--I take any word from the word wall! On Thursday we read the Mystery Sentences. I write five sentences that each have one of the words of the week in it. We read the sentences together and try to figure out the missing word. On Friday we play Swat the Sight Word. On the projector I display a page with the five words all over it. I choose two students, give them each a fly swatter, and call out one of the words. The students try to swat the word. I love this because there's not one winner; they can both find and swat a sight word! :) They love this game! **I don't have any of the Mimio files for you to download, but I have put a blank PDF version of the four activities (Tues-Fri) into the freebie file. You can import the PDF into Mimio or Smart Notebook and add your own text to create the activities yourself. I have also included my sight word books and an editable version so you can put in your own five sight words.** I keep all of my sight word stuff for the week in page protectors in my Phonics & Sight Words binders (blogged about this here). The sight word lists are three weeks of sight words. I use them during Word Work. I'll blog about this more later! I number the back of all my word wall cards so that at the end of the year I can easily organize them back into the proper week. After our sight word activity, we look at the poem of the week. I have poems from a variety of different sources, but mostly I use Deedee Wills' Poetry Station Packs. They are amazing! I place the poem onto sentence strips and display them on a large pocket chart. On Monday we read the poem together, on Tuesday we look for certain letters or phonics skills, on Wednesday we ready in different voices for fluency practice, on Thursday we highlight our word wall words in the poem, and on Friday we put the poem in our poetry folders. Sometimes we will highlight the word wall words in our folder or draw a picture to go with the poem. Then we have phonics time. On Mondays I usually introduce the phonics skill with a story, such as the Scholastic Phonics Tales. Then we brainstorm a list of words that contain that phonics skill on chart paper. On Tuesdays we usually do some sort of phonics activity. My students love Babbling Abby's Highlight a Word from her Word Work packs. On Wednesday we usually do a read and match activity together. These cards are from Reagan Tunstall's Big Phonics Bundle. I love this bundle! It has so many activities for so many phonics skills!! It is well worth the price. On Thursday we do another phonics activity... this might be a cut and paste activity or a read the room activity. I have so many things in my files from The Mailbox Magazine or other TpTers. I might also have a Phonics Read the Room pack in the works... but we'll see about that! ;) On Friday we usually play Roll & Cover or Roll & Write. I photocopy the black & white versions of these games onto coloured paper so we can play as a whole group. Then I place a few laminated, coloured versions of the game in our word work centres so students can play them again during guided reading time. I keep all of my phonics stuff for the week in page protectors in my Phonics & Sight Words binders (read about this here). The first five weeks of school are a little bit different for phonics because we are reviewing our alphabet sounds. We still do sight words each work (although the very first week of school we just focus on our names) and we do a poem of the week, but each week we focus on five (or six) letter sounds. I like to use Beverly Tyner's sequence. (If you haven't read any of her books, check out Small-Group Reading Instruction. It's really great!) I'm planning on using activities from my new Alphabet Practice pack. Each week the activities are the same, but it focuses on a different set of letters. The first week is BSMAC, then TDLRI, JGHON, PUQWY, and lastly ZXEVKF. On Monday we will practice the sounds that each letter make by chanting "b says /b/, m says /m/, etc." We sometimes add an action to go with it, like biting an apple for /a/ or bouncing a ball for /b/. Then we do a card sort in the pocket chart. We will sort the picture cards based on their initial sound (or final sound with X). On Tuesday students will do a colour code activity. They have to write the initial letter of each word, then colour the picture using the colour code. Great practice for those colour words as well! Then when they are done, they can play Spin to the Top. They spin an uppercase letter and practice tracing the letters. When one letter reaches the top, they win! On Wednesday we do a read the room activity. I place 12 cards around the room. Students find the card and write down the letter the word starts with beside the correct number. When done, they do a letter search on the back. They circle and count each type of letter and write number beside it. Great for identifying letters in different fonts! On Thursday we do a cut and paste sort. Students have to glue the correct lowercase letter and two beginning sound pictures beside the correct train engine. Then when they are done, they can play Roll to the Top. They roll a die and practice tracing the correct lowercase letters. When one letter reaches the top, they win! On Friday we play a game. Either small group beginning sound BINGO (included in my Alphabet Practice pack), Roll & Cover, or Roll & Write. Check out these products by clicking the pictures below. Well I hope that gives you some good ideas for teaching sight words, poetry, or phonics! Click the picture below to download some of the freebies from this post.
K-1 POETRY UNIT I love teaching poetry to kindergarten and first grade students! Even though I have this labeled as Unit 8 in my Writing Series , I actually teach poetry throughout the entire year. We follow the same routine and students look forward to our poetry week every month.
Getting your classroom to manage itself, procedures, models and more. Visit us:
Learn about Structured literacy and download a FREE Science of Reading Toolkit that has everything you need to get started with structured literacy in K-2 classrooms.
Learn about the most advanced ancient civilization in this fun, hands on Ancient Mesopotamia History Unit. This is fun for kids of all ages.
Picture this: You are wandering around your classroom in awe as each and every student is madly engaged in informative writing.
