Read Aloud Lessons

Read aloud has always been one of my favorite parts of teaching. When I was in college, it is what I imagined doing most of my day. Sitting in a rocking chair, reading a classroom favorite, while my students stare back at me, completely enamored by the characters and plot of a story. My ideal world, right?! 

From time to time, that was a real scene. Typically it was after lunch and my students needed to "wind down" before we could begin learning. I would always ask questions throughout when they popped up, but a few years into teaching I wanted to make this time a bit more purposeful.

I had collected mentor texts... books with depth... stories that my students learned to love and wanted to read over and over. Some days I would write post-its where I saw great questions or talking points, but after the years I would lose the post-its.

It wasn't until I had a set time period for an interactive read aloud, that I knew I wanted to make an organized scope and sequence for my lessons. All the questions I had come up with over the past years, I wanted easily accessible. 

In my own words an interactive read aloud is a planned and purposeful read aloud that encourages both deeper thinking and respectful discussion. 

I spent the past 5 months going through my current book collection, checking out book after book at the library, and ordering plenty of new paperbacks off Amazon until I could find a selection of books I thought were good enough for the skills I wanted to be sure I covered throughout the year. Then, I went through each book - hundreds of time (or so it felt) - to find my favorite stopping points and comprehension questions that really help my students focus on the skill at hand.

I have listed out the scope and sequence along with books I use below:

There are 64 books total and each one-page lesson is set up them same:

If you want to take a look and try a free read aloud lesson for the story, Officer Buckle and Gloria, just click on any of the images below and download the preview!

The scope and sequence was really to help ME plan - so feel free to help yourself and use the lessons and books however you see fit! I know a few teachers who have loved them for subs!

I really hope these can help in your planning!

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Free Legend of the Poinsettia Activities!

The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola is one of my favorite Holidays Around the World books to read! I thought I would share some of the comprehension and vocabulary activities I use each year {of course, all "gussied up" with better borders and fonts than I used in the past}.

In case you're reading the same book and need some free activities just click below:

There is a simple, retelling sheet, a comprehension question page, and some vocabulary that I point out to my first graders.

I also included a directed drawing for a poinsettia. They are super, simple to draw which usually means success for ALL my students, artistically inclined or not ;)

Enjoy!

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Stone Soup: A Literacy & Community Unit

Do your students read Stone Soup around Thanksgiving?!

I have done this unit 4 of the 5 years I taught first grade and both my students and I L-O-V-E it!

I always complete this literacy unit the week before Thanksgiving and we tie in the relation between the holiday of giving thanks and the importance of community and helping one another. I find that these books exemplify the thoughts of coming together and helping one another. Many students can also relate the feasts shown in this book to the feasts they have themselves on Thanksgiving!

There are so many versions of the Stone Soup folk tale, but the four I choose to compare, contrast, and dive into are by the following authors:

Marcia Brown

Ann Mcgovern

Jon J Muth

Jess Stockham

They are each a little different, but share the same sentiments of sharing, caring, and working together for a greater good!

For each book, I included some story responses, writing prompts and read aloud lessons that we have discussed over the past few years.

The story responses touch on sequencing, inferring, vocabulary development, comparing/contrasting, and story elements. While the writing prompts are a mix of opinion and contrasting stories!

There are also a few crafts included as well a recipe and parent notes in case you want to re-create the stone soup experience for your students!

You can grab everything you need for a stone soup mini-unit by clicking the image below:

Download the preview to see a closer look at what's included in this unit!

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Cats vs. Dogs - A Reading and Writing Project

I love integrating reading and writing and last Spring I was receiving my last Scholastic Book Order and snagged these two books:

Dog vs. Cat by Chris Gall

Cats vs. Dogs - National Geographic for Kids

*Both books are still available on Scholastic Book Club for $3 each. They are also available in the Teacher Store as well as Amazon for a bit more.* 

I ended up getting them right before school ended, reading them to the kids and they just LOVED them! We compared and contrasted the books and had a whole love of lively debate about which animal we believed to be the BEST pet! My mind was left reeling with all he activities I wish I had time to plan! So...I decided to make a little unit for them!

It is a reading and writing unit, which has plenty of activities for the nonfiction book, the fiction book, and comparing/contrasting both! Again, it is a whole lot of fun to listen to students share their opinions about these 2 animals that they think they know so well! It's also fun to see what they learn about some of their favorite pets!

For nonfiction activities I included:

Book responses including:
- True or False Comprehension Check
- Multiple Choice Comprehension Check
- Vocabulary
- Cat Facts
- Dog Facts
Question Cards for whole group, small group, and partner discussion.
All about Dogs/Cats mini books
Cat and Dog fact match up

 Mini fact books for each animal!

 Students record their learning!

 Cat and dog fact match up.

Comprehension Checks!

Fiction activities include:

Book responses including:
- Dog vs. Cat comparisons
- Dog and Cat character traits
- Retelling (B,M,E)
- Vocabulary
- Story Map
Question Cards for whole group, small group, and partner discussion.
Problem/Solution flipbook
Life After Baby… fill in speech bubbles
Order cards for retelling

Get into the character's head and guess what they would say to their owners if they could talk!

Also, a problem and solution flip book! 

 12 different questions for each book - great for whole group, small group, and partner discussion!

Writing and craft activities include

- Comparing books
- Choosing the winner (cat vs. dog)
- Cats Rule/Dogs Rule – providing reasons for opinions
Six writing prompt cards
Craft and bulletin board ideas
- Cut and paste craft option
- Directed drawing option
- Writing paper for both cat & dog

Easy dog and cat crafts for students to complete and add to their opinion writing.

