Why is Word Work Important?

In kindergarten, students are exposed to a variety of different reading skills, such as phoneme (sound) isolation, sight words, CVC words, rhyming words, word families, blends and digraphs, CVCe words, and the list goes on. By working with words in a meaningful way each day, students gain a deeper understanding of the sound and spelling patterns in words, grow their sight word knowledge, and expand their vocabulary.

1. Scootin' for Words

This word work activity is a great way to get students out of their seats and actively learning.  To prep, grab a stack of notecards and write one word on each notecard. You can write sight words, CVC words, or CVCe words. Place a notecard on each student's desk. Students will need a whiteboard and a dry-erase marker.

Students will stand behind the desk, read the word on the notecard, and write it on their whiteboard. When the teacher says “Scoot,” all students will scoot to the desk next to them, moving clockwise. They'll repeat the process by reading and writing the next word.

After each “Scoot,” randomly call on a student to read you their word. This is a great way to spot check students and keep them on their toes. To differentiate this activity, you can scramble the letters on the notecards and have students read the word, unscramble it, and write it correctly on their whiteboard.

2. CVC Mazes

CVC mazes are a fun word work activity for practicing CVC words. To play, write CVC words on notecards or use CVC picture cards if you have them. Place the cards in a deck face down. On a whiteboard, draw twenty-six circles and write the letters of the alphabet inside.

Students will draw a card, read the word, and use a manipulative such as wiggly eyes, mini erasers, or plastic cubes to cover the letters that make up the word. If the word has the same letter as the beginning and ending sound, such as the word “bib,” students will stack their manipulatives on that letter to show that it is used twice in that word. Lastly, they'll use magnetic letters to build the word.

Check out the 120 ready-made Word Maze Activity Mats, perfect for Kindergarten and First Grade.

3. Kaboom

Kaboom is a high-energy word work game that you can use to practice any type of word. To make your own DIY Kaboom game, write words on twenty-five popsicle sticks. You can use sight words, CVC words, words with beginning blends or digraphs, etc. Place the sticks word side down in a jar or plastic cup. Write the word “KABOOM” on 5 popsicle sticks and add those to the jar.

Students will draw a stick and read the word. If they read the word correctly, they get to keep the stick. If they read it incorrectly, it goes back in the jar. When a student pulls a KABOOM stick, they must put all of their popsicle sticks back into the jar and place the KABOOM stick in a discard pile.

Play continues as students take turns drawing sticks and reading the words. When the 5th and final KABOOM stick is pulled, students count up the number of sticks they have and the player with the most is the winner!

You can make this game work for word family words by using less popsicle sticks and KABOOM sticks and making smaller sets for each word family. You may use ten word sticks and two KABOOM sticks per set.

4. Word Searches

One of the most popular word work activities is word searches! Students love putting on their detective hat and searching for hidden words. You can hide any type of word in a word search to help students practice different literacy skills such as CVC words, CVCe words, short vowel words, long vowel words, or even sight words or word family words.

To make your own word search, draw a 5 x 5 table on the whiteboard. Choose three to five words to hide in the word search, writing those in the spaces first. Then, fill in the extra spaces with random letters. You may want to do this while your students are at specials, recess, or before school so they don't see where you hide the words!

To play, have students take turns coming up to the whiteboard and using a dry-erase marker to shade in the letters for the words they find. If you have magnets, they can use these to mark the letters as well.

Make this easier by writing the words they're looking for off to the side. Students can mark them off as they find them. To make this more challenging, have the students find the words independently and then write them off to the side.

You can also grab these Word Search Activity Mats, which can be reused over and over during morning work, centers, teacher station, and more!

5. Tic-Tac-Toe Words

To play Tic-Tac-Toe Words, draw a simple Tic-Tac-Toe board on the whiteboard. Write a word in each space. Again, you can practice any type of spelling or sound pattern with this game. Split your students into two teams.

Students will take turns representing their team and choosing a word. If they get the word correct, they get to mark and X or O on that space. If they don't say the word correctly, their team's turn is over and the next team chooses a word. Play continues until one team gets three in a row. Continue playing a few rounds in order to let each student get a chance to represent their team.

This would also be a great partner game during small groups. You can draw several game boards on the whiteboard and have students spread out and play in pairs.

6. Word Work Boom Cards

Boom Cards are the perfect choice to add a digital spin to your word work activities. These virtual flashcard games allow students to practice a variety of skills, such as CVC word families, CVCe words, L blends, digraphs, and more.

There are many benefits to using Boom Cards for word work. Not only are they interactive and fun, but they include audio directions, making it clear for students to know exactly what they are supposed to do. There are also audio picture names, so students are never guessing what the picture is.

Plus, to save you grading time, Boom Cards are self-checking and give students immediate feedback on their responses. Boom Cards are an effective way to encourage independence in your classroom and allows you to spend focused time with other students during small groups, literacy centers, or morning work time.

7. Make Muffin Words

Just the sight of this word work activity will have your students excited and ready to play. To prep this activity, write words on cupcake liners and place a liner in each spot in a muffin tin. Students will toss a small ball or dot cube into the muffin tin. They'll read the word they landed on, and if correct, they get to keep the word. If they don't read it correctly, the word stays in the muffin tin.

After all of the words have been removed, the player with the most words at the end of the game is the winner. You can practice sight words, word family words, words with blends or digraphs, etc.

To practice phoneme substitution with CVC words, you could have the students change a sound to make a new word. You can also write a word family on the cupcake liners and have students say any word in that word family. The options are endless!

8. Paint Strip Puzzles

This word work activity requires nothing more than paint strips that you can snag (usually for free) from your local hardware store. Write words on the paint strip, placing one letter in each space. In one space, write the entire word. Most paint strips have 6 spaces, so this is a great way to work on larger words, such as CVCe words, words with blends or digraphs, or sight words.

You can trim the paint strips as needed if you don't use every space. Next, cut the paint strip so the letters and word are separated. Mix them up and have students build the word, putting the pieces back together like a puzzle. For easy storage, write the word of focus on the outside of a snack-size baggie and store the pieces inside.

