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playdough2plato

If teaching reading feels like you’re lost in a maze of complicated twists and turns, it’s not your fault…

For decades, big box curriculums and trainings promoted ineffective teaching tools and strategies that just don’t work.

But thankfully, we have 70+ years of research, brain scans, and case studies pinpointing how students *actually* learn to read. And once you find out the shortcuts, teaching gets a whooooole lot easier.🤸‍♂️

I put together my five favorite teaching hacks into a free challenge that’s kicking off TOMORROW. You’ll implement one shortcut a day, and, at the end of the week, you’ll celebrate all of your teaching breakthroughs and success stories. 🥳

But you have to grab your seat ahead of time…

👉 Comment CHALLENGE below to request you’re invite!

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Comment CHALLENGE below and I’ll send over your invite!😘

#scienceofreading #phonics #phonemic awareness

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It’s important to know the best order for teaching phonics skills so you don’t accidentally skip 3 steps ahead…

Plus, knowing the step-by-step sequence makes it *so much* easier to help kids because you can quickly pinpoint where they are and jump right into teaching them the next skill on the list. 💪

NOTE: Researchers are still debating about the ideal order so sometimes you might see digraphs listed before blends and other times you’ll see blends before digraphs, for example…

That said, this is the recommended sequence I rely on:

1 Letter sounds
2 CVC short vowel word families
3 Digraphs
4 Blends
5 Magic E
6 Vowel teams
7 Diphthongs
8 R-influenced vowels
9 Word endings
10 Contractions
11 Homophones

Speaking of tips that make it a whooooole lot easier to teach reading, I’m kicking off a free 5-day challenge on Sunday and I’d love for you to join us!

I’ll give you one quick and simple teaching tweak each day for five days and at the end of it, you’ll be celebrating five massive reading breakthroughs.🤸‍♂️

👉Comment CHALLENGE below and I’ll have our friendly Plato-Bot send you the invite. (It’s free!)
 #phonicsfun #phonics #spelling #scienceofreading #scienceofreadinginaction #kinderteacher #prekteacher #firstgradeteacher

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Do you know the doubling rule yet? If a one syllable word ends with a short vowel and a consonant, double the consonant before adding the ending.

Here are some sample words to get you started:

ZIP—> ZIPPED—> ZIPPING
HOP—> HOPPED—> HOPPING
SKIP—> SKIPPED—> SKIPPING
TAP—> TAPPED—> TAPPING
STEP—> STEPPED—> STEPPING
GET—> GETTING
DRIP—> DRIPPED—> DRIPPING
HIT—> HITTING
ZAP—> ZAPPED—> ZAPPING
DROP—> DROPPED—> DROPPING

👉 What other words could we add to this list? Share one in the comments below so we can create a GIANT list of options to pick from.

👉 And be sure to save this so you can remember the words later!

#phonicsfun #logicofenglish #learningtoread #teachingreading

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One of my all-time favorites! Research has proven that music & movement help brains learn so I’m obsessed with this simple, brain-friendly C & K chant from Aaron Franklin.👏

To get kids up and moving, they could repeat the words as they march around the room, or hop up and down, or tap their fingers on the table like drumsticks…

There are tons of fun, active options!

And it’s the perfect compliment to this handy visual teaching kids that when the /k/ sound comes at the beginning of words, it’s spelled with a C if it’s followed by A, O, or U like in the word CAT…

But it’s spelled with a K if it’s followed by E or I like in the word KITE.

👉 Save this so you remember it later!

👉 And share it so other teachers can use it too.

#scienceofreading #spelling

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Here are all SIX types of phonemic awareness in one go-to spot!💥

1️⃣ PHONEME ISOLATION: identifying a specific sound in a word

2️⃣ PHONEME BLENDING: stringing together individual sounds to make a new word

3️⃣ PHONEME SEGMENTING: breaking apart the individual sounds in a word

4️⃣ PHONEME ADDITION: adding another sound to a word

5️⃣ PHONEME DELETION: taking away a sound from a word

6️⃣ PHONEME SUBSTITUTION: swapping out one sound in a word for another sound

👉 Save this so you can find it again quickly!

#phonemicawareness #scienceofreading #iteachprek #iteachk

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playdough2plato

Word ladders have never been cooler! 😎 Make it extra fun to practice reading word families by adding a simple element of surprise so it feels more like a game than work. Here’s how to do it…

Write one word family on each word ladder, and then have kids place random consonants on every rung to build surprise words.

I used unifix letter cubes, but there are lots of options you can pick from! You can have kids grab alphabet magnets or Scrabble tiles, spin a letter wheel…

Just make sure that they are just pulling consonants.❤️

👉 Be sure to save this so you remember how to set it up!

#phonemicawareness #decoding #scienceofreadingteachers

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Soooo many sounds have multiple spelling options and it can be tricky to keep everything straight. 🤪 I hope this little vowel team chart helps it all click!

It's a great one to turn into an anchor chart for kids because, although there are exceptions to these rules, more often than not, they'll hold true.

👉 Be sure to save it so you can find it again!

#phonics #phonicsfun #scienceofreading

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Have you ever wondered why the words COULD & SHOULD have a silent L? Here’s the scoop…

When L comes after an A, O or U, it’s usually silent. For example…

HALF
SALMON
YOLK
FOLKS
WOULD
SHOULD

Like a lot of spelling and phonics rules, this one has some exceptions including HALO, BULK, SOLD, & FOLD but, more often than not, it’ll stay true.

👉 Be sure to save this so you have some go-to words to use when you teach it.

