It is no surprise that I love a good read aloud. I have written numerous posts about why I love interactive read alouds and spent years finding the perfect picture books to use to teach different skills in my primary classroom. It wasn’t until later that I began to dive into some of our favorite […]

In my new role as a K-2 literacy teacher, I spend a lot of my time working on direct phonics instruction to help my first and second grade students decode words they are encountering in their texts. I thought I would take a little time to go through what a week of small groups phonics […]

I made an effort every year to set some specific read aloud time available in my classroom. Some days it was 10 minutes, other days I could stretch it to 20. Either way, it was one of my most favorite times of the day. I could teach so many skills while my students got to enjoy […]

After some baseline testing, my Kindergarten students are now grouped into three major categories: (1)   Letter name identification (uppercase) (2)   Letter name identification (lowercase) (3)   Letter sounds   In my small groups, I wanted to create some interactive games that would allow students to see their letters over and over and over […]

Ipads, tablets, laptops, Chromebooks, etc. It is likely that your students are well-versed in all of the above and more. If they aren’t yet well- versed in technology, they are at least familiar with it and learning rapidly about it. As more and more schools continue to gather technological devices for their students to use […]

What is an Interactive Read Aloud? An interactive read aloud is a planned and purposeful read aloud that you can incorporate into your daily and weekly lessons. Interactive read alouds help build students’ fluency and comprehension while teaching specific skills. Students are involved and engaged in the read aloud process instead of passive. These planned read alouds […]

As every new school year approaches, I begin to get my mind ready for a new year of students. This always includes thinking of my classroom management approach. I like to try new things each year because each group of students is entirely unique and has a different set of needs than the classroom before.

Hands-on math. I love it, I live for it, I believe in it. Nothing keeps my students engaged more than getting their hands on a piece of the action. I spent this past year focusing on math and trying to come up with tons of engaging activities, lessons, and games for first grade students.