I hope you're excited to implement these fun and simple-to-prep word work activities into your classroom. With repetition and practice, your students will be growing their skills and becoming young readers in no time!

Free CVC Activities

What is Letter Naming Fluency and Why is it Important?

Letter naming fluency is the ability to recognize and recite letter names quickly and accurately. Students need to be able to identify letter names and do it well.

As kindergarten teachers, you spend a ton of time in the first few weeks and months of school to strengthen this skill, as it is the foundation for all other literacy skills.

Even though it may seem like an easy skill to teach, it doesn't come easy for some kiddos.

It's key to give students multiple opportunities to work on letter recognition with a variety of hands-on kindergarten alphabet activities, games, and paper and pencil pages.

By practicing letter recognition in different ways, students will become more familiar with letter names and increase their alphabet fluency.

Once they've built this strong foundation, naming letters becomes more automatic for them. They don't have to actively think about it, which makes it easier to recall the information and they become more fluent.

The Importance of Assessing Letter Name Fluency

Before you begin teaching letters, it's important to assess students early on in the year to determine a baseline. This will help you see what they already know and show growth throughout the year.

As you work on letter naming fluency with your students, it's key that you assess students often to see how they're progressing toward mastery.

You can progress monitor students every 2 weeks to start. As they work towards mastery, you can move to assess every month.

If a student is struggling and needs intervention, progress monitor them every week to ensure you're giving them the support they need. To streamline the process, use the free letter names assessment at the bottom of this post.

Letter Naming Fluency Activities

Alphabet Read Alouds

When beginning to teach letter names to increase alphabet fluency, it's important to make connections so students can grasp the letter names and their corresponding sounds.

Using alphabet read aloud books, such as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten are great ways to develop a love of reading and expose students to letters and sounds.

After reading the story, go back through the book and have students identify each letter's name and sound. They can write it on a whiteboard or a piece of paper as they go back through the book.

For more alphabet read aloud books and ideas, check out this blog post.

I Can Write Alphabet Sentences

A great way to help students practice letter naming fluency and make connections is to give them exposure to uppercase/lowercase letters as well as pictures that begin with that letter and sound.

This helps them increase their alphabet fluency while expanding their vocabulary. As students grow their skills, they can begin to complete sentences and trace sentences using those vocabulary words.

Using activities such as I Can Write Alphabet Sentences is great for your tactile learners.

Students hear letter names and sounds in books. They see letters as they read simple sentences and look at pictures.

By writing letters and tracing simple alphabet sentences using those letters, they feel how to form the letters, making that mind-body connection.

Alphabet I Spy

To make letter recognition practice fun, play a game of Alphabet I Spy. Start by saying “I spy something that starts with the letter R that makes the /r/ sound.”

Students will look around the room to find the word. You can also play this by saying “I spy a bear. What letter does bear start with? What sound does that letter make?”

You can have students write the letter on a whiteboard, on a piece of paper, or show the letter by using a magnetic letter.

Draw a Letter

Hands-on manipulatives such as magnetic letters are great for letter naming fluency activities. Students can draw letters out of a container and identify the letter name. If you want to practice sounds, they can say the sound as well.

As students become more familiar with letter names, turn this into a small group game to see who can name the most letters accurately in 30 seconds. Whoever has the most letter manipulatives in their pile at the end of the 30 seconds wins.

Letter Hunt

Students can practice connecting letters and sounds to pictures using alphabet fluency cards and letter hunt pages.

The alphabet fluency cards are great for quick skill checks and letter recognition practice. These can be used for 1:1 practice with struggling students as well.

On the letter hunt pages, students identify the letter and the pictures that begin with that letter and practice tracing and writing the letter in uppercase and lowercase form.

These alphabet fluency cards and letter hunt pages make the perfect letter naming fluency assessments. You can track their progress using the corresponding alphabet check-up page.

Alphabet Fluency Assessment

You can grab this free letter names assessment download by filling out the form below. It will be delivered straight to your inbox so you can use it right away to check in on your students' letter naming fluency.

This letter names assessment includes student uppercase and lowercase letter pages in two versions, a grayscale and color option. Each line is a different color, making it easy for students to track print.

It also comes with a teacher data tracker, so you can easily record your students' progress and add notes. No more tracking data on sticky notes, teacher friends!

Looking for more alphabet activities? Check out this set of alphabet centers which includes 10 hands-on activities that were designed to help students develop letter recognition skills. Every alphabet center includes a recording sheet, I Can cards, and teacher directions.

How to Choose Kindergarten Alphabet Activities

When choosing letter activities to use with your kindergarten students, it's important to keep the activities and instructions super simple. This is especially true at the beginning of the year.

Look for activities with easy directions that use simple or DIY materials. This will prevent overwhelm and frustration in your students.

You can find simple materials, such as letter tiles, magnetic letters, play dough, and more at local dollar stores, in your art supply stash, or even at garage sales.

For more ideas on the best tools to use for teaching letter recognition, check out this blog post.

At the beginning of the year, you might have some students that are ready to read, students who know a couple of letters, and some who have never held a pencil before.

Therefore, it's important to choose flexible activities that can easily be differentiated. This will allow you to use the same activity for all students while still meeting them at their developmental level.

You can start by working on part of the alphabet and work up to using all the letters with these kindergarten alphabet activities.

Keep the time span in which students work with a single alphabet activity short, anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes. This will help keep students engaged and on task.

Kindergarten Alphabet Activity Ideas

As a kindergarten teacher, you can never have enough alphabet activities. Check out these easy, engaging, and effective ideas below!

Alphabet Poster Activities

Alphabet posters or anchor charts that have a letter and a picture are one of the best tools to have on hand when teaching letters. You can keep them at your word work station or in an alphabet center for easy reference.

To use these posters for a kindergarten alphabet activity, cut the posters apart so you have a stack of pictures and a stack of letters. Students match the letter with the picture that starts with that sound.

It's a good idea to give students only half of the cut-apart poster cards to start. That way they don't have as many cards to manage. Just make sure the cards all have a match.

