Tag Archives: kindergarten

Teaching My Kindergarten Class about the Refugee Experience

In this guest post, Rona K. Wolfe, Junior Kindergarten Teacher at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School, explores methods of teaching her kindergarten students about the experiences of refugees around the world.

Rethinking

As a kindergarten teacher, I wanted to expose my students to global experiences. What does that look like in a class with our youngest students? After careful thought, I wanted the young children in my class at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School to learn about the difficulties and experiences of refugees living in our community.

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Kindergarten Guided Reading Books

Are you looking for high-quality, culturally responsive guided reading books for kindergarten? Bebop Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books, offers leveled reading books in both English and Spanish for readers at every level.

Our Early Emergent Leveled Reading Collection, with books in Guided Reading Levels A, B, and C, is a great place to start building your kindergarten library. Early Emergent leveled reading books are perfect for beginning and soon-to-be readers. Our Early Emergent collections offer books in both English and Spanish for classroom use, with culturally authentic texts and illustrations.  Continue reading

Social Activism Books for Kindergarten

Books can encourage kids of all ages to enact change in their communities. Because it’s never too early to make a difference, each month we’ll be sharing a list of social activism books for each grade level starting with Kindergarten. Check out our social activism book roundup below, and for more social activism titles, check out our full printable Social Activism Diverse Reading List! Continue reading

Using Diverse Books to Support Social and Emotional Learning in Kindergarten

Social and Emotional Learning in Kindergarten

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is a hot topic, but it’s certainly not new. Skills like empathy, cultivating and maintaining positive relationships, recognizing and managing emotions, problem solving, approaching tasks with grit and perseverance, and taking on others’ perspectives have always, and will always, be crucial to kids’ success. Research shared by CASEL reports that SEL programs lead to “immediate improvements in mental health, social skills, and academic achievement,” and “up to 18 years later, students exposed to SEL in school continue to do better than their peers on a number of indicators: positive social behaviors and attitudes, skills such as empathy and teamwork, and academics.” SEL is certainly worthy of time and attention from those who support children’s development.

Books are valuable tools for guiding conversations about SEL topics. Children can examine and learn from characters’ actions and experiences and relate them to their own. Of course, book selection is key. When kids see both themselves and others in diverse books, it says, “You matter. Reflect on your experiences.” and “Others matter. Listen and learn.” Therein lies the heart of SEL. 

As students grow and change, so do their social emotional learning needs. Linking diverse books to SEL goals and challenges across different ages is a powerful way to support students as they navigate each developmental stage. This blog series explores how diverse books can be used to support social emotional learning at different grade levels. Continue reading

Reading Sight Words Automatically and Accurately

Reading Conferences #4

In the fourth post of our Reading Conferences with Beginning Readers blog series, our literacy team shares how to read sight words automatically and accurately. This post is taken from our free, downloadable Reading Conferences by Bebop Books guide.

What are sight words and why are they important?

Sight words are words that children have learned to recognize without having to decode. Sight words are some of the most frequently used words in English and some of the first words early readers learn to recognize on sight and read. Level A, B, and C books are filled with these familiar words. When children read books at these levels, they should be able to recognize the words they have learned and read them automatically. Continue reading

Watch the Webinar: Guided Reading in Kindergarten

Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for our webinar, “Guided Reading in Kindergarten”! If you missed it live (or just want to watch again), here is a recording of the webinar:

Click below for our free Reading Conferences with Your Beginning Readers document and a one-hour professional development certificate. You can also learn more about Bebop Books and our leveled reading collections by clicking below.

Reading Conferences with Your Beginning Readers
Professional Development Certificate
Bebop Books
Leveled Reading Collections

Have additional questions or comments? Please leave them below in the comments!

Free Upcoming Webinar: Guided Reading Tips & Strategies for Beginning Readers

Guided Reading Tips Webinar
Need to freshen up your Guided Reading block at the beginning of the school year? Are you looking for more ideas to incorporate in your small reading groups with your early readers? Join Katie Potter, Lee & Low’s Literacy Specialist, for the Guided Reading in Kindergarten Webinar as she breaks down our new resource, Reading Conferences with Your Beginning Readers. Learn about strategies and techniques to use with your readers at Fountas and Pinnell Levels A, B, and C, and watch her model with some of our beloved Bebop Books!

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How to Use Pictures to Help Students Read in Kindergarten

In the third post of our Reading Conferences with Beginning Readers blog series, our literacy team shares how to use pictures to help children read text. This post is taken from our free, downloadable Reading Conferences by Bebop Books guide.

Teaching valuable reading skills and behaviors is essential in the beginning of kindergarten. When children start to read and engage with texts at levels A, B, and C, they need to know different strategies to use when they come to a word they don’t know or have to figure out what’s happening in the story.

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Reading Strategies for Kindergarten

It’s Back-to-School time, which means new educator resources on the Lee & Low blog!

Lee & Low Books is extremely excited to announce our Reading Conferences by Bebop Books Guide! We are proud to feature these new Conferencing Documents as essential resources for teachers in the classroom working with beginning readers.

Our Conferencing Guide includes tips and techniques for conferring with readers at guided reading levels A, B, and C. The Guide also includes “Teaching Cheat Sheets” that feature how to examine a student’s reading behavior, and turn those observations into teaching moments so students can achieve the targeted reading skill.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching in Kindergarten: Read Alouds to Build Relationships

It’s Back to School time, and that means new resources here on the Lee & Low Blog! In the first post in our new series on Culturally Responsive Teaching, educator Lindsay Barrett shares ideas for read alouds that build relationships in Kindergarten.

Culturally Responsive Teaching in Kindergarten

Nothing evokes a sense of “back to school” like a snaking line of tentative-but-excited, freshly scrubbed Kindergarteners slowly making their way down the school hallway. There is so much for new Kindergarten students to learn—how to open snack and lunch items, where to find the restroom, how to care for and share materials; the list goes on and on.

But seasoned Kindergarten teachers know that all of this is secondary to (and made easier by) helping each child quickly develop a sense of belonging to a community of learners. One of the ways to achieve this is to use culturally responsive teaching strategies right from the start of the Kindergarten year. (What is culturally responsive teaching? Check out this post.) A culturally responsive mindset emphasizes relationships. The beginning of the school year is the perfect time to establish these bonds. Continue reading