What are interactive read alouds? Tips and tricks for interactive read aloud planning with resources and teaching ideas for elementary.
*This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links. By clicking on the links and making a purchase, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Summer is the perfect time to engage your students in fun STEM and maker learning! This month’s read aloud selections offer hands-on lear
Use videos of celebrities reading children's books to engage and further promote literacy in your classroom! We've created an extensive list of popular celebrities reading best-selling books to use during distance learning or in-person instruction. Keep reading to access links and resources!
Over 150 of the best read aloud picture books as voted by over 500 parents! Perfect for reading aloud at home or school.
Teaching growth mindset can be done with read-alouds! Rosie's Glasses is a great book for this. Get ideas for using this book to teach being positive.
These end of the year books can be a fun way to count down to the last day of school, help students reflect on their experiences over the year, and ease any anxieties about moving on to a new grade!
Kindergarten is a most delightful ages for read alouds–kids are full of wonder and silliness, and the selection of excellent picture books is enormous. Here are 50 of the best books for kindergarten.
It is essential to read to students aloud. Not only is reading aloud to students building language and vocabulary, but it is also sparking children’s love for reading!
Going into your child's classroom to read some picture books? These kindergarten read alouds are perfect for kinder, first, second, and third grade classes!
We all know the importance of reading stories in the the classroom. They can build background knowledge on a topic being discussed. It is a great way to increase vocabulary. Students get excited about learning. Plus, you can increase students reading and listening comprehension. I want to challenge you to go beyond they everyday read ... Read More about Interactive Read Aloud
Students are in a position where they can change the world. However, they must understand making a positive change starts small. Otherwise, they will feel their voice does not matter. For instance, it could be speaking up when someone is being made fun of. Or, it could be developing a plan to address a littering
Are you looking for diverse read alouds? Are you looking to celebrate a variety of languages, customs, and traditions? If so, this book list is for you!
Read aloud time is vital but can be a chore for children who love to move. Here are 50 activity ideas for crafting, building, eating, and moving!
*This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links. By clicking on the links and making a purchase, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Looking for some fun ways to engage in STEM and maker learning? This month’s read aloud selections offer hands-on learning that will keep
Teachers work so hard to create a positive classroom community. Honestly, they know the power of students working together. However, students must realize that a positive community goes beyond the classroom. As students get older, they become members of extracurricular activities. Likewise, they are members of their community outside of school. Luckily, building a community
45 Of the best read aloud picture books for kids that teach character building truths and are sure to bring a smile to your face.
Are you getting ready to teach problem and solution? Check out this list of my top 10 books for teaching problem and solution.
Young readers will love this great book selection of 50 awesome first grade read alouds. From picture books to chapters books, this list has everything you need
*This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links. By clicking on the links and making a purchase, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Looking for some fun ways to engage in STEM and maker learning this spring? This month’s read aloud selections offer hands-on learning th
Upper elementary blog with practical, rigorous, classroom tested ideas to implement with your students.
Imagine going through an entire day, unable to understand what anyone is saying. You have no idea how to ask to use the restroom or how to find your way around. Sadly, this happens to students worldwide as they move to an area with a new language. Additionally, there are students with different cultures and
*This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links. By clicking on the links and making a purchase, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Need some ideas to keep students engaged during these final weeks of school? Discover new inventions and new perspectives with your stude
Learn 19 books about social emotional learning that every elementary teacher should have in their classroom plus helpful SEL tips for teachers!
The best read-aloud books for preschoolers. Examples of how to use interactive prompting to help your child learn how to read.
A month by month list of chapter books for kindergarteners to read aloud. Your whole year of read-alouds is planned with this free printable list of books.
Learn how to create effective interactive read aloud lesson plans with three simple steps to help develop students' reading strategies.
