Spoiler alert: Teaching vowels in the traditional order A, E, I, O, and U can actually be confusing to new readers. Several of the sounds are so similar that learning them back-to-back is a real struggle. For instance, new readers’ brains strain to hear the difference between the short A in BAD and the short E…
It’s hard to think of fall and not have Johnny Appleseed come to mind. This playful, apple-themed short and long vowel sort is a must-try! Scroll below to snag your freebie and then hop over and grab our Vowel Team Centers as well! Getting Ready The prep for this vowel sort activity was super simple….
Back to school season is right around the corner, and with it comes all things apples. Add some seasonal fun to your reading centers this fall with these hands-on medial vowel clip cards. Scroll below to grab your freebie and then jump over and grab our Vowel Team Centers for more fun! Getting Ready To…
Looking for a fun way to practice vowel sounds with kids?! We’ve got you covered. This free vowel sound sort is a great literacy center, guided reading activity or homeschool project. Just print, prep and play. Then, for more fun vowel work, check out or Vowel Team Centers in our shop! Getting Ready To prep…
Looking for a fun way to practice those tricky vowel sounds with kids? This complement to our popular CVC word sort helps students sort, match and compare short vowel and long vowel words. The hands-on freebie is great to use as literacy centers, guided reading lessons or homeschool activities. For more vowel fun, check out our…
Long vowels are tricky! There are numerous ways to spell them out, so it takes time and practice for kids to become confident. These long vowel clip cards are an easy and fun way to show long vowel words spelled in different ways. They’re great puzzlers for first and second graders. For more vowel fun,…
This seashell vowel team sort is a motivating way for students to practice their long vowel sounds this summer! Scroll below to grab the freebie and then jump over and snag our Vowel Team Centers in our shop! Getting Ready The prep for this vowel team sort was very simple. IÂ printed the vowel team pails…
Looking for a fun long vowel activity for kids?  These secret summer sentences give kids plenty of practice reading and writing words with long vowels including -ay, -ee, -igh and -oa. Children will love solving the mystery words and you’ll love that they’re getting lots of long vowel pattern practice. For more vowel practice, check out our Vowel Team…
For many kids, the hardest letter sounds to learn are those tricky vowels: A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y. Every word in English has at least one, so tackling them is uber important but, MASTERING them…. well, that can be a long road for some. This vowel activity is here to help! These…
Vowel sounds (A, E, I, O and U) are often the most difficult for children to master. These hands-on puzzles and word cards give kids plenty of practice sounding out short CVC words and identifying the missing middle vowel sound. They’re great to use as literacy centers, guided reading activities or word family games with new readers. …
If your kids are learning about middle sounds in words, then you’ll love these simple, kid-friendly middle vowel activity sheets! They are great for review or a print-and-go activity on a rainy day. Snag your set and then hop over and request your invite to our VIP teachers’ club, The Plato Pack, so you can…
Are your little readers working on reading short vowel words this fall? This sort is the perfect way to practice reading simple words while identifying the medial short vowel sound with a fun seasonal twist. Scroll below to grab your freebie, then make sure to hop over and snag our Vowel Team Centers in our…
Helping kids notice differences between short vowel sounds can be tricky but, thankfully, these ten short vowel emergent readers are a huge help! The ten emergent reader books are a motivating and easy prep way to help kids build critical pre-reading skills. Each set even includes pocket chart cards and follow up practice sheets so you can easily…
Helping kids notice differences between short vowel sounds can be tricky but, thankfully, these 10 short vowel emergent readers are here to help!
They’re perfect for new readers in Pre-K and Kindergarten.
—————-> Bundle with all of our emergent readers and SAVE!
INSIDE YOU’LL FIND:
–> 10 emergent reader books in color practicing all five vowels PLUS the common sight words “this, is, look, there, a, do, you, see, the, like, my, and, I, can, we, need, is, with, she, could, went, to.”
–> A second set of the same 10 books in black and white in case you’d like to save ink.
–> Matching reading pointers students can use to point underneath each word as they read. The pointers are a playful way to build kids’ one to one correspondence and help them remember to read left to right across the page.
–> Pocket chart cards you can use to practice the text as a whole class or during your read around the room center.
–> Follow up practice pages to use as guided reading activities, morning work, a literacy center or homework.
Practicing vowel teams? This mega pack includes 14 centers and 9 posters focusing on nine of the most common vowel teams: -AI, -AY, -EA, -EE, -IE, -OA, -OE, -UE, and -UI.
Play a vowel team board game, solve a batch of clip cards, roll and graph vowel team words… There are so many fun options in one easy download!
INSIDE YOU’LL FIND:
–> 9 “When 2 Vowels Go Walking” Posters
–> Vowel Team Bingo (Class Set)
–> Say It, Spell It
–> Dab the Real Word
–> Word Sort
–> Clip Cards
–> Color by Word Family
–> Real or Nonsense
–> Bowling Bash Board Game
–> Firehouse Dash Board Game
–> Police Zip Board Game
–> Hide and Seek Pocket Chart Game
–> Roll and Graph
–> Popcorn Sort
–> Vowel Team Puzzles
These 18 literacy centers make it fun for kids to practice reading and writing 40 of the most common short vowel word families:
-AB, -AD, -AG, -AM, -AN, -AP, -AT, -AX, -EB, -ED, -EG, -EM, -EN, -ET, -IB, -ID, -IG, -IM, -IN, -ING, -IP, -IT, -IX, -OB, -OD, -OG, -OM, -OP, -OT, -OX, -UB, -UD, -UG, -UM, -UN, -UP, -US, -UT, -UX and -UT.
INSIDE YOU’LL FIND:
–> 5 Word Family Posters
–> Word Family Puzzles
–> No Prep Color by Word Family Sheets
–> Word Family Mats
–> CVC Clip Strips
–> Say and Spell Task Cards
–> 5 Pocket Chart Games
–> 2 Word Family Sorts
–> 9 Word Family Board Games
That’s 18 motivating short vowel word family centers in all!
Grab our comprehensive set of 17 spelling rule posters – the must-have tool for supercharging your students’ learning. The eye-catching posters make spelling rules easier to grasp and remember for kids. The bundle is perfect to use with whole groups, small groups, or 1:1 tutoring.
EASILY TEACH:
Grab 10 syllable division posters to help even struggling readers decode unfamiliar, multisyllabic words.
Fun animal rules make it easier for students to remember where to create syllable divisions. Breaking words into smaller pieces makes them more manageable and helps students determine vowel sounds.
These playful, colorful posters are the perfect visual reminders for your classroom walls or literacy centers. Add a copy of the Syllable Division Posters to your cart to give your students another tool in their decoding tool belt!
Get ready to fall in love! Word chains are an easy but powerful way to build important literacy skills including phonemic awareness, decoding, encoding, AND blending at the exact same time. Because you swap just one sound each time you move to a new box in the sequence, children are able to make connections between…
Educators in kindergarten, first and second grade face the unique challenge of being responsible for their students having a solid foundation in reading, which will in large part determine their academic success, as all aspects of their future learning and careers need to build upon it. The pressure is enormous, and with large classroom sizes…
These free CVC games and child-friendly worksheets help kids learn to identify short vowels and break words into individual sounds called phonemes. Grab your set of free CVC games below and then practice any words under the sun with our Editable Word Work Games! CVC Games: What’s Inside? The free CVC games include: CVC Board Games…
Picture sorting is a simple and engaging way for children to learn about short vowel sounds in consonant-vowel-consonant words like cat, bed, top and cut. Â When they say the name of pictures out loud, children can stretch the sounds out S-L-O-W-L-Y, isolating the middle sound in the CVC words. Find more preschool activities with our…
If your students have learned their beginning sounds, practiced their end sounds, chances are they are ready to dive into those tricky vowels sounds. Giving kids a strong foundation for this important skill is a must which is why I LOVE our new word family centers pack. It’s a great way to compare and contrast…
For most students, working on short vowel sounds like A, E, I, U takes lots of practice. So let’s make all of their hard work super motivating and fun with a laser focus on just one vowel- O. This engaging pack has 12 fun activities for kids to choose from! And with easy prep and reusable…
Teaching kids to read and recognize common vowel sounds is an important step in their reading journey. Often focusing on just one vowel at a time is a major help for helping students really master the concept. And what better place to start then with short A centers? With 13 centers to choose from, these…
Ready to add a little seasonal fun way to your literacy centers? This adorable CVC pumpkin patch activity is the perfect way for students to learn and practice short vowel sounds. Scroll below to grab your freebie and then make sure to hop over and snag our Pumpkin CVC Puzzles for even more fall fun! Then,…
Are you looking for a fun way for kids to practice reading and spelling CVC words?! These free CVC word puzzles are easy to prep and your students will love the fun and bright pictures. Grab your copy below and then hop over and snag our awesome Editable Word Work Games in our shop! Getting…
Clip cards are a quick and easy way for kids to practice reading skills. That’s one of the reasons we love them so much! Rhyming, alphabet letters, blends, digraphs… you name it, we’ve clipped it! These CVC clip cards are a motivating way to help students identify middle vowel sounds. They are a perfect addition to…
Tis’ the season for all things orange! There are SO MANY super fun pumpkin activities and we’re excited to pass along our favorites from across the web. This fall-themed roundup includes pumpkin-themed math, literacy and science projects your kids will LOVE. If you’re looking for more, hop over to become a VIP Plato Pack member so…
Teaching kids to read is one of the most important things on your daily to-do list. But making that learning FUN can feel daunting – it’s hard to know where to start. Enter: phonics games! When learning feels more like play than work, even reluctant readers will ask to practice it. And this roundup of…
Sight word games, science experiments, first grade math and more.
Kindergarten games, science experiments and math.
Learning word families is a fast way to help children recognize a lot of new words quickly because they are groups of words that share the same sound and spelling. By learning the ending {-og} for instance, your child quickly understands how to read and write {dog, log, frog, fog}. This fun, hands-on word family game will have…
Need an easier way to teach phonics in Pre-K, Kindergarten, or First Grade? Your teaching dream is coming true because the Phonics Toolkit gives you *everything* you need in one simple download:
→ Step-by-step lesson plans for 39 different phonics skills that make it easy to teach students everything from the very first letter sound /m/ through digraphs. Just flip to the page and read through each step!
→ 88 ready-to-use literacy centers that make it fun for kids to practice each of the phonics skills. Hit “print,” and you’re ready to play.
→ Print-and-go reading passages that align with each lesson so you can stop time-sucking hunts for follow up practice material.
→ Quick phonics assessments that make it easy to pinpoint the skills each student needs to learn next. (They come in print AND digital so you can pick your favorite!)
→ Sound maps that help children memorize words that include each phonics skill in as little as 5 exposures.
→ Playful handwriting activity sheets that make it fun to work on letter formation.
…. And more!
Teaching phonics skills is a lot like baking a cake. Skipping ahead or missing a step, almost always makes your lessons flop. Students are either too confused, or too overwhelmed, or too bored… And you’re unsure what to try next. But when you know the best order to teach phonics, it’s like getting your hands…
Need an easier way to teach phonics in Pre-K, Kindergarten, First, or Second Grade? The Phonics Toolkit is your teaching dream come true because it gives you *everything* you need in one simple download:
→ Step-by-step lesson plans for 128 different phonics skills that make it easy to teach students everything from the very first letter sound /m/ through complicated spelling patterns like the trigraph -TCH. Just flip to the page and read through each step!
→ 267 ready-to-use literacy centers that make it fun for kids to practice each of the phonics skills. Hit “print,” and you’re ready to play.
→ Print-and-go reading passages that align with each lesson so you can stop time-sucking hunts for follow up practice material.
→ Quick phonics assessments that make it easy to pinpoint the skills each student needs to learn next. (They come in print AND digital so you can pick your favorite!)
→ Sound maps that help children memorize words that include each phonics skill in as little as 5 exposures.
→ Playful handwriting activity sheets that make it fun to work on letter formation.
…. And more!
Phonics in a Box makes it easy to teach letter sounds in fun, hands-on and playful ways. Just prep the tool boxes once, and students can use them all year long!
INSIDE YOU’LL FIND 6 PHONICS TOOLS THAT FIT PERFECTLY IN A PENCIL BOX:
–> Easy to follow assembly directions
–> 6 colorful phonics tool box labels
–> An alphabet chart
–> A digraph and blend chart
–> 2 consonant and vowel sound walls (one with mouth shapes and one without)
–> A reusable sound map
Plus a list of additional hands-on supplies you can add from the dollar store, Target or Walmart for even more fun!
The science of reading has proven that teaching students to hear the sounds in words helps them learn to read more quickly. These print-and-go sound walls make teaching those sounds quick, easy, and fun for kids!
INSIDE YOU’LL FIND:
–> Easy to follow directions including 5 questions you can ask students to help them differentiate between the look and feel of each sound
–> 2 bulletin board-sized sound walls so you can choose the design you like best
–> 2 file folder-sized sound walls that make it easy to create an individual set for each child in class
–> Cover up sheets that build students’ excitement to learn a new sound
If your kids are learning about the magic e, you’ll love this game and bonus worksheet! As kids race to find their magic treasure, they practice reading ordinary CVC words plus their magical pairs – words that have a silent e at the end that makes the vowel say its name. These magic e activities…
Teaching kids to read takes a lot of repetition to make sure that kids are grasping important skills like recognizing common vowels sounds and turning them into CVC words. I love to choose just one vowel (either A, E, I , O U) to focus on, giving students a solid foundation for success. But keeping…
With fall in the air, it will soon be a great time to visit a pumpkin patch and enjoy some super fun pumpkin learning activities. These pumpkin CVC puzzles are the perfect hands-on game for beginning readers and will make a fun addition to literacy centers! Snag your free activities below and then hop over and grab our…
Diphthongs can be a difficult concept to grasp for many students but fun, hands-on activities like these diphthong puzzles can help. The game is a perfect addition to your literacy centers and can easily be used throughout the entire school year. For more literacy fun, check out our Vowel Team Centers in our shop! Getting Ready To…
With summer just around the corner, my students are counting down the days until break. This long e sunglasses activity were the perfect way to keep my kids excited about practicing the long e sound even with summer break rapidly approaching. Scroll down to grab the freebie, then hop over and check out our Vowel Team…
Beat the summer heat with this fun CVC rhyming activity! Kids will love that it’s playful and YOU’LL love that it’s easy to differentiate for a variety of reading levels… These darling CVC flip flops have picture clues AND simple short vowel wods so even early readers can find success. Grab your copy below and…
These CVC word board games provide fun practice for children and help them build confidence as readers. Just print the CVC word board games (below) and get ready for some serious reading excitement. Snag your free game below and then hop over and grab 14 more board games for your collection in our shop! In the…
Did you know that there are two kinds of readers sitting in your classroom right now? It’s true! And if you’ve ever felt unsure about how to help a struggling reader, than you’ll want to stick around, because knowing how to spot each type will help you get bigger, faster teaching results. This is just…
When you think of teaching kids to read, you probably picture alphabet letters, little reader books and sight words…. lots and LOTS of sight words. But the truth is that what happens before you dive into phonics and sight words is key to skyrocketing students’ reading progress later. Let’s dive into the 4 pre-reading skills…
If you’re wondering how to teach reading, you’re in the right spot! This step-by-step guide covers everything from pre-reading skills to phonics, sight words and reading comprehension so that you can take kids from NON-readers to STRONG readers. Check out the step-by-step below and then request an invite to my 4 week course, The Reading…
These free blend posters and dice are a great visual way to teach blends like CR-, GL- and SK-. The posters are great as a classroom display or flashcards, and the dice provide an engaging way for children to think of words that begin with each blend. Also included is a chart of blend examples!…
This flower garden digraph activity is the perfect way to bring some spring blooms into the classroom. And they’re a fun, hands-on way to help your students learn digraph sounds -CH, -SH, -TH and -WH. Scroll down to download your freebie and then hop over and grab our Vowel Team Centers, too! Getting Ready This…
Looking for a spring-themed word family activity your kids will LOVE?! This flower CVC match up is a playful way to practice sounding out three letter words. CVC word games are fun and engaging way to introduce reading to kiddos! Snag your free activity below and then hop over and grab 14 more board games…
It’s “snow” much fun to practice digraphs with a game! This playful, hands-on activity is a great way to add some excitement to your literacy centers this winter! Snag your activity and then hop over and grab our Vowel Team Centers for more word work fun! Getting Ready This digraph game was super quick and…
Get ready for some serious fun! These 18 engaging print-and-play centers motivate kids to practice reading and writing the 8 most common diphthongs: -AU, -AW, -EW, -OI, -OO, -OU, -OW, -OY If you’re looking for more just like this, become a VIP Plato Pack member so you can get all of the tools, strategies and support you…
Focusing on one vowel at a time helps many kids learn to differentiate those tricky middle sounds once and for all.
This mega pack of Short A centers includes 13 playful print-and-play activities honing in on the 8 most common short A word families:
-AB, -AD, -AG, -AM, -AN, -AP, -AT, -AX
Just print and play!
INSIDE YOU’LL FIND…
–> 7 motivating game boards
–> 7 no prep spin and color sheets
–> 7 I spy games
–> 8 roll and graph centers
–> Word family puzzles
–> Flip and write game
–> Sound it out building cards
End of year centers your students will LOVE! Finish the year stronger than ever with 21 math and literacy centers practicing word families, sight words, telling time, skip counting, number bonds and so much more.
