My Guided Reading Must Haves
I love working with small groups in my classroom. If I could figure out a way to work with small groups all day long, it would be amazing. I feel like this portion of my day is so important. I really get to know my students strengths and weaknesses, and I’m able to really focus on their exact needs. So, what are my Guided Reading must haves?
This post does contain some affiliate links for your shopping convenience. I do receive a small commission when someone purchases an item after clicking on a link. These commissions help with the cost of maintaining this blog and allow me to continue to bringing you valuable content, activities and ideas.
1. Dry Erase Boards, Markers, and Erasers
These are an absolute must have! I use dry erase boards for so much during small groups. We stretch through words, manipulate sounds, practice sight words, and so much more. This year I used vinyl circles on my small group table that we use as dry erase areas as well. I always stock up on tons of dry erase markers and erasers every year, because we use them for so many things.
2. Highlighters
Highlighters make everything more fun. We use these to go back into our text and highlight our answers. (You can use highlighter tape in your books.) The students highlight vocabulary words, phonics skill words, and answers to comprehension questions.
The passage above is from my Guided Reading packets. These differentiated passages are perfect for teaching students to go back into the text.
These Five Step Fluency passages above are great for going back and highlighting with word work activities.
3. Pointers
Any time you can find something to add a little fun element into reading practice, take advantage of it. My students love using these finger light pointers while they read.
Witch fingers are also a big hit, and they are really easy to find this time of year.
4. Fun Dice
I am in love with these comprehension dice that I bought off of Amazon. They are so easy to pull out and use with any books that we are reading.
I also love using these phonics cubes for practicing phonics skills. After the students get really good with these during small groups, they get placed into a morning tub or a work station.
Number dice can be used for reading activities as well.
- Give the students a word and have them show you on the dice how many sounds they hear in the word.
- Have the students roll the dice and come up with a word that has that many sounds or syllables.
- Give the students a word. Have them roll the dice. They have to come up with that many rhyming words.
5. Vocabulary Cards
I purchased these Word Teaser Cards a couple years ago and have found them to be so useful when you have a couple extra minutes at the end of a lesson. It’s a great way to add some more vocabulary instruction into your day.
6. Manipulatives
Some of my go to manipulatives for teaching phonemic awareness are magnetic wands, clappers, and Slinkys. The students LOVE using them.
7. Binders
I organize everything into binders. I keep my recording sheets in my small group binder. I’m able to write notes about each lesson and how each student is doing. The notes are very quick and messy, but I can write things that went well, as well as goals for each child. I make sure to do this right away. If I wait, I will forget what I observed.
I also keep all of my lesson ideas in binders. This helps me to stay organized and ready for my small groups.
If you’d like to check out the lessons I use for small group, click on the links below.
Monthly Guided Reading Packets
Phonemic Awareness at Your Fingertips
5 Step Fluency
Comprehension Notebooks
What are your guided reading/small group must haves?
You have such wonderful language arts resources that I use often to supplement our reading curriculum. Do you have a reading program that your school uses or do you just use your own resources?
Our district requires us to still use the basal reading program from McGraw-Hill. I use that and then supplement with my own things.
How do you use your magnetic wands and hand clappers? Love your ideas here. Thanks for sharing!
We use them to stretch through words when working on phonemic awareness. With the magnetic wands, we spread out the chips. Then, I give the students a word, and they pick up a chip for each sound they hear. “Cat”…they pick up a chip and say each sound “c-a-t.” Same thing for the hand clappers. They clap for each sound they hear. Hope that helps 🙂
Hi Jodi
Where can I find your classroom toys and games for indoor recess that you get on Amazon? Where were those ideas posted? Thanks
The dry erase boards and highlighters really stand out. They make learning so interactive. I mean, who would have thought vinyl circles on the table could be so useful
With Restore Old Photos, you can easily repair damaged, faded, or torn photographs and preserve them for future generations
AI Image Editor – Free Online AI Image Editor for photo enhancement and editing.
