1st Grade April Interactive Read Aloud Lessons | Empowering Little Readers

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First grade teachers, are you looking for something to make planning for your literacy block or Reader’s Workshop time easy and fun? This Empowering Little Readers First Grade April reading unit contains everything you need to teach foundational skills, comprehension, story elements, shared reading, grammar, and vocabulary with April interactive read alouds for 1st Grade.

This unit uses 1st grade interactive read alouds with a close read model – each week you will focus on one book and going deeper within that text.

*This is available in a yearlong bundle here: Empowering Little Readers 1st Grade Reading Curriculum

Each week contains 5 days worth of lesson plans for you with foundational or phonemic awareness activities, shared reading (poetry), a whole group reading lesson, independent work, vocabulary, crafts, and directed drawings.

What is included in each unit?

• Interactive Read Aloud Lessons for April
• Comprehension Strategies and Printables
• Poems for Shared Reading
• Mentor Sentences with Grammar Mini-Lessons
• Weekly Vocabulary
• Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
• Weekly Crafts
• Weekly Directed Drawings
• Posters and Anchor Charts

Comprehension Focus for the April Interactive Read Alouds:

Wanted!

Theme: Rabbits

→ Students will learn about point of view and perspective. A “Case of the Missing Lunch” mystery challenge is included to work on point of view and inferences.

Nonfiction text: Rabbits

Cloudette

Theme: Clouds

→ Students will learn about point of view, character traits, and character feelings.

Nonfiction text: Clouds

Coqui in the City

Theme: Frogs

→ Students will learn about point of view and how it can change, comparing their point of view to the character’s, and growth mindset.

Nonfiction text: Grow Frog

The Honeybee

Theme: Bees

→ Students will learn about author’s purpose, sensory words in poetry, and poetic devices (alliteration, rhyme, rhythm).

Nonfiction text: Honeybees

April Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Focus: Phoneme Reversal

April Grammar for 1st Grade:

• Conjunctions
• Conjunctions
• Compound sentences
• Compound words

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

I teach 2nd grade. Can I still use this unit? Yes! This unit will meet second grade reading standards. Please note that 1st grade standards are listed on the lesson plans, however.

What are the benefits to using 1st grade interactive read aloud lessons in your classroom? Interactive read alouds give your read alouds purpose! They allow you to meet standards in an engaging way while using April picture books as mentor texts to teach 1st grade comprehension strategies. They also give students a connection to new vocabulary words.

These books seem too hard for my 1st grade students! You, the teacher, will be reading these books to students whole group. They will be working on comprehension strategies while listening to the story. These April interactive read alouds will not take the place of your phonics instruction or small group reading instruction.

How would you suggest fitting these interactive read alouds into my ELA block? These 1st grade interactive read alouds would take place during your whole group reading curriculum (classroom read alouds). This might look like:

• Phonemic Awareness Mini Lesson – 5 minutes
• Shared Reading – 5 minutes
• Empowering Little Readers Lesson – 20 minutes
• Students complete independent practice from the lesson (this is their ticket to centers) – 5 minutes
• Literacy Centers and Small Group Reading – NOT in this curriculum
• Phonics Lesson and Practice – NOT in this curriculum
• Vocabulary Mini Lesson – 5 minutes
• Mentor Sentence and Grammar Mini Lesson – 5-10 minutes

What are the benefits to using mentor sentences in 1st grade? Mentor sentences allow first grade students to work on concepts of print, fluency and reading with expression, and grammar skills while relating to their read aloud.

Do these 1st grade reading units include comprehension tests or assessments? Yes, there is a comprehension check quiz about the text at the end of the week. This assessment is optional.

What do the first grade vocabulary lessons look like? The 1st grade vocabulary lessons are short mini lessons. Each week will focus on 4 vocabulary words that come from the interactive read aloud, which will give students a connection to the words. Students will learn the vocabulary words with hand motions, define and illustrate the vocabulary words, relate the vocabulary words to their own experiences, and use the vocabulary words in sentences.

What does shared reading look like in 1st grade? Shared reading is first grade poetry. All 1st grade poems included in these units are original poems written by me! Each day, you will read the April poems for 1st grade together for fluency. Students will receive their own poems to put in a poetry folder or notebook. They will also receive a paper poem book for each poem.

What do the 1st grade phonological and phonemic awareness lessons look like? These are quick, teacher-directed phonological and phonemic awareness mini lessons. They are scripted for you.

Questions? Email me at [email protected]