How to Engage Your Students During Guided Reading Instruction


Guided reading is an essential part of your reading time.  However, it is usually a small chunk of time each day, so you need to make the most of it and engage your students during guided reading.  So how do you do that? I will share with you 3 things you should have at your guided reading table to make your time run smoothly and help keep your students engaged during guided reading instruction.  


What is at my Guided Reading Table?


1.  Tools to teach decoding strategies

decoding strategy posters are great reminders for kids when they are stuck on a a word.  Using characters helps students better remember strategies to try.



First grade readers are decoders in their purest form.  They have learned that to read, they need to sound words out. Once they have learned their letter sounds, they are good to go, or so they think.  If you ask a first grader how to solve an unknown word, they will say “sound it out” every time.  We need to teach them that there are lots of other ways to figure out tricky words.

I do this by introducing them to the decoding strategies and the stuffed animals that go with each.  I created a set of Decoding Strategies Posters with animals to teach each strategy.  They are immediately hooked when the stuffed animals come down to the reading table as I model how to use a strategy.  For instance, when I introduce Stretchy Snake, we actually take turns coiling him up and stretching him out as we stretch out words.

However, it is not practical to keep Stretchy Snake there at all times, so I created a few student tools to go with the posters on the wall behind our guided reading table.  When working on a particular strategy, I give students the decoding wand with the character on it.  Click on any of the pictures below to get a closer look at the resource.  

Decoding strategies are key for early readers.  Having a collection of resources that students can reference during a guided group and while working independently is important too.  Using bookmarks, wands and mini cards to supplement the posters help with learning.



This acts as a reference to try that strategy when they come to an unknown word.  Later on, students can use a bookmark, which includes all the strategies, when they are more confident readers and have learned some strategies to try when decoding.

decoding strategies bookmark, beanie baby decoding strategies

I teach the decoding strategies in approximately the same order every year ~ Eagle Eye, Stretchy Snake, Chunky Monkey, Lips the Fish, Skippy Frog, Flippy the Dolphin and lastly, Tryin' Lion.

2.  Tools to teach reading comprehension

these cards are the perfect go to resource during guided and shared reading so that you always have questions on hand

When it comes to teaching comprehension skills, I have a confession to make.  Many times I struggled to figure out what exactly to ask my students or how to word it.  We do not use a particular reading series, so I glean resources from many places.

Identifying key comprehension questions for text was sometimes a bit difficult.  That is why I decided to make myself a go-to resource for any non-fiction text that covered all the different comprehension strategies that I teach.  Enter Comprehension Checks!  These question cards are placed on a ring, and I keep them at my guided reading table and another set at our carpet area to use during shared reading.  

these cards are the perfect go to resource during guided and shared reading so that you always have questions on hand

The Comprehension Checks are colour-coded and organized by reading strategy.  There are multiple questions for each strategy.  On each card, you will find the question and then “look fors” – what you might expect your students to say or think to answer the question.  This extra information makes the cards more teacher-friendly.

these cards are the perfect go to resource during guided and shared reading so that you always have questions on hand

We are about to start our unit on story elements – Character/Setting/Problem/Solution.  The Analyzing Text and Demonstrating Understanding cards will be close at hand during my guided and shared reading lessons.  Here is a closer look at a Making Connections card:

these cards are the perfect go to resource during guided and shared reading so that you always have questions on hand

3.  Tools to teach phonemic awareness

This tool isn't necessarily aimed at teaching during guided reading, but it is an essential precursor to teaching reading. In first grade, at the beginning of the year, not all of your students will be ready for a traditional guided reading group.  Instead, they need to develop foundational phonemic awareness skills to begin to decode and read the text.  In this case, teachers do not need to provide their students with books and questions, but they need to be armed with word lists and lots of them.  

practice phonemic awareness skills such as segmenting, blending, rhyming and syllables with these word lists


I always start the year with at least a couple of groups who need to start here, and I wanted to keep them engaged too during their instruction.  I created a set of word lists to practice whatever phonemic awareness skill I was working on.  I pull out the colour-coded sets and have several different word lists for each skill, so I wasn't trying to generate word lists on the fly.  We have all done that!  

use phonemic awareness word lists to practice skills like syllables, rhyming, segmenting and blending.


I hope you have found some new resources to make your guided reading time more effective and help engage your students during guided reading instruction.

Take a moment to pin this post so you can come back to it.