Stamp the Letter

Using letter stickers or letter stamps is a fun, creative way for students to practice learning letters. Students can draw an alphabet card or magnetic letter, identify it, and place the matching letter sticker or stamp on a piece of paper.

To practice letter sounds, students can draw a picture card and stamp or stick the letter that makes that sound on a piece of paper.

To practice lowercase and uppercase letter recognition and letter sounds, students can use this Stamp the Letter no prep alphabet activity. This is perfect for literacy centers, morning work, or even homework.

Alphabet Flashcard Activities

Alphabet flashcards are another great tool to have on hand. There are so many kindergarten alphabet activities you can do with them.

With 2 sets of flashcards, you can play a game of memory match. Students can also use them to match uppercase and lowercase letters and practice putting letters in alphabetical order using the alphabet line as a visual aid.

A fun alphabet game to play with flashcards is “I Spy.” Lay out all of the letter cards face up. The teacher says a letter or sound and the students search to “spy” the letter card that matches.

Mini Eraser Activities

There are several alphabet activities you can play with mini erasers. Lay out alphabet posters and have students outline the letters with mini erasers.

As they progress, they can draw an alphabet flashcard and build the letter on their own to practice letter formation. This can be done with uppercase and lowercase letters.

To practice beginning sounds, have students draw a picture card and build the matching letter with mini erasers.

Letter Roll

To practice alphabet letter recognition, using a dot cube and a game of Letter Roll is a fun way for kids to practice. The students will roll the dot cube, say the letter name in the corresponding column, and color or mark it with a crayon, bingo dabber, or manipulative.

Play continues until all of the spaces are covered. This can easily be played as a partner game, too. Each player uses their own board and races to see who can cover all the spaces in either a column or the entire sheet first.

Magazine Hunt

Magazines are another unique way to practice letter recognition in kindergarten. Just make sure to preview the magazines before giving them to students.

You can ask fellow coworkers or parents to donate magazines. Your school or local library may also have some children's magazines they can donate.

Students can cut out letters and sort them in various ways. They can sort them based on the letter or into uppercase and lowercase categories. This is a great activity for familiarizing students with environmental print.

For extra fine motor practice, students can paste the letters on these Magazine Letter Hunt no prep pages.

Fine Motor Alphabet Mazes

Fine motor practice is another key skill for kindergarteners to build, especially at the beginning of the year. Why not combine your alphabet practice with fine motor skills?

Students can make their way through Fine Motor Alphabet Mazes with mini erasers, race cars, or by dotting the lines with cotton swabs and paint. This will help them learn alphabet formation and directionality.

After they make their way through the maze, students can use a pencil or crayon to trace the letters. They even get bonus letter sound practice by saying the picture names that match the focus letter and coloring them.

Free Letter Names Assessment

As students are practicing letter recognition, it's crucial to monitor their progress. This will help you make informed decisions for future instruction so students can practice the letters they need to work on most.

You can download a free letter names assessment and teacher progress tracker by filling out the form below. It'll be sent right to your inbox so you can print and use right away with your students.

I hope you enjoyed reading about these kindergarten alphabet activities and got some new ideas to try with your students. If you liked the activities you saw, you can grab all of them and more in this No Prep Alphabet Activities Bundle.

Comment below and let me know which activity you're trying first with your class!

Tips For Teaching CVC Words

While teaching CVC words is a big deal in kindergarten, getting there can be a challenge for some students. They need practice and repeated exposure to master this critical skill.

As a teacher, you know that the more hands-on, interactive activities you use, the more your students will be actively engaged. And higher engagement leads to more growth and success!

So before we dive into all of the activities for CVC words, let's first talk about some tips for teaching CVC words.

Tip #1: Know when your students are ready for CVC words.

Here's the thing… even though your kindergarten pacing guide might say that you need to be teaching CVC words at a certain time of year, if your students aren't ready, it's better to hold off.

To learn more about the signs of CVC word readiness, check out this blog post.

If your students are not quite ready for CVC words, that's ok! Keep working on the basics of letter recognition and letter sounds.

Tip #2: Provide multiple opportunities to work with CVC words.

Let's face it, students don't have a super long attention span. They also get bored easily doing the same activities for CVC words every day.

That's why it is so important to provide multiple opportunities for them to work with CVC words in different ways.

Additionally, all students have different learning styles. What clicks for one student may not for the next.

Therefore, it is a good idea to incorporate activities that use pictures, letters, hands-on CVC manipulatives, and even a word work station into your CVC word practice.

Tip #3: Use pictures that are clear and kid-friendly.

Speaking of activities for CVC words that use pictures, it is essential that the pictures are clear and kid-friendly. Students should be able to look at the picture and know exactly what the word is.

This will help avoid any confusion and give students more success as they work independently.

Tip #4: Practice, practice, practice!

Just like the old saying goes, practice makes perfect! And not just practice every once in a while, but daily CVC word practice.

You can add CVC work into your morning routine, carpet time, reading warm-ups, mini lessons, word work, CVC literacy centers, writing lessons, etc.

If you have a few minutes before lunch or the bell rings for the end of the day, you can go around the room and practice spelling and saying CVC words or saying CVC words in the same word family.

There are so many ways to practice, and they don't have to be time-consuming or complicated!

Activities for CVC Words

There are so many ways to practice CVC words, and luckily, many of them are easy to prep and use basic classroom supplies. There is so much you can do with plastic cubes, magnetic letters, dice, and mini erasers.

Word Family Activities

When students are practicing CVC words, it is helpful for them to work with the same word family. This helps them master that particular sound and get a lot of great repetition.

Using word family activities such as match and cover, CVC graphing, and CVC word mats are a great way to give students hands-on practice as they master CVC words and word families.

Build a Word Family

For a simple and no-prep word family activity, you can use magnetic letters to build words in the same word family.

Give students a pile of magnetic letters. You can either call out words in the word family for them to build or give them a stack of word family cards to flip and build.

Write a Word Family

If you're looking for an easy way to get students active, you can do this write a word family activity.

