Learning the Alphabet Letters and Sounds

Learning all the letter names and the sounds they make is a primary skill usually taught early in the school year in Kindergarten (although sometimes introduced in a Pre-K or Transitional Kindergarten class). With only 26 letters to learn this should be a pretty easy task. Thankfully about half of the letter are fairly easy to memorize because their “sound” is closely related to their letter name. Examples are T (tuh), M (mmm), and P(puh)! Then there are those outrageous ones like H (huh) and W (wuh) and of course the C which says (kuh) and the G…not (Juh) but (GUH)….well, mostly in the CVC words that Kinders typically learn to decode first. Kind of confusing for a few of our kiddos!!

How do we go about teaching these 26 letters so they are memorized quickly without taking 26 weeks (think Letter of the Week) and the process of actually using the letters and sounds can begin? 26 weeks is almost the whole school year where there are about 30 weeks of school in most districts! Here is one product we created to help speed up this learning. Many different components reinforce the letter names and their sounds. Consistent ANCHOR pictures goes with each letter. These same pictures are used throughout all the activities so there is little confusion! 5 different types of interactive printables are included to provide lots of practice with the letters. Large teaching cards and anchor charts are also provided. This is a valuable resource that can supplement a district adopted reading curriculum easily. Find it HERE at our TPT store.

Need another ALPHABET song besides the traditional ABC song?

Are you tired of the oh so familiar ABC song? Well we were also….. sooooo we created this new song. It both introduces the letter name AND associates it with an anchor picture that clearly starts with that sound. The tune is Mary Had a Little Lamb and is so easy to learn. There are colorful pictures to go with every letter and interactive printables in 2 layouts. Students can personlize their papers with the letter starting their name or the letter of a favorite family member, toy, food, etc. Find I LIke Letters here.

Popular Center Activities for you to try

Our best selling products are a hit with many students. Included are interactive mats and cards to use in a learning center, Interactive handwriting and matching worksheets and a path game. ABC Race Cars will have your students will racing the lower case letter cars to the finish line that has the matching CAPITAL letter. Kids LOVE this one!

Comments from some teachers about these products!

“Such a cute way to help them learn the skill so that they are having fun at the same time.”

“Another fabulous unit!!! These will be perfect to use in my Kindergarten! This one is so cool to motivate learning the alphabet! Thank you!!!”

ABC Outer Space has students flying space monsters to match their spaceships. Again interactive printables and a path game are included.

Fly your lower case letter airplane to the matching UPPER case runway in this engaging center. Like the two other products above there are loads of supportive activities and path game. Click ABC Flyers.

Want to save some $ money? Get ALL 3 of these sets for the price of 2! Click BUNDLE to find it!

FREEBIE Time!

Check out this sampler of the pages included in the ABC Center product shown at the top of this blog. Click ABC Sampler FREEBIE to download this one.

Hope you enjoy the remaining days of summer break and have a great start to a new school year!!!!

The post Alphabet Letters and Sounds Activities for Beginning Readers appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

February is LOADED with classroom fun! Groundhog’s Day, 100th Day of School, Presidents’ Day and Valentine’s Day….whew! All these in the shortest month of the year!

Valentine’s Day activities and passing out cards are highly anticipated in Kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms. The thought that goes into selecting that “just right” Valentine to give each classmate can take a LOT of time. I remember sitting down with my niece when she was in first grade to help her prepare her Valentines. What I thought might be a short 30-minute session turned into over 2 hours as she pored over the text of every card, analyzed every cute graphic for its underlying meaning, considered who on her list would be best suited for this card, then wrote their name and hers on the card…then repeated this entire process over and over and over again for each of the 30 students in her class (yes, California has a LOT of students in their classrooms!). My niece analyzed the picture and the words and made comments like, “Oh, Annette really likes unicorns. Is there a unicorn in my box?” Of course, there wasn’t so the search began again for a second choice for Annette! Endless!

Well, we hope our products will be quick to prep and fun to use in your February studies! This Literacy packet, 1-2 a Friend For You, has a book based on the familar poem, 1-2 Buckle my Shoe. It also comes with 2 Take-Home books, Pocket Chart sentence building cards and pictures, a vocabulary chart and some writing activities. Click HERE to find this great resource at our TPT store.

