Picture Sorts

Dabbling in Guided Reading and Daily 5 has led me to more research than I’ve done since my Master’s Degree in the early 2000’s (not fun but necessary!)  So, I’m reading Jan Richardson’s The Next Step in Guided Reading.  I’ve had it for two nights (should have had it about 2 weeks ago but, story of my life, I put the wrong zip code on it and it traveled a vast majority of the mainland states {exaggeration} before it got to me!)  Anyway, I’ve read over 140 pages and am EATING IT UP!  Such great ideas – some I’ve heard before and others that are challenging my thinking. 

One thing that I REALLY LOVE is the part of the lesson that involves students in picture sorts.  We do ALL kinds of sorts in my classroom = just pictures, just words, pictures & words, etc.  But for this activity, the teacher is specifically focusing on target phonics skills and building phonemic awareness. She even goes so far as to give specific skills that varying levels are expected to learn (page 125).  This book is a MUST HAVE if you are teaching Guided Reading but still have some questions about lesson plan format, content, etc.  I highly recommend it!

So, back to the picture sorts . . . I found a few on TpT.  But the variety is limited and the quality of the free products isn’t always great (and I NEED it to be free!)  So, I googled “l blend picture sorts” and “r blend picture sorts” and found http://www.carlscorner.us.com/sorts.htm - I HIT PAY DIRT!  (Thank you, thank you, thank you, Carl's Corner!) There are so many files that I’m taking a break in downloading to write this article and will go back to it later.  In each of the files provided, there are great quality pictures and words to accompany them.  I will use only the pictures for Guided Reading, but may include the words in sorting activities for Daily 5 Word Work. Click on the links below to find this and MANY more picture sorts.

I’m not going to say much more because I want to get this article published in case there’s anyone else out there reading the same book and wondering where to get the sorts!  ENJOY!