Skip to content

Home
Waitlist
About
Login

First Week Activities

First Grade · Kindergarten · Pre-K · Second Grade

(Don’t see anything? Log in HERE or join HERE .)

Have questions about The Science of Reading Formula? Contact us here.

Post navigation

How to Set Up Rock Solid Math Stations

Simple Ways to Reach Those “Tough Nuggets”

Similar Posts

Apple Place Value

Apple Place Value

Gumball Write and Wipe Addition Cards

Gumball Write and Wipe Addition Cards

Back To School Color By Number

Back To School Color By Number

Flower CVC Match

Flower CVC Match

Watermelon STEM Book

Watermelon STEM Book

Beginning Sound Cards

Beginning Sound Cards

Feeling stuck? We’ve got you.

See what’s coming!

Save planning time!

Become Pen Pals

Be insta-friends

playdough2plato

Pick your teacher gift!👇

Comment 123CURE to unlock 4 game-changing teacher trainings that will help you melt away some of your biggest school stressors once and for all.

#scienceofreading #phonics #phonologicalawareness

154 430

playdough2plato

I’ll pick INTERACTIVE anchor charts every. single. time. You too?? 😍 This one’s a fun way to practice the Y that says /long i/ at the end of words and its cousin: the Y that says /long e/!

I recommend starting by having kids sort some pre-written words like the ones in this example so that you can intentionally talk about the two different Y sounds.

(Research has shown that for many students - especially our struggling readers - need us to explicitly connect the letter-sound dots for them instead of expecting that they will make those connections on their own so working through specific examples is really important.)

Then invite students to add other words to the chart!

This would be a great activity to add onto as students are reading and writing over time too... Each time they come across a word that ends in Y, they could write a new post-it.🥳

If you’d like help teaching phonics skills, I pulled together a f-r-e-e training breaking down my favorite phonics tips & tricks for you.

👉 Comment PHONICS below and I’ll send you an invite.

#phonicsfun #anchorcharts

849 147

playdough2plato

Fun fact: Phonics and spelling rules explain 98% of English words. Yep! You read that right. Words we used to call “rule breakers” like HAVE & THE can actually be explained. 🤯

But first, we have to learn the rules so we know how to explain them!

That’s why my team and I were so excited to pull together these 17 spelling rule posters for you…

👉 Members, as always, you can grab the bundle (and thousands of other brain-friendly teaching tools!) from the vault.

👉 If you’re not a member yet, just comment RULES below and I’ll send over the 🔗 to the shop.

#spelling #phonics #kindergartenteacher #firstgradeteacher #secondgradeteacher

379 977

playdough2plato

971 970

playdough2plato

Need a fun way to practice reading and spelling silent E words? This quick center does the trick every. 👏 single. 👏 time! 👏 It’s easy to prep and super fun to play.

Here’s the 411:

1️⃣ Use a black marker to write one CVC word on each index card. A few of my favorites are:

Kit
Tub
Can
Hop
Cap
Cub

2️⃣ Add an E with your white crayon.

3️⃣ Have students read the CVC word out loud and then color over the hidden E to make it magically appear. Now that the word has changed, have students read it again! 🥳

👉 Save this so you can find the directions when you need them again.

👉 Follow @playdough2plato for more simple, brain-friendly ways to teach reading.

#phonicsfun #phonicsforkids #jollyphonics #scienceofreading #learningthroughplay

241 6

playdough2plato

Steal my recipe for the perfect phonics lesson! 🎁 (Just remember to hit “save” so you can find it again. 😂)

#phonics #iteachk #iteachfirst #kindergartenteacher #firstgradeteacher #secondgradeteacher #weareteachers

1182 1035

playdough2plato

Help kids memorize sight words 10X faster with this simple little tweak…

Trade your sight word flashcards (which rely on students’ VISUAL memory) for sound maps (which help kids connect the word’s SOUNDS to the letters used to spell them).

