Reading Eggs Feature Focus: Teacher Toolkit

Ask a teacher where they find instructional resources for their classroom and you are sure to hear a laundry list of sources including school-bought curriculum, digital apps and software, and open source sites. As educators look for innovative ways to meet student needs, preferences, and interests, a bank of reputable sources is required. With this in mind, our pre-K-6th grade early literacy program, Reading Eggs, offers a one-stop-shop of rich tools bundled together in what is called the Teacher Toolkit.

This area of the online program is available in all teacher accounts and houses digital textbooks, PowerPoint lessons, student worksheets, shared reading texts, and so much more to help educators isolate resources they can trust without the extra legwork. Let’s take a look at a few of the key areas you won’t want to miss out on.

Big Books & Book Notes

This digital library of projectable texts allows you, the educator, to lead shared reading using appropriately leveled e-books. Simply select a fiction or nonfiction book and project the text for all to see. Students can read along, identify text features, and interpret illustrations throughout the reading process. You also have the option on many lower-level selections to use the ‘read to me’ feature for computer-led audio.

Each Big Book is accompanied by a compilation of teacher-led instructional materials and student practice activities known as Book Notes. The instructional component focuses on a set of grade-appropriate skills to provide teachers a guide for reading that infuses vocabulary, phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, and comprehension. Printable activity sheets support instruction and take the form of graphic organizers, puzzles, worksheets, and running records.

Interactive Writing Guides

These interactive resources dig into many different styles of written text to help students gain confidence and explicit practice with informational and persuasive writing. This teacher-led resource empowers you to introduce and model writing concepts using examples and authentic texts during small-group or whole-class instruction.

Simply launch the writing tool of your choice for grades K-2, 3-4, or 5-6, select from a large pool of writing styles including biographical, procedural, explanatory, letter, or editorial writing, then navigate through the corresponding interactive presentation and activities. This resource also includes a Writer’s Toolkit which reviews the stages of the writing process and highlights some traits of good writing. Writing instruction doesn’t have to be intimidating with a carefully scaffolded guide for you and your students to explore together. BONUS: the K-2 writing guides include a Targeting Handwriting area to help you create your own customizable handwriting printables for your youngest learners.

Phonics & Spelling Tools

As students are beginning to grapple with early phonics skills, explicit practice and regular repetition helps to instill understanding. Reading Eggs’ phonics and spelling activities provide interactive challenges, games, and songs perfect for guided practice or use during learning centers on an interactive whiteboard. Students can hunt for letters, match words to pictures, and build words in a rich bank of animated resources.

For additional offline practice, printable worksheets are also available spanning all elementary grades. These levelled activities are perfect for homework assignments or additional practice over holiday breaks.

Targeting English Digital Textbook

This digital resource includes ready-made units of comprehensive literacy practice and assessment materials for whole-class or small-group instruction. Each unit is comprised of a student and teacher component. The student piece includes a story (like the one below), several pages of comprehension and phonics questions, an extension activity, and an assessment. Corresponding teacher resources include an instructional outline and additional guided practice activities. The depth and breadth of each unit makes the digital textbook a great resource to revisit over several days or weeks helping to deepen literacy skills in the context of authentic reading materials.

The Teacher Toolkit is just one of the many great literacy tools found in Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress. Interested in learning more about how these eggs-citing programs can help build foundational literacy skills for your elementary students? Check out our blog post on the Top 10 Features You Might Not Know about Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress!