Top 50

I was so excited and honored when I opened my email!  Little Literacy Learners was named one of the Top 50 Educational Blogs, based on recommendations by other teacher blogs for having outstanding content for elementary teachers, by Teacher Certification Degrees!

Click the picture below to see what they have to say and to view the other blogs on the list that Little Literacy Learners joins!

Thank you!

Upper Case Sound Identification Progress Monitoring

I was recently assigned to provide a Tier III intervention and needed something to track the letter sound identification of the student, so I created this little, easy to use tool to monitor progress. 

It includes 2 data sheets for the teacher to mark and monitor progress, along with 12 stimulus sheets for the students to view.  Each stimulus sheet lists the 26 letters of the alphabet in a different, random order. As the student  goes through and produces the sounds, I will make a slash through incorrect responses on the Data Sheet.  (These include the most common consonant sounds and short vowel sounds)  When complete, I will total up the number of correct responses and then graph it right on the Data Sheet. 


The data sheet allows you to have all of your data from 12 different assessment periods on one sheet (when printed front-to-back)!

Click on a picture for the shop of your choice!

What are some ways you monitor progress for either Tier II or Tier III interventions?

The End of Molasses Classes

I was asked to review, The End of Molasses Classes by Ron Clark. Can I just say his school sounds absolutely A....MA....ZING!  I think a slide in the middle of our foyer at home school would be so much fun!


 In this book, Mr. Clark provides 101 "Extraordinary Solutions for Parents and Teachers" to help get students "unstuck".  I wanted to take a moment to share two of the solutions that really touched me.  (I don’t want to give too much away in case you haven’t read the book yourself.)

His 12th Solution:  Set the tone for a love of learning.
This solution really brought me back to The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller and how much we need to instill a love, not only for reading, but for learning in general.  So many of my little learners do not have that love for reading or learning when they begin working with me.  We as teachers need to instill that in them.  I agree with Mr. Clark in that we need to show our students that we are lifelong learners and continue to have a constant thirst for knowledge.  We need to show them that even as adults there are still questions that we may not be able to answer, because we continue to learn things ourselves.  He states, "No one knows everything, and the real lesson we need to teach our children is that the man who can actually find the answers to any questions presented to him is the true genius."  It helps to reinforce the need for the students to try their hardest and do their very best every day.


His 13th Solution:  Treat every child as if he or she were your own.
I wholeheartedly agree with him when he says, "For anyone who works with children, we often are made aware of the burdens they have to bear, but in many instances we will never know.  We never have an awareness of the pain they are feeling and the struggles they have to endure.  What we can do, however, is love them and see them as individuals we care about and respect."
He says we can accomplish this by simply paying attention to them, asking them how they are, having lunch with them, or even giving a small gift.  He says, "It may seem like something simple at the time, but it may just end up being the most special moment in the life of a child who is desperately deserving of happiness."  All of the children we work with are such beautiful little beings and part of our job is to help them see themselves as such.


Some of his solutions seem so very simple.  But as simple as they are, they really help open our eyes to the many hats we need to wear as parents and teachers!  


Don't forget to stop by TBA to see what others have to say about this amazing book and how it has touched them!

~ Enjoy!

If You Give...Online Storytime

A favorite author of my daughter (and of course myself),

Laura Numeroff,

is reading

 If You Give a Mouse a Cookie 

this month for Barnes and Noble Online Storytime!

Click on the picture to hear this wonderful story!

Also, The Sub Hub just posted kindergarten emergency sub-plans that span across the curriculum to go along with

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie!

Time Out Tuesday-Apples

I shared some pictures of our recent trip to the apple orchard and a YUMMY recipe over at TBA for 

Time Out Tuesday!

Click on the picture to head on over!

Then come on back to share YOUR favorite recipe for the Fall or made with apples!

Honored-I Heart Your Blog

I want to send a big THANK YOU to Jacque from

for awarding me with the

Here are the rules for this award: 

1.  Give the "I heart Your Blog" award to your favorite Top 10 Blogs that have touched your heart and inspired your teaching by listing them on your blog.

