The Joy of Teaching

Phonics instruction plays a key role in teaching students to understand the sounds of letters and that certain letter combinations make specific sounds. Practicing phonemic awareness helps students decode words and increases their word recognition, which ultimately increases their reading fluency. Phonics supports new readers and language learners and helps them understand the predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds.

Quality phonics activities help to engage young learners, struggling readers, and English language learners in practicing important phonics skills. Listed below are phonics printables and activities from Evan-Moor’s TeacherFileBox, a digital lesson library that allows you to design your lessons around your students’ needs. With over 2,000 phonics worksheets—including minibooks and games—the TeacherFileBox lesson library provides teachers, homeschoolers, and parents with engaging phonics practice and instruction to foster reading skills.

Phonics Readers

Phonics readers give children their own minibook and engage them in reading and practicing word families. Perfect for the classroom or home, phonics readers provide consistent practice and can be read over and over. TeacherFileBox provides over 120 phonics readers for grades PreK–3! Simply cut out and fold the phonics page, then give children the phonics minibook to color and read!

Phonics Printables and Worksheets

Practicing phonemic awareness helps children decode words and increases their word recognition, which ultimately increases their reading fluency. These engaging phonics activities in TeacherFileBox provide important practice of letter combinations. The phonics activities begin with grade PreK and progress by grade level to increase the skill practice.

Beginning sounds

Consonant Blends and Sounds

Vowel Digraphs and Word Families

 Weekly Phonics Units

Weekly phonics units provide systematic instruction, practice, and application over 32 weeks. Perfect for morning work, small group instruction, or review, these in-depth units help students review and practice important phonics skills. Each week focuses on one phonics skill, and the daily lessons progress through scaffolded listening and speaking activities to reading and writing activities.

Hands-On Phonics Games

These colorful games are a great way to reinforce sound and letter correlations.

Additional Phonics Activities

The fun activities listed below are creative ways to keep students practicing important phonemic rules.

Alphabet Hunt: An alphabet hunt is a fun and interactive way to teach letter and sound combinations. For beginning readers, matching objects with the same beginning and ending sounds reinforces this concept. Assign a letter of the week and have students find objects within the classroom that have the same beginning sound as the weekly letter. Depending on your class, you could assign more than one letter per week. (Students could also bring objects from home to share as well.)

Rhyming Phonics Game: Gather sets of rhyming objects to play the game “rhyme in a bag.” Split the sets, so half are placed in a paper bag and half are placed on a table. Have students reach into the bag, pull out an object, and match it to an item on the table that rhymes.

• Pen, hen

• Sock, rock

• Fan, can

• Boat, coat

Rhyming can help children understand that words that share common sounds often share common letters.

Phonics Flip Book: Phonics flip books can be a fun way to teach sound and letter combinations. All you need is a wire-bound index card notebook, scissors, tape, and markers. You may design your flip book to practice three-letter words and sounds, blends, or word families. Word families help children identify common spellings and sounds in words.

To make a blending flip book:

• Divide and cut the notebook into three sections.

• Label the first, second, and last paper with letters A–Z.

• It is OK if your combinations don’t all make words. The purpose of this technique is to teach blending of sounds.

To make a word-family flip book:

• Divide and cut the notebook into two sections.

• Write your word family in the last section.
• Choose letters that form words with your word families.

Find these phonics printables and more in TeacherFileBox! Simplify your planning process and find the resources you need for every student in every subject area. TeacherFileBox includes 80,000 activities and lessons for grades PreK–6 and simplifies the lesson planning process with easy search options and diverse resources.

TeacherFileBox provides teachers and parents with over 80,000 printable lessons across the PreK–6 curriculum. Try TeacherFileBox for free for 14 days (no credit card required). Learn more about TeacherFileBox here!

School discounts are available on 10 or more classroom subscriptions, saving 60-75% off the total cost! Learn more here. 

For more reading lessons from Evan-Moor’s TeacherFileBox printables, see Helping Children Learn to Read with Phonics, Sight Words, Reading Comprehension and More!

Heather Foudy is a certified elementary teacher with over 7 years’ experience as an educator and volunteer in the classroom. She enjoys creating lessons that are meaningful and creative for students. She is currently working for Evan-Moor’s marketing and communications team and enjoys building learning opportunities that are both meaningful and creative for students and teachers alike.

Celebrate mothers, grandmothers, and caregivers with thoughtful, homemade Mother’s Day gifts this year. From flowerpot art to creative writing, these memorable crafts will create thoughtful and treasured Mother’s Day gifts that are easy for kids to make.

Explore these Mother’s Day gift ideas and inspiration for celebrating moms everywhere.

Fingerprint Flowerpot Grades PreK–K

This colorful art project is the perfect way to say thank you.

