I LOVE this time of year. My little sweeties are becoming independent thinkers and learners who have blossomed into readers and writers AND all of my Favorite units are in the Spring!! Zoo animals, Dinosaurs (my fave), and Insects (my fave), What???!! I can have more than one favorite! :) I spend two weeks on each of these units. There is just something about these topics that get kids super excited about learning! Today we learned all about Giraffes. ... continue reading...
Search Results for: label/farm animals
Book Talk Tuesday: Rub-a-Dub Sub
Hey Y'all! Summer is almost over so I thought I'd share one of my favorite ocean themed books before the school craze sets in. My class loves this adorable rhyming book, Rub-a-Dub Sub. A little boy goes on an undersea adventure in his submarine... and describes all of the animals he encounters using higher level vocabulary and rhyme. All is well on his underwater adventure until he meets a SHARK!!!!!! The kids made their own subs and ocean animal they ... continue reading...
Dr. Seuss
Hi Everyone, I've been so busy working on my farm unit that I didn't get a chance to make a post this weekend. I will be making my weekly post tomorrow. I just wanted to do a quick post to let you know that my friend Kathleen from Growing Kinders has a great Dr. Seuss unit that you might want to check out since his birthday is this week! Here's the link: DR. SEUSS ... continue reading...
How to teach phonological awareness
Phonological awareness activities that teach rhyming. Your kindergarten and first-grade students will love these fun lessons ideas to reinforce rhymes. These phonological awareness activities are great to use for reading intervention during your small group RTI time. Teaching Phonological Awareness Activities As teachers, we all understand the importance of creating strong phonological awareness in students. It is the foundation in which we build upon to create independent readers and ... continue reading...
15 Back to School Bulletin Board Ideas You Will Love!
Back to School Bulletin Board Ideas! Here are some of my favorite bulletin board ideas I found that are perfect for back to school. Back to School Bulletin Board Ideas With back to school right around the corner, it is time to start thinking about ideas for the perfect back to school bulletin board display. Here is a collection of 15 bulletin board ideas I think would be great for back to school. Bulletin Board #1: We Fit Together This is a cute idea to show your students ... continue reading...
25 Back to School Read Alouds for the Primary Classroom
25 Back to school read alouds to pick up and share with your primary students to calm their nerves and create a few laughs. Back to School Read Alouds Are you getting ready to go back to school? Maybe planning the first week of school? Then this list of back to school read alouds is just what you need! You and your class are sure to enjoy these lesson-learning, diversity-filled, alphabet-listing, and just plain fun, read alouds during the first few weeks of school. #1 The King ... continue reading...
National Holidays for August and September
Students always love to celebrate holidays with their friends. Typically, this includes holidays like Valentine’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas. However, the fun doesn’t have to stop there! There are countless quirky, and even strange, holidays that most of us don’t even know exist. I love to use these national holidays to create extra excitement and engagement in the classroom. In this post, I’m going to share national holidays for August and September that are perfect for celebrating in the ... continue reading...
Apple Unit UPDATES
I just revised my Apple unit and it doubled in size. If you purchased this unit previously please go TPT and get the revisions at no additional charge. To get the updates sign into to TPT. Then, click on the green MY PURCHASES tab at the top of the page. Then find the link to the Apple unit and download the revisions. I will be updating and adding to my FARM UNIT & SPIDER unit next. *If you don't own my Apple unit you can check it out by clicking on the cover image ... continue reading...
Walruses, Literacy Centers and Guided Reading, oh, my!
We made these adorable walruses from my Arctic Animals unit today. I love how they all turned out so unique. Our penguins are still fishing on our bulletin board so the herd of walruses won't be hung up until next week when we use them to decorate our polar bears and walruses venn diagram. I will post a pic next week when they are all hanging. So, I've had some questions about how I do Literacy Centers.This is a picture of my Literacy Center board. The pirates on ... continue reading...
The Mitten | Reading Comprehension Lesson Plans – FREEBIE
The Mitten lesson plans for teaching reading comprehension skills. Responding to literature through writing, studying vocabulary, and a STEM activity. The Mitten Reading Lesson Plans The Mitten by Jan Brett is a fun winter read aloud. In this story, animals squeeze in a mitten to keep warm from the winter cold. Our Engaging Readers units are full of resources for a week-long book study. Students engage in developing reading strategies and have wonderful conversations along the ... 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...
Fun and Family! Happy New Year Linky
Happy New Year! I love this time of year. A brand new year. Time to reflect and make goals and brand new memories. I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' this week and today's topic is Fun and Family. I LOVE talking about my family because I am so blessed to have such a sweet, loving husband and amazing kids! We've been married since we were babies and I can honestly say he is my very best friend. The best thing is he does laundry and cleans!!! YES!!!! We love spending time just ... continue reading...
Insects Unit and a FREEBIE!
I will admit that I was kind of sad for my spring break to end. I LOVE being able to sleep in just a little bit and it is so much nicer to wake up without having an alarm clock buzzing in your ear. But today we started one of my favorite units so that made going back to school a little easier, Insects Unit. This Insects Unit can be used with an Insect Animals theme or as stand-alone Reading and Writing lessons and activities. Here is how I plan out my Insects ... continue reading...
Making Inferences with Tooth Trouble
Tooth Trouble is an adorable book that the kids LOVE! We read the book and made inferences about Wilbur. Next, we used our inferencing skills to answer the question, Why do you think Wilbur changed his mind about going to the dentist? Because his grandpa's teeth were all broken. He does not want to look like Grandpa. Wilbur changed his mind because he saw his grandpa's tooth. Because his tooth hurt. Because he did not want his tooth ... continue reading...
Tacky and the Winter Games Lesson Plans (Free File)
Winter Games Lesson Plans for kindergarten and first grade. These are perfect to use during the Winter Olympics. Tacky and the Winter Games Don't you just love Tacky the Penguin? My class has always enjoyed this character, so when I saw Helen Lester's book, Tacky and the Winter Games, I knew I had to add it to our Engaging Readers Series. The version of the Engaging Readers one comes with 5 days of close reading comprehension activities: Visualization Retelling Connections ... continue reading...