Tips for getting students' attention and quieting a chatty class. Behavior management

We just finished up our bat week and we had so much fun. We also learned a lot too! These are the 5 stories we read this week. All about Bats is a digital book that I project. There is also a paper mini book for kids too. The focus for the week is the difference between a fact and an opinion. We also reviewed fiction and non-fiction stories as we read both. Whenever I'm teaching non-fiction, I like to use some sort of interactive anchor chart. I am going to share pictures from the previous years below and then discuss the one we used this year. This is the KWL chart from last year! Here is a can, have and are chart as well as a schema char that I have used in the past. This is the chart I decided to use this year. One area our students are struggling on is asking questions. I thought a KWL chart would be the perfect chart to help us build our questioning skills. Here is a before and after. We started by all creating our own schema on a worksheet I passed out. Then we added our batty schema to the "What I Know" part-blue sticky notes. Next we tried to think of questions we wanted to know about bats. The struggle was real and I decided we needed something to help guide us. I quickly wrote the question words on notecards to help us. Someone on Instagram also suggested saying "I wonder". Since it seemed to be working for my kiddos, I made the cards a little cuter. You can grab them for free here: Question Word Cards Freebie Finally we added "What we Learned" in purple. Everyday we visited this chart and added to it. The little orange sticky notes on the yellow questions are the answers to our questions. Once we found the answers, we added them to the chart. Here are a few examples of worksheets we completed. We practiced fact and opinion in many ways all week long. Here are my posters I kept up all week for fact and opinion. We also completed a few sorting activities too. We compared bats to birds after reading Stellaluna. Not only did we sort the differences between bats and birds but we also did a fun group project. I gave 5 groups chart paper and cards and they created their own posters. Of course I forgot to take pictures. They loved working together in groups and making posters. Here is my version... there's is much cuter. As an assessment, we completed these fact versus opinion bats. You can see ours below in the black. We also made the other cute bats just for fun! I kind of forgot to print the head so we made do and used the body as the head... I try to get them excited about the learning too by doing extra little things. I dressed up in my batty clothes, I wore a batty headband, and I used a dollar store table cloth to make this bat cave entrance. This hung over our doorway for the week. I just pulled it to the side when we going in and out. GRAB THE WORDS HERE! We also made this fun sock bats. I invited parent helpers to come in and make this project with us. It requires a glue gun so I wanted as many adults helpers as possible. The students all sent in 1 old black sock. Then I received 3 bags of stuffing from parent donations. I have a class of 24 and we probably only needed 2 big bags. The students cut out the wings and ears and fangs. First they stuffed the socks with stuffing. Then we tied them shut with black yarn. Finally, the parent helper glued on their wings, ears, google eyes and a red yarn mouth with fangs. Last year I hung them in my reading center and kept them there the entire year. The children were anxious to take them home so this year I just hung them by the window. They always turn out so cute and it only took us about 45 minutes from start to finish with 4 parent helpers. I have done this by myself too. We just worked on them throughout the day when I had a chance. GRAB THE WING PATTERN HERE Finally on the last day, we dressed in black and brought our flashlights for some reading in the dark. The kids looked forward to this all day and they really enjoyed it.

One of my favorite times of year is the fall. I have a serious problem shopping at the stores because I want to buy everything for my classroom. This year was no different. In Ohio we have a store called Meijers. It is a grocery store and more. TROUBLE! This year I found this adorable shirt and scarf. Of course I had to buy both. It was an investment for all of my future years to teaching. Everyday I decided to wear something batty. The kids enjoyed trying to find out what I was wearing. I had to invade my husbands closet for a Batman shirt but other than that, I had it covered. I wore these two goodies and I had a headband (I decided to spare you the picture) as well as some batty socks. I love generating excitement in my students with the little things. This week our focus was on fact and opinion. Of course we sang the fact and opinion song to learn the difference. I decided to do a KWL chart instead of schema and new learning because we have done that chart numerous times this year already. So we changed it up a bit. I think my bat turned out pretty cute myself. We added Learned facts each day. Now this cute little chart is in my science center with all of my other bat goodies. I like to make my center something we have already learned about so they are independent during my guided reading groups. So next week they will do bat games, vocabulary, and all kinds of goodies in my science center. Here are few of the featured books we read this week. Two of my favorites are not pictured, "Bats" by Gail Gibbons and "Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon. You can see we worked on fact and opinion each day. One of my FAVORITE things to do in 1st grade is an anticipation guide. A WHAT? If you have never done one, it is a must. All you need is non-fiction text and a template. There are a few examples above, I will tell you how it works. Before reading the book, you pass out the paper. I have my students use a highlighter for this part, you can see it on the left side of the papers. I read each statement and they have to predict if they think it is true or false on the "What I Think" side. Why do I use highlighters??? So they don't change their answers. It is so important for them to learn that it is ok to predict wrong. So I STRESS that I will only be looking at the "What I Learned" side of the paper. Then we read the book. I tell them to raise their hand if they hear a fact from the anticipation guide. Then I stop and we discuss. After reading the book we go back and I re-read the statements. The students then circle the correct answer true or false. They get super excited when they are right! I'm not exaggerating when I tell you they LOVE this activity. We did a lot of writing throughout the week too! We wrote an opinion piece about being a bat. They had to choose if they would or would not want to be a bat. We always do a prewriting activity which you can see above. Then we take the prewriting and write about it. If you look closely you can see my first grader checked off his prewriting as he added them to his story. One of my favorite things to see. I also took a photo of a a bat writing where I used highlighter to make the lines for one of my students. Not everyone is the same writer. So for this friend, we worked on one sentence at a time. He dictated the sentence, I made the lines, then he wrote the sentence. We did this 3 times and his story turned out great! When I model for my students most of the time I write in front of them. This week, I wrote one of my stories ahead of time on chart paper. I taped it to the SMART board and we fixed all of my mistakes. I cut out little bats too and we glued them for periods. They enjoyed this activity and LOVED telling me all the things I did wrong. We also wrote Batty Similes and bats can, have, are... papers. Of course we had to read a little bat poetry so we worked on our Bat flip book. I feel it is important, and it is one of our standards, to expose children to poetry. We worked on digging deeper into the poem, sequencing, rhyming, fill in the blank and illustrating. It wouldn't be a batty week of fun if we didn't wear our black and bring in flashlights. We used them in the reading center and in small group guided reading. So much fun. I need to dig out my old ones and use them for the whole month. Finally we did a few crafts this week. Together we made the fun little paper crafts on the left. With the help of my AMAZING parents, we made the sock bats on the right. I had each child send in an old black sock. This year I had a time slots and invited parents to come in to help make them. They turned out so cute. While they worked on the bats, I was able to meet with my small groups in guided reading and the students completed Daily 5. It was a little crazy if you walked in my room but organized chaos! I didn't have time to hang them yet but some of my teammates did so I took a picture of theirs hanging up. Speaking of teammates, mine are so creative and fun to work with. I wish that for all my fellow teachers. Here are a few things they did in their room. We all did the hanging bats. One teacher gave the children vampire teeth, took their picture and make bats. Another teacher took normal pictures and made bats. I think they all turned out great! I hope you were able to gather a few ideas from this post. Happy Fall!! Need a few Batty Lessons, Click Here!