Humans have a natural superpower for spoken language so we can use that strength to help brains connect the dots more quickly.

👉 Comment 10X and I’ll have our friendly Plato-Bot send you this pumpkin sound map so you can see the difference for yourself!

#orthographicmapping #sightwords #scienceofreading #learningtoread #kindergartenteacher #firstgradeteacher

543 698

playdough2plato

Knowing these 13 words is handy, but the sorting trick on slide four is GAME CHANGING.🔥

#phonics #orthographicmapping #scienceofreading

895 2446

playdough2plato

Fun CVC Post-it game coming in hot! 🔥 To play, students simply swap out vowel Post-it notes to make new words. Here’s a handy list to get you started:

B_D
P_N
L_T
P_T
B_G
T_B
F_N
D_D
S_B
T_N

And don’t worry if students end up making nonsense words – research has shown it’s important for them to practice reading those too.

👉 Save this so you can easily find it again later!

#scienceofreading #thescienceofreading #readingteacher #literacycenters #learningthroughplay #playfullearning

899 25

playdough2plato

Post-it word chains! 🥳 It’s an easy prep, addictively fun way to practice CVC words.

Here’s how to prep it:

1. Write beginning sounds on one stack of post its…

2. Middle vowels on a second stack…

3. And ending sounds on a third…

4. Then read, pull, and read again!

📌 Make sure to save this so you remember how to play!

#phonicsfun #playfullearning #learningthroughplaying #scienceofreading #cvcwords

366 9

playdough2plato

Do you know the CH versus TCH rules? 👇

CH comes…

1️⃣ at the start of words (chop, chin, chat), and

2️⃣ after any sound except a short vowel (bench, coach, lunch)

TCH is used…

1️⃣ at the end of a word or syllable AFTER a short vowel (fetch, watch, pitch)

Like so many words in English, it’s important to know that there are some exceptions including such, rich, much and which.

👉 Make sure to save this and tag a friend who would love it too!

#phonicsrules #scienceofreading #phonicsfun

580 2

playdough2plato

World’s best literacy center!🥳 Write one word on each sticker dot (I used -AT words but you could pick anything under the sun: CVCe words, digraph words, blends…)

Then attach a dot to every counting chip.

As kids race to be the first player to have four counting chips in a row, they will read and write their words along the way.

It’s a simple little twist but it makes phonics practice addictively fun.

👉 Be sure to save this!

#scienceofreading #phonicsfun #phonics #literacycenters #literacymatters #playfullearning #learningthroughplay #thereadingroadmap

737 17

playdough2plato

This phonics hack makes it sooooo much easier to learn the soft G and C sound! 🏆 When the letters C & G come before the letters E, I or Y, they change to their soft /s/ & /j/ sound. For example…

CENT
GIRAFFE
CYCLE
GENTLEMAN
CIRCLE
GYM

👉 Follow @playdough2plato for more helpful teaching tips!

#phonicsfun #phonics #scienceofreading #scienceofreadinginaction #iteachfirst #firstgradeteacher

2202 22

playdough2plato

Let’s be honest… It’s a whole lot easier to just keep teaching the same way we’ve always been teaching.

In fact, when it comes to teaching reading, there are lots of reasons NOT to make the switch to brain-friendly, research-based teaching strategies and tools...

😩Learning new things can feel hard…

😭Discovering that some of our favorite teaching strategies are actually ineffective for kids feels icky…

😮‍💨Hunting down trustworthy, research-based lesson plans and activities takes time…

The list goes on and on. But here’s the thing:

The longer we wait, the more kids will slip through the cracks. And that’s just unacceptable.

So I created a shortcut that makes it easy for you to go all-in on the science of reading in your Pre-K, Kinder, or 1st Grade classroom right away. (You can literally cross off tons of the things on the “hard stuff” list!)

👉 Comment EASY below and I’ll have our friendly Plato-Bot send you the info.