2. Contact that person and let them know of their heartfelt award.

3. When you receive the award, copy and paste the graphic onto your blog and give a shout out to the person who nominated you.

4. Spread the LOVE by passing the "I Heart Your Blog" award on your top 10.

The following are my TOP 10, whose buttons I proudly display on my sidebar:

Teaching Blog Addict

The Moffatt Girls

Extra Special Teaching

Climbing the Monkey Bars

Teaching…My Calling

Kindergarten Korner

Sun Scholars

Musings of Me

2 Teaching Mommies

This Reading Mama

Thank you!

Short Books-Sight Word Instruction

How many of you have emergent readers who once they realize there is a predictable pattern in a book, they stop paying attention to the words and only focus on the pictures?

Well, I wanted to share a fantastic resource that I have been using for the past few years to support sight word instruction.  They are called Short Books.  

And they are just that, short little books aimed to help increase automaticity in reading the most frequent words of English.


What I love is that these books do not repeatedly use phrases such as, "I can..." on each page. Instead, the language structure is varied so that the reader has to pay close attention to the letters and words in order to read the text.  For example, the following variations are used within "can":  "Can I go..."  "I can see..."  "Can I see..."

The series of books are numbered and as a new word is introduced it is incorporated with the words previously introduced, so they build upon one another.  I also love the last page of the book.  It has several of the introduced sight words jumbled up on the page for the reader to identify in isolation.

Can you tell they were created by a teacher?!

Honored-Versatile Blogger

I want to send a huge THANK YOU to the following authors:


Jody from

.

Allison from 

.

AND

Jody from

for awarding me the

I am so honored!  Please be sure to check out their blogs if you haven't already!

After accepting this award, you are requested to do the following:

1. Thank the person(s) who nominated you and provide a link back to their blog.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass this award along to 15 other blogs.

Here are 7 things about myself:
1.  I was so nervous to begin my own blog because I didn't think my posts would be useful to anyone, but am happy and thankful I did!  I have met so many wonderful educators from around the world and absolutely love the blogging community!
2.  I love reality t.v.
3.  I think the DVR is one of the best pieces of technology ever invented!  (How else would I get to watch my reality t.v.?)
4.  I absolutely LOVE being a mommy and am amazed by my daughter each and every day!!
5.  I am a homebody and would prefer to be home over any other place in the world!
6.  I am an early bird and usually wake up before my alarm goes off.
7.  I hardly ever go to the movies because I can NEVER stay awake for the duration of one!




Here are the 15 blogs I would like to pass the award along to:

Kinderglynn

 1+1+1=1

Turnstall’s Teaching Tidbits

Learning With Mrs. Parker

Totally Tots

The Write Handed Teacher

Literacy and Laughter 

A Place to Share

Hello Literacy

A Place Called Kindergarten

Elle Belle’s Bows

Learning is Child’s Play 

Heather’s Heart

Create Teach Share

Hart 2 Hart

Thank you for all you do!

Handout-Reading Aloud and Laptops

We will be celebrating Open House with our families this week.  Last year I provided a handout about the importance of reading aloud to children to the kindergarten families.  After seeing and falling in love with this amazing post on Dr. Jean's blog, I went ahead and tweaked it a little bit to incorporate the need for every child to have a laptop....not the electronic device, but a laptop to sit on each and every night!!

Click on the picture below to access the download through my Teacher's Notebook shop:

Enjoy!

What a crazy start!

This has been quite a crazy way to start a school year.  

The students were sent home at 10:30 am on their first day of school yesterday and today the district is closed!  This is due to the excessive rain, flooding, and multiple road closures throughout our district.  

We have had some crazy weather for this area over the past few months.  From small earthquakes to tornadoes touching down just a few miles away, both to the east and west of us.  Of course Hurricane Irene visited us, who brought the initial set of heavy wind, excessive rains, and flooding.  And now the rain just does not want to let up or give us a break!

I really hope it isn't an indication of what our winter will be, or a bad omen for what will happen this school year!

Prayers go out to my colleagues and families of the district, some who have water in their homes once again, others have lost everything.  Prayers also go out to the members of our local communities who have been hit even harder!  

Stay safe everyone!

© http://www.mycutegraphics.com/