January is such a fun time! Some of my favorite activities center around January themes! Several years ago my friend Deedee Wills and I sat down and discussed some of our favorite January read alouds. Deedee mentioned that she felt as if she was skimming the surface with her read aloud and that she was looking for ways to make her instruction more intentional. She felt like she was bouncing from one idea to another and not going deep enough. Does this sound like you? What we came up ... continue reading...
Search Results for: label/Tacky the Penguin
Penguin Activities and Videos for Kindergarten and First Grade
Engaging Penguin activities and videos. Students will enjoy reading and writing about penguins, doing a science experiment, and making a craft. It's Winter... the best time to learn about penguins! What better way to embrace the winter months than to learn about an animal that loves the cold (well most of them). Learning about penguins can be such a fun time in your classroom. Here are a few lesson ideas for you! Penguin Activities Start learning about penguins with books and videos. ... continue reading...
All About Penguins Unit!
All about penguin lesson plan ideas for kindergarten and first grade. Reading, math, crafts, and anchor charts to help teach your students about penguins! Free file included too! All About Penguins! We love to learn about penguins each winter. It provides a great opportunity to teach your young learners using both fiction and nonfiction! All About Penguins: Charts Here are a few of the ways we organize our thinking! Penguin Chit Chats Chit Chats are a daily routine that we use to review ... 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...
Walruses Day 1
Hey y'all! I hope you enjoyed your weekend. It was so nice to have an extra day off! Tomorrow we begin our Arctic animals unit and our focus is on walruses. Click on the picture if you want to download my plans for tomorrow.Most of the things I will be doing this week comes from this unit. My son plays varsity basketball and we were out of town for games so I didn't get a chance to post what we did on Friday. Here are some quick pictures.Penguin facts Our ... continue reading...
How to Start Teaching Writer’s Workshop in Kindergarten & First Grade
Do you struggle with how to get started? Writer's Workshop in kindergarten and first grade classrooms is one of the most powerful components. In Writing Workshop in kindergarten and first grade, students are encoding words that come from their thoughts and feelings, which is a much easier skill than decoding. Successful writers become successful readers! So, how do you get started? The answer is simple. Just jump right in!! I usually start at the beginning of the ... 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...
Reading Comprehension: Engaging Readers: YEAR LONG BUNDLE NO PREP
Reading units that are differentiated for kindergarten and first-grade. No Prep Print and Go Lesson Planning made easy! Engaging Readers Read Aloud Lessons Aligned to CCS and TEKS. Reading, Phonics, Comprehension, Word Work and More! NOTE: This isn't a packet of worksheets. These are actual Lessons that guide you through the process of using Read Alouds to teach the standards for Reading and ... continue reading...
Nerdy Birdy Tweets Close Reading
Second Grade Close Reading for Nerdy Birdy Tweets by Aaron Reynolds. Reading comprehension ideas with student response activities. Grammar, vocabulary, and a cute craft too! Nerdy Birdy Tweets by Aaron Reynolds is a new favorite of mine! Nerdy Birdy discovers the world of Tweetster and quickly learn a good lesson about friendship. Take a look at the five-day lesson plan for 2nd grade in our Engaging Readers Unit for January. Second Grade Close Reading Lessons: Nerdy Birdy Tweets Problem ... continue reading...
Sneezy the Snowman Reading & Science
Sneezy the Snowman Reading Unit for Kindergarten and First Grade is HERE! I fell in love with this adorable book a few years ago, so we decided to add it to our Reading Comprehension/Guiding Readers units! Sneezy struggles with feeling cold, so he tries to warm himself up. The problem occurs when he continues to melt and has to be made brand new again! Sneezy the Snowman: Cause and Effect This book lends itself perfectly for studying cause and effect! We created retelling cards that ... continue reading...
Teaching with Versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears Story
23 Versions of Goldilocks and the three bears stories. Read various versions of this classic story. Have fun comparing these fractured fairy tales. 23 Versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears Story We all know and love this classic story. It is so fun to read different versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears story. Whether you're comparing and contrasting or just reading them for fun, students are sure to enjoy these fractured fairy tales. #1 Goldie and the Three Hares by ... continue reading...
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...
Leonardo the Terrible Monster Reading Lesson Plans for K-1
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...
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...