Tag: centers

IB Learning, Social Studies

8 Hands On Community Helper Centers for First Grade

If your kindergarten or first grade students are learning about community helpers, these hands on, immersive centers are the perfect activity to add to your inquiry into community jobs. Students will love the opportunity to work at a vet clinic, mail a letter, fix a car, or try their hand at baking the perfect pizza. At the same time, they…

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Reading, Writing

How I Teach a New Phonics Sound in First Grade

Teaching new sounds using science of reading based approaches doesn’t have to be complicated. In my first grade classroom, after we review letter sounds quickly, we begin to introduce a new sound each week based on the sound progression from our phonics program. Here are the simple and effective ways we learn a new sound in first grade. Day 1-…

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Phonics, Reading

How Using Partner Plays with Decodable Text Develops Fluency (and Fun!)

Decodable texts are necessary for strong reading instruction in all grades, but particularly in kindergarten and first. Students in these grades are still breaking the reading code, so it’s important for them to have texts they can easily decode using the letter sound knowledge they’ve developed so far. Here is how you can use decodable partner plays to help your…

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Phonics

Fun Word Practice: Print and Go Mystery Word Activities

Practicing words in your classroom doesn’t have to be boring. Fast, easy, and fun word practice for ANY words is right at your fingertips with Mystery Word Generators for Google Slides! Here’s a peek into how they work. How Do Mystery Word Activities Work? The editable mystery word generators for Google Sheets automatically creates a printable practice activity in seconds. Simply type your words…

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Reading

What I Do Instead of Guided Reading and Why It’s More Effective

Guided reading is under the microscope right now with the rise of the science of reading, and for good cause (but we’ll get to that). Can I tell you a secret about small group reading instruction? In my entire teaching career (and I pre-date Pinterest), I have never done traditional guided reading. Never. So, here’s what I do instead of…

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