Author Archives : That Fun Reading Teacher

About That Fun Reading Teacher

That Fun Reading Teacher is a Canadian mom, kindergarten and literacy teacher with a passion for kids and reading. She has spent over twenty years teaching literacy to kindergarten and primary students as a classroom, Reading Recovery and Special Education teacher.

Fun Summer Lists – Writing for Real Purposes!

This entry was posted in 1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade End of the Year FREE LESSONS & PRICED LESSONS - The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Kindergarten LANGUAGE ARTS LESSONS MISC. LESSONS Uncategorized and tagged children and writing Grade 1 grade 2 kindergarten kindergarten writing primary writing summer writing Writing writing for real purposes on May 28, 2015 by That Fun Reading Teacher (updated on May 28, 2015)

Many children today do not have much appreciation for the world of paper and pen. The electronic world is far more seductive and even the adults in their lives are likely spending time on laptops or smartphones. Guilty as charged over here.

While building writing skills may come easily to some children, it can be overwhelming and exhausting to others. What is in it for them? They simply must see a point to it for real-world purposes, and receive positive feedback.

Kids do see us make lists – even if we make them on our smartphones. And kids do what we do (not necessarily what we say!)

For our purposes today, writing will mean any communicating in print. We’re talking about Kindergarten to grade two or three students of varying abilities.

Our goal is to help them understand why they are learning to write, buy into it and know that they are contributing members of society, who are appreciated for the contribution they are making by doing so!

Think of the possibilities for planning a day trip, or vacation….

Packing Lists…

The Social and Wish Lists…

Lists about stories and games…or anything really!

Whether our child / student draws or pastes pictures, dictates to us while we scribe, prints in hieroglyphics, or phonetically spelled words, we need to make this real world connection and commend them for making the effort. Especially in the summer!

Fun Summer Lists is included in a WRITING FOR REAL PURPOSES bundle called Summer Literacy Fun Pack, with Summer Fun: Reading and Writing through Play pictured below.

These products were inspired by a post I wrote last summer (also pictured below) and by the effectiveness of these types of activities with my own children and students. I hope you enjoy them. Think Summer! It’s just around the corner!

Best wishes to all of you as we head into the final month of school!

I.M.

That Fun Reading Teacher

Summer Fun - Reading and Writing through play! cover.png

Some

(almost)

Summer

freebies!

That Fun Reading Teacher’s Sight-Word-Stages Leveled Readers: Differentiate just by printing!

This entry was posted in 1st Grade 2nd Grade FREE LESSONS & PRICED LESSONS - The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs HOME Kindergarten LANGUAGE ARTS LESSONS MISC. LESSONS PreKindergarten SPECIAL EDUCATION Uncategorized and tagged CVC Word Work dolch words early literacy Emergent Reader guided reading kindergarten leveled readers Literacy Center Ideas No-Prep Printables Sight Words on April 28, 2015 by That Fun Reading Teacher (updated on May 6, 2015)

As educators, we have all kinds of fun activities and strategies for teaching and reinforcing sight words for reading and writing. Many of them involve practicing these words out of context. The point of Sight Word Recognition is to be able to recognize these words at a glance, in isolation. But all of the practice needn’t be.

I am in the early stages of creating a series of readers called ‘Sight Word Stages’ readers to help teachers differentiate for their students within the same reading level. While some of our students may struggle with putting all of the pieces of the reading puzzle together and need to work on that, there are many others who simply have difficulty remembering, and who require extra opportunities to practice using these little words in context.

Here is an example of a DRA/Reading Recovery Level 2 Reader:

A color PDF is included in the package, indicating the sight words of focus on the cover.

I print these on thicker paper, laminate them and keep them with other guided reading books.

Directional support is provided with the go to stop method.

A regular black and white copy is provided. Students can color and keep these, if you wish.

A trace-the-sight-word copy is provided for students requiring this level of support.

A fill-in-the-blanks copy is also provided for each title.

Supplementary Materials:

Color and black & white sentence strips (Tip: Print color copy onto card paper and laminate, and store with color readers for reuse)

Color and black & white Self-Check lists (I have a laminated color one on the wall over the writing table with a dry-erase marker, but know classroom teachers who give each child their own black and white copy, one who shrinks it to half-size. Early finishers draw or practice words on the back!)

Sometimes – there’s a surprise bonus activity – particularly in the bundles. Check the previews!

