Teaching Grammar in Kindergarten

 

Have you been wondering which grammar skills are important to teach in Kindergarten? Although there are a wide variety of curriculums used not only across the USA, but the world, they are all similarly positioned regarding which skills Kindergarteners need to learn to equip them with strong foundational skills in spoken and written English.

Here are the core grammar skills that your Kindergarten student should learn: (Please note: Your curriculum may slightly vary, as well as your students’ learning needs, so it’s always important to adjust your teaching accordingly.)

The Kindergarten student should be able to:

• Recognize that words are separated by spaces

• Distinguish the difference between a word and a sentence

• Understand that words are written from left to right and top to bottom

• Capitalize the first word in a sentence, the pronoun ‘I’ as well as names

• Use periods at the end of declarative sentences

• Name ending punctuation including periods, question marks and exclamation marks

• Begin using question marks and exclamation marks in writing with support

• Use complete sentences orally

• Write complete sentences in shared activities

• Expand complete sentences in shared activities

• Use verbs orally and in writing

• Use common nouns (person, place or thing) orally and in writing

• Use adjectives orally

• Form plural nouns orally that end in ‘s’ or ‘es'

• Begin using plural nouns that end in ‘s’ or ‘es’ in writing with support

• Use frequent prepositions orally (e.g., on, in, under, behind)

• Use the most frequently occurring inflections and affixes (e.g. -ed, -s, re-, un-, pre-, -ful, -less)

• Understand and use question words (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how)

• Identify new meanings for familiar words and apply them accurately (e.g., I hit it with the bat, The bat can fly.)

• Relate verbs and adjectives to their opposites (antonyms)

• Discern the meaning between similar verbs (e.g., jog, run, sprint, trot, race) by acting them out.

You can download a free PDF copy of these Kindergarten grammar skills list here:

Phonics Directed Drawings

 

Hi friends,

I’m so excited to release this huge set of phonics-based directed drawings. The bundle includes 108 different drawings in total which will have your students drawing and drawing and drawing!

If you’ve wanted to try directed drawings in your classroom, this is the perfect bundle. As it is phonics-based, the activities are purposeful and will help your students practice their sounds, learn how to draw, learn how to follow directions whilst also giving them the opportunity to write.

There are drawings included for:

•          The Alphabet
•          CVC Words
•         Digraphs
•          Long Vowels
•          R-Controlled Vowels
•          Diphthongs

Every drawing comes in 6 different templates so that you have plenty of options to choose from. Here they are:

The sheets are perfect for Kindergarten, First Grade and Second Grade.

What's Included?

Here is a list of all the drawings included:

SCIENCE OF READING: WHAT IS WORD MAPPING?

Word mapping is a concept that you have most likely come across over the past few months. It has been popularized by the Science of Reading but is definitely not a new concept. Word mapping, also known as phoneme-grapheme mapping, is an instructional activity where students link the 'sound' part of a word to the 'letter' part of a word.

Word mapping ties in with a reading theory known as 'orthographic mapping'. In a nutshell, orthographic mapping is 'the mental process we use to permanently store words for immediate, effortless retrieval. It is the process we use to take an unfamiliar printed word and turn it into an immediately recognizable word' (Kilpatrick, 2015). There are many wonderful, free resources out there that describe the theory behind orthographic mapping, so I won't bore you with facts, diagrams or lengthy explanations. Instead, I'll use this space to show you how word mapping works, and how you can implement it in your classroom. If you would like to learn more about orthographic mapping, I highly suggest researching David Kilpatrick and his associated texts.

What is word mapping?

Each word has 3 components - its sounds (phonemes), its letters (graphemes) and its meaning. Word mapping is an instructional tactic that you can use to help your students connect the sounds (phonemes) to the letters (graphemes) in a word.

To simplify the process of word mapping, here are the steps:

1. The student says the name of the word/picture aloud and meaning is ascertained.

2. The student orally breaks down the sounds in a word into phonemes by tapping or using manipulatives.

3. The student represents the phonemes with letters or letter combinations (graphemes).

4. The student reads the entire word aloud.

The word mapping process is different to decoding because students begin with a whole word that they break up, rather than a combination of letters that they must combine to form a word. It is the process of breaking words up and focusing on the phonemes/graphemes that helps to improve word recognition and store it into long term memory.

Which parts of a word stay together as one phoneme/grapheme?

Since releasing my Science of Reading Bundle, the most common question I've been asked is which parts of a word stay together and which are split into separate phonemes/graphemes. Many teachers are used to splitting words into letters or rimes. For example, c/at or f/e/e/t. The word mapping approach has students split letters into individual phonemes or sounds. This means that cat would be split into c/a/t and feet would be split into f/ee/t. The 'ee' in feet makes one sound so it's a separate phoneme/grapheme. I also wanted to note that blends are separate letters and not treated as a single sound as you can still hear the individual sounds in blends. For example, the word crab would be split into c/r/a/b. I've created a cheat sheet below which details the phonemes/graphemes that are separate, single sounds. 

WHY SOUND WALLS ARE SO POPULAR

 

The teaching world is abuzz with sound walls at the moment and for good reason too! Sound walls are heavily aligned with the Science of Reading and are one of the most useful displays that you can have in your classroom. I’m excited to share the NEW Sound Wall that I have just created as well as more details about how sound walls work, plus reasons why all early elementary grades absolutely need them.

 

 

What is a sound wall? 

