Fun in First

A Teaching Blog by Jodi Southard

Jodi

Virtual Saint Patrick’s Day

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A year ago, who would have thought that Virtual Holiday celebrations would even be a thing?  However, I sure wish that I would have had this Virtual Saint Patrick’s Day last school year after we went to remote learning in March.

When I used my Virtual Christmas party, we were doing virtual learning, and it was PERFECT.  When I used my Virtual Valentine’s Day, we were in-person, and it was still PERFECT to use in the classroom.  These are definitely something that I will keep using in my classroom every year.

Are you going to be teaching virtually in March and wondering what to do on Saint Patrick's Day? Have a Virtual Saint Patrick's Day Celebration during a Google Meet or Zoom while distance learning. This could also work well during in-person instruction in the classroom if you want to add a little something different to your day. Students will participate in 8 different activities.

This Virtual Saint Patrick’s Day includes a PowerPoint version as well as a link to use in Google Slides and includes the following activities:

  • Jokes
  • Mystery Picture
  • This or That
  • Unscramble the Word
  • Find It – Scavenger Hunt
  • Brain Break Dance
  • What’s Your Leprechaun Name?
  • Lucky Says

We will be doing this as a whole group while in the classroom.  I will use my projector to display it to the class.  Then, we will go through each activity together.  If you are using this for virtual learning, you can share your screen during a Google Meet or Zoom.  The students will love it!

Click on the link below to check out this Virtual Party and watch the video preview.

Virtual Saint Patrick’s Day Party

Are you going to be teaching virtually in March and wondering what to do on Saint Patrick's Day? Have a Virtual Saint Patrick's Day Celebration during a Google Meet or Zoom while distance learning. This could also work well during in-person instruction in the classroom if you want to add a little something different to your day. Students will participate in 8 different activities.

Improve Reading Fluency with Text Phrasing

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Prosody is one of the three main components in reading fluency.  It relates to the expression used while reading.  Beginning readers typically read word by word and do not use expression when reading aloud.  A fluent reader will read in phrases instead of one word at a time.  One way to improve prosody in reading fluency is to work on text phrasing.

Text phrasing is the ability to group words together while you are reading.  This helps reading to sound more like a normal speech pattern.  It also helps increase reading speed, and ultimately, comprehension.

Improve reading fluency by teaching students how to read in text phrases. These strategies are easy to implement into your reading instruction.

How to Improve Fluency with Text Phrasing

  • Your students need to hear fluent reading as much as possible.  Every time you read aloud a book to your class, they are hearing appropriate phrasing with expression.  Along with read alouds, you will also want to model fluent reading with text that they have in front of them.  Have them follow along in stories or reading passages while you read them fluently with appropriate text phrasing and expression.  I also love using the website/app, Epic, because it has some great “Read to Me” books.
  • Demonstrate how to read with appropriate text phrasing by working together to physically mark where the phrases should be while reading.  A very common way to mark phrasing is with a / for a pause within a sentence, and // for a pause at the end of a sentence.  Nursery rhymes and poems are perfect for this.

Little Miss Muffet / sat on a tuffet / eating her curds and whey //

Along came a spider / and sat down / beside her / and frightened / Miss Muffet away //

Miss Muffet came back / to sit on her tuffet / when the spider was gone //

She ate all the food / and was in a good mood //

Then, / she started to yawn //

  • Use echo reading to practice reading fluency.  The teacher will read a sentence or a phrase from a sentence.  The student(s) will repeat it using the same expression and phrasing.  For example, read each phrase and have the students repeat after you.

My big brother

loves to read

books about animals.

Then, put the phrases together to read the whole sentence with appropriate phrasing.

My big brother loves to read books about animals.

  • Work on rereading to practice text phrasing.  These Fluency Sentences are great for individual or small group practice.  The students begin by reading each word.  Then, they reread using phrasing.  Finally, they read the entire sentence.  Click on the picture below to check these out.

