Carson Dellosa Finds for Reading, Writing, & Math

It’s no secret that I’m big fan of TeachersPayTeachers because I know my kiddos best, and I enjoy creating resources to meet their needs. As teacher-authors share resources and build our catalog, you’re left with hundreds of teacher-made products to meet each of your needs. But I’m also a big fan of NOT reinventing the wheel. Sometimes there are just aw esome resources already out there that save me just as much time. For this reason, I’ve agreed to become a Brand Ambassador for Carson Dellosa to review some of their products for you throughout the year. The opinions below are 100% mine. Be sure to check out the giveaway below too!

First up for reading, Differentiated Reading for Comprehension. I love, love, love guided reading and prefer to use authentic literature whenever possible. However, assessments and standardized testing “practice” is also a must. This book is full of below level, on level, and above level passages and a corresponding response sheet. The nonfiction passages are actually really good and definitely appeal to students. I liked the mix of science and social studies topics– animals, technology, people. I also liked that the leveled passages all look the same. The layout is similar, but the length and complexity increases across the passages. At first glance, you wouldn’t be able to tell they were different as groups rotate through your table. The response sheets are a mix of true/false, short answer, and multiple choice. The last one on each page is an open-response prompt, which students can never practice enough.

Next up for writing, Evidence-Based Writing. Writing is my favorite time of the day, but it’s difficult for my students to plan their writing. I’m always experimenting; prompts/no prompts, organizers/no organizers, checklist/no checklist, etc. I can never have enough tools in my bag, so I really liked this book too. It has resources for opinion, explanatory, narrative, and research writing and briefly covers prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. The bulk of the content are single page prompts with organizers to get students ready to write, which is often the most difficult part of the writing process. I love the variety of topics too, which leave plenty of room for student choice. If I was teaching narrative, for example, I would pick 3 of the 12 prompts and allow students to choose from those for their next project. It’s a good buy!

Finally for math, Curriculum Cut-Outs Match Challenge. These 35 little cards have a variety of uses in the classroom. I personally love turning practice into a “game” by posting questions around the room and letting students move around to answer the questions on their recording sheets. It lets students spread out, move around at their own pace, and work in different groupings. You could also use these for scoot, toss them in a center, or work one-on-one to review the questions like flashcards. My only wish would be for a recording sheet {even a printable one you could download online}. The cards are numbered, but students or teachers would need to make their own response sheet to show their work and record answers. The cards are broken into 4 formats so students will complete number waves, generate number sentences for a given answer, complete function tables, and complete two-part number sentences.The cards cover addition/subtraction/multiplication/division skills for a good variety.

You can enter to win your own copy of these resources here. Giveaway ended!

I participate in the Brand Ambassador Program for Carson-Dellosa and have received this product for free to review.