Here is what is currently available in the Sight-Word-Stages Readers Series:

Please note that freebies will not contain all of the parts mentioned above.

We are Community Helpers! Free Sight-Word-Stages Sampler

In revision:

More titles coming Summer 2015! Save with bundles!

Are there any particular themes you would like to see covered in these early levels? Please leave a comment and let me know! (Easter and Earth Day are already started in draft!)

Have a wonderful spring day, and pop into my store for a visit sometime by clicking my button!

Th TpT Store Prof pic circle

Ways Kids can help the Earth – Freebie!

This entry was posted in 1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade Uncategorized and tagged April Earth Day Earth Day Activities Earth Day Lessons free free lessons Literacy Center Ideas No-Prep Printables spring on April 12, 2015 by That Fun Reading Teacher (updated on August 22, 2015)

Hello everyone!

This free Earth Day printable is an ideal writing template for primary students. Entitled ‘Ways Kids Can Help The Earth’, and divided into three sections, its versatility lends itself to a number of uses.

Perhaps you’d like your students to demonstrate an understanding of the three ‘R’s. Whether they use stickers, cut-outs or drawing, they may end up with something like this:

It can be a graphic organizer (see link below for more graphic organizers like this one!), a stand-alone assignment or planner for a piece of writing:

It could even be a brainstormed list of ideas, contract of sorts, pre or post assessment piece:

And of course, there are always those who finish first. A drawing page for early finishers, and a vocabulary list for those who need one, are also included.

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

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iam@ThatFunReadingTeacher.com

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Related:

The Dealing-With-Feelings Series: The ‘how-to manage tricky feelings’ stories for kids

This entry was posted in 1st Grade 2nd Grade CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT FREE LESSONS & PRICED LESSONS - The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs HOME Kindergarten LANGUAGE ARTS LESSONS MISC. LESSONS SPECIAL EDUCATION and tagged back to school dealing with feelings early intervention emotional literacy feelings homeschool No-Prep Printables social skills Social Stories special education speech therapy teaching young children about feelings on April 6, 2015 by That Fun Reading Teacher (updated on April 8, 2015)

The Dealing-With-Feelings Series by That Fun Reading Teacher #DWF

Let me start by thanking those of you who have made these stories so popular over the past six months. This post is dedicated to you in gratitude. You have buoyed my confidence to continue along this path.

This is how this series came to be.

For the past few years, I have been a Special Education teacher to young children. Just a few years ago, while using social stories in integrated kindergarten classrooms with my students with autism, I noticed that their classmates were benefiting from them, too! The social stories I was using were written specifically for the child they were being used with, and parts of these stories had little relevance to their classmates. They seemed to be very interested in, and to find comfort in other parts of them.
It occurred to me that many children could benefit from stories that were like social stories, but meant for more of a general audience of young children: Characters role-modeling the how-to’s of dealing with tricky feelings. (We all know how motivated we are when someone TELLS us how to handle something!)Even in kindergarten, some children were already uncomfortable about discussing feelings. Research, parenting, teaching and talking to each other tells us that natural conversation only comes from a willing participant, especially one who initiates it.
Q: Where can one find kids who can naturally name and discuss a variety of feelings, involve other kids in the conversation without alienating them? A: In a picture books. All About Feelings is the foundation story for the Dealing-With-Feelings Series. Child narrators introduce kids to a range of emotions by showing them examples of kids feeling them in various situations. Below are the stories with characters figuring out how to identify and options they have for dealing with specific tricky feelings:



	SAVE WITH BUNDLES!

		BEST DEAL

I find myself turning to these stories more often recently.

In September, there were a few sad little people who found comfort in reading about another boy or girl who was sad to say good-bye in the morning, too.

When big kids kicked down snow forts and others were ‘stealing’ snowballs in January, reading about how kids dealt with anger was received a lot better than some of the strategies I’ve used in the past.

Who knew that the phrase ‘use your words’ could result in an airborne chair?

When the temperatures took a dive resulting in clusters of indoor recesses, well, let’s just say that it wasn’t only students benefiting from the When I Feel Frustrated books.

What feelings would you like to see dealt with in upcoming books? What are some strategies that you think should be included?

Watch for new titles Summer 2015…

Thank you to Rebekah Brock, whose clip art brought these stories alive!

Best~

www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/That-Fun-Reading-Teachers-Stories-And-Stuff https://www.pinterest.com/thatfunreadtchr/

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