Featured January Teaching Resources
January Teaching Resources for Your Classroom
January is a time of fresh starts, reflection, and renewed energy, making it the perfect month to focus on wellness in your classroom. RIF’s January monthly teaching resources provide a curated set of literacy tools, themed book collections, activities, and support materials to help educators introduce topics like well-being, kindness, and personal growth. These resources make it easy to launch the new year with meaningful reading experiences that strengthen both academic and social-emotional learning (SEL).
January Teaching Resources and Themes
Monthly Theme: Wellness
This month, RIF invites students to explore what it means to care for themselves and their communities. Through stories, discussions, and activities, children can develop understanding around emotional health, goal setting, and positive daily habits.
Suggested Focus Points
Building healthy routines and self-awareness
Practicing empathy, kindness, and connection
Understanding and celebrating personal strengths
Exploring how individuals can support one another
January Book Collections
100th Day of School Collection
Prepare to celebrate a major milestone in the school year with stories and activities that highlight counting, goal setting, and classroom community.
Rally to Read: Wellness Collection
As part of the Rally to Read reading challenge, RIF has curated this book collection to help children explore themes of wellness, including emotions, self-care, and healthy relationships. Use these titles to spark meaningful conversations and extend learning in the classroom and at home.
Martin Luther King Jr. Collection
Honor Dr. King’s legacy with books that explore equality, justice, courage, and leadership.
Well-Being Collection
Help students explore emotional health, mindfulness, and caring for themselves and others.
Curriculum & Standards Alignment
January’s resources support teachers in meeting curricula standards through a blend of informational texts, narratives, and reflection-based activities. Students strengthen comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills while also engaging in discussions that promote empathy and self-awareness. Many featured materials align to Common Core and early literacy benchmarks, helping teachers bridge skill-building with social-emotional development.
Skybrary Book Feature: The Lonely Penguin’s Blog
This month’s Skybrary featured title, The Lonely Penguin’s Blog, offers a fun, modern narrative that explores friendship, identity, and emotional expression through a blogging penguin’s journey.
What Students Will Learn
How friendships grow and change
Understanding emotions and communication
Perspective-taking through a character’s digital storytelling
Support Materials
Find activities and instructional resources for The Lonely Penguin’s Blog on RIF’s website. Our free downloadable teaching resources include:
A read-aloud guide
A vocabulary guide
A Frayer model
Puzzles and games
You can enjoy The Lonely Penguin’s Blog on Skybrary, RIF’s trusted kids' reading app. Simply create an account on the Skybrary website or download the Skybrary app from the Apple App Store to explore this title and hundreds more.
Literacy Central Teaching Resources
Kick off the new year with Literacy Central’s robust library of cross-curricular teaching tools. January resources include lesson plans, vocabulary builders, reading passages, and SEL-aligned activities that pair with popular children’s books. These materials help educators deliver engaging instruction while reinforcing essential literacy skills.
Teaching Resource Feature: Read-Aloud Support
This month’s featured teacher resource is our Read-Aloud Support, which offers practical guidance for making shared reading more engaging and effective. With tips on selecting texts, asking rich questions, and modeling fluency, these guides help teachers and families create strong reading experiences.
Free Printable Teaching Resource: Daily Book Bites
Support daily literacy habits with Daily Book Bites, a calendar-style resource offering bite-sized seasonal reading activities for every day of the month. Each entry links to a printable prompt or activity designed to spark curiosity and support reading engagement at home or in the classroom.
Enhance Classroom Reading with Read-Aloud Videos
Bring stories to life with RIF’s curated collection of read-aloud videos to support you in the classroom or at home. These videos provide students with expressive, high-quality storytelling that supports comprehension, fluency modeling, and engagement. They can be used as lesson hooks, literacy centers, or at-home enrichment.
Teachers can also access additional read-alouds and free literacy activities through Rally to Read, RIF’s six-month reading challenge designed to inspire and motivate young readers.
Rally to Read shares exciting monthly themes, free online read-alouds from your favorite authors, and numerous engaging, literacy-building reading activities.
January Webinars & Professional Learning
RIF offers a range of webinars throughout the year to help families and teachers support young readers. Sessions cover topics such as fostering reading motivation, writing strategies, and more. All webinars are saved in our on-demand archive, allowing teachers and parents to learn when it’s most convenient.
- January 14, 2026 | 7-8pm ET Every Book is a Big Conversation Starter Book | Register now
- January 27, 2026 | 7-8pm ET Using Mentor Texts to Teach Text Structure | Register now
Tips for Social & Classroom Engagement
Classroom Ideas
Start a “Wellness Wednesday” routine with short mindfulness or reflection activities.
Create a classroom “Kindness Chain” as students recognize positive actions.
Use The Lonely Penguin’s Blog as a springboard for student journaling or blogging assignments.
Prepare to celebrate the 100th Day of School with goal-setting activities.
School or Social Sharing Ideas
Share student artwork or writing inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Post daily wellness tips or book highlights throughout January.
Feature student reflections on what “well-being” means to them.