Emergent Readers for Spring

The Nia Readers are a set of 4 emergent level books for beginning readers. As is typical of emergent readers, these books have consistent print placement and simple, supportive illustrations. The subject matter is familiar to young children; the language structure is natural. Each book features a set of high frequency words in predictable, repetitive sentence patterns. One or two changes are included in each book to ensure that students are attending to the text; not just repeating a memorized pattern.

• Nia’s Toys focuses on these high frequency words: has, a, & no. The text pattern is “Nia has a [toy name supported by picture]."  The last two pages break the pattern. Simple, black and white pictures are attractive and inviting for the children to color.

• Nia Colors the Easter Eggs is a book of seasonal interest. It is a counting book that provides practice with color words. The text pattern is “Nia colors [number] eggs [color word]."  The last page provides a change in the pattern. I recommend inviting the children to color the eggs as described by the text before reading the book independently.

• Nia Goes to the Park tells about her activities at a park and provides a focus on high frequency prepositions (on, in, and with). Other high frequency words include: plays, the, her, & a. The text pattern is “Nia plays [preposition] [article] [noun supported by picture]."  The last two pages break the pattern.

• Nia’s Cupcakes is the most difficult of The Nia Readers. Predictable text is supported by the illustrations. High frequency words include: she, put, on, made, some & color words. The text pattern is “Nia/she put [numeral] [color word] jelly bean(s) on [numeral] cupcake(s).” The numbers are not in sequential order, thus requiring the reader to attend to the text. Similarly, the initial noun varies between “Nia” and “She,” providing additional opportunities for the teacher to determine the student’s attention to the text. Again, you may wish to direct the children to color the illustrations in compliance with the text, thereby offering additional support.  Nia's Cupcakes also invites cross curricular extensions, such as: How many cupcakes did Nia decorate? How many jelly beans did she use altogether? Count, tally, and graph the colors of jelly beans used.

The Nia Readers make great take-home books.  My students are always thrilled by that reality.

BTW, these books are named after my adorable granddaughter. Love her to the moon and back 10,000 times!

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High Flying Kites

It's about time for flying kites, teachers!

Here's an idea for a center, individual work, or partners' activity.

  

Create colorful kites from construction paper. Write a number in the center of each shape. Laminate the kites. Then give a kite to each group or individual. Instruct your students to use wipe-off markers to write as many math facts as they can about the given number. Post the kites on a bulletin board.  Allow students to create tails for their kites using string and pieces of crepe paper.  They can add a colorful tie for each fact they wrote.

Obviously this activity can be used for any operation and within whatever range of numbers are appropriate to your students.  It could also be used for seasonal words and their synonyms or other vocabulary exercises.

My favorite way of doing these kites is to have partners work together. This increases their perseverance and improves accuracy.

March products you may enjoy:

Freebie February Day 28

It's about time, teachers, to say good-bye to February and hello to March.

In March, our thoughts turn to all things green -- not just for St. Patrick's Day, but for the heralding of spring.  Ah spring.  Please hurry.

To encourage spring, I'm offering Poetry Possibilities for Spring as the final gift of Freebie February.  

This is a collection of 20 poems about spring weather, holidays, and activities.  Each print-ready poem is accompanied by a teaching point that enriches your students' understanding of poetry.  Also included are activities, skill lessons, writing projects, a literacy center, and craftivities custom designed for that poem. There are even instructions for a class play of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 

If you love teaching with poetry (and I hope you do), this product will take you all the way to Memorial Day.  But remember, this product is free for just 1 day.

You may like these products just for March. Some are FREE!

Easter/Spring Freebie

It's about time, teachers, ... for Easter.  To celebrate the arrival of spring and the Easter bunny, I'm filling your basket with Easter/Spring Patterns & Sorts.  

This unit is best suited for Pre-K -- 2nd grade.  However, the letter cards can be used as a fluency exercise for older students.  Challenge them to make as many words as they can using the letters in Happy Easter, Happy Spring, April and/or egg.  A recording sheet for this is included.

The letter cards could also be used by pre-readers to do letter sorts; sorting by color, upper case/lower case, short/tall letters, and vowels/consonants.

Easter/Spring Patterns & Sorts includes a printable page that combines color word review with identifying patterns.

There are 18 color picture cards that can provide patterning practice and/or sorting practice.

You can find this FREEBIE unit at either my TpT Store or in my TN Shop.  So hop on over and scoop it into your basket.