Appropriate phrasing is such an important aspect of reading fluency. Readers need to be able to group words into phrases to make their reading sound more smoothly and like a their normal speech pattern. These fluency sentences are perfect for practicing text phrasing while reading.

Need more ideas for improving reading fluency, check out this blog post as well, Improve Accuracy While Reading.

Improve reading fluency by teaching students how to read in text phrases. These strategies are easy to implement into your reading instruction.

Virtual Valentine’s Day Party

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Can you believe that it’s almost time for Valentine’s Day?  As of right now, we are in-person and will be able to have our “kind of normal” Valentine’s Day party.  However, I know that many of you are still remote/virtual and you will not be able to have your typical Valentine’s Day party.  We had so much fun with our Virtual Christmas party that I wanted to create one for this special holiday as well.  Even though we will be in-person, I am still planning on using this with my class during our celebration.

Teaching virtually? Use this Virtual Valentine's Day Party to celebrate with your students over Google Meet or Zoom. This also still works well in a whole group during in-person learning.

This Virtual Valentine’s Day Party includes a PowerPoint version as well as a link to use in Google Slides and includes the following activities:

  • Jokes
  • Mystery Picture
  • This or That
  • Unscramble the Word
  • Find It – Scavenger Hunt
  • Brain Break Dance
  • What’s Your Valentine Name?
  • Cupid Says

We will be doing this as a whole group while in the classroom.  I will use my projector to display it to the class.  Then, we will go through each activity together.  If you are using this for virtual learning, you can share your screen during a Google Meet or Zoom.  The students will love it!

Click on the link below to check out this Virtual Party and watch the video preview.

Virtual Valentine’s Day Party

Teaching virtually? Use this Virtual Valentine's Day Party to celebrate with your students over Google Meet or Zoom. This also still works well in a whole group during in-person learning.

Improve Accuracy While Reading

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We all know that reading fluency is an important part of becoming a good reader, but there are many components to fluency.  One of those important pieces of reading fluency is accuracy.  Having good accuracy is the ability to read the text with very few or no mistakes.  Accuracy truly is the most essential skill of reading fluency.  If a child is “reading” a passage quickly, but they are skipping over or changing every other word, they are not getting the full meaning and will not be able to comprehend what they have read, which is the main purpose of reading.

One important piece of reading fluency is accuracy.  Having good accuracy is the ability to read the text with very few or no mistakes.  Accuracy truly is the most essential skill of reading fluency.  If a child is "reading" a passage quickly, but they are skipping over or changing every other word, they are not getting the full meaning and will not be able to comprehend what they have read, which is the main purpose of reading.

This post contains affiliate links.  Items purchased from these links do not cost you any extra money, but they do help to support this blog.

There are many factors that go into improving accuracy. 

First and foremost, students need to be able to decode and read words quickly.  Explicit phonics instruction is so important in improving accuracy when reading.  If students cannot quickly decode words, they will continue to struggle while reading.  Students also need to be able to quickly read undecodable sight words in order to improve their accuracy.

  • Develop letter-sound fluency.  Students must know letter sounds quickly.
  • After students are fluent with letter sounds, they need to know how to blend them together to read decodable words.
  • Students need to be able to quickly recognize and read sight words.

Strategies and Tips for Improving Accuracy 

  • Use letter sound timing sheets and word timing sheets to help students increase their fluency.  Grab these FREE Letter & Word Timing Sheets.
  • Practice sight word fluency.
  • Use fun pointers, finger highlighters, highlighter strips, etc. to help students stay focused on the word they are reading.
  • Encourage students to look for parts they know in a word.
  • Do not let students practice reading words incorrectly.  If you are focusing on accuracy, immediately stop a student when they mispronounce a word.  Say the word correctly.  Then, have the student repeat that word before continuing.
  • Teacher Tap Method – While listening to a student read, tap a pencil or your finger on the table when the student makes a mistake.  When they hear the tap, they will go back and reread to fix their error.  Praise the student for the correction.
  • Students need to listen to themselves read.  If they do not know that they are making mistakes, they will not be able to fix them.  Whisper Phones are great for letting students hear themselves read.  It’s also very helpful to record them reading and have them listen to it.

