Reading Archives - Teacher's Brain

Fun Alphabet Practice Activities For Kids

July 15, 2022 teachersbrain kindergarten survival, Reading, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips

Alphabet writing practice is one of the most important parts of preschool or kindergarten instruction. Getting familiar and comfortable recognizing, writing, and using the alphabet is a foundational skill that students will use for the rest of their lives! That’s why it’s so important to make it as fun as possible!

The more fun kids have, the more engaged in learning they will be!

How can I make learning the alphabet fun?

The sky is the limit when it comes to learning the alphabet. Here are some of my favorite alphabet activities for kids.

Stamp pads. Get some alphabet stamping supplies and let students have fun practicing letters with stamps
Finger paint. Let students get their hands dirty and finger-paint the letters.
Sand tables. This one is great if you have the supplies. Simply have students write their letters in the sand.
Shaving cream. Simply spray some shaving cream on each desk, spread it out, and let students write letters in it!
Lego Letters. Get out some Lego blocks and have students build the letters with them.
Pipe Cleaners. Twist pipe cleaners to make letters.
Dry Erase Boards. Practice writing and erasing letters with dry-erase markers and boards.
Sidewalk Chalk. Decorate the sidewalk with letters.
Have a letter scavenger hunt.
Play I Spy with the alphabet.

There are so many ways to get creative with learning the alphabet. If you are looking for some traditional alphabet practice sheets or even alphabet tracing worksheets, I have you covered!

This Alphabet Writing Practice Bundle comes with everything you need!

It comes with alphabet worksheets, alphabet tracing, and alphabet crafts for every letter A-Z!

These provide hands-on options as well as worksheets to help with busy mornings. Students will learn how to work independently after the first couple of letter sets are used because every unit follows the same pattern. There are plenty of things to choose from for the week if you are doing a letter a week. Students will practice fine motor skills with writing, cutting, and tracing.

What is the download?

LETTER A: 16 printables which include 3 crafts, a spinning game, letter identification, forming letters, playdough letters, BINGO daubing, tracing letters (upper and lowercase), letter sounds, and beginning sounds of words.
LETTER B: 16 printables which include 3 crafts, a spinning game, letter identification, forming letters, playdough letters, BINGO daubing, tracing letters, letter sounds, and beginning sounds of words.
LETTERS C-Z These will follow the same format as units for letters A & B, but with different crafts.

Want to try it out for FREE? Check out my free Alphabet Worksheets and Crafts resource here!

Let your students have a blast while they master identifying the upper and lowercase letters, reviewing the sound, writing letters, and creating crafts with these printable practice pages. These make morning work, literacy centers, small groups, or home reviews a breeze!

What’s in the download?

P. 1 Cover

p. 2 More Resources

P. 3 Letter Aa practice

P. 4 Letter B Mini Book

P. 5 Letter C Play-Doh Trace

P. 6-7 Letter A Alligator Craft

P. 8-9 Letter T Tiger Craft

P. 10 Color by Code Letter L

P. 11 Answer Key

P. 12 CREDITS

What are your favorite alphabet practice activities? Let me know in the comments!

Summer Packets To Prevent The Summer Slide

May 13, 2022 teachersbrain education, Math, Reading, Sight Words, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips

Summer is just around the corner! This is one of the best times of the year because not only do you get a much-needed break, but you get to see all of the progress your students have made throughout the year and celebrate them for it. Seeing how far they have come in their reading levels or math skills is just wonderful. Even better, it’s amazing to see how their confidence has grown throughout the year!

With the long relaxing break, however, comes one not-so-fun thing. The summer slide.

What is the summer slide?

This is the tendency of students to lose some of the achievement gains that they made during the school year and regress academically. This is especially prevalent in low-income areas.

How do you beat the summer slide?

I know, the last thing you want is for your students to go backward. But what can you do? One of the best ways to keep that knowledge fresh is to assign some educational activities for students to complete during summer break. Another idea is to keep them reading with some fun reading summer challenges. You could send home a reading log for students to fill in with everything they read on their own during the summer and if they bring it back completed they get to go to an ice cream party.

For more reasons to keep students learning during summer break, check out my post here!

How do you engage students over the summer?

You’ll want activities that are engaging enough that they will stick to it and be excited to do. Need summer activities for students? Don’t worry, I have you covered!

These summer packets for 1st grade are all you need!

I love these packets because they are completely digital. This means that you don’t need to print out a bunch of packets and spend time putting them together. Students can complete it all online!

This is designed with Google Slides. It includes a parent letter, physical and oral suggestions, a reading log, and a review of math and language arts activities. Students do not need to have Google Classroom to participate.

