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Language Arts

Celebrate Halloween with a Halloween Book Companion

I love celebrating holidays in my classroom but sometimes it can get to be a little overwhelming with all the excitement and usually many sweet treats. That’s why I like to incorporate Halloween activities that are educational! Whether it be a center or a special project, I just love seeing what students can do when they’re excited about something. For Halloween, I’ll be celebrating with a book companion or a couple of book companions!

What’s a book companion?

Book companions are activities that go along with a particular book! They include multiple language arts activities that students can complete, reviewing a language arts skill or even learning a new skill! Some of the skills included are sequencing, problem and solution, and conventions. I always love to end with a craftivity as well. These make amazing bulletin boards to look at for the entire holiday season! See below for what’s included in my Halloween Book Companions.

Included in the Halloween Book Companions

I’ve created 3 Halloween Book Companions for you to celebrate Halloween in your classroom! In each, students practice a variety of language arts skills. I’ve also included at least one craftivity in each book companion set.

Little Boo – Book Companion

Here’s a list of all that’s included in this book companion resource:

Sequencing the story
Problem and solution
My Favorite Part Writing
Additional Writing Prompt
Describing the Seed Graphic Organizer
Describing the Jack-O-Lantern Graphic Organizer
Little Boo’s Verbs
Craftivity

Skeleton for Dinner – Book Companion

Here’s a list of all that’s included in this book companion resource:

Sequencing the story
Problem and solution
My Favorite Part Writing
Additional Writing Prompt
Describing the Skeleton Graphic Organizer
Describing the Witches Graphic Organizer
Skeleton’s Verbs
Witches Verbs
Two Craftivity Options

Ms. Broomstick’s School for Witches – Book Companion

Here’s a list of all that’s included in this book companion resource:

Sequencing the story
Problem and solution
My Favorite Part Writing
Additional Writing Prompt
Describing the Pandora Graphic Organizer
Describing the Ms. Broomstick Graphic Organizer
School of Witches Verbs
Craftivity

These book companions can be purchased in a bundle or individually depending on which story you’d like to incorporate or if you’d like to incorporate all! Using a book companion is a great way to sneak in some Halloween fun while still learning or reviewing critical language arts skills.

What type of teacher are you? Do you enjoy celebrating the holidays throughout the holiday season or do you stick to celebrating the holiday strictly on the day of the holiday only?

3 Star Coloring: A Beginning of the Year Writing Lesson

Most kindergarteners come into your classroom in the beginning of the year and will not know how to write yet. So during “writing” time you may wonder, what do I teach? Well, students can begin “writing” through their drawings. I teach my students that pictures match words and if they cannot yet write words, they can share their thoughts or stories through pictures. My first writing lesson of the year is my “3 Star Coloring” lesson.

3 Star Coloring

3 Star Coloring is a set of rules or standards that students should try to follow whenever they color something. This concept is one that I did not make up and I would love to give credit to whoever did, so if you know who did, let me know in the comments!

The Lesson

I start off this lesson by explaining an anchor chart. The anchor chart has all the 3 Star Coloring rules explained and an example of a 1 star, 2 star and 3 star. Then, I model how to do 3 star coloring by drawing something on a paper under my Elmo. For this, I usually give a prompt and students will follow the same prompt. While I’m drawing, I ask students to think in their brains what it is that I’m drawing (sort of a fun guessing game!) After I’ve modeled, students go to their tables and try on their own.

The 3 Star Coloring Standards

Stay in the lines
Colors make sense
No white space
Use 5 or more colors

This will take your kindergarteners a while to understand and truly try their best in their coloring so stick with it! Often, when a student comes up to me I go over the rules with them and we check to see if their picture has 3 star coloring.

Want to try 3 Star Coloring in your classroom?

This resource includes a printable “poster” (regular paper size), bookmarks for students to keep in their writing folder as a reminder and 10 different drawing prompts. It also includes pages where students can draw but also write a sentence about their drawing. Check out the product by clicking below!

