All About Reading and More

I have two sets of bookshelves.

One on my floor and one in my loft.

The chart is about book care and can be found here$

I laminated a piece of chart paper- well half lol 

I drew the cute border folded in half and ran through my big laminator.

Then used a razorblade to separate the sides.

When we discuss library expectations,

I add the pieces and tape them to the chart.

 I need to figure out what to do with those bins lol

they just keep getting moved all around lol

Here is our writing center:

I need to figure out what else to put in my writing center.

Maybe chalk and chalkboards.

Maybe letters.... hummmmm...... 

Stay tuned for new writing utensils!

Family Binder Part. 1

Here is part 1 of what's in my monthly family binder. 

This may be the cover lol 

or try this one HERE.

I send home a monthly reading sheet.

I have several different versions

in case I have siblings, I don't want them to

have to do the same thing as their siblings.

This one is found HERE.

This one is found HERE.

I can no longer find this one :( 

I found this one for FREE. (at the time of posting)

Here's another one for FREE. (at the time of posting)

Here's another one for FREE. (at the time of posting)

When my students bring their completed sheets back,

they go into our reading hall of FAME!

Grab your reading Hall of Fame printables here.

I am working on the "Watch Me Grow" 

Post- it's difficult because my students are in all of the photos lol

Class Books

I love love love using class books in my room.  When I taught in first grade, we made a book a week.  Being in 4K is no different.  I do more of the work, but they do the reading!!!

When I intro each unit I read a letter (more on those here)

Later I share the class books. Here are some I've made.  Each child gets their own page.  Even if I have to use the pages twice, they get their own page. I laminate my page and the cover page. These are usually the first and last pages.
We did these two for our insect unit:

Catching bugs found here.

This is a firefly book. We use name recognition and color words. 

The read aloud can be found here.

At the beginning of the year, we did a leaf book.

I just wrote with a marker on the line provided.

They are printed on cardstock.  

If the pages get ripped, I use packing tape along the "spine."

I also use a generic book as well.  Sometimes, I read that book first.  Sometimes, I read the class book first.

For example the "In the tree" classbook, we will also read a book that just covers the leaf colors. For more advanced students, we might make a mini-book that they get to color and add things to.  In this book, they trace the color word and color the leaf that color.

Kids love to star in the books and they are super popular during reading/library time.


At the end of the year, I break down the books, and each child gets their own page from each book we make.  I know that some teachers send home a different class book with each child too :)

Here are some other classbooks in my store.

Beginning a new unit

Beginning each of my units, we begin with a letter addressed to the class. The kids get to open the sealed envelope. Then I put them in a binder and the kids can read them anytime. I have one letter for each unit I teach.

The letters introduce the new theme and key vocabulary words. As I read the letter, I hold up the word cards.  Those word cards go into my writing area.

Shortly after that, we look at the new books for the theme. These are only some of the books we have in our classroom.  I have another

When I taught higher grades, where they could read, I would have them share a page of their favorite new book with the class. Now my students are 4 and 5 year olds, so we find our favorite page and they show the picture on that page to the class. My goal is to see that they see different books that they might not pick up and look at.


By having them share their favorite books, I am trying to have them start the conversation about books. Yes, they love to read the books that I read too, but a recommendation from a friend, is so amazing!



So far I have letters for:

• All About Me

• School/alpha

• Fall

• Monsters

• Transportation

• Thanksgiving

• Nutrition- covers each food groups

• gingerbread

• Christmas non-religious

• snow/polar/winter

• space

• weather/GH

• friendship/love

• teeth

• Seuss

• Leprechaun

• Vet/pet- intros different pets

• Rain Forest  layers and animals

• Community Helpers- intros different ones

• Spring

• Insects- intros different insects

• Zoo- intros different animals

• Ocean- intros different animals

• Dinos- intros different 

• Apples