Reading In a Winter Wonderland

I am linking up with the Reading Crew to bring you an awesome winter themed reading linky!  Welcome to my part of Reading in a Winter Wonderland. There are so many awesome components of this linky I don't even know where to get started. First there are two linkys K-2 and 3-5 (this is part of the 3-5)  you can gain tons of new resources. These resources will only be free until next Friday. The next cool thing is you have a chance to win all of the featured books each featured book will also have a lesson to use with it in the blog post!!! Be sure to look for the blue highlighted word in each post to help you win.  You need to keep track because they will help you with the giveaway. 

Use this form to help you keep track of the blue secret words! 

My word is Holiday because my book is The Last Holiday Concert By Andrew Clements. I love using Andrew Clements' books in my classroom. I feel that they are engaging and teach a great lesson. This one is about a sixth grade student named Hart and his quest to put on the perfect holiday concert. I really enjoy this book and I think you will too. It has a great perspective for teachers and brought a tear or two to my eyes! My favorite part is Santa Elvis and I hope you get a laugh out of it too. 

My class struggles with comprehension this year so we are constantly working on building comprehension skills. One quick and easy lesson I do with every story we read is 5Ws+H. I keep a stack of post its labeled who, what, when, where, why and how on my white board.  We bring them out with every story we read and go through each part of the story. It has helped my students ask themselves these questions as they read independently. I like using the post its because they stick. It isn't fancy but it works. You could also create them on card stock, laminate them and then put a magnet on them. 

For The Last Holiday Concert  I would do the who, what, when, where, why and how activity with the first chapter of the book. 

Some other possible lessons are:

Chapter Two Main Idea and Details. Students discuss the main idea and details of the chapter. They could fill out a graphic organizer to help them organize their thoughts and to understand what they have read.

Chapter seven Predicting. Have students make a prediction about what they think will happen when Hart takes over the holiday concert. Revisit the prediction at the end. 

The final idea for The Last Holiday Concert is to have the students summarize the book. This is a longer book so it will be helpful for students to revisit the main idea and details as they write their summaries. 

I really hope you and your class enjoy this great book! 

My linky freebie is my Snowman Book Report. This is designed to have students understand the genre of biography or autobiography. Each student is asked to read a biography or autobiography and then practice some comprehension skills by summarizing and recalling facts. I love doing this project each winter and I look forward to seeing what my kids do each year. 

Parent Letter 

 Grading Checklist

Comprehension Questions

The Snowman Template

After the students turn in their finished book reports we always take time to share with the class. 

Remember my secret word is holiday! Enjoy the linky and good luck on the giveaway! 

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An InLinkz Link-up