Word Recognition with Letter Buddies

Teaching word recognition to developing readers can have its ups and downs.  I swear there are days when my kiddos are on it, they are recognizing all their sight words, and then POOF! the next day it is all gone.  I decided to try out the Letter Buddies series, from Hameray Publishing, with my developing readers.
According to Hameray, "This product line supports the development of letter knowledge and early literacy skills through letter recognition and formation, letter-sound correspondence, phonemic awareness, vocabulary development, and oral language development." I couldn't agree more with this statement.  Right away my readers started building letter recognition that they struggled with prior to using this series.

First of all, I love that the letters on the covers of the books are printed in a raised text.  My kiddos were able to "feel" the letters before diving into the books.  By using their kinesthetic sense, we began building a muscle memory that is vital for learners.

So each Letter Buddy has a book and a starter that go hand-in-hand.  We started with the letter books and practiced our letter and whole word recognition.  This allowed my readers to begin connecting the inital letter throughout the book.

After spending time with the letter book, we reviewed the words, generated a few more, and started gaining more letter and sound connections.  It was amazing listening to my readers as they inquired about their learning.  One of my students, who has really struggled with letter recognition, asked "Why do all the words have red letters?"  This is HUGE!!  He took his learning past letter recognition to word recognition.

Once my readers showed an understanding of the letters and their sounds, we dove into the starter books.  These pattern books take the words that students practiced in the letter books and place them in an early reader.  These pattern books allow for students to continue to build on their letter and word recognition, while gaining fluency and accuracy with more sight words.
I am so excited for my readers and the skills that they have gained.  I cannot wait to use the Letter Buddies Blends Books with them!

Have you used Letter Buddies with your readers?  What are your favorite resources for teaching letter and word recognition?  Leave a comment below and let me know.

Fairy Tale and Fable Series Giveaway!

There is no denying the fact that I love Hameray Publishing's book series.  And, their new Story World Real World books are amazing!
They have taken familiar fairy tales and fables to the next level.  This series will help lead your readers to real-world knowledge with Story World Real World paired texts. Each theme set pairs one traditional tale with three nonfiction books that are filled with informational text features giving your students practice making connections and navigating informational content.   What more can you ask for in engaging text?!?!

These 10 fairy tales and fables are the perfect addition to any classroom library.  Even better, they can be yours!!!!

Hameray Publishing is raffling off the Story World portion of the series, that is ten traditional tales at guided reading levels I–M, filled with bright, modern illustrations.  All you have to do is click on the image above or this link to enter. 

*Raffle ends Friday, September 30, 2016, at 9:00pm PST.*

Guided Reading Expert Groups

One of my favorite ways to utilize guided reading groups and reading conferences is to create expert groups.  By allowing students to read about a topic that they are interested in I have found that their want to read increases substantially.  This year, I used Hameray Publishing's Fables and The Real World Sets to build expertise with my students.

The nonfiction books were perfect for my reading groups.  Each group would read their text throughout the week.  We studied main ideas and details, as well as retells.  The next week, I mixed up my reading groups and students taught each other about the topics they read about.  

I can't wait to get my hands on more of Hameray's real world books.  

Do you like to switch up your reading groups?  How do you try to spark interests with your students?

Rethinking Guided Reading Groups

Planning and running guided reading groups was rough last year.  I had 33 students with insanely different reading needs.  I worked so hard to schedule groups around Title interventions, ELD pull out, SMART, and who knows what else.  Even after insane amounts of planning, I still felt like I wasn't meeting with each of my kiddos enough.
The schedule allowed for me to meet with groups of students, but I never had enough time to individually conference with students.  I still feel bad about this and am determined to make this my professional goal this year.

This was my never-changing group planning page. Yikes!

Although the scheduling was crazy, prepping and assessing each week was tricky too.  It wasn't until  I made time to explore Reading A-Z's website and do some research (Pinterest and TPT) that I began to feel like I had a grip on my groups.  (Side note-last year was my first year teaching 1st grade)  My greatest discovery was a literature circle pack from Rulin' the Roost.

Click the image for TPT link.

I was able to use the pack with all of my groups, no matter their level.  This allowed for a more streamlined planning and a smoother transition between groups.  I know I will be using this pack again!
I am so excited to get planning on this year's groups.  I am so eager to get my class list and student files, but more than that, I can't wait to meet my kiddos!

I would love to hear about your guided reading recommendations.  Also, don't forget to check out my giveaway!