Curated OER
Winter Syllables pg. 1
It's winter! Bring the winter theme into your classroom with a syllable activity. Scholars identify the winter picture, clap the number of syllables in the word, and then write in the matching number of syllables for the word. There are...
Curated OER
Irregular Word Fluency, Bam!
Build word fluency! With this word recognition lesson, first and second graders play a game to practice saying irregular words with automaticity. They play in small groups using a set of word cards provided by their teacher. This lesson...
Curated OER
Irregular Word Fluency, Word Hunt Tally
Play games with your young word learners. They participate in games to develop word skills, working with a partner on a word hunt. As they work, they keep a tally of how many times they find their word in three minutes. They use...
Curated OER
Irregular Word Accuracy, Word Relay Race!
Ready, set, go! Practice irregular words by playing a relay race game. Start by dividing your class into two teams of four or five kids. They line up in front of their team's bucket of words and pick out a word from the bucket and...
Curated OER
My Many Colored Days
Students explore feelings. In this mental health cross-curriculum instructional activity, students listen to My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss and discuss their own moods and feelings. Students sing related songs, write about...
Curated OER
Build Fluency /m/
Once kindergartners have learned the letter m they are ready for this sound correspondence activity. Start with a stack of letter cards including mostly m and a few other letters they haven't learned yet....
Curated OER
Good Sport
Playing a simple game of catch, and empathizing with someone who drops the bean bag, is the basis for a game on being a good sport. In it, learners engage in a class discussion about winning and losing. It's always easy to win, but not...
Curated OER
Storytime
By reading two books aloud, Ben and Becky in the Haunted House and The Ghost in the Classroom, youngsters learn new words and understand story events. They workin small groups to review the vocabulary in a game-like setting.
Curated OER
Describing Words
First graders practice using describing words. In this descriptive word lesson, 1st graders read the story The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs and match the pig descriptions to their names. They play a game where they describe an object...
Curated OER
Introduce Middle Sounds Segmenting (Mico Version)
Mico the puppet offers a phoneme challenge for emerging readers: can they find the object with the middle sound they hear? Use the fantastic set of full-color picture cards to play this game with small groups or even the whole class....
Curated OER
Sorting
Students examine the concepts of organization and classification. In this library skills lesson, students practice ordering and sorting skills by playing an interactive Internet game. Students then practice their classification skills in...
Curated OER
Introduce /r/
Use these inventive strategies to focus on the letter r, forming sound associations along with letter recognition. Explain the tongue movement in making the /r/ sound, asking learners to try it. Draw the r on the board and give...
Curated OER
Making Words
Young writers identify and generate words using the strategies of phonics on the Making Words computer program. Words are typed instead of having to use tiles or paper. Extension activities such as playing the memory game, drawing...
Curated OER
Learning About Prediction
The skill of prediction as a reading strategy is explored. Learners are shown how to use clues within a story, along with pictures, to make predictions as to what's going to happen in the story. A clever in-class game which uses objects...
Curated OER
Author's Purpose
A simple activity for young readers, this introduces the idea of author purpose. Learners analyze various types of texts (newspaper articles, magazines, books, advertisements, etc.) and determine if the author's purpose for writing was...
Curated OER
Compounding the Problem
Pupils sharpen their dictionary skills and their understanding of compound words in this plan. Tailor it to the grade level you teach by honing in on specific skills. For older learners, the plan suggests providing a word and having them...
Curated OER
Aches and Pains
Being able to distinguish between short and long vowel /a/ sounds is an important skill for young readers. They are introduced to the vowel-consonant-e pattern that changes short vowel sounds into long vowel sounds. They practice reading...
Curated OER
Are You a Super Sign Speler or Speller?
Why is spelling important? Develop your class' spelling skills. They examine examples of homonyms, heteronyms, and creative spelling. They also photograph misspellings in the real world in order to discover the importance of spelling...
Curated OER
Capitalization and Punctuation
First and second graders explore writing conventions. They add question marks or periods to the end of teacher generated sentences on sentence strips. They locate punctuation marks in poems and write original sentences using appropriate...
Curated OER
Would You Rather 2
The best way to get to know your class is to ask them questions about themselves. Use these silly questions to ask kids what they would rather do, eat, or see. There are 10 questions total, with three possible answers for each question....
Curated OER
Introduce Last Sound Segmenting (Mico Version)
What is Mico trying to say? Use a puppet to make this final-phoneme activity more engaging for kindergartners. Using three picture cards at a time (included), they listen to him say a final sound. To which of the three images is he...
Curated OER
Building Fluency
As your youngsters begin to recognize the letters of the alphabet and their correponsding sounds, there are some they will be more familiar with than others. Cement their letter associations using this quick strategy, shown here with the...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: High Frequency Words, Word Baseball
Scholars play high-frequency word baseball, pretending to be a pitcher and a batter. Players take turns choosing baseballs with high-frequency words printed on them. If they read the word correctly, they move to the next base until they...
Wisconsin Family Assistance Center for Education
Sight Word Lists and Activities
Scholars examine newspaper articles and highlight two sight words to discover which appears more frequently. They then glue sight words onto paper to make flashcards before composing, writing, and creating picture representations of...