8 Word Work Activities for Beginning of the Year Kindergarten

“Word Work” is a station my students do during literacy centers. These word work centers have to do with letter sounds and sight words. Our sight words change weekly but the activities stay the same. During the first few weeks of school, I introduce different word work center options, so when we start literacy centers, students can be independent while I’m working with a reading group. Here are 8 word work activity ideas for beginning of the year kindergarteners.

8 Word Work Activities

Letter Sounds and Rhyming Magnets

These mats are a grid with pictures inside each square. Students lay the mat on a cookie sheet and put magnet letters over the picture depending on the sound they start with.

PlayDough or Putty

Students grab a container of PlayDough and create the sight words with the dough. When I teach this center, I show them how to thinly roll the dough to use to create the letters.

Beginning and Ending Letter Sounds Clip Cards

These clip cards show a picture and next to it choices of what it could start (or end) with. You decide if students put a clip on the beginning sound or the ending sound.

Stamps

You can do this center two ways. 1) Students grab a blank paper and use a stamp and stamp pad to stamp out the sight words. 2) Students flatten PlayDough at their desk and use just the stamp to press into the dough, creating the word on the flattened dough.

Whisper Phones

I got these phones on Amazon and they were a great purchase because this is one of my student’s favorite centers! Students whisper their sight words into the phone and they can hear themselves talking through the phone.

Poke a Sight Word

This word work activity is another crowd favorite! Students poke sight word cards that are printed backwards with a push-pin. (Make sure you lay down some hard rules with using push pins.) When they poke a bunch of tiny dots on the line and flip it over, the word will be revealed!

Whiteboards and Magnets

This activity is simple, students take a whiteboard and practice writing the sight word with an expo pen or with magnets. I spice this activity up by giving them different ways they can write the word like fancy writing or robot writing!

Pipe Cleaners and Beads

For this activity, students take a pipe cleaner (I cut mine in half) and beads that have letters on it and string together the sight word. What are some of your favorite “Word Work” activities? Comment below!

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Guided Reading Groups: How to Set up Your Groups in the Beginning of the Year

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Guided Reading: The Ins and Outs

How to Help Your Struggling Readers

In any classroom, there is a range in students’ abilities. I find that especially in kindergarten, students come in at totally different levels. This year alone, I have a student reading at a third grade level and a student not yet reading, let alone recognizing all the letters in the alphabet. Then, there are the students in between.

Luckily, we teach reading using guided reading, a small group instructional strategy. This teaching tactic makes it so we can reach more students at their own level. When I have students who are so far on either spectrum, I meet with them individually. It makes no sense trying to lump them together with the closest level to them because they’d either be way lost or way bored.

In this post, I want to talk to you about reaching those students who are struggling in reading. These are some ideas of how you can work with your lowest group during guided reading or small group time.

Ideas for How to Help Your Struggling Readers

Whole Body Alphabet

Students use their entire arm to make the letter in the air. While they’re making it, they say the name of the letter once out loud. After they make the letter in the air and start to get to know the letter, they can say the sound as well.

Zoophonics

This is a phonics program that I use bits and pieces of. What I really like is that there is an animal name for each letter that correlates with the letter sound. There is also a movement that goes along with the animal name. For example, Allie Alligator (A) says “a” and opens and closes her mouth. So students get used to doing the movement while saying the letter sound. Good for kinesthetic learners!

Beginning and Ending Sound Clip Cards

These clip cards are a good way to practice beginning and ending sounds. I use these as a warm up during our guided reading time. We do 5 – 10 cards at a time. Once I notice students mastering beginning sounds, we transition to ending sounds (a much harder concept for kindergarteners).

Letter Sounds Magnet Activity

This can also be used as a warm up. Students put the page on a cookie sheet and put magnet letters on top of what the word begins with.

