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 book, student practice:

• making predictions
• recalling text details/retell
• character study/connections
• comparing/contrast
• opinion writing.

Here is the chart that goes with the comparison.  Students are to compare the Kevin Henkes character of Lily to Chrysanthemum.  You can grab the Lilly lessons for FREE by going to THIS blog post.

Sentence Study

Students also complete this fun craft as part of their sentence study.  At the beginning of the year, most of the conversation centers around concepts about print (what are letters, words, spaces, punctuation…).  

Name activities

In our Science, Math and More supplemental units, we have added a few fun activities to go with the book selections for that month.

Centers and Stations

This center is also included in the Science, Math, and More unit.

Here is a class book that you could make with your students.  This is a free file and you can grab it at the end of this blog post.

Here are a few more centers that really lend themselves to the start of the year.

Dough centers are fun and open ended.

We also like centers that start off simply.   We can add more oomph as the year progresses.  These are from my Black Ink Only units.

Letter and numeral formation

Beginning sounds

Alphabet Puzzle

Fine motor tracing activity

Have a great week!

Free file

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