Phonics Easy Reader 4

I have been working with the Rock N Learn Easy Reader 4 with my small group of struggling readers in third grade. There are three contrived stories that focus on different phonetic elements-- this level focuses on au, aw, all, al, syllables, the schwa sound, ending sounds, and silent consonants. It fits in nicely with the patterns that are being learned it word study.

I have used the stories to go on word hunts, allowing the children to practice identifying and pronouncing these phonetic elements. I feel that the more practice students have using the words in context, the easier it will be to internalize the word patterns.

I think the rock n learn series would be useful to most lower elementary teachers.

Civil War App

US History Teachers—Try this!

Civil War: America’s Epic Struggle

This application has so much to offer. It brings photographs, statistics, music, storylines, battles, biographical profiles, timelines, and multimedia presentations, to name a few, right to the children.

Since studying the Constitution in 8^th grade Social Studies, my students have been curious about how slavery spread, and how it was allowed by law. After several discussions, I used the app to project information titled “Causes of the Civil War.” Here, I was able to discuss and show all the major direct and indirect causes of the war including the Cotton Gin, Missouri Compromise, California Gold Rush, Kansas-Nebraska Act, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

With so much content on this application, I found it to be a great introduction for teaching about the Civil War, and it will be a great addition to the Civil War unit I have planned.