Ready to build your STEM library with the best picture books? Start Here! Check out my Top 10 all time favorite read alouds for elementary STEM
Want to make a read aloud lesson interactive but aren't sure how? Use these easy to implement steps to get going and watch your students' comprehension levels sky rocket! What Is An Interactive Read Aloud? The interactive read aloud strategy is a whole group lesson where the teacher will read a preselected text that is at least 2-3 grade levels above the students' current grade level. The teacher will pause throughout the book for conversation and discussion. The students will talk to each other, think to themselves, respond orally and in a journal. Students will actively process the meaning of the text through this type of engaging reading lesson. Check out this short interactive read aloud video from Fountas & Pinnell showing a few lessons in progress. If you want to read my post with a little more information on how exactly I teach a read aloud throughout the week or why read alouds are so important then check out my post "Interactive Read Alouds....What are they, how to use them, and why they are so important" I go more in detail in that blog post about the read aloud culminating activities I do at the end of the week. Interactive Read Aloud Book Selection As mentioned above when you choose an interactive read aloud book, it needs to be about 2-3 grade levels above the students' current grade. You will want to pick a book that is a good fit for the standard you are covering that week. You will be integrating several other standards as review, but you will want one main standard to focus on. It's very easy to search for books that are good for particular standards. Make sure you choose one that you enjoy yourself. That will definitely make a difference in how your students respond to it. Plus, you will be using the book all week so it needs to be something engaging. Interactive Read Aloud Vocabulary The next step in planning an interactive read aloud lesson is to choose about 3-5 rich vocabulary words. These need to be words that students must know to understand the book. I usually make up hand gestures that go along with the word to help my students remember them. For example for feast we pretend like we are eating or for curious we tap our head with our finger like we are thinking. Anytime the students hear the word in the book we do the gesture to reinforce its meaning. I also make sure the vocabulary words are up on an anchor chart. This step will be discussed more below. Setting a Purpose for the Read Aloud This part is actually two steps. Once you have a great text selected, decide on an essential question. This gives the students something to focus on to understand the meaning of the book. I tell my students they should all be able to answer the essential question by the end of the week. I usually tend to think of the moral or lesson of the story and base my question around that. The essential question will also go on your anchor chart. During this part you will also want to come up with several rich questions to ask throughout the book. Students will either answer you by turning and talking with a partner, using private think time to answer individually or writing their answer in their notebook or journal. The read aloud questions you use need to align to the standards. The majority of the questions should align to the main standard for the week, but you should also sprinkle other standard questions throughout. I like to use standards we have already covered as well as new ones just as a mini introduction. *Tip* Mark the pages you will be stopping to ask questions. A great way to do this is by writing the question on a sticky note and placing it on that page. Save the sticky notes and you'll have them next year! Read Aloud Anchor Chart I use an anchor chart for each read aloud we do. At the top I list the essential question. I also have the vocabulary words on the chart as well as the main standard for the week and some questions we can ask in order to understand the standard better. The majority of the chart will hold our learning for the week. I create some type of graphic organizer that goes along with the main standard we are focusing on and we fill in the information that we learn throughout the week. So to sum everything up, here are the steps to plan an engaging interactive read aloud: 1. Select a book 2. Choose vocabulary words 3. Write an essential question 4. Come up with standard aligned questions 5. Create your anchor chart If this all sounds fantastic to you but you are wondering when in the world you will have the time to create all of this, I have already done all of the work for you for the entire year. Check out the yearly bundle, individual month option, or try the free lesson first to see if you like it! Want to remember this information for later? Just pin the image below! Related Interactive Read Aloud Posts Interactive Read Alouds.....What They Are, How To Use Them & Why They Are So Important! Do You Want Students That Get Excited About Reading Comprehension?
Learn about the importance of SEL and 11 essential ways that teachers can incorporate social-emotional learning activities into the classroom today.
This post shares The Word Collector activities and ideas that incorporate vocabulary, theme, comprehension, One Little Word, free printables, and more!
Are you looking for some great books to celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd? Come check out The Best Earth Day Read-Alouds.
ALL ABOUT FRIENDSHIP Friendship and conflict solving skills are so important to teach our kiddos. Our job is to teach them important social skills. They need these tools to ensure successful relationships with their peers and adults. It is tricky, but it can be done! I am sharing some
Looking for a new read aloud book for your classroom or homeschool? Don't miss this list of 100 amazing read alouds for kids of all ages!
Teaching with picture books is remarkably effective. Here are some of the best picture books for principals to read aloud so you can make a different too.
Are your readers ready to dive into making predictions? Finding interactive read aloud lessons and books to use, or how to use them to teach making predictions can be difficult! This Making Predictions Interactive Read Aloud Lesson Plan set has 7 days of making predictions activities from graphic organizers to anchor charts and more! It has easy-to-follow plans that are perfect for the first grade or kindergarten classroom during interactive read aloud time.
