Spring books for kindergarten and first grade. See some of my favorite read-aloud lesson and activities for spring! Ideas and directed drawing too. Spring Books: Piggie Pie Ya'll know I love Piggie Pie! There is so much you can do with this book. Let me share a few of the activities we have in our Engaging Readers Unit. These photos are from Stephanie Stewart who teaches first grade. Here students worked on sequencing the story. Then students add the retelling to their ... continue reading...
Search Results for: label/spring
Hands-On Learning | Pattern Blocks with a FREE Math Activity
Hands-on learning with these math and literacy activities for kindergarten and first grade. Independent activities to be used at any time during the day. Hands-On Learning "Kids learn through all their senses," says Ben Mardell, Ph.D., a researcher at Harvard University, "and they like to touch and manipulate things." But more than simply moving materials around, hands-on activities activate kids' brains. As teachers, we see first-hand that learning occurs when students are using ... 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...
Centers for Kindergarten | Math and Literacy Activities
These centers for kindergarten are perfect for Spring! Printable and easy to prep centers for students to practice math and literacy skills. Centers for Kindergarten Center time in kindergarten is a time for students to develop and practice various math and ELA skills. We want center activities to be engaging and serve as an independent activity for students. During literacy and math centers, teachers are typically working in small groups. This should be a time, teachers can focus on their ... 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Ideas for a Kindergarten Earth Day Lesson Plan
We know how much kindergarteners love holidays! We can almost feel the excitement in the room as the calendar inches closer to holidays like Halloween or Christmas. However, there are other holidays that our young kindergarten students likely haven’t heard of before. Earth Day is one of these important holidays! I’ve put together a list of ideas for a kindergarten Earth Day lesson plan to help you introduce this holiday to your class. What is Earth Day? Earth Day is celebrated every ... continue reading...
Busy Bunnies Directed Drawing and Writing FREEBIE
Spring Directed Drawings free file with a writing activity. These are perfect for Easter! Your kindergarten and 1st-grade students will love this! Shoo!!! Please forgive me for not blogging in a while. I know that I'm supposed to be smack dab in the middle of a book study but my life has been CUH-RAZY the last few weeks. I promise to catch up on all of the chapters that I've missed soon! (pinkie promise!) As a peace offering, I made a quick Directed Drawing/Writing activity and I ... continue reading...
Book Talk Tuesday: Nonfiction books and Jack Hartmann!!!
Before we get to Book Talk Tuesday I have some EXCITING news. Jack Hartmann has been working with me to create songs and videos for some of my units. How cool is that? We just added his new Frog Life Cycle video to my Frog unit. So if you are one of the sweet people who have already purchased the unit head on over and download the video that goes with it. It shows actual real life footage of a frog's life cycle. You can click on the cover below to check it out. He is ... continue reading...
Insects Unit and a FREEBIE!
I will admit that I was kind of sad for my spring break to end. I LOVE being able to sleep in just a little bit and it is so much nicer to wake up without having an alarm clock buzzing in your ear. But today we started one of my favorite units so that made going back to school a little easier, Insects Unit. This Insects Unit can be used with an Insect Animals theme or as stand-alone Reading and Writing lessons and activities. Here is how I plan out my Insects ... continue reading...