Moving to 1st! {Do people still read blogs?}

It's time for my annual "I'm going to make time to blog again and here I am!" blog post.  Do people still read blogs?  With everything so social media based now, are there still people out there like me who want to share an experience, but need more than 1 photo and 100 characters to do so... who don't want to share it to the newest dance trend on Tik Tok?  (Maybe I'm showing my age here!)

I just finished my 19th year teaching and my 5th at my current school.  In the last five years, I haven't taught the same grade two years in a row... I went from 1st to 2nd to 1st to 2nd to a 2nd/3rd split class!  This fall, I'm going down to 1st again and I'm so excited!

I've spent the last few weeks working on new resources and things I know I'm going to want to implement in my 1st grade classroom.

We use the reading series Wonders, so I've been making some things to supplement the program and to fit in to my routine for my literacy stations.

I'm so excited because I have finished my "Write the Room" station using the weekly spelling words & phonics skill, my "High Frequency Word" station, and a new phonics based activity for my writing station where students will cut out words to create a sentence, copy and illustrate the sentence, and then color pictures that match the phonics skill!  This one doesn't "go" with Wonders except for the fact that each page follows the phonics skill for that week.

Want to see?

Check out this one for long a sounds!

Having taught 2nd and 3rd means that I have lots of Wonders goodies in my TpT store.  I hope you'll check them out!

Tips For Getting Organized {Wonders Units 1-6 Organized In a Snap plus a 2nd Grade Wonders FREEBIE!!}

How is your summer going?  Mine has been busy!  I have a 4-year old nephew that I'm *slightly* obsessed with and I've gotten to spend a ton of time with him.  I've spent my fair share of time in the pool, walking the dogs, and quality time building up my island in Animal Crossing!  😂

I've also been working on getting organized for school in the fall.  We are getting a new reading program this fall and I've been creating and printing everything to run my centers.  I have structured my reading block using a Daily Five format since 2007... (which just makes me feel old!).  That was my 2nd year teaching and it transformed my classroom.

My students do four activities each week: write the room, work on writing, high frequency word practice, and vocab practice too.  (We do read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, and Lexia too.)  I am still a "paper person" so I like having all of these things printed ahead of time so I don't have to pull up digital copies during the year.

I started by making a spreadsheet of everything going on each week.  And... if you're using 2023 2nd grade Wonders, you can get it for FREE here!

I have it tucked in the front of my crate and also keep a copy at my desk to make lesson planning simpler.

For me, organizing in file folders is my jam.

Come and see how I got everything ready so I just have to pull and print each week!  Because my centers are similarly formatted each week, students learn the routine early and I can have smooth centers which means I can have quality small group time.

I brought this crate home and filled it with all sorts of organization goodness...

Each week has a folder.  The folder has a sticker so I can see at a glance what we are working on.

  

Inside are the printed recording sheets for all of the weekly activities.  Some weeks I have specific books or games and those are included too.  Having everything in one place saves me so much time!

Write the room- these pink cards are hung around the room and students find them and sort them according to the phonics skill on the recording sheet.  Each week is a different color... unit 1 is always pink.  That helps me stay organized.

Word work (vocab)

Word work (HF words)

Work on writing (connected to the essential question each week)

Fluency reading and grammar for homework

  

I also have my focus wall cards ready to go.  Each unit is the same color, so all of Unit 1 is purple.  I got this pocket chart this summer and I'm obsessed.  It makes it so easy to pull out the cards each week, put in the new ones, and display our "I can" statments!

How do you stay organized?  Am I the only one holding on to paper copies of stuff?  I just need my hard copies!

Ask and Answer Questions! {Resources and a Freebie Rewind!}

Well, this week started with the 15th day of school and we're finally trained enough on Daily Five for me to meet with groups!  YAY!

I love Daily Five.  LOVE.  I've been teaching with this system for 9 years and fall more in love every year!

This is what we're doing this week...

We're working on learning how to ask and answer questions.

We used this FREEBIE {rewind!} from my TpT store...

In small groups, we used leveled passages.  We read them and then students randomly drew a question word card.  They had to write a question about the passage using their question word.