Storyline Online is one of the best sites for viewing children's book read alouds. Let me share some details you might not know yet, and I'll throw in a helpful Freebie you'll use again and again. If you've looked on YouTube for kids books being read aloud you've found thousands of them. Any given children's book title usually has several different uploaded read aloud videos to choose from and there is a wide range in quality. I found Storyline Online this very way, while looking through all the YouTube videos for read alouds. Storyline Online is made possible by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, SAG-AFTRA. It is absolutely free to use. As I write this they have over fifty children's picture book read aloud videos available. Here's a sample. Each video starts with the actor, or actors, holding the book and giving a book introduction before beginning to read. The camera zooms in on the illustrations, where often little parts of the pictures become animated. Throughout the story you go back and forth between seeing the illustrations and the actor reading the book, so kids never forget they are being read to. Fully animated video movies of children's books are great, to be sure, but it is easy to forget those cartoons come from books. I think when kids watch books being read by live people there is added value and emphasis on reading. Because I had always viewed the Storyline Online videos directly on YouTube, I didn't realize that there are activity guides written for each story, which you can only get on the Storyline Online site. The activity guides, written for teachers mostly, but some with activity guides specifically for parents, are chockfull of ideas– some suggest before, during and after the story discussion points, themes, writing ideas, art, movement, even cooking activities... all sorts of things to choose from. You can find them by going directly to StorylineOnline.net under the All Books tab. You can watch the Storyline Online read aloud videos on YouTube, but when watching on YouTube it is pretty easy to get to other videos and ads, some of which you wouldn't want your kids to view. You can also watch Storyline Online videos directly on StorylineOnline.net, with options of watching via YouTube or SchoolTube, with SchoolTube being the safer option. Either way you choose to watch on the Storyline Online site, when you get to the end of the video, other Storyline Online videos will pop up. That isn't a bad thing, unless you want kids to only watch one particular story, or you want other kids to use the same device and watch that one particular story. So to keep kids on the correct story I created QR codes for the stories through Safe YouTube. Click to download Safe YouTube QR Code cards for Storyline Online videos Safe YouTube is better than safe mode on YouTube, and it takes away all those many buttons and videos that cause distractions and allow kids to click and end up anywhere on YouTube. No online connection is completely safe and kids seem to find a way to other things no matter what, so always keep an eye on what they are watching. I created one for each story on Storyline Online, currently fifty three in total. You can print out the QR Code cards in color, or they come out crisp and clean if you choose to print in black and white. Laminate, cut apart, and you'll have a set of cards for kids to use on any device with a QR Code reader. It will take them to that story and no other. These work great in classrooms as centers, Daily 5 and Readers Workshop stations, and independent reading choices. If you're a parent you'll find them useful at home or on the road with devices. To get this Freebie just click on the picture of QR code cards above. There are six pages in all. I will update as I see new stories appear on Storyline Online. Be sure to Pin this post so you can get to updated pages. I suggest you cruise by StorylineOnline.net to see the full list of read aloud titles. I found many good books there, books I hadn't heard of before. I like to have actual copies of the books the kids are going to listen to, and I like to read the book to my students first, so I can make the most out of that read aloud– focusing on vocabulary, story problem, characters, etc. But if I'm low on cash, Storyline Online is a way to let my kidpeople hear quality books at no cost to me. Many of my favorite Flashlight Press books are there, too, and if you are a regular reader you know how I love Flashlight Press. (News Flash– I'll be giving away another Flashlight Book soon!!) Storyline Online has won lots of awards and that is for very good reason. Good book selections, VERY well read! Hope you found this post about Storyline Online and the activity guides helpful. And I hope you'll download the QR Code cards and find them useful with your kids. I am not being paid or getting any perk for telling you about Storyline Online. I just wanted to share a great resource. See you next time!
Reading aloud to my students allows me to share my passion for reading, expose my students to books they might not choose for themselves, introduce a book series or memorable character, model reading fluency and expression, and help build their vocabulary in a unique way. Not all books are created equal when it comes to read aloud. Choosing the right chapter book read aloud can make all the difference when it comes to captivating your young readers. Here are some of my favorite chapter book read alouds for the primary classroom.
I have a super fun collection of book titles for you to have in your back pocket that your Kindergarteners will enjoy.