#kinderchat #earlylearning #kindergartenteacher #prekteacher #firstgradeteacher

173 224

playdough2plato

Calling all Matchbox Car fans… Or basically anyone who loves fun learning.🤸‍♂️

This center makes practicing phonics & decoding skills a blast. But what makes it even better is that you can use it to work on any skills under the sun: digraphs, short vowel CVC words, blends, etc.

👉Be sure to save this!

#phonicsgames #phonicsfamily

311 14

playdough2plato

Sometimes it’s the simplest things that pack the biggest learning punch. Case in point: spoon word families! 🚀 With just a few basic supplies, you can practice any phonics skill under the sun: beginning digraphs, middle vowels in CVC words… even word endings like -ING and -ED.

Wondering what phonics skill you should work on first? I’ll give you a quick phonics assessment that makes it easy to pinpoint exactly where students need to start inside my four week course called The Reading Roadmap. It only opens twice a year and the next round kicks off on Sunday!

👉 Comment ROADMAP down below if you’d like me to send you an invite!

#phonics #phonicsfun

402 43

playdough2plato

You’ve gotta’ add this phonics anchor chart to your collection! 🤸‍♂️ It’s a handy way to help students remember that the long O can be spelled with OW at the end of a word or OA in the middle.

Bonus tip: When long O comes at the end of a word, it can also be spelled with OE as in TOE, FOE, and JOE.

You’ll learn TONS of helpful phonics tips just like this one inside The Reading Roadmap. And I’ll give you the step-by-step lesson plans, centers, and decodable passages you need to actually practice them too!

Enrollment only opens twice a year and this round closes on Sunday so, if you have your eye on a spot, it’s go time.

👉 Comment ROADMAP below and I’ll send you an invite!

#phonics #anchorcharts

2052 194

playdough2plato

📣 PSA: As fluent readers, our default setting is to focus on the letters we SEE in words instead of thinking about the sounds we HEAR. But when we’re practicing phonemic awareness with students (the most important foundational reading skill kids need), we have to turn that default off so we can correctly home in on the individual sounds we hear like this:

SHIP—> 4 letters but just 3 sounds /sh /i/ /p/

BOX—> 3 letters but 4 sounds /b/ /o/ /k/ /s/

👉 Share this to help other teachers too!

#phonemicawareness #phonologicalawareness

133 10

playdough2plato

Over the last 70 years, researchers, experts, and brain scientists have been pinpointing the best ways to teach reading so you can keep doing the things that work and stop doing the things that don't.

We finally have the information we need to teach reading smarter instead of harder...

But there's just ONE little catch:

You have to use it!

In today's world, teaching reading can be FAR easier than it has ever been before. You can start seeing big improvements very quickly.

But first, you need to figure out if the teaching tools and strategies you're using are actually brain-friendly...

So I pulled together a list of 27 curriculum red flags to make that step quick and easy for you.

👉 Comment LIST below and I’ll send the curriculum checklist over to you!

#scienceofreading #iteachprek #iteachk #iteachfirst

495 643

playdough2plato

Dollar Store literacy center coming in hot! 🔥 This activity is SO MUCH fun and you can use it to practice any word family under the sun: short vowels, long vowels, vowel teams, diphthongs, ending digraphs…

👉Make sure to save this so you can follow the step-by-step when you’re ready.

👉And tag a teacher friend who would love it too.💕

#scienceofreading #iteachkindergarten #iteachk #iteachprek #prekteacher #phonicsfun #phonics #readingteacher #thereadingroadmap #learningthroughplay #playfullearning #earlychildhoodeducation

4594 39

Pin With Me

Facebook It

Playdough to Plato

6 days ago

Pick your teaching gift!💝

#scienceofreading #phonics #phonologicalawareness ... See MoreSee Less

View on Facebook

· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

© 2023 The Plato Pack • Becca Paro Design Co., LLC

Home
Waitlist
About
Login

Search for: