Playdough To Plato

Fun learning activities for kids! Literacy, math, science and more.

Summer Emergent Reader Books

by Filed Under: Fluency, Kindergarten Print Concepts, Kindergarten Reading, Motivating Reluctant Readers, Plato's Blog, Preschool Print Concepts, Preschool Reading, Summer Leave a Comment

Activities for ages 4 to 6. Whether you need to build your classroom library or are hunting for emergent reader books that will keep students motivated, these summery stories are sure to do the trick! The five summer-themed emergent reader books are a motivating and easy prep way to help kids build critical pre-reading skills. […]

Malia Hollowell
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Malia Hollowell

Founder at Playdough to Plato
Malia is a National Board Certified teacher who inspires educators with playful approaches to early childhood education. She earned her Master’s from Stanford University and has taught in Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Malia shares her motivating learning activities on her two popular teaching blogs Playdough to Plato and The STEM Laboratory.
Malia Hollowell
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Color Emergent Reader Books

by Filed Under: Fluency, Kindergarten Reading, Motivating Reluctant Readers, Plato's Blog, Preschool Reading Leave a Comment

Activities for ages 4 to 6. Whether you need to build up your classroom library or are hunting for emergent reader books that will keep students motivated, these color stories are sure to do the trick! The six color-themed emergent reader books are a motivating and easy prep way to help kids build critical pre-reading […]

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Malia Hollowell
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Malia Hollowell

Founder at Playdough to Plato
Malia is a National Board Certified teacher who inspires educators with playful approaches to early childhood education. She earned her Master’s from Stanford University and has taught in Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Malia shares her motivating learning activities on her two popular teaching blogs Playdough to Plato and The STEM Laboratory.
Malia Hollowell
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Phonics Games That Make Learning to Read Fun

by Filed Under: ABC Games, Blending Phonemes, Blends, Consonant Blends, Digraphs, First Grade Reading, Isolate Sounds, Kindergarten Reading, Letter Names, Letter Sounds, Long vs. Short Vowels, Motivating Reluctant Readers, Plato's Blog, Preschool Reading, Sound Out Words, Sounds in Words, Teaching Tips Leave a Comment

Activity for ages 4 to 7. Teaching kids to read is one of the most important tasks a kindergarten and first grade teacher has. Some students learn quickly, while others need a bit more help. For those reluctant kids, nothing makes phonics more fun than games. These phonics activities offer motivating ways to practice vowel […]

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Malia Hollowell
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Malia Hollowell

Founder at Playdough to Plato
Malia is a National Board Certified teacher who inspires educators with playful approaches to early childhood education. She earned her Master’s from Stanford University and has taught in Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Malia shares her motivating learning activities on her two popular teaching blogs Playdough to Plato and The STEM Laboratory.
Malia Hollowell
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Fluency Trees

by Filed Under: First Grade Reading, Fluency, Kindergarten Reading, Motivating Reluctant Readers, Plato's Blog, Second Grade Reading, Shop Leave a Comment

Activity for ages 5 to 8. Building students’ reading fluency takes practice. Lots and lots of practice. But our pack of fluency trees makes it so easy to take children’s reading to the next level by giving kids practice reading the top 100 Dolch and Fry sight words in growing sentences. Grab your pack in […]

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Malia Hollowell
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Malia Hollowell

Founder at Playdough to Plato
Malia is a National Board Certified teacher who inspires educators with playful approaches to early childhood education. She earned her Master’s from Stanford University and has taught in Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Malia shares her motivating learning activities on her two popular teaching blogs Playdough to Plato and The STEM Laboratory.
Malia Hollowell
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Reading Comprehension Activities

by Filed Under: First Grade Reading, Kindergarten Reading, Motivating Reluctant Readers, Plato's Blog, Reading Comprehension, Second Grade Reading, Teaching Tips Leave a Comment

There is so much more to reading than just sounding out words. Kids need to be able to THINK about what they’re reading too! These fun reading comprehension activities help students learn how to understand what a story or reading passage is all about. They’re great for kids in kindergarten on up. Reading Comprehension Activities First up?! Stretch […]

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Malia Hollowell
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Malia Hollowell

Founder at Playdough to Plato
Malia is a National Board Certified teacher who inspires educators with playful approaches to early childhood education. She earned her Master’s from Stanford University and has taught in Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Malia shares her motivating learning activities on her two popular teaching blogs Playdough to Plato and The STEM Laboratory.
Malia Hollowell
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Reading Cheat Sheets

by Filed Under: First Grade Reading, Fluency, Free Printables, Kindergarten Reading, Motivating Reluctant Readers, Plato's Blog, Preschool Reading, Reading Comprehension, Second Grade Reading, Teaching Tips 16 Comments

Activities for ages 3 to 8. Do some of your students struggle to read but you’re not sure how to help? Have you ever imagined having an easy cheat sheet for picking “just right” reading lessons for every student in class? Wish. Granted. Whether you need a quick reference to help you plan your reading group […]

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Malia Hollowell
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Malia Hollowell

Founder at Playdough to Plato
Malia is a National Board Certified teacher who inspires educators with playful approaches to early childhood education. She earned her Master’s from Stanford University and has taught in Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Malia shares her motivating learning activities on her two popular teaching blogs Playdough to Plato and The STEM Laboratory.
Malia Hollowell
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240+ Word Work Activities… And Growing!

by Filed Under: ABC Games, Alphabet Writing, Blending Phonemes, Blends, Breaking Words Into Syllables, Consonant Blends, Digraphs, Featured Products, First Grade Reading, Fluency, Isolate Sounds, Kindergarten Print Concepts, Kindergarten Reading, Letter Names, Letter Sounds, Long vs. Short Vowels, Magic E, Motivating Reluctant Readers, Name Games, Plato's Blog, Preschool Print Concepts, Preschool Reading, Rhyming, Shop, Sorting, Sound Out Words, Sounds in Words, Spelling Patterns for Vowels, Swapping Middle Sound, Syllables with Vowel Sounds, Teaching Tips, Word Family Activities 4 Comments

For ages 3 to 7. Do you spend countless hours hunting down “good fit” word work activities 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 […]

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Malia Hollowell
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Malia Hollowell

Founder at Playdough to Plato
Malia is a National Board Certified teacher who inspires educators with playful approaches to early childhood education. She earned her Master’s from Stanford University and has taught in Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Malia shares her motivating learning activities on her two popular teaching blogs Playdough to Plato and The STEM Laboratory.
Malia Hollowell
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Free CVC Games

by Filed Under: First Grade Reading, Free Printables, Isolate Sounds, Kindergarten Reading, Letter Names, Letter Sounds, Motivating Reluctant Readers, Plato's Blog, Sound Out Words, Sounds in Words, Syllables with Vowel Sounds, Word Family Activities 7 Comments

Activity for ages 5 to 7. 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 continue the fun with our popular Word Family Activity Pack! What’s Inside? The free CVC games include: Board Games […]

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Malia Hollowell
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Malia Hollowell

Founder at Playdough to Plato
Malia is a National Board Certified teacher who inspires educators with playful approaches to early childhood education. She earned her Master’s from Stanford University and has taught in Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Malia shares her motivating learning activities on her two popular teaching blogs Playdough to Plato and The STEM Laboratory.
Malia Hollowell
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The Reading Wand

by Filed Under: Kindergarten Reading, Motivating Reluctant Readers, Plato's Blog, Preschool Reading 2 Comments

Whenever I asked my kindergarten or second grade students to name their favorite part of the day, “recess” always seemed to be #1 on their list.  They loved playing, talking and moving with their friends.  So it’s no surprise that their favorite reading activity was usually “Read Around the Room”- an activity your family will […]

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Malia Hollowell
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Malia Hollowell

Founder at Playdough to Plato
Malia is a National Board Certified teacher who inspires educators with playful approaches to early childhood education. She earned her Master’s from Stanford University and has taught in Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Malia shares her motivating learning activities on her two popular teaching blogs Playdough to Plato and The STEM Laboratory.
Malia Hollowell
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10 Printable Early Reader Books for Girls

by Filed Under: Classroom Library, Fluency, Kindergarten Print Concepts, Kindergarten Reading, Motivating Reluctant Readers, Plato's Blog, Preschool Print Concepts, Preschool Reading, Shop, Sound Out Words 2 Comments

This pack of 10 printable early reader books is filled with things girls love most: dress up, princesses, fairies, baking, pets and more. Grab your copy in the shop or on Teachers Pay Teachers! What’s Inside? These high interest early reader books include pictures that closely match the words so that even the newest reader can confidently read […]

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Malia Hollowell
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Malia Hollowell

Founder at Playdough to Plato
Malia is a National Board Certified teacher who inspires educators with playful approaches to early childhood education. She earned her Master’s from Stanford University and has taught in Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Malia shares her motivating learning activities on her two popular teaching blogs Playdough to Plato and The STEM Laboratory.
Malia Hollowell
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How to Motivate Reluctant Readers

by Filed Under: First Grade Reading, Kindergarten Reading, Motivating Reluctant Readers, Plato's Blog, Preschool Reading, Teaching Tips 3 Comments

Activities for ages 3 to 7. As much as we may hope that our children will always love to read, the reality is that many kids need a little encouragement.  So… how can we motivate reluctant readers? Try these four easy tips. Find a New Reading Space Motivating a child to spend time reading can be […]

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Malia Hollowell
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Malia Hollowell

Founder at Playdough to Plato
Malia is a National Board Certified teacher who inspires educators with playful approaches to early childhood education. She earned her Master’s from Stanford University and has taught in Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Malia shares her motivating learning activities on her two popular teaching blogs Playdough to Plato and The STEM Laboratory.
Malia Hollowell
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