K-1 Interactive Read-Alouds Your Students Will Love
We are excited to announce the beginning of a new product line. We have so much success with our 1st and 2nd-grade October read-alouds in our school and have received great feedback from teachers all over the country. So, we decided to create a whole new set. This set will be geared towards the kindergarten and first grade standards.
Our students always fall in love with these stories when we dive into them. Instead of reading the story once, we take the time to understand key ideas and details. We also analyze craft and structure by examining dialogue, typography, word choice, etc. After that we focus on the integration of knowledge idea by searching for information that comes from the illustrations.
Students love answering the rigorous text dependent questions and finding evidence from the text to deepen their understanding of the stories. The read-alouds also include graphic organizers and writing in response to text activities to incorporate writing standards. Each one incorporates a craftivity to compliment the story and a bulletin board heading to display the work. We are thrilled to be including some non-fiction titles in this new set.
Take Time to Make Sure Student Understand The Complex Books
These stories are complex, lending themselves to span across 3-5 days of close reading. While teaching each title, we cover many Common Core Literature and Informational Text Standards. We also let students respond to the text with writing and art. Each day we read the book for a different purpose and students complete a different activity.
Here are the titles and a brief overview of our October K-1 read-alouds:
Turkey Trick or Treat by Wendi Silvano
We couldn’t pass up the chance to use Wendi Silvano’s “Turkey Trick or Treat.” Our students loved Turkey Trouble and Turkey Claus so we know this will be another hit. This delightful tale is sure to make your students giggle as Turkey tries on different Halloween costumes in hopes that he can trick the farmers and get some candy for him and his farm friends. He tries various costumes so the farmers won’t be able to identify him when he knocks on their doors.
Therefore, to address key ideas and details, students will sequence the events of the story. “Turkey Trick or Treat” is filled with clever word-play, which is perfect for teaching words and phrases from the craft and structure standards. Students will determine the meaning of silly phrases from the story. As a culminating activity, students will dress their Turkey in a costume of their choice and write an opinion piece on why their costume is a good choice.
Halloween by Laura Marsh
We are excited to include our first nonfiction read-aloud in this pack. As we taught the reading literature read-alouds through out the year we realized adding some nonfiction titles would benefit our students. We chose “National Geographic Kids Halloween by Laura Marsh” because the information was complex enough for kindergartners and first graders. This series also has great text features.
After that, we addressed the main idea and details by having students use evidence from the text to write things people do during Halloween. We also dove into the Halloween vocabulary and used some of the text features (such as the glossary, photographs with captions, etc.) to help define the unknown words. As a fun way to finish this read-aloud, students will write their favorite thing about Halloween and complete a fun craft.
Ghost in the House by Ammi-Joan Paquette
“Ghost in the House” by Ammi-Joan Paquette is a cumulative counting story full of fun rhythm and rhyme. When a little ghost explores a creepy haunted house, he encounters many spooky creatures. At first, the ghost and his friends are worried about who they will meet around the next corner, but smile when they encounter each other. Kids love the surprise ending when the creatures meet the scariest creature in the house.
This book is perfect for retelling the story in order. Students will sequence the story and color puppets to practice retelling. We also thought it would be fun for students to match dialogue to the creatures because of the book’s lively sound words. As a culminating writing activity, students will create their own creature.
Skeleton Meets the Mummy by Steve Metzger
“Skeleton Meets the Mummy” by Steve Metzger is a cute, must-have Halloween story. To go trick-or-treating, Sammy the skeleton walks through the dark, scary woods. Along the way, he discovers that he is being followed by a mummy. Students are relieved when they find out who the harmless mummy really is.
Then, students will respond to the text by sequencing the scary story events in order while using ordinal words. We know our students will really enjoy creating a reader’s theater of the story’s scary sounds as they focus on the craft and structure of the book. Finally, students will extend their thinking as they write about something else that could scare the skeleton in the woods.
Crankenstein by Samantha Berger
Our K-1 read-aloud set just wouldn’t be complete without “Crankenstein” by Samantha Berger. This charming story introduces a seemingly ordinary boy who transforms into a cranky Crankenstein as rotten events happen to him. The illustrations tell much of the story and students can’t help relating to this cranky green character. The key ideas and details standards are addressed as students recall events that cause the boy to be cranky. They will better understand Crankenstein’s feelings as they act out and record the character’s dialogue.
Then students will look closely at the illustrations, making text and illustration connections, to truly understand what is causing the boy’s crankiness. As a writing activity, students will relate to Crankenstein by sharing what makes them feel cranky.
We have written detailed lesson plans for each of these books that can be found in our Teachers-Pay-Teachers store. You can purchase each read aloud separately our October Interactive Read-Aloud Bundle.
