Welcome to My Play Based Classroom Blog
Hi there!
I'm Janelle - a play-based early years teacher who is super passionate about creating learning experiences that boost curiosity, creativity, and academic growth.
On this blog, I share practical tips for meeting curriculum benchmarks through a balance of explicit teaching and play, setting up the ideal learning environment and fostering social-emotional development.
So, let’s make play-based teaching work in your preschool, kindergarten, or first-grade classroom!
21 Activities for Teaching Phoneme Manipulation
Discover why we have to spend so much time teaching phoneme manipulation in kindergarten and get 21 engaging and effective classroom activities to help your students manipulate sounds with ease!
22 Phoneme Segmentation Activities for Phonemic Awareness
Segmenting phonemes is an important phonemic awareness skill. Use my 22 tried and tested phoneme segmentation activities and download the free phoneme segmentation word list to teach your kindergarten and first-grade students how to segment words into phonemes.
Activities for Teaching Syllables and Phonological Awareness
Teach syllables and phonological awareness with these engaging activities for kindergarten and preschool children. Teaching syllables is so much more than clapping the beats in words! I’ve got a selection of hands-on games and activities your students will love. They will master blending and segmenting syllables in no time.
22 Word Awareness Activities to Develop Phonological Awareness
Discover engaging word awareness activities, teaching tips and strategies for this basic phonological awareness skill. This blog post is a practical guide to developing word awareness through 22 playful, hands-on strategies and activities. Perfect for kindergarten, preschool, and first-grade teachers looking to teach the concept of a word.
12 Effective Strategies for Teaching Phonemic Awareness
Looking for the most effective strategies for teaching phonemic awareness? Discover how to get your students to reach their reading benchmarks and have success learning to read and write in this blog post. Hint: You’ll need to know the latest Science of Reading research and use it to effectively teach phonemic awareness to your kids!
Fun Phoneme Blending Activities - Build Phonemic Awareness
Discover my tried and tested phoneme blending activities in this blog post. Build phonemic awareness and find out why learning to blend sounds is such an important phonemic awareness skill.
43 Rhyming Activities for Kindergarten
Discover 43 hands-on rhyming activities to help you teach rhyming and word families to your kindergarten and preschool children. These educational rhyming games and hands-on activities are an effective and fun way to teach rhyming words. Perfect for your literacy lessons and centers.
Use a Rhyming Basket to Teach Rhyming Words
Discover how to teach rhyming words with a playful rhyming basket activity. Perfect for kindergarten, this hands-on rhyming basket idea builds rhyming skills for phonological awareness.
79 Rhyming Books for Kindergarten and Preschool
An illustrated list of early childhood picture books for teaching rhyming words to preschoolers and kindergarten children. There are 79 rhyming word books perfect for read-alouds and developing phonemic awareness.
You will appreciate the focus on Australian authors and storylines depicting cultural diversity and inclusive education themes in this up to date list.
How to Teach Phonics with Play Dough
Learn how to teach phonics with play dough in a play-based classroom through sensory play experiences. Enhance literacy and learning with props and phonics playdough mats for engaging and effective teaching.
How to Teach Phonemic Awareness - Tips and Activities
Learn how to teach phonemic awareness effectively and enhance early reading skills. In this blog post you’ll get strategies and activities for isolating, blending, and segmenting phonemes to use with your young students.
Use CVC Sentences to Develop Decoding Fluency in Reading
Discover how CVC sentences can boost decoding fluency and help beginning readers become confident, fluent readers. Learn practical strategies, research insights, and tips for using CVC Flip Sentences in your classroom today!
Teaching Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness
Discover essential strategies for teaching phonological and phonemic awareness in early childhood education. This guide outlines the developmental stages and suggests practical teaching ideas and engaging activities to develop these important early literacy skills in preschool and kindergarten children.