To begin, write a word family on the whiteboard. Have students take turns writing a word that belongs in the word family on the board.

This would be a great whole group warm-up or mini-lesson activity.

Mixed Vowel CVC Activities

As students progress with their CVC skills, you can start to incorporate activities for CVC words that use mixed vowels.

CVC word searches, roll and read, and spell it are all great ways to practice identifying and reading words with different middle vowels.

Word Family Mix Up

Another fun and DIY way to practice CVC words in various word families is to play word family mix up.

Draw a simple T-chart on a whiteboard or chart paper. Write various word families on the top of the chart. Write different CVC words in the various word families on notecards and mix them up.

Have students take turns drawing a card, reading the word, and writing the word under the correct word family on the chart.

You can also play by mixing up all the cards face up. Call out a word family and have students take turns finding a word card in that word family. Then they will write it under the correct word family on the board.

This is a great whole group or small group game to practice CVC words.

CVC Bundle Sampler Freebie

Since you can never have too many activities for CVC words, I have just the freebie for you! You can try a free sampler of my CVC Words Bundle by filling out the form below.

It'll get delivered straight to your inbox with a sample of several of the activities included in the bundle for you and your students to try!

I hope these activities and tips for teaching CVC words have been helpful and make learning more fun for your students!

Why Learning Through Games Is Effective

Using learning games for kindergarteners is an effective strategy for making skill practice and review fun and hands-on for students.

By playing various games, students are allowed to be active, stress less, and enjoy the learning experience.

It's also a great way to encourage cooperative learning and build classroom community.

As students play together and work on key math and literacy skills, they learn important life skills such as sportsmanship, taking turns, interacting, playing fair, and problem-solving.

The more students are enjoying themselves and working cooperatively with their classmates, the more they'll retain and stay on task. It's a win-win situation!

Tips For Setting Learning Games Up For Success

When you are incorporating math and literacy games into your classroom, there are a few important tips to keep in mind. These tips will help you set the learning games and your students up for success.

Tip #1: Prep your supplies.

One of the biggest time-sucks in the kindergarten classroom is getting students ready to play a game and realizing you don't have the supplies ready or there are supplies missing.

Before playing the game, preferably before the day begins, prep your supplies. Gather everything students will need and place them in a centralized location.

Add all the supplies and game pieces they'll need to a large baggie, a colorful tote tray, or an organization basket.

It's also a good idea to add extras, such as an extra spinner and extra counters. That way if one gets lost, students can keep playing without interrupting you or their classmates.

If you are using your learning games during small groups or partner practice, you can label the baggie, tray, or basket with those students' names so they know exactly what they need.

Tip #2: Set your space up for success.

Have you ever had one of those moments where students are playing a game that involves rolling a dot cube and all you can hear are cubes hitting the floor or desks? It can be loud and distracting!

When implementing learning games in your classroom, consider the game, your students, and your space. It might be better to have students play games with dot cubes on the carpet, where it will be less distracting.

On the other hand, games with spinners or several pieces, such as counters, can easily get lost on the floor. Set those games up at your small group table or by putting two desks together.

It's also a good idea to spread groups of students and games out around the room. That allows each group to have their own space and hear each other without being distracted by other games happening around the room.

Tip #3: Discuss expectations before playing.

Just like with any new activity or learning strategy, it's important to discuss expectations with your students before playing.

Talk to them about staying in their area, taking care of their supplies, using kind words, taking turns, setting the game up for the next group, transitioning between games, etc.

You can also discuss what to do if they are stuck, need help, or finish the game early.

By taking the time to discuss these expectations ahead of time, students will be more confident playing the games and making positive choices.

Tip #4: Model each game.

Modeling each game with your students is a great way to explain the directions, show them exactly what they'll be doing, and ask guiding questions to check for understanding.

This is a great time to answer any questions they may have before beginning.

You can even do a quick practice round with your students to ensure they know how to play the game, take turns, and use the materials.

This is an opportunity to talk through potential problems or challenges they'll need to solve during the game. This can help kickstart their brains into problem-solving mode.

Using consistent math and literacy games with directions that remain the same while the theme changes is a great way to save yourself time and empower your students.

Tip #5: Use small groups.

When it comes to implementing learning games for kindergarteners, small groups tend to work better than large groups.

Smaller groups cut down on the chaos while still giving students the opportunity to work with other students.

Another benefit of small groups is less wait time in between turns, which is a must for little learners.

When it's time to introduce a new activity, doing so in small groups is a good way to give every student a chance to play while maximizing your time.

Groups of 3-4 students is ideal, but you can definitely pair students up to play partner games.

How To Incorporate Learning Games Into Your Schedule

Now that you have 5 tips for setting learning games up for success in the classroom, let's talk about how to incorporate these learning games into your busy schedule!

There are so many skills to teach in kindergarten. It can feel like you're constantly running around trying to squeeze everything in.

Oftentimes, teachers feel like they need to cut out fun learning activities like games in order to get everything done.

However, learning games may be one of the most effective and important activities to keep on your schedule at all times. After all, students will be highly engaged in math and literacy games, which leads to higher retention.

There are several ways to incorporate learning games into your kindergarten class schedule, including:

• Small group lessons
• Morning tubs
• Math and literacy centers
• Partner games
• Early finisher activities
• Brain breaks
• Free choice games
• Indoor recess games
• Quick time filler games
• Seasonal games

Using Math and Literacy Games All Year Long

Learning games are one of those staples to keep on your math and literacy lesson plans all year long. They're great for practicing skills, reviewing skills, and simply making learning fun.

Plus, by switching out the themes, your students will always have fresh games to play, even if they are practicing the same skill.

You can check out my Kindergarten Math and Literacy Games Bundle where I've done all of the planning, direction-writing, and work for you!

There are 108 easy-prep games covering 9 different skills in year-round themes. These games never go out of style whether it's August, December, or May!

All you need are basic classroom supplies, such as mini erasers, plastic math cubes, and plastic spinners (or the homemade, paperclip and pencil version).

