We all know a few days in October that are fun to celebrate in our classrooms. Obviously, if you are a primary teacher, you can find lots of days to celebrate in many ways. With Common Core coming our way, it is a bit more difficult to bring fun activities in to our classrooms. BUT...I think and I am sure you will agree that there are a plethora of ways to have fun with Common Core and there are definitely some Special Days to celebrate in October besides Halloween...BUT we have to include Halloween for October or our kiddos will be sooooooo upset!

Sooooooo what days can be celebrated in school or at home during October?

Here are some ideas and activities for Special days to celebrate in October and still have a bit of fun learning in your classroom:

🎃 World Smile Day is October 2nd!

What a great way to start the month of October. Tell children to bring their smiles to school or virtually to class that day and try a few of these activities to brighten their DAY!

Partner children 6 feet a part of course and see who can get the other to smile...but if in person, you can only tell by their eyes.

Have a joke telling chat. With this kids simply tell jokes to make each other laugh!

If virtual these can be done in break out rooms.

🎃 Name your Car Day, Too...Say What?

Now this is also another fun day to write about and have some fun with at home or at school.

At home, you might want to give your car a name...my granddaughter named my car "Vanilla Caramel Brownie" because it is white with tan interior and my perfume smells like vanilla sugar. and Brownie because it is not always the cleanest car on the road! You can have a lot of fun with this one and also get a few laughs or smiles since they are both celebrated on October 2nd!

🎃 Did you know that October 4th is Taco Day?

Here is a cute book to celebrate tasty taco treats.

Before reading the story, you can access prior knowledge to find out what your students know about tacos, what their favorite taco is and maybe where they like to buy or eat their tacos.

During reading stop every so often to have your students think, pair, share as you ask questions, have students make predictions or inferences as well as answer some questions about the text. Here is a fun interactive Reading Resource with ideas for use that you might want to use for shared reading for this text or any text!

🎃How about Cake Decorating DAY?

You can give each child a writing frame, which I have links to at the bottom of this post and have them decorate a cake and then write about it.

If they have a picture of a favorite birthday cake, have them share it during sharing time or reserve a few minutes to have children share or tell about their favorite birthday cake of all time!

🎃 Another Fun Day to celebrate is PUMPKIN DAY.

Did you know that National Pumpkin Day is October 26th?

Let's take a look at a few ideas for Pumpkin Day which is celebrated right before Halloween...perfect Timing!

This pumpkin resource includes everything you need to celebrate pumpkins from facts to opinions, measuring, graphing and more. check it out Right here

Need some Great Books to go along with Pumpkins?

here are 4 of my faves:

1. How Many Seeds in a Pumpkins works fabulous with Pumpkin "Fun"tivities. Read it before you do the measuring activities. it is super for making predictions and works great with the interavtive props and ideas!

2. Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie is great text to use to learn about how pumpkins grow and for facts and opinions about pumpkins.

3. The Biggest Pumpkin Ever is another great story that is fun to use as a shared reading and the kiddos LOVE it!

4. My all time favorite book is the The Little Woman who wasn't Afraid of Anything.

I used this as an interactive shared reading with props and you could hear a pin drop as we shared the story and acted out the parts with real items!

Here is a link for Ideas to go along with this book!
Let's Get Interactiv e!

🎃 If you Don't Like Pumpkins, you Can Always Celebrate Cupcake Day on the 26th or Both Days and Make Pumpkin Cupcakes!

YES! You read that right...CUPCAKE DAY! Kids can draw cupcakes or make them out of construction paper and share about their favorite cupcake of all time!

Click on the picture to get this Dollar Deal to help you celebrate and use these 5 fun writing prompts!

🎃 And Let's Not Forget Halloween

Here are some tried and true Halloween Resources

Take a look and see if these might be something you want to try out this year!

Well...there you have it! Some Special Days to Celebrate in October...NEXT UP Some fun days to celebrate in November!

Have a great October!

Make this October the BEST EVER!

Keep Smiling...the BEST is yet to Come!