Anytime we write on our green circles they are so excited!  They loved this activity!

We added the pages for asking and answering questions to our Reading Response Journals...

And then... for homework this week, students are completing a reading response task {IN THE SAME NOTEBOOK that we put the Interactive Reading Ask and Answer questions in} some ask and answer question practice!  Since we put the response task in the same notebook, they have a resource to refer to at home if needed!  I can't WAIT to grade these tomorrow and see how they did.  The rubric at the bottom will make grading a cinch!  You can check them out for grades 2, 3, 4, AND 5 in my shop!

For independent practice, students worked on answering questions from my newest pack!

Check it out here for RL and RI standards!

Next week, we're going to continue asking and answering questions... but we're going to work on making inferences so we can ask inferential questions!  We'll be completing the inference pages of the Interactive Reading Notebook too!

I'm so glad we're in the swing of things!  Hope ya'll are off to a good start too!

Small Group Binder {Re-wind!}

Just added a new product on TpT that I will be putting in my RL small group binder!  If you didn't see that blog post, check it out by clicking the pic below!

New product {which is $1 off for the first 24 hours!}...

And just finished the RI version too!

RL Small group binder post... click the pic!

What's In Your Drawer?- Guided Reading for Group 1

Happy Sunday!  I've had a very accomplishing morning full of exercise, cleaning, and laundry.  I've got my phone bluetoothed into our surround sound and have been blasting Pandora all morning.  I'm not going to lie... mixed in with my shuffle of John Legend, David Guetta, and Justin Timberlake is a drop of New Kids on the Block!  Joey Joe has been giving me the energy to keep cleaning all morning ... but it's time for a bloggy break!

First up... the winner of my comprehension bookmark pack is...

#19- Meghan Barnes!  You didn't leave your e-mail address so can you please comment with it or e-mail me so I can send you your goodies?

In case you missed it, Meghan won this new set of CCSS aligned bookmarks chock full of reading comprehension goodness!

So... last week I shared what my group 3 (my on level group) was doing for guided reading.  If you missed that post, click HERE to check it out.

Today I'm going to share about my group 1- which is an approaching level group.

I teach language arts to two groups.  So each drawer has a folder and the folder is ready for my 1st group (their materials are in the left pocket) and my group (right pocket).

The red sticky notes have the names of the students in the groups so I can keep it all straight!

Usually my two groups are doing pretty similar things, but group 1 is the exception this year.

We are studying cause and effect in language arts right now so my morning kiddos are reading a passage about weather from Readworks.org.  If you don't know about Readworks.org, you must immediately go there.  {After you read and comment on this post, of course!}  It is FULL of amazing reading passages that you can select based on comprehension skill, lexile level, grade level, etc...  It's great!

So, my morning kiddos are reading and finding causes and effects in the passage.  They each get their own copy- which they love- and we highlight info and really dig into the text.

When we find cause and effects, we are writing them on sticky notes and adding them to the same chart paper my group 3 was using last week.  That's the beauty of the sticky notes.  I make one anchor chart and we all use it by switching out sticky notes!

Here's the anchor chart I showed you last week that we're still using... we just put on sticky notes, take them off at the end of our session, and then stick them back on to review at the start of our next lesson!

The kiddos in group 1 from my class are working on phonics sounds and basic decoding.  So, cause and effect is taking a backseat for a little while so we can work on those basic skills.

We are reading easy readers from a small group teaching pack I have from Lakeshore Learning.  The stories are longer but full of sight words and plots that are easy to understand.  We're still looking for cause and effect relationships, but on a much smaller scale as the goal with this group is fluency, accuracy, decoding, sight words... you name it, we're working on it!

We are also doing Making Words from Patricia Cunningham.  You can check out the book HERE.  I have a pocket chart that I put up.  I also have a huge collection of laminated index cards that have been cut in half.  The students get the laminated cards, write the letters with a dry erase marker, and follow my directions to build words using the Patricia Cunningham book.  As they build words, I am building them in my chart too and we are finding sounds, doing word families, etc...  I focus on whatever our spelling skill is for the week so they get lots of exposure to that pattern or sound.  The week our skill is sh/th/wh.

