HeidiSongs Teaching Resource

Ever wondered what could be better than Shark Teeth Addition ?  You'll never guess: it's Shark Teeth SUBTRACTION !!!!  LOL!  I decided it was time to take that fun idea full circle and turn that addition activity into a subtraction one.  If that sounds like a math activity your kids would enjoy, then read on! (I'll give you a FREE sample to download!) Shark Teeth Subtraction is a fun activity to help children practice beginning subtraction skills. It can be done in either a small or large group setting. These worksheets and workmats are organized so that you can teach children to practice finding differences from three or four first, then five, six, and so on up to ten. I recommend that you begin with the smallest numbers first (differences from three and four) and then work your way up to the larger numbers. Preparation: Note: The best way to teach any math concept is to start with manipulatives, and then move to pictures, and then transfer that to the sy

Does tracing words help kids learn to read and spell them?  Teachers have been asking children to trace letters, words, and numbers as a way to help them learn probably since... well, forever!  But is there any research to back up this practice?  This question was asked of me recently via email, and I researched the answer in order to reply.  I thought that this might be useful information to post here on my blog as well, just in case anyone ever needed to know.  Hope it helps! QUESTION: I was being observed by my principal this week.  We were singing one of your Sight Word Songs and then doing one of your sight word workbook pages . Later she asked me if had any research on tracing letters and words. I'm not sure what she meant by this, but do you know of any research about the pros and cons of tracing? This is an example of one of our sight word worksheets that includes tracing.  We have these worksheets to accompany all six of our Sing and Spell the Sight W

Today, I’m going to tell you about our Mini Sight Word Songbooks .  You know, if you can sing it, you can read it. And kids LOVE taking home little books they can read to their parents. So what could be better than a little book that kids can read AND sing to their parents? I just don’t know! My little TKs have been really enjoying these little Mini Sight Word Songbooks this year! And I must say, I REALLY enjoy watching their early literacy skills bloom as they start to recognize the sight words that we are learning via t he sight word songs , and then try to track the words to the songs in print!  It’s soooo precious! Just watch this little one do her very best to “read” me her book!  I love it! Is case you couldn’t tell, we’re working on the word, “my!” (And tracking.) LOL! #kindergarten #tk #firstgrade Link in profile! A post shared by HeidiSongs (Heidi Butkus) (@heidisongs) on Oct 22, 2017 at 3:32pm PDT These little printable books have the words to our si

Today I am going to explain how to teach kids to use a word wall, and about a really great writing tool that I like to use in my classroom called "The Wandering Word Wall."  "The Wandering Word Wall" is a small, portable word wall that you print and mount on a file folder so that children can take it with them and use in any area of the classroom. But whether your word wall is large or small, if you don't teach the children how to use it, you'll probably find that it is just taking up valuable wall space in your classroom and that it serves little or no purpose! A portable word wall is a great tool to have, because often there are so many children in a classroom that they wind up trying to do writing assignments while sitting in desks that are a bit too far away from the real word wall, and so they can't really see the words well enough to use it.  This makes them want to get up and walk around the room to check the spelling of a word, etc

Here are TEN GREAT IDEAS for your little ones for Thanksgiving, and most of them are FREE!  I hope you enjoy this little "round up!"  :) Also, check out our newest little video of me reading our new Opposite Rhyming Songbook to my little friends in Mary's first grade class!  It came out SO cute!!!  I LOVE this little book! 1.  Here is the a little printable reading book that I made a few years ago with a November/fall theme! I wrote it to help my kids practice their sight words.  I gave each child an index card with certain sight words on it that were each colored a certain color.  So then I had them find and color their sight words throughout the book.  For example, they had to find all of the word "like" and color it red on every page in their little books.  Then they had to find and color the word "my" yellow through out the book, etc. 2.  Turkey Feathers Matching Sets - Freebie! For this one, you just print out the t