Education resources for parents and teachers
This post will show you how to write a guided reading lesson plan, step by step. Today I'm sharing 6 steps for planning a guided reading lesson in K-2. STEP 1: Choose a teaching point. Think about your group of students. What do they need to learn? If you're completely stuck on this, no worries. At the end of this post you can download a list of possible teaching points for different stages of reading ... Read More
Today I'm sharing my final set of short vowel four-in-a-row games. They're a fun (and quick!) way to review single-syllable short vowel words. To play, print a board game of your choice. Then grab two do-a-dot markers. Other options include covering the words with small round manipulatives or coloring with regular markers or crayons. Take turns reading the words and dotting with a do-a-dot marker. The first to ... Read More
Looking for a reading comprehension activity featuring Abraham Lincoln? Here you go! Today I'm sharing a free sample from my bundle of reading comprehension passages about famous people. I'm sharing the mid-level reading passage about Abraham Lincoln (with a response sheet). Before I asked my Seven (a mid-year second grader) to read the passage, I shared a picture of the Lincoln Memorial that I'd found online. I ... Read More
Teach your students the concept of multiplication with this fun activity! It's essential that students build an understanding of the concept of multiplication prior to memorizing the facts. They need to understand how to use multiplication in real situations before they start committing facts to memory. This way they'll be more prepared to answer real world math problems - which is the whole point of learning those ... Read More
Looking for guided reading activities? I've got you covered! This post contains affiliate links. In my 10-part guided reading series, we've already covered a lot of ground: 10 reasons why guided reading is important Understanding the guided reading levels Where to find books for guided reading The parts of a guided reading lesson Today we're going to look more closely at the parts of a lesson and give sample ... Read More
Opposites can be a tricky concept to teach. Try these free opposites games for preschoolers! A reader requested that I create a simple opposites game that her students could use to practice identifying which words were opposites - and which weren't. Since I wanted to use the game with my preschooler, I knew I'd need to include a simpler game first. The simple game includes opposites on each space. Your learner ... Read More
Grab my newest set of roll & read games! Have you seen my roll & read games? They turn reading practice into a fun game. All you need is the printable and a die! Simply take turns rolling the die. Then read the words under the corresponding die on the game board - as quickly and accurately as possible. The game has a variety of levels. The above picture shows the simplest game board of all. This game is ... Read More
Looking for another differentiated write the room activity? You're in the right place! Have you tried "write the room" with your learners yet? It's a great way to get them reading, paying attention to the letters in words, and even practicing penmanship. I like to use these with my Six when he gets home from kindergarten. I simply give him the recording sheet and a pencil. Then he hunts for all the word/picture ... Read More
So ... you're ready to begin guided reading, but you're not sure how to structure your guided reading lesson. This post is for you! This post contains affiliate links. Have you been following along with our guided reading series? I talked about ten reasons guided reading is so important, explained the guided reading levels, and named places to find guided reading texts. Finally, I explained how to form guided ... Read More
This is a great activity to use when you want your learners to review vocabulary! Many of you have requested vocabulary activities, so I created this simple learning center that you could use with kids in grades 3-5. As you can see, the activity is simple. Gather a list of vocabulary words that you've already taught your students (they don't come with the download) and have your learners use them to complete the ... Read More
