Decoding Words: Nonsense and CVC Word Fluency

One of the goals of the Common Core Strands of Phonics and Word Recognition is to help students use sounds to read words. Working with consonant and vowel sounds, Nonsense Words, CVC words, and high frequency words helps students move into reading.






This packet includes lessons and worksheets to help your students decode real and nonsense words. Contents include: 

Gumball Bingo: Reading Nonsense Words
Butterfly Decoding: Decoding Words: CVC, Blends, Digraphs
Fish Pond: Decoding CVC and CVCe Words
Dino Discovery: Fluently Reading a set of Nonsense Words

Decoding Worksheets: Independent Practice.

Ten Early Learning Games


Practice early learning skills and have kids begging for more!
This set of ten fun, fast-paced learning games features five early learning skills and is strategically linked to Common Core Standards.

A special algorithm allows for a match to be made every time!



Contents include:

Dinosaur Alphabet Match Up: Matching and identifying lowercase letters.

Circus Time: Matching and identifying uppercase letters.

Yee Haw Sight Word Match: Matching and identifying sight words. (The words in this set correlates with the Wonders Reading Program.

Pool Party Match Up: Matching and identifying sight words. 

Garden Party Sight Words: Matching and identifying sight words. 

2D Shape Match Up: Matching and identifying 2-D shapes. 

3-D Match Up: Matching and identifying 3-D shapes.

Number Match Up Level 1: Matching and identifying numbers.

Number Match Up Level 2: Matching and identifying numbers.


Lil’ Artist:  Matching and naming colors.

Ants: Keeping Kids Motivated to Learn



When my children were young, during the summer months, I would always pick with my children a topic for the summer. One summer we chose Bees. We did everything bees. We studied about them, read about them, wrote about them, and constructed art and cooking projects about them. It was a great way to keep my kids engaged during the summer months. Ants would make a great summer topic!

While none of us appreciates ants in our homes, they can be a welcome sight in the classroom or home...under the right circumstances. Ant farms keep these small insects contained, yet visible. 

Traditional sand ant farms or “space age” gel farms will captivate your students or children! Check them out at Amazon or Steve Spangler.com.

Circus Theme for Early Learners

A great theme for anytime of the year, and especially for Summer School is Circus! We have a great thematic unit that covers all areas of the curriculum and is strategically linked to important learning standards. It is written specifically for kindergarten, but can be easily used in Pre-K and 1st.


I will be guest blogging next week at Hameray Publishing. Look for the link on June 15. I will be doing a Four-Part "How-to" of sorts on Shared Reading as it links to the Common Core Standards.  As part of the upcoming post, I will be offering this free song poster. It is in jpeg formant, so simply click on it, drag it onto your desktop and print it in any size you want, including poster size. Enjoy! 



Printfriendly