Each set of letters makes one mystery word too... can you figure out what it is?!  :)

So, that's what we're doing!  I'm hoping to get some info up later this week about my just above group (group 4) and my way above group (group 5).  That will just leave group 2 to go... those are my "almost there" kiddos!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

PS- If you saw my letter to a spammer this weekend, I STILL got spammed after I turned on the word verification!  So then I disabled comments on that particular post and did NOT get spammed today!  So I'm going to turn off word verification and cross my fingers that Hemangi Goswami and rujul modit stay away!

Guided Reading: What's in your Drawer, Group 3?

Happy Tuesday!  I know you're probably heading to bed early the next two nights to prepare for what is usually the longest school day of the year... HALLOWEEN!  We are partying tomorrow instead because it's a half day.  On Halloween, it will be business as usual... with a Halloween flippy book thrown in for morning work!

I often get e-mails about running guided reading and how it works, so I'm going to be sharing over the next few weeks how it works for me.  While I run my reading groups, the other kids are doing Daily Five activities.  I shared how I'm doing rotations right now last week and it's working SO well for us!

I run five groups in my room.  Each group has between four and six students, depending on the needs of the students... I run them as leveled groups.  We all work on the same skills {generally} but with texts appropriate to each group's level.

I have always organized my guided reading materials in Sterlite drawers:

I like this organization.  It's right by my table, the kids can access things they need that are in the drawers (sometimes they have assignments and need stuff from the drawers or two turn stuff in to the drawers... but we'll get to that another week!), and it's just a quick way to organize!

Each drawer has a folder inside.  The folders are red, orange, yellow, green, and blue- like the labels on the drawers! 

Inside the folder are two pockets.  Since I teach ELA to two classes, the left side is for my morning group and the right side is for my group.  On the pocket is a list of the students in each group and then I can put necessary reading passages, materials, etc... in the pocket.

I use sticky notes on my anchor charts so I can re-use them, so the sticky notes from our previous session are in the pocket in this picture.

I use red for the AM class and blue for my class.

I'm going to share Group 3 this week.  Group 3 is an on-level group of 3rd graders.

All groups are working on cause and effect this week (we're also using THESE passages to practice!).  At the start of our session this afternoon, we figured out where the sticky notes from last time we met went on the anchor chart.  I did most of the sticky note writing last time because I was introducing the concept of cause and effect but often the kids fill out the sticky notes, which they LOVE and it's a huge motivator for them to stay engaged in our discussion and reading.

We were reading a text about sea life and, as we found cause and effect relationships in the text, I added them to our anchor chart on sticky notes.

So today we continued where we left off...

We figured out where the sticky notes needed to be on the chart then continued reading our text.  This week I'm using some small group nonfiction comprehension folders from Lakeshore Learning for this group.  I have the 1/2 and 3/4 set and LOVE them!

So, group 3 is reading about ocean life and finding cause and effect relationships in the text.  You can see on my chart above that there are three causes and four effects.  That's because today I told them the fourth effect and they had to read the section about sea otters and figure out the cause of the given effect.

They had to write the cause on their table mat:

Which they L-O-V-E!  (Click here to find these table stickers on Amazon!)

They got to use Scentos dry erase markers to write... which always jazzes them up!

After the students revealed what they had written {and they were all correct!}, one of the kiddos filled out the cause on a sticky note and we added it to the chart.

At the end of the session, I peeled the stickies off and put them in this group's folder for when I see them again later this week.

And here's my small group table all picked up at the end of the day... ready to go for next time!

Next week (I hope!) we can peek inside another group's drawer and see what they're working on!

   

Guided Reading {aka- Daily Five} Scheduling!

Happy Thursday, teacher friends!

I'm popping in for a quick post today to share how I'm scheduling for Daily Five right now.  My students aren't yet ready to make their own choices, so I schedule by reading group like this...

I teach ELA to two classes so the AM class's names are to the left of each group number and my class (who I teach ELA to in the PM) have their names on the cards to the right of each group number.

Using color coded cards for the activities they are doing helps me see at a glance who should be where when!

How do you schedule your groups?

