Top 5 Teaching Resources You Need

I was asked by a new Grade One teacher what my favourite teaching resources are, which inspired this post. Keep in mind that I teach Grades 1/2, but most of these resources will work great for multiple grade levels, specifically K-3. If you have any of your favourite teaching resources that I have not mentioned, I would love for you to share them in the comments below!

#5. Guided Reading Resources- The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser is a must have if you are a new teacher or just beginning to incorporate Daily 5 into your Guided Reading. This resource walks you through setting up your classroom for Daily 5 step-by-step. This year I purchased The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading and The Next Step Forward in Word Study and Phonics, as it is a new program our whole school is using this year to support our Guided Reading programming. I really enjoy these resources because it walks you through how Guided Reading should look, provides sample lesson plans, lesson layouts, blank lesson templates, assessment sheets, and word study activity ideas.

#4. Classroom Management- I was given this from my principal in my first year of teaching and mentioned this book in my post about Tips and Tricks for New Teachers. I read it front to back and it has had a big impact on my classroom management strategies. I like this resource because it provides you with a number of different classroom management and positive reinforcement strategies as well as templates for positive reinforcement tools and behaviour support. I would recommend getting this if you are a new teacher or are working on developing stronger classroom management skills.

#3. Reading/Writing Interventions- I love the Reading Strategies Book and Writing Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo. I love this resource because it has literally hundreds of mini lessons for both reading and writing. These books are organized so well. For example, if you have a few students who are struggling with stretching out sounds in their writing or making connections in their reading, you can look that skill up easily and the book provides you with a number of lesson ideas and student work examples for you to use to help your students develop the skill. These resources can be used beyond primary grades.

#2. Letter Sound/Identification- Jolly Phonics- Personally, I LOVE Jolly Phonics. My previous school had this resource, but my current school does not. This resource is quite pricey, but I got a steal of a deal and found this on the Facebook Marketplace this past summer. I like Jolly Phonics because it uses so many different ways of teaching letter sounds through stories, songs, actions, printing, etc. This make learning letters easier for all different learning styles. Unfortunately, I was unable to use this resource this year and my students struggled learning their letter sounds significantly more than when I was able to use the Jolly Phonics resource. I only use this resource for letter identification and sound lessons. I do not use the phonics lessons portion of the resource. For phonics, I was introduced to the Fountas and Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study kit this year and have enjoyed it.

#1. Writing Instruction- A Teacher's Guide to Getting Started with Beginning Writers by Katie Wood Ray and Lisa Cleaveland. This is my FAVOURITE resource. I was introduced to this book two years ago as my previous school's learning improvement goal was focused on writing instruction. This resource changed the entire way I teach students how to write. This resource pairs perfectly if you do Writer's Workshop in your class, but it is not necessary. This resource walks you through step-by-step how to begin teaching writing and setting up the environment to encourage your students to become writers. This resource also provides you with examples of lessons, student work, and QR codes to watch teachers teach writing to their class. If you could only buy one resource, I highly recommend this one.

If you use these resources, or decide to use these in your classroom, I would love to hear your thoughts!

XOXO,

Elle