Awesome Book for Pre-K - 2nd Grade Teachers and a FREEBIE!

Hello!  I just wanted to stop by quick in order to tell you about a new and AWESOME professional development book that I highly recommend you put on your To-Read List.  It is written by Cindy Middendorf and it is called Early Reading Instruction and Intervention: A Source Book for Pre-K - 2.

 

 

While I am still on summer break, my 14-month old son makes it challenging to read.  So...I have been plugging away, little by little each night after he goes to bed.  As always, Cindy has reignited my teaching fire!  Seriously - if you read any of her books, you will be so motivated to become the best primary teacher you can be!  AND...she always gives awesome examples and strategies that you can implement easily in your own classroom.

 

 

 

I have been a huge fan of Cindy Middendorf for a few years now.  If you want to read a previous blog post about Cindy and her other books, click HERE!  I was oh-so-excited the day that Cindy Middendorf wrote a comment on my little 'ole blog!  I asked her if she could sign my book and she kindly obliged.

 

Chapter 1 of this book is all about physical readiness being the prerequisite for intellectual success.  (Isn't awesome to have educational leaders out there back up, with brain-based research, what we primary teachers already know instinctively?  Thank goodness for them!)  Anyway, I got to thinking about ways I can easily incorporate important physical interventions that improve core strength, balance, etc.  Then, I thought about this DVD my son and I checked out at the library recently...the kids do exercises for each letter of the alphabet.  I like most of the exercises on the DVD, but some of them were kind of lame or redundent...like "B" for "bounce" and "J" for jump.  Eh.  So I decided to make up my own list.

 

 

Here is how I intend to use this list:

 

1 - Show large letter cards, starting with "A," once at a time.  Ask the students to identify the letter.

 

2 - State the corresponding exercise.  Then, model the proper way to do the exercise and encourage the students to do the same.

 

3 - Ask the students what letter comes next, then repeat!  Easy-peasy, lemon squeezey!

 

So anywho...if you are interested in doing Alphabet Exercises with your little ones in order to get the jitters out AND build core strength, please click HERE to visit my TPT store and grab it for FREE!

 

Alrighty, I am off for now!  I intend on working on my first author study unit.  We will see how that goes!  Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by!  :)