Sound detectives at work 🔍✨
Today’s activity focused on sorting words by their s-blends and listening carefully for whether the blend comes at the beginning or end of the word. Students aren’t just “doing a worksheet” here... they’re strengthening phoneme awareness, building orthographic mapping skills, and learning to notice the sound patterns that make reading and spelling click into place like tiny literacy constellations. 🌟
Sorting activities like this help students:
• develop stronger listening skills for speech sounds
• connect sounds to spelling patterns
• improve decoding and spelling accuracy
• build flexibility with reading longer words
Hands-on learning + movement + magnetic boards = brains fully switched on ⚡🧲📚
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Building words is only the first stop on the reading journey. Next comes meaning. 🧠✨
In this activity, students blend syllables to decode a word, then match it to a picture and use it in a sentence to own the word. This is where structured literacy grows roots. Not just reading the word, but knowing it, seeing it, saying it, and using it.
Vocabulary is not a separate lesson. It lives inside phonics, inside decoding, inside every word we teach.
Because readers do not just need to pronounce words. They need to understand them.
How do YOU find ways to incorporate vocabulary into lessons?
05/03/2026
Alright…HERE WE GO!!
Although I wasn’t planning to open my office this summer, I’ve had a number of people interested so I’ve created 3 groups (4 students MAX) on Thursdays in July.
LET’S GET THESE SPOTS FILLED! 😀 Please share with anyone you know whose child may benefit.
Little extras sure make a difference - both for you and the kids!!
I’m pointedly IGNORING the freak snowstorm we had yesterday and letting spring fill my life. These little hand-painted ladybugs from remind us all that sunshine and brighter days are just around the corner!!
OMG SOOO FUNNY!! We had so much fun doing this today at .speech.ot.therapy.yxe to reinforce b/d discrimination. Idea for adding punctuation seen on post awhile ago - I’ve been meaning to try it!
Also, this is a GREAT b/d/p/q resource from - it’s my go-to!
And finally - sorry it’s me demonstrating! 😆 I have a strict personal rule against photographing/recording students, so you get the 42 year old reading teacher version! Lol.
04/03/2026
Reading struggles do more than slow progress. They can quietly chip away at how a child sees themselves.
❌. “I’m bad at reading.”
❌. “I can’t do this.”
❌. “I’m not smart.”
As we build decoding skills, we start by rebuilding confidence. Today I finally made and printed the affirmation sets I’ve been meaning to for a long time.
These affirmation sets are going to be part of how our sessions begin.
One for confidence. One for effort. One for reading.
Because students need to believe they can learn before the learning truly sticks.
Small words. Big impact. A hopeful first step each time we sit down together.
04/02/2026
Many parents picture tutoring as extra reading practice.
A Structured Literacy session looks very different.
Each part of the lesson is intentional and builds a specific skill that struggling readers often miss:
listening to sounds, connecting sounds to letters, building words, reading text that matches those skills, and reviewing until it sticks.
Nothing is random. Nothing is rushed. Nothing relies on guessing.
This is how reading starts to make sense.
Save this post to see what real intervention looks like, and follow along for more science-of-reading guidance.
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61-22nd Street W
Battleford, SK