Do you kids love exploring and learning about worms? This non-fiction unit includes a mini reader that will teach them all about earthworms. There are so many fun activities to complete after. You could do the included research project, make a fun worm craft and bulletin board display, or read other non-fiction worm books and complete activities. I have also included some fun word work extensions too. Colorful Posters: Schema, New Learning, Misconceptions Can, Have, Are K, W, L Earthworm Non-fiction Mini Reader (12 pages) Copy 2 per page Schema Fact & Details (2 pages) Non-fiction Text Feature Hunt Earthworm Research Template: Cover Table of Contents Animal Group Habitat Babies Food Label 2 options Lifecycle Fun Facts Photo Album About the Author Earthworm Craft Letters to spell ”Happy Helpers” & ”Earthworms” Activities you can use with any Non-fiction Earthworm Book: Digging for Details 2 options Check for Understanding Questions 2 options Text Connections Facts 3 options Survey Adaptations 2 options Captions Diagram & Label Clarify Meaning Headings Table of Contents 2 options Glossary Label an Earthworm Writing Activities: Can, Have, Are Fill in the Blank 2 options Opinion Writing Informative Writing Word Work Activities: ABC Order Word Search Syllables Punctuation Fact vs. Opinion Make sure to Follow Me so you know when I post new products. All products are 20% off the 1st 24 hours. You don't want to miss out! If you would like to join me live to discuss these ideas and more in my classroom, please join my private group. JOIN MY GROUP FIRST GRADE CONNECT & COLLABORATE ON FACEBOOK. Some other fun ways to connect.... FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM. FOLLOW ME ON TPT. FOLLOW MY JOURNEY AT MY BLOG. ©Megan Mitchell

For our second week of school we began to focus on rules and routines in the classroom. We read five fun stories that were great springboards for our classroom discussion on the rules. By this time we already had great examples in our own classroom. Our Comprehension strategies for the week in large group were […]

What can a shipwreck, a tough pirate, and a jolly pirate do for your STEM class? Good question and I am going to show you exactly what these sweet little picture books can do to get your class going with sailboats! Ships ahoy! In this post, for your convenience, you may find Amazon Affiliate links,

On the third week of school we like to discuss friendships with our students. There are so many great books to use for this unit, it is hard to pick. Our comprehension focus for the week was retelling. We focused on beginning, middle and end. The first story we read was Peanut Butter and Cupcake. I love how the author didn't use Jelly in the title. We discuss why he did that at the end of the story. This book is hilarious filled with puns for even the adults. We discussed things that go together like peanut butter and jelly. We matched a few and then came up with our own list. Finally, we did this cute little craft. The children really enjoy all of the activities. Peanut Butter and Cupcake Next we move on to my all time favorite author, Kevin Henkes. I love all of his mouse stories. For this week we read three of his stories, Chester's Way, Chrysanthemum, and A Weekend with Wendell. I have also taught an author study on him in years past. This year we are more theme based. We started out with my favorite, Chester's Way. We reviewed characters from the week before and wrote about what each character liked and what they all liked together. We had to dig deeper in the book to remember. They made the three characters to add to their writing. I think they turned out cute. Kevin Henkes Unit Then we read Chrysanthemum. This story talks a lot about how to treat others and how we are each our own unique person. We looked closely at Chrysanthemum and discussed the different ways she felt in the story. We also made this cute character and put our own good luck charms in her pocket. Kevin Henkes Unit Next we read A Weekend with Wendell. He is a little stinker and super bossy. We discussed how no one likes to be bossed around. It is hard to be friends with someone who acts that way. We packed a bag full of goodies for our sleepover. We worked on our writing skill, making a list. Also this week we worked in our new Science notebooks. We learned about Science, how to treat our notebook, and what scientists do. The children are really getting excited about Science thanks to Babbling Abby and The First Grade Parade. Check out their amazing resource. The Science of August Finally, we focused on the short i sound this week. We did many fun activities all week but the best was the spelling assessment. Check out number 7! It looks like we need a little more practice. Short I Spelling & Word Work

Do you love Kevin Henkes books? Lilly's Big Day is so fun to share with your students. This activity pack is part of a Kevin Henkes Author Study Bundle. It includes loads of comprehension choices, reading strategies, writing activities, and a fun flower girl craft too. It would be a perfect story to share if you were getting married too. This unit can be used for distance learning and google classroom with the new TpT digital tool. Included you will receive: Character and setting posters Predicting Analyze/Evaluate Beginning, Middle and End 2 Questioning Check for Understanding Text Evidence Character Senses Lilly 2 options & Ginger Compare Contrast Features of Fiction Character Analysis Retelling 2 Main Idea and Details Narrative Retell Survey Opinion Writing Narrative Writing Lilly Flower Girl Craft Make sure to Follow Me so you know when I post new products. All products are 20% off the 1st 24 hours. You don't want to miss out! If you would like to join me live to discuss these ideas and more in my classroom, please join my private group. JOIN MY GROUP ~ FIRST GRADE ROARS ~ CONNECT & COLLABORATE ON FACEBOOK. Some other fun ways to connect.... FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM. FOLLOW ME ON TPT. FOLLOW MY JOURNEY AT MY BLOG.

I'm so excited to share some exciting news with you! Today the doors opened for the First Grade Roars Teacher Club! I wanted to be able to give teachers AMAZING resources at a great value! If you are a first grade teacher, this club is for you!

For our second week of school we began to focus on rules and routines in the classroom. We read five fun stories that were great springboards for our classroom discussion on the rules. By this time we already had great examples in our own classroom. Our Comprehension strategies for the week in large group were […]

Every year in first grade, we purchase caterpillars in the Spring. The best way to learn about the butterfly lifecycle is to actually see it with your own eyes. When the caterpillars arrive the excitement begins and so does the metamorphosis.

For our second week of school we began to focus on rules and routines in the classroom. We read five fun stories that were great springboards for our classroom discussion on the rules. By this time we already had great examples in our own classroom. Our Comprehension strategies for the week in large group were […]

The Emperor's New Clothes is a hilarious fairy tale. This mini unit is part of two larger units: Fairy Tale Prince and Princess Stories and Fairy Tale Bundle that includes many other fairy tales. This unit includes a book that you can copy two per page to help teach the comprehension strategies and writing activities. There is also an emperor craft to complete. Included are extensions for The Principal's New Clothes and The Emperor's Old Clothes. The Emperor’s New Clothes paper book provided or any traditional tale • Anchor Charts for characters, setting, problem, solution, and events (or retelling) • Story Mapping • All About Trolls • Question/Answer • Beginning, Middle, & end • Character Analysis • Sequencing (cut and paste) • Character Senses • Summarize prewriting and writing • Extra! Extra! Read all about It! • Design a new outfit for the Emperor Emperor craft BONUS ACTIVITIES The Emperor’s Old Clothes by Lasky • Story Mapping • Character Analysis • True or False • Venn diagram • Retell prewriting and writing The Principal’s New Clothes by Calmenson • True or False • Design a new outfit for the principal • Extra! Extra! Read all about it writing • Character analysis • Story mapping • Venn diagram Make sure to Follow Me so you know when I post new products. All products are 20% off the 1st 24 hours. You don't want to miss out! If you would like to join me live to discuss these ideas and more in my classroom, please join my private group. JOIN MY GROUP ~ FIRST GRADE ROARS ~ CONNECT & COLLABORATE ON FACEBOOK. Some other fun ways to connect.... FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM. FOLLOW ME ON TPT. FOLLOW MY JOURNEY AT MY BLOG.