Great Game for Learning High Frequency Words

This game format is one of our students favorite games! They LOVE swiping cards from other players when they get a SWIPE cards. This game comes with 40 words with vowel digraphs such as “ou” and “ow”. These cards have cute monkeys on them. Add in the “candy” and “sad monkey” cards. Stack the cards on the playing mat (included) in the center of the table. The first player takes a card from the pile. They read the word aloud. (If they do not know it, someone tells them and they repeat it). They keep that card and play moves to the next  person. When a player turns over a ”CANDY” card, he can SWIPE a “Monkey” word card from another player (plus keep the ”CANDY” card). Game continues until someone gets a ”SAD MONKEY” card that ends the game. Everyone counts his or her cards. The person with the most is the winner! EDITABLE cards are included so ANY words can be inputted and used to play so your students are practicing the skills they need at this time of the yesr, Click SWEET MONKEY SWIPE to see this at our store,

Word Hunt FUN

This is a great way to repeatedly practice reading High Frequency words with the whole class. Words are put in a pocket chart and animal cards are placed BEHIND the  word cards. They must be completely hidden from view  and NOT be able to be seen through the word cards. Divide the class into 4 “teams” and have each team choose which of the 4 animals they will try to find!

Select a team or student from team to start. They can call out a word OR come up and point to a word and read it. Reveal the animal hiding behind the word card. If it is one of the  animals that team is trying to collect, they get to keep the  animal. If it is NOT what they are seeking, hide the animal back behind  that word card. Play passes to the next team. When a  team successfully finds one of their animal cards both the  word and the animal cards are removed from the pocket chart. Continue taking turns reading words and revealing the hidden animals. The  game ends when the student or team has collected all 4 of their animal cards.

This February Word Hunt comes with EDITABLE cards so ANY words can be. used! Your students will LOVE playing this game over and over again! After several times playing this it can easily become a learning center run by an adult volunteer!

February Readers

One can never have enough “just right” leveled books and these NO Prep Readers cover February subjects including Groundhog’s Day, Presidents’ Day and Valentine’s Day. They also come with an Interactive printable to extend the reading. Print, fold and go! They are super easy to use!

Free Singable- Chocolate, Chocolate

Here’s a FREE song that celebrates all things chocolate! There is a colorful chart, take-home chart, writing booklet and pocket chart cards. Click CHOCOLATE! CHOCOLATE! to download this free song at our JK Singable store.

January is FINALLY over and February fun awaits with holidays and celebrations! It just seems to fly by! Enjoy this fun month!

The post February Fun appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

In 2003, the live-action comedy Elf  debuted in the movie theaters! Now it has become a cult classic and must-see each Christmas season! It has a very clever concept and Will Ferrell dressed as a giant elf is so visually funny that just looking at the movie poster makes me laugh. And who doesn’t know about that ol’ Elf on the Shelf? Wow, the pressure to move that little guy around every night and creating clever scenarios for him has become a little much for some busy moms! Sure, Pinterest is loaded with ideas but still…..some of them require a bit of work! I did incorporate a classroom Elf who reported back to Santa about all the fun activities the children did during the school day. He simply changed location around the room each night….nothing elaborate. The children had fun trying to locate him every morning!

It’s fun to do Elf activities in your classroom! Students can be Santa’s helpers by writing Christmas cards and crafts for people in retirement homes, writing letters to our military men and women overseas, and generally helping out during the month of December by being “helpful elves”. Here are some of our favorite Elf Literacy learning activities that will help with your Elf Theme this year.

TRICKY Elves- Our most Popular Game Format

Tricky Elves is our most popular game format. This super fun and exciting game play will have your students begging to play it over and over again. Check out our short video, Tricky Robots (and FREE Game) to see how easy it is to learn this game. Click TRICKY ELVES to see this elf-themed literacy game.

A Song about Elves – Santa’s Helpers

Santa’s Helpers is a song we wrote sung to the tune, London Bridge is Falling Down. Cute clipart illustrates the songbook and and mini-movie has the pages of the book turning while we sing the lyrics. Your class will be singing along in no time! Click SANTA’S HELPERS SONG to see this one at our JK SIngables store.

Santa’s Helpers GAME- CVC Words

There is a Phonics Path Game that goes along with the song above. 45 Short Vowel words are read from the cards as players move along the path. EDITABLE card are included so ANY words can be added that your students need to study. Find it here at SANTA’S HELPERS GAME. P.S. It’s a DOLLAR DEAL!!