Letter or Sight Word Kapow

Kapow is always a student favorite! The way you play is one student starts by pulling out a popsicle stick. They read the letter or sight word that’s on it and if they get it right, they keep it. They keep pulling sticks until they get one wrong. If they get it wrong then they put back the stick they got wrong and it’s the next persons turn. If they’re pulling sticks and they pull a Kapow stick (stick that says Kapow on it), they have to put all their popsicle sticks back into the bucket! The game goes until all the sticks are gone or you’re out of time.

These are some of the ways I help my students who are struggling in reading. What are your favorite ways to reach your struggling readers? Comment below!

Incorporating Multisensory Activities in Handwriting to Strengthen Fine Motor Development

Motor development is a huge part of kindergarten! Fine motor skills are important because we use them in our writing, coloring, cutting and more. When a student has poor motor skills, they’re often embarrassed and feel less successful when completing assignments. I’ve even had students cry because they couldn’t do something that comes easily for their peers. That’s why, when I was getting my masters in education, I wanted to know the most effective way to improve students’ fine motor. I wanted a way to help students that came to my class with inefficient fine motor skills, so they could feel confident in all they did in my room. Through my research, I found that multisensory handwriting activities help students develop their fine motor.

The best way to engage students is through hands on, whole body learning. We’ve learned this in school, through student teaching and by observing our own students year after year. Multisensory activities are just that! Read on to find the multisensory activities I use during handwriting.

Multisensory Activities to Incorporate During Handwriting

Paint Bags – For this activity, ziplock bags are filled with paint. Students use their fingers to practice writing letters on top of the bag. I used painters tape to create a dotted line on the paint bags so students could practice uppercase and lowercase letters using the line.*Tip: tape your bags shut so you don’t have any big paint messes!
Sand Paper – Grab different types of sand paper (not too rough) and with a sharpie, make a dotted line. Students can use their fingers to practice writing letters. Another way to do this is to use sharpie to write the letters on the sand paper. That way, students just trace over the letters with their fingers.
Puff Paint – Use puff paint to write letters on a piece of paper. When the puff paint dries, it will be a raised letter for students to use their finger to trace over.
Shaving cream – Spray shaving cream evenly in a tin. Students use their finger to write their letters in the shaving cream.
Sand Table – I am fortunate enough to have a sand table in my room. Students flatten the sand and then practice writing their letters with their finger. If you do not have a sand table, you can make sand trays. Here’s an example from Pocket of Preschool.
Play dough – Students make the letters out of play dough and then trace with their fingers over the raised dough. Students can also flatten the dough and use a toothpick to write the letters in the dough.
Pokey thing – I have students use a pushpin to poke around letters (or sight words) that have been flipped around or mirrored. Using a pushpin strengthens their fine motor. Once they’ve poked all around the letters or sight word, they can trace the opposite side with their finger.

What activities do you incorporate in your classroom to strengthen your students’ fine motor?

Tips for Using Interactive Notebooks in Kindergarten

I love seeing all the creative ways teachers use interactive notebooks in their classrooms but I’ve always felt that they’re more for older students because of all the different pieces and specific places to glue. (If you’ve ever used glue with kindergarten, you know what I’m talking about – total mess!) But this year, I was determined to make interactive notebooks work for my kindergarten class. For my first interactive notebook experience, I chose to use them in science however, these tips would work in any subject!

Tips to Making Interactive Notebooks Work in Kindergarten

Setting Up Your Interactive Notebooks

Use a full-page label sheet to for the front cover. (This tip comes from Ashley at Teach Create Motivate.) I designed my cover to say Science Notebook with two scientists and a place for students to write their name. When I was ready to put these covers on my student’s notebooks, I printed them on these full-page labels which you put in your printer just like a regular paper. Then I trimmed the sides to fit and stuck it on the front, just like a giant sticker!
Glue a front cover for every unit or sub topic. My science curriculum has multiple units so each unit has different cover inside the notebook and that’s how we know everything after that cover page belongs to that unit. Some teachers use tabs to separate units or subtopics. I don’t do this because once we’re done with a science unit we don’t come back to it so there’s no need for students to tab back.

