The October Lit Kit

When it comes to teaching from the standards or a district scope and sequence, there’s no question that ELA (English Language Arts) has the LARGEST amount of skills and standards to cover!   I know we primary teachers come from a long line of generations that loved using seasonal teaching to cover  cross-curricular subjects within a day.  As the years have rolled by, the pressure has come down to eliminate the seasonal “fun” for more rigorous standards based material.  I have made it a priority to keep seasonal fun but make it standards based!  The October Lit Kit covers 20 ELA standards across reading, literature, foundational skills, informational text, language, writing, and speaking and listening. It truly is the all in one! Use it in small group, whole group, read-alouds, literacy centers, and literacy journals!

Lit Kit Standards Alignment

The lit kit addresses your literacy needs by covering both Common Core and Texas Teks in a seasonally engaging and teacher friendly way!  Each standard addressed comes with a student friendly “I can” poster.

 

The target grade level is first grade.  There is a lot of overlap in the standards from K-2, so this would still benefit all three grade levels and their different levels of learners.

 

Skills Covered in the October Lit Kit:

I can ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
I can retell stories using key details.
I can use illustrations and details in a story to describe setting, characters, and events.
I can identify the first word of a sentence.
I can recognize the beginning of a sentence because of a capital letter.
I can tell you that a sentence ends with a punctuation mark.
I can blend sounds to say a word.
I can tell you the beginning, middle, and ending sounds.
I can stretch words into parts.
I can decode regularly spelled one syllable words.
I can stretch words into syllables.
I can recognize and read sight words.
I can identify the main idea of the story.
I can retell the details of a text.
I can describe the connection between two events, ideas, or pieces of information.
I can explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information.
I can use the illustrations in a text to describe key ideas.
I can identify similarities between two texts on the same topic.
I can sort words into categories

October Lit Kit Centers

Let’s take a look at the 11 literacy centers included.  These are wonderful for the small group reading table as well as independent student activities during literacy rotations.  The center instruction pages have a touch of color, but all of the centers cards and activities are in black and white.  This way you can add color with colored paper but don’t have to use up your colored ink!

Fixin’ It

I can recognize the beginning of a sentence because of a capital letter.
I can tell you that a sentence ends with a punctuation mark.

I can identify the first word of a sentence.

Owl be in ABC order

(2 different sets of words)

I can sort words into categories (alphabetical order)

Sight Word Harvest

I can recognize and read sight words.

Blend Bends

I can blend sounds to say a word.

Blender blends

I can blend sounds to say a word.

I can tell you the beginning, middle, and ending sounds.
I can stretch words into parts.

Blend Bonanza

I can blend sounds to say a word.

I can tell you the beginning, middle, and ending sounds.
I can stretch words into parts.

Pumpkin Opposites

I can sort words into categories (antonyms)

Stretch and Spell

I can blend sounds to say a word.

I can tell you the beginning, middle, and ending sounds.
I can stretch words into parts.

Clap the Room
I can stretch words into syllables.

A Fine Vine

I can sort words into categories (Adjective, Verb)

Lit Kit Story Element Support

Sometimes hitting on story elements can be a hit or miss situation.  We all have the best intentions, but it can be overwhelming to keep up with the needs of our leveled reading groups as well as the needs of the class as a whole!  These posters make it easy to teach and support the learning ensuring the standards are being hit!  You do not have to have any particular books in order to use these story element pages.  Simply incorporate your favorite October books in the mix! We gave some suggestions on what books work well, but any will do!

 

With all of the fantastic seasonal subjects we love to study in October, it makes it easy to incorporate these standards.

Standards Covered: 

I can ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
I can retell stories using key details.
I can use illustrations and details in a story to describe setting, characters, and events.

I can identify the main idea of the story.
I can retell the details of a text.
I can describe the connection between two events, ideas, or pieces of information.
I can explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information.
I can use the illustrations in a text to describe key ideas.
I can identify similarities between two texts on the same topic.

Lit Kit Comprehension

In October, our students are still in the beginning stages of writing and reading.  Because of this, the 16 comprehension helpers are scaffolded to support young writers!  Use these as whole group activities to teach how to respond to reading!  These pages are perfect for modeling how good readers think about what they read in order to retell and respond to what is happening in the text!

Lit Kit Literacy Log

The lit kit wouldn’t be complete without a literacy notebook to help your learners keep a record of their learning!  This can be used as a whole group teaching tool, small group rotation, or response to reading!  There are 10 different lit log activities.

 

Lit Kit Links

The lit kit is a monthly resource!  Each month you can rest assured the standards are covered and your students will be excited and motivated as they learn!

Click the pictures below to find the lit kits on TpT.

Click here to see a blog post about the August/September Lit Kit

You can also grab the growing bundle!