Guided Reading Made Easy

The purpose of Guided Reading is to teach and re-teach Reading to a small group of students, based on their current level of learning. It also is an opportunity to teach new skills a little bit above thier learning level, in order to challenge them and teach new reading skills. For Kindergarten, some of the skills that can be taught are: beginning sounds of words, sight word discovery, letter discovery, noticing capital letters and end marks along with spaces between words, finding words with long or short vowels, counting words in sentences, identifying characters and setting, recalling what happened in each part of the story, retelling the story, contractions, silent e, word chunks, and many more.

Guided Reading takes much preparation. Gathering the materials and books before the lesson ensures that no time is wasted. Here is a simple lesson plan and all the materials needed for a guided reading group. The lesson attached to the link below can be used to teach letters and sounds along with sight word discovery. I plan to use this lesson for my students who do not yet know all of thier letters and sounds and know some sight words. This lesson will help them to gain confidence in reading as they touch and read the sentence.

Kindergarten Guided Reading with -am words -is-and-like

 

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Humpty Dumpty Rhyme Video’s

Research shows that when children learn how to rhyme, then they will be better readers. Also, some dyslexic children have difficulty with rhyming. Practicing rhymes and making them fun will encourage the brain to remember rhymes. Repetition is the key, so if a child cannot “find or notice” a rhyme right away, than the adult should try something new. Animations, just like t.v., computer interaction and movies, is one way to grab the brain’s attention. Here is a YouTube video of a cute little Humpty Dumpty. Enjoy!

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Goldilocks and the Three Bears-video’s

I love reading all the many versions of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” It is fun to listen for similarities and differences between all the versions. There is even one featuring Santa Claus! Here are some of the many 3 Bears stories:

                   

Watch the story live, here! This one is “Santa and the Three Bears”

Here is a Golilocks “Fractured Fairy Tale” version. It’s old, but cute!

This is a puppet show re-enactment of the story. I bet children in school or at home could do this too. Acting out stories is a great way to ensure comprehension.

“There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed A…” watch the video here!

There are so many version of this book. I am sure there are more, but these are some of my favorite versions. It is fun to talk with the kids about the similarities and differences between each story. I found all of these images at Google images. There are even more here than I thought there would be! How exciting!

             

          

     

The first video is one of the original readings. I love this video because it reads aloud the story and shows the words at the same time-and it is animated! Enjoy!

Here is the book to music!

Here is a cute little old lady reading “There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Leaf”

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle-watch the video now!

I had no idea that YouTube had so many of my favorite children’s books, but in video form. Last week, Mrs. Garner, an amazing teacher that I work with, sent me a link for a story on YouTube. Now I am going crazy finding new links for stories. Children today still love to hear stories, but when you put the story to music and add animations, it makes it even better!

Eric Carle is the author and illustrator of many amazing books. You have probably read or listened to at least one of his stories.

   

                

Here is a video of Eric Carle reading his newest book. Enjoy!

Eric talks about his book, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” here. Find out how his book was different when he first started writing it. He edited it and changed it to make it what it is today.

Here is an animated reading of the book, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”

Pumpkin WebQuest
Pumpkins

Image by DrBacchus via Flickr

A WebQuest is like a field trip online-for kids. I made this one about Pumpkins because when I searched online, I could not find any that were useful. Most links on existing WebQuests, had links that no longer existed. This was really frustrating because I have some students that could benefit, but they too would become frustrated if the links did not work. I was inspired by what I found online. So, I hope others can benefit from this webquest! Enjoy! You can begin the quest below, online-or you can print the student page so that the student can write on it, to document their journey. Be sure to read the teacher form to find out the many uses of this WebQuest. Have fun!

Pumpkin WebQuest-teacher form

Pumpkins WebQuest-student form

Pumpkins WebQuest

Introduction

You are going on a WEBQUEST! Your job is to be a detective and find out many facts
about pumpkins. After the WEBQUEST you should know the following:

· Different types of pumpkins-similarities and differences

· The life cycle of a pumpkin

· When pumpkins should be planted, how long they take to grow and when they are harvested

· Many uses of a pumpkin

· The weight and size of pumpkins

Tasks- Your Job

Task 1- Mouse practice!

