Are you on the lookout for some new back to school books?! In today’s blog post, I wanted to share 3 of my favorite books to use at the beginning of the year for back to school. A new school year can bring many different emotions as students’ schedules change and their summer rhythm and […]

The read aloud. It’s a teacher’s dream. The students all sitting quietly, listening, learning, enjoying the book! That’s what we all hope for right?!   Now don’t get me wrong, these moments exist and they should be cherished! But sometimes, I wanted to make sure I was making the most of my precious read aloud […]

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 […]

When it comes to St. Patrick’s Day, Jamie O’Rourke is one of my favorite characters! Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato to focus on cause and effect.   CLICK BELOW TO GRAB YOUR FREE LESSON: I thought I would offer a free read aloud lesson for this St. Patrick’s Day favorite. Just click above to […]

Looking at how characters change throughout a story. Comparing characters. Completing a character study. These are some of my favorite skills to teach in my first grade classroom! I wanted to share some of my go-to read aloud books for teaching these skills!   When I teach character changes I love using: Julius, The Baby […]

Main idea and theme can be some of the most difficult topics to teach my first graders, so I thought I would share some of my favorite picture books I use to teach these skills in my classroom. Favorite main idea and theme read alouds:   Sheila Rae, The Brave by Kevin Henkes This story […]

I love teaching nonfiction to my students. My students LOVE to learn all about animals, space, nature, etc. It is real and attainable to them and they just seem to seek that knowledge on their own. I like to let my students know that with nonfiction they know what they’re in for. If they want […]

Later in the fall and heading towards winter, we begin to really focus on problem and solution and cause and effect in our stories. My first grade students by this point have been introduced to these ideas, but now they will dive in and not only identify each of these in a story, but also […]