If you are looking for some high-interest activities, try using animated shorts to teach inference. Free handouts focus on student learning.

This is a visual for how students work their way up the Reading Ladder. Kindergarten is working within the levels 1 and 2 throughout the year. When working with your child, please focus on these skills so that they have a solid reading foundation. Success is earned and needs to be worked for. Thank you to Katelyn's Learning Studio for this amazing resource.

Handy free printable leif erikson for kids worksheet and coloring pages to make into readers to learn about famous early explorer!

Need a quick reading check? Need a reading comprehension passage that is high interest? Try these free reading comprehension passages with questions. I struggle to find non fiction reading comprehension passages that are high interest for my students. Many of my students are struggling readers, so I value passages that are interesting and fun for ... Read More about Reading Comprehension Passages

3rd Edition of a booklet, designed to help teachers get the most of the 4 different skills, speaking, writing, reading and listening. Practical, useful and fun. Designed by students of the 9th semester of Licenciatura en Lingúistica del Idioma Inglés, of Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. Guatemala, June 2017.

Are your students having trouble identifying theme within a story? This step-by-step process scaffolds through several reading comprehension skills to help students get a thorough understanding of theme. Students will be able to determine the theme of a story, poem, or drama from details in the text by first

TAKE ME TO THE FREEBIE FREE SET OF SKILl-BASED READING PASSAGES GRAB YOUR FREE READING PASSAGES! MAIN IDEA, THEME, PREDICTIONS, CONTEXT CLUES & CHARACTER TRAITS Grow your students with these engaging Reading Passages: Elevate your students’ reading skills using this engaging set of Free Quick Reading Skills Passages. These reading passages are designed for 3rd, ... Read more

Learn how to help your students build and use repeated reading fluency strategies and skills with these top tips.

Okay teacher friend. It’s finally here. And I’m so excited! I’ve had this resource collecting dust on my computer for years now. I’ve been using this strategy in my classroom for the last few years, but haven’t had the energy or time (teacher life + mom life is exhausting, am I right?) to put it all together so that it’s ready to go for busy teachers like you! Well, it’s finally finished and I finally get to unveil it to you! Did you know I have a FREE downloadable reading response menu board that you can print now and use in your

⚓Make learning about the Titanic for Kids fun and easy with a printable reader. Children will read, color and learn titanic facts for kids.

Teaching growth mindset can be done with read-alouds! Rosie's Glasses is a great book for this. Get ideas for using this book to teach being positive.

3rd Grade Social Studies Worksheet. Your students will use this useful resource to analyze their vocabulary words and relate them to different concepts and ideas. This selection of worksheets explores how the American Government is structured.

3rd Grade CKLA Units 1-11 Focus Wall BUNDLEThis Bundle includes all CKLA 3rd Grade unit focus walls. Each unit has been carefully created to showcase the essential questions, the language/morphology skills, and the reading skills highlighted for that specific unit. I hope you and your students love ...

Character traits is an important skill to help students understand characters. This post shares strategies and free character trait activities.

Looking for ways to use comprehension passages in your classroom? Come check out how use mine plus check out my new comprehension one pagers!

Each classroom brings students of multiple learning styles and backgrounds. It is our job to provide opportunities that reach all of the many different learning styles that come to us. For this reason, it is

