Rooted in Reading 1st Grade - January Lesson Plans, Comprehension, & Literacy

Transform your ELA block with quality picture books and hands-on reading activities designed to enhance reading comprehension! This complete unit features Winter activities and lesson plans for characteristics of fiction, main topic and details, author's purpose, and more!

Calling all 1st Grade Teachers who are ready to TRANSFORM their ELA block and improve reading comprehension!  Rooted in Reading for 1st Grade gives you everything you need to facilitate a love of reading in your classroom.  We’ve got lesson plans, reading activities, crafts, and printables that focus on a read-aloud story each week. 

Here's how it works. The teacher READS the book throughout the week and models how to think deeply, ask questions, monitor comprehension, and so much more.  Each week we focus on different comprehension skills and strategies that will take your little learners on a reading journey like never before.  All lesson plans and activities are aligned with the Common Core Standards and TEKS. 

This can be used as a stand-alone curriculum OR as a supplemental curriculum.  You can do ALL of what we include or pick and choose the activities that work best for you and your students!

Want to know more? Check out below!

For more information, research, and teacher testimonies on Rooted in Reading click HERE.

Books needed for January (In order of how we suggest teaching the books):

• Penguin in Peril by Helen Hancocks
• Ida, Always by Caron Levis
• Chameleons are Cool by Martin Jenkins
• The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield

*Please Note: The week of Chameleons are Cool is structured differently to include a large focus on Nonfiction Text Features. That week we will do Nonfiction Text Feature activities rather than Grammar.

1st Grade Rooted in Reading Units:

Rooted in Reading 1st Grade: Overview

Rooted in Reading 1st Grade: August

Rooted in Reading 1st Grade: September

Rooted in Reading 1st Grade: October

Rooted in Reading 1st Grade: November

Rooted in Reading 1st Grade: December

Rooted in Reading 1st Grade: January

Rooted in Reading 1st Grade: February

Rooted in Reading 1st Grade: March

Rooted in Reading 1st Grade: April

Rooted in Reading 1st Grade: May

What is included in the JANUARY unit? Look below!

● Daily Lesson Plans for 4 Weeks

● Book Question Cards

● Reading Passages

● Comprehension Assessments

● Comprehension Focuses:

• Characteristics of Fiction
• Words or Phrases That Indicate Feeling
• Main Topic and Details
• Author’s Purpose
• Autobiography Characteristics

● Comprehension Printables/Interactive Notebooks:

• Fiction and Nonfiction Sort
• Is it Fiction? Printable
• Fiction and Nonfiction Flap-Ups
• Facts About Penguins Graphic Organizer
• Character Emotions Flap-Ups
• Show, Don’t Tell Printable
• Showing Emotion Printable
• Animal Emotions Graphic Organizer
• What is the Main Idea?
• Main Idea Passage and Printable
• Chameleon Fact Flap-Ups
• Nonfiction Texts: What I learned Printable
• How Can I Relate? Printable
• Chris Hadfield Printable
• Astronaut Fact Flap-Ups

● Nonfiction Readers

• Penguins
• Animal Emotions
• Color Changing Chameleons
• Out of This World: Astronauts

●  Anchor Charts

• What is Fiction?
• Types of Penguins
• Words and Phrases That Show Sadness
• Animal Emotions
• Main idea Pizza
• Color Changing Chameleons
• What Can We Inform Others About
• All About Astronauts

● Vocabulary

• 4-5 Vocabulary Picture Cards for each book
• 4-5 Vocabulary Writing Prompts
• Vocabulary Sentences
• Vocabulary Picture/Word Match

● Directed Drawings (with writing pages)

• Penguin
• Elephant
• Chameleon
• Astronaut

● Crafts (with writing pages)

• Rockhopper Penguin
• Polar Bear
• Main Idea Pizza
• Spaceship

●  Phonics Focuses

-oa/ow word family and sn blend

-ine word family and sp blend

-ake word family and gr blend

-ike word family and pr blend

● Phonics Activities for each week

• Word Family Digital Poster
• Word Family Slider
• Word Family Picture and Word Cards with Word Sort
• Word Family Spin and Color
• Word Family Writing Practice
• Word Family Passage
• Word Family Assessment

