Guided Reading Things

Guided reading is in full swing!  I absolutely love this small-group time with my students.  They are fully involved in Daily 5 and I can focus (with the help of a fabulous parent volunteer or two, or six) on my reading group.

One of the big focus points for our school is incorporating writing along with our reading.  In order to accomplish this my students have to respond to their book in some way.  One of the easiest ways to do that is to use a graphic organizer.  I will pre-print multiple copies of various organizers so that I have them on hand.  I actually three-hold punch them and keep them all in my guided reading binder!  Click here to see other posts I have done that show my guided reading organizers.

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Click here to get a free copy of this sheet

Magic Tree House #27: Thanksgiving on Thursday is one of my favorite books to use at the time of the year.  Not only does it give us a good view at what life was like during the time of the Pilgrims, but the kids LOVE Magic Tree House books and so they can't wait to continue reading it!  

For guided reading I use it with a more independent group. This is the first time I use a chapter book with them for guided reading.  While most of the time I use a graphic organizer or notebook response to respond, for this book I use a packet.  

Since this is their first experience with locating specific information within the text I like to give them multiple choice questions.  They also encounter a fair amount of vocabulary in this book so I have them focus on specific vocabulary words from each chapter.  

You can get this packet in my TPT shop

Writing About FALL

The weather did feel like fall but currently we are experiencing warmer than average temps here in Wisconsin.  I am LOVING the high 60's/low 70's weather!!
Nevertheless, it is the beginning of November so we have been doing a lot of fall writing.
  

The first was this adorable acorn writing activity from Wild About Firsties.  

It was a quick activity that let us practice simple sentences and mechanics.  They thought it was so cute.  I love when they add their own little touches to make the acorns come to life.

Next we read the book The Falling Leaves.  This story has a really great message about treating others nicely so we discuss that before I show them the activity.

They take a cut out of a leaf and have to turn it into something totally different.  I am always completely amazed by their ideas!

I found this idea from Yearn to Learn.  I changed up the sheet a little to give us more room to work.

 

Click here to get a FREE copy of the sheet.

Finally, we used all five senses to describe fall.  We brainstormed a list of fall things for each of the five senses as a group.  Then I had them pick their favorites from each category to do a first draft copy.  The first draft gives them practice putting their idea into a complete sentence.

After they wrote their sentence down I had them copy their sentences onto a final sheet (on cuter paper) which we then turn into a class book.

Scarecrow sheet courtesy of Fun-in-First.  

And, just for good measure I thought I'd throw in a picture of my little guy in his first Halloween costume.  Enjoy!