Let’s first dive into what exactly a sound wall is. The current norm is to display alphabet posters that have a total of 26 sounds, however in contrast, a sound wall organizes and displays the different sounds or phonemes that we hear in speech. For example, the phoneme ‘r’ can be represented by the graphemes r, wr, rr and rh. When sounds are organized this way, it becomes much easier for students to utilize this knowledge when reading and spelling words.

 

Sound walls are displayed in two sections; a vowel section and a consonants section. The sections are commonly displayed side by side.

The vowel section, known as a vowel valley due to its shape, is displayed in a particular order to demonstrate the gradual change in mouth shape as you read through the phonemes.

 

The consonants section is organized a little differently; the phonemes are organized by the manner of articulation which relates to how sounds are made using the mouth. For example, p, b, t, d, k and g are known as ‘STOPS’ because when each of these phonemes are said aloud, the vocal tract shuts, the air pressure builds up and is then released in a short burst.

 

 

Second Grade Data and Graphing Worksheets

Hello lovely friends!

 

I hope you have all been loving my second grade math packets because I have a new one for you that’s all about data and graphing.

 

Data and graphing in second grade has students become familiar with representing and interpreting data with tally marks, bar graphs, picture graphs and line plots.

 

I have always loved teaching data and graphing because it's a concept that can easily be taught in a hands-on way. Understanding what data is and how to organize it is really important and graphing allows students to organize that data while practicing their sorting and observation skills!

 

The Activities

 

There are over 40 activities included in this packet with many of them being interactive. Plus, I have included some differentiation options too, so if you have students working at a lower or higher level, there's a bunch of activities for them too.

Here is a list of EVERYTHING this packet includes:

 

♥ Tally Marks (to 30)

♥ Counting Tally Marks (to 50)

♥ Data Categories

♥ Categorize and Graph

♥ Pencil Tally Chart

♥ Ice Cream Shop

♥ Car Tally and Graph

♥ Zoo Animal Bar Graph

♥ Weather Bar Graph

♥ Spelling Test Bar Graph

♥ Coffee Shop True or False

♥ Label a Graph

♥ Garden Animal Graph

♥ Town Graph

♥ Clothes Shop

♥ Roll a Dice Data Collection

♥ Restaurant Bar Graph

♥ Our Pets Data Collection

♥ Favorite Food Collect and Graph

♥ Ben's Toy Chest Picture Graph

♥ Popcorn Sold Picture Graph

♥ Fishing Time Picture Graph

♥ T-Shirts True or False

♥ Betty's Bakery Graph

♥ Favorite Season Data Collection

♥ Fruit Line Plot

♥ Ribbon Length Line Plot

♥ School Trip True or False

♥ Tree Height Line Plot

♥ Cubes Line Plot

♥ Bugs Line Plot

♥ Pencil Length Data Collection

♥ Favorite Seas Animal Data Collection

♥ Data Collection Project

 

Data and Graphing Experiences

There are a number of different data and graphing experiences that students should be given as well as concepts they should learn to help them gain a holistic understanding. 

 

1.   1. Tally Marks

 

Decodable Readers

After many months of careful preparation, this set of decodable readers is finally here and ready for you all!

This huge bundle includes books for short vowels, digraphs, long vowels, blends, diphthongs and r-controlled vowels. They are designed to help your students learn how to decode and blend words whilst building reading fluency. Every reader is based upon a different letter-sound combination which will make these readers fit seamlessly into your reading and phonics programs. If you'd like to check it out, here is the link:

Phonics Decodable Readers - BUNDLE

Now, are you ready to hear the very best thing about these readers! EVERY READER COMES IN 2 LEVELS!!!!! That means that differentiation is going to be super easy for you. Let me show you how I’ve leveled the readers:

Level One Readers

• Fewer words
• More patterned text
• Smaller range of sight words
• Smaller range of sound knowledge required

 

Level Two Readers

• More words
• Less patterned text
• Larger range of sight words
• Larger range of sound knowledge required

 

Helpful Ways to Use Vocabulary Charts

 

  

Hello, lovelies! I am super excited to share this new set of vocabulary charts with you all. Using vocabulary charts within your classroom has so many great benefits, and they can be used in so many different ways! 

Picture-based vocabulary charts and word walls provide visual support for students which is essential when reading skills are still being developed. If they are struggling with spelling or if they need a new word, they can head over to the vocabulary wall for assistance. Also, by immersing our little learners in new vocabulary, we are strengthening their ability to expand both their writing and speaking skills. 

I'm excited to share a whole bunch of different methods about how you can integrate these charts into your classroom.

Ways to Use Vocabulary Charts

These vocabulary charts come in both a full page and half page size option so that you can use them in multiple ways. There are over 75 different themed charts included which makes it perfect for picking and choosing to fit your needs! Below, I have shared a few helpful ways to use vocabulary charts in your classrooms. 

 

A Word or Writing Wall 

You can use these vocabulary charts to create a word wall, writing wall or other themed wall. Having a visual word wall provides a reference point for students. When they need a new word or are stuck on spelling a word, they can head over to the word wall and note it down. I used to keep a bunch of mini whiteboards near the word wall, so that students could simply write down the word they needed and head back to their desks.

Also, when putting up vocabulary charts on your bulletin board, a handy tip is to use velcro so that you can easily change out the different cards as needed!

You might even like to use the charts to play games like charades. The possibilities are endless!