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 ...
Seasons & Themes
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 ...
What if You Had Animal Parts Lesson Plans.. Looking at text details
What if you had animal parts lesson plans for kindergarten and first grade! My students have always loved these books and we are really excited to that we are creating a new Engaging Reader series for these an awesome read aloud! What if you had animal parts books! If you are not familiar with these books, here is a peek! These are the four books (affiliate links) we wrote lesson plans for: What If You Had Animal Feet? What If ...
The Winter Games in the Classroom
Winter Games Lesson Ideas are great for the Winter Olympics or anytime it turns cold. Here are a few suggestions for you! Winter Games Read Aloud These three books (affiliate links) are wonderful for discussing the Winter Olympics: Tacky and the Winter Games brings back our favorite penguin, Tacky. His penguin friends are getting ready to compete in the winter games. Olympig is the story of Boomer the Pig who is really not ...
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 ...
Are you ready for December? Ideas and Resources … plus a free file!
December kindergarten resources are here! Ready or not! November seemed to fly by... blink and you will be knee deep in December! It is such a BUSY time of the year for most people, but for teachers, it can be down-right overwhelming. I have gathered some ideas you can use for December in your classroom. Books to read in December So many books... so little time! Here are a few favorites! Ordinary Mary's ...
Are you ready for October?
Kindergarten October Activity Guide is here! October is such a fun (but busy) month. I thought I would round up resources to help you make the most of your month! Books to read in October (affiliate links) Pumpkin Circle by George Levenson We can then complete the Pumpkin Lifecycle activity. Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell. Stellaluna by Janell Cannon We love this fun craft from our Guiding Readers ...
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 ...
Dinosaur Week is HERE!
Kindergarten dinosaur week activity ideas for the classroom are here! Nothing made my students more excited that a dinosaur themed week! Here are some ideas you can use! Dinosaur Read Aloud Books We love Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by MoWilliems. This book is hilarious! For this book we focused on the following reading skills/strategies: Making Predictions Retelling with Details Making ...
Zoo Lesson Plans
Zoo Lesson Plans for the book A Sick Day for Amos McGee! This is one of my favorite books, so when Deanna Jump and I were putting our reading comprehension units together, I KNEW we needed this sweet story. A Sick Day for Amos McGee is the story of one zookeeper who takes fantastic care of the animals in the zoo. He is so gentle and loving to the zoo animals. Then one day, Amos gets sick and the animals go to his ...
Sheila Rae the Brave Lesson Plans
Sheila Rae the Brave by Kevin Henkes is a beloved book in my classroom! Check out my Sheila Rae lesson plans! Close Reading/Comprehension Sheila Rae, the Brave is a great book to use for close reading. My students loved hearing it again and again! This is a book from the June Guiding Readers set, but it can easily fit into any month. Just like all of Kevin Henkes books, the illustrations are PRICELESS! This ...
Easter Bunny’s Assistant Lesson Plans (Free Download)
These Easter Bunny's Assistant Lesson Plans are filled with reading comprehension ideas for kindergarten and first-grade. Reading Comprehension Lessons Do you love The Easter Bunny's Assistant by Jan Thomas? We sure do. This is such a fun book for spring! After reading the book in our Guiding Readers units, we work on Cause and Effect. and the student's complete their version as well. We follow up ...
Tops and Bottoms Lesson Plans
Top and Bottoms Lesson Plans for Janet Stephens book are here! This is one of those CLASSIC reads. The illustrations are precious! and we love using this book in our Guiding Readers units. As with most weeks, we conduct a retelling of the text. You can find the retelling cards HERE. Video Here is a video of the book. I do love the video versions, but they do not take the place of the book. ...
St Patrick’s Day Lesson Plans
St Patrick's Day Lesson Plans for Kindergarten. We love the book, Jaime O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie DePaola! St Patrick's Day Reading Comprehension/Close Reading We spent the week working on this fun book by Tomie DePaola. It is a perfect book to get us in the mood for St Patrick's Day! In addition to using this book as our close reading text, look how fantastic the illustrations work for writers workshop! ...
Martin Luther King, Jr Lesson Plans
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr lesson plans are here! Check out how we celebrate! Great Books! The book My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was written by Martin Luther King, III! So good! I have been a fan of Kadir Nelson (the illustrator of this book) forever! I Have a Dream does not disappoint. And the book we use for the close reading this week is Martin's Big Words. Videos There are some good ones out ...
Snow Lesson Plans for Kindergarten
Snow lesson plans for kindergarten are here! Every year, January equals snow in my classroom! Reading There are so many book choices! We love The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. You can find our Guiding Readers Lesson Plans for this book HERE. Did you know that Amazon has a video for this book? Here are some of the activities for The Snowy Day. First, we did some visualizing! You can see the ...
Hibernating Animals Lesson Plans
Hibernating Animals Lesson Plans! We love teaching about animals in winter. We start with some great books! Here is a list for you! Hibernation Station Animals in Winter Bear Snores On I love these sweet books! Hibernation Not included in the image above Over and Under the Snow! So So SO good! We read Bear Snores On as part of our Guiding Readers Series. The series also includes an ...
Simple Kindergarten Centers for December that Keep Kids Learning (FREE Download)
December Kindergarten Centers that keep kids learning! That's the goal of stations... right? We want students to over-learn key skills and have fun in the process! KISS: Keep it Simple Sunshine I know how it can be overwhelming! Creating fresh activities for you class to complete that are meaningful, yet fun! Do you feel like every weekend is spent preparing resources for your centers. Then you spend your ...
Scaredy Squirrel Lesson Plans
Scaredy Squirrel Lesson Plans! This hilarious book by Melanie Watt is featured in this week's plans. Close Reading We love this sweet character. Honestly, sometimes I recognize myself with some of the things he worries about (ha) *affiliate Readers ask questions in the beginning, middle, and end of the text. Here is what we came up with! Students also worked on identify the character and setting. This is a cute craft ...