The first thing a Webquest detective needs to know is how to find the hidden pumpkin pictures. Click the mouse on the
underlined words. http://www.aftonapple.com/pumpkins.htm Good Job, you found the first set of pumpkins!!! What did they look like?
___________________________

Task 2 – Pumpkin Types

Pumpkins come in many shapes and sizes. Click on the following links to see! Styrian and little green seed http://www.liseed.org/snackseed.html

Holsteinwhite http://www.foreverwherever.com/2009/10/white-pumpkins/

Pumpkins with the name Baby Boo Canyou guess why one of these pumpkins is called Tallman? And Still MorePumpkin Pictures

Grey Pumpkins http://www.flickr.com/photos/51165730@N08/6109211095/

Draw a picture of your favorite pumpkin. Try to list its type and use the correct colors too!

Task 3- Life Cycle

Learn about the life cycle of a pumpkin.http://csstechnology.edublogs.org/files/2008/10/pumpkin-life-cycle.jpg (You can ask for this to be printed and then you can cut and glue the pictures in order) Now, draw the life cycle in order. Start with the seed.

1. _________ 2._________ 3._________ 4._________ 5.________

Task 4- Pumpkin Patch

Did you know that pumpkins grow in patches?
Click on this link to see how it starts. http://tricogreenteam.org/the-teaching-garden/finally-the-pumpkin-patch-gets-planted/

Can you draw your own pumpkin patch? Try it and count how many pumpkins are in your patch.

Conclusion

I am so proud of you! You have completed your detective work! Now you can choose
a product to make, so you can teach us about what you learned! Here are your
choices. Circle the thing you have chosen.

Option 1- Create a non-fiction book with each page containing new
facts

Option 2- Create a pumpkin poster that contains facts and
illustrations or even the life cycle of a pumpkin

Option 3- Create a Power Point about pumpkins

Option 4- Create a short informational video, using a web-cam, iPod
video recording, etc… which tells the details learned during the WebQuest

I am so excited about what you will make!

Love,

Your Teacher

Now, celebrate by playing a game: http://www.primarygames.com/puzzles/jigsaw/pumpkin/PumpkinJigsaw.htm -or- find out more about pumpkins at: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/pumpkins/education.cfm

Listen to this wonderful story on YouTube, based on the book “Spookly the Square Pumpkin”

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Eye balls!

To help my kiddo’s learn to count by 5’s, I bought some creepy looking eyeballs at the dollar tree. They are 12 to a bag and just a dollar! They are just so cute and creepy and are the size of a ping pong ball! What I did was put 5 eyeballs into a ziploc bag. I am also using the eyeballs to count the number of days we have been in school. So today, we have 25 eyeballs! And I am just so funny-because I hung the bags up on my whiteboard (with magnets) and labeled it “Eye” can count by 5’s!

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Journals for young writers
Picture of a generic composition book, with a ...

Image via Wikipedia

I have made some labels to help me encourage my students to write more. Each attached sheet below can be printed out and then cut apart to give each child one label. The label will help remind everyone what the child should have written or drawn about on that particular day.

I have already found some great labels online that I have printed and added onto either notebooks or bradded folders. I used whatever I had received for school supplies (composition books for Reading and Writing, spirals for Science, bradded folder filled with hold punched construction paper for Poetry and the same for Math).

These journals will be a great tool for tracking student progress and to also allow them to reflect on what they are learning about. This is the first year that I will be having my students use a journal for every subject area. What a great way to reduce the cost of copies and the use of those unappealing worksheets. Teachers, parents and children like to see what they can do on their own anyway!

Reading and Writing Journal Prompt Labels

Journal prompts for writing

Journal labels- Bb Words

Journal labels- Ll Words

Journal labels “Mm words”

Journal labels “T Words”

Math Journal Prompt Labels

Journal labels- Rectangles

Journal labels- Spheres

Journal labels- Squares

Journal labels- Triangles

Journal labels- Patterns

Science Notebook prompting Labels

Journal labels- Science Tools

Power Points and Word Walls just added!

I just added Power Points for almost every letter of the alphabet. Some were made by me, some by other amazing teachers! I also added some word wall words that go along with every letter too. Just click on the pages at the top of my blog to access the files. More things you can download: sight words for Kindergarten, colors and shapes Power Points, very short poems, GT items, centers and Science fun!