All Aboard! The Polar Express

Next, we use the book to guide instruction. What a fun way to invite learning in your classroom. One of the activities we do is to build words using blends and the train theme. You can see the words we created below.

Reading and Matching Words

Then, we played a fun delivering the gift came. Students have to read the word on the present and find the sleigh that will deliver it. How fun is this to review words they know and understand?!?

Reading Comprehension Fun

Next, we play our reading comprehension game. It is prepped in our basket here.

My students don’t see the class list we use and they don’t know that we add a check by their name for each question they answer correctly. We add an X by their name for every question they get wrong. What an easy and great way to keep track of reading comprehension without your students even noticing.

Connecting to Writing

Using a piece of literature to tie into what we are reading helps students make great connections to what they read about. Using The Polar Express to be the topic of writing is just smart… and fun. 

One of the keys is to provide a good word wall to help those with writing. At this point in the year, I am highly encouraging as much independent writing as possible.

Little Readers

Another trick I implement in my classroom is little books. They are easy to create with a school copier and they can create more for my students to read. Let’s face it, having enough books is a struggle for EVERY teacher.

But I don’t just give my readers books, this book asks them to write in it to finish the sentences. Now I am creating readers and writers.

My Favorite Part

I can not even hide that my favorite part is using the writing prompt asking if that student WOULD get on The Polar Express or WOULD NOT get on The Polar Express. What a great open ended question to see if they understood the book and how it connected with them. We use this art project from Stephanie Stewart. 

Math Fun Too

Don’t fear… we have reviewing math skills in this pack too. Check out our writing numbers activity above.

You can grab this Polar Express Learning Pack from my shop here.
You can grab this Polar Express Learning Pack from TpT here.