Here’s what’s included:

How to use this packet and Parent Tips
Oral and physical activity suggestions
Reading Log
Sight Word List
Sight Word Sort Review Activities
Word Families
ABC Order Printables
Correcting Sentences
(Nouns, Verbs, Proper Nouns, Long and Short Vowels)
WRITING – Narrative, Opinion, Creative (Some printable to encourage handwriting)
Comprehension & Fluency
MATH Number Bonds, Addition, Subtraction, Shapes, measurement, 10 More 10 Less

Check out the summer packets for 1st grade video tutorial here!

If you love this summer packet, make sure to check out the packet for each grade in elementary school!

These are perfect no matter what grade you teach. The activities can be explained by the adult, but on most pages, it should not be necessary since it is a review. Children should be able to complete most activities independently.

I recommend setting a 20 to 30-minute block of time for the student daily to work on these activities. They should enhance their vacation! Each packet includes a summer journal, sight words, reading logs, math, and LA printables.

Do you assign summer activity packets? Let me know in the comments!

Host A Book Tasting With A Fun Twist

February 18, 2022 teachersbrain Reading

Have you ever done a book tasting with your students?

Book tastings are a unique way to learn about different books, genres, and authors. It introduces students to a variety of books so that they can sample them and discover new interests.

What Is A Book Tasting?

Generally, you’ll set up “tables” or centers with a menu and you’ll “serve” your students different stacks of books to choose from. After they get some time exploring the books they were served, you rotate them out for a second stack of books.

You can organize your books by genres, topics, authors, styles, etc. It is so fun to see the students branch out and check out books they wouldn’t normally look twice at. I have found this to be a great way to encourage a love of reading in my students. Even the students who claim not to enjoy reading get engaged in book tastings!

This reading activity would be a great addition to your Read Across America Day celebrations! I love that it can be done with students no matter their age. So literally any teacher can host a book tasting.

Take Your Book Tasting To The Next Level

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good book tasting. But sometimes, you just want to add a little extra something to get students really excited about reading.

Cue escape rooms!

Escape rooms are all the rage because they are so engaging for students. They make such a big impact on students that they often remember doing these activities long after they leave your classroom. How cool is that?

Given my love of book tastings and escape rooms, I had to create a resource that is the best of both worlds.

I created this Book Tasting Escape Room activity so that you can add it into your lessons too!

This resource includes step-by-step instructions that guarantee student engagement while they learn how to work as a team and help the store owner discover new book genres and escape the room with a book tasting!

Sounds fun, right?

With just a little prep, this activity will have your students teaming up to break into the box to escape the room. The best part? You can use any books you want to with this activity!

You’ll get everything you need including directions, menus, place settings, paper keys, signs, help cards, homework passes and bookmarks, banner pennants, and more!

Check it out here!

Have you ever hosting a book tasting for your students? Let me know in the comments!

Reading Strategies For Read Across America Day

February 11, 2022 teachersbrain Reading, Teaching Tips

National Read Across America Day is coming up on March 2nd. This is a fun day to celebrate one of the best things ever- reading! This day was established to get students more excited about reading and the wonderful stories we get to enjoy.

For younger students, reading is still a little more challenging because it is still so new to them. Unfortunately, this means they may not be as excited to read on Read Across America Day.

Here are some strategies you can work on with your students to help them find more joy and satisfaction in reading.

Preview

This method is when students skim a text to get the main idea and important points before they start to read. Research shows that this improves comprehension which makes the reading experience more enjoyable and satisfying for students.

Picture Cues

Teach students that the pictures in their books connect to the words on the page and they can look at them for clues about what is happening in the story when they get stuck. Ask students what they notice about the pictures in the book and what they think it means for the story.

Making Connections

Show your students how they can connect what they learned in another story with what they are currently reading to help them better understand what is happening in the story. For example: “This story is about an elephant. Do you know any other stories about elephants?” This helps students think more deeply and get more engaged in the content they are reading.

Predicting

Readers can gain meaning from their text by predicting what will happen next in the story. They can do this by using their existing knowledge or illustrations to make an informed prediction. When reading, pause and ask them what they think will happen on the next page based on the information they have.

Ask Questions

Teach your students to ask questions before, during, and after they are done reading to help them better understand what happened in the story and why.

With some practice, these simple and effective reading strategies will increase reading comprehension and help your students gain more confidence while reading. Ideally, this will help them develop a lifelong love for reading!

If you’re looking for some reading-themed activities to do for Read Across America Day, I have you covered!

These reading activities are just what you need to get students engaged. It comes with over 100 pages of language arts, math, STEM, and crafts with the “celebrate reading” theme in mind!

Here’s a preview of what’s included:

Language arts activities: rhyming words, creative writing with prompts, write the room activity, sorting nonsense words from real words activities, poems, and more.

Math activities: word problems, adding to 10, shapes counting, 1 more and 1 less.

Plus a STEM activity, awards, reading pledge, bookmarkers, journal cover, and a recipe for a treat!

I hope you love these activities! Let me know your favorite Read Across America activities in the comments!