General Tips

Trim the actual interactive notebook pages that go in the notebook. This makes one less step for students and saves a ton of time!
Give your students one page at a time. If you give them the background page plus any other pages where you need to cut and glue or fold, things get jumbled and at least one kiddo is going to cut something that shouldn’t be cut.

Model, model, model! Of course this goes for literally everything in kindergarten but especially for the tricky interactive notebook pages.
Help your students find the next page. You wouldn’t believe how many interactive notebook pages I’ve had to pull out because a student just opened his notebook and plopped it down wherever it opened.

Although interactive notebooks can be tricky to navigate with the younger students, it’s totally possible with these tips and tricks! What would you add to this list?

You may need…

The Benefits of a Themed Library System in Kindergarten

When I first started teaching, I was stuck on how to organize my library. Some teachers organize by reading level, others by theme, some by genre and I wasn’t sure what would be the best way to organize for my kindergarten classroom. After thinking about it, I decided to organize my library by theme and I am so grateful I did because it’s been the perfect system for my room. Here are the benefits I’ve found to having a themed library system in kindergarten.

The Benefits of a Themed Library System in Kindergarten

Students Search by Interests

When your library is arranged by theme, students pick out books that look interesting to them. In kindergarten, most students can’t read so they pick books to look at the pictures. By organizing books by theme, kinder students find reading to be fun because they’re not worried about the words but what the picture shows. This way of organizing can spark a student’s curiosity to the world of reading. There’s a lot of power in choice and arranging your library by theme gives them many choices!

They’re Exposed to Many Different Words and Vocabulary

Organizing by theme exposes students to many different words and vocabulary. When books are arranged by level, a student who reads at an “A” might only see words like The cat sat on the mat. This is great when students are starting to decode and recognize sight words but it’s not great for vocabulary. Early on in the year, I teach my students how to read through pictures. I also teach them that in a story the pictures match the words. So a student interested in volcanos might pick a book with a volcano on the front cover and be able to match that the word is volcano because it starts with a “v” sound. A themed library gives students of all levels a chance to broaden their vocabulary.

Eliminates Competition

A library organized by theme eliminates competition in reading. I absolutely do not support telling kindergarten students their reading levels. This can make low readers feel horrible about themselves and high readers feel like their better than their peers. With such a reading range in the lower grades, it’s best to keep their reading levels between the teacher and the parents. When you organize books by theme, it doesn’t matter if an “A” level book is in with the “G” level. It also doesn’t matter if an “A” level reader picks the “G” level book. In kindergarten, I believe it’s so important to just get them exposed to books and words. There’s a time and a place for leveled reading (guided reading/literacy centers) but your library is not one.

Tips to Organizing Your Library

Color Code Your Themes

I put colored stickers on all my books as well as the bin that those books go in. This makes it so kindergarten students are able to keep the books organized. Each week, a student gets to be the librarian. When they’re the librarian, they take the books from our purple bin (where students put books their done with) and put them away according to their colored sticker. Students love a chance to help and kindergarten students are very capable of keeping things organized, you just have to give them the tools!

Separate Non-Fiction and Fiction

Non-fiction and fiction is something we talk about often in kindergarten. Students learn about real stories and fantasy. I find that it’s best to separate these types of books since they are very different. I have non-fiction bins for animals, science, social studies and math books.

Save Seasonal Books for the Season

To add excitement in your library, only put your seasonal or holiday books out when the holiday is near. My students love when I change our seasonal books. They know right away because I have a hanging bookshelf that holds all those holiday books. I put them on top of our bookcases as well. This puts them on display and makes them special.

There are many ways to organize your classroom library but I’ve found so many benefits to arranging my library by theme. How is your library organized for your students?

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No Stress Valentine’s Day Lesson Plan Ideas

I have mixed feelings about celebrating Valentine’s day in the classroom (mostly because it’s all chocolate and sugar and we all know what happens when our kids have too much chocolate and sugar) but I do like the concept of friendship and love for one another. Since all holidays in the classroom are filled with a bit of chaos, I’m sending no stress Valentine’s Day lesson plan ideas your way!

