3rd Grade Guided Reading Mini-Lessons

Does guided reading in 3rd grade seem daunting or maybe even boring? Or maybe you catch yourself doing the same thing every day? Are you ready for a switch? The 3rd grade team at my school is LEGIT and I idolize them (second only to my team, of course). SO... I teamed up with one of my favorite 3rd grade teacher-friends Brittany and we made this 236 page pack JUST FOR OUR 3RD GRADE FRIENDS! She's going to use it lots in her classroom and I know you will too. I actually had some super high 1st grade readers who could have benefitted from this last year.

This pack is full of ideas to help you plan for your guided reading mini-lessons for 3rd grade. These lessons are perfect for your small group, but many can be used in whole group!  This goes great with the Common Core State Standards and goes with ANY book (informational and narrative).  Included in this pack:

*Comprehension*
Narrative Spinner
Informational Spinner
Narrative Story Board
Informational Story Board
Comprehension Question Rings
Questioning Necklaces
First, Then, Next, Last
Making Connections Posters
Informational Text Feature Posters
Comprehension Questions {Graphic Organizer}
KWL  {Graphic Organizer}
Venn Diagram {Graphic Organizer}
Question Words {Graphic Organizer}
Sequencing Events{Graphic Organizer}
A Story Takes Flight {Graphic Organizer}
Author's Point of View {Graphic Organizer}
Cause and Effect {Graphic Organizer}
Moral of the Story {Graphic Organizer}
Book Club
-Job Card
-Book Club Bookmark
-Book Club Booklet
Making Inferences Task Cards

*Word Work/Phonics*
Consonant Blend Chart {for remediation}
Spelling Pattern Chart {for remediation}
Spelling Pattern Posters {for remediation}
Vowel Chart {for remediation}
Consonant Digraph Chart {for remediation}
Vowel team Fill-In {for remediation}
Decoding Word Questions
Decoding Word Bookmarks
Word Parts Posters (prefix, suffix, root)
-re, un, dis, pre, mis, er, est, ful, less, able
Word Part Riddle Board Game
Word Stairs Game
Multi-syllable Freeze
Monster Munch Game

*Fluency*
EARS Posters (expression, accuracy, rate, smoothness)
Fluency Rubric
Fluency Self Rubric
Silly Voices Cards
Sight Word Zap
Word-O
Fry Phrases {Remediation} (8 lists)

*Vocabulary*
New Word {Graphic Organizer}
Super Word {Graphic Organizer}
Word Wizard Poster
Word Wizard Book
New Word Fold and Cut

Teach Kinder or 1st Grade? 

{Get your mini-lessons pack here}

Teach 2nd Grade?
{Get your mini-lessons pack here}

Predicting Introduction Kinder and 1st

As we work on more comprehension strategies in my classroom, I've noticed that many of my students don't know what the word "prediction" means!  So, I hurried and created a mini-lesson to help!

First, you introduce what predicting means {guessing is what I compare it to} and use these cards to hang on the board:

Then, you tell them that when they predict what is going to happen in a story, they can say one of the following:

We then read the book, Do you Want to Be My Friend? By Eric Carle.

This is a perfect book to predict! The mouse is looking for a friend. On each page it gives a hint as to what animal he will ask to be his friend {it shows their tail}.  I have my kiddos raise their hand if they can predict what animal it might be. They will say:

I predict...
or
I bet...
or
I think...


After that, we practice our predicting skills!  I use these animal posters and cover up most of the picture and have them predict what animal it is. {so when you download this mini-lesson, you'll have to cut out your pictures and find a piece of paper to cover up most of the picture}

They record each animal on their recording sheet. Afterward, we go through to see if their predictions were correct.

Click {HERE} to download the predicting mini-lesson!

Clipart/Fonts copyright Dianne J. Hook djinkers.com

Popcorn All Over!

We've been eating a lot of popcorn in these parts...

I started with this book:

We learned all about popcorn and it's history.

We moved on to Abby's Popcorn Adjectives pack.  There's so much fun in this pack.

My students just LOVE doing this every year! 

Then, came the yummy part!  I brought in some popcorn that was freshly popped.  I didn't tell them what we were doing and I hid the popcorn.  When they came in from recess they just kept asking me where the popcorn was. :)  I finally got it out and shared it with them.  We then wrote down adjectives describing the popcorn.  The next day we used those adjectives to write about popcorn and made the cute craft from Abby's pack.

More popcorn, you say?

It's for Brown Bag Book Club!

I have loved this idea that I got from Cara Carrol years ago!  After we finish our read aloud chapter book, we always finish with Brown Bag Book Club.  My students love getting in small groups and discussing the book (all while snacking on some popcorn, of course).  We do the comprehension sheet first all together, then cut/glue their sheet to the bag, get some popcorn in their bag, and then I send them into their groups with a list of questions they can ask one another (those questions can be found here).

Click {here} to download some of our comprehension sheets for Brown Bag Book Club:

Guided Reading Mini-Lessons {Games, Activities and Resources}

It's kind of like I had a baby and I'm just presenting it to the world. Just like when Simba was presented to the kingdom. ;)  I've worked SO hard on this pack because I needed it so badly for my own teaching and now I'm presenting it to you. Hopefully this pack helps you as much as it's helping me!  Sometimes planning mini-lessons in Guided Reading can be daunting, boring, monotonous, and down-right annoying.  THIS pack will give you ideas to help those young readers!

Perfect for kinder and 1st grade! But don't go...I have one for 2nd and 3rd (see bottom of post)

Do you want to know why this pack is my baby?  It's 250 pages and contains all of this:

Reading Skills:

• Word Decoding Strategies
• Word Question
• Word Question Bookmarks
• Guided Reading Journal

Comprehension:

• Narrative Spinner
• Informational Spinner
• Narrative Story Board
• Informational Story Board
• Comprehension Question Rings
• Making Connections Posters
• After Reading {Graphic Organizer}
• Story Map {Graphic Organizer}
• Text Map {Graphic Organizer}
• I’ve Got the Facts {Graphic Organizer}
• Using Clues for Predictions {Graphic Organizer}
• Character Countdown {Graphic Organizer}
• Word Web {Graphic Organizer}
• KWL  {Graphic Organizer}
• Venn Diagram {Graphic Organizer}
• Question Words {Graphic Organizer}
• Sequencing Events{Graphic Organizer}
• A Story Takes Flight {Graphic Organizer}

Phonics

• Alphabet Chart
• Consonant Blend Chart
• Spelling Pattern Chart
• Spelling Pattern Posters
• Vowel Chart
• Consonant Digraph Chart
• Consonant Digraph Posters
• Spelling Pattern Word Card
• Zap! Word Game
• Digraph Puzzles
• Short Vowel Fill-In
• Word Family Book
• Spin and Blend Chunks
• Monster Munch! Word Chunk Game
• Freeze! Word Chunk Game
• Long and Short Vowel Sort
• Long and Short Vowel Posters
• Word Stairs
• Zooming Sound Boxes

Fluency

• Sight Word Saber Game
• Sight Word Swat Game
• Fiddle Sticks Sight Word Game {Fry Words}
• Star Gazer Sight Word Find
• Fry Phrases {Group 1-4}
• Sight Word Mats
• Silly Voices Cards
• Sticky Note Sight Words
• Nursery Rhymes and Poems (6)
• Poetry Walk with Mr. Fuzzy

Vocabulary:

• New Word {Graphic Organizer}
• Super Word {Graphic Organizer}
• Word Wizard Poster
• Word Wizard Book
• New Word Fold and Cut

Here's 2nd Grade's:

Here's 3rd Grade's:

This page isn't included in the pack, but it's a GREAT tool to guide you in the right direction when picking a mini-lesson! This gives you an instructional focus for levels A-N.

Click {here} for the download

Super Book Shopper of the Week

We want our students to pick "good fit books" independently, right?  We can't always be standing over their shoulder watching the books they pick from our classroom library or the school library.  It's that time of year in 1st grade where EVERY student wants to be reading chapter books.  I love their ambition, but it's just not doable.