How about another fun learning game? Elf Surprises Roll and Cover

This is a low-prep game that is super easy to play. Simply print either the colored or Black/white versions of the game mats and laminate for durability or place inside a clear plastic protector. Players roll a die, read the word in that column, and place their colored “chip” on that word. Play moves UP the columns. First player to place a chip of their color on the top word in any column is the winner! 6 game mats are included so 36 words are practiced. EDITABLE versions of both the colored and black/white mats are also included. Click ELF SURPRISES to find this game at our TPT store.

Elves- Word Families Words Path Game – Candy Cane Shop

Elve are scurrying around the North Pole looking for candy canes to stock their Candy Cane Shop in this fun game. Another easy to prep! Just print and cut out the word cards. The cards have Long A with Silent E word families on them like –ate, ave, ane, ade, etc. If your students aren’t at that instructional level, then insert whatever words they need to practice on the included EDITABLE cards and off you go…ready to play! There are Go Ahead and Go Back cards for exciting play. Players simply roll one die, move that many spaces, turn over a card, and read it. Of course, if they have difficulty reading the word a helpful “elf” adult will be there to guide them to success! ClIck CANDY CANE SHOP for this great game.

Here’s a FREEBIE for you

Here is another easy song sung to the tune, Are You Sleeping (AKA Frere Jacques). It has a colorful song chart and 2 versions of a Take-Home song chart. One has an elf to color and the other version has a space for students to draw themselves as an elf. A cute and easy craftivity is included as well as a mini writing book where students can write all the ways they will be helpful this year! Click LET ME BE YOUR HELPFUL ELF to download this FREEBIE at our JK SINGABLES store.

Here’s to a great month of December with all its craziness. Hope your students are truly helpful elves this year!

The post Elves – A Great Theme for Literacy Activities appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

Early Literacy Skills….What are they?

Early literacy skills include sooooooo many things such as phonological awareness, print awareness, vocabulary development, listening, speaking, and fine motor skills. The list can seem overwhelming but the good news is…..all these skills are what young children will develop naturally given a supportive and nurturing environment. Parent and teachers can support the development of early literacy by talking to children about a wide variety topics, reading aloud from a wide variety of books, singing simple songs, doing fingerplays, and pointing out letters and sounds in environmental print. What could be easier than saying, “Oh, look at that big letter W! That starts the word Wal-mart,” as you are walking into the store with your child?

Simple Poetry Develops Literacy Skills

Learning to read in English is helped by the ability to rhyme. Research suggests students benefit from direct instruction in rhyming words and it is great to do with fun activities that target this skill.

Teaching children to rhyme can be done with familiar poems like “1-2 Buckle My Shoe.” We have used this poem as a frame and developed several variations of this poem. Here are two samples of what we have written.

These are both part of complete packets full of additional resources. There are photographs and informational text that help build background knowledge for the study of the Ocean as well as much more.

Beginning Readers Promote Literacy

Included in the packet are 2 Beginning Readers. These Beginning Readers are great for getting students to finger-match on familiar text (once they have have learned the 1-2 poem!). Send the books home to add to a Reading Box for repeated readings which builds fluency. The second book features High Frequency words in patterned sentences. These are highly supportive for students developing early reading skills as well as second language learners.

Sentence building with word cards and pictures make a great literacy center. Use the photo cards in a pocket chart or use them to build sentences with high frequency words. There are also a good variety or Interactive printables to provide even more experience with the text.

Writing is a Key Literacy Activity

Themed writing paper is fun and inspiring to young writers. Who wouldn’t want to write a little story or even just a sentence to go with their picture on some fun paper? Here is a sample of what is included in this 1-2 An Ocean For You packet. Also included is a Take-Home booklet where students trace over sentences and add missing parts to the picture. Students LOVE these take-home booklets!

Going to the Beach!

Just like the 1-2 Ocean Packet we created a 1-2 Beach For You packet with similar pieces. Click the picture to find it at our TPT Store!

Literacy Games Help Students learn in a Fun Way!

Learning High Frequency words is a necessary skill for fluent reading. What better way to learn these words than with a fun game! Here is a FREEBIE Path Game. Students roll the dice, move that many spaces, turn over a word card, and read it. If they have trouble reading it, an adult or more capable reader helps out! No one is penalized for not being able to read the word, of course! The whole idea is to learn to read new words so…..someone can help you learn them! This FREE game, Camping! What Fun path game comes in Color and Black and White with 45 High Frequency Word cards, and Go Ahead and Go Back cards. EDITABLE versions of the word cards are included so ANY words can be added! Click Here to link to this FREEBIE at our TPT store.

The post Literacy Activities Promote Reading Fluency appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.