Are you looking for a fun way to get to know your students at the beginning of the year? These Student of the Week Google Slides are great to assign to your students during the first week of school.  Students can work at their own pace and turn it in when they are ready. Each week, I will choose one student and share their information with the class.  These Student of the Week slides also include a black-and-white printable format. Included you will receive: Cover page (2 options student of the week or day) Meet Me Photo Page Adults Siblings Pets Fun Facts My Favorites My Friends When I grow up Adjectives Photo Page ****Do you want the paper pencil version? NO worries, I included that too!!*** What is so great about this product! ★ It is NO PREP ★ It is PAPERLESS ★ On Google, their work SAVES AUTOMATICALLY ★ Technology = ENGAGING ★ 1:1 ★ Can practice ANYWHERE ★ Students are working independently on their individual file ★ You can DIFFERENTIATE by sending different assignments to individual students. ★ You are working on MATH STANDARDS ★ TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS ★ Students LOVE it! **IMPORTANT NOTES FOR THE TECHNOLOGY PIECES** Some of this resource is in Google Slides format. You will NEED TO HAVE ACCESS to GOOGLE SLIDES to use this resource. It is also helpful to have GOOGLE CLASSROOM but not necessary. It will help you easily send the activities to your students. Please note: I am not affiliated or associated with Google, nor do they endorse this resource.  Make sure to Follow Me so you know when I post new products. All products are 20% off the 1st 24 hours. You don't want to miss out! If you would like to join me live to discuss these ideas and more in my classroom, please join my private group. JOIN MY GROUP FIRST GRADE CONNECT & COLLABORATE ON FACEBOOK. Some other fun ways to connect.... FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM. FOLLOW ME ON TPT. FOLLOW MY JOURNEY AT MY BLOG. ©Megan Mitchell

This fun apple unit is perfect to use in the Fall. It includes, reading literature extensions, writing activities, word work, math activities, crafts and more. This unit can be used for distance learning and google classroom with the new TpT digital tool. Included in this packet you will find: Reading literature activities to go with the books: Apples by Gibbons A Day at the Apple Orchard by Megan Faulkner The Story of Johnny Appleseed by Aliki Johnny Appleseed by Patricia Demuth How do Apples Grow? By Betsy Maestro Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Wallace Apple Picking Time by Michele Slawson Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie by Herman Parish Ten Apples Up on Top! By Theo. LeSieg The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein Writing Activities: Apple List Postcards to Orchard How to Pick and Apple Narrative Prewriting and Writing Informative Prewriting and Writing Opinion Prewriting and Writing Apple Senses Apple Similes Working with Words: Rhyming words Real words vs. Nonsense Syllables Alphabetizing Math 2-Johnny Appleseed Games Cards for… Number Bonds Number Stories Number Sentences (adding 3) Roll a Bingo (adding 2) Doubles Bingo Survey, Results, and Graph Apples  Science Lifecycle Booklet –copy 2 per page Lifecycle Activity Lifecycle Writing Apple Craft and Johnny Appleseed Craft Recently Updated

A comprehensive first grade plant unit including the lifecycle of a plant with science, writing, fiction and nonfiction reading resources, crafts, & more!

Time to Sleep...ZZZZZ!

Looking for free jungle animal printables? Explore these engaging and educational resources to bring the wild wonders of the jungle to life!

To celebrate my upcoming book Step by Step , I’ve been brainstorming ideas for using it in the classroom, such as in this previous post. Recently, while browsing through Instagram, some creative posts under hashtags such as #funfoodforkids and #healthykidsfood inspired me into a flurry of scribbl

Reviewing is an essential part of learning. It’s how our brains remember and keep things from slipping away. Sometimes it can be very tempting to have students review by only answering test like questions and

These fun classroom posters will look adorable hanging up all over your classroom for back to school. They are filled with fun woodland animals and wood shiplap to give your classroom a warm and positive classroom feeling. This packet contains 8 posters to print and laminate or frame for your class...

Are you looking for a fun way to start the new year? This fun Yeti themed craft will brighten your students New Year. Children can make the yeti craft, write about what they are looking forward to in the new year, and set some personal goals. I have included the letters to make this adorable bulletin board in your hallway too. I don't know about you, but I'm YETI for a new year! Here is a peek at my December crafts: Elf Craft Reindeer Craft Yeti New Year Gingerbread Gnome Craft Check out my August September Crafts Check out my January Crafts Check out my February Crafts Check out my March Crafts Check out my April Crafts Check out my May Crafts Check out my October Crafts Check out my November Crafts Check out my December Crafts See all of my Craft Activities See all my December Activities Here Need more Winter Activities? Grab them Here Some other fun ways to connect.... FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM. FOLLOW ME ON TPT. FOLLOW MY JOURNEY AT MY BLOG. ©Megan Mitchell

Welcome to my weekly series I will be publishing highlighting first grade themes and ideas you can use in your classroom. Each week I will share with you what we did in our classroom the week before. In our room we choose a theme or author, specific skills that we focus on and then we plan. I have the most amazing team that meets weekly. We are all pretty laid back, Our collaboration has created many new ideas for our students. and we work really well together. Everyone steps up to the plate, shares, and it is pretty stress free. I know I am super fortunate to have this and I'm thankful to be in a happy place. So for that reason, I want to share with all of you so maybe you can get one or two ideas from us! The first 4 days of school for us we read back to school stories trying to make school fun and enjoyable. We learn some of the basic rules and routines but we save most of that for the second week of school. This year I made some fun puzzles for my students to complete as morning work. I don't like to do paperwork, especially on the first day, because I really don't know their levels. I don't want to cause frustration right off the bat! These were a huge hit with the children. They completed them and then switched with a friend. We did them a few days because they enjoyed them so much and I created 25 different puzzles! Back to School Puzzles On the first day of school I read "First Day Jitters". In the morning we talk about how we felt coming to school. I also send a letter home the night before school at our Open House telling the students to bring something special to school on the first day that will take their jitters away. After the story we share what we brought. This year I was able to bring my daughters with me since they started school a day later! Super helpful and a fun treat for me! Then we make jitter jars. We write all the things that make our jitters go away in our jars. This is my first writing sample and it gives me an idea of their writing abilities. They are super cute hung up on their lockers or in your room! In the afternoon we make a mini book and talk about the things that give us the jitters. This is fun to see as well. I had a funny this year. Check it out below! Gas gives me the jitters too!! (I'm not sure if that is what they meant???) If you know, let me know in the comments section. It sure made me laugh. Back to School with the First Day Jitters On the second day of school we read "Pete the Cat Rocking in my School Shoes". We tour the building like Pete does and we get our the guitar for some fun pictures. We also do this little fun guitar craft! On day 3 we read, "If you Take a Mouse to School". We do a little predicting and we talk about how they prepared for school and how the teacher prepares for school. This is a great opportunity to discuss all the things you did and how it is their new home. We talk about taking care of things in the room and ownership. Back to School with If you Take a Mouse to School On the last day of the first week we read "Froggy Goes to School". They love the part where he is at school in his underwear. We make these fun little frogs and write about the character froggy. A lead up to next week where we talk about characters and setting. Back to School with Froggy Goes to School During this week we do our first poetry flip book about called School Bus. We learn about periods, commas, rhyming, and sequencing altogether. We glue our poem in our poetry book and work on the activities in the flip book. We also practice reading the poem together pausing at the commas and stopping at the periods. Poetry Flip Books August/September We also complete our first big writing. On Thursday we do our prewriting. We learn about an introduction, detail, and a conclusion. We always start out with opinion writing because it is the easiest for my students. We sing our opinion song and do the pre-write with a lot of guidance. We learn about my favorite writing word, "snip its". I'm sure it is not a real word...but we use it all the time. In my pre-writing I only want us generating ideas, no need for full sentences. On the second day we review our pre-writing and turn it into a story. By this time I have looked at all pre-writing and I know who is ready for a whole story and who needs to work on a sentence or sentences. I model the story for the whole class using one of my student's pre-writing. Then I get those students off and writing. Next I work with a smaller group of students and guide them on a writing that they will be successful completing. Off they go and I walk around the room. In the picture below you can see two different options given, however I have a lot more for each topic. I wanted to start out simple. This opinion writing was... Would you rather stay at home or go to school? I LOVE that we are all writing about the same topic but everyone can be successful at their own level. Differentiated Writing...August As you can see above my students love the mini offices. We use them for everything and they are open to all students. They don't have to ask to get them, they just help themselves. They offer accommodations with letters, sounds, chunks, colors, number words, number lines, 120's chart, writing, months, and days of the week. Differentiate with Mini Offices Finally, I have to share with you this fun freebie. I use this the entire week of school. Whenever we need a little break, I pull out a question and we complete it. The goal of this activity is to get the children moving around the room, build connections, and for me to get the know the students. Super fun and free! Back to School Fun Freebie That is snapshot of our first week! I hope you were able to grab a few fun ideas!