Click to access Fingerprint-Flowerpot.pdf

Magazine Article Grades 4–6

Create a memorable magazine article filled with pictures and fun facts about a special lady.

Click to access Magazine-Article.pdf

Mom Pick Me Ups Grades 1–6

Fill this thoughtful jar with ideas to help make a mom feel special.

Click to access Mom-PickMeUps.pdf

Superhero Mother’s Day Grades PreK–K and 1–3

This special art project lets moms everywhere know that their superhero powers are noted and appreciated.

Click to access Superhero-MothersDay.pdf

For more Mother’s Day free activities, check out these articles!

Handmade Cards for Mother’s Day

Poetry Gifts for Mother’s Day

Build a sense of community in your classroom with culturally responsive teaching units. This teaching approach helps to connect students’ cultures and life experiences with what they are learning in school. Some studies have shown that students’ ability to learn improves when their experiences are linked to information they already know. (Neuroscience Research) Our cultural traditions influence how our brains process information and assimilate new information.

Culturally responsive teaching is a great tool to help all students build a sense of belonging in their classroom as they process the curriculum and academic content. Inviting students to share their unique perspectives and cultural traditions makes their learning more meaningful and engaging and helps teachers learn about each student’s world view. The free activities below strengthen students’ ethnic identities and promote a sense of belonging with open-response questions. The lessons focus on learning about oneself through the lens of culture, family traditions, and peoples’ similarities and differences.

Get free activities and printables for grades 1–6 to try in your classroom.  Click here for your Culturally Responsive Lessons and Activities sampler.

 

Scroll through to see sample activities from Culturally Responsive Lessons and Activities grade 3.

Culturally Responsive Lessons and Activities for grades 1–6 includes eight inspirational nonfiction, informational fiction, and realistic fiction teaching units. The units included are about people from diverse backgrounds with different abilities, ethnicities, and origins. Theme-based activities inspire children with realistic stories of how individuals have persevered despite facing challenges and encourage students to think about how these examples can inspire them in their own lives.

With individual, whole class, and partner activities, these robust units are designed to engage students’ interest and create open-ended response opportunities. Every unit includes Choose Your Own Project activities so that students can choose which project they would like to complete.

Create a welcoming and safe space in your classroom with activities that invite students to share their unique experiences and learn about others.

Writing is such an important skill that begins with developing good sentences and paragraphs. As a classroom teacher, it can be challenging to find writing activities that fit the needs of your students’ diverse abilities. With everyone writing at different levels, how do you give them basic writing practice while also keeping them motivated to write?

Listed below are suggested resources that range from expanded sentence writing to real-world persuasive writing prompts and activities. All these Evan-Moor writing printables can be found in TeacherFileBox, Evan-Moor’s digital lesson library. These printable resources make it easier to meet your students’ learning needs.   TeacherFileBox lessons can be printed, projected onto a screen or shared to your Google Classroom.

Browse these writing lessons from TeacherFileBox!

Learn more about beginning writing practice activities for grades 1-3.

Draw Then Write Elephant Grades 1–3

Inspire beginning writers with drawing and writing activities that practice foundational writing skills.

 

Writing Super Sentences Grades 1–3

Help student expand their simple sentences with trait-based writing sentence organizers and writing prompts. 

Take It to Your Seat Writing Center: Story Puzzles Grades 1–2

These hands-on story puzzles help beginning writers practice identifying important parts of a story.   

 

Learn more about paragraph writing structure and persuasive writing techniques for grades 3-6

Real-World Writing: Meal Review Grades 3–4

Motivate students to write with creative, real-world topics that apply to them. This meal-review writing activity prompts students to review and rate a restaurant meal. Included in this unit are writing prompts for beginning and advanced writers.

Writing Fabulous Sentences and Paragraphs: Main Ideas and Details Grades 4–6

Identifying a main idea can be tricky. Provide students with opportunities to practice identifying the main idea and supporting details of a paragraph with these activities.

Nonfiction Writing: Writing a Persuasive Essay Grade 5

This in-depth lesson unit includes teaching directions and practice pages to help students identify important components of persuasive writing and build their own arguments!

Get students excited about writing with scaffolded lessons and real-world writing activities in TeacherFileBox! This online library makes it easy to differentiate your lessons with just the click of a button. With thousands of PreK–6 printables across subject areas, TeacherFileBox provides scaffolded learning resources that meet the needs of every student. Choose from in-depth teaching units, hands-on center activities, bulletin boards, art projects, and more! Save your favorite printables in your personal account, print lessons, project them onto a screen, or share them with your Google Classroom! Choose from reading, math, language, writing, science, geography, social studies, STEM/STEAM, SEL and more!

