Bible Time: The Lost Coin Parable Emergent Reader

Not too long ago, I started a Bible emergent readers series. I was wanting a variety of Old and New Testament stories that could be simplified for a Kindergarten student to be able to read and understand. 
Much prayer was spent before making each Bible reader. My goal was to retell the Bible stories in a way that helps emerging readers understand God's Word while also meeting them where they're at and building their reading skills. My prayer was that God would help me simplify each story for these younger loves, without taking away from it. 
The Lost Coin is one of the parable stories that I created! I'm super excited to share it with you. Here is a pic of the cover of this emergent reader. I asked my 7th grade daughter to color sample pages of the book for me to post. She kept writing and re-writing my name as the 'Reader' trying to make it look like an adult had written it, ha!  I have created many Bible emergent readers that tell the story of various parables Jesus told. The ones that tell a parables all start out with "Jesus told some people a story." 

Each page crams as many sight words as possible into the sentences, while also trying to keep them as short and simple as possible. Students are also introduced to quotation marks. Since it's Jesus telling the story, the kids only have to focus on one character voice when reading them! 

This next page throws a little sneaky counting and number practice in! Shhh...don't tell!

Large, simple pictures help keep a little reader's focus on the text as they read. 

This particular emergent reader has 11 pages to it. You can shorten it by easily omitting 3-4 of the pages if you feel it is too long for your specific child's needs.

You could even go as far as turning this book into a mini play activity by having students pair up and take turns being the Narrater while the other acts out the story as it's read. It's not always easy to choose what sentence go into my Bible readers. Bible stories, and even just the words/names alone, can sometimes be difficult to put into a book for new readers. As you read, and use these books with your students, if you come across wording or parts of the story that you feel might need a little more attention, please know that I would love for you to reach out and let me know your thoughts! 

Have students keep these books in their book boxes at school or send them home and encourage students to read the story to their parents!

I hope your students love this emergent reader as they learn and grow in God's word! Get The Lost Coin Parable Emergent Reader HERE! The Lost Coin is also available in a bundle with my other Bible based readers in this: Bible Emergent Readers Bundle Get this Bible Emergent Readers Bundle HERE! Don't forget to PIN this post so that you can remember these readers for future planning!

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Thanks for letting me share these activities with you! I hope your littles love and enjoy them. I also hope they make your teacher life & prep just a tad bit easier!

-Til next time

    

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Bek

The 12 Days of Christmas Flip Book & Emergent Reader Activities

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...! This nursery rhyme and Christmas song is already being sung by the kids in my house. Christmas seems to be hitting us earlier this year. We've had record breaking temperatures and snow as early as Halloween. It seems to be inspiring people to put up trees and decorations a little earlier than normal. 

As you begin to compile activities for your Christmas lesson plans, there are two brand new 12 Days of Christmas activities in The Barefoot Teacher shop this season that you won't want to miss out on. 

This '12 Days of Christmas' flip book gives kids a chance to practice writing (and cutting & gluing) skills while practicing counting to 12. 

There are 12 pages, plus a cover included. There is one page for every verse of the song.

Here is a close up of just the cover that the kids will color and cut out:

Each page has a 'glue' tab at the top to show students exactly where to glue. Glue sticks are best for this. That way, if they make a mistake, it can easily be fixed! 

Here's a peek at the last 12 pages of the book:

When they are done, they can cut them out and glue them together at the top (don't forget, the tabs show where to glue on each page). And the complete project looks like this: It's great for helping the kids remember the order of the song. Even I often forget which number has maids milking or pipers piping, lol!  You can get the 12 Days of Christmas Flip Book HERE! The second activity goes right along with the flip book. It's a 14 pages emergent reader that comes in two versions, which I'll explain below. This book will fit right into your kids book boxes and is great for keeping at school for reading practice.  This reader is printed two to a page so that you can use the copy machine's double staple function when making your copies, and then use a slicer to slice the books apart. The first page students will read is set up to introduce all the objects given during that 12 days of Christmas.  Students can highlight number words and practice counting on each page!  I included two versions of this book. You can use: 'seven geese laying' OR 'seven geese a-laying' for your little readers. Get this 12 Days of Christmas Emergent Reader HERE. Don't forget to PIN this post so that you can remember these activities for future planning!

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Thanks for letting me share these activities with you! I hope your littles love and enjoy them. I also hope they make your teacher life & prep just a tad bit easier!

-Til next time

    

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Bek

Thanksgiving 'I Am a Turkey' Differentiated Emergent Readers

Most people only think about turkeys as being a delicious part of their Thanksgiving meal. We can describe what they look like and how scrumptious they taste, but really don't know much else about them. Well, not anymore! By the end of this post, not only will you know more than you would ever want to know about the life of a turkey, but you'll also have seen an awesome differentiated emergent reader that you can use to teach your students more about them as well.

