I am happy to report that I just started my second week of school with students and I have the cutest group of kids to love on each day. It's so great to be back in the classroom this year! I will share more about my new classroom later, but today I wanted to share the fun unit that I did with my students last week. As you probably know, student engagement is very important to me. In today's world, getting students excited about learning is the key to success and motivation in the classroom. ... continue reading...
Search Results for: label/cookie detective
Cookie Detectives Engaging Learning Activities
Student engagement will be through the roof, with the Case of the Missing Cookies! September kindergarten and first week of school activities for first grade. Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? This is a fun rhyme to practice as a part of your first week of school activities. Students love hearing their name and hearing the names of their friends. This fun rhyme has been used for generations because it gets kids engaged! They love the repetitive chant as they ... continue reading...
Catch That Cookie Lesson Ideas
Second Grade Reading Lessons for Catch That Cookie! This fun gingerbread version of the book provides an excellent and engaging close read and writing response activity for your 2nd-grade classroom. Fun craft too! Catch That Cookie by Hallie Durand is a great book about a boy who doesn't believe that gingerbread men can run away. Check out this fun book and second grade reading lessons found in Engaging Readers 2nd Grade. Second Grade Reading Lessons: Catch that Cookie Day 1 Start your ... continue reading...
Making Inferences
Learning how to make inferences is a really tough skill to learn! Often, students want to look back in the text for answers. However, this is not the only aspect students need to do when making their own inferences. They need to use their prior knowledge, personal experience and incorporate it with the information provided. Additionally, in the primary grades, we know that students' listening comprehension far exceeds their reading comprehension since students in kindergarten and first grade are ... continue reading...
Engaging Inference Lesson for Kindergarten and First Grade
Hands-On Inference lesson where students become inference detectives to solve the Case of the Missing Cape! Engaging and SO MUCH FUN for K-1! Making Inferences This strategy requires readers to evaluate or draw conclusions from information in a text. Authors do not always provide complete descriptions of, or explicit information about a topic, setting, character, or event. However, they often provide clues that readers can use to "read between the lines"-by making inferences that combine ... 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...
Inference Detectives Lesson: The Missing Snowman’s Hat!
Many times, students love to go on adventures with their classmates. For instance, an exciting scavenger hunt for different items around the classroom or school is always fun. However, this excitement can easily be incorporated with a challenging skill: making inferences! Students may not realize it, but working on inferences is like going on a scavenger hunt within a story. Instead of looking for items, they are usually looking for crucial details. Thankfully, Inference Detectives: The Case of ... 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...
Students Practice Making Inferences as Inference Detectives in K-1
Making Inferences is fun while you lead your inference detectives through the investigation. Students use clues to rule out suspects and solve the case. Making Inferences When students are making inferences, they are drawing conclusions based on the given evidence. Inferring does require higher-order thinking, so it can be quite difficult. With explicit instruction, inferring can be taught. In the inference detective units, students have fun using clues to solve the ... continue reading...
Valentine Inference Lesson for Grades K-2
Whenever a holiday approaches, students get extra excited. From Christmas to Valentine’s Day, students love being able to celebrate with classmates. Therefore, teachers put a lot of pressure on themselves to create the perfect celebration. However, there is not enough time in the school year to create day-long celebrations. Due to the number of standards to get through, teachers need to utilize every minute possible. However, there are ways to embed a holiday with a ... continue reading...
Gingerbread Fun and Freebies
Gingerbread Fun Classroom activities for kindergarten with a free file. Math, literacy, crafts, and more! Kindergarten holiday play ideas too! Gingerbread Glyphs These are our Gingerbread glyphs. Aren't they cute? I love activities that incorporate reading, math AND fun! The kids cut all of their own pieces so they all turn out unique. This is the book that goes along with the glyph. Glyphs are a great way to incorporate collecting and analyzing data. NOTE: Some of the pictures ... continue reading...
Printable & Digital Guided Reading Books for Kindergarten & First Grade
Guided Reading Books available in printable and digital format for K/1. Leveled readers with lesson plans, running records, word work activities, and more! Guided Reading Books Small-group guided reading is our time to truly work closely with students in the hopes of creating fluent readers. Students work on high-frequency words, establish reading strategies, and write sentences, all while becoming confident readers. However, sometimes our resources are limited. The biggest problem we seem ... 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...