I thought I would share a few of my favorite books for teaching text-to-self connections, text-to-text connections and text-to-world connections: When students are able to make connections with a book they find more meaning to the story. They are able to better connect with the characters and the plot and really understand what is happening. […]

My favorite time of day is read aloud in the classroom.   All my students sitting around and enjoying a story together. As the teacher, I always like to choose rich texts with tons of learning opportunities for our read alouds. Some of my favorite books are the ones we can read over and over […]

Just dropping by this morning to share this FREE St. Patrick’s Day close reading passage and fun poem for the holiday coming up! Included in this mini-pack is a nonfiction passage about the holiday with a vocabulary sheet and a comprehension sheet for students to answer using text evidence. They questions are set up in […]

Book clubs in first grade?! It may seem like a stretch, but the Spring is such a great time to get your students ready and used to reading, thinking about, and discussing books with their peers instead of me, the teacher! When done right, it can be such a fun learning experience for both the […]

These interactive read aloud lessons are the perfect way to teach your students all sorts of comprehension and vocabulary skills during reader’s workshop.     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 […]

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}. If you need […]

Do your students read Stone Soup around Thanksgiving?! I love these activities to go along with some versions of Stone Soup. 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 […]

Cats vs. dogs is the ultimate opinion reading and writing project! Students choose a side and read both fiction and nonfiction books to learn more about their decision. In the end, students choose a winner and write their opinion paragraph to determine which is the best pet! I love integrating reading and writing and last […]

Interactive read aloud lessons in my first grade classroom have completely changed my Reader’s Workshop. My students love to read these classics and I now have all the questions and stopping points ready to go! I recently wrote a post HERE about what an interactive read aloud is and how I use them in my […]