Having something for students to do when they arrive in the morning helps establish good routines. My students know that after they arrive and have had time to catch up with their classmates, its time to grab their morning work. This year, each student has a pocket folder to store the monthly packet. A binder would work well also. I print the entire month ahead of time and staple it at the top. After attendance and…
It’s that time of year again! Our local farms are busy with families looking for that “perfect” pumpkin. It is also a great theme for reading, writing, and creating! So here are some ideas for the rest of the month. This is a FREE downloadable resource that children can use to create their own informational book about pumpkins. All you need are some nonfiction texts like Pumpkins by Gail Gibbons, and your young writers will be…
I like to teach the difference between facts and fable. Young students have many preconceived ideas along with misconceptions. It can be amusing at times to hear their explanations. In October, a great theme for fact and fable is bats. So many people fear these mammals without understanding their importance to controlling the insect population; especially mosquitoes. A fun way to have your students learn more about a topic is through the use of a scavenger…
It was time to move my growing readers into another genre; one that few them had spent much time with: mysteries! As I was planning this genre study, it became clear that the skills they would be using complimented the reading skills of making inferences and drawing conclusions. While planning a unit, I not only think about the objectives, but also think about ways to make it interesting for the students. I want to create high-interest,…
It is almost autumn! Time to think about apples, Johnny Appleseed, and fresh cider. Are you looking for a fun way to launch this year’s apple theme? Then get your class up and about on an apple trivia hunt! Print and cut apart the 12 fact cards. You can post them around your classroom, or out in a hallway. Then print a question page for each student. Your…
Did you know that children who do not master the 100 most common high frequency words until 3rd grade usually continue to struggle as readers throughout their lives? (Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement). While saying words from a list does not encompass all the skills needed to be a proficient reader, the mastery of high frequency words is a crucial foundation for more complex texts. When a reader is spending most of their…