During the month of October, your students definitely have Halloween on their mind. Instead of fighting it, we embrace it. Prior to Halloween we read these five books and learn about main idea and details. This week is sooo much fun and I get excited just thinking about it. Here is how we start this unit! We begin with a little witch's brew. I ask for donations from my families who always love to step up (I know I'm fortunate). For the brew you need the following items below. Then using the cards I created, I print enough so each student will have a baggy to help. I divide the items up amongst the baggies and we are ready to begin. We all sit in a circle and I sing a song I created. As we sing the song, the students help to add the ingredients to our brew. I do have a video of this in action over at First Grade Roars Facebook Page. You can see their excitement in these pictures below. Once we have made our brew, we discuss the main idea and details of what just happened. Then of course we enjoy our yummy snack. All of the items are peanut free but some are made in a peanut factory. Before mixing it, I make a little baggy for those who need special accommodations. This activity leads into our entire week of guided reading whole group. The focus for the week is main idea and details and of course our theme is Halloween. This unit includes activities for loads of books but my 5 main go to books are featured at the top. I will share just some of the things we do with these five books. My very FAVORITE Halloween story is Room on the Broom. This book is so much fun because it is filled with rhymes and repetition. If you heard me read it, you might think I was a bit crazy! Before reading it, we make predictions. That is a focus skill we work on the week prior with monsters. After reading it, we discuss the main idea and details. When teaching the main idea, we discuss what the story is mostly about. I tell them to think about sharing this book with a friend. I ask them to tell a friend, in a sentence or two, what this story is mostly about. We also refer to our witch's brew daily looking at the overall picture and then the parts or details. Then make these fun little witches. My second favorite book is The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. For this story, I pass out the cards I made below. Each student gets a card. As I read the story, the students raise their card when their part happens. This is another fun way to keep them engaged in the story and be active participants. We do very similar activities all week: predicting, discuss main idea and details together, and writing the main idea and details. For this story, we make pumpkin scarecrows like the book. Here are a few that the kids created. I like to put the retell of the story in one of my centers. I leave the book out too. The students practice retelling the story with the picture cards as a review. We also read Scaredy-Cat Splat. I love any Splat story but this one is very fun! We make these cute paper toppers too! Another story we love is Froggy's Halloween. We read Froggy Goes to School the first week of school. The students love revisiting characters and familiar authors. It helps us also make text to text connections and become familiar with authors. On the last day, we read Doreen Cronin's more recent story, Click, Clack, Boo! Again, we have already read a lot of her stories during our Farm week and also when we read Diary of a Spider during Spider week. They love to see what the animals are up to again. For this fun story, we create our costume on this blank kiddos. Then we write a descriptive piece. This photo below was taken a few years ago. Last year I took out construction paper and they were hilarious. (I forgot to take pictures) I will do that again this year. It helps to cover up the black lines a little bit better. They do a nice job writing because they have a great visual! Whatever you do during Halloween week, make it fun and engaging. I know my students will have a great week this year and I know they will learn too. As always love what you do and do what you love. To see more from this week click HERE.

Enjoy this fun woodland animal theme behavior chart and set of rules. This clip chart is used daily for classroom management. I also display these four rules in my classroom. It has wood and shiplap accents with adorable woodland animals. This is perfect for back to school and establishing routine...

Let's talk about Bank It! I am super proud and excited to share this game with you. About 2 years ago, my husband and I were brainstorming ways to get our students up and moving in a fun and engaging way. We wanted it to be a learning and movement activity. I also wanted to tie money into it because we use money daily in our reward system and it is highly motivating. After a lot of collaboration, Bank It was born. We decided together on the general format and then he modified it for his 6th grade math students and I use it in my first grade classroom. The most important part of the game while in the creation mode was making sure that everyone participated and no one was eliminated. I did not want students sitting out during the game and not participating. I also wanted it to be fast paced with little time for off task behavior. Above you can see my banks and money. Really any money will do if you have paper money from your math program. We store our banks and money in a container in the front of the classroom so it is ready to go at any time. Here is how we play... We pick a banker. This person is in charge of the money. They pay the winner. The students BEG to be the banker so we take turns. If you don't want this to be a student job, the teacher can do this as well. Each team gets a "Bank". It is one of the paper banks. I usually have two teams but have done 3. The "Banks" are placed in the back of the room near the end of the line. Divide your students into groups. The groups don't have to be exactly even. I actually like it better when they are not because then they end up with a different partner the next time they are up. I have my groups stand in a line, one on the left side and one on the right side of my classroom. Next, you put the game of your choice up on the projectable board. I have them in both a pdf file version or a Powerpoint version. I usually sit up front on a stool as pictured in this photo, next to the banker. (This was taken at the beginning of the year so the students were not the banker yet). One student from each side comes up to the board. Whoever says the correct word first, gets money for their bank. Then they move to the end of the line. Here are a few more pictures. I move very QUICKLY! If the next students are not paying attention, they may miss their word or math problem. This keeps them ultra focused and ready to go. Another hint I will give you, or should I say rule... If you are talking in line, you have to pay the banker. Students don't want to lose their money so they are quiet. Once the slides are over, the students count their money. Whichever team has the most money, is the winner. Another tip I have learned...assign a counter. I promise you that once you play this game, your students will BEG you to play on a regular basis. No worries I have many versions of this game and I continue to add to them. Currently I have 36 literacy versions and 18 math. Here is what a few people said about this game. " My Kinders loved this game because it got them up and moving! They didn't even realize they were developing math fluency. Thank you so much!" "My kids loved this game! They begged to play it every day this week! Easy to use and fun for all! My daily helper LOVED being the banker!!!" "My students BEG for Bank It! What a fun, creative way to practice decoding and encoding skills! I will be buying more for sure!" Do you want to try out a few games with your students for free? Try Bank It Math and Phonics! Click here! Check out ALL of my BANK IT Games HERE!