It's so exciting to hear that so many of you are going to be trying Whole Brain Teaching this year! I know I am not alone in saying this, but when you do, you will love it and want to try more and more from this great program :) If you want to read all of my posts about it, you can by clicking HERE. Having received a lot of questions about how to start using WBT in your classroom, I want to share with you the top four principles of WBT, also known as the "Core 4". The Core 4 The Core 4 are, simply put, the four main things you can incorporate into your class to implement Whole Brain Teaching quickly, effectively, and with immediate results each and every day. They are: Class-Yes The Scoreboard Mirror Teach-Okay They are meant to: Bring the class together (Class-Yes) Keep them motivated (Scoreboard) Get them active (Mirror) Build community and be accountable for their learning (Teach-Okay) Class-Yes This is a wonderful call & response management technique that I am sure you have used in the past using different words, but with the same premise. As the teacher, I say, "Class?" and my students stop what they are doing, fold their hands and look at me, giving me their undivided attention, but not before replying, "Yes!". They key is they say "Yes!" in the exact same voice/style that I said "Class?". This can include, but is not limited to: whisper robot singing voice "Classity Class- Yessity Yes" "Classadoodle Doo- Yesadoodle Doo" "Ohhh Class? Ohh Yes!" and TONS more! I have posted more about this HERE, so head over for some additional ideas as well as a helpful video! The Scoreboard [source] While Class-Yes is a quick and fantastic way to get the class together, there needs to be some motivation to ensure that this is done super quick and you aren't having to call out Class-Yes more than two to three times to get their attention. This is where the Scoreboard comes in VERY HANDY! The setup is simple- a T-chart with a smiley on one side and a frown on the other. As you use Class-Yes, you reward kids with a smiley or a frown for how well they came back together. The celebrations or moans are quick in response to the point on either side of the chart. The key to keep up motivation is to keep the tallies within three points! This will ensure that kids are still trying to get the goodie at the end of the day (which is a fun Brain Break, a free minute of music playing, packing up one minute early, one extra minute of recess.... you get the idea!) I have posted more about the Scoreboard HERE. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Disclaimer: The third and fourth part of the Core 4 are meant for use during your teaching. Don't feel the need to do all of these on the very first day! As with everything, do what you are comfortable doing. It took me a while to use Mirror and Teach-Okay. I used Class-Yes and the Scoreboard for weeks before I felt confident enough to introduce them!!! Mirror Now that I am more confident with Whole Brain Teaching, I am LOVING the Mirror!! I admit, when I first started, I was not doing so well because it was hard for me to think of gestures to teach concepts. BUT, that changed when I started getting into the flow of WBT and there were times I even had the kids help! Mirror allows the kids to repeat your gestures as if they are your mirror as you teach a new concept. You teach a little with gestures, they gesture along with you. One thing to remember- mirrors don't talk!- so the focus is on your motor & visual cortexes and linking movement to their learning. If you do want your kids to repeat words and gestures, you would say "Mirror Words" and this time, kids would repeat what you said and your movements. This engages their motor and visual cortex as well as their Broca's and Wernicke's Areas. The gesture for mirror is holding up both hands, palms facing out and saying "Mirror". The kids repeat only using their hands, palms out. If you are using Mirror Words, you say "Mirror Words" and have one hand up and the other hand start at your mouth and them go to the regular Mirror position. Teach-Okay! How many of you have used Turn & Talk? This is similar, but instead of always using open-ended prompts, students are repeating the gestures and the teaching points to their partners. One will speak first while they both use gestures, then two will talk while they both use gestures, and this will continue until you call them back with Class-Yes. As the lesson continues, there will be times they will need to explain their thinking with examples use the word "because", but it's important that both students are taking turns talking and always gesturing during this time. The gestures for starting Teach-Ok is clapping and saying "Teach" while the students clap and reply "Okay". Just as you did with Class-Yes, mix it up to keep it fresh & fun!! Putting It All Together Remember this WONDERFUL video? It's what got me hooked on WBT :) Watch it again for the Core 4 (Class-Yes, Scoreboard, Mirror & Teach-Okay) and think about how you would incorporate them into your class this year. Don't you just LOVE WBT in action? And, I totally would LOVE to have this teacher, she's amazing!! As I stated above, it took me WEEKS to feel confident enough to incorporate all of these steps into my classroom, so don't feel you have to do even the Core 4 from the very beginning. I started with Class-Yes and the Scoreboard and went from there. The best part is that the kids are engaged, you are all having fun, and as a teacher, you are in Teacher Heaven :) If you are interested in my WBT Signs, you can find them in my TpT Store for free! They also match a set of WBT Classroom Rules. Let me know if you have any questions! As always, remember to check out the Whole Brain Teaching website for TONS of free information: http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/ I look forward to reading about your experiences with Whole Brain Teaching :)

If you’re still doing spelling tests the traditional way—from a list of 10 words that you have students memorize each week before a Friday assessment, it's time to let that go.

