If you find yourself questioning the importance of some phonological awareness activities like segmenting words into syllables, check out this short video for some inspiration.  These bilingual Kindergarten students were able to write with accuracy and confidence in March because their teacher had spent the first months of their school year developing this skill.  Just as blending words is crucial for reading, segmenting words is essential for spelling and writing. Continue reading →

Living with two preschoolers and working with ReadyRosie, we spend a lot of time developing phonemic awareness by chanting nursery rhymes and playing all sorts of word play games.  I have been amazed by how these activities so quickly helped my girls acquire an ear and an awareness of sounds in words.  My husband would tell you that it is ALMOST obnoxious!  You can’t have a conversation with either girl without one of them telling you that you said two words that rhyme or that one word you said sounds similar at the beginning to another word they know. Continue reading →

Many years ago, when I was attending a district training on Balanced Literacy, I first heard about incorporating the use of Environmental Print.  It made so much sense to me to use what students already know as a foundation for building new literacy understanding.  As I began to read more, I discovered  Continue reading →

I am so thankful for grandparents!  My girls are blessed to have four wonderful grandparents that love them and care for them in four unique ways.  While Grandparents’ Day is celebrated in other countries on different dates, it is celebrated here in the US on September 9th. Continue reading →

If you follow ITDL on Facebook, you may have seen my post last Friday about the new public library that just opened right around the corner from my house.  I visited it for the first time with my girls and we discovered that ALL of the books and videos are BRAND NEW!  It was absolutely magical! And I was super-excited to discover a collections of hundreds of children’s books in Spanish.  Can you hear the angels singing??? Continue reading →

Last November, I put together a collection of 25 Christmas books accumulated from my own bookshelves as well as the local libraries.  Before December 1st, I wrapped all 25 books with special wrapping paper (so as not to be confused with the actual Christmas gifts we were giving away!) and placed the “presents” around the tree. Continue reading →

Maybe you are enjoying an autumn cruise right now or perhaps you are busy baking for Thursday.  Continue reading →