A blog for first grade and primary teachers with teaching tips for emergent readers including phonics, reading comprehension, and writing.
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Hello Everyone! I love helping first graders express themselves through writing. For me, the first semester of first grade is all about creating a safe environment for them to feel comfortable putting their thoughts down on paper. We work on all the different ways to incorporate written expression into our day. I just love when one of my little would rather write than do anything else! Well we are now all about making our great writing even better...That means editing. I don't know about you, but it has been my experience that kids do not like going back to fix anything in their writing! Does anyone truly love editing? Hence the challenge, making editing engaging. After researching and trying different things and I think I finally came up with something that the kids can understand, use, and grow. We compared different pieces and rated them. We will use them as rubrics to compare our own writing. We learned about a few first grade friendly editing marks. We modeled editing on an old piece. Then we received out "Editing Super Visors," and special editing pens. I love to have my kids peer edit, so we got with our writing partners right away and picked a piece on which to work our editing magic. TaDah!! Engagement! Our Editing Super Visors I did put all these ideas into a micro unit about editing and rubrics. A quick set of printable rubrics with rating numbers for your own quick print and go micro unit, CLICK HERE!! Or CLICK HERE for a new and improved version of the unit!! I hope you can use some of this!! As always, if you see any typos or anything that should be fixed (or edited!! Ha Ha!) please don't hesitate to holler at me!! Thanks for stopping by for a peek! Stay tuned for more first grade fun!! Joyfully! Nancy
Last year, I taught how to make inferences for quite some time. With such an emphasis on close reading, I wanted my students to read between the lines, to dig deeper, and to find out the answer to the question, “what is the author really trying to say?!” I spent a lot of time […]
With students in your classroom who may not have the basics of sentence writing completely down yet, it can be overwhelming to plan tackling opinion writing with students in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade. For young
Did you think teaching students to write would be a snap? I mean, you are a college-educated, certified individual. How hard could it possibly be? Well, it’s a challenge, especially when just starting out. In my classroom,
As you probably know, phonics is an essential component of reading instruction. Before you read this loooong post all about how to teach ph...
Ready to rock teaching beginning of year writing in first grade? These early days of writing instruction must be targeted and on point. Click to learn more.
In first grade reading comprehension is something new, challenging, and difficult to teach because even though they’re all 6 or 7 they’re developmentally so different. Head over to my blog to get this comprehension page. Depending on what grade you teach it’d be great for: homework individual assessment small groups partners intervention challenging gifted students ... Read More about Reading Comprehension
Hi Friends…. The past two weeks we have been working on Prefixes and Suffixes in our second-grade classroom! My kiddos were having such a good time brainstorming words with prefixes and then figuring out the meaning. They really had a strong grasp of the concept… I was pretty impressed. After our whole … Prefixes, Suffixes and a FREEBIE Just for YOU! Read More »
The Sentence Game Let’s face it, writing is hard. It takes lots and lots of practice to master the many skills a writer needs. But practice can be boring. Not now! I’ve created a sentence writing game your kids will love. With this game they’ll write sentence after sentence without complaining, because it’s a game. It’s very simple, but practices very essential skills- capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and spelling. The game can be played with 2 or more players. There’s even a way to play it with your whole class. Each student needs a word grid and a sentence/scoring sheet. Each set of players will also need one die and a scoring guide. Here's how it's played: v Each player rolls the die. The players then circle that number of words on their word grid. They circle the words down the first column, in order. Words cannot be skipped. v Now each player writes one sentence, using as many of the circled words as they can. If two sentences are written, only the first sentence will be scored. All of the circled words do not need to be used, but players earn one point for each grid word in their sentence. The words from the word grid cannot be changed. (ie. quickly cannot be changed to quick.) Important: After writing the sentence, players underline the grid words they used. This makes it easier for the checker to check the grid words. v Once all sentences are written, players pass their sentence/scoring sheet to the right. These players score the sentence and write the score in the box on the right. To play with your whole class, simply roll the dice once. Every student in class will use that number to circle the words on their grid. Once all the sentences are written, students can exchange their sheet with a partner for the scoring. After your students understand how to play you can play a round anytime you need a time filler. Students can keep their word grid and sentence/score sheet in a folder or their binder so it’s always handy. This game also works very well in a literacy center. Click on this image to download The Sentence Game. Happy writing!
A few months ago, I created a MEGA Pack of Phonics Cards featuring sounds and skills mostly for beginning readers. I’ve had several requests for more difficult phonics sounds, so I have created 50+ More Phonics Cards. *This post contains affiliate links. Already a subscriber? Login HERE. Be sure to find the password at the ... Read More about 50 MORE Phonics Cards…FREE!