Free Math and Literacy Games for Kindergarten

Are you ready to try implementing learning games for kindergarteners in your classroom?

You can download a FREE sample pack of the Kindergarten Math and Literacy Games by filling out the form below. It'll get delivered straight to your inbox with 6 fun games for your students to enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed these tips and ideas for implementing learning games in your classroom!

Why is it Important to Teach Beginning Sounds?

When teaching students to read, it's important for them to understand that words are made up of letters and sounds. This knowledge helps them read and write more fluently.

Phonemic awareness and phonics skills are key in kindergarten. Phonemic awareness skills are when students understand that words are made up of various sounds. Phonics skills are what correlates the sound of a letter to the written letter itself.

Begin with teaching phonemic awareness skills so students learn to listen for and differentiate the sounds in words.

It can be tricky for students to hear the middle and ending sounds in words at first, which is why starting with beginning sounds is so effective.

Digital Beginning Sounds Activities

Since it's important for students to first understand what beginning sounds are and learn to listen for them in words, you need a variety of beginning sounds activities for kindergarten for them to practice with.

A great way to engage your students is with interactive digital phonemic awareness activities like beginning sounds Boom Cards. These Boom Card decks give students a variety of opportunities to practice listening for the same beginning sounds in words.

Plus with audio directions, audio picture names, and the self-checking feature, your students will be able to work independently with success.

Hands-on Beginning Sounds Activities

Mastering beginning sounds takes a lot of practice and exposure. Therefore, you need a wide array of hands-on beginning sounds activities for kindergarten that your students can work with.

You can incorporate these hands-on activities into your morning tubs, literacy centers, or fast finisher activities. This is a great way to keep your students practicing their skills throughout the day.

Letter Sound Mats

One of my favorite ways to practice beginning sounds is with letter sound mats and magnetic letters. Students will say the picture name aloud, identify the beginning sound, and match the correct magnetic letter to the picture.

If you have a set of picture cards and magnetic letters, you can simply have students flip a card, identify the beginning sound, and match the letter.

Build the Sound Mats

Another great beginning sounds activity for kindergarten is build the sound mats. This activity allows students to identify the beginning sound in the picture and build the letter using manipulatives.

Students will get extra fine motor practice as they work on both phonemic awareness and phonics skills.

Beginning Sound Mazes

Another fun way to switch up the learning is to use beginning sound mazes with your students. As they cover the letters that make the focus sound on the mat, they'll work their way through the maze.

This makes learning feel like a game for students, which is a sure way to keep them on task, engaged, and motivated.

If you loved these hands-on beginning sounds activities for kindergarten, you can grab them all plus more in my Beginning Sounds and Letter Sounds Bundle!

No Prep Beginning Sounds Activities

While using digital and hands-on beginning sounds activities is key, it's also nice to keep a good stash of no prep activities on hand.

Add these no prep beginning sounds activities to your morning work, independent literacy stations, or keep them in a sub tub. They also make great time filler activities if you have a few minutes between activities.

If you need a quick way to assess your students on beginning sounds, you can use these no prep activities as an informal assessment as well.

How to Assess Your Students on Beginning Sounds

As your students learn and grow their beginning sounds skills, you want to assess them frequently. This allows you to see which beginning sounds they are mastering and which sounds they need help with.

Using beginning sounds picture cards and a checklist is a great way to gauge your students' understanding. You can monitor students quarterly, monthly, or every 2 weeks if they need more support.

Beginning Sounds Assessment Freebie

To make assessing your students on beginning sounds and letter sounds easy, I created an assessment freebie for you.

This freebie includes a beginning sounds assessment checklist and beginning sounds pictures. There is also a letter sounds assessment page and checklist to help you assess your students' uppercase and lowercase letter sound recognition.

You can fill out the form below to get the beginning sounds and letter sounds assessment freebie sent directly to your inbox!

I hope these beginning sounds activities and assessments for kindergarten make learning more fun and effective in your classroom!

What Are Nouns?

A noun is a part of speech that names a person, place, animal, or thing. Nouns are often the subject of a sentence.

What Are The Different Types of Nouns?

There are different types of nouns, common and proper nouns and singular and plural nouns.

A common noun names any person, place, animal, or thing and is not specific, such as “grocery store.” Therefore, common nouns are not capitalized in sentences. A proper noun names a specific person, place, animal, or thing and is capitalized in sentences. An example of a proper noun is “Wisconsin.”

A singular noun means there is only one person, place, animal, or thing. A plural noun refers to more than one person, place, animal, or thing.

How To Introduce Nouns In Kindergarten

When introducing nouns in kindergarten, it takes a lot of practice and repetition. It's important to use students' prior knowledge to guide the discussion. Define what a noun is and relate it to real-life experiences they are familiar with. Talk about different people, places, animals, and things to help students understand what is and isn't a noun.

It's helpful to create an anchor chart on chart paper for student reference. On this chart, define what a noun is at the top and create a section for each: person, place, animal, thing. Have students brainstorm nouns that fit into each category. This is a great way to provide a visual and help students understand nouns.

Must-Haves For Teaching Nouns In Kindergarten

When teaching nouns in kindergarten, there are a few must-have items and activities to help students understand and practice nouns. These must-haves will give students visual aides, hands-on practice, and digital practice with nouns.

Nouns Anchor Charts

Remember that nouns anchor chart we talked about above? After filling out the anchor chart in your introductory lesson, display it in the classroom for students to reference as they learn more about nouns.

You can also find printable nouns anchor chart posters in this nouns activity pack. Hang them around the classroom to use during whole class discussions, small group work, and for students to reference during independent practice activities.

Picture Cards

Picture cards are also a must for your nouns activities for kindergarten. They are great for helping students identify nouns, compare nouns, and sort nouns into the proper categories.

You can use picture cards for a variety of nouns picture sorts, centers, and no prep activities. They are also great to have on hand for quick practice during morning work, reading lessons, or as a quick time filler game.

Nouns Center Activities

While it's great to practice nouns in whole group and small group settings, it's also super important for students to practice independently. Independent center activities give students the opportunity to apply their skills and think critically.

