I love teaching students to make inferences in first grade. They feel like detectives as the search for what the author hasn’t said in the text. I thought I would take some time to share with you some of my favorite activities for teaching students how to infer. Using Photographs: When we begin making inferences, […]

Teaching students to activate their schema in kindergarten, first, and second grade can seem abstract at first. Once I let students know they actually use their schema all the time, they become more comfortable explaining their thoughts! Both as a first grade teacher and a K-2 literacy teacher, I emphasized schema at the beginning of […]

This small group phonics and number sense game reminds me of the good ole days. I used to play Spoons when I went up to the cabin with friends and family and it was always a hit. We would laugh and race to be sure we weren’t left without a spoon. With it being such a […]

Practicing sight words in the primary grades is vitally important when learning how to read. To help students review and learn new sight words, I am always on the lookout for new, fun games! This game, “Sight Word SPLASH!” is one we played a lot last year in my kindergarten and first grade small groups […]

February is a short month with a LOT to fit in and it seems to me that Black History month gets the short end of the stick since this month quickly passes by. Over the past few years, I have really tried to put some serious effort into diversifying my classroom (and home) library. Today, […]

How do you teach character change within a story? By this time of the year, my first graders are easily able to identify the main character. They are also able to give a few character traits (with text evidence) to describe that main character. Now, is when I really want students to focus on how […]

Cause & Effect! Students have been unknowingly learning about causes and effects their entire lives. “Eat your veggies and you will get dessert.” “Put those toys back and you can play with something else.” They learn that their actions have effects. When put into a story context, we are teaching students to focus on two […]

Comprehension! It is the most important part of reading, isn’t it? I am always looking for ways to help my students with their comprehension and providing stopping points to think aloud has helped tremendously. The conscious act of checking in it a strategy many students use to help them determine when they might need to […]

Asking questions while reading is such an important skill for students to learn. There are many activities to help students practice questioning, but I find the best way is to through reading and modeling.   “Thinking is not driven by answers but by questions.” (Paul & Elder 2000)   When teaching students to ask questions […]