Kindergarten Guided Reading Lesson Plan Template
A finished early-emergent group for four readers: a pattern text, one-to-one matching taught explicitly, and a running record sized for a fifteen minute table.
- Reading Group
- Ages 5-6
- 4 readers
- 15 minutes
- 2 pages
- Free printable PDF
Link to This From Your Website
Help another teacher find this free resource. Copy a ready-made link for your site, newsletter or paperwork.
- LinkPaste into a website, blog or school resource page.
- Plain TextPaste into a newsletter, a document or an email.
- CitationAPA style, for coursework, PD materials and IEP paperwork.
Page 1 of 2. The students, the safety net, and the report-back page follow.
What’s inside this reading group plan
Today’s objective: Readers put a finger under each word as they say it and sweep back to the first word of the next line on their own.
- The five part guided reading arc from the book introduction through word work, each with its minutes
- A running record for every reader with running words, errors, self-corrections and an accuracy box
- 4 readers at a glance, initials only, with the band each one is working in
- Meaning, structure and visual prompts written out, so every adult answers a stall the same way
The level field is free text on purpose. Fountas and Pinnell letters, DRA numbers and Lexile measures all fit, because the levelling system is your district’s choice and not ours.
Frequently asked questions
- What am I writing down on a running record in a kindergarten group?
- At this level you are recording whether the finger and the voice stayed together, not only which words were missed. Tick the words read correctly, write what the reader said over any word they did not read, and note the page where the pointing came apart. Accuracy still comes from errors divided into running words, and 90 percent or better means the pattern text is a fit.
- My kindergarten readers are at different places. Does one pattern text still work?
- It does, because a pattern text carries its own support. The repeating line means a reader who is still learning to match words can hold the sentence in their head while the finger does the work. Read the first page with the readers who need it and hand the book straight over to the ones who do not, and use the band column to see at a glance who got which start.
- How many children belong in an early guided reading group?
- Four is what this plan is sized for, and the record grid stretches to six. In kindergarten the ceiling is lower than it looks, because you have to watch four sets of fingers at once while still listening to one reader. Two works for the earliest readers, and the plan holds anywhere from two up.
- What is the rest of the class doing during guided reading in kindergarten?
- The plan gives you somewhere to write it down along with the adult covering each spot, which matters more at five than at any other age. Choose things the class can already do without a grown-up beside them, such as puzzles, a listening station, or browsing boxes. If a station still needs teaching, teach it in a different part of the day rather than losing the group to it.
Related sample plans
Life Skills
Make a Snack: Follow a Visual Recipe
A life skills lesson where students prepare a no-cook snack from a five step visual recipe, with prompts tracked per step.
Social Skills
My Turn, Your Turn: Small Group Game
A social skills lesson built around a four player game with a passing turn marker, token boards, and a waiting visual.
Communication
More Bubbles, Please: Requesting with a Core Board
An AAC lesson where students request more of a motivating activity on a core board, with pause-and-wait opportunities and errorless modeling.
Math
Dinosaur Count and Match
A small-group counting lesson with token reinforcement and per-trial data.
Social Skills
How Do I Feel? Naming Emotions with a Feelings Chart
An emotions lesson where students name happy, sad, mad, and scared from picture scenarios on a four-face feelings chart, with per-student data.
Life Skills
Wash Up: A Six Step Hand Washing Routine
A personal hygiene lesson where students learn a six step hand washing routine from a posted visual sequence, with prompts tracked per step.
Math
Next Dollar Up: Paying at the Class Store
A functional math lesson where students pay for priced items with the next dollar up strategy at a class store, with a purchase log.
Science
Five Senses: What Does My Body Tell Me?
A science lesson with five sensory stations where students match each one to the body part that senses it, with a look-only option at every station.
Social Skills
Being a Good Friend: Three Things Friends Do
A friendship lesson where students practice sharing, inviting, and helping with a real peer during a partner build, with each opportunity scored.
Math
Telling Time: On the Hour and Half Past
A functional math lesson where students read an analog clock at the hour and half hour and match it to a digital card, with hours and half hours scored separately.
Reading
First Ten Sight Words: See It, Say It, Find It
A reading lesson where students read the first ten high frequency words on sight against a three second timer, then find each one inside a sentence.
Sub Plans
Sub Plans for a Self-Contained Classroom
A finished substitute plan for an elementary self-contained room: the day block by block, students at a glance with health flags, behavior quick reference, and the dismissal detail spelled out.
Sub Plans
Emergency Sub Plans: The Evergreen Folder
The no-notice version: a generic review day any substitute can run, written once at the start of the year and kept current, with every routine and safety detail on paper.
Sub Plans
Maternity Leave Sub Plans: The Long-Term Binder
A twelve week handoff for a transition classroom: the routines that keep a room running for a long-term sub, from the coffee cart enterprise to community instruction days.
Reading
Read It, Build It, Write It: A Decoding Group
A finished reading small group for four students: decodable words read, built, and written around the table, with a per-student data grid and the while-you-teach coverage plan.
Math
Numbers to 20: Count, Show, Write
A finished math small group for four students: quantities to 20 counted, shown on ten-frames, and written, with per-student data capture and coverage for the rest of the room.
Social Skills
Asking for Help the First Time
A finished social skills small group for three students: engineered stuck tasks, an ask honored instantly in every communication mode, and the data grid that proves it generalizes.
Behavior Plan
Flopping at Transitions: A Preschool Behavior Plan
A finished behavior plan for a preschooler who flops at transitions: the function, the replacement routine, prevent and respond steps every adult runs the same way, and a same-day quick log.
Behavior Plan
Refusing to Start Written Work: A Student Behavior Plan
A finished behavior plan for an elementary student who refuses written work: the escape function named, a starter-dose replacement, and respond steps that keep the task from growing or vanishing.
Behavior Plan
Leaving the Classroom: An Elopement Behavior Plan
A finished behavior plan for classroom elopement: the escape-plus-sensory function, a break card that always works, coverage and response steps that never become a chase, and the safety net on paper.
Circle Time
Colors Week: A Preschool Circle Time Plan
A finished preschool circle time for five students: six segments from hello song to story, a color-hunt focus activity, and a per-student response grid that counts every mode.
Circle Time
Our Day Board: A Self-Contained Morning Circle
A finished morning circle for a self-contained K-2 room: the same six segments daily, AAC responses counted equally, and the day board walk that previews the whole schedule.
Morning Meeting
Taking Turns: A Kindergarten Morning Meeting
A finished kindergarten morning meeting: greeting, share, a pass-the-pattern activity, and the message, plus the week-at-a-glance grid that plans Monday to Friday on one page.
Morning Meeting
Disagreeing Well: An Upper Elementary Morning Meeting
A finished grades 3 to 5 morning meeting built around respectful disagreement: cross-circle greetings, a this-or-that activity with sentence frames, and the weekly planning grid.
Articulation
Initial /r/ at Word Level: An Articulation Session
A finished thirty minute articulation session: five /r/ targets, a six step flow from mirror warm-up to carryover, and a trial record that scores ten trials per target with the prompt level beside it.
Language
He and She in Sentences: A Language Session
A finished language session on subject pronouns: cued rows plus one mixed row that shows whether the student is reading the picture or the prompt order, scored ten trials at a time.
AAC
Requesting on a Core Board: An AAC Session
A finished AAC session built on aided language input: four modeled combinations, a five second wait before any prompt, and a record that scores the student's own activation rather than a hand over hand one.
Reading Group
Read It, Check It, Fix It: A Decoding Intervention
A finished Tier 2 reading group for four readers: one decodable text, a named fix-up strategy, and a running record for every reader at the table.