Just dropping in to share August's Interactive Read Aloud Lessons for the following books: Those Shoes, What Do You Do With a Problem?, The Dot, and The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes. I love incorporating Interactive Read Alouds, because they allow us to teach a broad range of standards. You can't cover an ELA standard once, and expect your students to automatically master it. These allow you to continue to continually revisit it. If you would like to learn more about Interactive Read Alouds, this article from Reading Rockets does a great job of explaining its components and the WHY. You will find that each week’s read aloud below will cover several standards, but I focus more heavily on a specific one each week while also including the others. Each read aloud is designed to cover five days but can be condensed to four depending on your schedule. All of my read aloud plans include anchor charts, posters, a daily lesson plan, assessing and advancing questions for partner talk and reading response, vocabulary, mentor sentences, speaking and listening checklists, vocabulary acquisition checklists, and daily and culminating task journal printables. This month is all about GROWTH MINDSET. Let's take a look at what my interactive read aloud looks like! I always have an anchor chart that focuses on the main standard for the week. The first week of August is all about retell of key details, so this will be the anchor chart I use. I print it as a poster in Adobe, which prints it very large on four pieces of paper. You can then trim it up and tape it together to make a large poster. We then laminate it, so that I can reuse it throughout the week and for the following years. Since it is interactive, I can or students can add to it throughout the week and erase as needed. We will just focus on Those Shoes in today's post. I always include 3-4 vocabulary words to explicitly teach. Other vocabulary that may be unknown in the text will only be implicitly taught. The words above I display in a pocket chart. I have a routine that I follow that you can find with the unit to teach these words. These sticky notes might be my favorite! The questioning in the read aloud progresses throughout the week. We progress from key ideas and details to craft and structure, and then finally to integration of knowledge and ideas types of questions. The questions can be printed on sticky notes to stick inside your read aloud. You are now ready to go throughout the week! No planning! My friend had the idea to turn the sticky notes sideways when printing. That way, you can cut the questions apart and place them on the pages in which you will ask the questions! Each week includes a 5-day set of scripted lesson plans. On day one, we read through the whole text as you can see above. But throughout the rest of the week, we will only read parts of the book that refer to that day's task. I include everything you need to do before, during, and after reading the text. The exit ticket component can be a written or verbal response. I find that a lot of times, I just wrap up my lesson with a partner talk referring to the exit ticket. One of the most difficult parts of planning an Interactive Read Aloud are the daily tasks. The daily tasks all build upon one another to finally prepare students to complete their culminating task. The daily task is almost always a written journal response. I try to include multiples on a page to help you save paper and copies. We all know those copies are precious! I am all about making my Interactive Read Aloud engaging! This month, there are a couple of crafts included, which you can see in the listing. You can also see the Kind Kid hat that we made below. They all pair with a task, so you won't get in trouble for doing a craft! ;) Lots of teachers requested that I also include a multiple choice test over the story. This test assesses the focus standard for the week. This is great test prep, too, since they will begin taking standardized tests in second grade. Finally, we integrate some language instruction in through a mentor sentence. The one above is mine that I display. Students will get a set of the sentence's words to glue in their journal. We highlight specific parts of the sentence, such as nouns and verbs. Sometimes, we add details. We always add an illustration to match our sentence. You can check out August's Interactive Read Aloud Lesson's below, or you can save BIG below with the bundle for the entire year. Thanks for stopping by! I would love to hear from you! Do you incorporate interactive read alouds into your literacy block?
Simple STEM Stories will help you merge literacy and STEM with fun and engaging, hands-on STEM challenges based on a children's book.
Teachers, librarians, and parents, are you looking for read alouds for 1st graders? Here are engaging read alouds that I highly recommend.
Excellent read aloud books for fifth grade. These are all books that I have read aloud and are perfect for reading aloud at home or in a classroom.
Looking for funny kid books that will have your children giggling with delight? This list includes more than 25 favorites that will have you all laughing!
No one wants to feel left out. However, this happens to students every single day. For instance, students sit alone at lunch and play alone at recess daily. Additionally, there are students who do not have a partner when being able to work together. No teacher wants students to feel alone. Therefore, they work really
Teach Force and Motion to Kindergarteners with this simple STEM Challenge designed to connect to the Read Aloud Book, Ricky The Rock that Couldn't Roll.
Picking the BEST books to read aloud to your child can be frustrating. Here are 45 Books to Read Aloud to Kindergarten Students.
