Another site to bookmark: FREE phonics, comprehension, vocab and fluency printables!

Today, while on a flight to Florida en route to give a FreeReading presentation, I spent some time going through emails and resources I bookmarked over the last few months. While doing so, I came across an email from my friend Cynthia recommending that I look at Steck-Vaughn’s Professional Development Resources. Once I arrived at my hotel this evening, I took a look at the site and was quite impressed by the number of free and high quality research articles and classroom resources in the areas of phonics/phonological awareness, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency.

For example, take a look at:

• Goldilocks and the Three Bears (Readers Theater, found in the fluency section of the site)
• The story map chart (found in the comprehension resources)
• The Frayer Model worksheet (found in the vocabulary section of the site)
• The Amazing Alliteration worksheet (found in the phonological awareness resources)

This is definitely a resource to bookmark for use during summer school or next fall!

Signing off from Ft. Lauderdale, FL!

Anna

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Free Printables for Pre-K and K

Today my colleague Alexa mentioned to me that she showed FreeReading to her son’s preschool teacher. In response, I asked her what website the school has used in the past to find literacy activities and she responded, “BeginningReading.com“. Naturally, I was curious, so this evening I checked out the site.

Beginning Reading is a phonics program for young children just being exposed to print for the first time. Similar to FreeReading, it contains dozens of free printable materials. So, if you are in the market for a short vowel poster, alphabet writing worksheets, or fun book titled Lively Butterfies, this site is definitely worth a browse and slot on your phonics favorites list! Feel free to pass the site along to your Pre-K and K teacher friends. I also think Beginning Reading is useful for parents and grandparent of preschoolers.

Anna

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Worksheets galore!

Yesterday, my colleague Cher introduced me to  ABCTeach. If you are looking for a place to get high quality printables for free, ABCTeach is not a site to be ignored! Below are links to a few things you might find of interest:

1) Sample rebus worksheet: A Picnic is Fun. Find more rebus worksheets here.

2) Henry and Mudge vocabulary worksheet

3) Literature Circle Planner

See you on ABCTeach!

Anna

More Interactive Games

I was looking over Larry Ferlzo’s Website of the Day… and I came across I Know That. This is an interactive website for students in PreK – 6th. There are tons of games, covering both reading and math.

 I clicked on first grade games and I found Word Match. Select a specific sound to practice, such as /oo/ or r blends, and the game begins. If you don’t want to register, simply click on Maybe Later to bypass. Students are given a series of pictures to match with the correct words. The math games are great too! There is a cute series of games for reinforcing money. – Melissa

Illustrated Decodable Texts

We are beginning to add illustrations to the decodable readers on FreeReading.

Click here to look at the decodable fiction texts.

Click here to look at the decodable non-ficiton texts.

There are still many stories on FreeReading that do not have illustrations. Please feel free to send the FreeReading Development Team your own illustrated versions so that we may add them to the list. You can email us at help@free-reading.net.

Anna

FreeReading.net adopted by the Florida Department of Education

 

 

Today EdWeek posted the following article:

Florida Approves Free, Web-Based Program for Struggling Readers.

As a member of the FreeReading.net team, this is very exciting news! For Literacy is Priceless Readers that want to learn more about FreeReading.net, click here.

At FreeReading.net, educators everywhere can access a free, high-quality, sequential, research-based reading intervention program for grades K-1. Open source and Web 2.0 technology enable educators to adapt FreeReading content to their needs, add their own lessons within the 40 week scope and sequence and participate in discussions about early literacy and best practices in the classroom. -Anna

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Wordmaster

Mary Anne Zehr recently had a very interesting post on her blog, Learning the Language. She reported on Larry Ferlazzo’s best educational websites of 2007.  

 

His pick for the number one online game is Wordmaster from BBC. This vocabulary game gives students a sentence with a blank in it.  They need to use context clues to figure out the missing words. The game is played like hangman. But watch out – there is a timer!

-Melissa