Blog

How to Teach the Schwa /ər/ Sound with Hands-On Spelling Patterns

How to Teach the Schwa /ər/ Sound with Hands-On...

The /ər/ sound hides in three different spellings — er, ir, and ur — and each one shows up in a different position in a word. Switch-Its magnetic blocks make...

How to Teach the Schwa /ər/ Sound with Hands-On...

The /ər/ sound hides in three different spellings — er, ir, and ur — and each one shows up in a different position in a word. Switch-Its magnetic blocks make...

How to Teach Proper Nouns with a Hands-On Reveal Activity

How to Teach Proper Nouns with a Hands-On Revea...

Common nouns sit level in a sentence. Proper nouns stand tall with a capital letter. Switch-Its magnetic blocks make that distinction physical — cover the common noun, reveal the proper...

How to Teach Proper Nouns with a Hands-On Revea...

Common nouns sit level in a sentence. Proper nouns stand tall with a capital letter. Switch-Its magnetic blocks make that distinction physical — cover the common noun, reveal the proper...

How to Teach Word Morphology with Prefixes, Suffixes, and Root Words

How to Teach Word Morphology with Prefixes, Suf...

Morphology turns vocabulary instruction into a building system. Switch-Its magnetic blocks let students physically snap roots, prefixes, and suffixes together — so complex words become something constructed, not memorized.

How to Teach Word Morphology with Prefixes, Suf...

Morphology turns vocabulary instruction into a building system. Switch-Its magnetic blocks let students physically snap roots, prefixes, and suffixes together — so complex words become something constructed, not memorized.

How to Teach Compound Words with Hands-On Letter Blocks

How to Teach Compound Words with Hands-On Lette...

Compound words are built from parts students already know. Switch-Its magnetic blocks let students physically snap those parts together — turning word recognition into word construction.

How to Teach Compound Words with Hands-On Lette...

Compound words are built from parts students already know. Switch-Its magnetic blocks let students physically snap those parts together — turning word recognition into word construction.

Word Building with Vowels: Early Reading Made Hands-On

Word Building with Vowels: Early Reading Made H...

Two consonants and the five vowels can unlock a surprising number of words for an early reader. Here's a simple hands-on way to build word families one vowel swap at...

Word Building with Vowels: Early Reading Made H...

Two consonants and the five vowels can unlock a surprising number of words for an early reader. Here's a simple hands-on way to build word families one vowel swap at...

Teaching Silent e with Hands-On Word Building

Teaching Silent e with Hands-On Word Building

Silent e is one of the trickiest spelling patterns to explain, because the letter does its job without ever making a sound. Here's a hands-on way to let students watch...

Teaching Silent e with Hands-On Word Building

Silent e is one of the trickiest spelling patterns to explain, because the letter does its job without ever making a sound. Here's a hands-on way to let students watch...

Holding the Idea in Your Hand: Flexible Manipulatives Elementary Thinking

Holding the Idea in Your Hand: Flexible Manipul...

Why physical manipulatives still matter in elementary classrooms — and what we've lost by moving away from them Friedrich Froebel believed children learned by touching. In the 1830s he designed...

Holding the Idea in Your Hand: Flexible Manipul...

Why physical manipulatives still matter in elementary classrooms — and what we've lost by moving away from them Friedrich Froebel believed children learned by touching. In the 1830s he designed...