Every student is different and my students know when they are ready for chapter books. I STILL have some students picking chapter books on their book shopping day when they are not ready to read that difficult of a book (it drives me nuts).  Because... that means during Daily 5 they are sitting there during Read to Self struggling over every single word and probably don't even read 2 sentences in 15 minutes.

You can download the Book Shopping tracker {here}

Here are some Pinterest ideas for picking good fit books (click the picture):

To help my students get motivated to pick books that are just right for them...... I started a little competition this week.  Here's what the winner will get...

At the end of each week, I look through their book boxes and I check to see who has a box full of "good fit books".  I pick 2 students per week and those Super Book Shoppers get a cute little necklace to wear and they also get to go "shopping" in my prize box!  It's a great motivator!

The Common core and YOU: Part deux!

Last week I posted some Common Core English Language Arts ideas. I've come back for more! :)

When I get to unit 3, in a few short weeks {according to my district's pacing guide} I should start to teach my kiddos narrative writing. I wanted to see how ready they were so I started it a little bit. I've started to make some things to help them understand the sequence. I also use the who, what, when, where cards I posted about before {here}.

We started talking about narrative stories because we were reading them everyday! After we read a book, I would ask what happened in the beginning, middle, and end. When they mastered that, we moved on to first, next, then, last. Then, I told them we are going to write our own narrative! AH!

  

Or perhaps you need these:

   

Oh narrative writing. Why do you hate me? By the end of the year, they should be able to:Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some  details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.

*NOTE: I DID A LOT OF MODELING AND SHARED WRITING BEFORE I LET THEM GO OFF AND TRY THEMSELVES!!!! It's all about modeling!

For this activity. I just read a book about a haunted house {you can do any topic} and I had my kids pretend they knocked on the door of a haunted house {sorry, I forgot to take pictures}. They drew a picture of what would happen:

Then, they took what they drew and wrote one or two sentences {rough draft} to go along with the picture:

Finally, they wrote a final draft after I had a mini-conference with them about their rough draft.

They will finish up the "writing process" by publishing their work in the classroom! :)
My kiddos did ok on this, but we were all exhausted by the end!

I get exhausted by narrative writing! 

What do you do that WORKS for teaching narrative writing? Do you do writers workshop???

Frames by:
 KPM Doodles
Paper Pixels

The Common Core and YOU!

Our district has taken on the Common Core State Standards for Language Arts FULL ON! 

Whoo-eeee! It's a great core, but it's a bit lot different from what we are used to and it's a lot of work. I'm sure once we all get used to it they'll change it. Am I right? ;)

We are very lucky to have a district who has laid out each part of the CCSS and made a unit/scope and sequence to go along with it. They've made a lesson for every.part.of.the.core!!! I don't follow it directly, but I pull from it every now and then. I'm really particular about things {some might call it OCD}. You can find all of this on my district's website {here} and then just click on your grade.

Hopefully each month I can feature something new I've done with my kiddos that relate to the CCSS's and I'll offer freebies and tips for you!

The next few things I've made relate to "Reading Standards For Literature"

 in the CCSS.

Just added:

"How" is also added on the new download! :)

When we read to each other in partners, we use these little check marks to remember our questions we ask to check for understanding.

This is your beginning, middle, end graphic organizer.  You just fold it in half and cut on the dotted lines. Then, you can color a picture or write something that happened under the beginning flap, middle flap, and end flap.

Check back for ideas on the new CCSS Writing standards! I'll be posting some new ideas.

Here's a way you can keep track of what standard you teach and when.  Click the picture to see more! 

There are two types of checklists. These are the data checklists:

These are perfect for report cards, RtI, data for PLCs, or to give you detailed information for your small group work.

Click each picture:

   

   

   

  

The best part about these checklists is that they are editable! You will be able to enter your students' names on the first document, and it will automatically fill in their names on EVERY page! 

If you would like to purchase the ELA or MATH checklists separately, you can find them here:

K-2 

3-5

We also have THESE checklists available! These make it so you can "check off" things as you teach them so you can track what/when you've taught.

Click each picture to check them out!

       

     

     

Here's an example of how these checklists can help you organize and teach the Common Core. Once you teach the standard, you "check it off" or put a date on it: