Thinking Next School Year Already...Are You?

5 items you should not live without this next school year...just sayin'.
Pom~Poms
How adorable is my room going to look with these hanging above each center area.  Love~Love~Love...I hope I love them as much when I try to make them myself!

A Year Long Planning Guide
Arianne from Ketchen's Kindergarten is sharing her year long planning guide with you.  Stop by her blog {click right here} to check it out.  I have added it to my list of things to do this summer!

Blasting Off with Reader's Workshop
Kim Adsit and her super smart friend Michelle have come up with a great resource for the launch off of your reader's workshop.  {click right here} to go to her blog.  Here is a picture of the anchor chart they used.  Plus...It even has a cute craft activity to celebrate the end of the unit! 

Phonemic Awareness Activities
LuAnn and I have created 10 different Phonological Awareness Activities to use in your classroom.  We feel that it is important for students to have a great phonological awareness understaning to be successful in reading.  {click here} to go to our Teachers Notebook to learn more about them. 

Cute Fonts
Yes....I have to have fonts that have "cuteness" written all over them when I am creating stuff.  Check out the blog Hello Literacy {click here} and find the cutest fonts to use in your classroom.  Plus...her title says it all!  If you have not been to her blog, she has fantastic ideas for literacy in  your classroom.

Summer Rocks,
Amber

10 New Phonemic Awareness Activities @ Teachers Notebook!

Good phonological awareness skills make learning to read, write, and spell a lot easier.  Stop by our Teachers Notebook store to grab your activities now. You WILL NOT be disappointed!  We have been wanting to make these activities all school year, and we finally found some friend~time to get it done this past weekend.

The more ways we teach students, the more ways we reach students...right!?!  These 5 to 15 minute activities can be used in your daily schedule or in a spur-of-the-moment time frame.  Each activity provides many examples to choose from, so there's not need to think of words off the top-of-your-head. 

Please click {right here} to go to our Teachers Notebook shop to view our acitivites.  When we hit 1000 followers we will be having a GiVeAwAy with all of our phonemic awareness activities in one BIG bundle...spread the word!

Have fun with these phonemic awareness activities to help your kindergarteners or beginning first-grade students begin to develop a lifelong enjoyment of language and reading, so they will become a successful reader!

Thanks for stopping by. We truly appreciate you and your support!
Amber & LuAnn

Sizziling Summer Tip # 8

One of the most important tools for teaching math for kindergarten is math manipulatives.  Manipulatives provide a hands-on learning that allow young children to be able to understand the math concepts being taught and make learning those concepts fun.

I have a variety of math manipulatives in my classroom from bears, farm animals, foam shapes, buttons, mini car toys, pom~poms, links, unifix cubes, etc. 

You can teach many concepts with a handful of manipulatives. 

First ~ count how many
Second ~ sort the manipulatives by color 
Third ~ say the color names
Fourth ~ which color has the most, the least, and the same amount
Fifth ~ add or subtract the two colors together

Other ideas to teach with manipulatives: shapes, time, weight, temperature, fractions, etc. 

Using math manipulatives can be fun and easy.  I believe it is a great VISUAL tool to use with your students!  WHAT MATH MANTIPULATIVES DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR CLASSROOM? 

Summer Rocks,

Amber

Sizzling Summer Tip # 7

Writing With Kinders!

Modeled Writing ~ Writing to Children
Our students need to see us write daily. In modeled writing, the teacher models the writing process, talking out loud as he/she writes. For example, Daily News

Shared Writing ~ Writing with Children
The teacher guides the children through the writing process. The children help contribute ideas on what to write but the teacher is still in control of the pen. For example, letters, lists, messages, stories.

Interactive Writing ~ Writing with Children
The teacher and children decide on a topic together and "share a pen". You must know your students and their abilities. Invite children to come up and help write letters and sight words they know.
For example, write about a shared activity....walk to the post office together.

Independent Writing ~ Writing by Children
This is the time when children write in their journals. The children write in their journals daily.

I hope when you read this you were thinking...I know that...I know that....I know that....I know that.  See how SMART you are.  If anything...I bet it was a nice refresher for you!

Summer Rocks,
Amber

Sizzling Summer Tip # 6

KinderGals Rock....enough said! 



Click {right here now} if you have not been to her blog.  It is AmAzInG!  I hope after 25 years in teaching (and hopefully still teaching K) I am as FaBuLOuS of a teacher as Kim Adsit.  Her daughter is very fortunate to have such a wonderful mentor~mother! 

Summer Rocks, 
Amber 

Sizzling Summer Tip # 5

Gift Ideas For Parents

Besieged by their children's requests for trendy gifts, parents might appreciate suggestions for gifts that would be suitable to each child's skills and interests.  With a little research, you can compile a list of and then choose five or six ideas for each student. 

The possiblities for gift ideas might include some of the following:
Fine Motor Coordination: mazes, jigsaw puzzles, children's carpentry tools, art materials, craft kits, building sets.

