Reading tools for kindergarten

12 Must-Have Guided Reading Tools to Use in Kindergarten – KindergartenWorks

By Leslie Simpson · About 5 minutes to read this article.

Keep fun reading tools on hand to encourage kindergarten readers. Here are my must-have reading tools that are fun and were used regularly!

Over the years I've changed what I've kept on hand in at my teacher table for guided reading. But, I've always liked to keep manipulatives we use regularly on hand as well and tools that make reading fun!

Must Have Fun Guided Reading Tools

Here are some of my favorite guided reading tools and some ideas of what we used them for.

Carabiner Flashlights

I've had lots of mini flashlights over the years - they are a huge hit with any kinder. I liked mini flashlights like these carabiner clip ones.

Now, I tend to throw them out and buy new rather than find matching batteries once they're dead, but that's just me.

What surprised me was how much they helped my students with ADD or ADHD stay laser focused on tracking print.

Finger/Thumb Grips

Anything grippy that can attach to fingers is a perfect novelty item to encourage tracking print 1:1 and focusing on reading words. Think of these as fun mini-pointers!

You can find a whole bunch of these in the sewing section or sometimes with stationary supplies at your local big box store, like Walmart.

Another fun alternative is to use themed slip-on fingers covers/pointers that often show up at Halloween or sometimes in card/party supply stores.

Magnifying Glasses

Little magnifying lenses that are shaped like credit cards from the Dollar Tree or even grab one from your science kit.

You can easily ask students to find something in their leveled books that illustrates what concept you are working on.

Show me a period.
Find the word 'at' on your page.
Where is a little bit you know hiding in a larger word?

Plus, I always have them on hand for when we do an I-spy activity for reading sight words or cvc words!

Slap Bracelets

I'm not sure over how many years I've collected a variety of slap bracelets - but they are my "Do Not Disturb" signal.

When I am wearing a bracelet, it reminds those who try to interrupt my reading groups that it's not a good time.

Bingo Daubers

These bingo daubers or dot makers, as I like to call them are always on hand. It ends up being really random what we use them for, but I like how fast they are to use.

Pencil Caddies

I usually stashed away materials in pencil caddies to make it easy to grab off a shelf and put away.

Dice

We were always using games to warm up before reading together, or sometimes just to work on a skill in isolation.

I just bought extra dice to keep on hand so I didn't have to go digging into my math materials and make sure they got back there.

Because that would've never happened.

Bingo Markers and Linking Cubes

We'd play a variety of games that would need markers or playing chips. I always kept a couple handfuls at close reach.

Linking cubes come in handy for lots of different reading games, like this easiest sight word game ever. Plus, students can use them to keep track of points by building towers for other games.

Craft Foam

You only need to pull red, yellow and green from your stack of craft foam that you purchased from the Dollar Tree (or you can use cut construction paper too).

Use one of each color for a student or partners to use to play flash card flash when you need to work on quick recognition.

I used them for letters and letter sounds at the beginning of the year (targeted students had their own set of cards based on what they needed) and then sight words later in the year.

Dry Erase Boards and Markers

White boards and markers are such a great tool for a variety of reasons. I liked small marker boards that fit into the pencil caddies.

I kept enough on hand for each student in a group to have one.

Students would use them for sight word mini-lessons modeling after me. Or they would use them for word solving (chunking and finding word bits) while reading independently (just-above grade level books and beyond).

Dry Erase Erasers (or Baby Socks)

If you're going to use dry erase markers, you probably need erasers. Just sayin'

Of course, mini-erasers are just more fun and I snagged them from Target's dollar spot one year - but baby socks are a great alternative too!

There you have my list of 12 fun guided reading tools with some ideas how to use them in your classroom!

If you like what I do here on KindergartenWorks, then be sure to subscribe today. I look forward to sharing ideas with you weekly.

Want to see my most used tool ever? These handy guided reading mats are what I used daily in my guided reading groups.

Reader Interactions

Favorite Literacy Tools & Toys for Preschool & Kindergarten

I wanted to share some of my favorite literacy tools and toys for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. These items help students learn the ABCs through hands-on PLAY during center time, table time, and small groups! Kids can learn to identify both uppercase and lowercase letters along with the sounds of the letters.

From discovering what is inside letter tubs to transforming the ABCs into robots. All of these literacy tools will spark a curiosity to learn all about LETTERS and SOUNDS.

