Early Literacy Practice Pages

Do you have students who need help with some early literacy skills? Or students who have mastered most of the skills, but have some difficulty following directions, so they often answer questions wrong, even though they understand the concept?

I do! I do!

I needed a way for them to practice general readiness, phonemic awareness, phonics, and structural analysis skills, so they would feel more confident when taking tests and learn to analyze directions so they didn't get questions wrong because they weren't paying attention to the key words in the questions.

So, I came up with these early literacy practice pages.

I've been using them in small groups and they are really helping students to think about what the questions are asking and to look at each answer choice carefully. Many of them contain answer choices that are similar and look correct.

Here are all the skills included...

Most of the skills contain 2 different activity sheets, and there are some that contain more. Blends has 3 different sheets, mixed review has 4, and word families has 5 different sheets.

Here is an example of one of the sheets. See how some of the wrong answers look like they could be right, if you don't pay close attention to the question?

  

This one is all about rhyming. I came up with quite a few different ways to test the children's understanding of rhyming.

When I complete a sheet with an individual or small group, we go very slowly. I help the children read the questions and identify the pictures with them. These sheets were not created for children to complete independently. So many teachable moments would be missed!

Once an answer has been chosen, we discuss why it is the right (or wrong) answer. It is very interesting, and very telling, to hear the children explain why they chose an answer. It is during this conversation that children usually figure out if they chose the wrong answer. I tell them that they fell for my trickery and to be super careful not to let that happen. They love the challenge!

Answer keys are included for teachers to refer to. I highly suggest using it because it will tell you what each picture depicts, just in case you can't figure it out on your own.

If you are looking for a great way to help students who have difficulty with a few or many early literacy skills, or students who don't read or listen to directions very well, then you may want to check these out. You can find them by clicking here or on the image below.

Word Building

Word building is a research-based strategy that has been proven to be highly effective in teaching children to decode and blend individual sounds in words. Manipulating sounds enables students to become familiar with the patterns of sounds in words.

Through the years, I have worked very hard, creating activities that my students can use independently, to help them practice this important skill, as often as possible.

My students practice building word family words.
Click here for a FREE activity sheet!

And words with short and long vowels.

And words with blends.

And words with vowel teams.

And more words with short and long vowels, and words with digraphs, and words with ar.
Click here for a FREE activity sheet!

And with all these word building activities that I have, you'd think I would be satisfied! LOL! But, recently, I had a reason to go back to the drawing board, and create one more building words pack!

I was working with some first graders, who were having difficulty reading words with blends and digraphs. They could read some of them in isolation, but were very unsure of themselves when reading the words in the context of a sentence. They said the words were just too long.

So, we worked on building CVC words with letter tiles and then replacing the first letter with a blend. I sat and came up with some CVC words that could become longer words when you added a blend at the beginning. They built the words with the letter tiles, and then wrote the words, and then read the words, and we repeated this for awhile until they realized that reading words with blends wasn't so hard!

While we were working together, I kept thinking, "Wouldn't it be nice to have some building words activity sheets already made, where you could add blends to CVC words and not only read and write the words in isolation, but read the words in the context of a sentence?"

And, that is how this new pack evolved!

Building Words With Blends and Digraphs enables students to build words, beginning with an easy to read word, so they feel confident and successful from the start. Students build the word in the box,

 then change the first letter, replacing it with a blend (or digraph),

and read and write the new word on the line.

Then, they read a sentence, and highlight both of the words they built. 

Each of the 8 blends activity sheets begins with a CVC word or a word where the final consonant is doubled. 

This systematic, direct approach, really helped these students learn to confidently decode and blend individual sounds in words and become familiar with the patterns of sounds in words.

They are great as a station activity or small group activity. I love to use them during RTI and for homework, as well.

Here's an example of building words with digraphs.

 All of the 8 digraphs activity sheets begin with a CVC, CVCe, or CVCC word. Students change one letter and replace it with a beginning or ending digraph (ch, ph, sh, th, wh, ck, gh, kn, ll, ng, tch, wr, zz) to make a whole new word.

