Rawr!!!! It's a dinosaur! Nothing gets little ones excited quite like a unit on dinosaurs. We studied dinosaurs for two weeks and then we flipped the classroom for our DINO DIG DAY! Our students rotated through 5 stations and got to see what it was like to be a paleontologist. So FUN! To build excitement before we started the unit I brought in this huge egg and told the students that my dog found it in our backyard. We talked about the size and appearance of the egg and I had ... continue reading...
Search Results for: label/schema
Teaching with Informational Texts: Close Reading Lessons for One Tiny Turtle
Teaching Informational texts with One Tiny Turtle in kindergarten and first grade. One Tiny Turtle was written by one of my favorite authors, Nicola Davies. This book chronicles the life cycle of the loggerhead sea turtle. As with most informational texts, we start by discussing our schema on the subject. We want students to think about what they already know and attach their new understandings to their prior knowledge. Here are a few of the responses we got. Sea ... continue reading...
Frog Frenzy! Learning all about Frogs
Fun frog lesson plans in a nonfiction unit about frogs. Students read and write about frogs, play math and literacy games, and create a craft, too! Frog Lesson Plans This is one of my favorite units! We love learning about frogs through nonfiction reading and expressing what we learn in writing. I like to start any nonfiction unit with charting our schema about frogs and boy do kids know A LOT about frogs! We then begin reading several nonfiction books and even watch some videos ... continue reading...
Owls and Veteran’s Day
We made soldiers in honor of Veteran's Day and created a Bubble Map. These are some of the books we read. There aren't very many books out there for children about this important holiday. If you have found one that you like please let me know! Blogger isn't cooperating with me tonight y'all! If you turn your head to the right you can view the pictures that are sideways. :) We had a great time learning about owls this week! I LOVE seeing how ... continue reading...
America Unit Part One
I love how cute the bald eagles turned out! This is a picture of our Chit-Chit message. These messages are how I teach and review phonics, reading and language skills. There is no better way to teach letter sounds and sound chunks than in the context of authentic reading and writing. We read a sentence just as it is written and then use our schema and other context clues to help us figure out what would make sense in the sentence. Once we think we have it figured ... continue reading...
Arctic Animals Fun!
Comparing and Contrasting Polar Bears & Walruses using a venn diagram. {All of the directions for the crafts and the venn diagram strips are included in my Arctic Animals unit).EXCUSE the fact that it says, live in Antarctica! Mercy! I didn't even realize I had made the mistake until a sweet person told me. Ya know how your brain just kicks into auto? As a class we read these together and we read, lives in the Arctic. (didn't even notice the mistake). ... continue reading...
Ocean Unit of Fun!
We have been learning a lot about ocean animals. We learned all about different types of sharks and we decided that we thought the Great white Shark was the most interesting. We labeled the parts of a shark. This is our schema chart based on an idea from Debbie Miller. We made sharks and orca whales and then sorted the information we learned by using a venn diagram. A close up of some of our shark and whale ... continue reading...
Creating Mental Images
Creating Mental Images is one of my favorite units to teach. It gives readers a chance to interact with the text in a way that's personal to them. We begin our unit with very simple poems and stories and gradually add stories which require them to use their schema and background knowledge to conjure up an image. My Neighbor's Dog is Purple is a great poem to use to begin this unit. Not only is it very simple and fun, but it also shows readers that Mental Images can change as you read. I read ... continue reading...
RAWR! Dinosaurs and Paleontologists!
Oh, my gosh Y'all! We have had so much fun learning about Dinosaurs! The week before our unit started my dog found (wink, wink) this egg in my backyard. We made inferences about what we thought was inside it based on its appearance. The kids noticed that, "it looked really old" and that it was "Huge". We charted their guesses on the chart below. I told them that I had peeked inside the egg and that I already knew what was inside it. I gave them one clue at a time and we made the ... continue reading...
America Part One: Statue of Liberty
We did a directed drawing of The Statue of Liberty. The kids did an AMAZING job! We wanted to find out the answer to the following question. It is really hard to explain to kids just how HUGE the Statue of Liberty really is! So, we measured out bulletin board paper for her foot (even the length of her toes is correct) to get an idea of how huge she is! All About The Statue of Liberty writing Our bald eagles... they turned out so ... 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...
Fun on the Farm: Learning About Farm Animals
These farm animal activities will make learning about farm animals fun and engaging! This unit is packed full of close reading activities, directed drawings, writing, a craft, and more! Farm Animal Activities Learning about farm animals is so much fun! Students learn about the different animals they may find on a farm with these farm animal activities. Students become farm animal experts through close reading passages, discussions, and investigations. Close Reading Passages/Chit ... continue reading...
One Word From Sophia | Reading Comprehension Lesson Plans for K-2
One Word From Sophia lesson plans for kindergarten, first, and second grade! Five day reading comprehension lesson plans to print and teach. One Word From Sophia One Word From Sophia is a sweet story about a little girl that has just one desire for her birthday. She wants a pet giraffe. She attempts to persuade everyone in her family into letting her get a giraffe for her birthday. Despite her efforts, she is turned down. When all of a sudden, she figures out the one word she needs to use. ... continue reading...
Interactive Reading Comprehension Journals
I love looking around my room and seeing smiling faces while students read. This creates such a special feeling in the classroom. However, learning to read is really like learning a new language. It takes time and can be frustrating for students. So, I love to create fun and exciting ways for students to interact and think about stories and informational texts. For example, the Interactive Reading Comprehension Journals include so many hands-on ways for students to reflect on their reading in ... continue reading...