I'm often asked for read aloud organization tips! Here are a few ideas for your classroom! Organizing Your Read Aloud Books I have to be honest, I used to keep most of my read aloud books on a shelf in alphabetic order. This seemed to make sense... until I took them off the shelf and vowed to return them, but I never did. So then I would end the year with my book version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa! I was always hunting ...
Classroom
Classroom Resources for May… Are your lessons ready?
Kindergarten Curriculum Guide for May. Are you ready? Here are some classroom activities, read aloud books, lesson ideas, and resources for you to use with you students. Read Aloud Books for May We sure love studying the ocean in May. The book, Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan i(affiliate link) is a great book to weave into your studies. The language is rich and perfect for talking about figurative language and using our five ...
Shark Activities for Kindergarten and First Grade
Shark Activities for Kindergarten and First Grade. Check out the book ideas for reader's workshop and writers workshop. You can find a free file towards the end of this blog post too! Shark Activities Mentor Texts Surprising Sharks by Nicola Davies Surprising Sharks by Nicola Davies is such a great book! This book contains a ton information about sharks! I love the illustrations and so will your class! We ...
City Dog, Country Frog Activity Ideas and more
City Dog Country Frog Activities and Mentor Text lesson ideas are here! Find reading comprehension and writing ideas to use with this amazing book by Mo Willems. City Dog, Country Frog Mentor Text I don't remember the exact moment I fell in love with City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems. I think it was actually a love at first sight sort of thing. I love the theme that two individuals who are so different can still find a true ...
Are you ready for April?
April kindergarten activities and lesson plan ideas! This blog post is filled with Spring classroom ideas for read-aloud, spring literacy centers, spring math centers, and more! Plus a free lesson planning guide for you! April Book Activities We sure love books! Here are a few that we love to teach with in April. Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens. You can see a blog post on this book with a free file: Tops and Bottoms ...
Running Record Assessments: How and Why (Free File)
Running record assessment forms and more will be covered in this blog post. What are running record assessment forms? Way back in the day, researcher Marie Clay designed the running record assessment as a tool to analyze and capture a student's thinking and behavior when reading. It is also not just used to record what the child says, but also how the child acts when they are reading. EXAMPLE: When reading and they get stuck, ...
12 Math Center Activities That Will Engage Your Class ALL Year! (Free File)
Kindergarten Math Center Activities and a freebie file too! These ideas will engage your class all year long. Why do math centers? Why do we even do math centers? First of all... they are fun! The bonus is the learning and practice that takes place. We, as teachers, also need moments in the day when students work independently so we can work with small groups. Let me show you 12 kindergarten math center activities ...
Snow by Cynthia Rylant Lesson Plans
Cynthia Rylant's Snow Lesson Plans! Snow by Cynthia Rylant Read Aloud We love the beautiful language in Cynthia Rylant's book Snow (affiliate link). You might say that I am a Cynthia Rylant junkie! This is a book that you will want in your collection! In our reading comprehension units, we work on figurative language using this book. Snow Science I am a ...
Snowmen at Night Lesson Plans (Free Activity TOO!)
Snowmen at Night Lesson Plans are here! My class has always loved this sweet book. We begin the week's lesson by reading it over and over. Snowmen at Night was written by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by her husband, Mark Buehner. The rhyming in the text makes it fantastic for strengthening our phonemic awareness and the illustrations are spectacular! Snowmen at Night: Text Details We knew we had to include ...
The Mitten Reading Comprehension FUN! (psst… FREE unit)
The Mitten reading comprehension unit for kindergarten. This was one of my son's favorite winter books when he was growing up, so naturally, it became one of the books that we read over and over again! The Mitten Perhaps you have heard about our Guiding Readers Reading Comprehension units, but you have not tried them yet. Or perhaps you have, but you would simply love to add this book to your collection! [My hand is raised ...
Are you ready for Winter? January Math and Literacy Planning!
Winter kindergarten classroom activities to use in January? You got it! Plus a free planning guide! Perhaps you are squeezing in the last few days of winter break or maybe you are already looking forward to January. I hope this post helps you prepare without the stress! Winter Literacy Activities Here is a little peek at what my writing center looks like. I introduce this fun station in August, but by changing out the ...
Polar Express Activities for Kindergarten and First Grade
Polar Express Classroom Activities for kindergarten and first grade. These fun lesson plans are perfect for Christmas time! Polar Express Close Reading Activities Just like our other Reading Comprehension/Close Reading plans, this Polar Express version is PACKED with reading comprehension activities! We have added questions to help guide your students towards deep comprehension! Students also work on retelling the book with text ...