After children master letter-sound correspondence, the next critical step in their reading journey is blending sounds together to form words.

Blending is the process of smoothly connecting individual sounds to read words—a skill that transforms isolated letters and sounds into meaningful reading. Without strong blending skills, early readers may struggle with fluency and comprehension.

Why Blending Matters:

1. Blending allows children to decode unfamiliar words rather than memorizing them.

2. It gives students/young readers the tools to tackle new vocabulary independently, increasing their confidence and setting the stage for more advanced reading skills.When children can successfully blend, they begin to read with greater ease, making the transition from sounding out words to fluent reading smoother.

Engaging Ways to Teach Blending:

Just like with letter-sound correspondence, hands-on and interactive activities make blending more effective and enjoyable for young learners.

Here are Some Engaging Strategies:

• Sound-by-Sound Blending: Write a simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) word, such as “cat,” on a board. Point to each letter and have children say the sounds slowly: /c/… /a/… /t/. Then, guide them to say the sounds faster until they blend into the full word.

• Blending Ladders: Use a blending ladder (a chart where only one letter changes at a time) to help children see patterns. For example:

• mat → cat → sat → sap → sip

This helps children develop automaticity with sound changes.

These CVC Word Worksheets are fun activities that can be differentiated as needed to support various learning levels when learning to blend CVC words or as a challenge activity. Take a look at this HERE!

• Sliding Sounds with Manipulatives: Use letter tiles, magnetic letters, or flashcards to slide sounds together. For example, move the letter “c” toward “at” while saying the sounds aloud until they merge into “cat.”

• Elkonin Boxes (Sound Boxes): Give children a word and a set of boxes. They move a token into each box as they say each sound, then blend them together.

• Blending with Motion: Assign a physical action to each sound in a word.

For example, children take a step forward for each sound, then jump when they blend them together.

One activity that my students really enjoy is to use their fists and punch and blend. Left fist punches out the first sound and the right fist punches the ending. Then students tap their fists together in front of their chest and say the word. You can even do this activity with partners one child does the first sound, the second child punches the ending and then they puch their fists together and say the word.

Pencil-and-Paper Practice, Google Activities and Worksheets for Blending and Decoding

While hands-on learning is essential, structured writing tasks reinforce blending skills and help children internalize word patterns.

Effective Activities Include:

• Word Building: Provide letter cutouts or letter tiles so children can physically manipulate and form CVC words.

• Fill in the Missing Letter: Give children a partial word (e.g., “_at”) and have them add the missing beginning sound.

• Word Matching: Have children draw lines between pictures and their corresponding words, reinforcing decoding skills.

• Cut-and-Paste Blending: Provide a worksheet with separate letters and pictures so children can cut out letters, arrange them in order, and paste them under the correct picture.

• Sentence Starters: Use simple sentences with missing CVC words (e.g., “The cat is on the ___”). Have children blend and write the missing word.

Moving Beyond CVC Words:

Once children are comfortable blending CVC words, they can progress to more complex patterns:

• Beginning Blends (e.g., bl, gr, sp): “Blend” → /b/ /l/ /e/ /n/ /d/

• Ending Blends (e.g., nd, st, mp): “Lamp” → /l/ /a/ /m/ /p/

• Digraphs (e.g., sh, ch, th): “Ship” → /sh/ /i/ /p/

Tapping letters to encode and spell is also another great strategy to encourage emergent writing and reading skills which ultimately leads to fluent readers and writers

• Silent E Words: Introduce how the “magic e” changes short vowels into long vowels (e.g., “hat” → “hate”). Blending and decoding is a powerful bridge between letter-sound knowledge and fluent reading. By incorporating hands-on activities, movement, and structured reinforcement through writing, children develop confidence in decoding words independently.

Need some other resources to encourage blending of cvc words? Take a look HERE!

Blending is a powerful bridge between letter-sound knowledge and fluent reading.
by incorporating hands-on activities, movement, and structured reinforcement through pencil and paper tasks and writing, children develop confidence with decoding words independently.
As always, I would enjoy hearing what blending strategies have worked well for your early readers? Share your ideas in the comments below!

