Ahhh… January in the primary classroom. Between the cabin fever, the post-holiday wiggles, and the wandering attention spans, it’s rough out there! But what if we stopped fighting these hurdles and actually worked with them instead? Wait, what?! Yes, teacher-friend! Let’s talk about how my Winter Color by Code and
Have you ever watched your students enthusiastically hop, skip, or wiggle their way through the room only to then immediately melt into “I’m too tired…” when asked to complete a worksheet? Yep, been there! As primary teachers, we already know that early readers need both movement AND paper-pencil practice to
If you’ve ever listened to a kindergartener blend sounds together and felt both proud and a little confused about what comes next, you’re not alone. Once students can hear, isolate, and blend sounds, the next big step in phonemic awareness is learning how to manipulate them, and that’s where phoneme
If you’ve ever wished for an easy way to combine phonics practice with an activity your students actually love doing, phonics word searches might just be your new favorite tool. Phonics word searches give students a fun way to connect spelling, reading, and word recognition, all while feeling like they’re
Blending is one of the most important early literacy skills students learn in kindergarten. Without it, they can’t smoothly move from recognizing individual sounds to reading whole words. For some kids, blending clicks quickly, but for others, it takes repeated practice and a variety of approaches before it finally sticks.
If you’ve ever wondered when the right time is to dive into letter sounds with your students, you’re not alone. As primary teachers, we know that teaching the alphabet isn’t just about singing the ABCs or identifying letters on flashcards. Before we move into phonics instruction, we need to make
Teaching digraphs in the kindergarten classroom doesn’t have to be tricky — in fact, it can be downright fun! With the right mix of engaging digraph activities and thoughtfully designed digraph worksheets, you can help your young learners build strong reading foundations while keeping things playful and purposeful. In this
Learning to read is not just a one-and-done type of activity. There are many skills students must learn and put together to become fluent readers. Many of these skills fall under the umbrella of phonemic awareness. And, for many kids, one of the most difficult…is phoneme manipulation. Over the years,
As a primary teacher, one of the biggest milestones we help students reach is learning to read. It’s one of the things I love the most about being a kindergarten teacher. Our sweet kids arrive to us with minimal knowledge of the alphabet, but in a few short months, they
As a kindergarten teacher, one of the things I am constantly looking for is new ways to build independence in the classroom. When my students come to me, it’s often their first time at school. We have so much to learn to build their confidence and promote more independent action.