Quick! Grab a Lesson-- Jackie Robinson {FREEBIE!!}

Hello Everyone! Kristen here from A Day In First Grade! I hope that this post finds you well! Can you believe that it is February already? Where is the year going? February is one of those months for me where I scramble for themes. I know, of course I use "Valentine's Day" as a theme but other than that, I change my February themes yearly. This year I really want to capitalize on three themes: "black history month," Chinese New Year (as this is our grade's thematic push for the next two months), and Valentine' Day.

Unfortunately, this year I do not have nearly as much time as I have had in years past to go all out on my themes. Therefore, I have to choose wisely on when and how I introduce and teach my themes. I have found that my morning meeting, centers, and guided reading groups are the perfect places to really theme out my classroom.

As many of you know, I currently am living in Boston which is definitely a baseball city. People here bleed "Red Sox" and my boys in particular LOVE baseball. In an attempt to really capture the hearts and engagement levels of my boys (and girls), I created a pack on Jackie Robinson. I know that they will LOVE learning about him.

In order to make the most of my time, I introduced our theme of "black history month" during our morning meetings. I read my class the book, "I am Jackie Robinson" which definitely peaked their interest levels! They wanted to learn ALL about Jackie Robinson and the time period he lived in. (which was perfect!) Click on the picture to get taken to Amazon if you would like to purchase the book.

(affiliate link)

In my guided reading groups, I used my new guided reading resource to dive deeper into Jackie Robinson's life. I know that teachers are VERY busy and I needed something that was going to be QUICK and EASY to plan and prep. Thus, the birth of my newest guided reading resource. In this new series, there is practically NO prep and plan work needed. All you need to do is print the (ONE PAGE) reader and fold it! (Or better yet, have your students fold them!) Then pick out one of the many comprehension activities included. They focus specifically on comprehension strategies such as: author's purpose, cause and effect, main idea and details, compare and contrast, and others!

To get a closer look, here is what I did to plan and prep for my lessons this week.

1. I printed out the reader I was going to use. (The pack tells you the exact level each reader is, how many words are in the text, and the vocabulary level!-- It doesn't get any easier)

2. I folded the page into a reader.

First, you fold it in half.

Then, in half again. (first graders can totally do this!)

3. I chose the comprehension strategy we would work on in our reading group and printed the correlating worksheet.

We will use this reader twice this week and respond to the text with two different worksheets. The first day we are going to focus on vocabulary words.  My students will find the words in their text, highlight them, and then we will discuss what the words mean.

The next day, we will work on finding the main idea and details in the text.

As an extension, my students really enjoy writing books about what they know. During work on writing, this group will write an "All About Jackie Robinson" book!

As you can probably tell, these readers are geared for first and second graders; however, I have a group of kinders this year who will LOVE this. Since it is differentiated, I chose the text that best meets the needs for my students.

I know that you and your students will love this new series! Therefore, I am giving this packet away for FREE! Head over to my store to grab it! Simply click on the picture below to get taken to the packet!

There are already multiple packs available in this series (with many more to come). I'm currently working on topics that my boys are very interested in. This will help them engage in reading and also help them with our comprehension strategies!

*Castles

*Trains

*Sharks (coming later tonight)

I hope that you enjoy this freebie!! :)

PS- Never miss a freebie again by following my Facebook Page! I always announce freebies there first! 

Click here to "like" my page!