Welcome to my weekly series I will be publishing highlighting first grade themes and ideas you can use in your classroom. Each week I will share with you what we did in our classroom the week before. In our room we choose a theme or author, specific skills that we focus on and then we plan. I have the most amazing team that meets weekly. We are all pretty laid back, Our collaboration has created many new ideas for our students. and we work really well together. Everyone steps up to the plate, shares, and it is pretty stress free. I know I am super fortunate to have this and I'm thankful to be in a happy place. So for that reason, I want to share with all of you so maybe you can get one or two ideas from us! The first 4 days of school for us we read back to school stories trying to make school fun and enjoyable. We learn some of the basic rules and routines but we save most of that for the second week of school. This year I made some fun puzzles for my students to complete as morning work. I don't like to do paperwork, especially on the first day, because I really don't know their levels. I don't want to cause frustration right off the bat! These were a huge hit with the children. They completed them and then switched with a friend. We did them a few days because they enjoyed them so much and I created 25 different puzzles! Back to School Puzzles On the first day of school I read "First Day Jitters". In the morning we talk about how we felt coming to school. I also send a letter home the night before school at our Open House telling the students to bring something special to school on the first day that will take their jitters away. After the story we share what we brought. This year I was able to bring my daughters with me since they started school a day later! Super helpful and a fun treat for me! Then we make jitter jars. We write all the things that make our jitters go away in our jars. This is my first writing sample and it gives me an idea of their writing abilities. They are super cute hung up on their lockers or in your room! In the afternoon we make a mini book and talk about the things that give us the jitters. This is fun to see as well. I had a funny this year. Check it out below! Gas gives me the jitters too!! (I'm not sure if that is what they meant???) If you know, let me know in the comments section. It sure made me laugh. Back to School with the First Day Jitters On the second day of school we read "Pete the Cat Rocking in my School Shoes". We tour the building like Pete does and we get our the guitar for some fun pictures. We also do this little fun guitar craft! On day 3 we read, "If you Take a Mouse to School". We do a little predicting and we talk about how they prepared for school and how the teacher prepares for school. This is a great opportunity to discuss all the things you did and how it is their new home. We talk about taking care of things in the room and ownership. Back to School with If you Take a Mouse to School On the last day of the first week we read "Froggy Goes to School". They love the part where he is at school in his underwear. We make these fun little frogs and write about the character froggy. A lead up to next week where we talk about characters and setting. Back to School with Froggy Goes to School During this week we do our first poetry flip book about called School Bus. We learn about periods, commas, rhyming, and sequencing altogether. We glue our poem in our poetry book and work on the activities in the flip book. We also practice reading the poem together pausing at the commas and stopping at the periods. Poetry Flip Books August/September We also complete our first big writing. On Thursday we do our prewriting. We learn about an introduction, detail, and a conclusion. We always start out with opinion writing because it is the easiest for my students. We sing our opinion song and do the pre-write with a lot of guidance. We learn about my favorite writing word, "snip its". I'm sure it is not a real word...but we use it all the time. In my pre-writing I only want us generating ideas, no need for full sentences. On the second day we review our pre-writing and turn it into a story. By this time I have looked at all pre-writing and I know who is ready for a whole story and who needs to work on a sentence or sentences. I model the story for the whole class using one of my student's pre-writing. Then I get those students off and writing. Next I work with a smaller group of students and guide them on a writing that they will be successful completing. Off they go and I walk around the room. In the picture below you can see two different options given, however I have a lot more for each topic. I wanted to start out simple. This opinion writing was... Would you rather stay at home or go to school? I LOVE that we are all writing about the same topic but everyone can be successful at their own level. Differentiated Writing...August As you can see above my students love the mini offices. We use them for everything and they are open to all students. They don't have to ask to get them, they just help themselves. They offer accommodations with letters, sounds, chunks, colors, number words, number lines, 120's chart, writing, months, and days of the week. Differentiate with Mini Offices Finally, I have to share with you this fun freebie. I use this the entire week of school. Whenever we need a little break, I pull out a question and we complete it. The goal of this activity is to get the children moving around the room, build connections, and for me to get the know the students. Super fun and free! Back to School Fun Freebie That is snapshot of our first week! I hope you were able to grab a few fun ideas!

My top 5 must-do back to school activities for 2nd grade with FREEBIES to use in your classroom to get the school year off to a great start.

Enjoy these monthly binder covers and lesson plan covers as well as calendar pages. There is also a editable Powerpoint for the calendars if you prefer to type out your monthly events. I hope this freebie helps you to organize for this upcoming 2024-2025 school year.Thanks for visiting my store an...

This is a combination of my grandparents day activities and all the fun connections you can make to How to Babysit a Grandma and Grandpa Pack. They pair well together if you are looking to spend a few days on grandparents or if you are having a special Grandparent's Day event.Celebrate Grandparents ...

Have you struggled with guided reading in your classroom? Do you teach whole group, small group, or a combination of both? I have been teaching for 20 years and I finally feel comfortable with all forms of guided reading. Believe me, I have been around the block with too many programs to name them all. For 2 years I have been working on building the perfect whole group guided reading curriculum for first grade. The success I felt this past year with my students was undeniable and I'm so excited to share it with you. Here is what Guided Reading with a Purpose looks like. This is picture of SOME of the books included. Guided Reading with a Purpose is REAL LITERATURE. Each day a new book is shared with your class. My students love picture books and they love hearing a new story everyday. The books that are shared are based on the weekly theme. After sharing the story with your class, you work on the focus. If the focus is main idea and details, then all week you will work on that skill. Your students will have loads of practice and a full understanding of it all while enjoying a new shared reading each day. When picking the books for the units, I made sure they were still in print and readily available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Scholastic. Guided Reading with a Purpose is STANDARDS BASED INSTRUCTION. Each week the focus is based on a standard. It is all mapped out with the focus standard stated on the chart. Keep in mind many more standards are integrated in daily lessons but I thought it was important to state the KEY focus for the entire unit. Guided Reading with a Purpose provides a weekly LESSON PLAN GUIDE for instruction. We as teachers all know what is best for our students so a framework is provided for you on how I teach each unit with suggestions for extensions throughout the week. Guided Reading with a Purpose is filled with anchor charts and posters. This is by far one of the most beneficial pieces to use each day. I'm not going to lie, the prep work of copying and laminating can be time consuming but it is well worth it. Everyday after school, I would set up my posters and charts to prepare for the next day's lesson. It really helped guide my discussion after the shared story. I also used it to review after they completed their independent work and as a reference for many writing activities. It was almost like a teacher's helper throughout the lesson. Guided Reading with a Purpose provides lots of PRACTICE. I always tell my students that if they want to be better readers, they need to read. This is true for writing and anything in life.. Practice makes progress. For each shared story there are different opportunities to practice the focus skill. I tried to give differentiated version so there was choice. Ultimately, you will know what is best for each student or class. In this picture, my students are comparing polar bears to penguins. When they finished, they shared their posters with their classmates and we hung them up in the classroom. Guided Reading with a Purpose has GROUP WORK. My students LOVE to work together. Throughout the year we did more and more group work. Nobody wants to sit at their seat and do paper work all day long. There are ample opportunities to work together and learn from one another. During the week that we were learning about text to text connections, students were encouraged to bring in two books and share the text connection. Guided Reading with a Purpose has SHARING & PRESENTING. Some students love to share and some are very reluctant. I will be honest, I'm not a huge fan of homework or big projects. I tried to make things that came from home simple or something my students could do independently. I think sharing and presenting is an amazing skill to develop and work on (plus it is also a standard). My kiddos loved the opportunity to share and were always so proud. (So was their teacher) Guided Reading with a Purpose is WRITING. Do you struggle with teaching writing? I'm here to tell you that children's literature is a great way to generate ideas for writing. Each story, I provide a connection to use in writing with either informative, opinion, or narrative writing. My first graders are super writers by the end of the year. Guided Reading with a Purpose includes RESEARCHING. Another one of our standards is research. The last few units are filled with research based learning. It is such a fun way to spend the last month of school. They are more independent, they get to collaborate and they share all that they have learned throughout the year. Guided Reading with a Purpose included CRAFTS. Tons and tons of crafts for the entire year. I personally like to change things up a bit from year to year. This allows me the opportunity to pick and choose what I want to do with my kiddos and work on their fine motor skills at the same time. I had an INCREDIBLE year last year using my Guided Reading with a Purpose. My kids grew so much and really LEARNED the different reading strategies. There were numerous times I laughed inside when they would say "Mrs. Mitchell, I can make a text to self connection". or "Mrs. Mitchell I know this is non-fiction because it has a table of contents and real photos". I can't wait to teach all of these units again this year and see the same growth. Here is what people have said about this unit... "WOWZA ... This is one of my favorite TPT purchases. It has it all. Thanks for all your hard work." "What an amazing and comprehensive bundle! This has helped me organize my guided reading time and meet the needs of all of my students. Thank you for an amazing resource!" "Wow! I have never spent this much on a TPT resource at once but after watching your FB videos about this product, I was HOOKED! I am so excited to use this in my classroom and appreciate all of the hard work and time you put into making this! Thank you!" "Love the craftivities and how you organize your product! Your booklist is also practically the same as the ones I had in mind for this year!"

