Little Literacy Learners: July 2014

I am so excited to share my thoughts with you about two of great products: High-Frequency Magnetic Words and Magnetic Kidboards

There are a total of 205 learning magnets that included nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, word endings, punctuation marks, etc... The best thing is that they are color-coded!! My daughter couldn't wait to open the packages to try them out. So we opened them up, I sorted the magnets by color and placed the Kidboards right on the tabletop. It was the perfect size!

What a wonderful, hands-on and engaging way to provide instruction on sight word identification, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, complete sentences, rhyming, fluency, etc... I explained what each color meant and my little one jumped right in, building sentences.

Here are some great teachable moments that happened in just a few moments with the learning magnets:
Concept of Word: I reminded her, "What comes in between each word?"
Capitalization: Sometimes the word she used at the beginning of her sentence did not start with a capital letter, I would ask her, "What happens to the first letter of the sentence?" or Which letter should be capitalized? Why?"
Punctuation: "What comes at the end of the sentence?"
Sight Word Identification and Fluency: I made sentences for her to read aloud to me.
Grammar: As she built her sentence, there were times she would say, "Do we have the word ___?" I could answer by saying, "Yes, that is a verb. Go ahead and try to find it in the red pile."

I can't wait to use them with my students!!
Guess what?! Great news is that you can win a set of your own!
Just enter via the Rafflecopter below!
a Rafflecopter giveaway (Please be sure to read the Terms and Conditions!! You must be a U.S. resident!)
And to have a little fun, make sure you leave me a comment telling me what word is hidden under my daughter's hand below!

Thank you Barker Creek for contacting me to review these items!

Click on the pictures below to learn more about each of these amazing products!

And if you haven't visited Barker Creek's website, click on the picture below to see all of their great teaching resources and supplies!

Good luck!

The new school year is about to begin! This means there will be new kiddos coming through our doorway. What do you do to learn about each and every one of them as learners? Look through their portfolios from their previous grade(s)? Speak to their previous teacher?

In addition to those things, I like to send home the following

Parent/Guardian Reading and Learning Survey

This basic survey is completed by the parent/guardian of the student. It asks about what the child likes to do, what they are good at, what may be difficult for them, etc... It also allows the parent to share any important information that will help me support and motivate their child as a reader.

I found a great two-page student survey from

The Teacher Organizer right on TPT called

Things That Interest Me!

I have used this with both first and second graders.

For older students, I have them complete the following

Student Learning Survey:

This two-page survey helps me learn about their interests at school, at home, and when reading. It also helps me learn about my students' thinking during reading, writing, and more!

What are some means that you use to help better understand and learn about your new students?