No Stress Valentine’s Day Lesson Plan Ideas

Read a Valentine’s Day Story

I’m sure other primary teachers can agree that it’s always nice to find a book where our students can relate to the characters. I love when a character has a problem that my kids might have. Then, I can talk about how the character solved their problem and can refer back to them if I ever find my students in the same problem.

I love the book The Biggest Valentine Ever by Steven Kroll because my students can relate to the characters’ problem. For those who haven’t read, this book is about two students (mice) who want to make a valentine for their teacher (Mrs. Mousely). As they’re making their valentine, the two start fighting because they don’t like the way the other is contributing. So, they go home and try to make their own valentine but find that something is missing because they can’t make part of the valentine like their friend could. The next day, they come back together and decide to try again. They end up making the biggest, most beautiful valentine for their teacher and her and the class love it!

This book is the perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s day and refresh your student’s on what it means to be a good friend and working together.

Challenge your students to work together to create one valentine

Pair your students up (or let them choose their own partner if you’re feeling brave) and tell them they must create one valentine together (like Desmond and Clayton from The Biggest Valentine Ever).

Make a valentine out of something other than paper

Have students search the classroom to create a valentine out of something other than paper such as play-doh, legos, on a whiteboard etc. You could even take your class outside and so they can make a valentine out of leaves or sticks!

Decorate a Valentine’s Day bag for all their valentine’s

This is a practical idea if you need somewhere for all the valentines to go. I get plain white bags from Amazon and students get to decorate their valentine “mailbox” however they want. Then when we have our Valentine’s Day party, students deliver their valentines to their classmates bags.

Valentine’s Day Packet

Packets are an easy way to keep students occupied while still reviewing some important skills. I like to look on Teachers Pay Teachers for some themed math or literacy worksheets and I print a few and turn it in to a packet. In my class, students can earn a ticket when they finish the packet.

Valentine’s Day Write the Room

Write the rooms are such a fun way to celebrate a holiday or special theme while getting students up and moving! Students walk around the room and find the write the room cards. When they find the card, they match it to the recording sheet and write the word. This is a great way to expose them to new vocabulary as well!

With such a chaotic day, we all need some no stress Valentine’s Day lesson plan ideas. I hope these ideas make your Valentine’s Day less crazy! What are some of your favorite Valentine’s Day activities?

How to Create the Perfect Guided Reading Lesson

Guided reading is one of my favorite times during the day because I love that I can differentiate for each student. However, the prep for guided reading can be challenging and sometimes I flat-out avoid it until the last second. Tailoring different lessons to different levels is a huge task and can be pretty overwhelming if you’re just starting out. That’s why I’ve created a step by step plan for you to get the perfect guided reading lesson each time and for any level.

How to Create the Perfect Guided Reading Lesson

Before you create your perfect guided reading lesson, you need to do a couple of things first!

Assess Students to Find Their Levels

First of all, you need to know your student’s levels. My school uses the Fountas and Pinnell guided reading assessments so I use this at the beginning of the year to find their level. I also assess them mid-year and at the end of the year. I send their end of the year assessments to the first grade teacher so she can group them in her class.

Create Your Guided Reading Groups

Once you know your students’ levels you can break them into appropriate groups and you’ll know what kinds of books to use. Fountas and Pinnell uses an alphabet scale so normally my kids are reading at an AA (pre-reading) through D/E. The level will depend on what system you use. You can even find some guided reading curriculum on TpT.

Steps to Creating a Perfect Guided Reading Lesson

1. Choose a book at the group’s level.

As I’ve mentioned above, I use Fountas and Pinnell so I have a set curriculum and books that I can choose from. I organize what group has read what book by highlighting the book name from a list that I have for each group. For example, my groups are colors so if the purple group reads Worm is Hot, I highlight it on the purple list so I know they’ve already read this book when I choose their book in future lessons.

