When I was in elementary school, teachers handed out a list of 15-20 spelling words on Monday and gave spelling tests on Friday. Although my father patiently quizzed me on my words each evening after dinner, I never felt particularly confident on test day. I attended elementary school back in the 80’s. Our desks were…
Imagine… Imagine a math class where 2nd grade students solve only 1 or 2 problems a day. This class has no worksheets, textbooks, required homework, or teacher’s guide, yet by the end of the first semester, most 2nd grade students are able solve addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and simple algebraic word problems. The students always…
1. Homemade Stories Start small with personal stories about topics important to your child. Homemade stories connect reading and writing to your child’s lived experiences and personal interests. 2. Pyramid Reading 3. Watch and Read Little Fox is one of many great resources on YouTube that provides fun animated stories that appeal to kids in…
Students often have to write a summary of something they’ve read, listened to, or watched. A summary is a brief description of the main events of the story. It is not a detailed retelling of the story. The good news is that stories tend to follow a predictable trajectory: SWBSTI: A recipe for writing a…
The letter E is arguably the most important letter in the English language. It is the most commonly used vowel in spelling, and it preforms several different jobs. 1. Magic E Magic E makes a vowel say it’s name. The addition of an ‘e’ changes the sound of the vowel, and it changes the meaning…
There are four main types of sentences that we use in the English language, but before we jump into the different sentence types, let’s review independent and dependent clauses. Independent Clause Dependent Clause Sentence Type #1: Simple Sentences Sentence Type #2: Compound Sentences Sentence Type #3: Complex Sentences Sentence Type #4: Compound-Complex Sentences
What is Bossy R? A Bossy R is an R that comes after a vowel in a word. The addition of the R changes the sound the vowel makes. Bossy R Song: There are a lot of Bossy R songs on YouTube. This one happens to be my favorite. AR AR is the pirate sound.…
The “schwa” sound sounds like a short vowel u. It is often referred to as the lazy sound (uhhh…). Read the following words: Now read these words: And these: Uhhh…. what’s going on here? Welcome to the “schwa” sound. The schwa sound sounds a lot like short vowel u, but it can make a short…
What is best guess spelling? Best guess spelling simply means that the child does his/her best to write down all the sounds he/she hears in a word. Best guess spelling, invented spelling, and approximate spelling all mean the same thing. I often tell my students that reading is looking at each letter in a word…
Spelling Tool #1: Letter names and sounds: Reading is the ability to go letter by letter in a word and say the sounds for those letters. Writing is the ability to go sound by sound in a word and write the letters down that make those sounds. Recognizing letters and knowing their sounds is essential…