Author: Admin
Security Update 2024-03-22
We are committed to providing a secure and reliable platform for all our users. As part of this commitment, we recently conducted a comprehensive update of our servers at Spiral WarmUps. During this process, we identified an unusual pattern of excessive login attempts and numerous failed transactions from users attempting to register. This raised concerns…
Reading Skills for the Future – The Digital Brain
Reading is fundamental skill for life, and that’s a fact few can deny. But how has the digital age, and the digital brain, changed the way we view reading? The answer is quite simple. The digital age has brought many changes. Do you remember your high school math teacher telling you, “Learn how to do…
Pins for Reading Teachers
We made these Pins for you, so you can pin, share, and spread good ideas for reading instruction. But we know there are some Negative Nellies out there… If a principal tells you, “Pinterest is not the place to get ideas,” then they’ve totally misunderstood the value of collaboration! Pinterest is the online equivalent of…
Reading Strategy Warm-Ups
We just released new comprehension strategies warm-ups! They’re focused on 5 of the nine reading comprehension strategies: Author’s Craft Making Connections Summarizing Asking Questions Making Predictions They’re available to all Awesome members, and you can find them in your member dashboard or by clicking here. The reading strategy warm-ups provide two task card projectables per…
Guided Reading Resources
Without the right guided reading resources, it can be a headache. Heck, even with the right guided reading resources it can be overwhelming! But it doesn’t have to be. It can be simple, easy to plan for, and effective to execute. That’s why we’re excited to share these guided reading resources with you! The video…
Word Meaning Warm-Ups are Expanding
If you’re interested in expanding your students’ vocabulary, then you’re going to love the fact that our word meaning warm-ups are expanding! Today, we posted five more days of warm-ups in the free word study warm-ups, and tomorrow we’ll post five more! That’s a total of 10 more days added to the word meaning warm-ups.…
Navigating the Warm-Ups
There are so many amazing and engaging reading warm-ups that it’s easy to get lost…unless you know the 5 basic areas of your member dashboard. Account Warm-Ups Literacy Sequences Support News As always the reading warm-ups are no-prep word study, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension warm-ups. If you’re a member, access your account here >> Your…
Three Activities for Context Clues
We just released the free Word Meaning Warm-Ups, and they’re focused on context clues and vocabulary development. The great thing about the warm-ups is that there are three highly engaging activities students work through. In this quick post, I’ll share the three activities in the context clues warm-ups:Context MatchingWord MatrixWeekly QuizYou’re also invited to dig deeper…
Free Word Study Upgrades
The free word study warm-ups are getting major upgrades!Before next school year, the free word study warm-ups will all be completely new based on your feedback.The Original Word Study Warm-UpsWhen we first released the free word study warm-ups, we really weren’t certain how they would be received. Now, thousands of classrooms later and with amazing…
Spelling 1 is Now Upgraded!
These new spelling warm-ups are starting with a new set of 10 days focused on spelling skills including short vowels, consonant digraphs, and monosyllabic words! The word study warm-ups are newly designed for daily whole-class spiral review in grades 2-4 and reteaching in grades 3-6. The warm-ups are no-prep, video-based warm-ups that engage students at…
Decoding Fluency 1 (Updates!)
The new decoding fluency warm-ups are newly revised and available to all of our free Word Study Members and our Awesome Members! These are 20 days of spiral review focused on building fluency with the most essential decoding skills for late 2nd-grade and 3rd-grade. They also are tailored for reteaching or intervention in grades 3-6.…
4 New Weeks of Decoding Fluency
We just released four more weeks of free research-based word study warm-ups! These warm-ups are available to all of our Spiral WarmUps members including the free word study membership. The new warm-ups are based on feedback from two years of testing and trails. They feature a newly designed navigation menu that brings all of the…
Word Study 101, Professional Learning Course
Why is it that teaching reading can be so challenging? What are the keys to helping struggling readers? In this free professional learning course, we’ll share what we know about word study. Crack the code for struggling readers. It really is in the details. There are specific gaps in word knowledge that can prevent readers…
Best Main Idea (Animated Reading Comprehension)
When we say animated reading comprehension, we’re not talking about cartoons or watching YouTube. We are talking about an animated text that: drives fluency, builds schema, sets a purpose for reading, and scaffolds reading comprehension. The activity Best Main Idea is an example of animated reading comprehension, and in this post, you’ll find a few tips…
Comprehension Instructional Strategy Pack 2019
In our recent blog post, Reading Comprehension Strategies, we shared the only 9 comprehension strategies that you’ll ever need to teach. But we didn’t really offer any instructional strategies that you can use. Here is our free instructional strategy pack updated with new strategies for 2019! It’s free to download right here in your membership account. If you…
The Only 9 Reading Comprehension Strategies Your Students Will Ever Need!
9 Reading Comprehension StrategiesThese are the only 9 reading comprehension strategies you’ll ever need to teach. It’s true. All reading comprehension comes from these reading comprehension strategies. Three of the reading comprehension strategies require thinking beyond the text, and six of the strategies involve thinking with the text. In this post you’ll discover:The 9 Reading Comprehension StrategiesWhy…
Why Do I Need Daily Spiral Review?
Why is that you can teach your heart out, but next year the students seem as if they’ve never “heard it” before? The problem was not your teaching. You engaged them. They practiced it. They understood it. The problem is long-term retention. The solution is consistent, research-based spiral review. It’s just how the brain works.…
Literacy Sequences
The key to spiral review is consistency. But you already know that. You also know how challenging it can be to consistently deliver small snippets of reading skills, word study, and comprehension tasks. With consistent spiral review, it’s like a snowball. Students’ reading and spelling skills cumulate massively over time. Simply stated, it can be hard…
New Inferring Main Idea Warm-Ups!
We just revised spiral review 21-25: Inferring Main Ideas! The Inferring Main Idea Spiral Reviews 21-25 focus on biographies with multiple-choice and open-ended main idea questions. Students will read about Mrs. Baird’s bread business and American hero Hector P. Garcia. There are five days of warm-ups with two task card projectables each day. Multiple Choice The first card each…
Double Consonant Activities
We just released a new week of double consonant activities in the form of an interactive, no-prep video warm-up. The activities are called Word Builder. But this post isn’t just about those great word study activities, it’s about Double Consonant Activities that can help you in any classroom – with or without our free Spiral…
