A World of Learning

 I have lately been tutoring three of the five usual kids that I have on my tutoring list. I have missed seeing the two boys that I haven't tutored since before Christmas. I finally got to see one of the boys that I have tutored in math and English! At first, he didn't want to do it, probably because it's been so long since he's had to have a tutor. But he warmed up fairly quickly. After all, he does know me. But he doesn't like math, so he was very solemn during that lesson. But he is learning to multiply, so that is good. His mother said that his skills have slacked off since I haven't been tutoring him, so I know now that I was doing him some good! I hope we'll keep it up and he'll get back to where he was.  He was happier with the English lesson. He learned where to put punctuation marks, but was having a bit of a hard time with it at first. I think I'll do a review with him, along with where to put commas in a sentence, which we also worked on t...

 I sometimes tutor a four-year-old boy who has just started preschool and is learning to identify the letters of the alphabet. He already knows the letters in his name: E-L-L-I-O-T. He knows a few other letters, like A and X, but we're working on the rest. So I use plastic letters in what I call my "Monster Box," which I have posted about previously. I also have a laminated sheet of construction paper with the alphabet on it. So Elliot has to reach into the box (a decorated tissue box) and pick a letter and say what it is. If he doesn't know, I tell him and have him repeat what I said. Then he has to find the letter on the alphabet board until he has all of the letters filled in.  Then I have him write the letters of the alphabet (in order, of course😊) and say them as he writes them on special lined paper made for beginning writers. Sometimes he needs my help to write a letter like a W, holding his hand while he holds the pencil, and I describe what I'm doing to ...

 Adding new suffixes and beginning sounds of words are just another step toward being able to read well, and my Hooked on Phonics books are introducing those skills. The six-year-old is learning, for example, ch- and sh- words. She is learning the different sounds that these letter blends make. She is also learning how to spell grade-level words. We were playing the spelling beanbag toss game and one of the words was "much." I started with M and she said U, then I said C, and she had to think about it, since the word ended in the -ch sound. After thinking about it for a few seconds, she said H and threw the beanbag back to me. She did a great job, considering it was a new sound. Her mom was in the other room (the girl is homeschooled) and she said "Great job!" I think she was really impressed. The girl is learning fast.  Now we're working on -ing and -er endings. I'm teaching her the sound that -ing always makes, and the sound -er makes. The book from Hooked...

 Hello again, my faithful blog readers! I truly appreciate knowing that people (at least a few) are reading my blog posts. I hope they are getting something out of them.  Anyway, the reason for this post is that I know someone who homeschools her kids, and they have outgrown reading phonics books. I work with a first grader who is an early reader, so she donated ALL of the books she had for that reading level! Thirty-three of them! I'm all set to have books for my first-grade student to read as she becomes more confident in the words she is learning. I am so thankful! I will need to look over them and put them in order from easiest to most challenging, as I glanced through a few of them and definitely saw a difference in the amount of reading in each book. They are just short stories that can be read in a few minutes, so I might have her read two books each session. After she has finished all of these, she should be ready to move on to chapter books for young readers!  

 Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since I posted anything! Well, I'm back! 😊 I've been doing timed reading with my students, using a set of flash cards with words at their grade level. I use the same bunch of about 30 words each week, and time them to see how long it takes them to say the words correctly. Once they reach under a minute, I change to new words.  I was doing this with one of my first graders, but we came across a bundle of words, most of which she was having a really hard time reading. So I looked online and found a page for first graders that's a timed story. I will give her one minute to read as far as she can, marking on my copy any mistakes she makes. Then I'll go over the mistakes with her and help her figure out the right way to say a word that she missed. I will write the number of words she read (not counting the mistakes) and repeat the activity every week, seeing how she improves her number of words read correctly.  I learned thi...

 Well, I've been cycling through the same 5 learning games for the last 3 years now. The kids enjoy some more than others, but recently one of the kids told me that I needed some new games. So I went searching. I found a website called teacherspayteachers.com, and there are some things that you need to pay for, but there is also a lot that is free! I found one new game and some different activity sheets for the different ages that I tutor. The game I found is called Uh-oh! It's a card game with easy sentences on them for a first grade reader. The student draws cards and reads them out loud, and continues drawing and reading until they draw an "Uh-oh!" card. Then their turn is over, and either another student (if you're tutoring a group) or the tutor (myself) starts drawing cards and reading them until they get an "Uh-oh" card. Then it's the first student's turn again. Whoever has the most cards at the end of the game wins. I'm going to try th...