When teaching narrative writing in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade, there are so many writing skills to cover. They range from creating a sequence of events (beginning, middle, and end) to more difficult

Not sure what to teach the first week of 3rd grade? Here's what we did!

Teach kids to use guide words, word forms, find definitions and more with dictionary detective! Print FREE dictionary skills worksheets.

These fantastic activities are definitely the way to go.

Back to School is right around the corner for us and I am SUPER excited to kick of this school year with some fun, hands-on and engaging resources for The

Are you looking for a fun way to reinforce teaching similes to students? Making simile monsters is always a huge hit! Students will create a fictitious monster and use similes to describe the 5 senses about their monsters. To hook students, I love to read the text Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood (affiliate […]

Learn six ways to help reluctant readers gain confidence and improve their reading skills in upper elementary and middle school classrooms.

Don't have time in your day to reach every student? My 10 Minute Reading Intervention resource can help you squeeze in lessons that are fast & effective!

A reading classroom transformation can be so much fun for students! Here are my top ten favorite ELA classroom transformations.

Hi, I'm Magy. I love reading and writing, and I love to teach reading and writing. Currently, I'm a K-8 Reading Specialist, but I've also taught in High

As educators, we know the importance of building a strong foundation in reading for our students. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through the use of decodable words and sentences. These specially designed reading materials are crucial for young readers, helping them develop essential skills and confidence. In this blog post, we will explore the concept of decodable words and sentences, discuss their importance, and provide practical ways to integrate Decodable Word and Sentence Strips MEGA bundle into your classroom. You can purchase the BUNDLE HERE What Are Decodable Words and Sentences? Decodable words are words that follow regular phonetic patterns, making them easier for beginning readers to sound out and recognize. For example, words like

These 44 free literature graphic organizers have been created to meet reading standards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades. Free from The Curriculum Corner.

Although this is Part 3, it actually continues directly from Part 1, which is the preparation part. If you have never created your own Boom Cards, you'll

As teachers we are constantly REINVENTING THE WHEEL!! Although it can be time consuming, one thing I love about my job, is that I get the opportunity to learn, grow, create, and RECREATE year after year!! I have been using Reading Response Journals in my classroom for over 10 years, and each year I make…

Each classroom brings students of multiple learning styles and backgrounds. It is our job to provide opportunities that reach all of the many different learning styles that come to us. For this reason, it is

Homeschooling a child with dyslexia can be a challenge. Here's how to raise a child who loves reading, even if they have dyslexia.

Author's purpose is a challenging skill for most kids, but in this post, you'll get teaching tips and activities to help break down this skill for your students.

In this post, I share my teaching strategies for reading comprehension in my upper elementary classroom. These effective reading strategies are easy to implement and they have been great for helping my students become better readers. Plus you can grab some FREE reading worksheets below! *This post contains affiliate links to Amazon for your convenience. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying

Supercharge your morning work with I Heart Literacy! Each page features a fun theme so your students will not only be practicing reading and ELA skills, but will also be learning about a curriculum-based topic. A wide variety of Common Core skills are addressed. Try these five free pages for free! Happy Teaching! Rachel Lynette ... Read More about Morning Work ELA and Reading Freebie!

Teachers, looking for reading comprehension practice for 3rd grade? This blog post has resources and activities you will LOVE!

Finding out what a student knows about phonics is made easy with this quick and simple phonics assessment for K-3 readers! And it's FREE.