👉 And tag a teacher friend who would love teaching it to their kids too!❤️ #scienceofreading

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playdough2plato

For years, I had students who knew their letter sounds but struggled to actually blend those sounds together to read words. Can you relate?🙋

The great news is that once you know what’s actually causing the problem, you can jump right in and fix it.

👉Comment SAMPLE below and I’ll have our friendly Plato-Bot send you the link to 2 weeks of our best selling, no prep, 5-minute Phonological Awareness Warm Ups. (My treat!❤️)

#phonologicalawareness #iteachk #iteachkinder #kindergarten #iteachprek #prekteacher

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This interactive anchor chart is a BIG crowd pleaser!👏 A simple box of Band-Aids helps kids learn when to write the /ow/ sound with OU vs. OW.

️If the /ow/ sound comes at the beginning of a word (but not before the letters L, N, EL or ER), it’s spelled OU like in OUT and OUCH…

If /ow/ is at the end, it’s usually spelled OW like in COW and HOW…

But if /ow/ is in the middle, it can be either OU or OW like in LOUD, PROUD, TOWN and BROWN.

👉 Make sure to save this so you have the step-by-step!

#anchorcharts

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Here are the 7 jobs of silent E in one go-to spot 🙌 …

1. A silent final E makes the vowel before it say its long sound: make, bite, pole, cube.

2. English words cannot end in the letters V or U, so E may be added: have, give, blue, clue.

3. A silent final E makes a C say /s/ and the G say lj/: face, ice, huge, age.

4. Every syllable must have a written vowel, so E is added when a syllable has just an L: little, turtle, waffle, google.

5. A silent E keeps singular words that end in S from being mistaken as plural: moose, purse, goose, house.

6. A silent E makes TH say its voiced sound: bath versus bathe, cloth versus clothe.

7. E is added to help distinguish between similar words: by versus bye, or versus ore.

👉 Be sure to save this!

#scienceofreadinginaction #structuredliteracy #phonics #kindergarten #firstgrade

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Every child deserves the opportunity to learn how to read. Period.

But the sad reality is that 67% of 4th graders in the US are currently reading below grade level.

And it doesn’t have to be this way! We have *decades* of brain scans, case studies, and research pinpointing the teaching tools and strategies that work (so we can keep doing them) AND the things that don't work (so we can stop wasting precious time).

That's why I'm so obsessed with giving you the tools, training, and support you need to teach reading the brain-friendly way.

Because when you're empowered, you can be successful, your teaching partner can be successful, your school can be successful… we can all be successful because students CAN learn to read.

We just need to use the proven, science-based strategies that actually set students up for literacy success.💛

#scienceofreading

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playdough2plato

Learning to read is a lot like building a house… If you have holes and cracks in your foundation, your walls and roof will always be shaky. That’s why it’s so important to build students’ rock-solid phonological awareness skills – they’re the foundation of successful reading.

👉 Comment SAMPLE below and I’ll send you the first two weeks of my phonological awareness warm ups so you can see how easy it can be to build.

#phonologicalawareness #scienceofreading

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Once kids learn how to read open and closed syllables, they’re empowered to sound out 70% of words. 🔥 And thankfully, this simple little teaching hack makes it sooooo much easier for those syllables to click!

👉 OPEN flap = OPEN syllable with a long vowel like the words NO, BE, and A.

👉 CLOSED flap = CLOSED syllable with a short vowel like the words NOT, BED, and AT.

Here’s a handy word list to help get you started:

WE —> WED or WET or WEB
I —> IN or IT or IS or IF
NO —> NOT or NOD
ME —> MEN or MET
GO —> GOT or GOB
HI —> HIM or HIT of HID
A —> AT or AM or AN or AS or AD

📌 Make sure to save this so you can circle back when you need it!

#scienceofreading #teacherhacks #teacherhack

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playdough2plato

Quick phonics hack!⚡️If the /ow/ sound comes at the beginning of a word (but not before the letters L, N, EL or ER), it’s spelled OU like in OUT and OUCH…

If /ow/ is at the end, it’s usually spelled OW like in COW and HOW…

But if /ow/ is in the middle, it can be either OU or OW like in LOUD, PROUD, TOWN and BROWN.

👉 Follow @playdough2plato for more phonics hacks!

#phonicsfun #phonics #teacherhack #firstgradeteacher

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playdough2plato

Struggle to know how or when to teach the SIX different phonemic awareness skills? This will help! ❤️

#phonemicawareness #phonologicalawareness

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The moment I saw this idea from @phonicsfamily, I had to give it a try. It’s BRILLIANT! 👏

Make it easy for kids to tap, blend, and spell words by adding a simple strip of tape to the corner of their white boards.

You can even differentiate by adding more dots so kids who are ready can practice words with more sounds!

👉 Share with a friend who would love it too!

#scienceofreading #phonemicawareness

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27 minutes ago

If teaching reading feels like you’re lost in a maze of complicated twists and turns, it’s not your fault…

For decades, big box curriculums and trainings promoted ineffective teaching tools and strategies that just don’t work.

But thankfully, we have 70+ years of research, brain scans, and case studies pinpointing how students *actually* learn to read. And once you find out the shortcuts, teaching gets a whooooole lot easier.🤸‍♂️

I put together my five favorite teaching hacks into a free challenge that’s kicking off TOMORROW. You’ll implement one shortcut a day, and, at the end of the week, you’ll celebrate all of your teaching breakthroughs and success stories. 🥳

But you have to grab your seat ahead of time…

👉 Comment CHALLENGE below to request you’re invite! ... See MoreSee Less

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