Teacher's Pay Teachers Archives - Page 30 of 61

Must-Have Bundles For Elementary Teachers

February 12, 2021 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers

The internet has changed the art of teaching in many ways- but perhaps one of the biggest ways is the ability to get new teaching materials with the click of a mouse. Gone are the days of searching print magazines or only sharing ideas with teachers in your building.

Now, you can find and share materials with the entire world! One of the most convenient ways to get lessons and activities for your class is to utilize bundles. Bundles often have enough materials to last the entire school year and are the best “bang for your buck” when it comes to purchases.

When I was in the classroom, these were my MUST-HAVE BUNDLES for teaching!

First up is my Reading Fluency Practice Activities Bundle for the entire year.

We know how important reading fluency is for our students. This set is perfect for kindergarten and first-grade classes and provides everything you need to help your students become fluent readers. There is a suggested lesson plan for every day of the year. Your lesson planning for fluency is DONE!

Mini books, reader’s theater scripts, and sentence building worksheets provide valuable practice for your students. Fluency tests are also included, allowing you to easily assess your students’ growing skills.

Another favorite bundle is the Kindergarten Math Centers Yearlong Bundle.

Centers are an excellent way to develop young students’ math skills. Students enjoy working in centers with their classmates and can develop their math understanding in an appropriate and engaging way. This bundle provides everything you need for an entire YEAR of fun math centers.

The centers have a “Math Cafe” theme that students love. Once you use direct instruction to explain how to use the task cards, your students will be able to independently complete centers. While you work one-on-one or with small groups, students can work in small groups to complete centers. For one low price, your independent math practice time is ready to go for the year!

$kindergarten Math Centers$

Wow! You can even try them for FREE!

$Free Kindergarten Math Centers$

Having daily writing prompts at my fingertips was a great way to get students who might have trouble being creative on their own to write using a prompt to get their creative juices flowing! I make monthly themed journals and students worked at their own pace. There are self-checking rubrics at the bottom of each page, word banks, covers, and a teacher rubric at the end to help students get feedback. These were used during my staff meetings to show how I monitor student progress.

Looking for Kindergarten Morning Work bundled? Check out my post here!

If you loved these bundles, there is more where that came from! You can check out a list of all of my year-long bundles here.

I hope these ideas have inspired you to take advantage of bundles in your classroom. By streamlining your planning and preparation, you can spend more time helping your students grow and learn!

Reading Strategies With Phonemic Awareness

January 22, 2021 teachersbrain education, Reading, Teacher's Pay Teachers

Phonics and phonemic awareness are two of the most important parts of reading instruction. They are necessary as children learn how to make sense of letters, sounds, and words. But what exactly is the difference between the two?

Phonics is the relationship between letters and sounds. Phonemic awareness is the ability to HEAR, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in a word.

I like to remember the difference by saying that phonemic awareness can be done in the dark. It uses the ears rather than the eyes AND ears like phonics.

Phonemic awareness is critical in the early grades. It can powerfully affect reading and spelling development in students. The more opportunities students have to work with sounds in the classroom, the more confident they will become. Getting phonemic awareness practice in your schedule daily may seem daunting, but making it a routine can help!

The options for phonemic awareness activities are varied and easy to do with your students.

Blending boards are a simple, effective tool for helping students recognize sounds in words. You can also use flashcards to practice sound identification, and focus on different parts of words. Playing games with students is of course one of the best ways to get students engaged in learning about phonemes.

An easy way to have all the tools for effective daily practice is with the Phonemic Awareness Activities Systematic Curriculum.

The year-long bundle includes everything you need to help your students confidently identify and manipulate sounds. Blending boards, worksheets, and even videos are included.

The oral task cards are perhaps the best part of the curriculum, as they include practice with all the following skills:

Sound deletion
Sound addition
Blending
Substitution
Segmenting
Beginning, middle, and ending sound games
Syllables
Rhyming
Onset-rime
Nonsense Words
CVC Words

Using these task cards daily will greatly enrich your students’ understanding of sounds in words. There is also an assessment included so you can address their individual needs and see their growth.

Dive into the activities today and daily practice will no longer seem impossible!

Writing Prompts For Early Elementary Students

January 15, 2021 teachersbrain kindergarten survival, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Writing

Do your early elementary students need help getting their creative writing juices flowing? Writing prompts can help!

When faced with a blank page, many kids can feel overwhelmed by writing assignments. They’re not sure where to start, and some students can even shut down when faced with writing activities. Other students might be comfortable with writing, but just don’t get excited about “boring” writing assignments in the classroom.

writing prompts

Writing prompt journals are the answer for these challenges!

Journals filled with writing prompts give a clear assignment each and every day. Your students will know exactly what to write rather than spending time deciding about a topic.

With daily assignments students will approach their writing with more confidence. As they become more comfortable with responding to prompts they will lose their feelings of overwhelm.

In addition, journals are a great way to monitor students’ growth in their writing skills. By keeping each month’s journals you will be able to see their content and conventions grow over time. You can also identify problem areas for particular students or the whole class and address those skills with specialized lessons.

As your students become more familiar with daily writing, they will take more chances with creativity. Writing as a daily routine will help you address all of these skills regularly without extra planning. You can even add in word banks with vocabulary words for them to use and teach them how to check their work with self check-offs.

If you’re ready to incorporate daily writing prompts in your classroom, my Writing Prompts with Word Banks Bundle is just the print-and-go material you need.

Simply print the pages out for the month, staple, and you’re ready!

Students will love the fun writing tasks as well as the word banks. They can easily spell words they may need in their writing and feel more confident in their ideas. There are also checklists at the bottom of each day’s prompt so students can check their own work for writing expectations. Each month includes a writing rubric you can use to assess students’ writing.

In addition to journals for all twelve months, I’ve also included silly writing prompts to really get your students excited! Reluctant writers will enjoy using their skills for a fun writing assignment.

I hope these writing prompts get your students excited to use their creativity with writing!

Kindergarten Morning Work Ideas

January 8, 2021 teachersbrain kindergarten survival, Teacher's Pay Teachers

Morning work is a necessary part of most classrooms, especially in the early grades. As students enter the room, teachers often need to deal with lunch choices, parent notes, stuck zippers, and plenty of other things that require their attention. Morning work is the perfect way to get kids learning independently as soon as they arrive!

Kindergarten students who have morning work daily learn how to follow a routine.

This is an invaluable skill to help the classroom run smoothly and effectively. Once the routine is introduced and practiced, your students can jump right in each morning without any help!

Not only can this improve your mornings as a teacher, but in the event of having a substitute teacher the students will know what to do as soon as they arrive. Those first few minutes of time to review lesson plans and acclimate to the class will be so appreciated by any substitute.

Morning work is also the perfect opportunity for kindergarten students to practice foundational skills daily.

They can practice letter formation, finger spacing, colors, reading, and math skills each and every day. Teachers can provide direct instruction at the beginning of the year on how to complete the tasks, and soon students will be able to work on their own.

Worksheets that are predictable in its presentation helps students know what to do, and they can immediately start practicing when they sit down. As they use these skills daily, they will become more confident and comfortable. They will also feel independent as they walk in and successfully begin their own work like bigger kids!

I know it can sometimes seem overwhelming to have a fresh morning work assignment for each and every day. So I created my no- prep Kindergarten Morning Work Packets to give you one less thing on your to-do list.

These packets have been carefully created for the kindergarten classroom as an easy, organized, YEAR-LONG resource. Simply print the packets for each day, week, or month, and you are ready to welcome your students!

Students will get practice with:

Handwriting Uppercase and Lowercase Letters
Sight Word Practice
Beginning Letter Sounds
Months of the Year
Days of the Week
Handwriting Sentences
Word Families
Silent /e/
Digraphs
Number Sense
Ten Frames
Counting
Number Lines
Writing Numbers
Counting On
Shapes
More and Less Than
3D Shapes
Graphs
Place Value

In addition, each page has an extension activity that early finishers can complete on the back!

Compiling morning work is also a great way to see your students’ growth in their skills as the year progresses.

Here’s what teachers are saying about these Kindergarten Morning Work Packets:

“I love this!!! My kids did the sampler and they really enjoyed it! I love that it has literacy and math skills together. Thanks!”

Was looking for something for my students to have has practice work for all their skills. This looks fabulous covers all areas and is something they might be able to do independently. Can’t wait to use it!”

“The best morning work! Perfect for so many levels!”

Here’s to scramble-free mornings for the entire school year!

For more kindergarten tips, check out my post here!