Try TeacherFileBox for free for 14 days here!

Discover more great TeacherFileBox Printables with Get Students Excited About Learning with TeacherFileBox

Heather Foudy is a certified elementary teacher with over 7 years’ experience as an educator and volunteer in the classroom. She enjoys creating lessons that are meaningful and creative for students. She is currently working for Evan-Moor’s marketing and communications team and enjoys building learning opportunities that are both meaningful and creative for students and teachers alike.

Help your students learn real-world math skills with this selection of financial literacy printables from Evan-Moor’s TeacherFileBox. The financial literacy activities below are a great addition to your April lessons and help to highlight the importance of Financial Literacy Awareness month. These interactive activities highlight important math and critical thinking skills with engaging stories and fun games. The lesson units demonstrate how to apply math with activities and hands-on projects related to budgeting, grocery shopping, loans, credit cards, and more. Printable math play money and budget sheets also help students apply skills in a fun way.

Five Financial Literacy Activities for Grades 1–8

Grade 1

This in-depth first grade financial literacy lesson about making spending decisions includes a real-world story, six pages of concept practice, a hands-on game, and teacher resources pages!

Activities about making spending decisions help students understand price as one of many things to consider when choosing between product options. Activities such as purchasing groceries at a store can bring the concept to life as students learn to compare shopping items and prices. Children often go shopping with their parents. However, they may not notice how many choices there are for each type of item or how prices for the exact same item can differ from store to store. They might not realize that similar products can vary in price. Many young consumers may not have a lot of experience comparing prices.

Grade 2

This second grade math unit about getting money from gifts or household chores helps students learn about earning money. This unit includes activities that focus on ways to get money at home, math pages that focus on skip counting, addition, subtraction, and currency, and a collaborative game called “Spin to Earn,” which includes play money and a game board.

Earning-money concepts can help children understand that when people are hired to do a job, they work for a certain amount of money. Children might not have regular jobs, but they often earn money doing chores around the house. Or they might do work for a neighbor or a family friend. While adults have jobs to pay for things they need, such as food, clothing, housing, and utilities, children often earn money to buy things they want.

Grade 3

This third grade unit on spending plans is a great way to show students how to reach a financial goal. This unit includes activities that focus on prioritizing expenses, math pages that focus on skip counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and currency, and a collaborative activity called “Needs and Wants Budget,” which includes cards.

When people set up a budget for themselves, they figure out a plan for managing their money. While children don’t usually work or pay bills, a child’s budget can be based on an allowance or money earned from doing chores or odd jobs. They can spend money on fun things, donate to help others, and/or save money for the future. A budget can help children figure out how important different purchase choices are to them. View this third grade sample unit below. 

Grade 4

Teach students about banks and financial institutions with this fourth grade unit on saving and investing. This unit includes activities that focus on savings and checking accounts, math pages that focus on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and currency, and a collaborative game called “Earn Some, Spend Some, Owe Some,” which includes play money and cards.

The activities help students understand that saving comes from money you receive that you don’t spend. For example, they might eat a cookie now or save it to eat after lunch. They might save a favorite book for bedtime. If children want to buy something that costs more than they have, they may not realize that they can continue adding to their money until they have enough to buy it. Saving small amounts of money lets them buy a larger item. Setting a goal and making a plan to reach the goal can help people save enough to buy things they can’t afford right now. Money can be saved in a bank or at home in a special place.

Grades 6–8

Help students learn about taking out loans and paying them back with this 6–8 grade unit. This unit includes activities that focus on loan agreements, math pages that focus on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimals, percents, and currency, and a collaborative game called “Loan Request Role-Play,” which includes cards and role-playing.

Some children borrow and lend all kinds of things from a young age. They may borrow video games from siblings, pencils from classmates, and books from the library. They may lend a sweater to a sibling or a bike to a friend. Children usually understand that you have to return something after you use it. Some may not realize that this applies to money as well. This unit helps students understand the fairness in the lending-and-returning process and models different agreements and ways to repay.

These money-based word problems and real-world financial literacy stories from TeacherFileBox printables allow students the opportunity to learn important financial concepts, explore realistic opportunities, and make choices about using money, collecting allowances, applying for credit cards, and more. The hands-on games, activities, and classroom discussions can engage students in learning these important life concepts and create fun learning experiences they will remember.

Sign up for a free 14 day trial of Evan-Moor’s TeacherFileBox printables here. 

Heather Foudy is a certified elementary teacher with over 7 years’ experience as an educator and volunteer in the classroom. She enjoys creating lessons that are meaningful and creative for students. She is currently working for Evan-Moor’s marketing and communications team and enjoys building learning opportunities that are both meaningful and creative for students and teachers alike.