I also included 2 building words with blends and digraphs activity sheets. Each sheet begins with a CVCC, CCVC, or CCVCC word. Students change a blend to a digraph or a digraph to a blend, to make a whole new word.

Each activity sheet includes the exact letter tiles needed to build the words on the page. You can print a set of letters for each student, or print a few sets on different colored copy paper and store them in separate Ziploc baggies. I recommend printing them in different colors so the sets don't get mixed up. You can save the letters to use year after year.

I also included a page with all 26 lower case letters and a page with all 26 capital letters. You can print a few sets on different colored copy paper and store them in Ziploc baggies. This way, you don't need to print a new set of letters for each activity sheet.

If you would prefer not to print any letters, you can use letter tiles instead.

Click here to read a blog post I wrote, which includes visuals of how I store my letters.

If you are interested in these building words activity sheets, you can find them here, or by clicking the image below.

Building Words Helpful Hints

UPDATED AUGUST 2020

Most of my Building Words resources now come with a Google Slides edition!

Building words helps children learn to decode and blend individual sounds in words. My students LOVE building words and it really keeps them interested and engaged. They enjoy manipulating the letters and seeing how moving just one letter can change the sound and meaning of words. 

Managing the letters in these types of activities can be very challenging because you have to make sure each child has the correct set of letters. When children build words at a station or in small groups, the letters can easily get mixed up and there is nothing worse than hearing, "I have no g! I need a g!" 

I am proud to say that I have come up with a fool-proof way to manage all the letters in my building words activities. And, read below to see what keeps my students from losing their place when they are building words. 

The images above, come from my

 Building Words {Challenge Edition}.

You can download a FREE Long a activity sheet here!

If your students need a slightly easier version, then you may want to check out Building Words {Short and Long Vowels Edition}.

And, if you need an even easier version, then check out my

Building Words {Word Families Edition}.

You can download a FREE -ad family activity sheet here!

There is also a fun blends edition, too!

And, last but not least, here is the vowel teams edition!

As you can see, there is a version for every learner!

To help differentiate learning, I bundled ALL of them up! 

Click here for more information!

The Best Phonics Giveaway Ever!

Hi Everyone!

Are you ready for the BEST Phonics Giveaway Ever!!!!

I am teaming up with some fabulous teacher bloggers and friends to bring some lucky teachers our favorite phonics products.  

My Phonics Teaching Tip

I am giving away my Let's Build Words pack. It contains 13 different building words activities, including short and long vowels, digraphs, and words with -ar. Each activity sheet comes with its own letters, as well as an answer key.

Building words helps children learn to decode and blend individual sounds in words. My students LOVE building words and it really keeps them interested and engaged. They enjoy manipulating the letters and seeing how moving just one letter can change the sound and meaning of words. 

Managing the letters in these types of activities can be very challenging because you have to make sure each child has the correct set of letters. When children build words at a station or in small groups, the letters can easily get mixed up and there is nothing worse than hearing, "I have no g! I need a g!" 

I am proud to say that I have come up with a fool-proof way to manage all the letters in my building words activities. And, read below to see what keeps my students from losing their place when they are building words. 

A Phonics Freebie

Click the image below to get a FREE Long a word building activity sheet!

 You can enter every day. There will be 3 grand prize winners.  Remember the giveaway will end Sunday at midnight!!! Good Luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Building Sentences and Blends

I recently was able to finish up two new activities that I started a while ago and never seemed to find the time to complete. 

The first is Building Sentences. 

Now that my kindergartners are writing more and more, I wanted to give them lots of practice writing complete sentences and following all the proper conventions.

Building Sentences contains 21 different word lists that can be used to make lots of different sentences. The words used are all the popular sight words and decodable words. I used almost all the Dolch Pre-Primer and Primer words and the words from the 2014 Kindergarten Journeys reading program. The activities are very easy to prepare and I numbered and color coded everything to make it easy to keep organized. I even color coded the different parts of speech.