15 Fun Ideas to Teach Sight Words (Free File)
15 Sight Word Ideas for your classroom! You got it! I have collected some ideas to share with you that are engaging! Embedded in Daily Instruction 1. Sight word flash cards Each day we quickly read through our sight words. This is a quick, 2-minute review each day. These cards have actions that go with them which make them fun and all the students really get into it. By combining kinesthetic movements, ...
NEVER enough time? Classroom Time Saving Tips for Kindergarten
Classroom Time Saving Tips for Kindergarten! Is this you? You work on your lesson plans... and they look BEAUTIFUL! Everything is perfect. Then your day begins and you run out of time... over and over. Finally, in November you are getting to that Johnny Appleseed activity! GAH! It can make you crazy! First, let me say... I am raising my hand because this used to happen to ...
Using Mentor Texts in Kindergarten
Kindergarten Mentor Texts to teach reading and writing with Cynthia Rylant's Scarecrow book (affiliate link)... you bet! This last week I had the pleasure of visiting a kindergarten classroom. She had already started the book, Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant for her Guiding Readers/Close Read, so when she asked me to do a lesson on word choice... I could not contain my excitement. This book is PERFECT for word choice (among other ...
The Life Cycle of Apples Lesson Ideas (FREE file)
Apple Life Cycle Lesson Plan Ideas are here! Learning about apples in kindergarten is a tradition. This informational book about apples is packed with apple facts. See how we integrate reading, writing, science, and math! Free File included are here! A September tradition in many kindergarten classrooms is a thorough exploration of apples! I would like to recommend this book for you to use to lead the study. How Do ...
Listening to Reading with QR Codes (AKA: That time I felt techie)
QR Code Listening Center has been figured out by the LEAST techie person I know...ME! Let me show you how! First of all... I have a TON of books on CDs. This picture is about 5 years old. This bin is currently bulging (not unlike my jeans) and I have 2 more just like it! I can't seem to pass up them up so I BUY! BUY! BUY! In the past, I have always gone "old school." NOTE: I grew up in the age of ...
Mercer Mayer ~ I Was So Mad Lesson Plans
Mercer Mayer lesson plans featuring the book I Was So Mad is here! Read Aloud This is a great book to start the year off. Students get the chance to discuss their emotions in a fun way. I love Little Critter! For this read aloud, students will: Make Predictions Retell Text Details with Retelling Cards Make Connections Identify the Problem and Solution Write an Opinion You can see the retelling cards really ...
Independent Student Centers made SIMPLE! (Free file)
Independent kindergarten center games can be easy! Let me show you how! The Secret Sauce! As you probably know, I am a HUGE fan of building student independence! We have important work to do in our small groups... right? So we need center activities that students can do independently. My secret ingredient for success has been using predictable activities. Games are the "secret sauce: of student engagement! This math ...
Chrysanthemum Lesson Plans (Free File)
Chrysanthemum Lesson Plans for Kindergarten and First Grade! This is a great book to use for the beginning of the year. You can find the book by clicking HERE. (affiliate) You can also watch a video version of this read aloud below. Chrysanthemum: Close Reading This is one of the books we have included in our Guiding Readers/Reading Comprehension units. You can find the Aug/Sept unit by clicking HERE. For this ...
Why Teaching Handwriting is Still Important
Kindergarten handwriting instruction is still an important part of your literacy lessons. But in if I am being completely honest with you, this was my LEAST favorite skill to teach. LEAST! Until I found a way to make it fun and FAST! NOTE: This is a sponsored post from Go Teach, but the content and opinions are my own. Is handwriting instruction still a thing? I know, many of us have tons of technology in our ...
Center Materials Organization Ideas (FREE file)
Center Materials Organization Ideas! AT LAST! The other day I was at Costco and I found THESE bins! Seriously, I squealed! I was so excited because they were EXACTLY what I had in mind! You can find the colorful ones on Amazon, but they are EXPENSIVE. At Costco a set of 5 was under $20! So stop what you are doing and RUN to Costco TODAY! UPDATE: I found a few option on Amazon that was ...
Comparing Numbers Throughout the Day
Comparing numbers in whole group math, small group math, math journals, and math stations...feeling overwhelmed? Hopefully, this post will help you see how I fit it all in. You can view a daily schedule HERE. Let's start with the different components. Whole Group Math (SIDENOTE: I have been asked about my spiral binding machine. You can see it HERE (Affiliate link). Whole group math is the time of day ...
Student Organization! Starting on the right foot! (FREE File)
Student Organization Binders help you start the year off right! I have used student binders since my first days in the classroom. But after finding these cute images, I decided it was time for an update! I collected a supply fee at the beginning of the year that covered the total cost of these binders (about $8.50) Student Binders First, I start with the binders. I have always purchased them at Costco. The last I ...