Is Rhyming Important? Years ago rhyming was a main pre-k and kindergarten standard that was explicitly taught. Many teachers used nursery rhymes to help teach rhyming, as well as other skills. But I noticed a shift several years ago when Common Core was implemented. Teachers began to say that rhyming wasn’t as important and ‘people’ were suggesting that time needed… Read More
Have you been following along with my blog series, #31daysofkindergarten? Well if you have been following, I’m sure you have noticed that there is a strong theme of distance and hybrid learning in many of the posts. That’s because this school year is going to be different. One like we have never seen before. Some school districts are doing hybrid… Read More
Happy Back To School! We all know the first ‘word’ that we are going to teach our students to read and write is their name. It is so important and so personal. These Editable Name Plates will make this so much easier for you to teach all of your students at one time! Editable Name Plates Just imagine this..you create… Read More
Using Jenga in the Classroom A few years ago, I saw another teacher use colored Jenga blocks in a whole-group activity. The students were doing a math activity and each color represented a step in the process. This class was an higher grade level, so it got me to thinking about how I could adapt this for my kindergarten class!… Read More
Everybody has a name and each name is special to that person. And we know that little learners know their name and can generally identify their name before any other written word. As educators of little learners, we know how important it is to focus on name identification and name writing over those first few weeks. I love all different… Read More
Welcome to another #31daysofkindergarten post! Everybody has a name. Some names are short, some are long, but everyone has a name. One of the first things a child responds to is their name. And one of the first things a child learns to write is their name. Yes they color, scribble and even draw. But learning to identify their name… Read More
Rhyming is an essential skill for students to learn but it can still be super purposeful and fun to teach! There are great songs, books and of course activities and games that can help you teach the idea of rhyming to your students! What is Rhyming? Rhyming is defined as “(a word/syllable/ or line) having or ending with an identical… Read More
A few years ago (pre-pandemic) I created these simple playdough name mats as a back to school gift. Let me preface this post by saying that, Back to School gifts are not a requirement or necessary. I’m a firm believer in doing what YOU want as a teacher. If you want to give a little gift, do it. If you… Read More
Welcome back to the last and final post of our Science of Reading Summer Book Study, Shifting the Balance with Mr.Greg (from Kindergarten Smorgasboard) and me, Abbie! This week is Shift 6 and is Reconsidering Texts from Beginning Readers. And just in case you have missed out on the previous shifts, here they are. Shift 1: Rethinking How Reading Comprehension Begins Shift 2: Recommitting to… Read More
What can you do with Alphabet Cards? A few months ago, I couldn’t go anywhere without seeing a kid with a fidget popper and the rainbow ones from Target seemed extremely popular! I knew that the little learners that I was working with would love to use these as well, so I ordered these ones from Amazon. I decided to… Read More