Reading Below is what has worked for us for teaching letters, letter sounds, phonics, high frequency words, beginning reading, and emerging writing. It is important to note, I feel the most crucial component of literacy development is also the easiest to do: reading to our kids. I remind myself never to underestimate the power of this simple act.
Nothing I recommend is an ad or sponsored. These are items I have purchased myself, or my kids were gifted by loved ones. I have put a *star* next to the items and activities that I found to be most useful.
LETTER RECOGNITION and SOUNDS
Go Fish Animal Alphabet* Game (playing this game was great for helping my kids recognize the capital and lower case letters, I also had them count their matches for math practice)
Magnetic letters (capital and lower case)
Leapfrog Letter Factory* DVD/Amazon Prime/Netflix. Even though I prefer to use hands-on activities, I give this video a lot of credit for helping my kids master letter sounds.
PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS, PHONICS, and blending (very thankful for input from my teacher friends on this topic)
Reading rhyming books
Rhyming songs and nursery rhymes
Building phonological awareness (more on that here)
Identifying the beginning sounds of words (orally then with magnetic letters and games), next ending sounds, and finally middle sounds of CVC words
Introducing short vowel word family words (starting with short a: at, an, ap)
Orally blending CVC words, then written words with games (h-a-t, h-o-t, h-i-t, h-u-t, h-e-n)*
Leap Frog Talking Words Factory DVD/Amazon Prime/Netflix*
CVC building games (both homemade DIY and purchased). The tip we use is telling kids to de-code it first slow like a snail, then fast like a cheetah (avoiding long breaks in between each sound)
You may be aware of a phonics vs. sight words debate in education. I feel both are needed but phonics and de-coding skills are key. In my opinion (backed by the science of reading) it is very important for phonics to come first. The over emphasis on memorizing sight words can lead to struggling leaders down the line. Research-based reading instruction puts the emphasis on phonics. Irregular high-frequency words are also taught, but sparingly.
I started with introducting one sight word a week through hands on games and always within context.
We talk about how we think the word should be spelled, and then note any differences, the IG accountDroppingKnowledge with Heidi* has great tips for orthographic mapping
I try to group like words, (he, she, be, we, me for example)
We sing a little song inspired by our library story time visits "Bread and butter, marmalade and jam, let's say 'have' (or whatever the sight word is) as loudly as we can!" Then as softly, as high, as low, as slow, and finally as fast. Find the song here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=w7mz4nRfVMI
We create sentences with the word.
Highlighter strips are great for hunting for sight words within stories
Posting sight words in the kitchen (keeping in context of a sentence that makes sense rather than alphabetical order)
Playing sight word games
Emphasis on phonics skills to help de-code high frequency words rather than focusing on memorization
RESOURCES FOR EMERGING READERS
We then moved into Bob Books*. Set 1 Beginning Readers, First Stories, and Sight Words Kindergarten, Advancing Beginners. These are very helpful for practicing de-coding skills.
After that we used the Learning Dynamics Books* (This system is sometimes advertised as "4 Weeks To Read", I did not use it to teach reading, but the little books have some good features that the Bob Books do not, such as full color illustrations. They also build reading stamina by increasing the book length before adding a new skill. Lastly they include comprehension questions at the end of each story)
I like having a large variety of decodeable books at the same relative level so my kids are not just memorizing stories
A little sticker chart might be helpful. I would love reading to be its own reward. Some kids are happy to read Bob Books or phonics readers every day. They are excited, proud, and don’t need an incentive. Others may need a little sticker chart to build some momentum. After 20 books they can get a new picture book that you read to them, a treasure box trinket toy, popsicle, bookmark, etc. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1483842622/ref=ppx_yo_mob_b_track_package_o0_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1&th=1
Continuing Sight word and CVC word games
Word family games and sorting CVC words by vowel sounds
Adding consonant blends and digraphs
A phonics based poem of the week is great to build fluency. I have Scholastic Phonics and Sight Word flip charts with CD, but there are many phonics based fluency passages and poems available on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Here is a link to my video reviewof Bob Books vs Learning Dynamics, and other beginning readers
INDEPENDENT READING
Once my kids had early 1st grade phonics and decoding skills, we started getting library books and books sets on Amazon to match their interests. I think it is important to note here that we started with the Bob Books, LD, and All About Reading stories that are not super interesting, but help build de-coding skills. After that was established, I began looking for more interesting stories. Finding Star Wars, Lego, and Non-fiction books that are accessible for beginning readers was extremely helpful.
1st grade books we like (I use that term 1st grade, lightly because there is such a range in reading skills for beginning readers, and I think it’s important not to get caught up in comparison):
I found the above books to be a lot better than many of the "Step Into Reading", "World of Reading", and "I Can Read" level one books that are very heavy on sight words.
Phonics poems were one of my favorite parts of reading instruction as a 2nd grade teacher.
I used a phonics based poem of the week to build phonics skills, fluency, introduce new vocabulary, and sight words. Sadly, I lost those CD's in my move as well as all of the activities I created on my school computer. The CD's called Fun To Chant Phonics Rhymes by Lakeshore Learning and Word Family Chants are no longer sold, but I am hoping these Scholastic Flip charts will have a similar impact.
With my 2nd graders we read one poem every day for a week. It went a bit like this: Day 1- We listen, I read it, they repeat and act out. We identified any words they did not know the meaning of. Day 2- I read it, they repeat, act out, and help me identify either the sight word or phonics word family we were focusing on. Day 3- They read it and created their own words with that word family, or own sentences with the sight word. Day 4- They read it to their table partner. We all read it together. Day 5- Assessment.
Not written by my kids, this is the image from Amazon of the newsprint handwriting paper I purchased.
WRITING Pre-writing
Hand strengthening fine motor activities such as using tongs, tweezers, lacing, beading pipe cleaners, cutting, gluing, manipulating play dough, using hole punchers
My kids also ride bikes that have hand brakes and I feel this is helpful for hand strength along with climbing play structures
Practicing making different types of lines such as wavy, zig zag, straight
Using a variety of writing materials and surfaces (magnadoodle, chalkboard, sidewalk chalk, dry erase board)
Letter formation through: Getting it Write package on Teachers Pay Teachers by Maria Gavin $5
We use mentor texts to see how author's have different styles
I usually give them the option to write a fiction or non-fiction story about our topic, (1-3 sentences at this time) We focus on planning before writing and using brave spelling to stretch out words
We work on penmanship, letter formation, capitalization, punctuation, and word spacing separately in a focused manner. When they write independently I try to balance reminding them of these guidelines gently but trying not to hinder the writing flow
Writing prompts and modeling with lined paper that has space for drawing (For example, we read Have You Filled A Bucket Today? I asked the kids if they can draw a way that they would be bucket fillers and write a word that stood out to them from the story. They chose the word 'kind' and drew themselves helping a friend who fell down)
Portfolio binder with page protectors to keep student work samples. I date their 'writing' so we can see the progression (hopefully!) over the course of the year
Nothing I recommend is an ad or sponsored. These are items I have purchased myself, or my kids were gifted by loved ones. I have put a *star* next to the items and activities that I found to be most useful.