This packet has a warm rustic feel with wood grain background, burlap and mason jar accents. It is has three different options for displaying your student's birthdays each year. See the preview for the different options. There are also birthday certificates you can print and give to your students ...

Every year after Spring Break, it has been a tradition to teach my first graders about sharks. It all started 17 years ago when I had zero resources to use in my classroom due to our building closing from a mold. We were displaced to a local church that was kind enough to take us in. It was my first year transitioning from 4th grade to 1st grade, and I literally had nothing. So, I looked at the standards and asked my first graders what they wanted to learn about. That is how this shark unit was born. It has of course grown, just like every other unit of mine, but the joy it brings my students hasn't changed a bit. These animals are fascinating and a bit scary. (Which is why I don't teach it before Spring Break). Here are my favorite books to share with my class. I like to have a paper pencil book as you can see above so we can really dig into the non-fiction text features. Then we just build on our learning from story to story. This is part of Guided Reading with a Purpose Series Week 32. Our focus for the week is captions and labels. So with each story shared, we do discuss and work on these specific features among many other things. With every non-fiction unit I teach, I love to have some sort of interactive anchor chart. Here are just a few of the ones I have used in the past. Not only do these build each day, but they also provide a place for my students to go and visit when needed throughout the week. In this picture, you can see my two focus strategies, captions and labels. I also have some real shark photographs for my students to refer to. Here is a photo of just some of the things we do during the week. There favorite is the Non-fiction text feature checklist. We use the mini book and dig through it with our highlighter and pencils. They learn so much being able to circle and highlight in the book. Here is a picture of a diagram and label from last year. This is an activity we did after reading All about Sharks. When working on captions, we draw a picture from the story and write a short 1-2 sentence description of our picture. This is the first time we complete a research project on an animal, so we do it all together. Each day we work on a page during writing. This is an activity that we will do throughout all of our animal group units so I love doing it whole group first. When we are finished at the end of the week, they have an awesome shark report! This shark unit wouldn't be complete without a little fun. At the end of the week, we measure 4 different sharks using 1st graders. Last year I got smart and used a tape measure and blue tape to mark the length of each shark. (Previously I was using calculator tape that I had to roll up year after year) Then we laid first graders in between the two tape lines to see how many first graders it takes to make each one. You should hear their excitement when we do the whale shark. It is almost hard to imagine the animal being that size. Here is what we do with the information. Another example. You can see the calculator tape here! Finally, we end the unit with a craft. I usually switch it up from year to year because there are two different options. If you are looking for a great non-fiction unit that your students will love, I can promise you this shark one will do it. TO SEE THIS SHARK UNIT, CLICK HERE

We had so much fun last week learning about apples and going to the apple orchard. I can't wait to share it all with you! We kicked off the week with Johnny Appleseed's Birthday. On this day, I asked that all students bring in 1-2 chopped up apples. We put all of the apples in a crock pot first thing in the morning on high. I added two cups of water, some cinnamon and sugar and let it go. Not only did our classroom smell amazing, we got to enjoy this tasty treat before school let out! Our focus strategy for the week was SCHEMA. We wanted the students to define schema, share their schema, and understand non-fiction. First we wrote our schema on my comprehension pages. Then we shared our ideas on our yellow apple chart. Next we read all about Johnny Appleseed. We wrote our new learning and moved our misconceptions. Finally we wrote about Johnny and made him. On Tuesday we prepared for our big field trip the next day. Focusing on schema again, we created our schema chart about apple orchards. Then we read this fantastic story Day at the Apple Orchard by Megan Faulkner. We learned all about what to expect. We finished our apple chart and wrote some fun similes about apples. The children love writing similes. I secretly love hearing their ideas. They are so creative. The fun didn't end there, we had to make our apple shirts. This was a tradition the school I teach at has been doing for years, I take no credit for this one! The children did a great job and they are precious. This year I thought I would get a little CRAZY and do apple prints for 10 Apples up on Top too! Why not??? I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the day! On Wednesday it was off to the apple orchard! We saw how apples are washed, sorted, and stored. Then we watched them make cider using a press. After that we watched the donuts being made. BONUS... we got to eat a donut and drink cider. Unfortunately it was raining but we made the best of it. As soon as the rain stopped, we headed off on a hay ride into the orchard. We picked apples and I got a sunflower to take back to my classroom. We had a sack lunch and headed back to school. I was super thankful I though to bring extra socks and shoes....I was soaked. Extra thankful that my kiddos had slippers to change into as well. They put them on and we reflected on all the fun we had by writing about our day! On Thursday we explored the apple life cycle. I wrote a mini book that takes the students through the life cycle of an apple. After reading it, they sequence the apple cycle. There is also an interactive life cycle that I keep in the science center for them to practice. Finally on Friday it was all about the APPLE. We had apple schema going on and lots of great treats. We graphed our favorite apple color and read one of my favorite books, Apples by Gail Gibbons. My students love doing the anticipation guide shown below. You can see that the left is highlighted. Those are their "What I Think" predictions. I don't want them to change their answers so we highlight them. After reading the book, we do the "What I Learned" side. Finally on the bottom we changed a false fact and made it true. Thanks to the great Science of September packet, we did a lot of apple tasting. Then we graphed our class results. We also enjoyed our week in our science center. It was filled with new goodies from Science of September and old goodies that I have made in the past. Finally we completed our poetry flip book on apples. The students are beginning to get the hang of this and it will soon be a rotation in our afternoon session! I am loving all the fun we are having this year and my students are already learning so much. First graders are like little sponges! Happy Fall! Grab your Apple Goodies Here!

