Teaching Trails

Engage elementary readers with interactive notebooks—tidy notes, year-long strategy reference, and fun, hands-on learning activities.

Wrap up your year with confidence! Before heading into summer mode, check out these 5 smart end-of-year tips for teachers—like organizing your digital files, repairing books, and prepping your first-day plans. A little effort now makes for a smoother back-to-school start!

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What's the Difference – and Why It Matters for Your Classroom As elementary teachers, our mission is to equip young minds with essential tools for successful literacy development. Two critical components in this journey are phonemic awareness and phonics. While these words might sound similar, they are quite different. Here’s how: Phonemic Awareness: The Power of Sound Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. It’s all about understanding the sound structure of language without connecting it to written symbols. Activities that enhance phonemic awareness include rhyming, segmenting words into sounds, blending sounds to form words, and manipulating sounds within words. Why is Phonemic Awareness Important? Reading Readiness: Phonemic awareness is a precursor to reading. Children who understand phonemes are better equipped to decode words. Spelling Proficiency: Awareness of phonemes aids in spelling accuracy. Oral Language Skills: It fosters effective communication and vocabulary development. Phonics: Bridging Sounds to Symbols Phonics involves connecting sounds to written symbols. It teaches the relationship between letters and sounds, helping students decode words by sounding them out. Phonics instruction includes letter-sound correspondences, blending sounds to read words, and segmenting words to spell them. Why is Phonics Important? Decoding Skills: Phonics empowers students to read and comprehend unfamiliar words. Spelling Mastery: Understanding phonics rules enhances spelling accuracy. Reading Fluency: Phonics contributes to reading fluency, allowing students to read with speed, accuracy, and expression. The Symbiotic Relationship: Why Both Matter While phonemic awareness and phonics serve distinct purposes, they are interconnected. Phonemic awareness sets the stage by helping children recognize and manipulate sounds, while phonics builds upon this by connecting sounds to written symbols. Classroom Strategies: Incorporate Playful Activities: Use rhyming games, word segmentation, and blending exercises to develop phonemic awareness. Interactive Phonics Instruction: Integrate systematic phonics lessons that emphasize letter-sound relationships and practical reading/spelling exercises. Differentiated Instruction: Tailor your teaching to meet diverse student needs, recognizing varying levels of phonemic awareness and phonics skills.

What is Guided Writing? Similar to guided reading groups, guided writing allows teachers to focus on a specific writing goal that a small group of students is struggling with. Teachers work with a handful of students on a writing strategy to help enhance their skills—whether that’s punctuation, grammar instruction, or incorporating adjectives to liven up their writing. There are many goals you can target in guided writing groups. Sitting with a small group of students helps target writing strategy practice. Why Do Guided Writing? Guided writing groups allow you to give focused attention and practice on a specific writing goal with students who are struggling in that area. For example, if you notice many students are struggling with expanding their sentences to include more descriptive language, you can pull them aside to work on this targeted skill. How Do You Do a Guided Writing Session? Just like a guided reading session, guided writing follows a structured format: Select a targeted, specific writing goal. The smaller the goal, the quicker and easier it is for students to achieve with targeted practice. (Use my handy Writing Strategies List if you're not sure where to start). Select 3-5 students who need support with this specific goal and would benefit from focused practice. Start with a real-life example of your writing goal. For instance, showcase a photocopied sample that uses quotation marks correctly, and have students highlight and mark it up. Practice using whiteboards or pencil and paper. Keep tasks short and focused—5 to 7 minutes is perfect for these sessions. Repeat the sessions over multiple days until you notice mastery of the writing goal among the group. Need Help? Download My FREE Writing Strategies Page I’ve compiled a list of typical writing struggles for students in grades 3–6. Download a copy to help you choose strategies and prompts I use in my own classroom. Cheers, Maryana @ 3 Peaks Classroom

I'm so glad you're here because I’m bursting with ideas and resources to share with you. I created this little corner of the internet to support teachers with helpful tools and inspiration. What You’ll Find on This Blog Book recommendations Resource suggestions Lesson plan ideas Teaching tips and hacks And all with a Canadian flair 🇨🇦 This was my classroom PRE-Pandemic. I was teaching Grade 3 at the time. It’s my hope this blog helps make your teaching life easier, less chaotic, more prepared, and more fun. While I usually have plenty to say, I love bite-sized, to-the-point info—exactly how I plan to keep this site organized. My Origin Story (Video) 🎥 My Origin Story – filmed back when 3 Peaks Classroom began. This was my first-ever YouTube video (well… unless you count the hundreds I recorded for online teaching!). In it, I share why I started 3 Peaks Classroom and what led me to create this space for educators. Let’s Connect! If you've made it to the bottom, thanks for reading! I hope there weren’t too many grammar or spelling mistakes (we teachers can’t seem to put down that red pen, hey? 😉). — Maryana