While working in Arkansas recently, I talked with kindergarten teachers about finding the right kind of text for shared reading. I look for books and poems that are close to the guided reading level of most of the class. We read the booksand poems together for repeated readings and then move those same materials to literacy work stations for practice. Here are some samples of text that is just right for kindergarten shared reading and stations.
Sentence strips in a pocket chart include students' names and short sentences using high frequency words
Another pocket chart holds a simple 5-line poem where students can print match and fill in a few blanks
Children can build sight words with magnetic letters at this station- not too many words or letters are available at once- these same words are used in the big books and poems kids are reading
Short 4-line poem includes lots of high frequency words and can be easily managed by kindergartners
Another short poem that's just right for kindergarten
After teaching with this big book, kids can easily read it on their own at the big book station.
Hi Debbie! I was just curious if this K teacher has the various colored sentence strips for a reason or did she just randomly choose?
Hi Jen,
I think she chose to make the small sentence strip pieces in a different color to match the phrase they go with. For example, “I have a smile as…” is the orange strip, and all the words that match that phrase are on small green sentence strips. Likewise, all the words that match “bright as the sun” are in blue.
Where do you recommend getting the poems for the pocket strips? I make a weekly, contrived story to work sight words with the kid. Then on Fridays they get their own copy to take home and practice. I’m thinking I might need to make charts and include in my big book station.
Hi Pam,
One of my favorite resources for poems is My Very Own Poetry Collection: 101 Poems for Kindergarten by Betsy Franco. It’s available only at http://www.trcabc.com. Each poem is for kindergarten, and each line starts with and contains sight words. Also, in the back of the book, each poem is written on sentence strips designed for a desktop pocket chart.
Should the shared reading lesson be connected to the read aloud lesson as part of a balanced literacy plan? Is this the “To(read aloud) – With(shared reading) – By(independent reading) Strategy?