1. Memory: Pick 5-10 words from a book that your child is reading and print them clearly on 3x5 index cards, making pairs for each word. Shuffle the cards and place them face down. Have your child flip and read 2 cards at a time to find a match.

Variation- Use rhyming pairs if your child needs to work on rhyming

2. Go Fish: Select 10-20 sight words. Write the words clearly on 3x5 index cards, making pairs for each word. Shuffle and deal 3-5 cards to each player. Play until all the pairs have been made.

3. Sight Word Hunt: Select 10-20 sight words. Write the words clearly on 3x5 index cards. Hide the words around the house. Give your child a piece of paper and clipboard to find and write all the hidden words.

9/26/18

Here are some commonly used reading strategies that we use to help students decode unfamiliar words. My favorite strategy to have kids try first is Eagle Eye: look at the pictures! Once students have looked at the pictures they can use Lips the Fish and Elephant Ears to make sure the letters in the word match the sounds.

For example: We recently read Reading Everywhere. The page said "I can read in the classroom." The student got stuck on the word classroom and used their Eagle Eyes to look at the picture. They read the sentence as "I can read in the library." We thought about the word library and determined the sounds in library did not match the sounds on the page. He then used the Lips the Fish strategy and tapped out the first few letters of "class." The student used these two strategies to read the word "classroom" all on their own!

Here is a link to a free download: FREEBIE Reading Strategies Posters and Bookmarks

9/28/18

Hello Memorial Friends and Families,

I am so excited to be joining the Memorial team as a full time special education teacher. Although this is my first full year at Memorial, this will be my 4th year in the district. The last 3 years have been spent with the wonderful teachers at Wheelock. I look forward to meeting and working with my new families and friends here at Memorial.

As we approach the first day of school tomorrow, many of us are full of excitement to see our friends and teachers. However, I know there are many students and parents who may be a bit anxious. I wanted to share a great article I found about managing the stress and anxiety of returning to school. Back-To-School

Here is another great article with 9 yoga tools to help calm kids back to school anxiety. 9 yoga tools

I am looking forward to a great year!