Hello and welcome to our second annual Winter Wonderland link up! The teachers of the Reading Crew have come together to bring you a plethora of literacy ideas for the upcoming winter months. At the bottom of the post, you will find a "map" guiding you to each post. On each blog, we will be sharing a mentor text lesson using a book that is perfect for the winter season. I invite you to take a peek at each post over the next couple of days....I promise that you won't be disappointed!
You will also have the opportunity to win one of these amazing book collections. The picture on the left shows all the books that are featured in the K-2 Mentor Text Lessons. The picture on the right shows all the books that are featured in the 3-5 Mentor Text Lessons. Either set would make an amazing addition to your classroom library!
On each blog, you will see a word in blue font. This is the blog's mystery word. Please be sure to record them because you will need each word for a five point entry in our raffle for the collections of books.To help you keep track, you can print the image above. Remember....We are raffling off two wonderful prizes. Two lucky winners (K-2 and 3-5) will win a copy of each of the books featured in the hop for their grade level. The K-2 prize package will include 12 books and the 3-5 prize package will include 13 books.
Again, we welcome you to our blogs and wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season.
I love all things about Christmas and the holiday season! One of my favorite things of the season is sharing great literature with my students. Auntie Claus has been a student favorite for several years.
Auntie Claus is a delightful story about a young girl named Sophie who is spoiled by her wealthy parents. In this story, Sophie gets a lesson about the true spirit of Christmas and learns that it is better to give than to receive. This story does a great job of illustrating that there is more to Christmas than the number of gifts you get under the tree.
By third grade, many teachers have stopped reading aloud picture books to their students because they don't see a benefit to it. My third graders participated in a picture book read aloud on a daily basis. Where is the benefit you ask? Making traditional read alouds more interactive is a great way for teachers to model thinking about the text. When students are able to hear their teacher's thought process while reading, they are better equips to become critical thinkers as they read independently.
Interactive read aloud is also a great way to teach the comprehension strategies that you want the students to be practicing when they are reading independently. During an interactive read aloud, the teacher will stop to model their thinking (Think Aloud).
The students are also given the opportunity to talk about the book with their peers (Turn and Talk). Interactive read aloud is a great way strengthen students' listening and speaking skills along with their comprehension.
With everything planned for you, all you need to do is grab a copy of the book from your school or public library and enjoy reading it with your students.
The teacher lesson guide outlines stopping points throughout the text where you can model how good readers think about the text they are reading.
The lesson guide also provides suggestions for students to turn and talk with their partner about the text.
Students can further demonstrate their learning by completing a thinking map in response to the story. The FREEBIE includes a thinking map/graphic organizer for students to record their observations about how Sophie changes from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.
If you don't use read alouds in your classroom, I encourage you to give it a try this month. Everything you need for Auntie Claus is available as a FOREVER FREEBIE by clicking on the image above.
If you LOVE interactive read alouds as much as I do, check out this unit that has twelve interactive read alouds ready to be used in your classroom. Simply gather up the books and you will have a month's worth or purposeful, interactive read alouds at your fingertips.
Before you go, I will remind you that my mystery word is elevator. You can enter it onto your sheet or into the rafflecopter below. Good luck to you, and I hope you'll come back soon.
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