Let’s teach reading in fun ways with small groups of kindergartners. Teaching reading in today’s kindergarten takes a well-rounded approach. Here are my favorite tips for staying organized with teaching reading in groups and my favorite activities to create strong readers.
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My students need to know sight words. They are a key step in the reading process. They aren’t the end-all-be-all, but they do play an important role in learning how to read in kindergarten. Here is one mini-lesson I do – I call it a warm-up activity – with my guided reading groups. Let me…
Learning to read CVC words is key to reading success in kindergarten. Learning to rhyme in addition to blending onsets and rime plays a key role in learning to read too. Here are some quick tools I’ve developed to work on these skills in my small group teaching sessions. I made these rhyming books to…
The 100th day of school is such a fun celebration. We work hard in kindergarten and come so far in those first 100 days of school. Some of you may remember that I lovingly joke that we go from herding cats in the first days in kindergarten to teaching those same cats to read. What…
Looking through favorite games I’ve used in my guided reading groups, I found this free race car reading activity. I should totally add it to this list of games you can play in the classroom using race cars! Normally I would use this nonsense words activity with my groups once they were able to blend cvc…
Use simple hand motions and a basic office supply tool to help teach kindergarteners how to sound out words. You’ll be surprised just how well they learn to both segment and blend sounds on their own with practice. When it comes to growing readers and writers, and growing up writers who will attempt to sound…
Work on beginning reading skills with a fun building block activity. This free onset and rime activity is perfect for kindergartners to build CVC words using word families and mini Jenga-style building blocks. To build strong readers in kindergarten, we need to ditch the worksheets. We need to actively learn how to read by: reading…
Let’s teach how to rhyme with these rhyming activities for kindergarten. Here are 8 free rhyming activities you can use with your kindergarten students in guided reading groups so they can learn how to hear and identify rhyming words. Teaching kindergartners to hear rhyming words I once thought that rhyming was just something that kinders…
Let’s get real about literacy centers. And more specifically, literacy centers in kindergarten. We all understand the need for “centers” because we want our students to be occupied and (ideally) learning on their own so that as teachers, we can meet with small groups of students. But when did “centers” become one of these things:…
Do you find yourself needing more time to teach everything we’re supposed to? Yeah, me too. One of the ways I felt better about using my time (and was able to be more productive) was to teach in small groups. I didn’t just teach the same lesson to multiple groups – while that would’ve saved…
Learning how to read means learning lots of intertwining skills – like beginning sounds. Here is my list of my top teaching printables and favorite free resources that I used this year in my guided reading groups. Let me share why I use them and how you can use them in your classroom too. How and why I use these…
Keeping higher readers in kindergarten challenged appropriately doesn’t mean more work, or even more {{uuugh}} worksheets. Far from it! In our classroom it means working on the next level of skills or working more in-depth. Here is one example of a game we played in our guided reading groups to help higher readers stay challenged….
Keep fun reading tools on hand to encourage kindergarten readers. Here are my must-have reading tools that are fun and were used regularly! Over the years I’ve changed what I’ve kept on hand in at my teacher table for guided reading. But, I’ve always liked to keep manipulatives we use regularly on hand as well…
Make reading in small groups easier with a reading strategy checklist. Here is a free checklist I’ve made for guided reading groups to communicate what I’m seeing with kindergarten parents. When reading with small groups, documenting what strategies students try is a great way to both informally assess and help guide your own planning. We teachers have…
I like working smart and one way I found to do that was by making sets of handy charts to use during guided groups. You can do this too – using your favorite materials! For my kindergarten classes – with a wide range of non-readers to second grade reading levels, that included working from the alphabet to learning…
When it comes to shopping at the Dollar Tree, I’m always looking for ways to keep the fun in standards-based kindergarten activities. Here are six activities that are perfect to use in kindergarten that makes it really inexpensive and still engaging to teach reading skills. These activities cover starting with the alphabet, to sight words to…
Keeping your guided reading materials, lessons, observations, running records and such can be overwhelming for new teachers and more experienced teachers alike! My school, my first year of teaching was binder happy (I’m sure some of you can relate!) and so naturally I worked on a system to keep all of my materials in a binder….
A guided reading binder helps me keep lesson plans and guided reading group notes both organized and at my fingertips. Here’s how to create a guided reading binder in 4 steps and keep it organized with 6 simple recommendations. I hope you find these tips helpful as you teach your guided reading groups. Create Your Guided Reading Binder 1….
My guided reading binder needs to be organized in order for me to grab lesson plans and take guided reading group notes in seconds. We’ve just looked at 4 steps to create a guided reading binder – now let’s keep it organized with these 6 simple recommendations. With these 10 tips combined, I hope that you feel a little more…
Here’s an organization tip for storing guided reading materials! If you like to use games, workmats or re-usable activities for warm-ups or wrap-ups to your lesson time… this may help you grab what you need fast. I hope you find this quick storage tip easy to use and helpful! Guided Reading {Pain Free} Organization Store your…
Using fun phonics games and reading activities make guided reading groups easier. Here’s a new blending cvc words with short vowels activity I created to use to help prepare students for Dibels and become more fluid readers. Phonics games are more fun when they are interactive – how much more interactive can you get than…
Teaching reading skills through games now helps make up half of my guided reading group instruction time. This is a big shift in the way I’ve structured my reading group instruction, but it gives me the opportunity to practice individual skills through focused word work, for example, and then tie them into practical application the…
We teach so many different skills to develop young readers. Here is my list of my top teaching alphabet identification printables and favorite free resources used this year in my guided reading groups. These have helped me focus on specific skills to teach how to read and meet student needs. Alphabet identification in kindergarten I use…
Underneath my teacher space is where I have relocated my guided reading group materials. Right now the top shelf is designated for materials that we use on an everyday basis… …the types of things that I’d use with any and every group. Do these look familiar? I use pencil caddies to contain the items so that…
Anyone else feel like organizing never stops? Once you start organizing something, it spills over or borrows a container from something else which inevitably directs your organization destination to never-stops-ville. Okay, so I’m probably being dramatic, and I do love being (or at least feeling) organized, but sometimes I have to make myself stop because it can…