Here are some materials that I use in my classroom to help students with improving accuracy in their reading.

PHONICS READING MATS

Phonics Reading Mats are a great way to work on phonics and reading fluency. This packet includes 52 reading mats that are perfect for small group reading or a reading fluency folder.

SENTENCE TREES

Sentence Trees are an effective way for students to practice reading fluency. This bundle includes many phonics skills as well as sight word practice. These allow students to build confidence with their reading.

FLUENCY PHRASES

Building reading fluency allows students to make the shift from learning to read to reading to learn. Students need to be able to read accurately and quickly. These fluency phrases allow students to practice reading short phrases using the 220 Dolch sight words, as well as the Dolch Noun list.

As students become stronger at reading sight words and phonetically spelled words, they will not have to invest all of their thinking into decoding.  They will be able to transition into improving their reading comprehension.

One important piece of reading fluency is accuracy.  Having good accuracy is the ability to read the text with very few or no mistakes.  Accuracy truly is the most essential skill of reading fluency.  If a child is "reading" a passage quickly, but they are skipping over or changing every other word, they are not getting the full meaning and will not be able to comprehend what they have read, which is the main purpose of reading.

Digital Christmas Around the World

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Teaching about other customs and traditions around the world is always fun to do at Christmas time.  My students always enjoy learning how other countries celebrate Christmas and comparing and contrasting their own traditions with others around the world.  Since we are virtual learning through the month of December, I wanted to be able to put our learning into a digital format that we could use during our Google Meet times.
Whether you are in-person or virtual learning right now, your students can still enjoy learning about Christmas Around the World with this digital packet that is perfect for Google Meet or Zoom.

This would also be perfect for in-class learning, and I definitely plan on using it next year when *hopefully* things are back to “normal.”

My students will be introduced to Luca who will take them around the world to 9 different countries as they learn a little bit about the customs and traditions in that country.  They will visit Canada, Mexico, Australia, Germany, United States, Italy, Russia, France, and England.  The entire presentation is saved in PowerPoint, but can easily be imported into Google Slides.

I also included printables where students can record their learning if they are in-person.

Click on the picture below to read more about this Digital Christmas Around the World packet.

Whether you are in-person or virtual, your students can still learn all about Christmas Around the World with this packet that is perfect to use with Zoom or Google Meet.

Making the Connection Between Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

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Teaching beginning readers is such a challenging job, but it is so rewarding to watch things start to click for our little readers.  Our students need to be able to make the connection between phonemic awareness and phonics.  Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in a word, whereas phonics is the relationship between the sounds and letters.  With our young readers, we have to make sure to build a strong foundation with these beginning reading skills.

I wanted to share an easy and engaging activity for you to try with your students to help build that connection between phonemic awareness and phonics.

This post may contain some affiliate links.  Items purchased from these links do not cost you any extra money, but they do help to support this blog.

Help your students make the connection between phonemic awareness and phonics.

You will need:

Phonemic Awareness to Phonics Lesson

Place 4 colored circles on the floor next to each child.  (I used red, orange, yellow, and green.)  Give each child a dry erase board, a marker and eraser, and the 4 colored manipulatives.  (I used red, orange, yellow, and green mini-erasers.)

Project the slide show (free download at the end of this post) and have students stretch through the sound for the picture.  Then, they will stand up and jump onto a circle for each sound.

After they jump the sounds for each word, they will place an eraser, or other manipulative, on their dry erase board.  Then, they will write the corresponding letter for each sound.  It truly is an effective way for your students to make those connections between the sounds they hear and the letters to write.

Help your students make the connection between phonemic awareness and phonics.

If you’d like to download the FREE slideshow with the pictures that I used for the lesson, click on the picture below.  For more phonemic awareness activities, you may want to check out my Phonemic Awareness at your Fingertips packet.

Help your students make connections between phonemic awareness and phonics with this free slideshow.

Could you see this working in your classroom?