Daily Five in Five Days. Oh Yes We Did!

Working in a departmentalized elementary school is something I've blogged about before.  I LOVE IT!  I love focusing on only ELA and I love that my students get all core subjects every day.  And I love that we all work together as a team to do what's best for kids... we aren't "islands", which I loved when I was one but now that I'm part of a team that works together in the way that we do, I can't imagine going back to working on my own behind closed doors.

Anywho... one of the challenges is getting started with Daily Five at the beginning of the year.  When I was an island, I felt like I could really take my time getting Daily Five up and running.  But, not only is third grade more academically intense than 1st and 2nd, but departmentalizing means that I can't just stretch out my time blocks.  I have to be prompt and punctual and get things done because other people are counting on me.

So, gone are the days of taking six weeks to get Daily Five up and running and now is the time for getting it running in five days.

And, I'm happy to report that we have done it!

My almost 50some 3rd graders {I teach ELA to two different classes of kiddos} have totally nailed it and we are ready to go with small groups and a "real" Daily Five starting on Tuesday!  I will be making their choices for a few weeks yet, so that's the only thing that will be different, but we are trained in all the ways of Daily Five and it only took five days!

Here's how it worked...

Monday we hit really hard on Read to Self.
Tuesday, during the 2nd round, I added Read to Someone.
Listening came on Wednesday.
Thursday we did work on words and work on writing.
On Friday, we put it all together and had all activities running at the same time.  It was beautiful!

I did not teach any writing last week, so I had about 110 minutes each day to work on Daily Five routines only.  I'm pretty excited about being able to work with small groups so soon!

MORE Class Pics AND New Daily Five CAFE Board with Strategy Cards... and I'm Sharing!

It's Wednesday!!!!

Did you see the TWO giveaways I'm running on my blog right now?

Click either pic to find out how you can win this...

Or for of these magnetic pockets for your board...

First up today... more classroom pictures!!!

First... here's my finished writing center.  I really love it!  I have two crate seats for the kids to sit on at the little desk and the shelf next to it is full of resources for writing.  Our first writing unit is on opinion writing, so I have the posters from my Opinions: Order Up! unit displayed on the board at the center.  You can find my Narrative pack on TpT or as part of the amazing deal currently going on at Educents!

Here's the view from behind my table.  I went desk free last year and LOVE it!  My "desk" is the table where I meet with small groups.

And speaking of the table where I meet with small groups the picture above is a week old so... check out what I put on that table on Monday... I LOVE it!!!

See the blue and green circles?  They are actually wall stickers that I put on my table and they are dry erase!!!

I got them on Amazon... click HERE to check them out!!!  I know my kiddos will love participating during small group instruction by writing responses on the circles!  Another teacher in my building has something similar on her closet doors in all sizes and she (and I think the kids too) writes positive notes on them.

Here's another pocket chart with student spots stuck on with Mod Podge.  I am so excited about the whole Mod Podging thing!

Do you have any of these carts?  I got mine at Michael's but you can also see them HERE on Amazon.  Mine are now all organized and ready to go.  I have all of my independent activities for each topic listed in the drawers.  The top drawer is for any "Must Do" students have during the week, then the drawer with games for the topic we are covering... then everything else!

Here's the view from the door.  Don't mind my stuff on that table!

I also gave my teaching and learning beliefs an updated look.  You can read about them HERE.  If you don't have yours displayed, I'd encourage you to do it.  I jut think it helps me stay true to what I do in my classroom and can answer questions anyone might have about why I do what I do!

And last... I hung this "Welcome Back" banner across the front lobby!  You can find it on TpT for just $2!

Now, if you made it though all of that, you deserve a freebie!  Just read a little more...

Today I'm sharing my new CAFE board.  Usually I always always always write out my CAFE strategy cards, but I decided to type them this year and like how they turned out!  Here's a pic of my board with all of the strategies up.  I put magnets on the back of each one and will add them to the board as we learn them throughout the year.

You can access them on TpT by clicking the picture below.  I would appreciate it if you left feedback too!  Thank  you!!!!

Stay tuned Friday for my monthly "2nd Friday Fabulous Feedback" linky party!