HEIC to JPG is the perfect solution for users who need to convert their iPhone photos to the more widely supported JPG format.
Image to Image AI provides a simple drag-and-drop interface that lets anyone generate high-resolution, AI-enhanced images in seconds.
Use this free square face generator to design your own pixel avatar with 200+ customization items across 12 categories and download it instantly
https://www.toolhubkit.com
Tool Hub Kit is a multipurpose utility website that brings together practical tools in one place. It is suitable for users who want quick access to helpful online tools without switching websites. The brand works well for general utility and productivity promotion.
https://www.yourstylepath.com
Your Style Path is a style-focused website designed to help users explore fashion direction and personal image. It is suitable for audiences interested in outfits, visual identity, and lifestyle inspiration. The brand works well for fashion and self-expression promotion.
I completely agree with your emphasis on dry erase boards—those are game-changers in guided reading! I’ve used them consistently for sound manipulation and sight word practice, and they’ve made such a difference in student engagement. One thing I’ve found especially helpful is pairing them with a quick “sound sort” challenge—students write a word, then use a marker to circle the beginning, middle, or ending sound based on the teacher’s cue. It keeps everyone moving and thinking, and the visual feedback is instant. I also love how they help shy students participate without feeling exposed. Thanks for highlighting such a practical, low-cost tool that truly supports learning.
For faded or blurry family pictures, AI photo restoration tool is a practical starting point before trying more specialized repair.
The workflow at this image-to-image workflow makes sense when product visuals, social posts, or marketing images need faster iteration.
For everyday images that look soft, dim, or uneven, AI Photo Enhancer tool is useful for checking clarity, tone, and detail improvements.
The workflow at concrete calculator online makes sense when a driveway, patio, sidewalk, or post hole project needs a quick material estimate.
If you want to browse several game categories in one place, Free Games Online platform is a practical starting point.
The drag-and-drop workflow at HEIC to JPG Converter is useful when you want JPG copies without installing extra software.
The workflow at Image to Image AI is practical when an image needs restyling, upscaling, old-photo repair, or a new visual direction.
The homepage at Kontext Dev image editor makes it easier to understand reference-image editing, local changes, and style transfer in one place.
For faded or torn family pictures, Restore Old Photos online gives a simple browser-based way to preview a restored result.
When planning ads, product demos, or social clips, this online video tool is a practical reference for prompt control and HD export.
If you need a small icon for social profiles, communities, or game placeholders, https://square-facegenerator.com/ is a practical reference.
For prompt-based visual drafts, Seedream 4 is a useful way to generate images, refine prompts, and compare several directions online.
If a portrait, phone snapshot, or product photo needs clearer edges before sharing, clarify blurry snapshots is a practical starting point.
If a slab project needs both ready-mix yardage and bag-count guidance, Concrete Slab Calculator online is a practical starting point.
When multiple PNG files need optimized WebP versions for a website, optimize images for websites is a practical starting point.
The page at restore old photos online explains how old photos can be analyzed, repaired, sharpened, and color corrected online.
this resource is also worth keeping in mind. This was a helpful resource for touching up everyday photos. It’s good to have a straightforward way to improve clarity and overall presentation without overdoing it.
It’s great to have a place like restore-oldphotos.com for bringing old family pictures back to life. I often find myself needing to clean up scans before anything else, and then seeing how the AI handles fading or minor tears is the next step.
For enhancing everyday photos, this image clarity improvement workflow seems quite practical. It covers essential adjustments like detail and tone before diving into more complex edits.
Great tips on preserving family archives. I’ve found that getting a clean scan first is key, and then using this resource to handle the fading and clarity issues before printing them out.
When archiving family history, I’ve found it’s helpful to categorize pictures by their condition first. Some just need a bit of clarity, while others require serious scratch repair. Photo Memory Studio Notes provides a good way to manage that process from scanning to final high-res output.