About a year and a half ago I decided to take the plunge and push myself outside of my comfort zone. Our school district was working hard to get Chrome Books into the hands of our students. They were slowly getting rid of the desktop computers and I knew I needed to find a way to utilize them in my first grade classroom. Lucky for me, there are many educators out there who had already taken the plunge and were super helpful in the learning process. Once I began using them, I realized how easy it actually was, and how motivated and engaged my students were. Living with 7 of my own kiddos I realize how driven they are by technology. In my own home we have limitations and I feel the same in the classroom. They do not consume us daily but they are definitely a small part of our day. I knew I wanted to find different ways to make my phonemic learning and word work more digital. I came up with 4 different activities I use consistently with my students. Usually we practice them together in whole group using the SMART board. Then I go and assign them using Google Classroom. (The best invention EVER). I won't harp on Google Classroom too long but I will make a few amazing points on this Google App. It is super easy to send an assignment to your students. It automatically makes an individual copy for each student. The coolest feature is that it allows me to differentiate. I can pick students I want to send assignments to. Not everyone needs to work on the same thing! TURTLE OUT THE WORD One of our favorite activities to work on is called Turtle out the Word. This activity is a great way to work on phoneme segmentation. It begins with a word. The students look at the word and say the sounds slowly...like a turtle. Once they have the word identified, they drag the matching picture for the word. In this picture we were working on the diphthong ow for the week. You can see the students up at the SMART board here completing this as a whole group. By the way..if you have a SMART board it is easy to drag and drop if you make a fist. I have 48 different assignments for Turtle out the Word. Here is a sample of what is looks like up close. BUILD A WORD Another fun activity we do is called Build a Word. With this activity we focus on segmentation and spelling specific word patterns. Students look at the picture provided. Then they drag and drop the letters to spell the word in the boxes provided. Sometimes the pictures can be tricky so I do like to play them together whenever I get a chance. Here is a before and after picture. Clip activities came to me from the traditional activity where you use a laminated card and a clip. The process of cutting and laminating all of the cards, only to have them last a year or so was not appealing. Instead my students will work on the same concept but digitally instead. No laminating, copying or cutting for me. During this activity, students look at a picture. They drag the clip the correlating sound in the picture. Here you can see that we are working on r-controlled vowels. Here is an up close picture of an s blend activity. DIGITAL WORD SORTS Finally, one of my favorites was also created to use less paper, time and glue. They are called digital word sorts. I have over 200 different sorts that I can send to my students throughout the year. Students drag and drop the words into the correct column. There are also little yellow frames that can be dragged over the specific phonic focus for the week. Here is a photo of us completing it together on the SMART board and individually on the Chromebook. I can finally say that I have completed all of the skills I use in my first grade classroom and have them organized for each week of our learning next year. It was a long process but so worth it. Once they are done, there is only one thing left to do, send them to the kids. This MEGA BUNDLE contains 333 different assignments you can use with your students throughout the entire year. It is an all access phonemic pass. It covers initials sounds, final consonant sounds, cvc words, short vowels, cvcc words, long vowels, cvce words, vowel teams, digraphs, diphthongs, r-controlled vowels, blends, and word endings. I took the plunge on Google and have never looked back.

Are you teaching your students the amphibians? This packet includes guided reading strategies to learn about frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and more. There are two paper mini books that are Included. One is all about amphibians and the other is comparing frogs to toads. There are also research projects included for 4 different amphibians. I use this packet to integrate reading as well as research. I included lesson plans for you to look over on how I use this packet as well. This unit can be used for distance learning and google classroom with the new TpT digital tool. Amphibian non-fiction books used: • All about Amphibians (provided) Copy 2 per page • Frogs vs. Toads (provided) Copy 2 per page • Frogs by Gail Gibbons • Why Frogs are Wet by Hawes Posters • Research Anchor Chart • Schema, New Learning, Misconceptions • KWL All about Amphibians mini book (9 pages) Copy 2 per page • Schema worksheet • Dig Deeper • Label the parts of a toad • Amphibian fill in the blank • Amphibian Sort • Colorful reptile characteristic cards (6) • Frogs by Gibbons R.I. 1.1 Anticipation Guide • Why are Frogs Wet by Hawes R.I. 1.1 Anticipation Guide • If you Hopped Like a Frog R.L. 1.1 Fill in the Blank • Tadpoles R.L. 1.1 Questioning • Jump Frog, Jump 1.1 Questioning • Better Move On, Frog 1.1 Holes or No Holes Fish is Fish by Lionni R.L. 1.1, 1.3, 1.6, 1.7 & 1.9 • Text to Self • Features of Fiction • Questioning • Point of View • Character Analysis • Venn Diagram It’s Mine R.L. 1.1, 1.2, 1.5 • Recall • Author’s Purpose • Message • Beginning, Middle, & End • Main Idea & Details • Character Analysis Frogs & Toads • Frogs and Toads Are Friends by Lobel Questioning (8 pages) • Frog and Toad Together: The Garden by Lobel (6 pages) • Frogs vs. Toads book: (9 pages) • Venn Diagram • Word Sort • Cards to complete a class comparison chart • Lifecycle of a Frog cut and paste • Lifecycle REAL PHOTOS to create a class anchor chart • Real Photos of a newt, frog, toad and salamander Writing: • Informative Frogs vs. Toads pre-writing and writing • Informative Web & Writing All about Amphibians • Amphibians can, have, and are chart • How to Take Care of My Pet Frog pre-writing and writing • If I saw Newt! Pre-writing and Writing Word Work: • Alphabetizing • Syllables • Word Search Reports: (8 page template for each one) • Frogs • Toads • Newts • Salamanders Crafts: • Frogs • Toads • Newts • Salamanders ************************************************************************** ANIMAL GROUP BUNDLE. This is part of a complete BUNDLE available to purchase. If you like this product, you may also like the following: All About Reptiles. All About Amphibians. All About Insects. All About Mammals. ALL About Birds. All About Fish. This is also part of a weekly series and included in my MEGA guided reading bundle filled with activities for 40 weeks of fun! Check out the other resources here Guided Reading with a Purpose Series. **************************************************************************

Have you struggled with guided reading in your classroom? Do you teach whole group, small group, or a combination of both? I have been teaching for 20 years and I finally feel comfortable with all forms of guided reading. Believe me, I have been around the block with too many programs to name them all. For 2 years I have been working on building the perfect whole group guided reading curriculum for first grade. The success I felt this past year with my students was undeniable and I'm so excited to share it with you. Here is what Guided Reading with a Purpose looks like. This is picture of SOME of the books included. Guided Reading with a Purpose is REAL LITERATURE. Each day a new book is shared with your class. My students love picture books and they love hearing a new story everyday. The books that are shared are based on the weekly theme. After sharing the story with your class, you work on the focus. If the focus is main idea and details, then all week you will work on that skill. Your students will have loads of practice and a full understanding of it all while enjoying a new shared reading each day. When picking the books for the units, I made sure they were still in print and readily available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Scholastic. Guided Reading with a Purpose is STANDARDS BASED INSTRUCTION. Each week the focus is based on a standard. It is all mapped out with the focus standard stated on the chart. Keep in mind many more standards are integrated in daily lessons but I thought it was important to state the KEY focus for the entire unit. Guided Reading with a Purpose provides a weekly LESSON PLAN GUIDE for instruction. We as teachers all know what is best for our students so a framework is provided for you on how I teach each unit with suggestions for extensions throughout the week. Guided Reading with a Purpose is filled with anchor charts and posters. This is by far one of the most beneficial pieces to use each day. I'm not going to lie, the prep work of copying and laminating can be time consuming but it is well worth it. Everyday after school, I would set up my posters and charts to prepare for the next day's lesson. It really helped guide my discussion after the shared story. I also used it to review after they completed their independent work and as a reference for many writing activities. It was almost like a teacher's helper throughout the lesson. Guided Reading with a Purpose provides lots of PRACTICE. I always tell my students that if they want to be better readers, they need to read. This is true for writing and anything in life.. Practice makes progress. For each shared story there are different opportunities to practice the focus skill. I tried to give differentiated version so there was choice. Ultimately, you will know what is best for each student or class. In this picture, my students are comparing polar bears to penguins. When they finished, they shared their posters with their classmates and we hung them up in the classroom. Guided Reading with a Purpose has GROUP WORK. My students LOVE to work together. Throughout the year we did more and more group work. Nobody wants to sit at their seat and do paper work all day long. There are ample opportunities to work together and learn from one another. During the week that we were learning about text to text connections, students were encouraged to bring in two books and share the text connection. Guided Reading with a Purpose has SHARING & PRESENTING. Some students love to share and some are very reluctant. I will be honest, I'm not a huge fan of homework or big projects. I tried to make things that came from home simple or something my students could do independently. I think sharing and presenting is an amazing skill to develop and work on (plus it is also a standard). My kiddos loved the opportunity to share and were always so proud. (So was their teacher) Guided Reading with a Purpose is WRITING. Do you struggle with teaching writing? I'm here to tell you that children's literature is a great way to generate ideas for writing. Each story, I provide a connection to use in writing with either informative, opinion, or narrative writing. My first graders are super writers by the end of the year. Guided Reading with a Purpose includes RESEARCHING. Another one of our standards is research. The last few units are filled with research based learning. It is such a fun way to spend the last month of school. They are more independent, they get to collaborate and they share all that they have learned throughout the year. Guided Reading with a Purpose included CRAFTS. Tons and tons of crafts for the entire year. I personally like to change things up a bit from year to year. This allows me the opportunity to pick and choose what I want to do with my kiddos and work on their fine motor skills at the same time. I had an INCREDIBLE year last year using my Guided Reading with a Purpose. My kids grew so much and really LEARNED the different reading strategies. There were numerous times I laughed inside when they would say "Mrs. Mitchell, I can make a text to self connection". or "Mrs. Mitchell I know this is non-fiction because it has a table of contents and real photos". I can't wait to teach all of these units again this year and see the same growth. Here is what people have said about this unit... "WOWZA ... This is one of my favorite TPT purchases. It has it all. Thanks for all your hard work." "What an amazing and comprehensive bundle! This has helped me organize my guided reading time and meet the needs of all of my students. Thank you for an amazing resource!" "Wow! I have never spent this much on a TPT resource at once but after watching your FB videos about this product, I was HOOKED! I am so excited to use this in my classroom and appreciate all of the hard work and time you put into making this! Thank you!" "Love the craftivities and how you organize your product! Your booklist is also practically the same as the ones I had in mind for this year!"

