I love teaching reading and even more so I love teaching little kindergartners and 1st Graders how to read! I include read alouds regularly into my lessons as a way to introduce new reading strategies, comprehension skills, phonics skills, etc. I use read alouds as a way to model any of these skills/strategies to help my little friends get a better understanding of whatever we are covering before they try it while reading a story on their own. I think children’s books are just the best, so of course I love to include them in my lessons regularly- plus it’s super nice to see how entertained my little friends can be from just listening to a story!
Common Core Alignment:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.2 With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.9 With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.2 Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.9 Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
Two of my new favorites that I’ve used for a few different activities recently:
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| What If You Had Animal Teeth? |
I used these books as a way to introduce main idea and identifying important details and reviewing compare & contrast. The books are very engaging and provide facts about the topics (animal teeth and the Redwoods). My little friends listened to me read the Redwoods story and then they completed graphic organizers to show their understanding of the main idea and important details. I have a few different versions of the main idea/important details graphic organizer so I differentiated based on their ability- some wrote sentences while others made a little list. Their creations turned out very cute- I really love the little cane that one student drew next to the old man to show that the trees are old!
After reading the animal teeth book, they completed a compare and contrast graphic organizer where they discussed one of the animals in the story in comparison to themselves (or compared two of the animals). This was a great way to identify if they knew some facts about the animals from the story! I have a few versions in my Compare & Contrast pack too where the students can instead be just drawing a picture, but all my little 1st graders chose to write instead- that certainly warmed my heart. 🙂
Since we have been focusing on main idea and important details, the next day we used our knowledge from the animal teeth book to create a fun file on the computer. My little friends took their picture in PhotoBooth, pulled it into a Smart Notebook file and then added animal teeth to their face. They then wrote 3 important details about that animal which they learned from the book. They really LOVED these books and the activities that went with them!
My kindergartens also filled out a graphic organizer for an important detail of one of the animals from the story. They seemed to find the shark super scary and interesting at the same time. 🙂
So, since we’ve been focusing on main idea and important details in fiction and non fiction stories so much, I figured I would create another important details graphic organizer as yet another way to make sure my little friends understand important details. I’ll be rotating back and forth between my Main Idea and Important Details Pack and this freebie! Click here or the pic below to grab your freebie!
You can check out my Compare and Contrast Pack and my Main Idea and Important Details Pack in my TPT store! (Click on the links or the pics below.)
Our 100 Followers Giveaway is still going on! All you have to do to get a chance to win 2 products from both of our stores:
1. Follow our blog.
2. Follow our TPT stores.
3. Leave a comment with your email address. (You can either comment on this post or the original one about our giveaway!)
We are looking forward to picking our winner Sunday night!
Thanks again to Hazel Owl for the fun circle badge!
Have a great day!
Aylin
8 Responses
Congrats on 100 followers! Both of these books look like engaging ways to teach those main idea/details. Thank you for the freebie!
Teacher Gone Digital
Great ideas here. Thank you for sharing. I love the Redwoods book. The author came to our school last year. He was simply amazing. I love what you are doing k and firsties.
Claire
http://www.firstgradesmarties.blogspot.com
We just got the animal teeth book and love the idea you shared!
🙂 Tamra and Sarah
First Grade Buddies
Thanks so much for the nice comments!
Ooh that is so very cool that the author came to your school! Thanks for stopping by!!
The book is just too much fun- I feel like it has endless possibilities for reading response ideas and the kids LOVE it so it is easy to use over and over! 🙂
This looks like a lot of fun, even for my second graders! :o)
Mary
[email protected]
Oh I bet your 2nd graders would have lots of fun with this book/activity too!!