For people who enjoy boats and maritime topics, https://www.anchoryachtbasin.com/ is a very interesting resource. The website contains useful, well-presented information and offers plenty of reliable content to explore. I liked the practical details about marina facilities, boat slips, storage, maintenance, and services for boat owners. Everything is easy to understand, so the site can be useful both for experienced sailors and for people discovering boating for the first time. A fascinating fact is that the Chesapeake Bay has hundreds of miles of shoreline and numerous rivers flowing into it, creating a remarkable environment for boating.
I really enjoyed discovering this website because it presents information in a clear and engaging way. It feels like a wonderful source with carefully checked details, useful descriptions, and plenty of reliable content for anyone interested in food and dining. I especially liked learning more about Ofelia Bistro, its varied menu, and the interesting combination of international and local influences. The menu includes seafood, salads, soups, desserts, and creative main courses, which makes the place particularly interesting to explore. I found https://ofeliabistro.com/ naturally while looking for more information, and it added even more context to my research. Overall, this is a great website with interesting and trustworthy material.
This guided reading setup is seriously impressive — the dry erase boards, highlighters, and comprehension dice are exactly the kind of hands-on tools that keep small groups engaged. I’ve found that pairing these tactile materials with short, differentiated video content makes a huge difference for my struggling readers, since they can see and hear vocabulary in context. I’ve been using Gemini Omni Flash to quickly generate and remix short clips from text or images, which has been a game changer for building background knowledge before we dive into a passage. Definitely worth checking out if you’re looking to add a visual element to your guided reading routine.
This guided reading setup is incredibly practical—those dry erase boards and highlighters truly are game-changers for small group instruction. I’ve found that having the right tools makes all the difference in keeping students engaged during reading time. For teachers looking to bring more multimedia into their lessons, I recently came across MiniMax3, an AI video platform that turns text and images into short cinematic videos with audio. It could be a fun way to create visual storytelling prompts or vocabulary clips for guided reading sessions. Definitely worth checking out if you want to add a tech twist to your small group activities!
This guided reading setup is genuinely impressive—the focus on manipulatives, vocabulary cards, and structured binders shows how much thought goes into small group instruction. One thing I’ve found helpful for keeping students engaged during independent reading stations is giving them creative outlets to respond to what they read. Tools like Wan3Video let students turn a written scene or story idea into a short cinematic video clip, which works surprisingly well as a comprehension check or a quick book trailer project. It runs on simple text or image prompts, so even younger students can use it with minimal guidance. Worth exploring if you want to add a digital storytelling element to your literacy block.
This is such a helpful list! Guided reading time is so valuable, and having the right tools really makes a difference. I’ve found that adding visual resources can also boost engagement during small groups. For creating custom reading prompts, vocabulary cards, or even illustrated story starters, I’ve been using Nano Banana 2 Pro — it’s a free AI image generator that runs on Gemini 3, produces native 2K images (upscalable to 4K), keeps characters consistent across images, and renders text accurately. Great for making reading materials more fun and visually appealing!
This guided reading must-haves list is spot on. Dry erase boards, highlighters, and pointers are staples in my small groups too. I’d add one more tool for saving time: AI video generators for creating quick lesson intro clips. I’ve been using Kling 4 for text-to-video and image-to-video with native audio, and it’s been a game changer for making short, engaging visuals to hook students before a story. It runs the newest Kling engine and goes live the day its API opens. Worth checking out if you like adding a little cinematic flair to your lessons without the editing hassle.
This guided reading setup is seriously goals—those dry erase boards and finger light pointers make small group time feel so intentional. I love how you’ve thought through every detail to keep kids engaged and organized. It reminds me of the same energy behind the Angry Dance filter trend—taking something simple and making it fun and memorable. If you ever want a brain break between groups, try uploading a photo to the Angry Dance filter and see yourself in the viral dance. Same moves, same attitude—it’s a fun way to reset before the next lesson.