There are both cat and dog directed drawings included if students would rather draw their own animal and write their opinions!

You can snag all the activities for a couple week's worth of fun by clicking the cover below!

 I hope you and your students enjoy it!

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Interactive Read Aloud in 1st Grade

I recently wrote a post HERE about what an interactive read aloud is and how I use them in my first grade classroom. 

My overall takeaway about an interactive read aloud is this:

Interactive read aloud is essentially a planned and purposeful read aloud that encourages thoughtful and respectful discussion!

During our read aloud times my students sit in a circle promoting eye contact and respectful listening and together we dig deeper into some of my (and eventually their) favorite books! The picture books above and the ones in my previous post are some of my favorite books to teach about and practice certain skills!

If you have read my previous post then you will know I created a unit of ready-made, one-page lesson plans to go along with each of these books (there will be 64 lessons in all!) and I wanted to show you what the beginning of the year scope and sequence looks like:

You can see the overall theme each month, the books I chose for interactive read aloud and the more focused skill I zoom in on in each book. I wanted to show you this because I chose these books very purposefully and I also wanted to mention that I read these books (which are amazing for all sorts of reasons) don't only cover the skills I mentioned - they cover LOTS of skills and my students and I will read many of these books more than once throughout the year.

My main point in bringing this up is that while Chrysanthemum is a fantastic book for text-to-self connections, the beginning of the year, main idea, vocabulary, etc. but during my read aloud and my lesson - we will remain focused on the skill at hand and try to develop that skill throughout the entire book! I really emphasize this point to my students as well and show them that we can read books over and over while noticing "new and exciting things" each time!

That's just a little tidbit on how I hold these interactive read alouds in my room!

If you want to look at a lesson, you can download a free lesson for Officer Buckle and Gloria by downloading the preview below:

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Interactive Read Aloud Lessons!

Interactive read aloud, do you do it?!

In my first grade classroom I used to have the class sit down after lunch/recess and I would read them some of my favorite books – Junie B., Flat Stanley, etc. It was a time to calm down, enjoy a good book, and get ready for an afternoon of learning. I wanted to save and protect this precious time when the talk of “rigor” and “time on task” would come up often in professional discussions. A little planning can put this read aloud time to good use and prove to be academic as well as enjoyable!

Interactive read aloud is essentially a planned and purposeful read aloud that encourages thoughtful and respectful discussion!

An interactive read aloud has your students actively thinking about one certain skill during a read aloud. It is a skill that the teacher will model and that students will discuss throughout the read aloud. It takes your basic read aloud and turns it up a notch (or two!). I would always ask comprehension questions throughout my regular read alouds, but I found that when I really research and plan my questions and stopping points before hand, I could provide a deeper discussion for my students!

I figured since I was planning out all these lessons around my favorite books, I would start writing down my stopping points and questions in case other teachers wanted to use them as well!

I created a scope and sequence of skills that I teach throughout the year and found some of the best classroom favorites to help teach those skills. Each book has a convenient, 1-page printable lesson plan for you to reference as you read. 

Some of the focus skills addressed are:

- Illustrations & Text relationship
- Concepts of print
- Character traits
- Setting and story elements
- Making connections
- Problem & Solutions
- Cause and Effect
- Main idea/Theme
- Non fiction text features
- Character changes
- Reading a variety of texts
- Inferring
- Point of view
- and more!

I have a free one here for you to try that goes with the book Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann I use this book at the beginning of the year to help teach the concept that illustrations can give readers more information than the text!

{Just click the image above and download the preview to print this lesson easily!}

In my first grade classroom, I actually have a specific interactive read aloud block, but if you don't you can see that the read alouds can easily be used in your guided reading block, small group, or even to print out and add to your sub plans!

If you think these read aloud lessons can be used in your room, check out my unit below to get a better idea of what is included:

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First Grade Grammar Activities & Printables

When do you teach the grammar and language standards in your classroom??

Nouns, determiners, comma usage, prepositions...

Ya know... allllllllllll of THESE!

Some can be easily embedded into your reading or writing block, while others I try to find the time to do whole lessons on!

Even with an extended day (730-330), I can have a hard time fitting ALL these standards in my first grade classroom. I have been finding that that the best time for me to teach these is.... wherever it fits! That probably isn't the answer you were hoping for, but I have found that it works best in room 102.

I can say that when I taught in Las Vegas, I had a 20 minute block to fit these standards in each day and that was fine and dandy, but I would have rather had more time to expand writer's workshop or reader's workshop. I felt like I didn't have enough time to delve deeper into the main subject areas, so I have found that teaching these skills in small groups allows me to personalize the instruction and teach only what my students needed to be taught.

Once I figured out when I wanted to teach these skills, I needed tools to teach them. A little over a year ago I went through each and every first grade Common Core language standard and created anchor charts, activities and printables for them all!

Here are some of the activities included:

 Roll, Spell, and Cover!

I have this game for short vowels, long vowels, and digraphs!

Multiple meaning triangles:

Students match up the multiple meanings of a word to create a triangle.

 Categories:

Students practice vocabulary sorting by determining which category each noun belongs in.

Connect em:

Students make sentences using the conjunctions.

 Inflectional endings flip books:

Students practice reading words with inflectional endings and writing sentences with them.

 List it:

Students pull a card and write a sentence with a list of 3 or more things and correctly add the commas to the sentence.

 Puppy prepositions:

Students practice their prepositions by completing this mini-book and saying where the puppy is on each page.

 Root word, prefix, and suffix anchor charts!

There are TONS of activities and printables 

If you need any activities to teach these standards, you can grab them all in my bundle below:

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