How to Draw: Winter/Christmas

It's never too early to get ready for Christmas.  Try these 5 Christmas directed drawing activities.

Click Here to Purchase Now

How to Draw: Dinosaurs

This is a very versatile directed drawing set.  It includes dinosaur drawing instructions sheets, original dinosaur poems, fun facts, and writing prompts.  Included are directions for 5 dinosaurs:

*Brontosaurus
*Stegosaurus
*Tyrannosaurus Rex
*Triceratops
*Pterodactyl

Click here to purchase now

Additional Pages:

How to Draw: Fall/Thanksgiving

Enjoy the fall season with these directed drawing activities.

Click Here to Purchase Now

How to Draw 2

Just released...

A 2nd volume of directed drawing pages.  This set contains new pictures that aren't included in other Learning the Alphabet packets.  Again, I've tried to keep images simple with basic shapes and clear steps.

Click here to purchase now

Also, due to many requests, this set is formatted on full sized pages instead of 2 per page.  Here are a few previews of many of the images included, and if you keep reading, you will find a couple of freebie pages that you can download and try out.

We have been testing and refining these images, some are simple, and some are a little more complex.  It is funny to me to see that my teenager enjoys drawing these pictures just as much as my elementary student!

Here are your two freebies ;)  Just click on the image to download each page.  NOTE:  your download will be ready for you to copy and use and will not contain the sample drawing.

How to Draw: Spring/Easter

This is a new addition to the "How to Draw" series.  For each drawing, there are two versions.  One version has prompts so students can simply complete the sentence.  The other version just contains blank writing lines so you can assign a topic or the students can free-write.  A "word bank" is included on each worksheet to assist with spelling, or inspire student writing.

Learning My Letters Complete Bundle

It's finished!  The entire bundle of Learning My Letters Books is complete.  It includes and 8 page booklet for each letter of the alphabets.  It focuses on essential skills for each letter:

• Letter formation
• Handwriting practice
• Letter identification
• Initial sound
• Medial sound
• Final sound
• Directed drawings

Click here to purchase now

Ready for Back to School? New packets available

I've finished the Learning My Letters Bundle, and have been extracting mini units for individual sale.

First, there is the Handwriting Unit.  This is probably what took the longest in the revamp of the Alphabet Books.  Each letter was completely redrawn and improved.

The letter M handwriting pages are included in the preview as a free sample.  Don't forget that you can get the complete Letter M booklet free as a way to preview the entire bundle.  Here are some sample pages:

Bundle Available

I've started offering the alphabet units as a bundle.  It is still growing (15 letters so far).  But if you buy it now, you get a special introductory price ($11.50).  Then, as new booklets are added, you can keep re-downloading the updates for free.  Right now, the bundle includes letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, O, & P - that is over 120 worksheets

I've included the cover and "how to draw" page from the latest letter packet (Learning My Letters: Pp) as a freebie.  Click on it to grab it now.

Test Anxiety ?!?

The computer lab has seen a lot of testing lately.  Unfortunately, the headphones have taken some abuse.  A lot of mindless chewing. Five sets have become casualties in the last few weeks - more than in the rest of the year combined.

TpT Sale!!!!!!

Don't miss it.  I'll have my store on sale, and if you use the promo code, you'll get an additional 10% off the sale prices.  Fill up your wishlist now :)

Teacher Appreciation Week

Our PTA was fantastic and surprised us with some darling door decorations kicking off Teacher Appreciation Week.  LOVED it  -- so clever and so heart warming :)

 

 

New Header

I've been reworking my header/logo and playing around with a new name for this blog.  It takes soooo much longer than you would think.  Still working with resolution issues on the top of the blog - it looks a little grainy.  But so far I'm liking it.  Here's my new button/logo:

Teaching the Alphabet - Learning My Letters: Ff

Here's the next in the series

Learning My Letters - C and H

Two more

TEACHING THE ALPHABET: Learning My Letters A, B, K

Uploaded 3 more letter books.  The collection is growing :)  When I have 7 finished, I will begin to offer a bundle.  Stay tuned.

 

  

 

 See this post for a free sample book.

TEACHING THE ALPHABET - Learning My Letters D

I've been SLOWLY updating my handwriting letter pages.  I really like the format of half sized pages - easier for the little ones to complete, and half as many papers to copy.  So I am reformatting and updating some of the images.

I am also compiling mini books for each letter to reinforce other important skills found in the common core including:

• Letter identification
• Phonics - initial sounds
• Isolating beginning, medial, and final sounds
• Directed drawing (geometry - using shapes to create simple drawings)
• TONS of handwriting practice

They are intended to be copied back to back, folded and put together to make a mini-book with 8 activities for each letter. Try out this freebie (click any of the pages below for a free download).  I would love feedback - please let me know what you think - and keep following me for the other letters to follow :) 

Font Happy!

I've been busy creating new fonts.  I am a big time fontaholic - are there meetings for this?  There are so many details involved in creating your own font - getting the letters balanced, adjusting the kerning so there are not awkward spaces (like after the letter q), tweaking and smoothing the curves, etc,.  But after hours of work, it is so satisfying to use the end result.  I am loving these new ones.  Grab them now while they are on sale!  Still tweaking a fun cursive font with lots of extra characters - cursive fonts are sooooo much more complicated.  I should have it available soon.

Teaching the Alphabet: Identify Initial Sounds

Woo hoo!  Finally got this packet compiled and ready to post.  This is a great set of worksheets to practice phonemic awareness and to recognize, isolate, and identify initial sound.  Kids can start by tracing the letter, or "rainbow writing" the letter.  Starting points are there to aid students with correct letter formation.  (Rainbow writing is where the student chooses 3 or more colors and traces the letter once with each color.)

Then practice making the sound.  Be sure when pronouncing the sound of each letter, that the sound is isolated - not blended with a vowel (i.e. /t/ /t/ not /tuh/).  Make sure that the students can correctly identify the pictures on the page.  It's funny how to the teacher, the pictures are obvious correlations, but occasionally a student will use a synonym.  The pictures in this set have been carefully chosen to avoid this kind of confusions, but some students just have a different level of vocabulary, and they will always surprise you.  The one I have encountered a couple of times is on the long "E" page - it is supposed to be an "eagle", but some will identify it as a bird.  It is your option to correct the interpretation, or just go with their words and just be sure they identify the sound correctly.  Have students draw a line to connect the letter with the pictures that start with it's sound.  It is also helpful to have them cross out the picture that doesn't correlate.  Of course coloring the pictures  is encouraged (anything to help further develop those small motor skills).

You can purchase the packet at TpT here

Here is a freebie for you - hope you enjoy the packet as much as we have in our class :)

TEACHING THE ALPHABET: Letter Identification

Once children are familiar with the shape of the letter it is important to practice identifying it and using visual discrimination skills to observe how it is different from other letters.  Here is my worksheet set that gives great practice.  Students first trace the letter, then find (color) the objects that contain the designated letter.  Pages are illustrated with clean, appealing images that correlate with the phoneme (letter sound).  There is additionally a prompt to have the students count up the letters/objects they colored to add a cross curricular math element.

These are great for center work, homework pages, and can be used for intervention.  Here are a couple of free preview pages to download.  Click on each to download. They are formatted two to a page to help you conserve paper.  If you like what you see, please click the image above to purchase the packet.