Have you heard of The 3 Great Spelling Rules? Picture this:  A student is writing a paper, and they spell “I tryed to stay up late but I fell asleep.”  What do you say to correct? Do you tell him that the y changes to an i?  Are you able to explain why that happens? Three years ago, I had no idea there was an actual rule to share with students about changing a y to an i.  I just told them to change it and we moved on with our lives.  Spoiler alert:  Their spelling didn’t improve this way. But now I know that try + ed become tried because of the Y Rule for Spelling ..read more

For this week’s blog post, I have another incredible guest blogger. I’m thrilled to announce Michelle to you. Michelle Sullivan is the face behind The Colorful Classroom, and she is both incredibly knowledgeable and quite possibly one of the nicest people you will ever meet. In this blog post, she shares some of the debates behind phonemic awareness, and explains how we CAN and SHOULD combine phonemic awareness and phonics. Enjoy!–Savannah Have you ever heard that phonemic awareness can be done in the dark? Should it be done in the dark? What’s all the buzz about “phonemic awareness with lette ..read more

We know we need to review spelling daily, and routine is necessary for our kiddos.  Yet sometimes, routine can also bore our kiddos.  So how do we incorporate variety into our routine?  Reviewing spelling is the routine that we practice daily, but we can incorporate variety in the ways we spell with our students.  Today, I’m sharing 5 ideas to bring variety into your spelling routine. Dictation I’ve mentioned dictation several times, and I will keep talking about it.  This is one of the easiest practices to implement and requires nothing more than paper and a pencil.&n ..read more

How do we use decodable texts?  Should we read them whole-group?  Small group?  Do we send them home with students?  Do we expect children to only read decodable texts?  And when do we take them away? Getting decodable texts is just the first step.  After we’ve armed ourselves with the appropriate texts, what comes next?  Today, I want to answer those questions. Decodable texts are a tool to promote automatic word recognition. (This text is from Spire.) The Role of Decodable Texts I think it’s always important to keep purpose in mind.  With decodable tex ..read more

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I’m big on one particular thing:  giving children enough practice to become proficient readers.  While nothing can take the place of reading connected texts, I’m always looking for ways to give shorts bursts of practice.  A few years ago I began making fluency grids, and I never thought such a simple tool could make such a large impact. Fluency grids are great practice for specific skills. What are fluency grids? On the surface, a fluency grid is incredibly straightforward.  A list of words in a table, repeated line after line in ..read more

In general, I don’t play games every day with my students (or every week.)  There is one huge exception to that rule, though:  kindergarten.  In my kindergarten groups with students who are still learning their letters, I play games almost daily.  The reason why is two-fold.  For starters, kindergarteners are still learning to adjust to school and need to shift between tasks often.  Secondly, it takes HUNDREDS of exposures to letters before they become automatic for our students.  We don’t know if they are seeing a letter for the first time or the hundredth t ..read more

I have to be honest:  I am a full-on history nerd.  As an undergrad, I was a religious studies and history major.  I always knew I would end up a teacher, but I was 19 and loved learning about history.  Perhaps not my smartest move, but it was definitely an interesting time as a student.  Several years ago, my husband and I went to Europe for the first time in our lives.  My two requests?  I wanted to see where Anne Boleyn was beheaded and where Sophie Scholl was buried, my two favorite women in history.  Today, I think it is past time for a history less ..read more

When I first heard from the author of “Monster and Friends,” I didn’t really think much about it. The author wanted to send me a book, and I agreed. I’m uncertain what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what I got. I opened the book and fell in love. After looking through it, I immediately sent a message to the author, asking her if we could collaborate in some way. I knew that people NEEDED to see this book. It’s an important one. So, I’ve conducted an interview to learn more about the human behind the story! Read below to find out more! Tell me about yourself and your background.  I graduat ..read more

I am the queen of simplicity and anti-hoarding.  If I haven’t used it in the past year or two, it’s going in the trash or the recycling bin.  I don’t get attached to objects in my classroom just because money has been spent on them, especially if they are not aligned with best practices.  I don’t keep stinky books, outdated games, or materials that I “might” use one day (Look, we all know we’re never using it).  I find so much peace in keeping thing simple. All that being said, what ARE my must-haves for children?  Today, I am going to share the 5 essentials I have for ..read more

Phonics in the early grades is important, but teaching single-syllable words is not sufficient—our kids must learn how to decode multisyllabic words.  The great news?  If we have done a good job of teaching those single-syllable words in the primary grades, then learning how to decode multisyllabic words will be MUCH easier.  Today, I want to talk about some components of teaching multisyllabic words, and then delve into a concrete strategy you can use. English as a Morphophonemic Language Before I get into my favorite strategy, we need to talk about the English language a littl ..read more