● Blends Activities for each week

• Blend PowerPoints
• Blend Digital Poster
• Blend Booklet with Student pages to complete

● Grammar:  Synonyms and Shades of Meaning: Adjectives

• Synonym Match
• Synonym Flapbook
• Shades of Meaning Cards
• Shades of Meaning: Ordering Adjectives
• Shades of Meaning with Penguin in Peril
• Synonym Assessment

●  Grammar:  Pronouns: he, she, they

• Pronoun Anchor Chart and Sort
• Pronoun Flapbook
• Roll, Cover, Write Pronouns
• I Can Use Pronouns Pocketbook Sort
• Pronoun Pick It

●Text Features

• Nonfiction Text Feature Digital Posters
• Text Feature Match
• Text Features with Digital Menus
• Finding and Understanding Captions
• Using an Index
• Nonfiction Text Features with NF Reader

● Grammar:  Suffix: ing

• Suffix –ing Anchor Chart and Sort
• Verb Graphic Organizer
• Verb Sort
• Using -ing Flap-book and Sort
• Verb Flap-book
• Adding –ing Assessment

Disclaimer About Rooted in Reading Books: We try our best to ensure that the books we select for our Rooted in Reading program will be available to you; however, we cannot guarantee any book's availability at any given time.

We encourage you to check multiple places for the books including but not limited to: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Scholastic, Thrift Books, BookOutlet.com, eBay, Abe Books, Half Price Books, Better World Books, and you can make a project on Donor's Choose or check them out from your public library.

More FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Ⓠ There is SO much included, how do I fit it all in?

Ⓐ:  Please do NOT feel like you have to do everything we put into the units.  We try to include everything that a teacher might want, but we realize it is A LOT!  We suggest combing through the units, looking at the expectations of your school/district/state, and deciding which activities would be best for your students.  We do NOT recommend printing class sets of everything, hoping to get to it all. Choose the things that you think YOUR students need, that will be most beneficial, and start there!  Several components can be used during stations, for morning work, or even as homework. Others you may choose to just set aside for another time or not use at all! That’s okay! We want this to work for you AND your students!

Ⓠ Do you have a year overview and planning guide?

Ⓐ:  Yes!  We sure do!  You can find the list of books for the year, the skills we are going to hit, and the standards (Common Core and TEKS) we will cover below!  Please note that as units are created we may switch things up a bit! The TEKS that the units are aligned to are the TEKS that were adopted in 2017 and will be put into place in 2019.  These are NOT aligned with the old TEKS.

Here is our COMPLETE Book List and Year Overview:

Ⓠ What is included in the first grade units

Ⓐ:  Each book unit (so 4 a month) will include:  

⇢Daily Lesson Plans for Comprehension, Vocabulary, Grammar, and Phonics

⇢Book Question Cards for Classroom Discussion

⇢Comprehension Focus Digital Posters

⇢Comprehension Printables and/or Interactive Notebook Templates

⇢Comprehension Assessment for the Weekly Read Aloud

⇢Reading Passage with Questions

⇢Anchor Chart Templates

⇢Nonfiction Reader

⇢Nonfiction Activities

⇢Vocabulary Picture Cards with Word, Picture, Definition

⇢Vocabulary Writing Prompts or Activities

⇢Vocabulary Printables/Assessments

⇢Craft with Writing Pages

⇢Directed Drawing with Writing Pages

⇢Phonics Focus Digital Posters

⇢Phonics Printables/Activities

⇢Phonics Reading Passage

⇢Grammar Focus Digital Posters

⇢Grammar Printables/Activities

Ⓠ How are these units different from your 2nd and 3rd grade units?

Ⓐ:  We have followed the same format for 1st grade, but we have made it developmentally appropriate for a first grade classroom.  We do not choose read alouds that are on a first grade reading level because the teacher is reading the story to the class, and guiding their discussions, BUT the activities that correlate with the read aloud are first-grade appropriate.  We believe that books read aloud should vary in level so that ALL students benefit from the instruction. Here are some minor differences in the first grade units:

➧Lined Writing Pages

➧Many options for drawing or writing when responding to the text

➧Phonics Included

➧Directed Drawings have simplified steps and a starting page

➧Crafts are easy to cut and assemble

➧Vocabulary Cards have pictures

➧1st Grade appropriate activities, assessments, passages, and more