Language Arts: books or story record (suggest titles or themes for particular children), word-building games, magazine subscription, diary or blank book for journal writing, children's cookbook.

Math and Science: inexpensive calculator, compass, protractor, calendar, indoor.outdoor thermometer, planting kit. 

Send the gift ideas home with each student (in a plain sealed envelope to discourage curious eyes) or mail them.  Be srue to enclose a brief cover letter assuring parents that the ideas are meant to be helpful suggestions, not mandatory purchases. 
Resource: Learning Magazine's Superbook of Teacher Tips

Summer Rocks,
Amber

Sizzling Summer Tip # 4

Ways To Write Letters and Words Without Using Paper and Pencil

• Shaving cream on the table or cookie sheet
• Fingerpaint
• Paint with water on the blacktop
• Rainbow write with markers
• Use masking tape on the floor
• Use magna doodle
• Sponge letters
• Math links
• Whiteboards
• Play-doh
• typpe on a typewriter or computer
• Use a labeler
• Yarn letters
• Alphabet stamps
• Stencils
• Use glitter pens
• Use bingo markers
• Cut out letters from magazines
• Use sticker letters
• Salt boxes
• Black paper and gel pens
• Wikki sticks

                                    Picture from brooklyn street art!

Fun finger~paint recipes (click here) to go to Tip Nut.

I would love for you to comment with some more ideas!  Thank you!!!

Summer Rocks,
Amber

Sizzling Summer Tip # 3

Writing is contagious!

Kindergartners can and will write. The most important ingredient in the recipe for writing in kindergarten, especially if the children do not have any previous experience with writing, is the attitude of the teacher. If the teacher pretends that the children will write, they begin to expect that they will. Use language that indicates that you believe the children are already writing, that what they are doing is writing. “Let me see what you wrote.” Yes...a capital at the beginning of your sentence...nice job" “Wow! You wrote that?” "You did a great job using spaces between your words" “What are you thinking of writing about today?” etc.

Resource found at Writing Fix Website.

Summer Rocks,
Amber

Sizzling Summer Tip # 2

PHONEMIC AWARENESS CAN BE TAUGHT AND LEARNED!


Effective phonemic awareness instruction teaches children to notice, think about, and work with sounds.  You may use many activities to build phonemic awareness.  Here is an example of each:


Phoneme Isolation:
Children recognize individual sounds in a word.
Teacher ~ What is the first sound in "wig"?
Student ~ The first sound in wig is /w/.


Phoneme Identity:
Children recognize the same sounds in different words.
Teacher ~ What sound is the same in "dog, dip, and den"?
Student ~ The first sound, /d/, is the same.

Phoneme Categorization:
Children recognize the word in a set of three or four words that has the "odd" sound.
Teacher ~ Which word doesn't belong: "hen, hat, rug".
Student ~ Rug does not belong.  It doesn't begin with /h/.


Phoneme Blending:
Children listen to a sequence of separately spoken phonemes, and then combine the phonemes to form a word.  Then they write and read the word.
Teacher ~ What word is /b/ /e/ /d/?
Student ~ /b/ /e/ /d/ is bed.
Teacher ~ Now let's write the sounds bed: /b/, write b; /e/, write e; /d/, write d.
Teacher ~ Writes the word on the board.  Now we're going to read the word bed.

Phoneme Segmentation:
Children break a word into its separate sounds, saying each sound as the tap out or count it.
Then they write and read the word.
Teacher ~ How many sounds are in "frog"?
Student ~ /f/ /r/ /o/ /g/.  Four sounds.


Phoneme Deletion
Children recognize the word that remains when a phoneme is removed from another word.
Teacher ~ What is "smile" without the /s/?
Student ~ Smile without the /s/ is mile.


Phoneme Addition
Children make a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing word.
Teacher ~ What word do you have if you add /s/ to the beginning of "park"?
Student ~ Spark.

Phoneme Substitution
Children substitue one phoneme for another to make a new word.
Teacher ~ The word is "bug". Change /g/ to /n/.  What's the new word?
Student ~ Bun.

Resource ~ Put Reading First...The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read

Have five or ten minutes to spare in your classroom....grab one of these activities to help your kiddos become better readers! 

Summer Rocks,
Amber

Sizzling Summer Tips

Summer brings us warm thoughts and there are so many sentiments that capture sunny days, outdoor fun, and nature's luxury.  I have a long summer TO DO SCHOOL LIST…believe it or not…and I would like to share some tips this summer with all my blogging friends.  Hopefully, my "Sizzling Summer Tips" will give you a boost of confidence to help you to remember to BELIEVE in yourself! 

Sizzling Summer Tip Number #1:
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds~phonemes~in spoken words.  It is important because it improves children's word reading and reading comprehension. 

 Picture from...make~take~teach blog .

Summer Rocks,

Amber