reading Archives - Teacher's Brain

Letter Work Activities for Kindergarten

July 21, 2023 teachersbrain Back to School, kindergarten survival, Teaching Tips

We all know that teaching letters to our little ones can be an exciting and crucial milestone. If you’re looking for a delightful collection of interactive and engaging letter work activities for kindergarten learners, you’re in the right place! From letter hunts to multi-sensory creations, you’ll love these ways to make letter learning a joyous experience for our little learners.

Here are some letter work activities your students will love:

Letter of the Week

Introduce one letter each week, and make it super exciting! Decorate the classroom with pictures of things that start with that letter, read books featuring the letter, and encourage kids to bring in items from home that begin with the letter of the week.

Multi-Sensory Activities

Engage your kiddos in hands-on activities involving different senses. Use materials like sand or shaving cream for letter writing, have them mold letters out of playdough, or use finger paint to create letter art (more exciting alphabet activities here!)

Letter Hunts

Turn letter recognition into an adventure! Organize letter hunts around the classroom or school. Give them a list of letters to find, and when they spot one, they can call it out with excitement.

Letter Sounds Practice

Once they get a good grasp of individual letter names, introduce letter sounds. You can do this through playful activities like “What Sound Does it Make?” where you show them pictures of objects and ask which letter sound they hear at the beginning.

Letter Writing Practice

Provide them with plenty of opportunities to practice writing the letters. Start with large-sized letters on paper or whiteboards, and as they improve, gradually move to smaller ones.

If you’re looking for a resource that has everything you need to make letter work fun and easy and more, I have you covered!

This Kindergarten Everything Mega Bundle will have you set for the year!

I have you covered with this huge endless curriculum bundle of bundles with a MASSIVE AMOUNT of materials made with kindergarten in mind! Even assessments are included.

YEAR-LONG SUBJECTS

Guided Reading
Monthly Writing Themed Journals
Morning Work Journals
Kindergarten Math Centers
Science
Social Studies

Check out the YouTube Tutorial!

Reading Curriculum includes activities, lesson plans and assessments for:

Phonics
Phonemic awareness
Comprehension
Vocabulary
Fluency

Kindergarten Math Centers includes activities, lesson plans and assessments for:

SCIENCE includes activities, lesson plans and assessments for:

Social Studies includes activities, lesson plans and assessments for:

BONUS – Butterfly Life Cycle Flip Book

Writing Journals Included: (with word banks and rubrics)

BONUS: Silly Story Starters

Kindergarten Morning Work Included:

• August and September Morning Work

• October and November Morning Work

• December and January Morning Work

• February and March Morning Work

• April and May Morning Work

When I say this has everything, I mean it! Check it out here!

I hope you found these tips and resources helpful! Remember to celebrate progress! Be generous with praise and encouragement. Positive reinforcement goes a long way in building kindergarten students confidence and love for learning!

How to Help Students Avoid the Summer Slide

May 12, 2023 teachersbrain Teaching Tips

With summer fast approaching, it’s time to start thinking about how you can prevent your students from experiencing the dreaded “summer slide.”

What is the summer slide in education?

Summer slide is that phenomenon where kids lose some of the academic skills they gained during the school year when they’re away from the classroom for too long. Yikes!

Is summer slide a real thing?

Unfortunately yes, it is. According to research by the National Summer Learning Association, students can lose up to two months of academic progress over the summer months!

The National Summer Learning Association also reports that teachers spend between four and six weeks re-teaching material at the beginning of each school year due to summer learning loss.

So how do you beat the summer slide?

Don’t worry, there are plenty of things you can do to help your students avoid the summer slide and keep their brains engaged all summer long. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Encourage Reading

As you know, reading is a great way to keep your students’ minds active and engaged over the summer. Encourage them to pick up books that interest them and make sure they have plenty of opportunities to read. You might consider hosting a summer reading program or creating a reading challenge to keep kids motivated. You can also suggest that they check out their local library for similar programs!

Make Learning Fun

Summer is the perfect time to get creative with your lesson plans. Try to find ways to make learning fun and engaging, whether that’s through hands-on activities, group projects, or field trips. The more enjoyable the learning experience, the more likely your students will be to stay engaged and motivated.

Utilize Online Resources

Thanks to the internet, there are plenty of online resources available that can help keep your students engaged over the summer. Whether it’s educational videos, interactive games, or virtual field trips, there’s something out there for everyone. Consider creating a list of resources for your students to explore over the summer.

Keep It Balanced

While it’s important to keep students engaged academically over the summer, it’s also important to give them a break and allow them to enjoy their summer vacation. Make sure your students have plenty of time for rest, relaxation, and fun activities that don’t involve schoolwork. Balance is key!

If you want the perfect resource to help minimize summer slide in your students, you should check out these Summer Packets! I created them with education, fun, and balance in mind so that your students can keep their brains engaged all summer long.

These packets are math and literacy-focused Google Ready digital activities that make it easy to do them at home with parents.

Here’s how to use it:

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. Download and TpT will force a copy of it on your Google Drive. Students do not need to have Google Classroom to participate.

Here’s what’s included:

Pg. 1 Cover

pg. 2. How to use this packet and Parent Tips

pg.3 Oral and physical activity suggestions

pg. 4 Reading Log

Pg. 5 & 6 Sight Word List

Pg. 7-12 Sight Word Sort Review Activities

pg. 13-18 Word Families

pg. 19- 23 ABC Order Printables

pg. 24-25 Correcting Sentences

pg. 26-29 (Nouns, Verbs, Proper Nouns, Long and Short Vowels)

pg. 30-38 WRITING – Narrative, Opinion, Creative (Some printable to encourage handwriting)

pg. 39-41 Comprehension & Fluency

pg. 42- 59 Math Number Bonds, Addition, Subtraction, Shapes, measurement, 10 More 10 Less

Check out the video tutorial!

Love this but need it for a different grade? Check out other grades or get the bundle!

By implementing these strategies, you can help your students avoid the summer slide and start the next school year on the right foot. Remember, summer should be a time of fun and exploration, but that doesn’t mean learning has to take a backseat. With a little creativity and planning, you can help your students keep their minds active and engaged all summer long.

For more reasons to keep learning going all summer, check out my post here!

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!