Category: Elementary Education

Teaching Young Readers Decoding Skills

If your students are beginning to read words with more than one syllable, you need to introduce syllable division rules. Understanding how to divide a word into syllables gives the reader clues about the vowel sounds in the word and unlocks secrets to pronunciation. Having an attack strategy when encountering

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Reading Multi-syllable Words is easier after learning syllable types and syllable division.

Decoding Multi-syllable Words with Syllable Types

Strong readers need to be proficient at decoding multi-syllable words and a powerful way to learn this is by teaching syllable types and syllable division. This can be done by looking at the word and finding where the natural breaks are. For example, the word “table” can be divided into

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Improve Writing Skills with Graphic Organizers

Are your students struggling to improve writing skills? Do your students need help organizing their thoughts when writing a research report? Here’s my secret- use graphic organizers to teach 1st- 3rd grade writing skills! Graphic organizers are great tools for helping students plan and organize their thoughts before they begin

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Plan back to school activities and get to know your students

7 Growth Mindset Activities for Elementary Students

Positive Thinking and Growth Mindset activities are popular topics in education, and for good reason! Having a positive attitude and a growth mindset allows students to believe they can improve their skills and abilities through hard work and practice. A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence and abilities can

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Teaching syllable types improves reading skills

Should I be teaching Syllable Types?

Syllable Types. What are they? How do I teach them? The most important thing is to know why teaching syllable types matters. In other words, why should I spend time teaching this skill? Here’s your answer: a child will remember word patterns and his decoding skills will improve once he

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Make Digital Learning a Success

So, you are already be using Google Classroom for digital learning, but what about a digital app called Boom Cards? Digital lessons are fun to teach and make your life easier!  Boom Cards are digital task cards in an educational game format. Along with being no prep for teachers and self-checking,

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Understanding syllable types and syllable division creates strong readers.

Syllable Types: Why You Should Care

First of all, it is important to know why teaching syllable types matters. Most teachers are never taught anything about syllable types or syllable division, and only learn the basic, “Clap out a sounds”, in order to determine the number of syllables. Then, well…um… that’s it! Sound familiar? If this

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Teach sight words to improve reading skills

Hot Tips for Teaching Sight Words

You know those pesky words that don’t follow conventional spelling rules…often referred to as sight words? Well, teaching sight words is very helpful for beginning and striving readers. Students mastering sight words with automaticity drastically cut down on brain power needed to accurately read a passage. This means a student

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Use this Syllable Types chart with syllable activities to improve reading skills.

Syllable Activities and Syllable Types Improve Reading

While teaching 2nd grade and 3rd grade readers decoding skills, I found syllable activities and teaching syllable types really helped improve reading! The jump from “learning to read” to “reading to learn” can be tricky for many students but my Orton-Gillingham training has taught me the value of teaching syllable

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Goal Setting Makes Teaching Easy

When is the perfect time for kids to reflect on accomplishments and goals for the future? After celebrating the New Year or when heading Back to School. WHY, you may be asking, is it important for students to set goals? Well, goal-setting with kids improves motivation and self-management, teaches dedication

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8 Reasons to Use Boom Cards with Students

If you use task cards in your classroom, you will LOVE digital task cards, specifically, Boom Cards!  Digital, self-checking task cards are my favorite way to differentiate learning and engage learners. These are the top 8 reasons I’m a fan of Boom Cards (no particular order): 1) DIGITAL  No printing, laminating,

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How to turn Reading Struggles into Reading Success

This 4 page Reading Strategies: Context Clues Guide will save you time and stress.