Hey there! Jen Bradshaw here from TeacherKARMA.com Teachers, can you believe that you actually have to tell your students to THINK WHILE THEY READ? Reading is Thinking Resource has the perfect anchor chart for working on: predict infer visualize make connections question the text summarize Grab your FREEBIE over at Teacher KARMA. Best wishes! Jen Bradshaw You Might ... Read More about READing is THINKing – Comprehension Anchor Chart
*AWESOME* library list for kids. SEE FULL BOOK LIST→
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!
I am rounding up all my interactive read aloud tips into one blog post for you! This is a catch-all of the many posts that I have done to share ideas and strategies for making them work in your classroom. What is an Interactive Read Aloud? An Interactive Read Aloud (IRA) is a planned and
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!
These summer read aloud books are enjoyable for kids and adults of all ages! This read aloud booklist contains both chapter books and picture books.
I love reading fall themed books but I do not always want them to be Halloween themed. So many children do not observe Halloween as a holiday. While I think it is okay to still talk about this holiday, I try to read books that will speak to each of the students in the classroom. Also, let's face it...if the student doesn't celebrate Halloween--they ask a whole lot of questions when we read Halloween books. Who can blame them? Below are my top five favorite fall/autumn read alouds. These are not the typical books that are listed in every blog post though. I try to choose books that all of my students haven't read before coming to me. At the bottom of this post, you will find two choice boards to use with these read alouds! Kids love to choose activities after reading these books. I give them these boards and let them pick 2 or 3 activities to do with each book. 1. Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden This book is great for talking about the Life Cycle of a Pumpkin. The pictures are great and the uniqueness of the way the book is written keeps students highly engaged! 2. Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie Another great book for informational text. The photographs are great and it discusses all things pumpkin! Now, not all of my favorite autumn books are about pumpkins but I really love these two! I also put these in centers and such throughout the season! 3. Sophie's Squash Eeek, Sophie's imagination is my favorite! This is a great story of using your imagination, friendship and the kids always get such a kick out of it! 4. Pumpkin Soup Pumpkin Soup is a great book about friendship and solving problems with friends. I love the message it sends about compromise as well! Such a cute story with great characters! 5. Otis and the Scarecrow First, the Otis books are so good and I love the illustrations! This book is a great story of how we should not judge a book by its cover or always rely on first impressions. As I said before, I read these books (over a few weeks) and each time I read one--I give the students one of these choice boards. The students can partner up and do activities or do them independently! Choice Boards I hope you enjoy these books and these choice boards! I know your students will love them! Happy Fall, Hillary Hillary's Teaching Adventures (TpT) Hillary's Teaching Adventures (10% Discount)
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 children of all ages is so important. Some teachers and families don't make time for read aloud because of busy schedules, lack of books, or because their kids can already read independently. If that sounds familiar, here are some read aloud tips to make this time work in the classroom or at home.
This list includes my favorite books for 5th graders. Perfect if you're looking for fifth grade read aloud or novel study resources.
I get asked all of the time on Facebook what books I recommend for third grade read alouds or classroom libraries. I keep typing out my list of favorites and then it occurred to me- I should make this list a blog post! Duh! #alwayslearning So here are some of my favorite books for third
If you are looking for free online read-aloud websites, I have just the list for you!
Today on the podcast, we’re sitting down with Amanda Cardenas to talk about a very big question. A huge question, really. What can teachers do when students aren’t doing the reading? And is reading out loud the majority of our texts the answer?
Don't waste time on titles that bore you, these read aloud books are perfect for 9 year olds and their whole family to enjoy together.
A teacher’s guide to teaching social-emotional learning in the classroom. This guide has articles, children's book suggestions, videos, and a program filled with lessons and activities.
A collection of children's picture books that teach life lessons, with themes such as kindness, sharing, and self-confidence.
Teachers and parents, do you need suggestions for good 4th grade read alouds? Here are ideas for your students and children.
It’s perfectly okay to defy societal convention. I actually encourage it. But know what you’re up against and be prepared for the difficulty that can sometimes come with it. Our culture only tolerates rebels to a degree. Once you’ve crossed that line, you’re in tricky territory. This isn’t to say there’s no value here. It just might not be comfortable. Thumbing your nose at the establishment is not for the faint at heart. Go for it.
Do your kids need a little (maybe a lot of) encouragement to enjoy read aloud time? Everything changed for our homeschool when we started reading books that have been made into movies! Check out this list - with books for ages kindergarten to middle school - of our favorites books and enjoy comparing the movie afterwards!#readaloudbooks #elementary #booksmadeintomovies #homeschool #readingtips
Teachers, librarians, and parents, are you looking for read alouds for 1st graders? Here are engaging read alouds that I highly recommend.
