I've said it before, and I'll say it again - one of the BEST things about maternelle is teaching our students to read. It's amazing to watch them go from saying "but I don't know HOW to read!" to understanding that there is more than one way to read a...

If you've been following my blog a bit, you may have already seen my post about My Favourite Ways to Warm up my Students for Guided Reading. But let's be honest for a second, here... Some days are less than ideal in maternelle, and you won't always have time for...

Teaching five-year-olds to read is super fun, and one of my favourite parts of the job. But, it isn't always easy! Most students catch on to the idea of looking at the picture to help them figure out an unknown word, and many grasp looking at the first letter pretty quickly,...

Confession time! As you probably know, I am anglophone. I grew up speaking English, in an English household, in an English community. I fell in love with the French language in the sixth grade and never looked back, but I was taught completely in English up until grade seven. (In...

A few weeks ago, I was speaking with a friend of mine who teaches in another school board. (We both teach en français, but I teach with the francophone board, whereas she is teaching French immersion with an anglophone board). We both teach maternelle, and so we experience many of...

This is my seventh year teaching maternelle, and it STILL blows my mind I get to help teach children to read. I remember my very first year teaching, when I had my first ever guided reading group sitting across from me at the table.  I had absolutely NO IDEA what...

Real talk! If you're a teacher, too, I'm sure that I don't have to tell you this... but, sometimes we have so much going on that we can't remember to cover #allofthethings. I blink and then it's March and I haven't even covered HALF of the things that I planned...

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases you make via links on this site, at no additional cost to you. Confession time:  My guided reading lessons used to be a HOT MESS. I knew how to use literacy centres to give the...

Bonjour! Do you teach anchor words to your students when you are teaching them the alphabet? Anchor words are super important. But, it can be a challenge to find fun, engaging, and effective ways to teach them. In this blog post, I will share with you what exactly anchor words...