HeidiSongs Teaching Resource

Today I am going to tell you about a very simple idea that I call CVC Legos!  These CVC Legos make a great literacy center activity for children to practice reading and matching CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words to their pictures, which is a Common Core skill. Meanwhile, I have to tell you that last weekend I presented at the International Reading Association Conference in San Antonio, Texas, and it was an absolute blast and a fabulous experience!  I met people from all over the world, and BOTH of my sessions were completely FULL!   Nothing is better to a presenter than a full session! I love it when that happens because there is so much energy in the room, and I feel so appreciated!  Plus, there were lots of wonderful teachers that came up and thanked me for “all of my hard work and valuable information.” And that makes all of the time I have spent on all of this stuff worthwhile!   Ah, the famous San Antonio RiverWalk is lovely!...

Today I have just a quick little post with a downloadable freebie of a Sight Word Graph!  I hope you like it and are able to put it to good use.  I am writing this as I am on my way to the International Reading Association Conference!   I am excited to be presenting two sessions there on Sunday in the beautiful city of San Antonio, Texas, home of the beautiful RiverWalk and the world famous Alamo! I love the San Antonio RiverWalk! My first session at IRA is called “Musical Fun for Phonics and Tips for Teaching Kids to Sound Out Words.”   This will be a two hour and 45 minute workshop, and attendance is limited to just 75 people so that participants can really ask questions, etc. The second session is called “Developmentally Appropriate Ways to Get K/1 Students Writing- Fast!” and lasts just one hour, but the room capacity allows for 216 people.  I am really excited to have the privilege to present at this wonderful event!  Plus, presenting ...

This week I am going to give you a great new resource that I call Syllable Pockets!  There’s also flash cards for whole group practice, and a worksheet that I used for homework practice, too!  It’s a pretty nice freebie set, and I hope that you like it!  I also have some tips to give you to help kids learn how to count out the number of syllables in a word. Why Are Syllables Important? First of all, pronouncing and counting syllables is part of the Common Core and it falls under Kinder in the phonemic awareness section.  Therefore, it is a skill that all children should have mastered as they move forward through the grades. When children are trying to write, read, or sound out a word, a great strategy is to take it one section (or syllable) at a time.  When small children try to write phonetically (write words as they sound,) they are less likely to miss sounds if they take it one syllable of the word at a time.  Once I show my studen...

Today I am going to tell you about an idea I came up with a few years ago called CVC Cups!  They help kids practice finding the middle sounds of CVC words.  My kids really like this activity, and I hope that yours will, too! :) To prepare this activity, you will need to find some clear cups and some solid colored cups.   Both cups must be about the same size so that they fit together well as shown in the photo.  Finding the cups is really the hardest part of the prep work, I think!  I had to buy several different brands of cups before I found some that fit together well.  Hopefully, you can benefit from my mistakes and just get the same brands that I did, and save yourself a little money! I got my colored cups from the Party City store in my town , and then found them at this link .  They are $2.99 for 20 cups.  Naturally, I found them at my local dollar store in their party section shortly after that!  The clear cups also came...