Guided reading tools can make all the difference in the world! We all have our must-haves, which most likely include magnetic letters and dry-erase boards. But, do you have the other 2 types of tools below? Read 3 types of tools every teacher should have in their guided reading toolkit!
Must-Have Guided Reading Tools
Magnetic Letter Trays with Alphabet Guide– These are great to keep your letters organized, while providing beginners a guide for putting letters in abc order, identifying letters, and other word work activities.
Whisper Phones– These are great for helping kids hear themselves read, while not distracting the other kids at the guided reading table. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to make your own by Make, Take, Teach! DIY Whisper Phone video
Post-it Notes– These are great for taking notes, jotting thoughts, marking discussion spots in books, covering parts of words and the picture, and more!
Supply Bin- You don’t want kids fishing for their supplies, so have everything they’ll need to write in a little caddy, including pencils, crayons, dry-erase markers, scissors, and glue.
Sentence Strips- Write sentences, words, and names, then cut apart to mix and fix.
Index Cards– These are great for covering up text when students need help tracking or get overwhelmed by a lot of text on a page.
Guided Reading Tools to Make it FUN!
Kids usually love guided reading, but fun tools also help to keep engagement high. I keep my fun tools in a drawer. Would you like to take a look inside?
Here’s what you’ll find in my guided reading fun drawer:
Pointers– I’ve never met a kid who didn’t love cool pointers! You’ve probably seen the witch fingers, but you can also just glue a googly eye to a popsicle stick for a fun twist! Want to have holiday-themed ones, glue mini-erasers to popsicle sticks! You can also use pencils with fancy erasers, drink stirrers, or pretty much anything with a fancy tip!
Highlighters– highlighting tape is just one way to highlight a word or chunk. I like to use wikki stix, clear bubble rocks, translucent bingo chips, magnifying lenses, and my Chunky Monkey reading tools. You can make your own tool too, like the one in the picture!
Glasses– Kids love to wear these when we are making inferences or looking for evidence!
Tactile– Connecting cubes are great for working with Elkonin boxes, translucent bingo chips are fun to move while blending or tracing, and mini-erasers are also helpful as game counters, phoneme counters, and more!
Game Tools– I like to keep dice and spinners in this drawer as well, for when we play games.
Sand timer- We love to use these for fluency! I usually have kids race against themselves to see how much of a passage or word list they can read before the sand runs out.
Plastic sleeves– Use these to write on and task cards and printables without wasting paper. Or, simply put a blank piece of paper inside and use as a whiteboard! (Pictured below are my sight word fluency flashcards.)
My Reading Strategy Tools– These are part of my Decoding Strategies Bundle. Click here to read more about them! They are little tools we use to reinforce decoding strategies. I also have the anchor chart posted by my table for kids to reference. You can find this for FREE in my resource library!
Warm-up Tools
Guided Reading Warm-ups- These are just awesome as a quick review before you get into your book! Each level has 1-page warm-ups and skill cards to review skills and strategies at that level. Click here to read more about them: Warming up for Guided Reading or grab them from my TpT store here: Guided Reading Warm-ups
These are available for levels AA-D, as well as levels EFG and levels HIJ. If you teach kindergarten or first grade, you’ll likely have students across all of these levels, so I combined all of the sets into one money-saving bundle so you have what you need to meet all of your students’ needs: The Complete Kit: Guided Reading Warm-ups Levels AA-J.
Sight Word Flashcards– When kids first come to my table, they know to take a color-coded sight word ring and start reviewing while they wait for us to start. Click here to read more about these: Sight Words or grab them from my TpT store here: Sight Word Flashcards
Am I forgetting something? What else do you have in your guided reading corner? If you liked these ideas, consider sharing with your teacher friends and pinning the image below!
