Inferring with Primary Students: Christmas Inference Detectives Activities for Kindergarten and First-Grade Inferring with Primary Students: Kindergarten and First-Grade Inferring is an important comprehension skill for young readers to have and I love giving them lots of practice with this skill. We infer each week with the story we are reading, but I also like to give them opportunities to infer outside of the text. Inferring is just putting clues together and using that voice inside ... continue reading...
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Engaging Readers: Getting it ORGANIZED!
Hey There! Happy Hump day! We've had a few questions about how we organize our new Engaging Readers units so I thought I'd do a quick blog post to show you! These are the supplies I used to organize mine. I used a 1" binder sheet protectors Binder pocket (one pocket holds all four books) ziploc baggies Clear packing tape Printables for the spine and fronts of sheet protectors click HERE to get yours. First, I put our cutie patootie cover (thanks to ... continue reading...
Common Core Standards Organization and Wishy Washy!
I've had a lot of questions about how I organize my Common Core Standards and Essential Questions. I display them on posters which are hot glued to ribbon. The standards are attached with velcro so that they are easy to change in and out. (Please excuse the bad picture above. The standards shown are from the 1st grade set. Notice that the clipart images match the standard and that the essential question clipart also matches. This helps the little ones who can't read understand the ... continue reading...
Oceans of Fun!
I got up bright and early this morning and drove 2 hrs. in search of the perfect wedding dress for my daughter Taylor. SUCCESS! But, I'm one tired mamma so this is going to be a super quick post! We just started our ocean unit. Nothing gets boys excited more than sharks! (okay...maybe dinosaurs...but they still LOVE sharks too). We used interactive writing to label the parts of a shark. Comparing sharks and whales. Schema Chart Writing ... continue reading...
The Gruffalo Lesson Plans | Reading Comprehension for K-2
The Gruffalo lesson plans for K-2. Engaging 5-day lesson plans with differentiated reading response, vocabulary, sentence study, and a craft for this fun story! The Gruffalo A clever mouse outsmarts some woodland animals who want to eat him with the story of a Gruffalo. Little does he know, a Gruffalo is real and loves to eat mice. Your students will love this award-winning story! Through our engaging lesson plans students will strengthen their reading comprehension skills and have fun ... continue reading...
Guiding Reading Planning & Instruction
In my classroom, I used a combination of whole group instruction (close reading, shared reading) and guided reading to teach reading. With whole group instruction you focus your teaching towards the ability of your more proficient students' ability. Then you scaffold and support those students who need it. However, guided reading allows you to tailor your instruction to fit the needs of each individual student. You bring your reading lessons to THEIR instructional level. This is just ... continue reading...
Writers Workshop: 2nd Grade Yearlong BUNDLE
Writers Workshop is a wonderful way to incorporate all of the ELA standards while introducing your students to the love of writing. Our best selling K/1 Writing Units are used in classrooms all over the country. Due to popular request, we now have a 2nd-grade version! These best practice units were created by two teachers with over 20 years of classroom experience. Classroom-tested and student approved. There are eight units in the series of monthly units that will walk you through ... continue reading...
Snowmen at Night Read Aloud Lessons
Students love to warm up while listening to a great book on cold winter days! Thankfully, this means that teachers can incorporate the love of books with the many standards to get through each year. For instance, Snowmen at Night read aloud lessons are the perfect way to embed an adorable story with several reading skills! Students will have so much fun learning during the winter season with these lessons! What is an Interactive Read Aloud? An interactive read aloud embeds a story ... continue reading...
Let’s Talk about Books: Give Up, Gecko! Linky
Hey y'all! I love books! I hope you'll join me every Tuesday as I share a new book with you. Hopefully I will pick some that you've never heard of before. :) I recently purchased this book and read it to my grandbabies who are 5 and 7 and they both LOVED it. You know a book is a hit when they ask you to read it again and again! Give Up, Gecko! is a Folktale from Uganda that is retold by Margaret Read MacDonald Y'all this is the PERFECT book to add to your back to school collection ... continue reading...
Reading Rubrics for the Primary Grades
These reading rubrics for primary grades are great for kindergarten and first-grade reading! These assessments and scoring guides are great for guiding your lessons in reading comprehension. If you've used our Engaging Readers units then you probably already use the Rubrics that come with each unit, but questions about assessments are one of our most commonly asked questions so we will talk about that in this blog post. Reading Rubrics for Primary Grades: Reading ... continue reading...
Oceans and Pirates and Fun, OH, MY!
Good News...... After next Wednesday I only have two more days of school left! Bad News....First, I have to survive until then. :) SERIOUSLY! What makes the last two weeks of school so tough. The kids start acting all kinds of crazy and us teachers are just plain TIRED!!! I think that this is God's way of helping us send those little ones off without it crippling us with sadness. Think about it.... we've spent 180 days with these little people. They've hugged us 1,000 times, told us they ... continue reading...
Batty Over Bats!
Happy Monday Y'all! This is a throwback post about another unit that I LOVE to teach during the month of October. BATS!! Oh, my word! I absolutely love bats. Okay. I'll admit that I wouldn't really want to meet one up close and personal but they are fascinating and little ones love learning all about them. If you already have my bat unit you'll want to head on over to TPT and download the updates that I just added to the unit. The link is at the end of this post. We always start ... continue reading...
Engaging Readers, Curriculum Maps and FREE five-day lesson plan
Curriculum Maps for Kindergarten and First Grade help to guide your classroom instruction through your whole year! Reading, Math, Writing and MORE! Plus a free file for you! We have a whole series of Engaging Readers units out. The units cover phonemic awareness, phonics, and Comprehension skills. Here are a few pictures that Stephanie Stewart shared with me from the April unit. Sequencing the picture cards for the story, Piggie Pie. Checking her notebook with the class chart to see ... continue reading...
Shark Schema Chart: Teaching with Intention!
Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller is one of my all-time favorite professional development books. When I read this book in 2008, it really helped me define my teaching philosophy and think about WHAT I do as a teacher and WHY I do it. When you do activities with your students, it's important to be able to define their purpose and to be able to explain why you think it's important. I LOVE this book, and I've blogged about it MANY times over the last five years. One of my favorite things ... continue reading...
Engaging Reading Activities (With a FREE File)
Engaging reading activities for kindergarten and first grade! See how we improve reading comprehension through various reading comprehension strategies. FREE sample file too! This is a guest post from Deedee Wills. We are so excited about our Engaging Readers units... you can tell because I. Can't. Stop. Talking. About. It. Engaging Reading Activities: How did it start? Around last November I had a conversation with Deanna Jump about wanting to do more responding to literature with ... continue reading...