Ten Freebies, Dollar Deals, and Two Dollar Treats for Back to School!

Yes, you read that right, that's a full ten back-to-school bargains!

These bargains are designed to make your teacher life easier for back to school!

These are some of the things that always help me through those first busy weeks of school! 

 

Here's a Dollar Deal to help organize your literacy centers, including what the children do when they're not with you!

Literacy Center Cards! 

These cards are part of this more inclusive resource: 

Guided Reading and Literacy Center Management and Organization Resources

 

 

We all know those children who struggle to learn sight words. This research-based $2 Treat will help!

Spelling Fun - Brain Friendly Task Cards

For a more inclusive resource see:

Research-Based Sight Word Task Cards for ANY Word

 Here's a great way to keep communication open with parents, and give them some information that will help their children be successful!

Parent Communication Brochure for Back to School or September

This system has helped many children master their basic math facts. This freebie is the first of 8 research-based, brain-friendly levels toward math fact fluency.

Brain Friendly Addition and Subtraction Fact Freebie

Have your students mastered addition and subtraction facts? Move them on to multiplication and division! As with the addition and subtraction facts above, these are research-based and brain-friendly. This freebie is the first of 8 levels toward multiplication and division fact fluency!

 

Brain Friendly Multiplication and Division Freebie

This Dollar Deal is a great way to start the year in Science and Social Studies.

 

Science and Social Studies Printables for August & September Sampler

For the full set of 9 enhanced activities see:

Science and Social Studies Activities for August and September

  

Looking for some fun ways to get the children comfortable with each other and learn to work together? These 6 Dollar Deal Team Building Games are very popular!

6 Team Building Games and Activities 

These 6 games are included in:

20 Team Building Games and Activities Build Classroom Community

These 20 games are included in the bigger set... this one will last you the whole year!

60 Team Building Games and Activities to Build Classroom Community

  

I use these Dollar Deal tools as a "school office" with my students. These hands-on tools help children become independent learners!

 

Hands-On Tools for Learning: Sampler

These tools are included in the big bundle:

Hands-On Tools for Learning Bundle

These tools are also available for each individual subject:

Reading Tools for Learning

Writing Tools for Learning

Math Tools for Learning

Science Tools for Learning

Social Studies Tools for Learning

  

This Dollar Deal is a fun way to get the kiddos thinking about their learning and how they can take charge of their learning.

I Can Stretch My Brain!

 

This one will help the kiddos get all those summertime wiggles out!

Back to School Brain Breaks

If you find these freebies and dollar deals useful, I'd love if you left some feedback!

I hope these bargains and ideas make your teaching life a bit easier!

 

 

Seven Ideas for Reading Accurately

I've finished my DIBELS, and my kids are all over the ballpark as far as their needs go. 

I have noticed that several students had high "Words Correct Per Minute", but their accuracy was low. These kids read loads of words but were adding, changing, and omitting lots of words. These same kids also had trouble with punctuation, and retelling the story. They need work on accuracy!

Here are some ideas for working on accuracy.

1.  Tell them that's what they need to work on. Yes, seriously, give them the feedback they need. That's the number one trick to improvement, knowing what you need to work at! If necessary, revisit the "finger-pointing" stage to help them focus on the words that are really there. (But don't stay at the "finger-pointing" stage, of course!)

2.  Partner reading - One partner reads, and the other partner checks to make sure they're reading accurately. This works best if the children are evenly matched at their own reading level.

3. Read with an adult - Grab a spare adult somewhere to read with students! It might be a teacher assistant, a parent volunteer, or maybe even the librarian, Phys. Ed. teacher or music teacher! Anyone that has a few minutes can sit down with a child and listen to them read. (Make sure they are ready to give feedback!)

4. Have them read "out soft" - often!  The more they read so someone can hear, the more accurate they will become. That "sense of an audience" really makes a difference. When my students come to reading group, I have them bring a book they are working on, and they are expected to sit down and start reading it "out soft". That means: loud enough so that I can hear them across the reading table, but not loud enough to be heard from across the room. They find it a little awkward at first, but it doesn't take long for them to feel comfortable reading their book just loud enough to be heard. This trick also gives me a chance to listen to individuals, give a little extra time to some kids, and has the children warmed up and ready for reading group. I notice huge improvements in accuracy and fluency when I start doing this!

5. Readers Theater - As mentioned above, that "sense of an audience" is a big motivator! Plus, Readers Theater can be fun, which is another plus! There are plenty of sources of scripts out there. Just google it! Just beware of the danger of readers theater: after reading it a few times, they memorize the script. Then it isn't real reading anymore! Find some ideas here: Using Reader's Theater to Help Students Learn Kindness.

6.  Reading song lyrics - Music is very closely related to the memory. If they already know the song, they'll be able to read the lyrics. Give out song sheets and have them "finger read". As above, just make sure they are truly reading, not reciting something that they have memorized. (There's nothing wrong with memorization, but that's not the skill we're trying to improve!)

7.  Practice sight words and phrases - In order to read accurately, they've got to know the words! Experts recommend that children learn sight words in context. See the freebie below for several phrases using the Dolch pre-primer list. There are plenty more of these for other levels, too!

What are your ideas for building accuracy?