Look for my next blog post about building Fluency!

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Happy teaching!

Learning to read is one of the most significant milestones in a child's early education, and a key foundational skill is letter-sound correspondence. This essential concept - the ability to connect letters to their sounds - lays the groundwork for decoding words, blending sounds and eventually fluent reading.

Why does Letter - Sound Correspondence Matter?

When children understand that each letter represents a specific sound, they can begin to recognize patterns in words, which begins to make reading less of a guessing game and more of a logical process.

Like, an "Oh I get it, now!"moment.

Without this important skill, early readers may struggle to decode new words, which can lead to frustration and a lack of confidence.

We all know how important it is to feel like "YES, I CAN DO THIS!"

Reinforcing Letter-Sound Correspondence Through Hands-On Learning

Children learn best through engaging multi-sensory learning. Incorporating hands-on activities not only reinforces learning, but also make the process fun and memorable. They are learning and really don't know they are practicing important skills.

Here are a few effective strategies you may want to incorporate at home or at school...

Letter Manipulatives:

Use magnetic letters, letter tiles, foam letters or create your own set of letters with index cards and allow children to manipulate the cards saying the letter name and sound each letter makes.

Alphabet Hunt:

Something I always did with my students, my own children/grandchildren was to create a Scavenger Hunt around the house/ classroom to find objects that start with the chosen sound. Put the letters in a paper bag, pull one out and the children walk around the house or classroom to find an item that begins with that beginning letter sound.

Sensory Writing:

This was always a favorite. Have children write letters in sand, shaving cream or salt trays writing a designated letter while verbalizing the sound. I have had students use small cars and then "drive the letter" while verbalizing the sound. You can also have them sky write the letters by pretending their pointer finger is a pen and "write" in the air.

Sound Sorts:

Provide pictures and ask children to sort them by beginning sounds, blends, or digraphs.

The Power of Repetition and Pencil-Paper Tasks

While hands-on learning is essential, structured, repeated practice through simple writing and/or cut and paste activities further strengthens letter-sound connections.

Some effective paper-and-pencil activities might include:

Matching Games:

Have children draw lines between. pictures and their corresponding sounds. This not only supports visual tracking, but also fine motor skills.

Beginning Sounds, Blends and Digraphs Worksheets:

Provide simple cut-and-paste activities where children match pictures to beginning sounds, beginning blends like "fl" and digraphs like "ch".

Don't miss out on this opportunity to enhance your child's \ students' learning journey!

Click below to subscribe and unlock this FREE Beginning Sound Resource for Early Readers.

Letter-Sound Mazes:

Create mazes where children follow a path of pictures that start with a specific sound. Children can color each picture or draw a line to and from each picture until they get to the end.

Trace and Match Activities:

Have children repeatedly trace the

letters, blends or digraphs and

color pictures that match the sounds. This Alphabet Handwriting resource does just that. Trace the letter, find and color the box that has the matching letter and then color the picture that matches the sound. It is the perfect combination of fine motor (handwriting), letter recognition and letter sound correspondence. It's a Win- Win!

Need a few more ideas for Lettter-Sound Correspondence? Click HERE

Blending Sounds: The Next Step

Once children have a solid understanding of letter-sound correspondence, they can begin blending sounds to form words. Explicit instruction and practice with CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words like "cat" and "dot" help bridge the gap between recognizing sounds and reading fluently.

Teaching letter-sound relationships through a combination of hands-on activities and more structured writing, coloring, tracing task is important in helping children become independent, confident readers.

By reinforcing these skills with engaging activities and repetitive step by step practice, we create a strong foundation for literacy success.

I would LOVE to hear how YOU incorporate letter-sound activities at home or in your classroom. Please share your favorite activities in the comments!

Stay Tuned for the Next Post on Blending and Decoding!

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⛄ Snowmen at Night Writing Prompt & Craft

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Your students will:
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Ready to journey to the Polar regions? This research project will inspire young learners to dig deep into the fascinating world of Arctic animals.
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