This post contains affiliate links which means I earn a tiny commission when you use my links at no cost to you.

Favorite Literacy Tools for Letter Manipulatives

Learning Resources Lacing Uppercase Alphabet

These alphabet lacing beads are my favorite letter manipulative! I use them for sorting, letter games, with play dough, or in sensory/messy play. They are super easy to clean and work with so many activities.

Learning Resources Lowercase Lacing Beads

Grab the lowercase set of my favorite letter manipulative! I use them for sorting, letter games, with play dough, or in sensory/messy play. They are super easy to clean and work with so many activities.

Learning Resources Smart Snacks ABC Lacing Sweets

Use these small round beads to help build fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and letter knowledge. There are uppercase on one side and lowercase on the other.

Learning Resources Jumbo Magnetic Uppercase Letters

I like the large size of these magnet letters so students can see them from different areas of the room. They are also great for students to hold and move while using them for learning activities.

Learning Resources Jumbo Magnetic Lowercase Letters

Here is the set of lowercase letters to match the set above. They are magnetic and larger in size so that little learners can manipulate them during learning tasks.

Educational Insights Multicolored Uppercase & Lowercase Alphamagnets and Mathmagnets

This set comes with uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers. It has everything you need to get your students ready for reading and writing. They are smaller in size than the above sets but are still great for preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten students.

Learning Resources Letter Blocks

Teach letters while building towers and creations with these cute letter blocks. They are perfect for fine motor muscle building and hand-eye coordination, as well as those very important pincer muscles.

Favorite Literacy Tools for Letter Games/ Puzzles

Alphabet Bean Bags

Play literacy games with these alphabet bean bags. They are the right size for little hands and will work great for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten classrooms.

Learning Resources Goodie Games ABC Cookies

Have so much fun with these ABC cookies that come with instructions for 4 different games. You can also use the ABC cookies for other literacy activities or for sorting tasks.

Lauri Foam Object Magnets

Use these object magnets for practicing beginning sounds and object identification. These are great for young children learning to talk and build vocabulary. They are also wonderful for older students to use for beginning sounds, ending sounds, or sorting activities.

Junior Learning CVC Objects

Have some students beginning to sound out and read words? Use these CVC object magnets to help them increase their literacy skills.

Letter Pop Its

Have fun with these letter pop its! They are approximately 2.5 inches in height, just the right size for little learners. Students can fill each area with a small manipulative to practice letter formation and recognition.

Check out this post for more ideas to use pop its in the classroom!

Pop Its Keyboard

Practice letter recognition, typing skills, and so much more with this pop its keyboard. It is bright and colorful for little learners.

LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter Set

Students place a letter magnet into the bus, and it sings a song with the letter name and sound. It also sings a verse of The Wheels On The Bus and The ABCs.

Melissa & Doug Jumbo Floor Puzzle

Little learners will love to put together this jumbo floor puzzle of the alphabet. It is 10 feet long when completed and features a cute train theme.

Carson Dellosa Ladybug Letters Alphabet Puzzles

These are double-sided puzzles that have students match the letters on one side and a picture on the back. There are also leaves with the letters that students can match with the ladybugs too.

Melissa & Doug Classic Wooden Peg Puzzles

This set comes with an alphabet, number, and color word puzzle. There are pegs for better manipulation by students. Their wooden design will hold up to years of use in the classroom.

Melissa & Doug Self-Correcting Wooden Alphabet Puzzles

These self-correcting alphabet puzzles are great for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. They are wooden for durability and self-correcting for beginning learners.

Learning Resources Alphabet Alligators

These cute alligators snap together for a matching letter puzzle that is fun for children. They are safe for even the youngest learners and a great way to start alphabet knowledge.

Learning Resources Alpha Pops

Develop letter recognition and fine motor strength with these adorable alphabet popsicle puzzles. They are durable and made for little learners.

Learning Letter Locks

This set comes with 26 double-sided locks that feature a letter on one side and a picture on the other, a set of 26 letter keys, and some key rings. The students will use the matching letter key to unlock the lock. They will develop fine motor strength while growing their letter knowledge.

Alpha-Bots

Grab your students’ interest with these fun alphabet robots! Each robot turns into a letter and back again.

Learning Resources Alphabet Acorns

These alphabet acorns have small objects that begin with each letter. Students can practice beginning sounds, letter identification, and grasping skills.

