American Library Association
Great Early Elementary Reads
Here is an excellent reference list of over 60 recommended book titles for early readers, each of which includes the author, title, number of pages, and brief summary.
Curated OER
Vowels Game
In this vowel worksheet, students play a game sounding out vowel sounds and blend sounds as they move along the game board. Directions are included for the beginner player and the advanced player.
Curated OER
Trace the Letters of the English alphabet
In this English alphabet instructional activity, learners write the letters of the alphabet on blank lines. Students write as many letters as they can.
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ABC Sound Off!
Games are great ways to reinforce practical concepts. This game has students determine which letter each picture begins with. There are sounds for correct and incorrect answers, which the students will enjoy. The game is short and could...
Curriculum Corner
Digraph Boggle
Th, wh, ch, and sh are only some of the consonant digraphs early readers need to master. Increase skills and digraph recognition with a fun game. Children find words containing an initial or final digraph, circle them, and then write...
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Good Sport
Playing a simple game of catch, and empathizing with someone who drops the bean bag, is the basis for a game on being a good sport. In it, learners engage in a class discussion about winning and losing. It's always easy to win, but not...
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Fishing for Friends
Students design a creative fishing game in which they measure pieces, sculpt a pond scene and write details about themselves. They seek out new friends by playing a game to discover other students with similar interests and hobbies to...
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Guess the Fruit!
Here is a fun game to help little learners build deductive reasoning skills. Each slide contains an image of a fruit or a bag, it's up to the class to determine which fruit will come out of the bag next, based on the clues you give them....
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Rhyme Brainstormers
Students identify words that rhyme and realize that this literacy skill is engaging. Then they prepare their own language game props. Students also monitor each other in following rules, erasing duplicate words, and scorekeeping....
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Making Words
Young writers identify and generate words using the strategies of phonics on the Making Words computer program. Words are typed instead of having to use tiles or paper. Extension activities such as playing the memory game, drawing...
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Learning About Prediction
The skill of prediction as a reading strategy is explored. Learners are shown how to use clues within a story, along with pictures, to make predictions as to what's going to happen in the story. A clever in-class game which uses objects...
Curated OER
Author's Purpose
A simple activity for young readers, this introduces the idea of author purpose. Learners analyze various types of texts (newspaper articles, magazines, books, advertisements, etc.) and determine if the author's purpose for writing was...
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How Tiger Got His Stripes
First graders play the game of telephone repeating the sentence, "Tiger was prouder than the pretty perfect peacock, prouder than the magnificent menacing monkey, the lazy loud lion, and the walloping water buffalo who worked for the...
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Caring Concentration
Students read and discuss literature containing characters who help and support one another. They identify caring vocabulary and actions and work together to design and play a card game that promotes caring attitudes and skills.
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Long Vowel Sound "OA"
It's a guessing game! Can your youngsters guess the word that the clues describe? Can they draw a picture to accompany two of the answers? Have them locate the oa digraph in each written word when they're finished!
Curated OER
Capitalization and Punctuation
First and second graders explore writing conventions. They add question marks or periods to the end of teacher generated sentences on sentence strips. They locate punctuation marks in poems and write original sentences using appropriate...
Teachers' Domain
Sequencing: Princess Fairy Tales
Review with your young readers the course of events in typical fairy tales with princes, princesses, and dragons. Then read either The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch or Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole to compare these two...
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Introduce /r/
Use these inventive strategies to focus on the letter r, forming sound associations along with letter recognition. Explain the tongue movement in making the /r/ sound, asking learners to try it. Draw the r on the board and give examples...
Reading Resource
Tic-Tac-Toe
Who can match three words first? Using a tic-tac-toe template, kids fill in nine words from their vocabulary word wall, and listen for the teacher to call out words that match their game boards. The first to get three in a row wins!
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Snake and Sight Word Board Game
Students practice sight words. Game begins with the first student rolling a die and moving the number of spaces shown on the die. If they lands on a shaded square, he or she turns up a card and reads it aloud.
Curated OER
Art Criticism for Elementary
Students view various pieces of art and identify their basic elements. Using the art, they present the elements to the class in a presentation. They answer questions and organize them into written form. They also write and reflect on...
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Halloween Vocabulary Game
In this Halloween vocabulary worksheet, students use the Halloween pictures and words to play a game like bingo and recognize new words.
ABCya
Write a Letter to Santa
Here comes a writing assignment, here comes a writing assignment, right in time for Christmas. Young letter writers respond to a series of questions posed by the interactive that then formats their responses into a letter to Santa.