How To Build A Year-Long Read Aloud Plan In First Grade

In this episode of The Firstieland Podcast for Elementary Teachers, your host Molly Schwab shares how to create a year long read-aloud plan that will save you time, reduce stress, and help you teach with more intention. You’ll discover how to choose books that align with your curriculum, support your monthly themes, and make learning more meaningful for your K–2 students.

By planning ahead, you’ll always have the perfect book ready, whether you’re teaching comprehension, writing, science, or social-emotional skills. Molly walks you through how to organize your books, plan your monthly themes, and select high-quality picture books that connect across subjects.

You’ll learn:

✔️ Why having a read-aloud plan saves time and reduces classroom stress

✔️ How to organize your books by theme, month, and curriculum goals

✔️ Tips for balancing genres like fiction, nonfiction, and poetry throughout the year

✔️ How to connect your read-alouds to reading, writing, and social-emotional learning

By the end of this episode, you’ll have a clear system for planning your read-alouds all year long - so you can spend less time searching for the perfect book and more time enjoying them with your students.

Mentioned In This Episode

Resources Mentioned:

November Read Aloud Bundle - https://firstieland.com/november

Year-Long Read Aloud Bundle - https://firstieland.com/readaloud

FREEBIE: Grab this free monthly read aloud planner to guide your read alouds for the entire school year: https://firstieland.com/planner

Books Mentioned:

Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet - https://amzn.to/49i5MXX

A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting - https://amzn.to/3JoV6wc

The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming – https://amzn.to/4osGNWd

Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora – https://amzn.to/4o3SSRW

Let’s Stay Connected

Visit our website: www.firstieland.com

Need classroom resources? Visit our TPT store here: https://firstieland.com/TPT-store

Need more help or ideas? Send me a message on Instagram @firstieland

To check out all the resources mentioned in this episode, head over to the show notes – https://firstieland.com/episode22

Enjoying The Podcast?

Be sure to tap the follow button so you don’t miss an episode.

How To Rate And Review:

If you’re enjoying this podcast and it’s helpful to you, I’d love it if you’d leave a review.

APPLE PODCAST – Head to this link and scroll to the bottom of the page to rate and review: https://firstieland.com/apple

SPOTIFY – Head to this link and click the three dots (…) to rate and review: https://firstieland.com/spotify

Have a wonderful day and remember to make learning feel like play… see you next week!

💜 Molly

Full disclosure: Amazon links in my descriptions are affiliate links, which means if you purchase through that link, I receive a very small percentage of the sale.