Each week we will read a different classic and memorable children's book. These books are favorites from my childhood and my children's childhoods. I will provide a worksheet for the students to print before class. This will have words from the story and activities to introduce the phonics concepts we will word on. We will practice words from the story and review the phonics skills. Then the students will see the book either as an ebook as I share my screen or I will hold the actual book up to the camera and the page will fill the screen so the kids can see the pictures and words clearly. The students will take turns volunteering to read. We will stop and discuss interesting points about the story. I will reinforce some phonics skills while reading if the students need support. After the story I will have reading activities for the students to practice the skills needed for the story. I will teach with a white board, google documents and digital games. 

The first eight weeks are scheduled as follows:

Class 1- Little Bear (part 1), by Else Holmelund Minarik. This book actually has four stories in it. For this class we will read the first two stories. Little Bear has a special friendship with his mother. Little Bear's childhood imagination and experiences are enhanced by Mother's subtle playfulness. 
We will explore the use of quotation marks and the sight words "said" and "says."    

Class 2- Little Bear (part 2), by Else Holmelund Minarik. In this class we will read the last two stories in the book. Again, Mother plays along in her own subtle way as her Little Bear explores his world. 
We will explore the two sounds of "oo" and the word "maybe." 

Class 3- Something from Nothing, by Phoebe Gilman. This is a charming story! Little Joseph's grandfather is a skilled tailor. He can almost make something from nothing. Joseph is given a special blanket when he is born, but as the blanket gets old Mother wants to throw it away. 
We will explore the digraph "ph" and compound words after the story. 

  Class 4- The Story About Ping, by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese. This story takes place in China, along the Yangtze River. Ping is a little yellow duck. He has a very exciting adventure when he decides to hide in the weeds instead of get on the boat with the rest of his family. 
We will explore the digraph "ng" and the sound "er" after the story. 

  Class 5- Ponies, by Anna Ratzesberger. This book is a sweet poem about friendly little ponies who give children pony rides at the park. The pictures are large and colorful and the words give us lots of discussion points about ponies.
We will explore rhyming and contractions. 

   Class 6- Jamberry, by Bruce Degen.  This is a beautiful trip through the berry fields! The story is a poem with many creative, made-up compound words. 
 We will explore words that end with these letter combinations : erry, ery, arry, ary 

   Class 7- Caps for Sale, by Esphyr Slobodkina. A peddler who sells caps takes a nap under a monkey tree. He wakes up to a puzzling predicament. 
 We will explore hard "c" and soft "c" and using "ch" and "tch" at the end of a word. 

   Class 8- The Puddle, by David McPhail.  A little boy sails his toy boat in a puddle. A frog comes along. That's when things start getting a little crazy....
 We will explore using "le" and "ly" at the end of a word.