I printed and laminated mine and store them in Ziploc Baggies. It's easy for me to pull out a pack and place it in my Word Work station. You can keep the same list at the station for one week or more. Whatever works best for your class. I keep a lot of my stations out for more than one week.

There are a few recording sheets too, to check for mastery.

You can check it out here. 

I also finished up Let's Build Words With Blends. 

Building words is such a fun way to practice decoding and blending. My original pack did not have words with blends. 

You can find it here. It's on sale for a few more hours!

Next up...building words with vowel patterns!

Be sure to stop by my blog tomorrow! I am so excited to tell you all about my review of this...

Just imagine how much fun it would be to have your very own Ellison Press! Your dream could become a reality!

See you tomorrow!

Sharing My Station Board and a Word Building Activity

I am frequently asked how I run my reading block, using Journeys and work stations. I'm going to try my best to explain it.

This is my station board. My students do stations Tuesday through Friday. Monday is mostly a whole group lesson, which I try to make as interactive as possible.

My students do 4 rotations a day. During the first 3, I pull individuals or small groups. The 4th rotation is for RTI and/or writer's workshop. If I am meeting with an RTI group, the rest of the children are working in their writer's notebooks. If I'm not meeting with a group, then I am leading a whole group writing lesson. 

These are my stations...

Word Work (Sight Words)

Phonics (Spelling Words)

Work on Writing

Grammar

Read to Self

Listening

  Meet With the Teacher is not included on my station board. Since I like a mixture of all abilities in my station groups, I just pull individuals or small groups from whatever station they are in.

My students visit each station twice a week. They have a must do activity and several options for after they have completed the must do. No one is allowed to say, "I'm done! What can I do now!"

This is what my rotation chart looks like...

My schedule is based on one I got from my bud Marsha, from A Differentiated Kindergarten. I have 6 groups of 3 students. (One group has 4 students because I have 19 first graders.) The rotation schedule is the same Tuesday/Thursday and Wednesday/Friday. And the way I set it up, Groups 1-3 and Groups 4-6 just flip flop their rotations from Tuesday/Thursday to Wednesday/Friday. Does that make sense? If not, just look at the schedule. You'll see that Groups 4-6 visit the same stations, in the same order, as Groups 1-3, but on opposite days. That way, I know that all 6 groups visit all of the stations twice a week. And I don't even have to change any rotation cards ever! I actually have a double set of rotation cards and under the chart on the right, is another chart, with all the rotation cards already set up. One chart is for Tuesday/Thursday and the other is for Wednesday/Friday. Each day, I just move the top chart on the right to the bottom. The names stay the same until I change my station groups.

Station time is my favorite time of the day. My students know that they must get started right away and they must use a 6 inch voice. They are very mindful of how important it is to work quietly, especially when I am meeting with small groups. They clean up their station and move to the next one without much direction from me. I always give them a minute or two to ask me questions when each rotation begins, before I call my next group. They know they cannot disturb me once my group is in session. It's all about respect!

On Friday's, after our weekly assessments and the third rotation, anyone who finished all their station work can enjoy some free time. Anyone who did not, must catch up. We call it ketchup and mustard day!

And that is how I run my station time in first grade. Eventually, my kindergarteners will be following the same schedule. They're still not ready yet!

Before I sign off, I just wanted to show you something I just finished for my phonics station. I LOVE word building activities and we do a lot of them whole group. Now, my students can enjoy building words independently.

Let's Build Words includes 13 different activity sheets. Each one has 16 opportunities to build words, following different spelling patterns. Here are the patterns included:

All of these are included in Journeys, so I am set for the year. Here is an example of how the students complete each page...

They cut out the letters they need for each page, which is included, (or you can just use letter tiles or letter beads) and they build the words in the top box. When they are done, they write a sentence in the box, using a word that follows that spelling pattern.

Each lesson includes an answer key, to make it self checking.

The letter tiles are printed two to a page to save paper.

If you want to check it out for yourself, just click here!