Using coordinating books and toys that correspond with the dinosaur theme is a sure-fire way to get young kids excited about learning to read!

It’s been almost forty years since I began my teaching career. My focus in teaching has been on teaching primary-age students to read, and I am still excited about teaching beginning readers!

Years ago, I learned that teaching students the alphabetic principle can be fun! 

Students love learning about the world around them and learning more about things that interest them. Dinosaurs are a passion of preschool to early primary-age students. Therefore, I created a Dinosaur Themed Nonsense Word Fluency Resource Pack! Here’s the first part of that series:  The Dinosaur Slide Show in PowerPoint format. 

Because I am no longer in a classroom setting, I will utilize this resource via my laptop. However, some other suggestions for ease of use for a teacher or parent/grandparent/guardian could be:

• • Use the whole group via an interactive whiteboard
  • Use in small groups at the teacher’s table via the teacher’s laptop
  • Store and use the Dinosaur Powerpoint in Google Classroom
  • Email the Powerpoint for Home-Use
  • Email the Powerpoint for Phone-Use

Please keep a few things in mind. First, reading nonsense words is, more specifically, a means to an end. 

The goal of using this resource is to notice which sounds your child knows and doesn’t know; it is not to memorize nonsense words. Instead, students are explicitly practicing sounds-mapping the sounds to their brains! As a parent or teacher, this assessment tool helps you target which sounds a student needs more practice with.

Creating engaging resources for the Beginning Reader is a creative outlet I enjoy sharing. Below are the resources I used to create this adorable dinosaur Powerpoint!

Also, if you would like to utilize the same font I used in mine, it’s K.G. Miss Kindergarten, the banner is from Cat Lady Graphics, and the dinosaurs are from Rainbow Sprinkle Studio – Sasha Mitten. All of these resources are free!

If you are a new parent or teacher and need to know more about how some students learn to read, this Reading Rockets article may interest you. As always, there are differing viewpoints about teaching students the alphabetic principle. Research and determine where you stand on this topic and how it relates to the Beginning Reader!

You can be on the lookout for the next coordinating DINOSAUR Resource: Nonsense Word Blackout Bingo!