An interactive read aloud is the purposeful read aloud of a story to focus on specific content, central theme(s), and vocabulary. They are an essential component to balanced literacy that provide many opportunities for all students to engage with rich texts. Interactive read alouds are typically done whole-group with pauses throughout each read to: discuss the text…
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Starting a new school year is the best feeling ever. It’s a feeling unique to teaching; new students, new supplies, new curriculum, and sometimes even a new classroom. It’s a clean slate in many ways, but also one of the most stressful and busy times of the year. In kindergarten, there are a few things that I like to…
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Teaching writing in kindergarten starts on day one and is a major focus every day. Writing involves a variety of different skills: letter identification, sounds, letter formation, fine motor and handwriting, sentence structure, and more. And because it is so complex, it is important to be consistent with how you teach it, the time devoted to it, the…
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Last year, I began doing monthly name crafts and we all LOVED them. They were successful both during distance learning and in the classroom and helped to create amazing bulletin boards that my students adored. All of my name crafts focus on the same skills: name recognition and spelling, handwriting, letter recognition, and fine motor (cutting). I simply…
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Father’s Day is such an important holiday that unfortunately does not always get celebrated in the classroom (my school year ends at the end of May). Every year, I try to be organized enough to get crafts done and read some wonderful books featuring dad and grandpa relationships, but it doesn’t always happen. I’m trying to get…
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