Denise Menger

Mom. 💛 Teacher. 🍎 Grad student. 📒 Creator and developer of Menger Academy, a reading instruction resource for parents and teachers. 📚

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

The 6-year-old's Science Lab https://t.co/Y2PBwm06Oc

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

Just posted a photo https://t.co/fhAz1v6NoN

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

This is science.

You can see her experimenting, adjusting, and trying again. She develops hypotheses, tests them out to gather data, and interprets her results to support or challenge her hypothesis, then starts… https://t.co/3zJqHt1VcY

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

Authentic writing tasks are those that serve a real life purpose and ideally are initiated by the writers themselves.

I've been using this board to organize our schedule and activities this summer, so it should… https://t.co/wvZs594jI3

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

I've been working on consonant blends with a student. Target had these giant dry-erase dice in the Dollar Spot. It was basically inevitable that I would write beginning sounds (onsets) on one cube and endings… https://t.co/PhQyxnYKGX

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

Raise your child's phonological awareness and begin building their knowledge of phonics by drawing attention to individual sounds in words and pointing out which letters make those sounds.

Note--the ability to… https://t.co/wuqW3KZlyC

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

This is why phonological awareness is so important.

Because Hannah has spent years listening for individual sounds in words, playing with thyme and alliteration, she's able to hear and isolate the /ow/ sound in… https://t.co/SOtvLUy6m0

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

We've been working on beginning consonant blends. Blends containing r and l can be especially tricky. Listen to hear how I draw Hannah's attention to the consonants blends on this page and clarify their pronunciation. https://t.co/DWNNRXHXoS

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

Skip counting on the trampoline

Counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s, etc builds a foundation for repeated adding, also known as multiplication. It also gives kids shortcuts to use when quantifying collections of… https://t.co/4Lu98slqee

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

They were super cranky. No one wanted to do anything. My suggestions received less-than-enthusiastic responses.

So I stopped suggesting and started playing. I hadn't even finished writing START before two of them… https://t.co/CvU7gkhl7Y

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

Children process their experiences through play. Which explains why Pink Bear needed a mask to go to school and pick up her work.

What real world experiences are making their way into your children's play today? https://t.co/tmBGhuds2K

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

Famous Art
Crayon on Paper
Three pieces: Artate, Simpre, and Art of Paradise
by Hannah

"With labels because all the famous art has labels" https://t.co/Rycgic6CQz

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

We didn't have time to pull out Hannah's math curriculum today, but we did have time to eat pizza, which gave us the perfect opportunity to explore fractions.

Our conversation included:
-How will we cut this?
-How… https://t.co/pYNaHNNE0l

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

Hundreds charts are a really great way to get kids comfortable with our Base 10 number system, which kids explore from about Kindergarten through 2nd grade.

Print out a blank 10x10 grid and fill in a few numbers at… https://t.co/P2TX9kRKhy

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

Strengthen phonemic awareness in your early readers with this blending activity.

Arrange letter cards into 3 piles--consonants in the first and third piles, vowels in the middle (CVC). Have your child say each… https://t.co/qOJrHOVma8

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

Is your child learning about something you don't quite understand yourself? Try bringing in an expert.

Ryan has shown some curiosity about atoms and molecules. I was able to purchase him a $30 molecule building kit… https://t.co/EVTFziNoJP

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

It's counting collections day in our Kindergarten Zoom meeting. Hannah grabbed some chalk pieces and counted them one-by-one. Then I wondered aloud: "I wonder how those could be grouped or organized." This is what… https://t.co/a38M15WiNg

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

Another solid math lesson.

Her math book said to work on teens. I set up the board with ten magnet tiles at the top, and she added the ones on the bottom. She figured out that we were adding 10+7, which she wrote… https://t.co/3EHLocLGNv

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

The big kids helped me make these little props for a post on here a few years ago. Hannah read Ten Apples Up On Top yesterday, so I figured now was a good time to pull them back out again.

I set them in front of… https://t.co/6bgtR4OKex

[Denise Menger @mengeracademy]

Young readers often tire quickly and don't quite have the stamina to make it through a whole book on their own. If you notice your child beginning stumble, get frustrated, or slow way down, they may be getting tired.… https://t.co/6pWd5MgEpa