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    • Close Reading

Penguin Close Read {a freebie}

Hey friends!  I told you before that we are just starting to venture into the close read “realm.”  This was our fourth close read this year.  We had previously done Pumpkin Town by Katie McKy, The Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant, Reindeer {A Day in the Life} by Katie Marsico, and now Penguins by Anne Schreiber.
I am no expert and only know what I’ve learned from training and my own research!  Close reading is rather intriguing to me.  I mean we read books to our kids everyday and ask them meaningful questions…that’s all there is to it right?  Well, I compiled a little “what is close reading?” guide!  See it below….
So after reading through what  a close read REALLY is I knew that reading a story to my students asking them questions didn’t quite qualify for a close read.  I really love the last line…we don’t have to change what we teach to have a successful close read….we just need to chance how we teach it!
The book we used this time was really GREAT!  I am no way affiliated with Scholastic…I just love the book!  I grabbed in on Scholastic.com and it is a storia ebook.  The book is filled with so many interactions, videos, definitions, and it has the option to have it read aloud also.  You can click the snap shots below to view the book on Scholastic.
Below is snap shot of the book being displayed on the Smartboard!  This is one of the interactive videos.

Included in the FREEBIE below is a detailed lesson plan for the Penguin close read!
Below is a review of how each day looked for my close read through out the week.  We recently learned more about the importance of having an essential question or essential questions to focus on through out the week.  Also, the importance of the student’s knowing and understanding the essential question through out the week as well.  We decided to choose two  two essential questions- one for text features and one as more of a real life connection question.
(1)  How do photographs help our understanding?
(2) Can we have a pet penguin where we live?

Student examples:
I chose to display a photograph from the book on the Smartboard where a mother penguin was defending her baby penguin from a Skua.
The baby is scared of the skua and the skua is scared of the penguin.

The penguin is trying to protect the baby penguin.
Student examples:

I can not have a penguin because it is too hot.

I can not have a pet penguin because it has to live under the equator.

I can not have a penguin because there is no ocean.
 I also extended the close reading to my small groups!  We read arctic small readers, worked on vocabulary terms, and wrote nonfiction stories about the animals within the texts.

We worked on recording vocabulary terms.



Throughout the week we also extended on the close read during our content study!

The activitie and SO MUCH MORE come from these jammed packed units below!  I was so impressed with the quality of nonfiction material in both packets!

We also have to have a little craftivity to along with it too!  We made these adorable penguins which are a freebie from Miss Kindergarten

I have combined all of the above material, blackline masters, and more in this FREEBIE packet below!

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Filed Under: Freebies, Reading Tagged With: close read, Freebie

Comments

  1. lorena says

    January 19, 2014 at 11:40 pm

    Thank you for this really great post, Tara. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Luv My Kinders says

    January 20, 2014 at 4:20 am

    Thanks so much for the close read freebie! We are just starting to use close reads and this is a fantastic resource! It will be great to use during our unit on penguins.

    ~Laura
    Luv My Kinders

    Reply
  3. Andrea says

    January 20, 2014 at 3:36 pm

    Thank you! I love this idea. I was wondering where you usually get your nonfiction readers? I saw the penguin one on scholastic but is that your only resource? We are trying to build up our nonfiction section! Thank you again.
    Andrea 🙂
    aaparsons@hotmail.com

    Reply
  4. kathylu says

    January 22, 2014 at 1:36 pm

    Great information. I am going to try this with my class. Thanks!

    Reply
  5. Jennifer Ayers says

    January 24, 2014 at 1:50 am

    This is the best explanation of close reading I have seen!!! You did an awesome job on this blog post!

    Jenn
    ChartsNChitChat.Com

    Reply
  6. Celesta Garcia says

    February 11, 2014 at 6:29 pm

    Just wondering if you were going to make a non fiction close reading packet?

    Reply
    • Anonymous says

      February 13, 2014 at 4:03 am

      Yes, I am currently working on it now! It will be sharks, weather, butterflies, dinosaurs, and safari! 🙂

      Reply
      • carla rollins says

        March 22, 2019 at 11:47 am

        where can we find these?

        Reply
        • Tara says

          March 25, 2019 at 5:43 am

          You can email me at littlemindsatworkLLC@gmail.com
          Thanks!

          Reply
  7. Julie Holzenthal says

    February 16, 2014 at 3:40 pm

    Thank you for the freebie! It was so helpful! I always love everything you make!

    Reply
  8. Kay says

    April 4, 2017 at 7:48 pm

    I would like to try your close read freebie. It looks well organized. Thank you for sharing.
    Is there a way to email it to me, as our server blocks the download software that is linked to the
    project?

    I’m hopping this works well in my class; I’ve been looking for more activities like this!

    Reply
    • Tara says

      April 4, 2017 at 9:18 pm

      You can email me at littlemindsatworkllc@gmail.com

      Reply
  9. Jennifer says

    December 18, 2019 at 5:06 am

    Hello is this resource (penguin close read freebie) still available? In having a hard time finding it?!

    Reply
    • Tara says

      December 18, 2019 at 7:25 pm

      Hi there! Yes, you can contact me via email for it!

      You might also be interested in this 🙂 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/KinderLiteracy-The-Snowy-Day-FLASH-FREEBIE-2952414

      Tara
      littlemindsatworkLLC@gmail.com

      Reply
  10. Kristi says

    February 6, 2020 at 7:46 pm

    Is this still available?

    Reply
    • Tara says

      February 6, 2020 at 8:58 pm

      Here you go! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W7G2_GOaWiHuvF0pz3lYvHg7vsU3WpZJ/view?usp=sharing

      Reply

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