Did you know that a turkey hen lays 9-13 eggs in her clutch in a shallow hole in the ground that's only about 1/2" deep? These I Am a Turkey emergent readers not only tell all kinds of facts about the life cycle of a turkey, but are differentiated as well. Meet your students right where they're at with their reading abilities.  Turkeys do not see well at night, which is why they fly to trees for sleeping. A mother hen, however, will stay on the ground for 28 days, sitting on her clutch to keep them warm and risking her own life to protect them from nighttime predators. It isn't until a poult (baby turkey) is 4 weeks old that it will be able to fly to safety above ground at night with its mother.  Each level of the reader takes students through the basic development of a turkey from inside of an egg, to hatching, to young poult life, to adult life.  At 6 weeks old, a poult will molt it's feathers for the first time. It will molt multiple times. Each time, larger feathers will grow until the poult is an adult.       My favorite part of this informational emergent reader set is that the last page that sneaks in some writing practice! It asks students to write down some of the favorite facts they learned about turkeys. Get these 'I Am a Turkey' readers HERE. Don't forget to PIN this post so that you can remember these books for future planning!

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Thanks for letting me share these activities with you! I hope your littles love and enjoy them. I also hope they make your teacher life & prep just a tad bit easier!

-Til next time

    

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Bek

I Am Thankful Thanksgiving Flip Book & Other Activities

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday to celebrate! While we should always be grateful every single day of the year, I love that this time is specifically set aside to celebrate our blessings. 

Sometimes, it's easy to get wrapped up in the busyness that comes with the holiday...cleaning the house, shopping, preparing the food, traveling, and so on. In the midst of all there is to do, it's important that we take some time to also help our kids make their own moments for reflecting on their blessings as well! 

Here are some fun, and even yummy, ideas to help you do that! 

This 'I Am Thankful' flip book gives kids a chance to practice writing (and cutting & gluing) skills while thinking about what they are most thankful for in life. 

There are nine covers for the book to choose from. If you're going to use this with your students, the books make a wonderful hallway display outside your classroom that they can take home for Thanksgiving break. 

Besides the cover, there are six additional pages to the book. Each one has kids focusing on a specific area to be grateful in. From family, to food, to friends, and more! 

One page throws a little word making fun into the book and asks students to think of all the smaller words they can make from the letters used in the bigger word 'thankful.' 

The 'My Family' page asks kids to draw and label members of their family.  When they are done, they can cut them out and glue them together at the top (don't worry, the tabs show where to glue on each page).  You can get the I Am Thankful Flip Book HERE! Here are some other cute ideas to get your kids thinking about what they're thankful for: This first idea would make an adorable bulletin board display. Imagine...a turkey with hundreds of feathers filling up the board! This next one is a Grateful Game...and it looks yummy and can be used with Skittles or M&Ms. This is a great one to do in small groups throughout the classroom!

This one is my favorite...though meant to keep kids busy while you're cooking Thanksgiving dinner, I think it actually makes an excellent math adding center during the week of Thanksgiving! An attention grabber for reluctant adders for sure!  Don't forget to PIN this post so that you can remember these activities for future planning!

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Thanks for letting me share these activities with you! I hope your littles love and enjoy them. I also hope they make your teacher life & prep just a tad bit easier!

-Til next time

    

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Bek

The Boy Who Cried Wolf Activities & Other Fables {Plus, a FREE download!}

Ah...the little boy who is infamously known for his false cry of a wolf! A boy who lies so many times, that when the wolf actually does show up...none of his friends believe him.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf is one of Aesop's Fables. From it, comes the idiom "to cry wolf," which means to give a false alarm. Teachers around the world teach this story to students, in hopes that it will warn them of the consequences that come from telling lies.

As I did some brief reading about this fable, I discovered that an educational experiment was done that suggested that this fable, when read to children, actually increased their likelihood of lying instead of decreasing it - YIKES!

Regardless, I think it is still an important fable to read and teach! This 18 paged emergent reader simplifies the story for new readers while giving you a chance to focus on sight words at the same time.


I tried to include as many sight words as I could. The book is longer than I usually like to make them, but the kids didn't seem to mind at all.

This reader is also a perfect way to introduce and practice reading quotation marks. Have your students look for them and color/highlight/underline the words in quotes so that they can easily remember to read them with expression!



The last page of every book sneaks in a mini writing opportunity in which students reflect on what lesson is learned in the fable!

First, have your littles color the picture cards below on the left. They can think about the story while doing this. The picture cards are in order and the will help prepare them for what they will have to do later!

   

Next, have your kiddos bust out those scissors and practice their cutting! I intentionally left space between each of the picture cards so that students had 1) room for improvement and 2) room for mistakes! Once they are all cut out, mix them up!

Have students retell the story and glue the picture cards on the paper in the order that they go. Another option is to make a few master copies yourself, laminate them, and use them at a center year after year while also giving students a copy to take home.

And when it's all done and put in order, it will look something like this:



Get The Boy Who Cried Wolf Sequencing Activity HERE.

Get The Boy Who Cried Wolf Emergent Reader HERE.
Or... get it in a bundle with 20 other Aesops Fables Emergent Readers HERE.

Want to try out a fable emergent reader absolutely free? Your littles will LOVE having their very own version of The Little Red Hen to take home and read to parents or keep in their book box at school!



Get this FREE Little Red Hen Emergent Reader HERE!

Don't forget to PIN this post so that you can remember these activities for future planning!

PIN ME

Thanks for letting me share these activities with you! I hope your littles love and enjoy them. I also hope they make your teacher life & prep just a tad bit easier!

-Til next time

    

Read more »

Bek