For my favorite printables, I go to my trusted favorite, 3Dinosaurs. I love how the themes have everything my kiddos need to practice small motor skills, sorting, letter recognition, and so much more. They have printable packs, holiday themes, alphabet packs, and sight word printables, just to name a few. The best part about 3Dinosaurs is that most of their printables are FREE! This is good for me, because I spend so much on ink, paper, cardstock, and laminating pouches.
Since I do spend so much time, cutting, laminating, and prepping these wonderful packs, I have become a great believer in No Prep packets. I have found some amazing packets from The Moffat Girls. I was looking for something to go with our insect theme, and I stumbled upon the butterfly life cycle in their April No Prep Packet. I splurged and purchased the entire No Prep Preschool Bundle so I could have the entire enchilada at once. These packs also have alphabet and sight word practice! This is easily my new favorite resource! My wallet was sad, but my kiddos have been benefiting from them in just a few short weeks.
I am part of a team in the Chipmunk Classroom. I find resources for the lead teacher while she plans the lessons, activities, games, songs, and snacks. We work at a small center and are short staffed, so that makes for some interesting challenges. In our three and four year-old classroom, we have a couple of five year-olds who will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. To help this group, I have been working with them on the alphabet and teaching them sight words. I have found some amazing resources using Pinterest.
For alphabet resources, I started with Beginning Sounds from Lavinia Pop. In my very first classroom, I cut these letters out after my students finished them and put them on our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree. Lavina also has these beginning sounds available in lower case, and in her various Letter of the Week packets. They are also part of a Color It Mega Bundle. Research your options and choose what is best for you and your students.
Another resource I purchased from Lavinia Pop was her Math & Literacy Back to School Worksheets & Activities Bundle. It has many resources from alphabet pages to colors to counting, and so much more! I love freebies, but this packet is so worth the cost!
I didn't find it in time to use this year, but one of my summer projects will be assembling these File Folder Phonics for Learning the Alphabet by Make, Take, & Teach. They also have have file folder activities for Sight Words.
I love when my kiddos can take books home to have and to love. If I could, I would purchase a library for each of my kiddos, but that's not possible. Therefore, I love when kids can take and make their own books to take home. For learning letters, I love these Alphabet Letter Aa to Zz Books by
kindertrips. It combines beginning sounds and sight words, and are wonderful!!!!
This is one of my favorite resources to use, and it's FREE! These lovely worksheets are made by Latoya Reed. They are simple, and combine my favorite elements from the other resources I've talked about.
For hands-on resources, I happened to stumble upon the blog Happy & Blessed Home. I love their alphabet printables to have out to steer away from the paper and pencil worksheets. Preschoolers have a very low tolerance for worksheets, and paper can be limited. Using a lot of worksheets isn't developmentally appropriate, but they do have their time and place for records and portfolios. These packs have coloring sheets, games, word cards, dolch cards, lacing cards, and more.
The PreKPlus (last year before kindergarten) teacher uses these sight word books from Hubbard's Cupboard in her afternoon lessons. I found the link and use these same books with the five year-olds who are still in our PreK room so they don't miss out on this important skill. I went into teaching to not just teach children how to read, but instill a love of reading into them. With these stories I can connect them to what we are studying, and they are simple enough to encourage my kiddos to read them. This is an excellent resource for sight words!
One of my favorite activities to use with my kiddos is Write the Room. This pack made by Anita Bremer has seasonal word wall cards and word lists. It's a great resource for kiddos learning to write.
Sometimes simple is best. That's where these mini Alphabet Books come in handy. I found these after I found a sight word mini book by Scholastic. I love having matching resources, so I wanted something with the alphabet. These wonderful books are from Teaching Little Learners.
Depending on the child, I may pull out some alphabet activities from Teaching Little Learners. This bundle has some great resources. I use the cards in a table top pocket chart. It's also good for practicing scissor skills along with uppercase/lowercase sorting. Kiddos love using bingo daubers for the letter search, and handwriting practice is always important.
I hope that you have enjoyed my list of favorite resources. If you have any favorite resources, please share them with me! I'm always looking for something new! Happy teaching!
~marthajane
