Education resources for parents and teachers
Looking for community helper books? This is a very comprehensive list! Recently I released a community helpers theme pack for preschool and kindergarten. It's over 280 pages of community helper activities and printable books! My preschooler and I read book after book together as I put together this giant list of recommended reads. If you're looking for a specific helper, just scroll down until you find ... Read More
Looking for a-e worksheets to help your beginning reader or speller? Try these! Do you have a child or student who can't seem to get the difference between short a and a-e words? Does he read snake as snack? Or plane as plan? Maybe it's a guessing game - sometimes he gets it right, and other times he doesn't. The key to mastering the silent e (sometimes called "magic e") words is a lot of hands-on learning. ... Read More
It's another set of no-prep reading games! This time we focus on short a and a-e words. My Five is really getting the hang of silent e! I created our last game for a-e words. It's one of our favorites - Four in a Row. Why we love Four in a Row reading games They're quick. They're fun. They pack in a lot of learning. How to play Print a game board. Grab counters or Do-a-Dot markers (our favorite!). Take turns ... Read More
Want to give your speller practice with ee and ea words? Try this free game! Here's the game. You'll need to print one copy, plus a recording sheet for each player. How to play 1. Take turns moving your piece along the path by rolling the die. Then, without referring to the game board, think of a rhyming word. Spell it on your recording sheet. Make sure the other player(s) agree that it is spelled correctly. ... Read More
If you're working on that tricky silent e, these games are a great way to practice reading a-e words. A few days ago I shared my fold and read cards for a-e words. You know, words like tape, shake, and cape. I created those to help my kindergartner understand how silent e (sometimes called "magic e") changes the sound of the vowel. They worked even better than I'd hoped! Today I'm sharing another set of freebies to ... Read More
Want to help your beginning reader learn how to read a-e words? Try this simple activity! I've got some printable a-e games in the works, but I wanted to start with something simpler. So I came up with these. I call them "fold and read" cards. When you cut out the strips, you can fold in from the right side to change a short a word to an a-e one. But first, I had him read through all the short a words. As I ... Read More
Looking for beginning sounds worksheets? Try these fun coloring pages! A year and a half ago, I created beginning sounds coloring pages for my Three, who was almost four years old. Since he loved to color and had a pretty good handle on beginning sounds, I thought he'd enjoy a set of alphabet coloring pages. Now that little boy is my five-year-old. He's far past beginning sounds and is ... Read More
Looking for a fun way to practice alphabet sounds using letter tiles? Try this! I've been doing a variety of beginning sounds activities with my three-year-old to strengthen his understanding. Since my Three likes digging in sensory bins, I buried letter tiles in a box of colored rice. I designed a page with a single picture for each letter of the alphabet and made the grid just the right size so that a letter ... Read More
Have you seen my free spelling games? I'm adding another one! I'm on a mission to create spelling games for words with long vowels. Today: short and long e dominoes! The game is very simple. Just cut out the dominoes and divide them up evenly. Then take turns choosing from your pile to set down a domino. It has to connect to another one with the same spelling pattern. You'll find three spelling patterns in the ... Read More
Looking for leaf books? These are perfect to read when doing a Fall theme! Leaves in Fall, by Mari Schuh The Bullfrog Books series is my newest find for fabulous nonfiction books for preschoolers. Snatch them up when you see them! This one teaches the science of leaves changing color. It has very simple text alongside beautiful photographs. It even has a picture glossary at the end. Really, it's just ... Read More
