Use Poem of the Week to create a fun and exciting poetry learning center in your classroom! Recently one of our Subscribers asked about setting up a ‘Poem of the Week’ writing center for her 4th and 5th graders. Poetry is an important learning center in any K-8 classroom and a Poem of the Week center is [...]  » Read more

Word Sort activities are a powerful classroom tool that help students better understand the relationships between words and build vocabulary skills! Perhaps no other classroom activity is more effective in teaching emerging literacy students than using word sorts to emphasize students’ grasp of the meaning and relationships of words. An alternative to more traditional phonics and whole-word [...]  » Read more

Developed in 1948 by Edward William Dolch, Ph.D, the Dolch high frequency word list has held up amazingly well in teaching beginning reading. While you can find the Dolch words in various books, learning activity tutorials, early literacy lesson plans, flash cards, word puzzles and other forms, we have published the complete list below for your [...]  » Read more

Learn why we have leap years and how the leap year system works.February 29th occurs only once every four years - “leap” years - but how and why did this practice develop? Throughout history, cultures around the world have observed a relationship between celestial events and the cycle of life. This relationship is most notable in terms [...]  » Read more

Learn some interesting information about Americas first president, George WashingtonTo most of us, the name George Washington conjures up images of a handsome and gallant soldier crossing the Potomac River while leading his men bravely through the perils of revolution. Later, we know him to be a selfless leader, who led his country into democracy as [...]  » Read more

Learning sight words is an important step in early literacy.Reading is all about constructing meaning from text. The meaning is derived from what readers bring to the text as well as what they discern from the text.  That meaning is dependent on the rapid, automatic, and effortless recognition of words. According to Patricia Cunningham in Phonics [...]  » Read more

As the parent of a preschooler, you understand the importance of helping your child master the letters of the alphabet before they reach grade school age. As any first grade teacher can tell you, children who enter school with a solid understanding of the alphabet are apt to learn to read faster, and can quickly learn [...]  » Read more

Perhaps no early learning skill is more important than reading. Kids’ self esteem and sense of accomplishment from learning to read is a key milestone in early childhood development! There has been plenty written about how important it is to read to children beginning at an early age, storytelling, and games involving rhyming. Learning to read [...]  » Read more