Learning Resources Alphabet Soup Sorters

Grab a set of these alphabet cans that are filled with things to sort by beginning sound or letter. Each can holds an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, and 5 real-life image cards.

Self-Checking Rhyming Puzzle

Practice rhyming skills with these self-checking puzzles. There are 24 puzzles that are double-sided, so students can just read a word or use a picture and a word to rhyme with.

Learning Resources Rhyme and Sort Rockets

Building some rhyming rockets with this fun set! Students will match the 4 real-life images that rhyme and place them on the rocket.

Nursery Rhyme Felt Board

The set includes characters from 4 popular nursery rhymes: Hickory Dickory Dock, Hey Diddle Diddle, Humpty Dumpty, and Baa Baa Black Sheep. The board is felt and the character pieces are felt so they will stick while you tell the story.

Favorite Literacy Tools for Writing Letters

Learning Resources Uppercase Alphabet Stamps

Letter stamps are a great way to practice alphabet knowledge, fine motor skills, and literacy and writing skills. Students can learn that letters make words and continue their knowledge of literacy.

Learning Resources Lowercase Alphabet Stamps

Grab the matching lowercase set to complete your alphabet stamp set.

Melissa & Doug Wooden Stamp Set

Grab this complete set of stamps that includes uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and ink. It even includes an activity pad for at-home or school use.

Educational Insights Lowercase Stamps

These lowercase alphabet stamps are rubber and can be washed off quite easily. They are small, so only use with older children.

Educational Insights Uppercase Stamps

Get the matching set of uppercase stamps.

Alphabet Cookie Cutters

These alphabet cookie cutters are great for play dough or tracing activities. I also use them in my sensory bins or for messy play because they clean up easily.

Dry Erase Boards

This includes 24 dry-erase boards and erasers. They are small in size for little learners and come in a set for a whole classroom.

Reusable Dry Erase Sleeves

Slide any worksheet into these reusable dry-erase sleeves so students can work on them over and over again. They are great for centers or small groups, so you don’t have to make so many copies.

Dry Erase Markers

I love this set of dry-erase markers since it has so many colors to encourage all your learners to write.

Memo Clipboards

These memo clipboards are the perfect size for little learners to use and carry around the room for a write-the-room activity. They are 6 inches by 9 inches and come in a set of 30.

Ticonderoga Golf Pencils

Golf pencils are the right size for little hands and work great with smaller clipboards. There are 72 pencils in the set. I like that they have erasers too.

Dot Stickers

Get this set of dot stickers for tons of hands-on literacy activities. It comes with 2800 stickers in a rainbow of colors. Students improve their fine motor skills by taking the stickers off and placing them on the paper. You can also have them use these in their fine motor journals.

Don’t forget that reading to students is a HUGE part of literacy. Read every chance you get, from directions to labels and signs. Kids are clever; they will start picking it up in no time. Here are my book lists if you need some ideas.

Grab the Stem I Can Build Bundle to get extra STEM practice, develop fine motor skills, and so much more!

Get the Alphabet Games Bundle to practice literacy and letter skills.

Do you need themed literacy games? Check out my themed Literacy and Math Centers in my TPT store. Just print, prep, and play!

LOVE these literacy tools? Pin this image!

Want to check out more of my favorite things for little learners? Check out my Favorite Things Blog Series with over 15 different favorite things lists (and growing)! If there are any favorite things for a theme you need, just let us know so we can create it for you.

02/14/2022 City master class "Semantic reading as a tool for the implementation of the Federal State Educational Standards of Education"

+7 (812) 628-78-28, +7 (812) 956-67-42, +7 (921) 856-03-61, +7 (921) 856-03-62 [email protected]

Details: 09 February 2022; Views: 5711

For teachers of pre-school education, primary education, secondary education, special education

City Master Class

Date: 02/14/2022

Time: 16:00 - 17:00

Presenter: Bagge Maria Borisovna, Ph.D., Associate Professor of the Department of Philological Education, St. Petersburg Academy of Postgraduate Education

Goal : to familiarize students with the technology of semantic reading for the formation of the intellectual potential of children of preschool and school age.

Discussion questions:

The concept of semantic reading and its place in the educational process.
The skill of semantic reading is the most important competence of a person of the 21st century.
Techniques for the formation of semantic reading skills in children of preschool and school age. nine0059

Download presentation

Section list:

Section 1. "Crisis of reading culture and literacy of modern society"

Section 2. "My methods of perception of works of art for children"

Five simple tools to help your child learn

Ekaterina Shchetinina

After three summer months, it can be difficult for children to return to the educational “system”. The joy from the fees and new notebooks is quickly washed away by the flow of new information that needs to be remembered and be able to apply on the control. A week does not pass after the start of training, as the head is already spinning from how much everything is required at school and at home, and all these things take an enormous amount of time. nine0009

Found 5 tools that will make the learning process more interesting and easier.

Reader's diary

This tool will save memories of the books you read. You can write down quotes, the plot and the main characters of the work in it. The child will be able to think about what they read, evaluate the book and express their thoughts.

Regular keeping of a reading diary teaches the student to highlight the main thing and develop attentiveness and memory. And reading books from a boring obligation turns into a real adventure. Preparing for literature lessons and writing essays will definitely become easier - just read your abstract. nine0009

MIF has cozy reader diaries that are suitable for older students. They have 57 pages for reviews, and 5 for the reading schedule, book challenge, personal top and other activities.

Younger children will love the Reading Diary with Chevostick.

Opening of the reader's diary from Chevostik.

Use the notebook to record your book adventures, share emotions, track progress and create. If a child is familiar with Chevostick from encyclopedias, reading books with a favorite character will be much more interesting. nine0009

There is enough space in the diary for 20+ books, as well as for a shelf with what you have read, your own rating and creativity.

Anti-textbooks

Anti-textbooks are not like boring school textbooks. They are written in simple language and designed in an infographic format, so studying them is easy and interesting. Bright encyclopedias arouse the child's interest in science, give an understanding of the importance of scientific knowledge and explain how everything works.

Spread of the book “How the Body Works”

“The world around is a complex system in which everything is interconnected and subject to the same laws,” the authors of anti-textbooks say. Therefore, they abandoned the "traditional" division into different sciences and talk about the structure of the cosmos, science, technology and the human body, explain why mathematics is needed, how to master the Python programming language and use philosophy in life. nine0009

The material from these books can be used to better master the school curriculum and prepare for reports and olympiads.

Math workbooks

Many people don't like math. Units of measurement, multiplication table, division, subtraction and fractions - how to figure it all out? To understand the "queen of sciences" will help the series "Kumon.Mathematics".

Each workbook develops a specific math skill through progressively more difficult and repetitive tasks. The series has notebooks with five levels of difficulty. Which will be useful both for kids who are just learning mathematics, and for older students while preparing for the OGE and the Unified State Examination. nine0009

You need to study in notebooks 5 days a week for 20 minutes a day. This method of successive steps allows not only to gain knowledge, but also increases self-confidence. And working on mistakes develops useful skills and “lays” the foundation for independent homework.

Free short course →

Self-development books

Self-discipline, time management and the ability to set goals are the tools that will come in handy not only at school, but will also make life much easier in the future. nine0009

World expert in the psychology of success Brian Tracy has adapted his new book to the needs of students.

To succeed in work and life, sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone.

In "Get Out of Your Comfort Zone: For Schoolchildren and Students" he talks about how to get more done in less time, beat procrastination, find what gets in the way, and learn how to learn.

And, for example, Olaf Sheve, the author of the book Superstudent, believes that everyone can study well and get high marks. After all, 80% of academic performance depends on our efforts, and only 20% is determined by intelligence. nine0009

In this book, the child will find learning techniques, tips on speed reading, time management, note-taking, setting SMART goals. Learn how to properly prepare for exams and tests, make mind maps and apply mental techniques.

Books that broaden one's horizons

The child will read the main books and textbooks one way or another at school. But books that broaden one's horizons are about something else. They fuel the desire to learn something new every day and share it with others. nine0009

For example, with the book "How many spots does a cheetah have" you can learn unusual facts every day, and then tell them in class or add them to homework, essays and reports. Each spread of the book is devoted to one topic - this allows you to read both in order and open on any page and learn something new.

Opening of the book "How many spots does a cheetah have".

For better memorization, you can try to play a guessing game - whose number was closer to the real one, he won. nine0009

And with a guide to rocks, minerals and fossils, you can arrange a real excursion. The author of several dozen books for children and youth, Dan Green, in his book “What kind of stone” reveals secrets from which young explorers’ eyes light up: “What will happen to sand if lightning strikes it?”, “Where to look for stones that flew from space?”, “Which mineral smells like a rotten egg?” and "Why is a pomegranate called a pomegranate"?.