Do you get anxiety over knowing how many assessments students need each year? Or, how much data do you need to collect? You are not alone in these concerns! Elementary students have to undergo so many assessments each year to ensure they show academic growth. Thankfully, this year-long process does not have to be miserable for students! Students will be smiling and happy while completing these Phonological Awareness Assessments. The Importance of Phonological Awareness Does ... continue reading...
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ESGI Assessments Made EASY and a BIG FREEBIE
ESGI Assessments Made EASY! Do you struggle with keeping up with mounds of paper assessments? Do you struggle with what to do with the data once you've assessed your students? Do you struggle with how to analyze the data and use it to drive your instruction? Do you struggle with how to notify parents and provide them with the tools they need to help their students? If you answered yes to any of the questions, then this post is for YOU! Just like you, I struggled with all of the above, and ... continue reading...
Fun & Engaging Kindergarten Alphabet Activities & Worksheets
Kindergarten alphabet activities and worksheets to develop letter identification and sounds. Hands-on and engaging tasks to get students excited about letters! Kindergarten Alphabet Activities It's that time of year again! Letter recognition ideas are on kindergarten teachers' minds! With a fresh set of kindergarten sweeties coming in, it's possible you have no idea where your students fall with knowing the letters of the alphabet. So, you begin getting prepared! It's time to find ... continue reading...
Kindergarten Math Lessons and Activities for the First 20 Days!
Kindergarten math lesson plans for teaching numbers to 5, 2D shapes, and 3D shapes. This resource provides detailed instruction for your first 4 weeks of math! Kindergarten Math: The First 20 Days The first few weeks of school are a hectic time for kindergarten teachers! You are making sure to cover all procedures and routines, all while beginning to teach the kindergarten math curriculum. Many teachers get started with academics right away in order to stay on track for the expected ... 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...
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...
Alphabet Recognition and Fluency Activities for Kindergarten (FREE FILE)
Alphabet recognition and fluency activities. Fun activities and ideas to help your students master letter identification and sound during whole group, small group, and centers! Alphabet Recognition & Sound Alphabet recognition practice starts on day 1 of kindergarten and it consumes a lot of our time during the first several weeks of school. It is our focus because it is essential. With a strong foundation in letter recognition, students have an easier time learning the sounds ... continue reading...
The Easter Bunny’s Assistant Read Aloud
As Easter nears, students are getting more excited to hunt for eggs and Easter baskets. Therefore, it may be a little harder to keep them focused in the classroom. However, creative planning helps avoid behavior issues and off-task work. One of the best ways to do this involves interactive read alouds. Thankfully, The Easter Bunny’s Assistant will keep students on the edge of their seats with each hilarious page! Best of all, amazing lessons in The Easter Bunny's Assistant Read Aloud are ready ... continue reading...
Printable Files for Busy Teachers FREE File
Printable files for busy teachers? You got it! I know you are busy! Sometimes we reach a time in the year when our planning time is at a premium. Perhaps you are knee-deep in assessments or you have an unexpected absence and you need to create sub plans. That is when I am thankful for a few printables that I can use in my classroom. I created these worksheets (eek... sort of a bad word) with those times in mind. As a practice, I know that worksheets offer the least amount of ... 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...
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...
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...
Inferring with Primary Students: The Case of the Missing Toy Sack
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...
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...
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...