Need help teaching guided reading? This blog post provides many useful guided reading activities and strategies to use during guided reading. These resources will help you make the most of your time at the guided reading table. #guidedreading #guidedreadingfirstgrade

Until next time,

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How to Use Halloween Poems to Introduce Sight Words

Students love Halloween, so why not harness that excitement by using Halloween themes to teach in October.  I created a set of easy-to-read Halloween poems for sight words to teach and review sight words all month long.  These Halloween poems also help students work on their reading fluency!  I can target many skills at once, and they totally buy in because of the Halloween theme.  




In October, I like to use Poetry to introduce sight words.  It is an excellent way for students to see the sight words in context, and the content is short and sweet.  I keep the poems quick and easy to read, so they are ideally suited to beginning readers in first grade.  You can use the poems to work on reading fluency and visualizing, so you get more bang for your curriculum buck!

Project the Poem on the Smartboard for Whole Group Learning


I have students circle the sight words in the poem - the words you are introducing and those already on your word wall. When I have students that are not yet ready to learn sight words, I ask them to circle a letter they know. This enables everyone to take part in a way that is meaningful to them.  


Use the Poem in a Pocket Chart




Turn the poem into a close activity and have your students figure out the missing sight words to make the poem make sense.  We read it repeatedly, and each time we decide on the new word, which helps build fluency.  It also helps students to use meaning cues to determine the right sight word for each spot. 

The Black Cat poem shown is available as a free download in my store.  If you love it, I have 5 more in a full set.



Multiple Worksheet Options Provide Lots of Practice! 




Use this worksheet and the others included to review so many skills:

  • Fluency
  • Finding the sight words in context
  • Visualizing and drawing a picture that matches the poem
  • Comprehension - each poem has an "in the text" comprehension question to answer. 


You can find this poem and 6 others in my poetry pack by clicking on the image below or by clicking here:

Halloween Poems and Activities for Sight Words 




Take a moment to Pin the post so you can refer to it again next year.





Until next time,



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Celebrating Halloween in the Classroom? Keep it Simple!



Halloween in the classroom can be a CrAzY time, so I am so glad you stopped by. I am going to be sharing a few helpful ideas and FREEBIES to help with your Halloween celebrations in the classroom.



My best advice is to KEEP IT SIMPLE!

In my experience in First Grade, it is best to celebrate within your predictable routine.  We already know our children are beside themselves with excitement.  By enjoying fun Halloween activities in the regular structure of the day, your students get to celebrate, but things are less likely to slip over the edge into chaos!

A Literacy Center perfect for the week before Hallowe'en! 

The week of or before Halloween, I intentionally choose word wall words with the "oo" sound so I can review the two sounds these letters make.  I use this quick little activity in my centers for the week.  Just sign up below to grab the FREEBIE!

Practice the OO sound with this FREE clip card set for OO as in Boo and OO as in book


Next up, some Halloween Art, with a little math thrown in! 

Who doesn't love to do Halloween Art projects!  We created paint chip Frankenstein's using green paint chips from the hardware store! The students love this one, so I will be doing this craft every year.  This is a great low-cost craft that really showcases each student's creativity.

All you need is: 

  • Paint chips from the paint store.  I have used 3 and 4 colour paint chips.
  • Scrap paper to make the eyes, teeth and bolts.
  • A sharpie to add stitches.  


Make a Frankenstein using a a paint chip and construction paper

A fun math activity we did as a tie in was to count the "stitches" on Frankenstein's face to see how many he has  Before making the stitches, we talk about how stitches look just like tally marks to 5.  After finishing, they skip count the stitches to see how many stitches their Frankenstein has. 

I have several Halloween books that pair perfectly with this craft.  One of my favourites is:

Image result for halloween book frankie


And finally, a Halloween Math Freebie for good measure!  

In math, we will be using my Halloween patterning center this week to revisit patterning. As a special thank you for stopping by, you can grab this Math Center FREEBIE to use with your students. Students will look at each card and determine if it shows a pattern or not and then place it on the sorting mat.  I have also included a recording sheet so students can record their work as they go. Click on the picture to grab it.

Use this FREE patterning center to practice identify patterns and non-patterns.


Wait, There's More! 


Are you looking for ideas for your Literacy block for Halloween too?  I have you covered there as well.  Check out this post for Halloween poems for sight words that are perfect for Kindergarten and first grade. 





Now make your way to the next blog for another great tip and freebie!  Click on the ghost below to head to the next blog.  




Thanks for stopping by!  

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