Independent center activities also allows the teacher to see the level of understanding of each student. This will help guide further nouns instruction.

This nouns activity pack has 7 hands-on noun centers for your students to practice with along with kid-friendly “I Can” cards and recording sheets.

Nouns Boom Cards

It's always nice to keep some digital nouns activities for kindergarten on hand. These Nouns Boom Cards are no prep, self-checking, and highly engaging for kids. Plus, they have audio directions and picture names, so students will know exactly what is being asked of them.

They'll look at each picture, listen to the name, and determine if it is a person, place, thing, or animal. Use these Boom Cards for independent practice, a technology station, or even as an early finisher activity for extra nouns practice.

Quick And Easy Nouns Games

The best part about teaching nouns is there are so many quick and easy nouns games you can play with your students. These games don't require a lot (if any) prep and can be played anytime of day. Read on for 4 fun nouns games to play with your kindergarteners.

4 Corners

To play 4 Corners, the teacher will place an anchor chart or sticky note in each corner to show which corner represents which category of noun: person, place, thing, or animal.

The students will stand in the middle of the room. The teacher will call out a noun, such as “dog,” and the students will race to the corner that represents animals. All students will return to the middle to play again.

To differentiate this game, you can have students take turns being the “caller.” It's a good idea to model appropriate behavior and set expectations before playing the game. That way students don't push and shove to get to the corner first.

Circle Of Nouns

In the game Circle of Nouns, students will stand in a large circle. The teacher will choose a category of nouns and start by naming something that belongs in that category. For example, the teacher may choose places and say the word “school.”

The next person in the circle will name another place and so on. If the student gets stuck and can't think of a noun in that category, they can “phone a friend” to help them out.

To make this game easier, you could have students go around the circle and say any noun in any category. If you play this version of the game, encourage them to say the word and what category of noun it belongs in.

Sit/Stand

To play the game Sit/Stand, students will start by sitting in their seat. The teacher will choose two categories of nouns and will tell the students to sit if they say a noun that's an animal and stand if they say a noun that's a person.

The teacher will call out different animals and people and the students will sit/stand accordingly. After a few rounds, the teacher can change the two types of nouns to practice places and things. Keep mixing and matching types of nouns for a ton of great practice.

This game really encourages students to think on their feet!

Draw a Noun

Draw a Noun is the only game that requires supplies and a little bit of prep work. To prep, get out pieces of colored paper in 4 different colors. Cut each piece of paper into fourths. Hand each student a small piece of paper in each color.

Each color will represent a category of nouns. You can model for them how to write each category on top of the paper so they can do the same. Once the students have their colored paper and have labeled each, the teacher will call out a noun.

The students will determine which color of paper it belongs on and will draw a quick picture of the noun on the piece of paper. They can also try to write the name of the picture underneath.

Remind students to make their picture small as they'll be adding more pictures to the paper. To make this game easier, you can start by only giving students 2 colors of paper and calling out nouns in two categories.

Nouns Trail Game Freebie

I have one more bonus nouns game for you that is totally FREE! This set of nouns trail games are perfect for practicing nouns because they are interactive and engaging. The school theme makes them perfect for any time of the year. 

All you need to play are the game mats, small game pieces such as mini erasers or plastic cubes, and a plastic spinner (or paperclip and pencil). Students can play this game independently or with a partner.

You can download your copy of the Nouns Trail Game Freebie by filling out the form below. It'll be delivered straight to your inbox!

I hope you enjoyed these nouns activities for kindergarten! Comment below and let me know which activity you're trying first.

Before I dive into the tips for building your classroom library, let me tell you a little story. I remember my first year as a new teacher, I had grand visions of my classroom.

I envisioned the Pinterest-perfect, cozy reading nook stocked with colorful bins and labeled baskets filled to the brim with engaging, age-appropriate, perfectly organized books for my students. 

But then reality hit. Where in the world was I going to find all these books, and more importantly, how much was it going to cost me?

I started researching and reached out to everyone I could think of that might be able to help. With a little creative thinking (and okay, a few bucks) my dream library came together.

These ideas for building the classroom library of your dreams are what helped me get started and I hope they help you too! Feel free to share this blog post with a teacher friend and share your ideas in the comments.

Tips for Building Your Classroom Library

1. Spread the Word

When it comes to building your classroom library, most people are happy to help teachers out, especially new teachers.

Reach out to anyone you know that may have children’s books they are willing to let go of. Contact friends, family, neighbors, former teachers, people you used to babysit for, even your network of friends on social media. 

2. Tap Into Your School Community 

When looking for books, reach out to your co-workers and other teachers at your school. See if any current teachers have any books they are cleaning out from their collection or books they have duplicates of.

Sometimes you'll find teachers who have moved grades and are willing to pass along books they no longer need.

Ask the librarian if there are any books they can spare from the library. If you’re lucky you’ll hit the jackpot with a retiring teacher or two. They’re always more than happy to pass on resources to the next generation of educators. 

3. Ask For Parent Donations.

At the beginning of the year, include a blurb in your welcome newsletter asking for book donations from the families of your new students.

Oftentimes, families have titles they’re more than happy to donate or they know people or family members like grandparents who do. 

You can even send a letter home later on in the year letting them know which types of books your growing readers would love.

4. Seek Out Bargains

One of the best ways to build your classroom library is by bargain shopping. Check out thrift stores like Goodwill or used book stores. Local Facebook groups or marketplace are another great resource for finding used books

You can even check out garage sales, where it's easy to find books for as little as a quarter. You may even find some other great classroom finds while you're at it!

5. Hold a Book Drive

Organize a book drive for your class. Better yet, ask the PTA or parent volunteers to host a book drive for the whole school.

Volunteer your time to set up posters and send out emails and flyers to get the word out. If possible, include specific titles or genres so that people know exactly what you’re looking for. 

This can benefit the whole school and would be great to have going during parent-teacher conferences when parents are in the school building.

6. Look For Public Library Book Sales

Most public libraries hold book sales at least once a year. It’s a great way to find low-cost, quality books to help you build your classroom library. Check out the website BookSaleFinder to find a sale near you.  

7. Join the Scholastic Book Club

Sponsoring a Scholastic Book Club is a great way to get more books for your classroom library. It’s super easy to build up points for free classroom books too.

The way it works is, teachers send home flyers, kids choose their books, and parents submit their orders.

This is sure to be one of your students’ favorite days of the month, the day their Scholastic books arrive!

You can use your free book points to help purchase books as a Christmas gift for each of your students as well.

8. Set Up a Donors Choose Project

Setting up a project on Donors Choose is super easy and brings great results. All you do is build a profile and send your project out to your contacts.

Visit the website for easy to follow directions to help you get started. Donors Choose will even match funding on your first project! 

9. Shop Online

There are so many inexpensive ways to buy books for your classroom online. Here are a few of my cost-effective favorites. 

• Half Price Books is the largest family-owned bookstore in the country, offering thousands of books of different genres and levels. Half Price Books offers clearance sales, super buys, an educator discount, and you can even request donated books. 
• Booksource has over 30,000 titles in their catalog representing more than 150 publishers. They offer a 25% discount on all titles and collections and free shipping. In addition, Booksource Classroom is a free web-based program that helps teachers organize and inventory their classroom library, find the right leveled books, and assess student development. 
• Bulk Books is perfect if you're looking for classroom sets of books. Bulk Books is a great source, offering wholesale prices up to 60% off plus free shipping.
• First Book Marketplace offers thousands of brand new books at 50-90% off retail prices. Their resources include award-winning and culturally inclusive books, teacher resources, games, and other educational products. First Book Marketplace offers a program for free e-books. Open e-Books gives low-income students and their families access to a digital library of thousands of popular and award-winning children’s books.

Building your classroom library doesn’t have to be a daunting process. Tap into your resources, keep your eyes open for deals, and search online for sources. Before you know it, that cozy reading nook full of books will be a reality. 

Letter Recognition Tools for Kindergarten

There are so many letter recognition tools for kindergarten that you can use to help your students recognize and form letters.

Keep in mind the different learning styles in your classroom and choose tools that will help all of your students, no matter what learning style they connect with most.

Anchor Charts and Posters

Having alphabet posters, anchor charts, and alphabet desk charts in your classroom is a great letter recognition tool for kindergarten. These can be prepped and present all year long without any additional effort.

These tools serve as a great visual aide for your students that they can reference throughout the day. It's a great idea to put your anchor charts and posters at eye level so your students can easily see them and access them when needed.

By seeing these posters and charts multiple times a day, your students will begin to recognize letters more efficiently because of the exposure they're getting daily by simply being in the classroom.

Brain Breaks

All kids need movement and activity, especially those kinesthetic learners. Using brain breaks and songs with actions that teach the alphabet is a great way to help students recognize letters.

These brain breaks and songs will even help them make connections between the letters and their sounds. Learning letters is so much fun with a little movement and singing.

Activity Mats

Activity mats are a great way to practice letter recognition. They are easy to prep, which is perfect for busy teachers. Adding spinners, dice, mini erasers, finger eyes, etc, adds an extra element of fun, which captivates students' attention. Students don't realize that they are learning.

Give activity mats a try in your classroom by downloading the freebie at the end of this blog post.

Fine Motor Activities

Letter recognition tools and activities that use fine motor skills serve double-duty in kindergarten. You can use a variety of manipulatives to help students form letters and complete alphabet activities.

Using mini erasers and mini eraser mats is a fun way for students to recognize uppercase and lowercase letters and practice forming them with proper directionality.

You can also use play dough and play dough mats to do a similar activity using a different fine motor tool.

Bingo dabbers are another letter recognition tool for kindergarten that uses fine motor skills. Students can use bingo dabbers and plain white paper to dab the shape of letters on the page.

They can also practice uppercase and lowercase letter recognition in a variety of ways with letter recognition bingo dabber activities.

Digital Activities

Digital activities such as alphabet Boom Cards are interactive letter recognition tools for kindergarten. It's nice to mix it up by offering students a digital activity to practice with every once in a while.

Digital activities help students think critically and gain independence. They are great for students in all learning styles, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

Students can practice sorting uppercase and lowercase letters, recognizing letters, and discriminating letters with the fun, digital activities included in this alphabet Boom Cards bundle.

Hands-On Activities

Letter recognition is one of those skills that is practiced daily in kindergarten. Therefore, you need a variety of hands-on activities to choose from to prevent boredom with your students.

Engaging students with endless letter activities and games such as “Hidden Treasure”, an alphabet find and cover game, is a sure way to keep them on task and excited to learn. Plus, if it feels like a game to them, they won't even realize they're learning!

Another cost-effective letter recognition tool for kindergarten is something you probably have laying around your house…magazines!

Students can use kid-friendly magazines to hunt for letters and cut and paste them on a recording sheet. You can grab a free magazine hunt recording sheet here.

While they hunt through the magazines, they'll even get a little bit of environmental print exposure too, another double-duty activity.

Alphabet Manipulatives

Alphabet manipulatives are also effective letter recognition tools. Students can use magnetic letters to identify letters, match uppercase and lowercase letters, and practice matching letters to their beginning sounds.

You can find a free apple-themed alphabet activity using magnetic letters along with other free apple activities in this blog post.

Another kid-favorite alphabet manipulative is alphabet stamps. Students love using stamps and different colors of ink to stamp the letters and match uppercase and lowercase letters.

They can also use alphabet stamps to stamp the letter of the beginning sound they hear in pictures.

Grab your free set of activity mats. They are perfect to use during literacy centers or free time activities. Simply fill out the form below and then check your e-mail inbox.

This article, like many other articles on The Printable Princess, contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through the links, I earn a small commission.  We only share links to resources and products we love.

What Are The Benefits of Morning Tubs?

If you're new to using them, check out the list of benefits of morning tubs below. If you'd like to dive into the benefits further, check out this kindergarten morning tubs blog post.

Consistency

Remember when I said morning tubs can transform your classroom from chaos to consistency? It's true! Morning tubs offer your students a consistent start to their day. When your students walk in the door, they know exactly what to do… grab their morning tub and get started on their activity for the day.

Organization

Have you experienced mornings where worksheets, school supplies, and scraps of paper are everywhere? Talk about a stressful start to the day. Morning tubs provide organization by using minimal supplies and keeping everything your students need to complete the activity in one place, no messes allowed.

Soft start

Just like adults, students need a little time in the morning to get their brains going. While adults may grab a cup of coffee, students can use morning tubs to warm up their brains and prepare their bodies for a day of learning. Morning tubs allow students to have fun, use fine motor skills, and learn all at the same time!

Practice key skills

Morning tubs also k=akkiw to practice important math and literacy skills. They help students work more independently and gain confidence in the skills they're practicing.

What Supplies Do You Need For Morning Tubs?

When it comes to morning tub ideas for kindergarten you're looking for hands-on and easy to prep activities. The best part about morning tubs is that you can use basic classroom supplies that you already have.

Additionally, you can do several activities throughout the year with the same supplies. Use the supplies differently to keep the activities fresh or use them the same way with a different skill. The options are truly endless.

Some of my favorite classroom supplies to use with morning tubs are:

• Play dough
• Dominoes
• Dot cubes
• Counting bears
• Plastic math cubes
• Color links
• Mini erasers – apples, stars, pets
• Mini clothespins
• Plastic spinners
• Whiteboards and dry-erase markers
• Pattern blocks
• Letter tiles
• Letter stamps
• Magnetic letters & numbers
• Letter cards
• Picture cards
• Metal rings to store cards
• Plastic trays

What Are Some Morning Tub Ideas for Kindergarten?

Now let's dive into some easy-to-prep and differentiate morning tub ideas for kindergarten. Remember, you can differentiate these activities by making the skill easier or more challenging, or by swapping out the skill being practiced.

Play dough Activities

Play dough isn't just for making snakes and pretend baking…play dough is perfect for helping students practice letters, numbers, shapes, counting, and more.

Students can use play dough independently to form uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, or shapes on play dough mats. They can even do this on cookie sheets or plastic placemats. This is especially effective at the beginning of the year.

Students can even work with a partner to practice matching uppercase and lowercase letters. One partner can form the uppercase letter and one partner can form the lowercase letter to match. Similarly, one partner can form a number while the other forms the same number of play dough balls to match.

Domino Activities

Dominoes are perfect for morning tubs as they help students practice counting, matching, and one-to-one correspondence. Students can line dominoes up, counting and matching the numbers on each end to make a domino maze.

They can also count the dots on each domino, say the number, and then count out that many objects to match. They can use objects such as mini erasers, color links, or counting bears. This is great practice for one-to-one correspondence.

Counting Bears and Plastic Math Cubes Activities

Counting bears and plastic math cubes are super versatile when it comes to morning tub ideas for kindergarten. They can be used to sort by color, count groups, make groups to show a number, or even to show equal groups.

Students can grab a handful of counting bears, count how many, and then model an equal group with plastic math cubes. They can also use these manipulatives to solve problems and model number pairs to 5 or 10 by using 2 colors to show the number pairs.

Pattern Block Activities.

Pattern blocks are perfect for sorting by size, shape, and color. These are great for practicing visual discrimination skills. Students can also use pattern blocks to practice making basic graphs and working with data.

For example, students can grab a handful of pattern blocks and make a simple graph to show the number of each pattern block they have. Then, they can tell how many of each pattern block and compare to see which shape has the most and the least.

Pattern blocks are great for free play, building, and creating. Sometimes letting students create freely at the beginning of the day is the best way to warm up their brains.

Dot Cube Activities

Dot cubes are also very versatile and make differentiating morning tub activities a breeze. Students can roll a dot cube and write the number on a whiteboard with a dry-erase marker. To make it more challenging, they can roll 2 dot cubes, count how many in all, and then write the number.

To practice counting and one-to-one correspondence, students can roll a dot cube and count out that many objects, such as mini erasers or colorful links.

Color Links Activities

Color links are fun for students and allow them to work their fine motor muscles as they connect and take apart the links.

Students can use the links as a way to sort by color or to practice non-standard measurement. Students can choose a basic object, such as a glue bottle or pair of scissors, and connect color links to see how many links long it is.

Letter Tiles and Letter Cards Activities

There are so many morning tub ideas for kindergarten that you can do with letter tiles and letter cards. You can mix up a set of uppercase letter tiles or cards and a set of lowercase letter tiles or cards and have students match them.

They can also use a stack of either uppercase, lowercase, or mixed letter tiles or cards to practice letter sounds. They will flip over the first letter tile or card, say the sound, and flip the next card. This can be done in partners, taking turns.

Magnetic Letters and Letter Stamps Activities

Magnetic letters and letter stamps are perfect for practicing building names, sight words, and CVC words later on in the year.

Students can practice building their names with magnetic letters or letter stamps. To practice sight words, you can include a simple list of sight words in the morning tub and have students build the words. The same can be done later on with CVC words.

Picture Card Activities

Picture cards provide a great visual for students and can be used with several morning tub activities. Students can choose a picture card, draw a picture, and write a sentence about it. At the beginning of the year, you can differentiate by having students draw and label a picture.

As students learn more about rhyming words, they can choose a picture card and say a word that rhymes. To practice blending sounds in CVC words later in the year, students can draw a picture card, sound out the CVC word, and write the word on a whiteboard.

I hope you feel more equipped than ever to start implementing morning tubs in your classroom. They are so doable and effective with the right supplies and activities. With these morning tub ideas for kindergarten, you'll be set with a ton of activities to use throughout the year.

Did you love these morning tub ideas and want more…even for the entire school year? You can check out my Kindergarten Morning Tubs Bundle, complete with 9 months' worth of seasonal morning tub activities to use all year long! These kindergarten morning tubs activities are planned for you, include “I Can” cards, and progress throughout the year. What more could you want!?

To learn more about storing and organizing your morning tubs, check out this blog post.