Hello Everyone!! Happy April and Happy Poetry Month!! Poetry is one of the parts of our writing curriculum that I look forward to so much! We read, discuss, analyze, and even memorize poetry every week...poems that help to bring our curriculum to life. Kids love poetry. The tongue twisting words, the alliteration, the onomatopoeia, the fun language, the rhyme, the rhythm, and so much more. Teaching a social studies or science concept using fun poetry is the best! The kids keep all their poems in a poetry folder. They can take their folders home to review the poems and earn extra incentives for memorizing them. But now it's time for the kids to learn about some of the types of poetry and write their own!!I have shared my poetry writing unit before, but I have ramped it up big time!! It is now about 73 pages of mini posters including many types of poetry, mentor poems, templates for kids to begin writing their own, some poetry anthology pages, and some creative ways for kids to publish their new creations! Here is a sampling of what is included in the unit! For the Free Printable Poetry Unit CLICK HERE!! :) We reserve about 4 weeks to include poetry in our writing curriculum. This unit should take you about that long to get through if you discuss all the different types of poetry and have kids try them. I can't wait to get started!! I hope this helps boost your unit! Let me know! Thanks for stopping by! Have a great rest of the week! Joyfully! Nancy
This post will give you more than 360 pages of 1st grade common core language arts worksheets with answer keys and posters to help your students learn!
Hello Everyone!! Happy New year to all of you! The end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016 have been very emotional for me. We started off our winter break visiting my son, Jordan in Indiana. He has made his way into the hearts of the people of southwest Indiana with his amazing storytelling and reporting for the local news station. And...He just bought his first house. We are so excited for him! We loved spending time with him over Christmas. --- On our drive back home, we kept getting texts, phone calls, and e-mails from friends about the 12 tornadoes that ravaged their way through the towns around our home in Texas. Oh my goodness---our emotions went from bliss to absolute heartbreak. So many of our friends lost everything, including a couple of teachers from our district. One of the elementary schools was hit and is now deemed unsafe. And sadly, 11 people lost their lives. The past few days have been filled with helping school and church groups gather needed supplies for those affected by this disaster. Texans do tend to jump in and help whenever needed!! The cleanup and rebuild will take years, but the support will be there. If you would like to help those in need during this time, here's a link to the red cross donation sight. Thank you in advance for sharing your blessings! http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/2015/12/28/how-to-help-tornado-victims/77965462/ These events really put things into perspective for me. What is important? Where should we put our passion? So many of us are blessed beyond measure. We take for granted who and what we have in our lives. Herein lies the resolution. Giving. The more you give, the more you receive. Throughout the coming year, I will continue to share things on this blog for anyone who can use them to help teachers, parents, and kids get excited about learning. Teaching is sharing. Teaching is giving. I will give the best I have. It may not always be perfect, it may not always fit everyone's bill, but, if what I share can help even one person, It is worthwhile!! So, having said all that, I am sharing a new unit. This one is all about Opinion Writing. You all know how much I love Lucy Calkins. This unit is based on her "Writing Reviews" book for first graders. When we get back from winter break, our firsties will be learning all about opinions and how to share them through writing. This unit is a precursor to one we will do on writing book reviews and other type of persuasive writing. It includes everything you need to print and go! Here are a few pics. The unit is about 32 pages. If you think you might be able to use any of this, simply click HERE for the printable download. As always, thanks for taking time out to stop by and read this little blog. I appreciate you! My New Year's wish for you is that you are surrounded by love and joy, and that you are blessed to be a blessing to others. If you are heading back to school next week, have a wonderful reunion with your littles. Give them the best you have!! Joyfully! Nancy
What we learn by looking at artwork — Do you ever get that question: Why do we have to learn about art or look at a bunch of art from old, outdate and dead artists? Well... there are benefits that are beyond the mastery of the art from our favorite and famous artists. Quick poster reference or handout gives modern benefits of what looking at artwork does for us. I use this every year at parent teacher conferences and have referenced for fellow faculty when the question arises. *********************************************************************** Hope Creek Studios specializes in Art Studio and History, Photography and Graphic Design lessons and creative aids. Click here to see MORE STUDIO ART worksheets, lessons, & creative aids in our TPT store! FOLLOW ME to get FREEBIES to your email from Hope Creek Art Studios *********************************************************************** Let's Connect www.HopeCreekAcres.com Pinterest Facebook Instagram ********************************************************************** © 2024 Hope Creek Art Studios/Hope Creek Acres ® ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
I have always struggled with spelling, and how to engage students in meaningful activities to practice their spelling words! I have tried just about everything under the sun, from rotating through teacher-selected word work centers, to a free choice spelling menu where students try to complete different activities throughout the week. Nothing seemed to work!
Making anchor charts has always been hard work for me. In fact, I never liked making anchor charts for the classroom. I did it because it helps the kids, but I am not a fan of my handwriting, my drawing is even worse, and let’s not even talk about the time it takes to make […]
First graders have lots of opinions and they love to share them! Learn simple tips and tricks for teaching opinion writing in first grade.
This is a reading anchor chart of who, what, where, when, why, and how in a question mark shape. There are 4 different color themes, one of which is just white with black writing so that you can make it match your room theme.
I wanted to stop by today and share some a few of my “go-to” activities during the first week of school to build our classroom community and set expectations for […]
Follow these five steps to teach a child to read. Helpful for parents, homeschoolers, and teachers that are teaching beginning readers.