Who doesn't like saving money? Every summer I sit down with my wishlist at the computer and add a few titles to my mentor text collection. I do this by searching for used books on Amazon. Watch the video below to see my process.

This author study was created using Chester's Way, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Lilly's Big Day, A Weekend with Wendell, Wemberly Worried, Sheila Rae the Brave, Julius Baby of the World, and Chrysanthemum. Students will work on the following skills: analyze/evaluate, beginning, middle, and end, text to self, text purposes, character comparison, character change, story sequencing, story mapping, main idea and details. opinion, and narrative writing, and much morel Loads of goodies from each book to pick and choose which skills your students need to work on to meet the CCSS Also included are 9 crafts for the mouse characters. When you buy the bundle, you save over 30%. This unit can be used for distance learning and google classroom with the new TpT digital tool. You will have to customize the activities by clicking on each unit separately. Chester's Way question cards character & setting colorful cards character sorting cards retelling worksheet 3 versions (1 with cut and paste) beginning, middle, and end (3 versions) asking questions (2 versions) character sort cut and paste main idea and detail story sequence cut and paste character senses plot narrative pre-writing and writing opinion pre-writing and writing Chester, Wilson, and Lilly paper topper crafts Victor craft Reading Strategies: Predicting Retell Beginning, Middle, End Question/Answer 2 pages Setting 2 options Characters 2 options Check for Understanding Text Evidence 2 options Character Analysis 3 Options Key Events Features of Fiction Sequencing 5 cards cut & paste 2 options Character Feelings Main Idea and Details Text to Self Text Connections Problem & Solution Problem Solution Character Sort My Opinion Word Work: ABC Order Making Words Syllables Word Search Colorful Posters: 6 questions cards Details/sequencing cards Characters Setting Vocabulary Writing: Descriptive Writing Lilly & Mr. Slinger Retell Prewriting & Writing Opinion Prewriting & Writing Narrative “My Favorite Things” If I were Mr. Slinger Lilly Can, Does, Has Math: Subtract from 10 Coverall Add 2 Bingo Roll & Move Board Survey, Tally, & Graph Lilly & Mr. Slinger Paper Topper Craft Purple Purse or Plastic Pack Craft Lilly full body craft Letters ”Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” 2 per page Lilly's Big Day questioning 2 versions beginning, middle, and end main idea and details plot sequencing character senses narrative retelling survey opinion pre-writing and writing flower girl craft A Weekend with Wendell colorful character and setting cards questioning beginning, middle and end text to self character sort cut and paste main idea and details story sequence character senses character change plot narrative retelling opinion writing suitcase craft Wemberly Worried: Reading Strategies: Predicting Retell Beginning, Middle, End Question/Answer 2 pages Setting 2 options Characters 2 options Check for Understanding Text Evidence Character Analysis 2 Options Key Events Features of Fiction Sequencing 5 cards cut & paste 2 options Wemberly’s Worries Recall Character Feelings Main Idea and Details Text to Self Text Connections Problem & Solution Problem Solution Real or Fantasy Sort Word Work: ABC Order Making Words Syllables Word Search Colorful Posters: 6 questions cards Details/sequencing cards Characters Setting Vocabulary Writing: Descriptive Writing “All about Wemberly” My Worries Retell Prewriting & Writing Opinion Prewriting & Writing Math: Roll & Move Board Game Survey, Tally, Graph Roll & Cover Wemberly Paper Topper Craft Worry Jar Craft Letters ”Wemberly Worried” 2 per page Letters ”Worry Jars” 2 per page Sheila Rae, The Brave character and setting colorful cards questioning beginning, middle, and end text to self character cut and paste sort main idea and details story sequence character change character senses plot narrative retell survey Sheila Rae craft Chrysanthemum Reading Strategies: Predicting Question/Answer 2 pages Retell Beginning, Middle, End Setting 2 options Characters 2 options Yes or No Check for Understanding Text Evidence Character Analysis 2 options Key Events Features of Fiction Character Feelings Main Idea and Details Text to Self Text Connections Sequencing 5 cards cut & paste 2 options Problem & Solution Word Work: ABC Order Making Words Syllables Word Search Colorful Posters 6 questions cards Details/sequencing cards Characters Setting Vocabulary Writing: This is Me, I am Special Descriptive Writing A Good Friend Retell Prewriting & Writing Opinion Prewriting & Writing Math: Roll & Move Board Game My Name Letters Survey, Tally, Graph Class Data Class Graph Chrysanthemum Craft Chrysanthemum Topper Craft Flower Craft Letters ”Chrysanthemum” 2 per page Julius Baby of the World character and setting colorful cards questioning beginning, middle, and end text to self character change story sequence character change character senses plot narrative retell opinion pre writing and writing Julius craft Make sure to Follow Me so you know when I post new products. All products are 20% off the 1st 24 hours. You don't want to miss out! If you would like to join me live to discuss these ideas and more in my classroom, please join my private group. JOIN MY GROUP ~ FIRST GRADE ROARS ~ CONNECT & COLLABORATE ON FACEBOOK. Some other fun ways to connect.... FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM. FOLLOW ME ON TPT. FOLLOW MY JOURNEY AT MY BLOG.

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Last week we had a blast learning about amphibians, their characteristics and incorporating a little fiction on frogs and toads too! We began the week by reading Leo Lionni’s book “Fish is Fish” from my Lionni author study unit. This was a great lead into the characteristics of a frog. After reading the book we […]