Leonardo the Terrible Monster reading comprehension lesson plans with student response activities. Print and teach lessons to engage your students in reading! Leonardo the Terrible Monster This story by Mo Willems is one of my favorite stories to read, especially in October around Halloween. If you are not familiar with this book, it is about a monster named Leonardo. Leonardo is not a scary monster, no matter how hard he tries! He does some research and thinks he finds the perfect little ... continue reading...
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FREE Spine Labels for Binders: Getting Organized!
This is a throwback post that I did awhile back about getting our Guiding Readers units organized. Since this post, I've had quite a few requests to make matching spine labels for the Writing and Math units. So HERE YOU GO! Sorry, it took me so long! We also have a Free Year-Long Curriculum Map for Kindergarten and First Grade. (Scroll to the bottom of this post to grab the map and spines) If you want to read the throw back post carry on! If not, Happy Organizing. ... continue reading...
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...
Chit Chat Messages, Close Reading Passages & More! Giveaway
I just uploaded my newest resource to TPT! Go to my Facebook page and leave a comment for your chance to win the unit. I will be giving it away tonight at 9 p.m. This resource is on sale for the first 72 hours. :) Click on the cover to view the unit on TPT. ... continue reading...
Opinion Writing for kindergarten and first grade
Opinion writing in kindergarten is one of those things, in my opinion (see what I did there) is best done spirally. We certainly introduce writing for a reason as a unit of study. However, we want the students' understanding of opinion writing to grow as their transcription skills grow. Recently Deedee worked in a kindergarten class and tested our new Opinion writing unit! She started by asking the question... Students wrote their opinion on a slip of paper and placed it on the ... continue reading...
Guiding Readers Questions and Answers
Last November Deedee and I had a conversation about her desire to do more with the books she was using for Read Alouds. Her kids loved many of the books she was reading to them, and they wanted to hear them again and again. She felt that she had a great foundation with writer's workshop (more on that later) but she wanted deeper connections and interactions with the texts that she was reading to her class. So we created Guiding Readers. What are Guiding Readers? Guiding Readers started ... continue reading...
Phoneme Segmentation! Make and Take Freebie and Book Talk Tuesday
Segmenting words is an important skill that we work on throughout the year. Kids need a variety of hands on ways to work on this skill in order to make it more concrete. We use a variety of manipulatives to work on phoneme segmentation. Building words with unifix cubes as we say each sound, stretching the words with a slinky, sliding a pony bead for each sound and using our stretchy the word stretcher (as seen above). To make the word stretchers you need the template (below) ... continue reading...
Pumpkin Patch Palooza and a FREEBIE
Fall is one of my favorite times of year to teach! I love all things Fall: pumpkins, apples, scarecrows, bats, spiders, owls.... Did I mention it is my favorite time of the year to teach? The littles get so excited about learning and isn't that what it's all about? Sometimes teachers get so bogged down with teaching what's in the basal (no basal for me, thank you very much!) that we forget that true learning takes place when the teacher and students are EXCITED about what they are ... continue reading...
Sight Words Working on Fluency
I've teamed up with Stephanie Stewart from Falling into First to bring you this amazing resource. Dolch words are some of the most frequently used words in the English language. The Dolch words comprise approximately 60-75% of what is printed in almost any piece of children’s literature. These sight word sentence fluency cards cover the words on the Pre-primer and Primer lists. When you present sight words in short sentences rather than in isolation children are more likely to remember ... continue reading...
RAWR! Dinosaurs Unit
To view all of the fun filled learning ideas and activities that we did from my Dinosaurs Unit click HERE and HERE to see our charts, pictures and activities. Here are a few new activities that we did this year.... We read, Can I have a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Dad, Can I please? and wrote what we would do if we had a T-Rex. I want a T-Rex so he can take me to the movies. He would pick me up from school. He would clean up my room. (I love all the labels she ... continue reading...
Literacy Centers Part Three Big Book Station and ABC center FREEBIES
Kids love Shared Reading time. There's just something about being actively involved in reading a story that you love. Each week I introduce a new big book. We spend a week reading the book, closely analyzing the text and getting to know the characters. Joy Cowley is one of our favorite authors. After we've spent a week on a big book I don't just put it away and forget about it. The big book joins all of the other big books in the big book center so that the Littles can ... continue reading...
Bump & Jump Numbers and update on Interactive Reading Journal freebie
Okay, so I've got some good news and some bad news! The good news is that Mel and I posted the Numbers 1-50 Bump & Jump games yesterday and they are on SALE! The other good news is that we posted an ABC Freebie of the games and you can get it HERE I've also finished up the Nonfiction Interactive Reading Journal and I'd love to give you some freebies. You can click on the cover to view the unit on TPT. I put two on a page to save on copying. Just click on the image to ... continue reading...
Valentine’s Day unit COMPLETELY redone
Hey There! Have you ever watched Extreme Home Makeover? It's amazing what they can do with an old run down house! Well, I've done the same with my Valentine's Day unit. I gave it a complete overhaul. The unit was one of my earlier creations for TPT and mercy! That poor unit needed some TLC. So if you already own the unit you need to go and download the brand new, revised unit. For those of you who don't have it I put it on sale for $5 from now until Monday. Have a ... continue reading...
Hang on! Christmas Break is almost here! Ho-Ho Endings Literacy and Math Freebie
This Ho-Ho Endings Literacy and Math Freebie is free in my TPT store. Just click on the picture below. Need some Print and Go activities? This unit is 25% off through tomorrow. Enjoy the Sweet Sums Freebie from this unit by scrolling down. Click HERE to download the Sweet Sums FREEBIE from December in a Snap! If you need some last minute crafts or center activities then you will want to check out my ELF CAPADES unit. It is my favorite Christmas ... continue reading...