February Literacy Challenge

February is here so it is time for our new, free monthly game- February Literacy Challenge!

I am not sure how January went by so quickly but it did! Last month, we began a new monthly free download. At the end of this post you will find the link to this month’s FREE download. It is digital and a fun way for students to continue literacy learning during their free time, during centers and even at home! It is accessible in Google Slides™ and, of course, is February themed.

Another skill to be working on for February or really any time because it is sooo important is reading fluency. There are so many students who really struggle with fluency and need to practice specifically on this skill.

I have noticed sometimes when students struggle with fluency they are lacking in phonics and sight word knowledge. Increasing automatic recognition of sight words and vowel sounds are an easy but powerful way to quickly strengthen fluency.

But that isn’t enough. Students need to also practice reading with emotion or expression. I like to teach students that reading with expression makes the text so much more enjoyable than reading in a dull, robot voice! And it helps with comprehension, which is always the goal of reading!

Another piece to fluency is smoothness. Students may find reading smoothly to be difficult if the above pieces (automatic sight word recall, fluent vowel sounds, using expression) aren’t in place. But once they have a strong foundation in those pieces, practicing smooth, fluent reading will become easier! And students will learn these important foundational skills more quickly when playing games! When a student is relaxed and having fun with the task at hand, their brain is ready to learn and learn at a faster pace!

Which do you prefer?

printable fluency activities

digital fluency activities

And our February Literacy Challenge can be found here!