The end of year centers are easy to differentiate, making them perfect for kindergarten and first grade!
INSIDE YOU’LL FIND:
LITERACY CENTERS
The mega pack makes it so easy to differentiate. Stretch activities for your strong readers and break down the activities for your struggling kiddos.
–> Color Up. Work on letter sounds, digraphs or blends! Simply grab a card, say the word out loud and color the beginning sound.
–> Spin a Word Family. Spin a word, read it and color it on your sheet. There are 5 versions so you can practice every vowel.
–> Word Clip Cards. Have students read and clip CVC words or, if they’re ready for a challenge, give them the Magic E version instead.
–> EDITABLE Sight Word Game. Race to the finish line as you read and write sight words along the way!
–> EDITABLE Roll and Write. Roll a die and write the matching word. Because the game is editable, you can practice any words under the sun!
–> EDITABLE Sight Word Puzzles. Match each sight word with its twin! When you’ve finished, write your pairs on your record sheet to practice spelling.
–> EDITABLE Hide and Seek. Play a pocket chart sight word game with the class!
–> EDITABLE Sight Word Card Game. Have students practice their sight words with a friend!
–> 4 Story Starters. Get kids writing with creative story prompts and end of year word cards.
MATH CENTERS
The set also includes math activities teaching critical skills including numbers, telling time, addition and subtraction.
–> Mystery Numbers. Practice counting in numerical order from 1-120.
–> Skip Counting. For students who are ready to be stretched, practice skip counting by 2, 5 or 10 instead.
–> Shape Graph. Work on 2D or 3D shapes AND build graphing skills at the same time. Just spin a shape and add it to the graph!
–> Number Bonds. Figure out the missing number and write it on your number bond!
–> Telling Time 4 in a Row. Read the analog clock and then find the digital time that matches! There are two versions included so that you can easily differentiate for a variety of learners: telling time to the nearest hour and quarter hour.
THERE ARE 21 END OF YEAR MATH AND LITERACY CENTERS IN ALL!
Do you spend countless hours hunting down “good fit” word work activities and literacy centers for each of your reading groups? Word work is an amazing way to take students’ reading to the next level because it gives kids a chance to play with words – breaking them apart, putting them back together, reading and writing them, sorting…
These eight beginning sound games are the perfect combination of fun and effective for kids! As children learn how to read, the part of words they are able to isolate and spell first are beginning sounds. It is as though their brain works so hard to pull apart that first sound that the rest of the letters just melt away.
Each game comes in color and black and white versions, and they are perfect for centers or small reading groups. Grab them now to help your students move on to ending sounds in no time!
BEGINNING SOUND GAMES INCLUDED:
–> Clip cards
–> Alphabet match up puzzles
–> 5 game boards
–> Color by sound no prep sheets
–> Sound sort
–> Mystery beginning sound no prep sheets
–> Beginning sound cover up mats
–> Match & cover consonants and vowels
NOTE: All of our activities are instant downloads.
Welcome Instagram friends! This is the place to find all of our latest posts in one spot. Simply scroll down and click on the activity you’re searching for – our newest posts are on top. Spring STEM Challenges in our shop // on Teachers Pay Teachers 3D Shape Puzzles Sticky Ice Rainbow Digraph Puzzles Egg…
Absolutely everything you need to teach kids how to read in one spot. So easy for grown ups and motivating for kids!
BUNDLE AND SAVE! Add HUNDREDS of motivating word work stations to your collection so you can easily differentiate your literacy centers for a variety of reading levels. Print one center for students who are practice letter sounds, pull another center for kids who are working on blends…
The Word Work Bundle includes ALL of my phonics and sight word packs… including all of the EDITABLE ones… so you have everything you need in one spot.
It’s tailor-made for preschool, kindergarten and first grade teachers.
INSIDE YOU’LL FIND:
The MEGA bundle includes 450+ centers practicing sight words and phonics skills:
–> Rhyming
–> Syllable segmenting
–> Names
–> Alphabet letter names and sounds
–> Beginning sounds
–> Short vowels
–> CVC words
–> Beginning digraphs
–> Ending digraphs
–> Beginning blends
–> Ending blends
–> Vowel teams
–> Magic E words
–> Diphthongs
–> R-controlled vowels
–> Compound words
–> Sight Words
–> Reading fluency