2. Pick out sight words or vocabulary words from the book that you want to frontload.

Before we dive into our book, I preface our story by showing any sight or vocabulary words that may be tricky for students to read or that students may not know. That way, when they get to the word, they’ve already seen it and will know what it means.

2A. (Optional) Find a pre-reading activity.

I like to use a pre-reading activity mostly for my lower groups. Sometimes, I pick out words from the book that students can phonetically sound out and we practice sounding out these words before reading. Then, when they come to the word in their book, they’ve seen it and have practiced sounding it out so it’s not as intimidating.

3. Choose any reading strategies you want to reinforce.

I use the popular animal reading strategies: eagle eye, lips the fish, stretchy snake, chunky monkey, tryin’ lion, skippy frog and flippy dolphin. I like to introduce them one at a time and I decide which to introduce based on the kinds of words in the book.

4. Think of at least 3 comprehension questions you want to ask once the group has read the book a few times through.

Once students have read through the book at least two or three times, I ask them comprehension questions. To prepare for this part of the lesson, I write some out before hand. Check out my freebie below for a list of comprehension questions you could ask!

4A. (Optional) Decide on an extension activity they can do (depending on the level).

Mostly, my high groups get extension activities to complete once we’ve finished guided reading. I like to connect our extension activities to our skill of the week in language arts (I use Reading Street) that way they get more exposure to the comprehension skill. My high students can handle the extra challenge and benefit from the opportunity to transfer the learned skill to another story.

What steps do you take in creating your perfect guided reading lesson?

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5 Key Benefits of Using Write the Room in Your Classroom

Don’t you love finding activities that get your students up and moving? I do too! That’s why I absolutely love Write the Room activities. This simple idea of putting words up around the classroom and having students write them on a recording sheet is so engaging and can be a great learning tool. I use Write the Room during all sorts of subjects – math, writing, language arts and more! I’ve found that there are many advantages to using this activity. Here are the 5 key benefits of using Write the Room in your classroom.

Write the Room Benefits

1. Not just another worksheet

Although in reality this activity requires a worksheet (recording sheet), this is not just another typical, paper and pencil, do at your seat worksheet. Students have to move their bodies all around the room to search for the words they need to record. I use this activity during the holidays to get students excited for the upcoming season or as a review of something we’ve learned recently.

2. Handwriting Practice

This activity gets students to practice their writing and handwriting. My kindergarteners benefit from constantly observing the right way to write, tracing words and letters, and practicing writing on their own in order for them to be able to communicate through writing. We focus on handwriting a few times a week and the proper way to write the letters and numbers. Write the Room is an awesome way for them to practice their handwriting without making them trace and write the same letter for a whole page.

3. Beginning Letter Recognition

In kindergarten, it’s important for students to learn their letter sounds as it makes reading and sounding out easier. Write the Room helps students focus on beginning letters and sounds. Along with all the themed words in a certain Write the Room resource, there is a picture that matches. When students find a word, they must look on their recording sheet for the beginning letter. As they write the word, they are thinking of the picture and are able to practice sounding out the word.

4. Builds Vocabulary

Write the Room is a good way to build your students vocabulary. You could use this activity to begin your science or social studies unit using key vocabulary as the Write the Room words. Sign up for my newsletter and receive a Community Helpers Write the Room FREEBIE! I also use Write the Room to build vocabulary around the holidays. Students match the picture to the word during this activity and then notice the word in our seasonal books. Students feel so proud when they know how to read a fancy word!

5. Review Activity or Assessment

This activity can be utilized as a review activity or assessment. After I teach nouns for a few weeks, students show me what they know by completing a write the room (nouns edition). In kindergarten, we learn what a noun is and students practice distinguishing between the different kinds of nouns. During this Write the Room, students find a noun card and have to decide if it is a person, place, thing or animal. Through this activity, we review what they’ve learned and I can decide if I need to continue to work on nouns or if we can move on to something else.